Advanced Option to Freeze Time to Decorate Your House

[Ericlegacy]

So I have a couple ideas for this to work:

1. Have an advanced option at the start of a new game to allow you to freeze time in your house all the time.

or

2. Have a 'decorate' option when you enter your home where it can freeze time, allowing you to decorate the inside.

Maybe have something where freezing time in your home does not allow you to loot your casks or indoor crops.

And of course, for multiplayer for this to work, maybe have the freeze time option only work if all parties are in their homes.

In decorate mode while in multiplayer, no one can leave their homes unless accepted by the host.

I think this can ensure a balance to not exploiting the feature but also gives people time to decorate without worrying about sacrificing time to figure out where you need to put your couch lol

*Edit*

3. One more idea, but maybe have the decorate feature unlock when you purchase either the catalog from Pierre's or Robin's, or both. That could work too I think.

 

[laotrayamada]

Honestly? I think maybe having the character have furniture items on their person, and physically move around setting them up, is not the most practical way. I think it would work better if it were like moving around buildings, where you pick up things and put them down, without time advancing, no npcs in sight, just the map of your home setting everything up to your liking. It half works that way already, given that, inside your farmhouse, you can pick up and set up furniture from literally anywhere on screen.

Maybe having a default catalogue furniture on the premises, that lets you activate the decorating mode, and also holds the furniture you buy and own like the dressers hold your clothes? Then the furniture catalogue we already have could be an advanced version that instead of acting as a chest of furniture like a dresser, straight up holds infinite of every furniture, still by activating the decorating mode.

 

[Fireflydrake]

I'd like this, right now I usually decorate, take a screenshot, close the game without saving and then remake the house from the screenshot--but even that can take time.

 

[Odin]

A specific decorating mode would definitely be nice, I also think having there's room for improvement with the catalogs- perhaps a search feature or allowing decorative items to stack. I find a lot of time when decorating is just pulling enough items from a catalog and then having to shuffle things around in my inventory.

 

[Fireflydrake]

You know a simpler idea than outright freezing time might simply be to have time in your house run more slowly, even more so than in Skull Cavern. Honestly everything you can do in your house is based on bringing in stuff from outside your house originally, so I don't think there's too much you can do to exploit it for gain.

 

[tomaO2]

I got a slightly different mechanic for how this would work, why not give players the option to move existing furniture via the house renovation options, rather than making it an "in the house" mode?

For instance, if I go to Robin's and want to close off the bedroom area, but a chest is in the way, I would need to move that chest by physically going to back my house, moving all the items that are in the chest, physically move the chest, put all items back in chest, re-colour the chest, and then go all the way back to Robin.

This could all be done with a single "remodel house" option instead. When you click on the "remodel house" option you can move every object in the house as you like and time is paused when you do so. Now if you want to re-add the bedroom wall, and realize a chest is in the way, all you need to do is click on remodel house and now you can click on anything and move them anywhere else in the house. Finally, an EASY way to move chests around (moving chests will also not make the colour reset. Likewise, moving kegs and such will not interrupt the brewing process).

It's basically the house version of "move buildings". You can already move all farm buildings, and paint via the carpentry options, you can add rooms or remove them via this as well, so why not add furniture rearrangements? This seems like a logical add on to the current game mechanics. Keep in mind that when in this mode, you cannot look inside your chests, this is soley for moving objects around.

That said, if an additional option was added where all items in the house that have the "house decor" or "furniture" tags posted on the side, that would allow for most/all of the additional stuff you want added, like floor tiles, I think. That would take a bit more work, but I think would be worth it. If this option is added, you could also use it for a "remodel farm" carpentry option, and now you have some additional options for designing your ideal farm layout. The one thing that you would still need to di in person is clearing out static objects, like rocks and fences. Fixing your farm up is a fun activity, and I would love to see this being made easier for players.

To me, this feels like the natural next step of all the options you currently have with the carpentry options.

 

[Kurachi84]

I use timespeed mod, but for others i guess it's better to be able to change it without needing an NPC, who may be gone from their spots at times.
The game's time without mods goes very fast already, and the house and shed(s) are nice to decorate, which would be way nicer to do without needing to run around with the timer going.
Then needing Robin/Pierre/both just to replace decorations, seems weird for a strong farmer who can carry a lot of heavy stuff.

 

[tomaO2]

I picked Robin because the mechanic already exists via house modifications. Doing it like this fits in with the current game style smoothly. We already have an option for altering the inside of the house that causes time to freeze. Changing things so time freezes when you are physically in the house is a much larger change.

Doing it like this also has the additional benefit of allowing you to move everything out of a room when you want to remodel it, rather than going back to your house, and it will let you simply move heavy objects, like full chests, that are too heavy for a strong farmer to move. There is no reason to not have it, even if you primarily wanted the ability to do the same thing while in the house.

Besides, a strong farmer can still carry a lot of heavy stuff, it's just easier to hire people to do it for you. If you want to go down the reality road, then you shouldn't be able to instantly move your farm buildings. Not sure how many Harvest Moon type games allow that level of customization. I remember them usually just being fixed in place. Even the greenhouse can be moved now. I was shocked when I realized that I could just pick everything up and move it instantly.

 

[Ericlegacy]

I got a slightly different mechanic for how this would work, why not give players the option to move existing furniture via the house renovation options, rather than making it an "in the house" mode?

For instance, if I go to Robin's and want to close off the bedroom area, but a chest is in the way, I would need to move that chest by physically going to back my house, moving all the items that are in the chest, physically move the chest, put all items back in chest, re-colour the chest, and then go all the way back to Robin.

This could all be done with a single "remodel house" option instead. When you click on the "remodel house" option you can move every object in the house as you like and time is paused when you do so. Now if you want to re-add the bedroom wall, and realize a chest is in the way, all you need to do is click on remodel house and now you can click on anything and move them anywhere else in the house. Finally, an EASY way to move chests around (moving chests will also not make the colour reset. Likewise, moving kegs and such will not interrupt the brewing process).

It's basically the house version of "move buildings". You can already move all farm buildings, and paint via the carpentry options, you can add rooms or remove them via this as well, so why not add furniture rearrangements? This seems like a logical add on to the current game mechanics. Keep in mind that when in this mode, you cannot look inside your chests, this is soley for moving objects around.

That said, if an additional option was added where all items in the house that have the "house decor" or "furniture" tags posted on the side, that would allow for most/all of the additional stuff you want added, like floor tiles, I think. That would take a bit more work, but I think would be worth it. If this option is added, you could also use it for a "remodel farm" carpentry option, and now you have some additional options for designing your ideal farm layout. The one thing that you would still need to di in person is clearing out static objects, like rocks and fences. Fixing your farm up is a fun activity, and I would love to see this being made easier for players.

To me, this feels like the natural next step of all the options you currently have with the carpentry options.

I actually pretty much agree with you on all this!

 

[Maeve785]

You're suggesting a more streamlined approach to decorating in the game, right? Instead of physically carrying furniture items on your character and setting them up one by one, you're envisioning a system where you interact with a catalogue of furniture on your premises, allowing you to enter a decorating mode where you can easily place and arrange items from a stored inventory.

This approach could offer several advantages, such as easier management of furniture items, quicker setup and rearrangement, and potentially more creative freedom in designing your space. It would essentially be like moving around buildings on a map, but with furniture instead.

Having a default catalogue furniture on the premises, which serves as the gateway to the decorating mode and stores all the furniture you own, sounds like a logical and convenient solution. It could function similarly to how dressers hold clothes in the game. And the current furniture catalogue could evolve into an advanced version that provides access to an infinite supply of every type of furniture, further enhancing the decorating experience.

Overall, your idea seems like a practical and user-friendly enhancement to the game's decorating mechanics.

 

[Hani]

I think there should be an end game item that lets you rewind time by a few hours at the expense of something very valuable, maybe 1 prismatic shard allows you to rewind time by 1h if you have the correct tool for the job? Maybe a staff that can be used 12x a day, consuming a prismatic shard for each hour rewinded?

 

[ArtifactSpot]

Well the problem with freezing time when you enter home is that many people run crafting items in their homes. A specific decorating mode/menu freezing time like when you have your menu open would be nice. Also it would keep pets, spouses and children out of the path of decorating. Even better is if you could move at least your chests around even when full like you can your dresser or aquariums.

 

[Odin]

I think there should be an end game item that lets you rewind time by a few hours at the expense of something very valuable, maybe 1 prismatic shard allows you to rewind time by 1h if you have the correct tool for the job? Maybe a staff that can be used 12x a day, consuming a prismatic shard for each hour rewinded?

If you're that far into the game that you can afford to spend prismatic shards on an extra hour in a day, does it really matter if you spend time decorating? At least for me, I find on a really late game save that there's very, very little that needs to be done on a specific day anymore. I suppose that does depend on how you play the game though.

 

[Hani]

If you're that far into the game that you can afford to spend prismatic shards on an extra hour in a day, does it really matter if you spend time decorating? At least for me, I find on a really late game save that there's very, very little that needs to be done on a specific day anymore. I suppose that does depend on how you play the game though.

The idea was to extend time for stuff like first day of season crop sowing or skull cavern runs, but it could also be used for other activities, although it's true a prismatic shard for a single hour would be probably too expensive in singleplayer.

Well the problem with freezing time when you enter home is that many people run crafting items in their homes. A specific decorating mode/menu freezing time like when you have your menu open would be nice. Also it would keep pets, spouses and children out of the path of decorating. Even better is if you could move at least your chests around even when full like you can your dresser or aquariums.

You can move chests around by having empty hands and running against them pressing left click.