Make JojaMart useful

A good buff can be that you'll be able to get new and more profitable crops (SVE) or maybe new fish? Or even better fertilizer?
 

Cthulhu

Sodbuster
To reply at length:

I agree completely that Joja should be cheaper, have a wider variety of seeds available, be open ridiculously late -- and even, if possible, during festivals. Going the Joja route should also wreck Stardew Valley.

Let's face it: SDV is *not* a "difficult" game. There's no real time-limit, getting KO-ed in the mines doesn't really carry any penalty, there's no victory condition to meet. Do what you want, how you want, at your own pace.

And yet, there are *scads* of guides to maximize yield, efficiently plant your crops, to finish the CC in a year.

Why?

Because that's how we're wired. We love to tinker; I figured out the optimal layout for the cellar myself, because it was a fun puzzle. Ditto for sprinklers, etc. "How much can I get? How can I have the maximally efficient layout? The most beautiful farm?"

And then I find myself stressing over how to get my field hoed and watered and planted when the season changes.

Joja is the Way of Efficiency and Profit. The Community Center is the Way of Connection and Restraint. If you want to min-max your farm, Joja should be the CLEAR choice, with advantages that help you do that. If you want to grow Pelican Town in a way that supports the community, that is satisfied with "enough" rather than "the most I can get", the CC should help you with that.

Pierre and Family should HATE you if you support Joja. Irrevocably. Villagers forced to work for Joja should stay glum, should be dissatisfied with their lives. You should be able to have a super-productive, profitable farm, based on economy of scale, if you choose one; you should have a nice, financially stable farm -- not wildly wealth-creating, but comfortable -- and good relations with your neighbors if you choose the other.

I tell my kids that the real danger in the Dark Side of the Force is not (in my mind) that it somehow mystically corrupts you, but rather that it's just too easy. If you can wave your hand and make someone do what you want, that's terribly seductive. Why bother *convincing* people, when you can have 100% success in a fraction of the time by simply mind-bending them into doing what you want? Pretty soon, you wind up using the Force to do everything, because it's self-gratifying and oh-so-easy. Joja should be just like that. A quick hit of dopamine for your success... and before you know it, your "success" has left you somewhere you may not have wanted to go.

Stardew Valley clearly sets up the conflict inherent in civilization: by making changes to the world that we think are convenient, or efficient, or that help us "get ahead", we put ourselves on a collision course with nature. Sure, farming lets you accumulate wealth and build "advanced" societies... but hunters and gatherers often worked as few as four hours a day, getting food, making tools and shelter. Linus doesn't slave anywhere near as hard as the player does, but he gets along just fine.

Take the leap, Devs! Make Joja and the Community Center actual choices that have distinct benefits and penalties. Let the player decide how easy they want farming to be, and how hard they want it to be to belong to the Pelican Town community.
 
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LRangerR

Local Legend
Very nice post, cthulhu, you've said a lot of the things I was trying to say much clearer than I was managing.

Another thought I was having in regards to going the Joja route, after the CC is bulldozed and replaced, Pierre should take a major hit, be open less days, offer crappier stock selection, etc, but also Joja should hike their prices up by a LOT. Because that's how oligarchies/monopolies work. Once they have complete control of a market they just charge whatever price they want with impunity. THIS, imo, is one of the greater dangers of monopolies. It would give an essence of inflation to the game, driven by Joja greed. Also junimo huts shouldn't be available through the wizard's tower.

As for community relations, there should be starkly different dialogue depending on which route you go. I know there's different dialogue in the current game, but I'm not 100% sure to what extent it changes. I agree that Pierre's fam should hate you, but would Abigail divorce you if you go Joja? What about Emily, and Leah? I feel that those are the three marriage candidates that would be most opposed to the Joja route.
 

Cthulhu

Sodbuster
Very nice post, cthulhu, you've said a lot of the things I was trying to say much clearer than I was managing.

Another thought I was having in regards to going the Joja route, after the CC is bulldozed and replaced, Pierre should take a major hit, be open less days, offer crappier stock selection, etc, but also Joja should hike their prices up by a LOT. Because that's how oligarchies/monopolies work. Once they have complete control of a market they just charge whatever price they want with impunity. THIS, imo, is one of the greater dangers of monopolies.
Thank you. 😊

I'd add on to what you said about monopolies by saying that retail monopolies can't charge you more than you can afford... so they make sure they capture as close to 100% of your spending as possible. If Joja's the only game in town, they can raise prices, but it's just as effective to LOWER what they pay *you* for what you grow.

Which could actually lead to a path where you could try and shake off Joja, but it would require using the train to ship your stuff to a different market, and probably making contacts with buyers even before that. Hey, at least it would give that train station something to do! :P
 
To reply at length:

I agree completely that Joja should be cheaper, have a wider variety of seeds available, be open ridiculously late -- and even, if possible, during festivals. Going the Joja route should also wreck Stardew Valley.
I don't get you
 
I don't think that joja route should have a huge impact on player relationship with anyone.

The story background says that almost everybody in town is OK with Joja. Pretty sure that the mayor accept to sell the CC if ONE MORE membership card is sold, not one only. Meaning many other people already has the card.

There is also one cut scene in Pierre's at beginning of game where Morris gives discount tickets to everybody, and everybody takes it.

Joja is definitively well integrated/accepted in the community and the player only buys the last membership. I don't see any reason about why people should hate player for that.

english is not my first langugage. if I have granmmar/spelling erros tell me.
There is two typos, "language" and "grammar" (and missing cap at English) ;)
 

LRangerR

Local Legend
I ask what is wrecking the valley
I can't speak for him, but I'm assuming he means Joja's influence. The fact that Joja "defeated" Pierre's. In my opinion there's no way that Joja would defeat a local business, and the local community would not suffer adverse side-effects from it. It happens all the time and we don't even realize it in the US.
 

Cthulhu

Sodbuster
Pretty much that. All the things that most of us find charming about the game really don't fit into the Jojaverse as it's presented to us. Nobody who works there likes it, the corporate office looks soul-crushing, and the local manager is a jerk. Everybody complains about the junk it sells for food, and there's even a short event that alludes to the unheathful nature of Joja products.

Don't get me wrong; Pierre is kind of a wad, too. But not nearly as much as the Joja guy. Just sayin'.
 
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