please for the love of this game, stop making it easier.

reducing the amount of wood for the kiln? that wasn't necessary at all.
reducing the death punishment? not necessary either.

I know what I'm saying might sound ironic, because I'm asking the developer to take my advice and the advice is stop listening to the people in this forum.

But here is my explanation and it's pretty simple. Everyone always want's stuff to be easier and forgets that it's the struggle that makes it worthwhile. if the game just drops everything into your lap what fun is it to play.
now of course you could say, fine just don't use the easy features. but don't expect people not to use it if it's there. just like the broken amount of cash you get out of honey right now. don't tell me you don't have a lot of beehives and just rake in the cash every three days.

another good reason not to listen to the people. and I'm gonna get a lot of hate for saying this. most of the people in this forum are people with diverging opinions to my own. [ Moderator Edit ] (if you complain about me saying this, you're kinda proving my point, so thanks I guess?)
Most people have no idea how much work some of the features are they demand, yet because they bought the game they feel entitled to their opinion how the game should be. and this is where you're wrong.
it's the developers game and he shouldn't compromise his vision just because you say so. just don't buy the next stardew valley. I'm sure not gonna buy the next, if this version keeps developing as it is. this is not a threat or meant to influence you in any way I'm just stating a fact and wanted to tell you how much I admire the game. I cursed to much about how hard fishing was and even send a report. but after some time I got the hang of it and it felt so rewarding. same issue with the mines whenever my health was low I thought about leaving only to realize I was on lvl 88 and felt like reaching that next save point only to be punished by my inevitable death on lvl 89. and after a short moment of anger I just reset and started the day over. I wasn't angry at the game for punishing me, I was angry at myself for being so greedy.

Of course there are a lot of things you can improve, but I'm also pretty sure you know that darn well yourself. You created this you will never feel really satisfied with what the game is. And it never hurts to check in on the forum to see what ideas some people have. but don't feel obligated to listen to them, just because they bought the game. this game isn't easy and it isn't meant to be easy and most important it is fun the way it is. only later people realize that making it easier wasn't really what they wanted. but then it is probably too late.

here's the chance the developer will never read this post. yet I still beg you not to implement the save anywhere option. I hate myself for saying this because you did such a lovely job and I don't want to draw any parallels, but harvest moon doesn't have a save anywhere option and the harvest moon games are on the market for a freakish long time. and they are right in doing so. because saving any time would change the game completely. any time you want something really bad you just save and do it over and over again until you get the best result and the game isn't meant to be played like that. you can either take the result you get or take the punishment of having to play the whole day over and hope on your next try you get a better result. you betray yourself and rob yourself of the gaming experience which is why you bought the game in the first place. the way is the goal not the goal itself, but with all this achievement hunting people tend to forget that. I used to play the harvest moon games on emulator and guess what those have the save anywhere option. yet I haven't had so much fun playing a farm simulator since playing harvest moon on my old snes and I realized it was partially because of the missing save feature.

I can give you another example of an unnecessary feature, the zoom feature. granted it's kinda nice to be able to see your whole farm, for planning purposes (still not really necessary). but does it add real value to the game? answer no it doesn't. not to the gaming experience. sure it enables people to take screenshots and post them online which in turn gives you great publicity. so it is good for you I give you that. but other than that it only satisfies the urge of people to show off their farm. which is okay I guess, but any true gamer will tell you that this is not a necessary feature for them to buy a game. if you want to show your farm to others, play farmville on facebook. giving people the chance to boost their ego will make them only happy in the short run because people that need the attention they get from posting pictures of their farm will never be happy about it for long. while adding truly great game features will make the game better as a whole and give the community many fun hours of gameplay. and in the end will make more people happy for a longer amount of time, which I believe is the true goal of any game. you play games for yourself not for the acknowledgement of others.

giving in to player demands will set you into a vicious cycle. they will expect you to implement every feature they demand until you have no more time to develop any of the features you have in mind. this game is still your vision and I'm sure you have great things in mind, I mean after all you got this far. I would have never though that cutting trees could be so much fun.

I'm not asking you to listen to me, although I of course do hope you do. But in the end all I'm asking you to do, is ask yourself those 3 questions before you implement any feature demanded by the community.
1. is this destroying my vision of the game?
2. is this making the game to easy, or changing it too much in an unforeseeable way?
3. is this really a necessary gaming experience enriching feature? or just some desire of human ego.

and all I have to say to everyone else in this community, if you're not happy with anything inside the game. make a mod for that.
Also don't bother trying to discuss this with me, this is meant for the developer and you to read. I have nothing more to add, I said everything I had to say.
this doesn't stop you of course from answering to this post and such is your right because I believe in the right of free speech. if you condemn my ideas or if you support them feel free to say it , either is fine by me.

thanks for making stardew valley, a worthy farm simulator I have always dreamed of yet will never have the ability to create myself and for this I am truly grateful to you ConcernedApe

 

Yeah, I agree games today needs to step up.
I personaly think changes in Klin was good, yet the mine change was unnesesary. I actualy loved it because I had to plan and stay carefull all the time.
The game still TONS of polishing, so I can't wait how it will end!

Sadly in todays world - easy game - more sold copies. :/

 

*cracks knuckles* Alright.

I could point out that your post has poor grammar, punctuation, and capitalization issues. I was going to let that slide, but you're blatantly insulting the people on this forum.

Then why did he make a suggestions forum? He is not forced to implement suggestions. If he feels they would benefit the game as a whole, then he can choose to implement them. It would also be arrogant to believe that his game is perfect and to ignore all feedback.

You don't disagree with the death penalty -- and yet you can't even accept the consequences for death yourself!

Right. Just take the money and run!! Screw those guys!

You're contradicting yourself. You also forget that you reset your game after you died because you didn't get the result you wanted -- surviving. "The game isn't meant to be played like that."

(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ I'm done.

 

Truth be I didn't really see the reduction of the wood in the kiln as making things easier so much making it...have any purpose of usefulness at all cause maybe it was just my playstyle but I have never had a time where I was short on coal and full on wood. Especially not at the point when the kiln becomes an option. Like I am boggling over what strange alternate universe there is someone who is like "gosh and golly I have so much wood but no coal whatsoever. Lemme just spend a ton of time standing chugging wood into these kilns!"

 

I don't have the energy to really reply to this whole thing, but i will comment about this quote:

"I can give you another example of an unnecessary feature, the zoom feature."
If you're talking about the one currently in-game, SDV has such a weird resolution. I had to use the zoom-out to be able to see the whole dang screen and not have to take guesses at where the geodes are at the bottom of my invo when I'm at the blacksmith's. So, maybe not everyone had that issue when they began the game, but the zoom feature is useful in making the game fit for you. If you meant like suggestions to show your entire farm, there are already mods for that anyway and I don't think anyone is necessarily begging on their knees for that.

Some people like easier games, some people like harder games. Preferences, preferences. Honestly, I don't care how hard or easy it is; I just want to be able to play it for a long time and not get tired of it... which luckily, I haven't! There are still a lot of things I need to discover in this game. Criticizing people for their own preferences is just plain silly, though. Eh, that's as far as I'll go.

CA is a smart person and great dev who can do whatever he wants to the game; suggestions or not. I highly, highly doubt that a bunch of users on this forum are coming together and gain the magical ability to brainwash CA. I think most people are aware of how much work it is to update the game and appreciate the work that has already been put into it. Suggestions never hurt, though. And it's always fine to dream.

 

I like not too easy games, with hidden things you have to find out by yourself and things you have to take some time for to accomplish. It reminds me of the good old days when I started playing
When I started SV I was like "I'll never get pigs, just look at all the money I'd need!". My first coop for 2 chickens was a great achievement and it felt awesome. And ever so slowly, without really
noticing that I actually had to work hard for them (because it was fun), I finally got 2 pigs in year 3.

So, even when I don't agree with some things OP said, I absolutely don't want a game that doesn't challenge me anymore. A game that'll become obvious, without getting me to think... naw, thanks^^
I didn't mind the death penalty either. I let it happen ONCE and never again. I started watching out for me more and would retreat if I thought I don't stand a chance.

Well, what I hope for is that these small changes that make playing easier won't lead to bigger ones. That's all. Over and out, one of the idiots.

 

Whew. I read this post yesterday night and it was bothering me greatly, but I was a bit too tired to get into it. I'm glad other people have started a rebuttal, and I have to say, I agree with them. There's one thing more that bothers me that hasn't been pointed out.

This is just silly. You can't go on a discussion forum (yes, it's the Suggestions forum, but it's also meant to discuss said suggestions), make your statement and then disappear so you can happily run away from any form of opposition.
...Well, technically you can do that since you just did do that, but it's really just poor and weak behavior. If you have a statement to make, man up and defend it -- and be open to criticism while you're at it.

(I'm talking to a brick wall, aren't I?)

 

I sort of agree with regards to Grandpa's assessment - everyone was up in arms about that, and maybe due to his own lack of confidence in the function (I think CA said it was a late addition) it was made too easy to light the four candles and get the purple statue, and consequently I am now swimming in iridium ore and have little motivation to visit the Skull Cavern.

That sort of looked like a panic reaction to pressure, however there have been lots of other things that people have complained about - fishing, heart decay, fences (you know the things that people started crying out for a mod to make easier after a couple of days of struggling) - that he hasn't buckled and altered. The zoom thing was a perfectly reasonable cosmetic addition (very odd choice as an example of making the game easier), and a lot of changes he's made are to add balance (buffing fruit trees) or nerf runaway tactics (the aforementioned extra requirement for kegs and bee hives).

There are still runaway tactics (ancient fruit/greenhouse) and areas that are easy to ignore or dismiss (animals in general) so I expect more changes, and that's perfectly reasonable. I've read a few times that CA likes the interaction with those who play the game and enjoys the opportunity to get feedback and improve, so I don't think you can assume that every change he makes is under duress and taking him away from his original vision of the game.

 

I feel I should point out that if you feel the game is too easy you can always not let yourself use crops that are too profitable, or the iridium-spewing statue.

On the other hand if the game is made more difficult and a player thinks it's too hard their options for handling that are much more limited.

 

How is the zoom feature unnecessary?
Needing to have the game at full-screen in 1980 x 1020 to see anything is really bad design.
If anything the zoom feature helps a lot with smaller screens and windowed.

Sometimes things are quality of life changes though, needing a ton of wood for a single piece of coal is a really bad trade as it is neither that hard to obtain nor that valuable, so I don't particularly agree with you there. This can be thought of as polishing the game.

I do however agree that the game doesn't need to be made easier, in fact it should be made harder. Combat is a braindead sequence of stunlock spamming and that's not satisfying nor challenging at all.

 

For what my opinion's worth, I think Nefelpitou confuses the concepts of "easy" and "ease of use." Zooming doesn't make the game easier. It makes it easier to play, without inherently affecting the difficulty level. It's like the journal button, or the button that lets you see what requirements the Community Center quests still need met. These are meant to get the "make work" out of the way so the game's various gaming systems can be focused upon. We could have to walk to the Community Center every time we wanted to check what was required. Why make it easier to quickly tell what's needed? We don't need zoom--but it makes details or a grand overview easier to evaluate, and I imagine can help people who have sight issues, as well.

For the rest, the OP has as much right as any of us to post, here. Beyond that, I'll only point out that the quality of their post speaks for itself.

 

Uh... Well the thing is, I'm almost always in the predicament of having too much wood and not enough coal because I do a lot of foraging, yet the time I spend in the mines never really gets me the coal I need because preserve jars and bee houses require so much of it and I still need to be cooking a ton of ores all the time. Maybe in the late game I have no problem with coal because I can just buy it but all throughout the game until then I am literally always scrounging for it so I can get more artisan goods stations up so I can refine all my crops and be able to cook all of my ores, either for crafting with or selling gold bars.

 

Personally, I felt it was strange and extremely unsatisfying for your grandfather to come back from the grave just to rate you and, for most people, tell them that all of their work pretty much wasn't good enough for his approval, even though what he left you with was pretty much a pile of crap so I didn't understand why he was upset. Also since its kind of the only "end of the game" type of thing that exists, I kinda hated that as an ending.

However, I completely agree that the purple statue is way too easy to get now and I do think it should be something to try extremely hard for like it was in the past. Just without grandpa making an ass of himself. I feel like CA kinda panicked when people got angry about what grandpa was saying and just rushed a fix, so maybe he'll make it properly hard to get the statue later.

On a side note though, I still think the skull caverns are totally useful as a source of iridium that can be obtained BEFORE the two year mark, regardless of whether or not you get the statue.

 

or maybe CA will add another way to ramp up the difficulty, and make it NewGame+?
something for players to do after finishing (granpa summoning and getting their review?) the game and wanting to play harder difficulty.
a lot of players were angry about grampa because he never, not once, gives you any clue as to what your goals are. there is no mention of 'rebuild the farm' even. you are given his run down, over-run patch of dirt and shanty shack of a house and that is it.
here you go, kid, enjoy.
he should leave you a message, a to-do list at the very least, of a few things to tell you what he expects of you, if he wants you to DO it (lol)
*thats* why i think people were generaly upset.

thats what sugestion forums are for tho. we sugest, we argue/disscuss and then the makers considers what we said/screamed at eachother (lol)
personaly i think the game is fine at the difficulty levels it is now, but that it probably could do with a NewGame+ mode where you can change things up.
perhaps the war (that i havent actualy seen mentioned in game, but seen players talk about in the forums) rears its head closer to home and there are shortages.
some seeds are in short supply, some items are unavailable and you need to pay for licences to get buildings and animals (because of things being used/apropriated for the war effort)
sometimes the Ministry (of war) comes by and commandeers your stuff to give to the troops. i duno. there has to be ways to let players add difficulty for another playthru without messing with the original difficulty, or setting yourself rules (like no regrow crops or only trees/bushes ect)

 

What was Grandpa's evaluation like before?

 

You live in a tree-filled utopia and I envy you. No seriously, this isn't me being snarky or sarcastic...I am always scraping by for wood. I swear wood is more valuable than gold at most points in my games. That does make sense though, and I think despite my initial post's cheekiness I do think the kiln has a nice purpose in that this game is about different methods and playstyles. That said, depending on how far in the mines you are, I recommend usually levels 40-50 if you are trying to rake up coal. Those dust mites tend to drop coal like hot-cakes, and if you kill enough of them you get the burglar ring which increases monster drops...so if you have that equipped while killing dust mites you usually end up buried in coal.


I didnt realize the grandfather statue thing was made easier to attain, and much like a few folks, wouldn't even be against it being more effort to get to 4 candles. But I can also understand lessening the harsh dialogue for those who didn't make optimizing their farm/village their main priority. Lessening the verbal lashing you get is fair and great, cause I do agree that him giving you guilt kind of dampers some of the spirit of the game...but I would have no quibbles that getting the 4 candles and thus the statue be something you got to hustle your muscles for. Inversely, I find that the other statue (the one you get in the desert) is practically useless since by the time I get 1 million gold to buy it, I'm so well into the game and half the time I'm worried my spouse will get mad if I give the other romancable villagers the present it spits out for them.

 

I think wee need to add more irridium item decoration that can consume our gold in the shop xD

 

Making it easier? He changed the recipes for a lot of stuff. I mean Making Bee Hives became harder for example, as they require rarer materials to make, so you can no longer just spam a dozen of them fast early game. Same for Stills, no longer are they easy to make, and require rarer materials to make. ie no longer able to make them in bulk like you could when the game first came out. I wouldn't call that making the game easier. I think he is tweaking/rebalancing.

I'd say if he was making it easier, he would make the player less likely to die and monsters less powerful. Reducing Death Penalty isn't really making the game easier, just less stressful. The monsters are just as hard as ever. 99.9% of the video games that have ever existed didn't take all your stuff for getting gang banged by a few bats in a dungeon. I think a lot would agree, if you die in a dungeon you should lose everything you collected during that dungeon run, and personally nothing more should be lost.

 

I didn't mean to imply you were being cheeky or anything, I can totally understand how some people run into a major lack of wood, my significant other actually had the same issue pretty badly in their own playthrough because they chopped down all of the trees on their plot just to clear them up and didn't re-plant any. The way I've confronted the issue in all my games was very intentional, and it's that I always play these sorts of games extremely conservatively, so I usually swept through my farm in the earlygame and cleaned up everything I could manage to break, and then neatly re-planted all the seeds I got to create my own little forest down there, and it grows infinitely better when there's not junk everywhere stunting the growth. Believe me, it's totally worth the time it takes to section off a large part of your farm to be a forest in the early-game, especially if you choose the forester profession (even though it sucks horribly for anything but earlygame ). And then later when you need more space for your other things you can cut into it as needed, and you should definitely have more wood than you'll ever need.

It's definitely my niche sort of playstyle though, so I really don't blame a ton of people for not getting it or having wood problems. As for the coal sprites, I do know about those and they really are a great source of coal and I use them a ton, especially on my quest to get the glorious ring of monster loot, but I still tend to find myself constantly running out between all the things I spend it on (bombs require 1 coal each as well and they're incredible for getting deep into the skull caves in a timely manner!) plus, believe me, I spaaaaaaam bee houses and preserve jars most of the time because I love having passive, extremely low maintenance money-makers I have around 50 bee houses on my new save which has almost finished its first year, and that's 400 coal by itself! FOUR HUNDRED ;~; (that's also to say nothing of all the coal I spent melting down my mountains of gold ore to sell them sweet gold bars)