Stardew Valley: Indie Harvest Moon on PC

[Jinn]

The days feel short at first until you figure out the best way to manage your time and energy. You really do have to make plans a day or two in advance. Planning out your most profitable crops in correlation with fertilizer is pretty huge for making a bunch of money.

I've been playing this quite a bit this past week and I have to say that it's got a lot going for it. It seems to have a fair bit more complexity than the early Harvest Moon games. I guess the best way to put it is is Harvest Moon with a lot of nice PC gaming touches. Also, the controls are a little clunky at first with keyboard and mouse, but once you get used to it they work great for this type of game.

 

[Tick Tock Crocodile]

It's late so I won't get to have a proper look today, but oh man, having a mouse for all of this is so good. Took me a moment to realise I didn't have to keep changing the position I was facing with WASD when using tools. And there are several quality of life things I really appreciate, like the fact that trees become slightly transparent when you walk behind them so you can actually see what the hell you're doing. Would've killed for that sort of thing in HMDS.

The passage of time feels okay to me so far compared to the HM games, though I can't say for sure until I have a proper operation going. But I like having to plan a bit, and for me, the problem with the passage of time in HM was always that it wasn't quick enough. Once you became efficient at doing everything, the days seemed to drag on too long--or at least, that's how it felt. Of course, you could always head to bed early, but something felt off about it.

I tested the limit for staying up late. Seems you can get to 2AM until you pass out, which is less than most/all HM games, but on the other hand, you still wake up at 6AM, whereas in HM games you generally sleep in if you stay up that long. Unless there's a fatigue penalty?

I see that time passes even when indoors, and that will take some getting used to. I admit that I did enjoy the ability to just flute around in people's houses with time frozen.

I noticed slots for rings--in at least one HM game I remember, they had rings which could speed up and slow down the passage of time. Maybe something like those could be added in the future?

 

[Cyberarmy]

It seems to have a fair bit more complexity than the early Harvest Moon games. I guess the best way to put it is is Harvest Moon with a lot of nice PC gaming touches. Also, the controls are a little clunky at first with keyboard and mouse, but once you get used to it they work great for this type of game.

I concur. Having a blast with this one last 2 days. Lots of things to do and lots of nice details.
My only problem(actually its my gf s problem...) is adventuring not being "optional". We need copper and other mineral stuff from there at ealier stages of game. Probably we can buy ores/bars from shops later on but at start we need to go deep in mines for good stuff. Hard to become a peaceful when all those slimes around, filthy things...

Unless there's a fatigue penalty?

Well, if you try work with zero energy you'll get a debuff that really slows you till next rest.

 

[Turisas]

Probably we can buy ores/bars from shops later on but at start we need to go deep in mines for good stuff. Hard to become a peaceful when all those slimes around, filthy things...

Blacksmith sells them from day one, but it's prohibitively expensive early on.

 

[Machocruz]

I'm a complete noob to this type of game, so managing everything and knowing how much I should be getting done each day are things I'm still coming to grips with . And I was mistaken, I'm in summer not fall. For now my routine is to water plants, then forage in the forest to the south, make my way to town and check the calendar and quest board, drop off any artifacts at the museum, break open geodes at the smith, look for the birthday girl/boy if there is one. Then it's either a quest, fishing, or mine delving. I have enough wood and stone stockpiled to keep from having to gather those resources for a while. I don't go out of my way to talk to NPCs anymore. Going to relax and play game like modern American male slacker and not modern American multi-tasking independent career woman.

 

[Rahdulan]

So how viable is farming actually? Because I remember in older Harvest Moon games I would just end up going to the mine and earning all my money there. Especially during the winter.

 

[Turisas]

So how viable is farming actually? Because I remember in older Harvest Moon games I would just end up going to the mine and earning all my money there. Especially during the winter.

100k+ pay days with enough artisan goods machines working for you. Farming is by far the easiest/most lucrative money-maker that you can scale up.

 

[Cyberarmy]

So how viable is farming actually?

Better than husbandry at least.
My GF has build a wine empire while I'm chasing chickens for mayonnaise...

 

[Celerity]

So this game is made by Chucklefish. Chucklefish, by the looks of it has the same sort of reputation as Rekt Hook. I say that's reason enough why everyone should give it a pass.

In fact the only difference is Rekt Hook hasn't spawned a group of thousands in protest. Which means I'm slacking off.

 

[Siveon]

It's not made by Chucklefish, only published. Afaik they had little to nothing to do with the development of this game.

 

[Celerity]

Still, you gotta consider shit like 4 year and counting Early Access delays and corrupt, censoring devs in the equation. It's a black mark on the company, even if the actual game devs are fine.

 

[Siveon]

Sure, but I think this game has the chops (for its genre) to stand on its own and ignore any mild dealings with douchebag devs.

And trust me, I know Chucklefish. I backed their cruddy game. This game actually delivered, as it seems.

 

[Machocruz]

So this game is made by Chucklefish. Chucklefish, by the looks of it has the same sort of reputation as Rekt Hook. I say that's reason enough why everyone should give it a pass.

In fact the only difference is Rekt Hook hasn't spawned a group of thousands in protest. Which means I'm slacking off.

I googled Rekt Hook and got an Imgur link: Derpest Dungeon. Is that you?

 

[Celerity]

That was an art piece I had commissioned. Quite nice, isn't it?

It's not complete without its companion work.

 

[Stainless Veteran]

Gah. Somebody should finally lock Celerity in Prosperland. This one-trick pony shit is getting ridiculous.

 

[GrainWetski]

God damn, I had no idea this genre is so addicting. "Just one more day" instead of "just one more turn". I need to make money so I can make more money!

 

[Blaine]

My first game in the animu farming simulator genre was Rune Factory IV. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would. Planting crops, growing bigass rare plants to win festival competitions, running a shop, and hacking away at enemies occasionally was good fun.

I'd heard about Stardew Valley a couple of years back, thought it might be cool, and had completely forgotten about it. I bought it today and it seems breddy gud so far.

 

[Celerity]

All games are measured by being as unlike Derpest and its corrupt devs as possible. Chucklefish = lolnope.

 

[Siveon]

Another patch? Already?

New Build -- 1.05
MARCH 4 -CONCERNEDAPE

• Added a zoom in/out feature to the options tab.
• Added volume sliders for ambient sounds and footstep sounds.
• Added snow transparency slider.
• Fixed issue with invisible trees preventing interaction with tiles.
• Dead flowers no longer affect honey.
• You can now dance with your spouse at the Flower Dance.
• Game should now properly pause when steam overlay is active.
• Fixed issue where inactive window was still responding to input.
• Fixed fertilizer prices in Pierre's shop.
• Fixed
• Game should now be playable without any audio hardware.
• You can now press the toolbar shortcut keys (1,2,3, etc. by default) to change the active slot while the inventory menu is up.
• Iron ore nodes can no longer be removed, only destroyed.
• Dog should no longer sit on chests...
• Spouses should no longer run away into the dark abyss.
• Fixed issue where recipes would sometimes consume more ingredients than they should.
• Fixed crashes in certain cutscenes, when certain dialogue options were chosen.
• Various bug fixes.

Good show.

 

[Blaine]

 

[Harpsichord]

The days feel way too short.

So this game didn't actually fix the worst aspect of HM games at all. Good to know.

They feel much longer than HM days ime.

 

[Gerrard]

The days feel way too short.

So this game didn't actually fix the worst aspect of HM games at all. Good to know.

They feel much longer than HM days ime.

I think it was usually 1 second = 1 minute in HM games, it always felt like you need to know the entire game and all the events inside out to actually get anywhere.

 

[Blaine]

The time conversion scale is a straightforward 1:60; the game clock progresses in increments of 10 minutes every 10 real-life seconds. This means that each day is about 18 minutes long, since you wake at 6 and really need to go to bed by midnight, although you can stay awake until 2 a.m. without severe penalty (pushing it to 12:30-1:30 a.m. or later will result in an increasing energy penalty the next day; at 2 a.m. you go to the clinic for exhaustion, pay a fee, and get the highest energy penalty). Each season will last around 8-9 real life hours including pause/downtime, and so an entire year will end up being 32-36 hours. Two full years will take about 70 hours to plow through.

Since doing different things during different seasons is pretty important for variety, if days lasted, say, twice as long, then it would take 140 hours to get through two years (and have the opportunity to repeat holidays, birthdays, season-specific plants, etc.). That's a bit insane. On the 1:60 scale, you'll be finishing your fourth year by that time, which is just about right.

I admit the days do a feel a bit short, although I also don't see the harm in watching your crops progress steadily. That's where your money comes from, and you also get your skill-ups at the end of each day. I'm sure mods can alter the time compression.

The biggest issue I've run into is that unlike in Rune Factory IV, the locations of NPCs aren't displayed on the map. Therefore it can take an entire fucking day to find one NPC, if you're unlucky, and sometimes they'll travel far away or busily move from one location to another. All of the notice board quests must completed within two days, so it can be pretty obnoxious.

 

[Alex]

The days feel way too short.

So this game didn't actually fix the worst aspect of HM games at all. Good to know.

They feel much longer than HM days ime.

I think it was usually 1 second = 1 minute in HM games, it always felt like you need to know the entire game and all the events inside out to actually get anywhere.

Not really, but you can miss a whole lot of content if you aren't using some sort of guide or making one yourself. For instance, usually the only way to find out when someone's birthday is, is by giving them a present every day of the year, until they thank you for remembering their birthday. Sometimes an NPC you never got around to talking will leave forever... because you never got around to talking to him. You will miss this or that opportunity because you didn't know you should save x money for that specific day of the year, and so on.

All this stuff is always optional. You can finish the game without that, and even have fun, though.

 

[Turisas]

For instance, usually the only way to find out when someone's birthday is, is by giving them a present every day of the year, until they thank you for remembering their birthday.

There is a calendar on the notice board next to Pierre's you can check for all festivals and birthdays - or you can buy one for your house from Robin for 2000g.