Got married in the game after proposing to Maru. Fairly quickly our relations rose to 13/12 stars, and she gave me a stardrop. At the end of Fall, relations were still at 13 stars (as shown here). A few days later, Winter 2nd, and I noticed it was at 11/12 stars. The only gift I've given is to Krobus on his birthday (Winter 1st), don't think I gave to anybody else -- and in any case according to the wiki a jealous spouse is supposed to let me know about it, and she hasn't said anything negative in conversation so far. Have talked to her every day (maybe missed one), given gifts (a strawberry, which she loves) quite a few of them, so I have no idea why relations have dropped. According to the save checkup site, relations were at 3400-ish points a little while back, and now it was around 2800. That's a pretty steep fall, so do you know what might explain it?
As far as I can tell, the mysterious spousal relationship drop is just a random thing that happens sometimes. I tried tracking when it happened with my own spouse for a little while, and the best I could tell was that 1) It always seems to be a chunk of friendship points similar to what you described (mine generally go from 13 to 11 all at once too) and 2) If there is any pattern or anything that triggers it, it might be giving items to people in situations that shouldn't trigger jealousy (the only pattern I found was that it seemed to happen shortly after I completed a quest or gave a birthday present or something). If that second note really is the case (and not just a coincidence), it's not always going to happen; I've given plenty of quest and gift items to villagers without the relationship drop. All in all, I have no idea whether this is a glitch or what, but by this point I'm just taking it as extra incentive to keep paying attention to my spouse -- after all, you are pretty close partners by that point! Fortunately, those hearts are pretty easy to get back up quickly.
I've noticed differences in star decay between partners. Alex, for instance, starting dropping stars soon after marriage, whether I gifted other male inhabitants or not. Emily, however, never lost stars, no matter whom I gifted. My conclusions are only tentative, so I'd be interested in seeing how star decay goes with various NPC partners.
To be honest, I really doubt that's anything more than a coincidence. This phenomenon doesn't seem like the sort of thing that CA would program to be different among spouses, since he wants them all to be equal gameplay-wise, and if it's a bug then I don't see how the identity of the spouse would have any influence on how often it crops up. (The one possible exception to that would be for Emily and Shane -- since they were added later, there miiight be some slight difference in the way they're coded that stops the relationship drop from happening.) I've only actually gotten to the marriage point for one partner (Sam), but I've been married to him for a while on that save and I've gone through long stretches of time without the drop ever happening while there have been other times where it happened relatively frequently.
Ive had this problem - it was because i was giving my spouse gifts. There is some sort of strange bug where a few days after the gift, your relationship drops very sharply. Try just talking to her and kissing her before you leave the house and build it up that way, dont give gifts and youll soon see the 13 hearts return without decaying.
Did you not tidy up while they were out? Being inside when coming back for a walk or similar. "You could have tidied while I was gone". I go out more often after that. Oh and the wallpapers always nice, always. </nod>
I married Shane on my new play through and so far it's good. We haven't gotten to the top hearts yet but we've only been married a week. He seems very happy. He spends most days in the chicken house he made. The only negative response from him is when I proposed, he wondered if it was a prank. But no problems since the wedding. Not sure about having kids, because they just run around and don't do anything except get in the way I really would rather not have them at all. I will keep my eye on the hearts to see if they drop for no reason.
Can you post a screenshot of that space above the house where your mate has their space? I'd like to see what Shane does (the chicken house).
But Krobus has that really rare item for purchase that I needed, that would really impress Maru!! (Is Maru buying it?) I do wonder if it'd related to personality as far as decay of hearts goes. If someone is more prone to being jealous, does that affect decay after you mary them?
I think what you're looking for is on the wiki? https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Marriage#Spouse_Outside_Area
Oh that's cool. I've not seen that page before. Interesting stuff. I've only ever married Haley, Maru and Penny, so the others are new to me. Shane's chicken hut is a pretty cool idea.
He spends quite a bit of time there which keeps him out of my way. So far he really hasn't gotten jealous, although he did say he knew I gave Alex a gift and should he be suspicious, but I gave him a bouquet and he's happy. He has asked about kids once and I said not now. I will just continue to say not now and see how long he keeps asking.
Even if Shane adores you, there will be days he won't get out of bed and will bite your head off. I had max hearts with him and he told me he was going to make me breakfast but then decided not to. It really is a realistic depiction of someone with ongoing depression. Sometimes you just wake up and you hate the entire world, including yourself, and you just want to lay in bed the entire day and pretend it all doesn't exist. And you can't even say WHY you feel like that, because there is no reason. You just do.
Even when Shane seems in a bad mood I just give him a pizza or beer and he's happy. If he stays in bed all day I'll just give him some pepper poppers another one of his favorites and give him a hug.
Possibly so, though I don't recall CA stating anywhere that he wanted uniformity in such a small thing which is more a matter of aesthetic differences than gameplay. Still, none of us really have any information on this, and I can only judge from my experiences with two of the marriageable NPCs, Alex and Emily. I plan to try a third when I start playing again. If my experience differs from both of my characters' previous spouses, I'll add a note to that effect here. If they're the same as one of the others, I'll write about that, as well.
