Does this have a net effect of making the game slower, longer, harder? In other words, is it harder to get the golden clock, for example?
Hi, sorry for the huge delay; I only just realized that replies don't seem to show up on the "Overview" page.
To answer your question, I would say that it
probably slows down how quickly you get money / can get the golden clock. If you compare the
maximum profits/day you can earn with crops or animals, then
Better Balance only gets you about ~40% or ~30% of the maximum you could get in Vanilla. However, if you were playing sub-optimally in Vanilla (ie, not growing all Artisan Kegged Deluxe Speed-Gro Ancient Fruit + Starfruit & Hops, or all Botanist + Gatherer Pigs) then it can be a little up in the air.
For example, if you have been growing lots of "bad" crops in Vanilla like Rice, Tomatoes, Corn, & Eggplants, then in
Better Balance you could be making around twice as much money as in Vanilla.
So in short, it is harder to "power through" and make tons of money since now there are no crazy-OP options like vanilla Ancient Fruit, Hops, Starfruit, Pigs, etc. But at the same time, it is harder to "accidentally" have a poorly performing farm, since there are no crazy-low options like vanilla Corn anymore either.
Extending the early/mid game to delay how quickly you can get things like the Golden Clock was definitely one of the goals of the mod. However, you can also easily edit the prices yourself if you prefer getting money more quickly.
