OK, lets Ryzomify (New word) a few of these tired and often redone ideas with a bit of 'zing'.
Fishing
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The majority of lifeforms we interact with in Ryzom are either baby forms that we forage (bugs and larvae) or macro in scale that we hunt. We don't really have farming per se and it would SEEM that the homin races are primarily hunter gatherers rather than farmers, perhaps due to the sheer fecundity of Atys.
Rather than fishing have aquatic hunting and foraging - diving down into the depths to dig at sources on the bottom of the lake or fighting seagoing beasts on the bottom, while making some critters properly amphibious perhaps
This also covers the other waterbourne suggestions such as diving and underwater exploration.
Boats
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Boats don't make a tremendous amount of sense yet, even in Tryker. We'd need areas of open water for them to play any sort of role really and even then, what role could they perform? A hold to fill with foraged materials to sail back to port and offload? Perhaps, but they'd have to be pretty big for that and you'd have to add 'port' functionality similar to the stables. A more short term option might be to have packable 'coracles' shaped liek leaves or coconut husks, or even (With matis genetic technology) seeds that grow into one-use boats (which let you move faster than swimming.
Drinking/Eating (Cooking)
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I don't think we need a cooking ability necessarily, though it might be nice to have a 'homecraft' skill tree that covers several of these ideas.
Drinking and eating items really need to only be RP props, activated with emotes. That really shouldn't take that much doing but the items available need to be 'Ryzomy'. We've already created firewine and a few dishes, it'd be nice to see those in game, but they need to fit the style of the rest.
Camps Tents
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This is one thing that does fit with Ryzom, but working out their utility and how long they should last is complicated. A seperate skill tree and abilities dependent on what they're constructed form would be good, perhaps with skill level determining how long it lasts and a slightly increased heal rate while near the camp and sitting down. The counter concern would be that the map would end up cluttered with these things causing lag and blockades to movement. You could cut off a town by making camps along its entrance for example.
The tent and camp designs already exist though.
Pets
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We already have mounts and packers, all that really remains are 'fluff' animals and combat pets. The problem in other games is that powerful pets completely unbalance things and give otherwise melee weak classes a great deal more fighting power than they should have. We already have the problem of magic users being overpowered, adding pets to that would be messy.
That said I can see uses for animals in the fighting and foraging trees, much like pigs are used to find truffles you could use a yubo to sniff out forage spots, to careplan or to help dig. Gingo, varinx etc could make good hunting animals. To balance things a bit using pets should split XP as though the pet were a team member. If they were implemented.
Clothing/Props
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One thing we do need is more RP items, props, clothing, interactive items in the landscape. Given the lukewarm reception to PvP here I can't help but think Nevrax's time may have been better spent working on these. :-/
Additional
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I still think the other races (save zorai) should get beards. At the moment only the Tryker (who look 12) have access to facial hair. This is wrong!
For those that leave Packers @nd Mounts in the water have no Fear... Only attacks are way off from the shores..
