Fish Flingers





Fish Flingers is a members only Distraction and Diversion (D&D) that was released on 23 March 2010 that is based on the Fishing skill. There are no level or quest requirements to play Fish Flingers, and no required items as they are all provided. Having a low or a high Fishing level does not bring any advantages or disadvantages to the activity itself.

To the north of the Fishing Guild is a peaceful island named Isla Anglerine, to which many species of rare fish flock. Why they do so is unknown, but it makes the island a paradise for budding fishermen. Discovering this, representatives of the Fishing Guild have arranged for regular fishing competitions to be held there, in which those with a love of angling can prove their skill in a race to land the most and the heaviest catches.

Introduction
While fishing at one of several of the major fishing spots around Runescape, you may notice a fisherman wandering around. They are identifiable by their dungarees. They are not always around, but if one appears and you speak to him, you will discover a fishing contest is about to start. If it is within 5 minutes of the start, the fishermen will offer to transport you to the competition. You need no equipment to compete.

Arriving on Isla Alglerine, you will find yourself in a waiting area. Once the competition starts, race to a fishing spot and start fishing!

After 15 minutes the winner is decided. The top five players in any competition get to stand on the podium. However all competitors earn rewards and fishing experience.

The rewards can be traded for items and/or fish. The experience awarded is very good - usually significantly exceeding to XP you would have earned fishing normally for the same time period.

It is important to note that your fishing level has no impact on the competition. All players, regardless of fishing ability compete equally. However, once a score has been awarded, the fishing experience you earn does vary according to your fishing level.

Requirements


Players need an entry ticket to enter a game of Fish Flingers. The fishermen keep count - you do not hold or keep the tickets. You receive 10 new tickets each week and may find additional tickets at random during a competition. You may only claim your next set of 10 tickets if it has been a week since you claimed your last set and you have used all of your tickets. Therefore the maximum number of competitions a player can compete in on a regular basis is 10 per week plus the number of tickets found, and it is possible to have an initial ten and claim another ten in a single week.

It is possible for you to receive entry tickets whilst fishing in Fish Flingers.

Aim of the Activity
You can compete against the other players for the highest score, or simply play for the fishing experience. At the end of a competition, players earn a score, experience based on the score, tokens to spend (not to be confused with entry tokens) and possibly awards/medals. The top five scoring players stand on a podium at the end.


 * One token is earned for every 4 fish caught.


 * Medals are awarded for targets which are not competative between players - for instance, 80% or more of your catch consists of fish of the heaviest species.
 * Awards are similar to medals, but they are competitive against the other players in a game - for instance most fish caught, and heaviest fish caught.


 * The final total score is calculated by a complicated formula that includes many different variables including medals, awards, number of fish, total weight of fish, etc..


 * Players earn significant fishing experience. The experience earned is calculated from the score and the players fishing level.

Players can purchase items with the tokens earned. For the special items you need to have reached a minimum number of medals as well. Medals however are not spent and simply accumulate as a measure of your successes in the game.

To gain maximum experience and to earn tokens and medals to purchase items, it is not necessary to compete in a busy game against other players. The experience earned is capped at 40,000 points per game. Therefore for the player interested only in the experience and the rewards, it is possible to have many different strategies that earn maximum experience and one or more medals every game with practice. This can be done in a poorly attended game, and even if you are the only competitor.

Beyond 40k points, the only value in the points is to stand higher on the podium than your friends and other competitors. For the really competative fishermen, there are unofficial competition worlds where, if you stand on the podium at the end, you have beaten some of the best Fish Flingers in Runescape...

Competition times


Competitions run every 90 minutes (1 hour and 30 minutes).

Fishermen appear few minutes before a game is about to begin, and five minutes before the competition starts, players can be teleported to the waiting area on Isla Anglerine by talking to him. If you want to know the time of the next competition and the fisherman is not around, talk to the Fisherman's wife outside the Fishing guild, or check a Tackle box.

The timer resets as soon as a new game starts. The event starts at approximately the same time on every world, so if you miss it you must wait the full time for the next start, and it is possible to only play one game every 90 minutes.

<!-- Commented out until someone can really fix the timer - do NOT simply reset the time and re-enable. The time seems to wrok for less than a day before it breaks. The rough times for competitions, both AM and PM, are listed as below (plus or minus 5 minutes across the different worlds. However, the schedule changes each system update so that a game starts at the time of the update. Therefore the schedule below may be out of date and require [ updating] if there has been a recent system update. Up to date competition times can also be found on the official RuneScape Forums. Players can also operate their Tackle box to get the correct time until the next game. Note that the starting time varies by a few minutes on different worlds.

A timer counting down the rough time until the next competition starts can also be found at the top of this page.

-->

Competition Locations
When you are transported to the island, you arrive in the waiting area (the square in the map). When the game begins, you run to one of the four locations (lake, beach, river or dock - there are two docks which are identical) and start fishing. There are six type of fish that can be caught :


 * Bass


 * Cod


 * Herring


 * Pike


 * Salmon


 * Trout

The locations of the fish differs from competition to competition and 2 spots will contain 2 types of fish. Most competitors will fish at several if not all of the locations every competition.

Player Controls
When the competition begins, you see a status panel at the top of the screen and and a control panel to the bottom. To compete, you should aim to fish with 100% efficiency by mixing and matching bait, hooks, and weights for the particular fish you are catching at that location. You need to find the correct bait out of 6 choices, the correct hook out of 6 choices, and the correct weight to control the range (many combination of weights, but only 7 possible ranges). To do this you select options from the control panel (see control panel picture). The status panel shows your last few catches, the tackle used for each, and the resultant % efficiency.

Start to fish
When the game begins, run to a location (stand near a barrel because the idea of the game is to fling the fish into a barrel), select a bait, hook and weight on the control panel and hit "Cast".

Optimum tackle for 100%
Each of the choices (bait, hooks, and weights) account for one third of the total rating when chosen correctly. An incorrect choice scores 0%, but you can have a close match which scores 16%. A correct choice scores 33%. The simplest strategy to follow is to start fishing with the first bait, hook and weight and then work through all baits until you find the highest score, then the hooks, then the weights. When you have the correct bait your score must be 33%, but may be higher because you have hooks and weights that are already close or correct.

For the weights. there are many combinations but only 7 ranges. See later section Fish flingers for the simplest seven combinations of weights to work through.

End of competition
After 15 minutes, the competition ends and a winner declared.

Winning
In order to stand a chance of winning you need to find the optimum tackle for several different fish each game. Per game, each fish has a different set of optimum correct tackle. For the second fish, you only need to find the optimum from 5 baits, etc, and therefore the possible number of correct combinations for the second and later fish reduces sharply. You are thererfore recommended to keep a note of the 100% items and "tick them off".

In each new game, the combinations change completely.

At the end of the competition, you can see the correct answers (see example screen).

Weights and Ranges
1 x Small = 1 kg

1 x Medium = 2 kg

1 x Large = 5 kg

Fish Names
The names of the six fish all have different prefixes in front of their names depending on the locations in which they are found. The prefixes given are as follows in the table. Note the names have no effect on the gameplay.

Losing connection or logging out
If a player loses their connection or logs out while the competition is still running, when their connection is re-established or they log in again, they appear inside the game with the catches window clear, but the tackles, catches, etc. are valid.

However, logging out and attempting to change worlds during a competition that has already started will result in the player being removed from the competition without the return of their entry ticket.

Before you start - Fishermen Clues
The Fisherman will also give clues to get 100% for a fish if a player asks for one before being teleported to the lobby. Every player gets one clue per game, so a good strategy would be to share clues with a group of friends, to maximise each player's chances of discovering a perfect combination. The fisherman will give a clue consisting of a type of fish, the place to find the fish, and bait/hook/distance.

Hook clues

 * You’ll find drift herring at the docks. That species is fairly normal and doesn’t need a special hook. A normal hook should catch them just fine.
 * Explanation: Use a standard hook to catch herring at the docks.


 * You'll find thunder trout at the river. That species has a small mouth, so you'll need to take that into account when choosing your hook.
 * Explanation: Use a slim hook to catch trout at the river.


 * You'll find drift herring at the docks. That species tends to nibble its food, so a double hook will help to catch them.
 * Explanation: Use a double hook to catch herring at the docks.


 * You'll find jubilant salmon at the lake. That species has a wide mouth, so you'll need to take that into account when choosing your hook.
 * Explanation: Use a large hook to catch salmon at the lake.


 * You'll find spined herring at the river. They're clever and can spot metal a mile off. You´d better think carefully about what type of hook you use.
 * Explanation: Use a wooden or bone hook to catch herring at the river.

Distance clues

 * You'll find skipping cod at the lake. They've been spotted close to the shore, so you won't need much weight on your line to reach them.
 * Explanation: Range 1 or 2


 * You'll find crested cod at the docks. They've been seen a fair distance from the shore, but not too far. You'll need to attach a few weights to your line to reach them.
 * Explanation: Range 3 or 4


 * You'll find gentle trout at the lake. They've been sighted far from the shore, so attach lots of weights to your line to reach them.
 * Explanation: Range 5, 6, or 7

How to find the Fishermen
Fishermen only appear a few minutes before a game is about to begin.

Tactics
Because it is important to get the rating to 100% as fast as possible, there are a few tactics players can use to speed up the search process.

For the first fishing spot, players have no information about the correct bait, hook or weight so they have to start with a random choice. For the weight players can best start with one large weight because it only requires one click and permits to build up from range 2 to range 3, 4, 6 and 7 easily by adding extra large weights. If range of 1 and 5 are not done yet, achieved by removing large weights and adding medium in its place.

Bait Tactics


If players use the correct tactics, it is possible to determine the correct bait in three tries, although this is a little more difficult than finding the correct hook. Players can represent the eight different bait types as corners of an octagon where bait types on adjacent corners have a similarity (colour or shape). The fastest way to look for the correct bait is to change the first bait type to a bait type three or four corners away.

There are again five possible changes:

Note: when at a point when searching for the correct bait or correct hook players get a rating of 83% they do not have to do the whole procedure described above. One of the two (bait or hook) is already correct and the other is similar to the correct type or also correct. Players have to change the current hook to the type of the same set, unless they already know the correct hook.

There are two possible changes:

When in this last option players then change the hook back to the old hook and change the bait to one of the similar types.

There are two possible changes:

Hook Tactics
The first part of the tackle players have to find is the hook because they can find the correct one in a maximum of three tries. Players have 3 sets (standard - slim, large - double, wood - bone), and start with one of the hooks out of these sets. First players are going to change their hook into a hook from another set, so if they chose standard they change their hook to anything except slim. Players also get hints and tips to get the right hook.

There are five possible changes each with a different conclusion:

Finding the correct weight
When players have found the correct hook and the correct bait, their rating should be at 66%, 83% or 100%. If their rating is not 100%, they still have to find the correct weight. To do this they have to check every possible weight, there are no similarities between the weight (e.g. it is possible to get 83% at range 3 and 100% at range 6).

Players can get five of the seven ranges with only adding extra large weights. To get the other two ranges (1 and 5m) players need to add a single medium weight or 3 large weights and one medium weight. The easiest way to get through all the weights is to build up from one large weight up until 5 large weights. When players still have not found the correct weight, remove two large weights and add a medium weight. If it is still not 100%, remove all remaining large weights. Most of the time players will find the perfect tackle without having to do this.

Finding more 100% fish
When players have their first fish at 100%, they can then continue to look for other (and possibly heavier) fish. First they can write down or remember the tackles they have already found. Neither of these characteristics (bait/hook/weight) are correct for any of the other five fish. This makes the search for more 100%'s potentially faster than the first one. After doing all spots for one fish, players will have to look for spots where there are two types of fish. This can be either of the four spots (beach, dock, lake or river). The benefit players have when they first get one fish for each region is that there are only four possible bait types, two possible hooks and three possible weight combinations left. This makes it much easier to find the correct bait for the second fish without changing between catching one fish and the other because of trial and error, complicating the search.

Maximizing catch
Tokens are needed for rewards as well as medals. The Tokens awarded are equal to a forth of the total number of fish caught.

With each fish caught, an animation is made and need to complete before the next fish will be caught. Completion of the animation can be bypassed by clicking on the Cast button after you catch a fish (the interface in the top corner will update each time a new fish is caught).

By applying this method to normal gameplay, the number of fish caught can be increased by 20-40% of what is normally caught.

Heaviest fish


One of the most important things is to keep the rating high and smooth. The same combination of perfect tackle is never used for two different fish in the same competition.

Once players have found the perfect tackle for a fish, the ones digit for the weight in the fish they catch will always be the same. This is helpful in determining which fish type is the heaviest in the competition.

If a fish's weight ends in a 9, it can be the heaviest (which has a maximum weight of 199) or the lightest (which has a maximum weight of 179).


 * However, the heaviest species does not have a chance getting 29 or 39 (at 100% rating); while the lightest species does not have a chance getting 189 and 199.

If a fish's weight ends in a 5 or 0, it must be the heavy species (which has a maximum weight of 195).

If a fish's weight ends in a 1, it must be the average species (which has a maximum weight of 191).

If a fish's weight ends in a 7 or 2, it must be the average species (which has a maximum weight of 187).

If a fish's weight ends in a 3, it must be the light species (which has a maximum weight of 183).

Score
To get the player's score, several criteria are taken into account:


 * Total Fish Caught: x
 * Total Weight: y
 * Heaviest fish: z
 * Number of Awards: A
 * Number of Medals: B
 * Perfect Tackle Found: C (see table)
 * Bonus for Performance: D (Average Weight Rating)

$$Score = (10x + y + 10z + 2000A + 1000B + C) * (1 + \frac{D}{100})$$

Scoring more than 40k points will not yield any extra experience.

Awards
Awards are given for the following achievements: Awards offer bonus points to your total score, making it more likely that you will be one of the top scoring players.
 * Heaviest fish caught
 * Most fish caught
 * Heaviest catch total

If multiple people achieve the same score for an achievement (for example, multiple people have a heaviest catch of 199), they will all be given the award. The score board will show that you were the winner for that award, even if you tied for it.

Medals
Medals are given for the following achievements:
 * 1) Junior Angler - Find the perfect tackle for three species
 * 2) Master Angler - Find the perfect tackle for all six species
 * 3) Heavy Catch - At least 80% of fish caught being of the heaviest species
 * 4) Efficient Fisher - Obtain an average catch rating of 80% or higher for the species you tried catching

Medals offer bonus points to your total score. Certain numbers of medals are also required to buy tackle boxes.

Rewards
The winner and the next four highest scorers are stood on the podium. They can stay until they decide to get down (be careful with dropping items on the podium as it is impossible to get back up unless you use telekinetic grab).

You can talk to the Fisherman's wife for information on Rewards and to know your Competition History, she is located in front of the Fishing Guild.

The Fisherman's Wife offers lobsters, swordfish, and sharks as a reward, even though her table only has bass and cod on it.

Fishing experience
Players automatically gain some Fishing experience after the competition is over. According to information at this moment, the amount of fishing experience is maximised at around level 50. The cap of the experience is around 20,000.

A formula for estimating fishing experience is: $$game points/2 - 50*\left\vert 50-fishing level \right\vert.$$

* Game points is capped at 40,000.

Tokens
Players receive a certain number of tokens depending on the total number of fish caught. For every four fish caught, they earn one Fishing Token.

In exchange for tokens players can buy either raw fish (it would appear that one can only receive fish that they can catch at their Fishing level) or a tackle box. A tackle box is used to store Fishing equipment (Fishing rod, harpoon, etc.), Fishing bait (fishing bait, feathers, etc.) and other items (Fist of Guthix Fishing gloves, cooking gauntlets). Tackle boxes are upgraded when players have purchased the first to hold more items, though each tackle box requires more medals earned in total to obtain them with tokens. Getting and upgrading tackle boxes does not actually spend medals, it just requires players to have obtained that many. Players need 20 medals to get the first box, and an additional 30 to get the next box.

Tokens do have a cap. Players can only have 2000 tokens at a time, and must use them to get more.

Music
Some music tracks will be unlocked during this D&D, all of which are on the island.


 * Stillwater, in the waiting area.
 * Saltwater, on the docks, west and east of the waiting area.
 * Freshwater, anywhere north of the waiting area, river, lake and beach.

Trivia

 * On the day of release, the Fishing Guild was updated.
 * The Fossegrimen's altar can be seen from the north end of the beach.
 * The minigame's name is based upon a type of fish stick, called the "Fish Finger".
 * Part of the track that the coal trucks run on can be seen from the southern end of the eastern docks.
 * There is currently no official world for Fish Flingers. However, there are four unofficial worlds: worlds 23, 24, 39, and 64.
 * The name of the D&D is a play on the words "fish fingers", also known as fishsticks. The "Flingers" in Fish Flingers refers to the way the fish in this D&D are "flung" out of the water. There is a way to fling fish forward if the player stands in the right spot on the docks. This is the second time in a fishing activity where players can see the fish come out of the water, preceded by Barbarian Fishing.
 * In the Knowledge Base, a caption for one of the pictures is "I'm gonna catch you little fishy." This is a reference to "I'm gonna eat you little fishy", said by The Cat on Red Dwarf.

Glitches



 * On the day of the release, if a player was resting or performing an emote while the lobby closed then they would stay in the lobby.
 * There is a glitch whilst wearing mudskipper hat and talking to a fisherman/fisherman's wife:
 * There is a glitch that your normal Inventory will come up instead of the Tackle Box Menu if you try and withdraw from a familiar. It can be fixed by logging out and back in.
 * There is a glitch that occurs when you enter the lobby right as a game starts. You are left in the lobby, unable to play, while the game continues.
 * There is a glitch that occurs when Pike and Salmon are paired together at the same fishing spot, if this happens Salmon will be uncatchable. If the correct combination of bait hook and weight is used in the spot, it will result in Pike with 0% rating. This was stated to be fixed on 9 June 2010 but was not actually fixed until a few weeks later.
 * There is a glitch with the hints for red and brown wriggling creatures that reverses the expected bait for worms and maggots.
 * There is a glitch with XP reward. The game clearly states that higher level means more xp but this is not true for levels around 50 and higher as the xp actually seems to be reducing.
 * Sometimes at the end of a round a mass logout occurs for all players who took part in the game, skipping the end-game lobby. This seems to have come with the Egg-streme Management update of 23 March 2010, when the ability to recolour dark bows was introduced.
 * When calling your pet from the podium after a game of Fish Flingers, it will have the blue flame effect of familiars and will wander around on its own until it is called again. The call button on the Follower Details interface does not work, you must use the right-click option "Call follower". The wandering glitch does not work with cats.