Ryan Veeder's Authentic Fly Fishing: Theories concerning plot

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Joining the conversation!

I currently have 14 badges and I’m working on the crows at the playground to get my next one. I had a sneaky look at some of the spoiler tags in this thread and the main thing I don’t seem to have cracked yet is some kind of quiet area with a new bird and a geode?. I don’t know where that is. I’m also stuck on CALL MAMA STUPID FOR LUNCH.

Another one of my puzzling areas is the phone booth. Is there a way to remove the piece of styrofoam or decipher the secret messages?. And I wonder what the graffiti in the phone booth means…

Finally, I’m intrigued by the presence of two similar-seeming nightstands that turn up in two different locations and whether they have any significance…

I’m so fascinated by the game, but seem to have run up against my own limits for the time-being…

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Yes, the secret messages are just letter substitution ciphers and can be solved fairly easily. However, they’re only jokes, not important information or clues, as far as I know.

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I would be very interested in text extracted from the story file.

I’ve picked up this game again recently and with a new safe file am hitting the limit on discoverable things, even if the limitation is only by my own creativity.

I do have an addition about Erica Nailer, however:

ask malcolm about erica

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard of her.” He nods sagely. “She’s the human who burned down this walkway thing.”

ask malcolm about walkway
“Yeah, someone arsoned the bridge thing. But I guess it got put out before it burned all the way down. There used to be like a, lookout, I guess you’d call it, just past here.” He indicates an area floating in space. “They’d have parties and stuff. I think the fly fishing guys would induct new members here. Or at the cabin.” He motions to the east.

You also find the dirty key to the bird sanctuary/walkway in her fire pit. She burned down the walkway and tried to burn the key in the fire pit as well. I think it was all to get rid of the people she saw as being on “her” property, with the bird sanctuary included.

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hey, just going to resurrect a dead thread and ask what the parent key for the substitution cipher here is?

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@Afterward

Well, I hope it’s okay to engage in some thread necromancy for a good cause. I have phone booth questions. And phone not booth questions.

Can the styrofoam actually be removed, or is it there just to nudge the player?

Am I correct in assuming that each day’s helpful hint is a clever clue to the cypher?

Virgo’s horoscopes are Enya lyrics, except for “You know of a dream”. I’m curious, do other birthdays get different artists? (And is there some kind of a special event for playing the game on your birthday?)

So the phone can’t actually be unlocked? The thing is, the largemouth badge hints that you should clean up trash. And the salmon badge is for fixing the president’s phone. I know you said the phone can’t be fixed, but I can’t bring myself to trust you after that one puzzle…

Come to think about it, Dolly Varden badge is for a costume contest. Is April 30th a date to play dress-up? Or am I severely overthinking it?

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April 30th is a day to play dress-up in my mind because it’s the calendar-antipode of Halloween. But I don’t think that’s reflected in the gameplay at all, if that’s what you mean.

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Yep, that’s what I meant, thanks! This game has really captured my heart, so I want to make sure I really explore everything I can without spending too much time trying to break through something that isn’t solvable.

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Massive spoilers for the entire game to follow - I’m doing my best to sum up every shred of plot I’ve encountered.

Okay. I’ve got 017 badges, and I don’t think there are more to be found. I’ve seen every location as per David’s map, went to the phone booth every day of the week, pet the cat many, many times, and didn’t catch a single fish.

Anita is wearing a medallion in her graduation photo. In 2005, a girl in a bathing suit is hiding something from the camera. I’m not sure if it’s a coincidence.

In 1990, something club-related went on in the lodge, but the photo was removed. Maybe that’s when the Muskellunge badge was awarded; the badge that probably made things worse. Or not? Harlan became president in 2016, and tried to induct Erica into the fly-fishing club, which she obviously refused.

Meanwhile, Jack is lying under the blue tarp in the forest, Mako badge clenched in hand. The last note in his notebook dates to 7 Feb 2017. Erica didn’t stop her fursuiting hobby after killing Jack, because Tortus was killed in April 2017, most likely by Erica’s gloves - there’s blood on them, and Harlan thinks a hawk got to him. Anita suspects something.

Erica also burned down the walkway - at least, according to Malcolm - and tried to burn the key to bird sanctuary. Making a claim to the territory south of the lake, so to speak. Furthermore, she’s been off her rocker since at least 2013, since that’s when the monster sightings date back to. Among other things, she’s put up a coyote-shaped plastic rock (maybe it used to be a statue that got worn down into a lumpy shape) to scare people away from the fire pit.
I wonder what she’s up to now. Did her grandson notice something was off about her?

(Massive spoilers over)

I still haven’t found the baseball cap, and I have absolutely no ideas as to where it could be. I don’t know what to do with the goldfinch, either. The throne seems to hint at the Emperor card, who’s holding a globe and a sceptre, but I have no ideas beyond that. I haven’t asked the right questions to find out about the club librarian. I haven’t explored every tile of the woods, although I don’t think that’s necessary. I haven’t fixed either of the phones, although I don’t think it’s possible.

@Afterward, your map-making skills are incredible. I’m geographically challenged in real life, let alone in IF games, but your fishing adventure is one of the few games that I have a solid and complete mental map of. I loved the little easter eggs all around. The geocaching puzzle was very amusing (in a “That was clever and please never do that again.” kind of way), but took me longer than it should have, because “search for EBCR” command didn’t work, only “x EBCR”.

Also, I wish swimming was possible, although I realise that would make the traversal unnecessarily complicated. I’d love to repeat the triathlon route.

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The ladder can be used as a bridge. The ladder can be used as a bridge.

Ryan, I know you’re not one for people digging into your games’ source code, and I guess that would kind of defeat the purpose of a game so based on discovery. I’m not sure how I’ll come across saying that I would love to do just that. I can’t help wondering if there’s something else I’m missing, if there’s a super ultra secret ending, if there’s something that would make me love your game even more.

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You know, I think you’re absolutely right.

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Necro-ing this thread to say: yes!

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