Birthday gifts at max friendship

[Worblehat]

With Maru's Y2 birthday coming up in my game, I've been thinking about the birthday mechanic. As it stands there's no reason (other than RP) to give anyone a birthday gift once you've reached max friendship with them. That might be OK (sort of) for most NPCs, but as someone who has been married in real life, I would venture to say that ignoring one's wife's birthday would be both weird and unwise. I know, going out on a limb there, controversial opinion...

Suggestion: giving someone a birthday gift when you're already at max friendship with them increases your Luck for the following day. Karma, basically. Mechanically, I'd suggest the increase be 0.025 for a Loved gift, 0.0125 for a Liked gift (and I guess -0.0125 and -0.025 for Disliked and Hated, if people want to try to engineer bad luck days for some reason...), doubled if the recipient is one's spouse/roommate.

That could still get mildly weird - "It's the day after the wife's birthday. To Skull Cavern, bombs away!!!" But that's considerably less weird than the status quo, "I'm at 14 hearts and talk to her every day, why would I give my wife a birthday gift?"

 

[Freizeitfarmer]

Like the idea.
Just to mention, there is already a decay: https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Friendship

 

[Worblehat]

That's my point, though. If you talk to your spouse every day (and why wouldn't you, they're right there every morning), there's no decay to worry about. And for everyone else, once you hit max hearts, decay stops. Which is totally how friendship works in real life, the whole point of becoming the best possible friends with someone is so that you never have to talk to them again... But that's a slightly different topic, for which I don't have any suggestions to offer.

 

[imnvs]

 

[SuperChouette]

I’d love to see some kind of major decay when you miss people’s birthdays. This makes sense for a spouse especially and perhaps boyfriends and girlfriends would have a lesser amount of decay if you forget their birthday.

I can imagine not wanting the added stress of needing to find a gift for each person you are dating to avoid penalty. Perhaps simply speaking to an NPC on their birthday could prevent the decay.

 

[Freizeitfarmer]

I’d love to see some kind of major decay when you miss people’s birthdays. This makes sense for a spouse especially and perhaps boyfriends and girlfriends would have a lesser amount of decay if you forget their birthday.

I can imagine not wanting the added stress of needing to find a gift for each person you are dating to avoid penalty. Perhaps simply speaking to an NPC on their birthday could prevent the decay.

I like this idea. But I think it could be generalized for any friendship with more than 5 hearts. The decay can be bigger the more hearts you have.

I also think that decay should increase for each day you don't give a gift. If you are one day late, it is 0.3 x decay points, 2 days 0.6 x decay points, 3 days and more is full decay.
Especially in the beginning, it is sometimes hard to catch the birthday child to the day!

 

[SuperChouette]

I also think that decay should increase for each day you don't give a gift. If you are one day late, it is 0.3 x decay points, 2 days 0.6 x decay points, 3 days and more is full decay.
Especially in the beginning, it is sometimes hard to catch the birthday child to the day!

Love that! Incentive to give at least one gift per year to anyone who considers you a friend. Plus incentive for you to give whatever gift you planned if you happen to miss the special day.

I really enjoy the NPCs so much as well as giving gifts but have to justify it to myself because of the time it costs. I end up maintaining my friendships with the Help Wanted quests instead. Everyone in town knows I’m a cheapskate transactional jerk.