Fishing Contest
Another early quest. Fishing Contest is notable for two reasons:
- It's one of the very few pieces of content to feature Hemenster in any way; poor, forgotten Hemenster
- It is (or it was) required for unlocking the pass underneath White Wolf Mountain
That second thing is especially vital for new players, though somewhat less so now that traversing White Wolf Mountain involves going through caves, and not leading a conga line of wolves down a labyrinthine path. But I was curious to see if it was still required, since some of these old quest barriers have been removed (see: Priest in Peril).
Oh good. I do so like quest-locked content, though I somewhat understand why Jagex doesn't do it much anymore. Like it or not (I don't), the trend of online gaming has moved away from narrative-driven gameplay and towards PVP and PVM, and Jagex needs to make money. So I get it, even if I don't like it.
Anyway. There's a somewhat frustrating dialogue puzzle required to begin the quest. It's frustrating because you're launched into the dialogue options in two ways, either by talking to Austri or by trying to use the tunnel, but only talking to Austri directly actually allows you to begin the quest. That's peculiar, and not great design, but eventually I made it. Basically, we can't use the tunnel until we're friends of the mountain dwarves, and we get to be their friend by giving them what they crave: the (golden) first prize trophy from the Hemenster Fishing Competition. There's our hook.
Trying to use the tunnel again prompts Austri to recommend we talk to "Old Jack", so that's what I do: upon reaching Hemenster, I find Grandpa Jack in a nearby house, and talk to him. Turns out he's a bit of a chatterbox, and he swiftly gives away the entire sodding quest:
He also tells us that the giant carps like red vine worms, which can be obtained in McGrubor's Wood by digging near the red vines. So far, so easy. But this is where things get odd: Twoie mentions a "mysterious stranger" who is emphatically not a vampire, who's hogging Grandpa Jack's favourite spot. He's got a plan to deal with the notpyre:
So, this is odd for two reasons. One I'll discuss at the end of the quest, but more immediately it's strange because we haven't actually met this character yet, but Twoie already has lots of details about him. I presume this was an engine limitation of the early quest, but it's still strange.
I've basically got the solution at this point, and for expediency's sake I go get all the stuff Jack has already told me I'll need, but I'm determined to do this properly, so I go into the Fishing Contest area and start talking to contestants. The first one I see is the notpyre:
Inconspicuous. There are two more contestants, who I didn't bother screenshotting, but they both none-too-subtly remark that Grandpa Jack, the four-time winner of the competition, loves blabbing about all his secrets. One wonders why they're not trying to use his tactics if that's the case, but nevermind.
I make an attempt at the contest, in my default spot, and naturally lose. Then I solve the puzzle: garlic goes into the pipes next to Jack's fishing spot, the notpyre agrees to switch, and baiting with the red vine worms nabs me a large carp.
Who'd'a thunk it? Quest complete.
Hot damn that's a lot of Fishing XP. If you went into that with just level 10 Fishing, the minimum requirement, that reward would be enough to propel you 9 levels. That seems a smidge excessive, but what do I know?
This was a very short quest, but it's an odd one for a few reasons. For one thing, as I mentioned earlier, it's ludicrously easy to sequence-break. It's entirely possible, and almost encouraged by the way the dialogue is set up, to solve the puzzle without ever learning that there's a reason for the puzzle to be solved. I suspect this is an engine limitation, since it calls to mind the turnip book from Plague City, but I still think it could use a small rework; strangely the wiki suggests that it has been reworked, but obviously not very extensively.
The second odd thing, and this was the other thing that jumped to mind during the Grandpa Jack conversation, is that the quest straight up tells you the solution to the puzzle in a single conversation. How do you win the contest? Jack tells you to fish in this specific spot, using this specific bait. Where do you get the bait? Jack tells you exactly how to get it. Something's blocking the spot, how do we get rid of it? Jack tells you, and tells you where to get the necessary item. It's just kind of weird.
But I don't want to just present problems without solutions (at least, where I have solutions), so how do I think the quest could be improved? Well...
- Austri and Vestri shouldn't tell you about "Old Jack", just direct you to Hemenster before you've got the trophy
- Grandpa Jack shouldn't have dialogue related to the fishing contest until you've spoken to at least one person inside the contest, either Bonzo the organizer or one of the contestants
- He shouldn't tell you about the winning spot, just the bait he used and where to get it; that's a bespoke enough quest item that it needs some exposition to introduce
- The contest should be programmed so that the Sinister Stranger always wins, until you've solved the puzzle, signalling that his spot is superior. I feel like this was meant to happen, because some of the dialogue suggests it, but when I played the contest straight he didn't win, so I'm not sure what to think
- Jack shouldn't mention garlic. The Sinister Stranger already mentions his dislike of garlic in dialogue, which should be enough of a clue
That's it, that's how I'd fix this quest. It still wouldn't be terribly difficult, but it is only a novice quest; as I've said many times before, what do you want?