Tea sapplings

[LRangerR]

That is completely fair and understandable, I don't care for fishing but I like the tea sappling method cause it's passive for the most part so I can do anything else I'd like to do, so I don't have to change my plans for anything so I can do anything I need to and gain extra money it's just a win win for me

And i completely understand this method, but I personally see this as an unintentional gaming oversight and don't exploit it on purpose. Why?? Because it would take away from the initial gaming experience. Notice that this was introduced very far after the original game? This is why it is not-so-obviously upsetting the balance of the game. Thank Yoba that this is a singleplayer/co-op game, otherwise the people who make money off of the in-game market would be crying about OP items etc. Gosh I can't stand MMOs...

Anyways...I enjoy this game for what it is was made for, and for what it still is. I don't have to exploit Tea Saplings to remain at the top of my game (not saying that you shouldn't have fun with it). Enough is sometimes truly enough, and sometimes making enough money, or doing all the tasks required, is more than enough effort than is required for me to be happy.

I recently remember reading something that was written about people requiring what is needed to be happy, and that they didn't know where to begin and had to start somewhere. In my opinion Harvest Moon is a good starting point, and SDV would be a good starting point too, but recent additions have kind of ruined the unique magic that was once there.

That being said, the concept of "enough" is a rarely sought after thing. My theory is because "enough" is not "more". Modern culture would have us chasing "more" when we don't even really want it...

 

[Pangaearocks]

And i completely understand this method, but I personally see this as an unintentional gaming oversight and don't exploit it on purpose. Why?? Because it would take away from the initial gaming experience. Notice that this was introduced very far after the original game? This is why it is not-so-obviously upsetting the balance of the game.

Am glad you brought this up. I skirted around the issue, maybe afraid to step on toes. We play it how we like, and I've too have gone into a rather extreme direction in the skull cavern (for those who read that thread). In my view the very early game is the most relaxing and beautiful. Everything is new and fresh, and I try to keep it that way for long. Tea sapling just to sell for profits sounds too much like day 1 grinding, and I want to keep that away from the early game. You need to visit Caroline every day, gift her twice a week, maybe even avoid other people (if I understood one of those posts correctly). Then grind for fiber, and later get the recipe for growing weeds on your farm. Perhaps it isn't as bad as it sounds, I've not actually tried this out. But then again, 500g per piece of "whatever item" early game is HUGE. It simply strikes me as unbalancing and unfun. I like to wander around in those early days, meet some people, fish and start clearing out the farm. Fishing is quite frankly fun to me, especially early game when the bar is tiny and you get rewarded for each new level.

People are different and have fun in different ways, and I get that, but doing this stuff in the very early game doesn't sound like fun to me :-/

Edit: to shed a little more light on the unbalancing claim, let's look at the value of the "ingredients". 2 wild seeds, 5 fiber and 5 wood is needed. 2 spring seeds are worth 70g, 5 fiber is 5g, and 5 wood is 10g = 85g. Then sell that and get 500g back? Seems very excessive. For a lot of recipes we lose money by converting stuff, but not everything. But this is exceedingly well rewarded.

 

[Farrow]

Am glad you brought this up. I skirted around the issue, maybe afraid to step on toes. We play it how we like, and I've too have gone into a rather extreme direction in the skull cavern (for those who read that thread). In my view the very early game is the most relaxing and beautiful. Everything is new and fresh, and I try to keep it that way for long. Tea sapling just to sell for profits sounds too much like day 1 grinding, and I want to keep that away from the early game. You need to visit Caroline every day, gift her twice a week, maybe even avoid other people (if I understood one of those posts correctly). Then grind for fiber, and later get the recipe for growing weeds on your farm. Perhaps it isn't as bad as it sounds, I've not actually tried this out. But then again, 500g per piece of "whatever item" early game is HUGE. It simply strikes me as unbalancing and unfun. I like to wander around in those early days, meet some people, fish and start clearing out the farm. Fishing is quite frankly fun to me, especially early game when the bar is tiny and you get rewarded for each new level.

People are different and have fun in different ways, and I get that, but doing this stuff in the very early game doesn't sound like fun to me :-/

Edit: to shed a little more light on the unbalancing claim, let's look at the value of the "ingredients". 2 wild seeds, 5 fiber and 5 wood is needed. 2 spring seeds are worth 70g, 5 fiber is 5g, and 5 wood is 10g = 85g. Then sell that and get 500g back? Seems very excessive. For a lot of recipes we lose money by converting stuff, but not everything. But this is exceedingly well rewarded.

No I agree it's broken, I just don't mind breaking the game when it's not so broken as to make it trivial, for example infinite stardrops or duplication I won't use, as I dont enjoy an easy game but things that aren't setting me up for a huge advantage in the game like the tea samplings for example are fair to me since it's an easy way to make more money to buy more better seeds but I think everyone should play how they like to play, and I respect people who don't use any form of oversight or glitch until it's confirmed or denied to be a feature or not, but I just enjoy getting lots of seeds and watering them each day.

 

[Lew Zealand]

Am glad you brought this up. I skirted around the issue, maybe afraid to step on toes. We play it how we like, and I've too have gone into a rather extreme direction in the skull cavern (for those who read that thread). In my view the very early game is the most relaxing and beautiful. Everything is new and fresh, and I try to keep it that way for long. Tea sapling just to sell for profits sounds too much like day 1 grinding, and I want to keep that away from the early game. You need to visit Caroline every day, gift her twice a week, maybe even avoid other people (if I understood one of those posts correctly). Then grind for fiber, and later get the recipe for growing weeds on your farm. Perhaps it isn't as bad as it sounds, I've not actually tried this out.

I do use the Tea Saplings but not exclusively, it takes the place of Fishing in early game for me: When I'm done with Watering and Gifts and don't feel like grinding down another 5 levels in the Mines (I do find early Mines a major grind), I used to mostly Fish in my leftover time and now I spend some time gathering stuffs for Tea Saplings. Spoiler: I have always found hoeing big patches of the map my Zen place (which gets you Clay), especially in Winter. I don't avoid anyone as Gift Giving is my in-game favorite thing to do but yes, Caroline gets those Daffodils first when it used to be Haley.

But then again, 500g per piece of "whatever item" early game is HUGE. It simply strikes me as unbalancing and unfun. I like to wander around in those early days, meet some people, fish and start clearing out the farm. Fishing is quite frankly fun to me, especially early game when the bar is tiny and you get rewarded for each new level.

People are different and have fun in different ways, and I get that, but doing this stuff in the very early game doesn't sound like fun to me :-/

Edit: to shed a little more light on the unbalancing claim, let's look at the value of the "ingredients". 2 wild seeds, 5 fiber and 5 wood is needed. 2 spring seeds are worth 70g, 5 fiber is 5g, and 5 wood is 10g = 85g. Then sell that and get 500g back? Seems very excessive. For a lot of recipes we lose money by converting stuff, but not everything. But this is exceedingly well rewarded.

This is why I mentioned that v1.6 getting a debuff to 200-250g would not be a surprise as this has happened with other items in previous updates. With those numbers, even 125g would be appropriate.

 

[Pangaearocks]

This is why I mentioned that v1.6 getting a debuff to 200-250g would not be a surprise as this has happened with other items in previous updates. With those numbers, even 125g would be appropriate.

Fair point. And I think it could be further reduced to 100g each and it would still be balanced. Suspect CApe is hesitant to nerf something that hard, though. But throughout the game, I suppose this is the only thing that really stick out like this? Can't recall anything else off the top of my head. Oh, and I suppose speed runners are taking advantage of this. They usually do if any 'edge' can be found. For a while I followed Hollow Knight speedrunners (even tried my hand at it myself), and they'd have all sorts of "skips" as they called it. Suppose cheesing out with chairs is the a more apt comparison with this game.

Anyway... it's a singleplayer game and we play it however we want, and if people find joy in selling tea saplings, then by all means keep doing it :)

 

[LRangerR]

Anyway... it's a singleplayer game and we play it however we want, and if people find joy in selling tea saplings, then by all means keep doing it :)

This is why I don't find a huge issue with it. And speed runners are their own community, although I personally feel that speedrunning this game is a bit counter-intuitive, but, whatever, lol.

 

[mothman]

Soooo... I'm usually a challenge runner, so when I do I usually make as much money before the thirtieth of spring in order to buy as many strawberries as possible. I've never even bothered trying to make tea samplings before the thirtieth because of course I assumed this to be impossible, so not worth my time before strawberries. Then I decided to do some testing when I recently did research into how help requested quests work. And I got her to two hearts on the tenth when I did test. And now during an actual run where I'm aiming for perfection I got it on the eighth day. Which leaves so much room for more money on the side. Cause every two spring seeds I can make (five for craft) is a ludicrous 500 gold, that means the the com centers reward alone is 7,500 gold plus any extra forage you can do this is not only easy but it can be done on the side like I am here this is shocking and drastically improves my early game money making. Let me know if you can think of better ways to get this faster than I did or make even more money for more strawberries

how do you get tea sapplings ive played 5 play throughs and never got them

 

[Lew Zealand]

how do you get tea sapplings ive played 5 play throughs and never got them

You need to get 2 with Caroline and then enter the door that exits the back of her kitchen. It was added in v1.4 of the game so if your playthroughs are older than that, it wasn't available yet.

 

[mothman]

You need to get 2 with Caroline and then enter the door that exits the back of her kitchen. It was added in v1.4 of the game so if your playthroughs are older than that, it wasn't available yet.

ah thank you i never interacted with her before

 

[Elenna101]

Fair point. And I think it could be further reduced to 100g each and it would still be balanced. Suspect CApe is hesitant to nerf something that hard, though. But throughout the game, I suppose this is the only thing that really stick out like this? Can't recall anything else off the top of my head. Oh, and I suppose speed runners are taking advantage of this. They usually do if any 'edge' can be found. For a while I followed Hollow Knight speedrunners (even tried my hand at it myself), and they'd have all sorts of "skips" as they called it. Suppose cheesing out with chairs is the a more apt comparison with this game.

Anyway... it's a singleplayer game and we play it however we want, and if people find joy in selling tea saplings, then by all means keep doing it :)

Speedrunners actually don't use tea saplings - not because tea saplings are cheating or anything, just because it's not worth it. In terms of real time, it takes quite a bit of time to get Caroline to 2 hearts, if only because you have to repeatedly wait until 9am to talk to her, which takes several minutes each time. And then if you want to make any significant money from it you have to grind fiber, which takes quite a bit more real-life time.
In the same IRL time you could just sell the forage seeds, sleep to summer, buy some blueberries with it, and water those. Or go down the mines to level 40, sell the gems and such, make a bunch of basic sprinklers, and use those to sleep while your strawberries grow. (Top level speedrunners can get to 40 really fast - the world record for mines level 50 glitchless is just over 10 minutes.) Or sleep till winter and use RNG manipulation patterns to hoe up a ton of winter roots and snow yams.
Of course all this sleeping wastes a lot of in-game time compared to selling tea saplings, which is why tea saplings are good for a typical casual playthrough. But speedrunners don't care too much about in-game time, only real-life time.

Incidentally, really high-level "make the most money in one year" runs, like the run Piano_Addict is doing now for 100 million in year 1, don't use tea saplings either. Those runs do things like farm floors 85, 95, and 105 of the mines over and over for diamonds and combat xp, with the intention of getting to Skull Caverns by spring 8/9 and getting hundreds of thousands of gold per SC run by mid-spring. At that point, 500g is a rounding error, and the time spent getting fiber is just a waste of time that could be spent doing another Skull Caverns trip (or prepping for the thousands of starfruit to be planted and kegged, for that matter).
But most people aren't playing like that (and frankly most people shouldn't play like that, it's incredibly grindy and reset-heavy).

(The chair skip is banned in glitchless speedruns, if you're curious. It's not really a glitch per se, the term the moderators have used is "sequence break", in that it's breaking the game's intended sequence/requirement to get the steel axe before the secret woods.)

 

[Pangaearocks]

(The chair skip is banned in glitchless speedruns, if you're curious. It's not really a glitch per se, the term the moderators have used is "sequence break", in that it's breaking the game's intended sequence/requirement to get the steel axe before the secret woods.)

Chairs (get it?) That is good to hear. Not that it would matter either way to me as I don't follow the speedrunners scene, but still nice to hear that exploits like that aren't allowed, at least in the glitchless category.

Think I saw that using animation cancelling via an external program was fair game, though, which gives me a bad taste in the mouth.

Sorry if I took this discussion way off course :-|

 

[Elenna101]

Chairs (get it?) That is good to hear. Not that it would matter either way to me as I don't follow the speedrunners scene, but still nice to hear that exploits like that aren't allowed, at least in the glitchless category.

Think I saw that using animation cancelling via an external program was fair game, though, which gives me a bad taste in the mouth.

Sorry if I took this discussion way off course :-|

Your reaction to the chair thing is kinda amusing to me as more often I see people respond with "but why, it's not a glitch" :D

As for animation cancelling... well, the animation cancelling in itself is clearly intended, the game is hardcoded for "if you see these three buttons, end current animation" just like it's hardcoded for "if you see an E press, open the menu". And rebinding keys 1-1, even using an external program, has always been allowed, and is allowed in many other games. For one thing, it benefits people with disabilities or just people who find a different button mapping easier to use for any reason.
That being said, you're welcome to not like it, and there's now a category of speedruns that bans animation cancelling.

 

[Pangaearocks]

People can already change keymappings in-game (unlike many console games), so that isn't the issue. I simply dislike using external programs to change game behaviour, and much prefer to play games like they were intended, without cheat tools and suchlike, or doing things that were surely unintended, like the chairs exploit. More common for me to have self-limitations of this or that type tbh. Therefore I tend to not like the speedrunning scene too much, because exploits/whatever is usually rife. It was in Hollow Knight as well tbh, but I did watch some videos there, and the skill was breathtaking, memorising the entire map and moving through them with pixel perfect precision, killing really difficult enemies with un-upgraded gear quick as a flash. It was staggering to watch, and some of the "skips" used in the less cheesy categories weren't too obscene. However, I find it's different when we move into using external programs and suchlike. It can be a slippery slope.

Of course, on the other hand, I'm having a lot of fun in the Skull Cavern (always have), and have now learnt to get really deep fast with stairs, which I'm sure some people wrinkle their noses at as well. So there is some double standards perhaps, but in general I like to play games with the tools given in-game, without exploiting features in ways that were most likely unintended by the game's designers, or not using 'tricks' that give undue benefits. It's how I have always played games, so it's sort of a core value if you will.