Which mechanic do you detest the most in SDV?

[Selfea]

I honestly really like almost all the mechanics. I do agree with some of the comments about the Festivals feeling stagnant and pointless after you've experienced it once, but the only part of the game that I really dislike and avoid like the plague are the arcade games, particularly Praerie King. I actually ended up installing a mod just so I could complete it at least once, though I've never successfully completed the Junimo Cart one.

 

[Hydrangea]

(note that I'm still in the early game, I picked it up two weeks ago and am on fall year 1)
I voted for relationships. The unique scenes that you get when your friendships are leveled enough are amazing, but the whole system is built in a boring way in my opinion.

You get an overwhelming introduction to NPC's through the introduction quest that asks you to talk to 28 different NPC's. Not only it's counter-intuitive because of the Wizard being the only "???" that you don't have to interact with, but the worst thing about it is you can't speak with shop keepers like Robin while they're working without going over the counter: it's a neat mechanic once you know about it, but for the purpose of the quest it's incredibly frustrating and it happened to me a couple times that I introduced myself to, say, Pierre and I'd be like "wait, but I've already interacted with this guy". Still, I've been holding on to playing the game because of how overwhelming it feels at the start - if you keep a gamer-like mentality that you have to follow quests it's going to drive you crazy.

Fast forward a month or two, you get your first unique scene with most NPC's around the 2/3 heart mark. On one hand, I'd like to get to know better the different characters, on the other hand, between their schedules and different tastes in gifts I feel like going after 29 different people two times a week is not worth it becuase it isn't fun.

Here's the thing, every now and then they make questions you have to give an answer to and it's kinda fine as a mechanic (but the questions I've got were not really that engaging), but besides that the NPC all tend to have repetitive lines of dialogues and making friends all comes down to you gifting them stuff, possibly their favorites. Birthdays give huge boosts, but naturally they go up slowly.
My friendship with Shane leveled up with me casually meeting him around and bringing him a salmonberry. My friendship with Sebastian is growing when I take quartz out of my chests to actively play Santa.
It all comes down to gifting. Make a checklist of what's liked by whom, fill your bag with the stuff and go look for them or look it up online. I think it's a very boring mechanic - not because of the gifting itself, rather because you have to repeat it two times a week for how many NPC you want. And you actually get to know them only after you have already gotten some friendship points. And apart from the events there isn't a single fun thing happening between each heart (yes, you get gifts from them in your mailbox, but that doesn't count as an interaction and you don't get to know them better and please Shane stop stealing stuff from the place you're working at).

I'm not far into the game enough to date or have a spouse but... I heard the character you marry isn't really flashed out, which is a huge shame.

 

[andrew_c]

Detest is too strong a word, but I would really like if there was an alternative to the fishing minigame, perhaps a difficulty slider or a strait percentage chance based on skill, rod, bait quality and luck. I have poor eye hand coords and reactions and fishing is rather too twitchy for me. Combat I can power through, fishing is different.

 

[margotbean]

If you don't mind, could you define "difficult" in this context? I noticed while shuffling around game development and design this word can have ambiguous meaning.

Is Combat difficult in the sense that you find it unfair? Like how one user stated within this thread:

...the slimes are hitting me non stop with their special move or something like that, it gest really annoying when I have to retrace my steps in the mine. :(
I don't like it.

Or is it difficult in the sense that, it is fair and challenging, but you are not looking at Stardew Valley to be challenging. More so relaxed with no tension.

Or is it difficult by some other means that I am missing here?

Shadow Brutes used to lumber around like drunken bees. Now they're fast. Shadow Shaman used to get stuck facing walls, now that's fixed and they're dangerous. Slimes didn't used to warp through you when they pounced, they hit you and gave you a chance to hit them where they stood (so to speak). Squid Kids used to rarely even move, now they're active and shoot more fireballs than in previous versions. Most of these I presume were bug fixes, but fixing so many bugs that have existed for 3 years feels like combat was reevaluated and buffed, with no warning.

I'm the kind of player who wants to go into god mode and slaughter everything with ease, I find that stress-relieving. I don't need challenges in my video games, because life is challenging af. So, I think it's fair to say I don't want SDV to involve challenging finger-work on the keyboard, when my farmer faces the wrong direction 50% of the time!

 

[dolce-elegy]

Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet but, having children. I kind of wish that they did more than just run around the house and be strange, silent, eternal toddlers that you can only interact with like the stiff, emotionally distant, Victorian father we all aspire to be.

This is probably asking too much because ConcernedApe is only one man but I kind of wish they were more like the kids in the Harvest Moon series where they actually grew up, developed personalities, helped out on the farm etc. It’d be so cool for them to at least develop to around Jas and Vincent’s age, and depending on who you marry their personalities can be different too like in Harvest Moon.

Also maybe they could start being tutored by Penny and start exploring the valley on their own with their own schedule. Plus maybe have the rest of the town acknowledge their existence (along with your marriage itself...Robin you know damn well that I have been married to your son for the past 6 years. We have two children. And a fROG).

Also everyone commenting with fishing is both a liar and a coward

 

[Sounny]

Don’t know if anyone has mentioned this yet but, having children. I kind of wish that they did more than just run around the house and be strange, silent, eternal toddlers that you can only interact with like the stiff, emotionally distant, Victorian father we all aspire to be.




View attachment 350

You are very funny. I want the kids to go to school and get out of my hair.

 

[stone]

I detest the RNG aspect of collecting. It seems like I have horrible luck on every save I run...

 

[SoyOodl]

I play on mobile, so the part i absolutely HATE is petting the animals. Basically, everytime you try to pet animals who are close to each other, you are most likely going to interact with one you have already pet, instead of petting another animal who needs petting. You have to wait for the animals who need petting to move into an open area just to pet them. It's a pain and takes a lot of your time during the day.

 

[Biscuits]

I wish there was an easier way to purchase things from shops. Maybe an input for quantity or a slider? I mean, if I want 200 blueberry seeds do I really have to click the blueberry seeds 200 times?

 

[Tegrity Farms]

Combat because it keeps changing with every game version, and it keeps getting more difficult!

I, my friend, absolutely love that about each version! Just keep your sword in the middle of your pick axe and a good food(I use cheese) to replenish health quickly and switch back to your sword for more damage.

 

[Odin]

I wish there was an easier way to purchase things from shops. Maybe an input for quantity or a slider? I mean, if I want 200 blueberry seeds do I really have to click the blueberry seeds 200 times?

Depending on platform you don't. On PC you can hold right-click to purchase 5 of an item at once, and shift + holding right-click to quickly purchase a large quantity. And I believe consoles have an equivalent option but I'm not sure of the exact controls there.

See https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Controls#Tips for additional tips :)

 

[Biscuits]

Depending on platform you don't. On PC you can hold right-click to purchase 5 of an item at once, and shift + holding right-click to quickly purchase a large quantity. And I believe consoles have an equivalent option but I'm not sure of the exact controls there.

See https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Controls#Tips for additional tips :)

I wish I could like this comment more than once. Thank you so much for the info!

 

[Odin]

I wish I could like this comment more than once. Thank you so much for the info!

You're welcome, happy to help!

 

[TheBookDragon]

Fishing. I hate fishing and was never good at it. Now I use mods for it

 

[Paranoic]

The one thing I feel like gives absolutely no reward is cooking. Everything else on the list has a reason to be done, but the only reason to cook is to make some niche loved gifts, since the energy/health is not a problem by the time you get access to cooking. Set aside the "no reward" factor, the TV recipes are also kinda annoying to get. Forgot to watch TV once? Good luck catching a rerun of this episode then, or see you again in 2 years! I kinda wish this was adressed, since cooking surely could be made fun or/and rewarding in a way. Possibly with some cooking-exclusive good buffs (since right now the best buff foods are spicy eels and crab cakes, and these are easier to obtain via other means), or by giving spa-like energy regeneration effect to some of the big cooking-exclusive foods and boosting their energy gain, so you could eat Complete Breakfast in the morning and, thematically, have it power you through an entire day of hard work.

 

[tommybob]

Big fishing haters here, makes me sad, I love fishing!

I voted for questing, I like some, but for the most part they just get in my way. I like the sandbox nature of Stardew and I think having too many quests could force a linear narative but I just think in current state they are underwhelming and under rewarding.

 

[margotbean]

I detest the RNG aspect of collecting. It seems like I have horrible luck on every save I run...

LOL, even with all the additions to make artifacts more plentiful, I still haven't found a Bone Flute in year 4 of my 1.4.5 save. It's always that last one that takes 2 years to find, isn't it?

 

[Ganonspawn]

I voted farming. I don't hate it, but... it is tedious and one of the worst aspects of the game my opinion. It does reward you well, but without any way to speed up hoing/planting, I can't be bothered to have large operations. Until I get my greenhouse full of ancient fruit. At that point I can handle it.

 

[SgtPickles]

I voted farming. I don't hate it, but... it is tedious and one of the worst aspects of the game my opinion. It does reward you well, but without any way to speed up hoing/planting, I can't be bothered to have large operations. Until I get my greenhouse full of ancient fruit. At that point I can handle it.

This is... an interesting choice & opinion. Partly due to the game focusing around farming and the farming mecahnics. So I have two questions for you:

1.) What made you interested to play Stardew Valley?

2.) Besides the cast time for using the tools, what else about the farming mechanism bugs you / causes you to be disinterested / feels like a grind? What would you want improved?

Note that all games have grind. But a huge part of the design process is to make the grind... not feel like grind.

 

[Ganonspawn]

1.) What made you interested to play Stardew Valley?

2.) Besides the cast time for using the tools, what else about the farming mechanism bugs you / causes you to be disinterested / feels like a grind? What would you want improved?

1. The fishing and mining were the most interesting things at first. Later the relationship aspects entered the running. But to be honest, I would probably never have played this game if we hadn't gotten it for Christmas. I'm glad we did, but yeah.

2. It's more that there isn't anything... particularly interesting about it. It's just boring. A chore that I do before I get to my actual work (fishing and mining). I don't know how I would improve it, really... I would like some sort of reward that isn't purely monetary. Something useful. I have a similar issue with quests, to be honest, at least some of the story ones. They should give you objects and stuff. Something unique.