A Trend I've noticed in the suggestions.

I'd suspect that prevailing combat suggestions are because of the obvious reason that it IS a popular and much demanded feature and many players want to have it. I'd also thank/blame Rune Factory for this.

 

I like the idea of the farming aspect being fleshed out.

Why is everyone focused on the plants though? What about the animals?

You could breed different animals to get different strains; breeding your top producing chickens to get a chick that lays three times as many eggs twice as fast, for example.

Breed a mule from a horse and a donkey; less stubborn and stronger then either.

Two smart dogs; a puppy that can learn twice as many things twice as fast.

(and because I want to jump on the bandwagon with the plants.....)

Has anyone thought about Grafting? It is actually quite common for those who own hobby orchards. A Lemon tree can have Limes, Oranges, Grapefruit, (any citrus fruit really) grafted onto it and it will sustain and produce the fruit.

Nectarines can have plums, apricots and other stone fruit.

The possibilities are endless with this, I hope you realize.

 

Conflict has always been a big marketing thing. Personally I am beginning to dislike the lack of thought involved with a lot of recent game concerning combat - it's become stale, everything looks the same. There's the sign I am way too old in this discourse . I am beginning to to lean more towards social interactions, diverse input and outcomes (tackling objectives that doesn't resort to 2 1/2 predefined options) and non linear exploration and discovery. Don't get me wrong, the old stuff is still fun, but I don't want to see another old game with a new label pasted on it.

 

The main thing I'm worried about with the suggestions here and with Stardew Valley is feature bloat, something that can have games lingering in development for years and can often lead to half-baked features. I hope that ConcernedApe can come to a beta soon(where the game is feature complete) and work on releasing it and then have updates in the future that further expands different aspects of the game.

 

I care like 100% about the farming and 0% about the adventuring. If that makes my opinion of most other people's suggestions pretty annoyed. FARMING first, Adventuring can be added later, literally. I really don't want the core of the game to be based or require adventuring, as I wouldn't possibly even care to go adventuring on it.

I will be insanely disappointed if adventuring would be required to gather specific resources and such which would be required for building. I like the idea of mining, but not fighting monsters while doing it.

Really hate the idea that I would have to gather everything making the villagers useless, and me being the soul provider. Harvest Moon games fail at this hard anymore, focusing too much on other things.

 

To me that implies wilderness, hunting, and roleplaying. Depends where you live. I hope the farming is filled with many events and the NPC's dynamic and interesting. I also hope all country professions are equally represented however.

 

How about crop rotation? Composting? Nutrient density? Biofuel?

 

In Friends of Mineral Town you could dig up random things when you were tiling the field with your hoe. Could be some money, power berries and such.

 

Harvest Moon 64 Harvest Moon BTN and Harvest Moon STHL you could also find random things when tilling fields. HM 64 a power berry and music box, music box was priceless.

 

Kool. But you realize this game is designed not to be a farming focused sim, right? You CAN farm, you CAN adventure, you CAN fight. You probably get the most out of this game if you do everything! But you may certainly need to do more than just one specific aspect of the game. If you had a friend to join you in your games, they could be put to work on aspects of the game you don't want to undertake yourself.
Harvest Moon series (and its collective spin-offs) are story driven, not just a farming sim. If you expected just to farm with zero involvement on one of its other main game aspects, you were certainly playing the wrong game for entertainment.
There's other games where you can mindlessly farm. I used to own two, but can't remember their name. --I have a lot of games, finding one in the hundreds is daunting--.
Making each aspect its own optional feature will make the game feel very isolated, and robotic. Not very colorful or immersive. Intermixed aspects make it come alive. A wild boar and its troupe are tearing up your yards, get your gun and start shooting or call a pest exterminator. Something is happening in a small town, you will get sucked into it regardless if you want it or not (that's small towns for ya).
Perhaps, an idea. Hiring NPCs to do specific tasks for you. Put an ad in a paper, or radio. You will still need a colorful dialogue options as well as check out these people's credentials and discuss payment methods and amounts. Why? Because it's more immersive and breaks up monotonous gameplay.

Not sure how this game is being designed. It feels as if certain aspects are a must to be involved in. I think it's great to be a part of something more than a single aspect you get from casual games. Sounds like this game is not designed for a person with you in mind.

Long story short, if you are not liking what you see, get a friend to help you in your games or move along. Content is already built upon with no doubt more on the way as the dev sees fit. Stripping it all away for one person wont happen.

 

Farming is just another way to add more playability to this after slaying monsters for days.

 

there really isn't much else to add that will not delay CA. The wait is slowly killing me. I want it out soon!

 

Excactly haha basicly throwing money at my computer screen ;D

 

Well, we'll have fun when it's released then.

 

While we're on it, what release window are you expecting?

The whole time i thought it would be a September or October release... but i'm afraid it could take a bit longer

 

That's my original guess but now I'm thinking December for some strange reason. My reasoning is this and this is based on the list of stuff that needs to be done that was posted in May. Cross off the stuff that is complete, like festivals, the community center(I have a feeling he may be adding something to it) that would leave Married/family life, tying up the lose ends, game balancing, testing and polishing and finally getting the game on steam would probably require about a few more months. That said we're about to get a another update in the week or so we'll see if my gut feeling on the community center is right. Regardless if I get this wrong and the game comes out early I'll be so freaking happy. If I'm wrong I'm going to be so sad that I'll crawl up in my bed and eat ice cream. If I'm right I'm going to crawl up in my bed after moving my mouse and keyboard grab, some ice cream and play the game till I have to go class.