Do you ever get overwhelmed with all the production on your farm?

[Virtual Uncle]

I am probably a noob compared to a let of seasoned stardew players. I have about 150 hours in the game between two saves. I started my second playthrough because every time I logged into my previous save, I'd get overwhelmed by all the different tasks I have accumulated and the same thing is starting to happen on this one. I'm making good progress, I finished the community center for the first time which is cool. I guess my main question is, when you have a ton of different stuff to do on the farm, do you sometimes just ignore it? Like, let the artisan production be on hold for a few days so you can go mining or fishing without worrying about wasting time? Just curious how others play the game :)

 

[Pangaearocks]

I too get overwhelmed or stressed by it, which is a shame really. Hard to ditch that urge for efficiency. It's why I ultimately rarely play very many years on the same farm. At some point it becomes more like a chore.

Perhaps I really want to go fishing or mining or skull cavern diving. But first...

And 5 hours later I'm still running this way and that. Oops, forgot that item fir the fish pond. Or crap, I'm out of coal, or missing seeds for the greenhouse, or need to stash items in chests to free up space for cheese or eggs or something else. Then the travelling cart. Then the island (which I mostly ignore in fairness).

Maybe this is why I've lost some of the motivation to play recently. So yeah, I understand what you mean. Interested to hear what others say too, for how to handle it

 

[Virtual Uncle]

We need a support group for us overwhelmed farmers.

 

[Benhimself]

Honestly, instead of "bigger" I focus on "easier". Don't plant more crops than you have sprinklers to take care of. One barn, one coop, and one shed of kegs is enough, and fill the latter at a casual pace. Crops will keep in a chest while you wait to process them. Get that workbench and the big chest recipe sooner than later and put them together into a no fuss, no frills storage/crafting solution: don't need to organize when you can just hit "add to existing stacks" two or three times. Make a "to do later" chest with all your things to add to bundles or the museum or geodes that need opening and take it where it needs to go tomorrow. Or next week. Whenever you're going in that direction or have a bad luck day and nothing better to do, really.

Help wanted quests and special orders make great "So what do I want to do today?" guides, like if you need to kill some squid kids or find an emerald for Marnie looks like you're hitting the mines, bust up grey rocks for stone and coal while you're down there. Get a fishing quest? Sure, fish a little, and once you're done maybe hit cindersnap for wood if you need it and you have time and energy left. Settle with a liked gift for someone's birthday instead of a loved gift.

And occasionally do completely unnecessary stuff for mental health reasons. Spend an in-game hour or two chilling at the resort when your favorite villagers are there. Drink some of your aged ancient fruit wine because you can. Stop by a waterfall, watch butterflies. Hit the "walk instead of run" button and try (futilely) to sneak up on a frog. See what your spouse has to say in the evenings by getting home before 10 pm once in a while. Give them an extra smooch goodnight.

 

[VampireCake]

It helps me a bit to remember that everything comes round again - the game is open-ended, after all. You don't have to do everything at once. Nothing bad will happen if you don't pick those crops that are ready in the greenhouse because it's a max luck day and you want to go Skull cave diving.

Also, there's a stupidly cheesy but true saying - "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."

 

[Starry Junimo]

Yeah I ignore it sometimes

 

[HaleyRocks]

Of course i ignore it. Only one or Two at most, i can manage to do daily, collecting types of products that my farm produces. Sometimes, i ignore a bunch of stuff for over 1 in-game week, or something. Or, go straight for the most profitable one, leaving everything else untouched.

Late game crafting/machines/produce is so overwhelming, that it is impossible to deal with yourself, in single player game.

But i stuffed my cabins full of machines/pots anyway, so i cannot even to rely on multiplayer hands for help (which i am unable to use anyway, since i refuse to utilize GOG Galaxy, without which, internet multiplayer is a no-go)

 

[BeBop268170]

I usually go to bed before noon because there's little to do.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Accumulating fewer tasks is my solution.

• Plant lotsa Grass and open the Barn and Coop doors. They can feed themselves for 3/4 of the year.
• Leave Animal Processing machines in the Barn and Coop next to the AutoGrabber. Process only when you go in. If you feel like it. Next week is good.
• Plant relatively few Crops (50-150) and only ones that take a half season to grow: Cauli or Rhubarb (Sp), Melon or Starfruit (Su), Pumpkin (Fa). 3 total mornings/season spent on these: 1 sow, 1 harvest+sow, 1 harvest
• Prioritize all Festivals and Special Events. You're playing a game. Do the play-things, not the work-things.
• Maximum one Pig. One! Sheep make almost as much after processing + Animal Cracker and the AutoGrabber works on Wool, not Truffles. Big time saver.
• Make fewer Machines and just sell raw. I do not do this much but should. Still, I max out at 1 Shed full of 1/2 Kegs and 1/2 Jars, that's 138 total. Kegs are 1 work morning per week and Jars are 2, not too bad.

 

[Mango Choo-choo]

If you play it on PC, you have a lot of shortcuts to skip the boring tasks.
Do not waste time on what you don't like.
Game is for fun.

 

[Virtual Uncle]

If you play it on PC, you have a lot of shortcuts to skip the boring tasks.
Do not waste time on what you don't like.
Game is for fun.

Would you mind expanding on this? I do play on PC. I've been curious if there is a way to streamline tasks. Like in Minecraft you can use hoppers. It would be cool to have a pipeline of milk>cheese>iridium cheese connected to storage chests.

 

[HaleyRocks]

Accumulating fewer tasks is my solution.

• Plant lotsa Grass and open the Barn and Coop doors. They can feed themselves for 3/4 of the year.
• Leave Animal Processing machines in the Barn and Coop next to the AutoGrabber. Process only when you go in. If you feel like it. Next week is good.
• Plant relatively few Crops (50-150) and only ones that take a half season to grow: Cauli or Rhubarb (Sp), Melon or Starfruit (Su), Pumpkin (Fa). 3 total mornings/season spent on these: 1 sow, 1 harvest+sow, 1 harvest
• Prioritize all Festivals and Special Events. You're playing a game. Do the play-things, not the work-things.
• Maximum one Pig. One! Sheep make almost as much after processing + Animal Cracker and the AutoGrabber works on Wool, not Truffles. Big time saver.
• Make fewer Machines and just sell raw. I do not do this much but should. Still, I max out at 1 Shed full of 1/2 Kegs and 1/2 Jars, that's 138 total. Kegs are 1 work morning per week and Jars are 2, not too bad.

A generally interesting set of propositions, but:

"Leave Animal Processing machines in the Barn and Coop next to the AutoGrabber. Process only when you go in. If you feel like it. Next week is good."

Please, no! I left animal produce for next week in my previous save, next week became next next week, then an entire bulk of products in the hundreds was amassed, forcing me to build a big shed full of dairy machines, complete with hoppers!

Listen to me and trust me, you do NOT want animal products to keep piling up! Unless of course you are okay, with throwing them all unprocessed in the selling bin, or something...

"Maximum one Pig. One! Sheep make almost as much after processing + Animal Cracker and the AutoGrabber works on Wool, not Truffles. Big time saver."

3 pigs or 6 pigs, is the ideal set. Coupled with the profession that gives your foraging double pickup chance and makes iridium quality forage-ables, they are a true force!

Last but not least, the more you produce/build/etc, the better it is... You don't need to do everything during the span of one day, but the more variety and options, the better for player overall! Stardew is first and foremost, a MICROMANAGEMENT simulator :P

 

[Lenora Rose]

And what's wrong with selling unprocessed animal product in the selling bin? Makes you less money, but involves less work, and unless you're choosing to grind towards perfection, after the first few seasons, you're generally making enough and more than enough money for most things.

Ultimately, though, yes, I think we all find the work can be overwhelming before we hit the point where we have hoppers to skip a step and junimos to cover a bit of the toil for us. And after, because we usually have two farm locations by then. Sometimes I play this as the farmer is a workoholic who has to reluctantly tear herself away because her boyfriend(s) are waiting, sometimes that they're a misanthrope who'd *rather* putter on the farm than talk to, ugh, people, and sometimes as someone who will just... walk away from the chores to hang out with folks as soon as the chickens are petted, and who cares if there's one fewer days' worth of hops to throw in a keg?

But nothing spoils, ever, so while there is a need to do all the crop picking before season change, and a need to talk to people you like often enough that they stay friends with you, all the processing can be saved for later, or, as above, skipped. You don't need to constantly replenish your resources when you don't have a target you're working towards, and the targets you, personally, desire most deeply are the main things that *should* keep you signing into the game to do.

 

[Quirinea]

Would you mind expanding on this? I do play on PC. I've been curious if there is a way to streamline tasks. Like in Minecraft you can use hoppers. It would be cool to have a pipeline of milk>cheese>iridium cheese connected to storage chests.

I dunno what the previous poster means, but I'm shamelessly cheating with mods TimeSpeed and Automate (also use Fishing mods, but that's just because I suck at fishing). Fill a shed with jars or kegs, visit it at regular intervals checking that there's enough stuff to process and picking the loot.

 

[phoenixofthestars]

I’m in Winter of Year 3. My routine is: say hello to Abigail (my wife), leave the house, put the iridium ore from my statue of perfection in the mining chest, pet the cats, fill their water bowls, pet the animals and collect their products (during winter, barn animals first, then coop animals), water whatever crops need watering (usually just the few crops in my greenhouse without a sprinkler), and finally do any needed crop-picking or fruit-tree-picking. On a good day, I’m done by 10am or even 9:30am, but sometimes when my out-of-season crops finish growing I have to spend a few in-game hours shoving seeds into my seed makers, or I’ll get really excited about rearranging my machines, or redecorate the house. Then I’m usually done by 3pm and I don’t have a reasonable amount of time to go to the mines and get some extra combat experience—my combat level is at 6 while everything else is 9 or 10

I haven’t gotten to Ginger Island yet. I’ll probably get overwhelmed by then. But in my first playthrough, I will admit I was in Spring of Year 3 and actually frustrated and bored. Back then I was terrible at fishing and terrified of the mines, mostly because I didn’t realize I could buy a better sword from Marlon now I’m scared of Skull Cavern…

 

[liltheismann]

I am probably a noob compared to a let of seasoned stardew players. I have about 150 hours in the game between two saves. I started my second playthrough because every time I logged into my previous save, I'd get overwhelmed by all the different tasks I have accumulated and the same thing is starting to happen on this one. I'm making good progress, I finished the community center for the first time which is cool. I guess my main question is, when you have a ton of different stuff to do on the farm, do you sometimes just ignore it? Like, let the artisan production be on hold for a few days so you can go mining or fishing without worrying about wasting time? Just curious how others play the game :)

I understand what you mean, when i first started playing, i got super overwhelmed but the great news about this game is there is no such thing as wasting time in my opinion. Unless you accept a request/quest that is time sensitive, you can pretty much take your time with everything i had to learn that and once i did, the game became more chill for me! i still have unfinished tasks from the beginning of my save and im on year 9 haha! I hope you will find the game less overwhelming over time!