Pulsing gold star

[Sam Alchemist]

Hi, I am in year 2 spring. Noticed a couple of flowers have pulsing gold stars. What does that mean? Most gold stars do not pulse.

Another question: have had a cow for about 12 days but no milk. What does milk look like in the barn?

 

[PorkChop]

1:
Not really sure about the flowers probably just small glitch
2:
If your cow is not fully matured then it will not produce milk. You will also need to feed them. Once they are fed multiple times and fully matured, you will need to buy a milk pail from Marnie and milk them.

 

[imnvs]

Barn animals do not deposit their produce on the floor of the barn like coop animals do. Most require you actually interact with the animal with the correct tool (except pigs which dig up truffles outside). For this reason, I usually keep barn animals in the minority until I get to Farming 10 and Marnie will sell me the Autograbber, which negates the need for pail/shears.

 

[Uzzlegorf]

Autograbbers also negate the animal friendship points you gain by doing it manually...

 

[imnvs]

Autograbbers also negate the animal friendship points you gain by doing it manually...

This is true, but let's look at some numbers...

Goats produce every other day. That's 5 friendship points every 2 days, and you get 30 for petting them in that same time. If you're a Shepherd, now you're looking at 5 from milking per 60 from petting. So without Shepherd, that's like an extra petting every 6 days, and with Shepherd it is like an extra petting every 12.

Sheep produce every 3rd day. That's 5 friendship every 3 days, and you get 45 for petting in that same time. If you're a Shepherd, they produce every 2nd, so that's 5 for every 60, like the goats. (I will also argue that by the time the sheep produce faster from high friendship, you should no longer be concerned with friendship because you're already at 4.5 stars out of 5, nearly maxed out.) So without Shepherd, that's like an extra petting every 9 days, and with Shepherd it is like an extra petting every 12 again.

Cows is where the numbers don't look quite so disparate. They produce every day, so without Shepherd, that 5 on top of the 15 for petting means an increase of 33% to the amount of friendship you get daily. That's an extra petting every 3rd day, but with Shepherd, it turns into every 6 days. So at least with cows you know they're producing every day, and you won't waste time gathering production that isn't there... and the increase is above 20% in friendship gained, but if and only if you aren't a Shepherd. (And yes, I know not many folks are Shepherds. Artisan just seems a waste to me, since money becomes a non-limiter after not too terribly long.)

For me? That teeny, tiny, little bit extra is not worth the extra time, effort and the frustration when you go to milk goats or shear sheep that didn't produce that day.

 

[Sam Alchemist]

Useful info for the future. BTW, where do you find this info?

Here is a pic of my storage chest with flowers and fruit. I generally sell the common and silver quality stuff and keep gold as gifts. While it is not obvious from a still, several of the gold quality flowers have a pulsing gold star. For example, in the top row, boxes 5, 6 and 10 are animated, while the rest are static. Reminds me of the subtle pulsing of the Community Center icon when mouse hovers over something it needs.

 

[imnvs]

Useful info for the future. BTW, where do you find this info?

The Wiki is where I got the numbers on friendship points from. The math that followed was all me.

I just went and looked around my fridges in the kitchen in my save, and I found an interesting thing... I'm seeing the gold star pulse for some things and not others. Like my blue jazz at gold quality have a pulsing star, but the gold quality sunflower in the same fridge does not. Then I look in the fridge with my fish, and here it is the iridium quality stuff pulsing, and it's all of it. Forage, all of it at iridium quality is pulsing. Fruit and veg, none are pulsing.