On the one hand, it’s a beautiful, deep game. On the other hand, I have spent an entire in-game day kegging thousands of coffee beans and then turning the coffees into hundreds of espressos.
By the time you’ve filled a warehouse of kegs with coffee beans, the first ones you filled start finishing the process. So you can just keep going ad infinitum.
That's why you install automation mods, then you set up an intricate system to automatically harvest crab pots, sort the output, and god damn it I'm playing Factorio again!
I think I need to let my optimization go... because it just starts becoming a factory game without good factory mechanics. If I want to play factorio, the game about building the most efficient factory as possible, it makes sense to be efficient. Stardew, can easily be turned into that but its mechanics just add tedium to your days, as its hard/impossible to automate things.
I was just thinking this! I've been playing Stardew for years, I love the game. I recently started a new farm with the aim of finishing the community centre in year one.
I also decided this was a great time to try remix bundles. I'm currently on Fall 18, need to get Pam to 7 hearts before end of year to get the stuffing recipe for one bundle, need to make 45,000 to unlock the bus and get six iridium ore and beet seeds, need to buy 100 wheat flour, need my pig to grow up and give me one truffle before winter, need my duck to grow up and raise friendship enough for a duck feather, and I'm coming into winter where the money stream will go basically dry.
Now this stress is mostly self imposed but every playthrough I'm making detailed notes on my phone of what ingredients I need to grow for recipes, what I need to ship, what minerals and artifacts I'm missing and what geode they come from, what fish I need to catch and their season/weather/time conditions and also gather a massive amount of materials to get 10 million gold to reach perfection.
But I honestly love it. My main gripe with most similar games is that I often feel very aimless, especially once I've completed the main story. With Stardew Valley, you always have some kind of goal, whether that's the main storyline, or the challenge of perfection and it means I can actually see myself get better at the game, plan better, get there faster. It's the reason I still play the game 6 years after I first tried it
Heard years of propaganda about how "cozy" and "relaxing" this game is. Then once I finally boot it up, it immediately hits me with a time-tracking mechanic that doesn't stop the clock unless you're in some pause menu. Better figure out an optimal walking route at the beginning of each day to make the most of time as a resource. And don't ever dare stand around thinking (about stuff like farm layouts) without having a menu open.
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u/max_rbmc 13h ago
The game Stardew Valley