I love Stardew Valley so much but for me the map is a bit small and it would be fun later in the game to have a new area not just places like the calico desert or the secret forest. I think that once the player has finished repairing the Community Center there will be a cutscene where Willy talks about where he comes from Fern Islands and that he is opening a ferry to the fern islands. This will act like the bus to Calico desert, pay 500 gold to travel across the gem sea to the Fern Islands ( Which has an entire new map) . Fern Islands will be a place which you explore, fight, meet new characters and stay overnight. This will expand the story and give another interesting thing to do in Stardew Valley. P.S There will be new crops you can buy, fuirniture and new farm buildings. Anything Tropical, maybe a monkey farm as a treehouse Your ideas are awesome, monkeys could be scavengers as you said Eikos or they could be a tourist attraction . Which would be a cool new game mechanic. Thank you for the suggestions. NO monkey paws, no just no, poor little creatures.For Farm Buildings maybe deco stuff, a tiki bar or maybe a canopy.
Interesting. What new crops and buildings do you have in mind? Personally, I'd love me some tropical stuff like papays, bananas or sugarcane.
Monkeys would be fun animals to have around. What could they produce though? Maybe they're just there and tourists pay money to see them?
Since Willy kinda has his own schedule where he goes fishing and stuff, perhaps someone else should run the ferry, or maybe the player themselves can sail it. I imagine the Fern Islands would be like a tropical/jungle type of place. I'd love to see orchids ^_^ One of my favorite plants. Monkeys and apes would definitely be fun. Though they wouldn't be kept locked or anything, they'd be free roaming. If the players can "keep" some, I guess it'd be like an outdoor version of having bats in the cave; some kind of location that attracts them. I'd imagine they'd produce (via foraging) fruit and other food. Or maybe they'd produce random items like tools, clothing, or gems because they so love to snatch stuff. (Speaking of which, how about some magpies. But I digress) Unless.... unless we wanna go the Rabbit's Foot route again and have them produce Monkey Paws. Maybe this expansion could introduce a lot of birds as well. And fire ants. Snakes... Turtles/Tortoises.
Your ideas are awesome, monkeys could be scavengers as you said Eikos or they could be a tourist attraction . Which would be a cool new game mechanic. Thank you for the suggestions. NO monkey paws, no just no, poor little creatures.
Could get stuff like Guinea Fowl or Peacocks/hens , Guinea fowl would be just like a chicken or duck, but a peacock could produce feathers. Even something like a cassowary or ostrich.
Back to crops and stuff, maybe we could also get new saplings like banana, lemon, lime, cocoa and other exotic crops such as vanilla, sugarcane, pineapple... additional barn animals could include llamas and/or alpacas with a more expensive wool and cloth (just like egg < duck egg and mayo < duck mayo). Also, maybe some flat beach areas could be good for salt production (put seawater into a container, let it evaporate and harvest the salt). EDIT: Spelling.
There's tons of stuff you can harvest from tropical islands, the dutch didn't keep such a tight grip on Indonesia for so long for fun volcanoes could spawn sulfur nodes (which allow you to craft better bombs), you could gather parrot eggs and build up a parrot hatchery, tropical trees could give hardwood and so on. The options are almost limitless, and we aren't even bound by reality so much.
So many possiblities, even dragon fruit ( This is from the over thread "Dragon Fruit Tree" All credit towards that thread)
I was also thinking something like an Aviary to keep birds would be awesome! You could harvest their feathers and eggs. it is possible that birds could be let loose after a certain level of hearts is reached then they would return daily with random seeds that are available that season, rarely bringing back a rare seed. This would be a good way to get exotic seeds from unlocked areas/distant areas without having to travel to them personally. A top tier bird for the aviary could be a falcon. One could be assigned to keep crows away from an 'x' by 'x' zone. The area it can defend could increase as it ages monthly.
What about making domestic produce worth more over there like slapping a 20% in crease t to gold gain. Like wise their productuts ould be more expensive and would require special tools for preparation in the valley. Example grapes are considered exotic for their location. The sell taro bulbs which spread like grass but slower these can be harvested with an cultivator. They could have sell turtle eggs. Which you plant on the beach the hatch at the end of summer. You then get returning turtles back every year. Maybe plants that require special fertilizers and watering routines. Cactus require high drainage soil water once a week. Overwatering could make it sick. Harvest aphids. Aphids processed into dye.
Turtles are a part of aquaculture. I have often gone to farms and played with them. Its amazing I never lost a finger. It was fun feeding a softshell turtle that was 4 feet long some ham from my sandwiches. Common turtles used in aquaculture Softshell gets big and often sold to china for soups Sliders cultivated for the pet trade. Almost all big box pet shops carry them