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[SirHoneyBadger]

I'm the opposite, Sowelu, I like having lots of different tools. I grew up in a house with a lot of antique tools--not to mention, a big collection of deep sea fishing gear.

Having a wide variety of tools makes the game feel more dynamic and alive to me. Abstracting things that have the potential to make the game a lot more interesting is the wrong approach, in my opinion.

[Byakugan01]

Why not add in cormorants? Much as a hunter can have hunting dogs, let a fisherdwarf have a cormorant assigned to them. At least one of the larger species has been used by some peoples as a way to fish-a band is tied around the bird's neck to keep them from fully swallowing large fish, which it brings back to the handler, while it gets to eat the small fish/is rewarded for the fish.

[SirHoneyBadger]

That's a good idea. Dwarfs with cormorants. I like it.

[SimRobert2001]

I'm kinda against more tools as a matter of principle.  Axes and pickaxes make sense because they are viable weapons, and they need metal to make.  If you start requiring fishing rods, and then requiring fish hooks, etc., then you get Settlers and you stop having fun.  Also, masons don't need to have ten different tools to do their stuff, it's all abstracted...same with fishermen, if you start with poles, next you start needing fish-cleaning knives...

thats not true. there's already poles. they're just sticks dwarves find. and you CAN  have a fishign pole made out of wood, and assume that there's a bent piece of scrap metal for the hook.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Needing a knife to process oysters (if you want a quality result) kind of makes sense, anyway.

[chucks]

Love the idea of cormorants, and would add a new class of animals to tend to and care for.

I also like the idea of using more tools and equipment for jobs, especially fishing.  Many jobs could have crappy quality and turnout without the right equipment and experience, but coordinated crews working together with the right tools and equipment should be able to do quite a bit of stuff.

[Organ]

Thumbs up to cormorants, what an interesting idea. Maybe raptors could be trained to hunt smaller animals as well? I know bigger eagles can take smaller dog looking wolves and mountain goats easily.
Thumbs down to tool inflation though. I love beard fishing; it's quirky and already a piece of the game's character imo, but even beyond that, I agree with Sowelu that more and more increasingly niche tools only leads to clutter in gaming experience.

[Silverionmox]

I agree that tools with only one use will cause clutter. But most tools will have multiple uses: the player must then take an interesting decision: which activity to pursue? Or dive the tool use among them? Additionally, specific instruments can be very atmospheric (astrolabes, thimbles, ..). It would be fitting for Dwarf fortress to have a clutter of tools (instead of a clutter of silk socks). Not to mention that there already are so many objects without function.. I'd rather have tools.

[Pyrophoricity]

I'm all for it, tool inflation included. Fishing isn't an "essential skill" in the sense a fortress can't function without it, so adding a bit more complexity to it would be much welcomed by me. I understand the opposition to hooks and rods but, to be honest the single log it would require to make a fishing pole wouldn't be game breaking, heck you could even make the hook from bone if you want to save metal.

Also whats the census on bait? with the multitude of animals and prisoners in the average fort a system of attracting fish with 'fresh meat' could be interesting, or even just Digging for Worms and then Attaching to Pole/Hook.

[Silverionmox]

Also whats the census on bait? with the multitude of animals and prisoners in the average fort a system of attracting fish with 'fresh meat' could be interesting, or even just Digging for Worms and then Attaching to Pole/Hook.

Yet another reason to include compost heaps. They would need to get a low-quality jar or mug for that. Or they could fashion metal wire into artificial bait. Dwarves can do that.

[SirHoneyBadger]

Well, as far as tool inflation and the clutter it might produce goes, that could be solved by only adding specialized tools for very specialized circumstances. So that in most games, you'd never have to forge a frog gig or whatever.

But they'd be there if you wanted them. They might not be required to perform a task, either, but having them could improve efficiency and quality (which is what specialized tools generally are for, anyway).

So, the best of both worlds, in other words. I'd atleast want to be able to mod in a bunch of weird tools, and have them serve some actual purpose.

[Pilsu]

Fish knives should probably be built into the workshop, not carried around

[SirHoneyBadger]

Fish knives should probably be built into the workshop, not carried around

I'm not sure why? People carry knives around even now (Hell, my daddy regularly carries around a "knife" as long as your arm, whenever he goes hiking--the legality of which is admittedly debatable.), let alone a 14th century dwarf in a fantasy universe. Infact, there have been quite a few suggestions for it. Considering that our fisherdwarfs are at considerable risk, it makes sense both as a tool, and as a last resort of defense. 

[Silverionmox]

I'm seeing workshops more as activity zones than actual buildings. If there's no fisherey workshop, but you order salmon filets, the fish cleaner should just get on with it on a public or unused table.

[Byakugan01]

Not really-tables used for eating should NOT be the same used for cleaning fish. You do that, you can get some really nasty contamination issues regarding bacteria and the like...and a very dead fort, once/if salmonella gets implemented. Hence, the need for separate workshops for fish cleaning, cooking the stuff, and eating it. Otherwise, they could just eat turtles and fish raw, with no preparation at all.

And on another note, river otters could also be implemented as fishing assistants. On the plus side, they might also be used to retrieve kills within a certain weight range.