Some suggestion about the hilltop farm

[jakit]

I think the hilltop farm is just a vase.

1. Fishing is poor because there are no distance of 5 position (Fishing Zones at 5) to get iridium fish.
2. Only 50% chance to get fish.
3. The southest hilltop spawns only 4th day and so little things (ore nodes and other game object) generated.
4. Going around the farm is a waste of time because it is fragemented into many part by water and terrain.
5. Because of the terrain, it is hard to plan or design where to planting or farming.
6. Some players daily tutourial show in youtube let me found that the path is too narrow to let the horse get across.

I'm a nintendo switch player, the operation of the gamepad is not easy. And I can not install any MOD to fix the problem.

As soon as I become a diehard fans to the stardew.

In order to make better experience of stardew, I hope that developer should:
1. Increase the chance of fishing. Especially to the hilltop farm, the width of river can not change so that make game code changing to let players getting distance of 5 position fishing is hard.
2. The southest hilltop ore zone should spawns more and frequently.
3. Fix the path width in order to let the horse get crossing the bridge to the grandpa's shrine.

I think those suggestion will improve the game balancy and better game experience.

Thanks!

 

[WhiteEagle12]

I have personally never played on the hilltop farm, but all of your suggestions seem reasonable. I agree with all of them.

 

[Freizeitfarmer]

Maybe the devs wanted this farm to be harder than all the others? I don't want to disagree, but just throw in this thought....

 

[WhiteEagle12]

Maybe the devs wanted this farm to be harder than all the others? I don't want to disagree, but just throw in this thought....

Maybe a little bit like the beach farm, perhaps?

 

[jakit]

Maybe a little bit like the beach farm, perhaps?

Yeah, maybe the dev want to make hilltop harder to the others, but it is really too hard to play.

But.... the beach farm has game balance, accroding to:
1. 70% to get fish when fishing
2. There are place to get hardwood.
3. Planting place is enough as regular as a rectangle.
4. Large and more space.

 

[jakit]

Maybe a little bit like the beach farm, perhaps?

To addition, the wildness farm is hard to play from the begging.

But you can offering a Strange Bun to the Dark Shrine of Night Terrors in the Witch's Hut, players can toggle monster spawning on or off on their farm.

So the wildness farm will get a good game balance to the later period game play.

So that was the reason why I think the hilltop farm is unfair to the others.

 

[WhiteEagle12]

Yeah, maybe the dev want to make hilltop harder to the others, but it is really too hard to play.

But.... the beach farm has game balance, accroding to:
1. 70% to get fish when fishing
2. There are place to get hardwood.
3. Planting place is enough as regular as a rectangle.
4. Large and more space.

That's true, but I would never choose the beach farm because of the no sprinklers. Pretty much all of my strats include sprinklers. So no matter how hard the hilltop farm could be I would still choose it over the beach farm.

 

[jakit]

That's true, but I would never choose the beach farm because of the no sprinklers. Pretty much all of my strats include sprinklers. So no matter how hard the hilltop farm could be I would still choose it over the beach farm.

Except for planting, but feeding animals may be a good choice for the beach farm.

And crafting lots of Crab Pots to the beach also can produce much resource or fishes. Then recycle the resource and selling crabs, lobsters can also makes money. Low price creatures can make Sashimi which will restore HP and stamina.

Maybe Mariner and Luremaster will be the great skill for the beach farm.

Mariner can produce more creatures, and Luremaster can free your hands and daily produce recycle resource and creatures.

 

[WhiteEagle12]

Except for planting, but feeding animals may be a good choice for the beach farm.

And crafting lots of Crab Pots to the beach also can produce much resource or fishes. Then recycle the resource and selling crabs, lobsters can also makes money. Low price creatures can make Sashimi which will restore HP and stamina.

Also still true. I just much prefer the more direct form of money-making that is farming.

 

[jakit]

Also still true. I just much prefer the more direct form of money-making that is farming.

Me, too.

So that we can see, each farms are really nice to the players having different mind to play except for the hilltop map, it almost has no benefit.

Maybe in the future, dev could fix the problem and give more chance to the hilltop farm players just like me.

 

[Hill Myna]

That's true, but I would never choose the beach farm because of the no sprinklers. Pretty much all of my strats include sprinklers. So no matter how hard the hilltop farm could be I would still choose it over the beach farm.

You can still use Sprinklers, just in a slightly restricted area. In my opinion, the space provided is plenty big enough. As long as you have a Steel Axe by Summer (to chop all the hardwood logs covering the space), you'll be fine. You can fit in everything you need for the Community Center, and the Greenhouse is there in time to give you a huge supply of money through Winter and then Spring if you plant it right.

When Summer Year 2 rolls around, you'll have all the resources you need to start flooding Ginger Island with the crops of your pleasing (after getting the two needed Snake Vertebrae from the Artifact Spots, of course). This provides enough cash for the Return Scepter, all four Obelisks, the Golden Clock, and any other large investments that you can think of.

And as a bonus, you get an extremely expansive farm to fill the way you like, a great place to fish, and in my opinion, the prettiest looking map.

So I'd give it a try! I've certainly had plenty of fun, more so then on my Riverlands and Standard Farm playthroughs, and post-perfection if you need space, you have it!

 

[WhiteEagle12]

You can still use Sprinklers, just in a slightly restricted area. In my opinion, the space provided is plenty big enough. As long as you have a Steel Axe by Summer (to chop all the hardwood logs covering the space), you'll be fine. You can fit in everything you need for the Community Center, and the Greenhouse is there in time to give you a huge supply of money through Winter and then Spring if you plant it right.

When Summer Year 2 rolls around, you'll have all the resources you need to start flooding Ginger Island with the crops of your pleasing (after getting the two needed Snake Vertebrae from the Artifact Spots, of course). This provides enough cash for the Return Scepter, all four Obelisks, the Golden Clock, and any other large investments that you can think of.

And as a bonus, you get an extremely expansive farm to fill the way you like, a great place to fish, and in my opinion, the prettiest looking map.

So I'd give it a try! I've certainly had plenty of fun, more so then on my Riverlands and Standard Farm playthroughs, and post-perfection if you need space, you have it!

You're quite persuasive... I think I might actually give it a go if it's as good as you say! Thanks for the advice @Hill Myna!

 

[Lew Zealand]

I found the Hilltop Farm to be a decent challenge to use in early and middle game but once you want to expand the scope of your animal or vegetable husbandry later in the game, the poor ergonomics become increasingly annoying. Not being able to get to the NW part of the Farm with a Horse was somewhat annoying but then you can leave that for your Tapping area, so you don't need to visit it every day.

What became most inconvenient for me was that I prefer a large open grassy area for my animals to graze and feed their lazy butts themselves, and this map only has one suitable location. And it's rather far away from the Farmhouse. Bleah, I might as well walk to Skull Cavern.

My solution to this was something that even brought that cocky Wizard to his knees. I cast a mythical spell known only to the ancients to reshape the earth and transform the landscape into a form more to my liking.

I edited my save to the default Farm.

However being a novice in such arcane arts, I rather botched it up as many of my veggies ended up in the water and rather inaccessible, in addition to being soggy. Of course I've heard no end about this from Abigail and really I'm totally going to fix this up. I had a backup.

I lost the backup.

Abby may not know this (don't tell, pls!).

In theory I can cast the counterspell and edit back to Hilltop, move everything to a safe spot on both Farm types, and edit back to regular Farm. And I'm totally going to do it. I want to, no lie.

Real soon now.

Don't do the Hilltop Farm, Save Yourselves!

 

[imnvs]

The one thing I'm hanging up on? Every farm has terrible fishing on it. Why should the Hilltop be any different?

 

[Lew Zealand]

In theory I can cast the counterspell and edit back to Hilltop, move everything to a safe spot on both Farm types, and edit back to regular Farm. And I'm totally going to do it. I want to, no lie.

Real soon now.

The weathered stones looming over the bare circle of loamy soil cast their lengthening late afternoon shadows.
The ancient runes have been deciphered and arranged.
The cast off skins of long dead snakes line the edges of the clearing.
The low heaving of ocean waves can be faintly heard from the horizons.
Unstable weather threatens to overcome the acolytes.
The blood of many paper cuts has been shed in preparation.
100dB of Lady Gaga plays in the headphones.
CTRL-C, CTRL-V, the duplication ritual is successful.
Bobbi_234588885 is opened in the venerated Notepad.
CTRL-F and whichfarm is chanted in reverent voices and typed.
Using faded magics known only to the ancients, 0 is transmuted into 3.
CTRL-S, the fiery instability is etched into the ancient inselberg, extending to the very soul of the planet.
All in attendance are hushed.
Previous incantations have failed, banishing the affected to a state of Purgatory.
Using techniques perfected in the Valley of the Kings, the oldest save is carefully opened.
The front door creaks open, Abigail looking pensively over Bobbi's shoulder.......

The Hilltops have been raised from their previous flatness. The ehm, minor errors of the past have been rectified!

And Linus found me passed out last night. Bye bye 1,000g...

 

[jakit]

The one thing I'm hanging up on? Every farm has terrible fishing on it. Why should the Hilltop be any different?

Maybe the Wildness Farm, the Forest Farm and some others has distance of 5 position (Fishing Zone) to get iridium fish, as you can find it at https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Fishing_Strategy#Fishing_Zones

But the hilltop farm has no fishing zone that numbers at 5.

The mine area is exactly useless while guys players would go to The Mine at The Mountain and collects hundreds of ores back.

So what does the mine area at the Hilltop Farm design for? Only fixed placed at the farm southest area but get nothing benefit.

 

[Lew Zealand]

And I just found my Hilltop save before I mangled it.

 

[imnvs]

Maybe the Wildness Farm, the Forest Farm and some others has distance of 5 position (Fishing Zone) to get iridium fish, as you can find it at https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Fishing_Strategy#Fishing_Zones

But the hilltop farm has no fishing zone that numbers at 5.

The mine area is exactly useless while guys players would go to The Mine at The Mountain and collects hundreds of ores back.

So what does the mine area at the Hilltop Farm design for? Only fixed placed at the farm southest area but get nothing benefit.

Most have distance 5 actually (only Hilltop doesn't), but that doesn't guarantee iridium quality fish. They also, all of them except the Riverlands, have a significant chance you'll only catch trash. Really, the only maps with good fishing at all is a short list... Riverlands is good, Beach is okay, and the rest are all terrible. Period. Some, like the Hilltop (among others) have a 50% chance of only getting trash with every cast. Wilderness is worse with a 65% chance. Standard is the worst with a 100% chance of trash.

Basically, if you want to fish on your farm, you picked the wrong map.

And if you think the mining space on the Hilltop farm is useless/pointless, you really picked the wrong map.

 

[jakit]

Most have distance 5 actually (only Hilltop doesn't), but that doesn't guarantee iridium quality fish. They also, all of them except the Riverlands, have a significant chance you'll only catch trash. Really, the only maps with good fishing at all is a short list... Riverlands is good, Beach is okay, and the rest are all terrible. Period. Some, like the Hilltop (among others) have a 50% chance of only getting trash with every cast. Wilderness is worse with a 65% chance. Standard is the worst with a 100% chance of trash.

Basically, if you want to fish on your farm, you picked the wrong map.

And if you think the mining space on the Hilltop farm is useless/pointless, you really picked the wrong map.

So what do you think of the Hilltop map?

What does this map design for?

And what benifits that Hilltop farm would bring to our stardew farmers?

 

[imnvs]

So what do you think of the Hilltop map?

What does this map design for?

And what benifits that Hilltop farm would bring to our stardew farmers?

Really? I thought that was common knowledge... the free mining with no risk that includes nodes you can't get anywhere else in the world. That is it's real and only benefit.

My opinion on the map? Its' benefit is desirable, but not enough to make up for its' other limitations. Imho, the 4-Corners map is far superior in every other way, and you have access to those free mining nodes not found elsewhere.

I mean, you could have picked this map for other reasons, not knowing this. I get it... but honestly and seriously, you really did pick the wrong map, my friend. I don't know what else to tell you besides I only see 3 options going forward...

1, accept you made a selection you regret and work within the limitation.
2, edit the save to turn it into another farm map, though that can be tricky and sometimes glitches things out.
3, start a new save with a different farm map?