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

I don't understand why people think the mines change is out of character for the game.

Stardew isn't Dark Souls, the game is very forgiving in that mistakes you make can be quickly corrected or simply don't negatively impact your game too much. Dying in the mines was completely imbalanced in that it was the only feature of the game that really punished you for messing up. One death could take weeks or even months of grinding to recover from if you were unlucky enough. That's not to say it was a broken mechanic, in fact a lot of players including myself enjoyed the risks and preperation it took to successfully complete your run. But it was absolutely imbalanced compared to the easy-going feeling of the rest of the game. Had this newer patch been in effect since launch I guarantee there would've been no complaints about the mines not being punishing enough. You're just burned because one aspect of the game that you enjoyed was changed, that doesn't give you the right to put down every other player who felt it was a necessary change.

Stardew is about slow and steady progression. We don't need extreme penalties because the game wasn't built around them and is perfectly capable of standing on its own without them. If you want to make a constructive suggestion feel free to suggest difficulty options, but your opinion on what constitutes as good and bad rebalancing does not give you the right to call every other player who disagrees with you an idiot.

Everything else I take issue with has already been covered, so I have no reason to get into the kiln changes or the counter-arguments regarding beehouses and kegs.

 

It might be considered cheating, but it was always much easier to just quit after you dies in the mines and reload from the start of the day. I think dying in the mines should be less harmful than losing 1 day of playing, or else it's just too tempting to restart the day. With the new change it's getting better but I died once and I didn't really know what items I lost, so I restarted the day anyway. Does it actually take the whole stack of whatever you are losing? In any case... that's my point, I think it might still be too hard, because you lose a lot of gold still, and items, and levels!

 

I don't think anybody actually deals with losing their entire inventory because that's bull

 

I'm honestly wishing that when you die/KO in Stardew Valley from a fight, it deletes your game and you have to start over.

But hey, I'm one of the very few that have no problems re-playing the same thing over and over again.

Heck, I've been fishing for 75 in-game days so far, just collecting up a nice batch to get the $$$$ rolling in.

 

As many people have said, this game isn't really about being hard, it's not some sort of action-combat-roguelike-beat'emup, it's a slow, country life RPG designed around a forgiving nature and Harvest Moon-like gameplay. I mean, challenge is good in some games, but this definitely isn't one of them

Also, imagine dying all the way on year 4. No matter if you don't like starting over or not, that's a TON of time that went to waste and a deleted save. It's simply not the kind of game to start over "runs", as a lot of time can be invested into one save.

 

I haven't gone mining yet and I have the option open, it is a risk and reward system. You can go mining, but the question is, do you really want to risk it?

Not to mention, it also teaches people how to manage their aggression and combative behavior.

I just think it would be a nice addition or feature to add for those who want to add more "realism" I suppose.

Heck, I still haven't even made an actual farm and all I've been doing is fishing and cutting down treats and shrubs.

 

The matter with Stardew Valley isn't that there's something wrong with it being too easy, it's that because it's too easy, people can achieve a large amount of money too quickly, and ruin the sense of progression and achievement. In Harvest Moon. it takes a long time to get to be able to make a lot of money, and the money actually has some value instead of becoming meaningless after the first year.

Comparing it to Dark Souls is really missing the point. The reasons why cheating in game and have infinite money and stuffs like that ruin the game because it reduce the game time, give momentary satisfaction but at the cost of longevity and progression within the game.

 

There are times where you get absolutely shafted (no pun intended) by the mines. For example you climb down a ladder or fall down a hole and arrive directly on top of an enemy. Yes, that's part of the risk but losing your save file over something absolutely out of your hands is too extreme.

 

This is supposed to be a CASUAL game that's what I love about it I'm glad he made the changes he did it makes the game a bit more fun IMO. This isn't a game about "look how big my e-peen is I beated this really hard thing." It's about chilling on your farm mingling with the locals and just having a laid back time. Besides people wanted to make fishing easier but he didn't give into that demand ( you can just get a mod for it.)

When I want "OMG I wanna punch someone in the fucking throat" hard I play Binding of Issac, Rouge Legacy or Minecraft packs like The Mad Pack. I play this game to RELAX and have fun I don't think CA is wrong in giving people what they want if you don't like it wait a bit and I'm sure mods will pop up to the make the game super hard.

 

There's nothing to stop you deleting your save if you die.

 

Exactly. This sounds like a difficulty you can maintain yourself. Much like the Nuzlocke challenge in Pokémon

 

Fair enough, fair enough. You win this one. I can't even come up with an argument against that.

 

i remember, back in the olds days, players used to add their own difficulty.
*puts on best old granny voice*
ah, yes, i remember the old days...
i remember that time someone was posting to gamefaqs while their character treadded water in morrowind. because the player imposed a 'one life, no saves' style on their morrowind xbox (original) character
and players would play with out armour, or in starting gear on RPG games to make them harder.
the 3 hearts occarina of time chalenge, the only given hearts version (which was easier)..ah, those were the days *rockingchair*


it *can* be hard these days, with so many games being made more casual as they moan, but honestly, it isnt that hard to impose your own difficulties. tho in some games, it can be. like remembering to eat and drink and sleep in a fallout or elder scrolls game (when you dont use a hunger/thirst/fatigue mod) but usualy thats because i forget...im just having too much fun

i still support a NewGame+ option though. not all harder, mind, just options....let us choose what we want to make easier/harder, provided we have at least played the game once thru (the only issue there is, deciding what counts as finished lol)

 

Hey, I'm all ears for that, but having to leave the game, go into load, delete the game, and then make a new one is just a pain in the neck. I'd rather it just erase all your progress and you start over at the beginning when you first meet Robin.

 

thats why i support the idea of NewGame+ ^^
if there was that, you could tick the box that says *Yolo gameplay- deletes your saved files and dumps you back that the first day*

im also hopefull for a change in how you quit the game. would be happy not to be allowed to access 'load/save' while in the main game, but if instead of just 'exit game' there was 'exit game' and 'exit to main menu' it would be better.

 

I liked what you were saying then unliked when I read more into it. Like holy crap.

You want them to stop listening to the people on the forums? The forum people just love the game and want more content. I have heard very little about people saying to make it easier. I thought your suggestion was just to stop making it easier.

But here's the deal. Stardew Valley is an indie game and, to remain relevant and to get a profit (also just because this is probably a passion project for CA),he has to keep updating it. Look at Terraria. Terraria is currrently one of the BEST selling games on steam. Why do you think that is? Well let's look at google.

https://www.google.com/trends/explore#q=terraria

Do you see a little bit after 2011? There was a HUGE dip in searches after a spike. Do you know what this WAS? This was REDIGIT, developer of Terraria, announcing he would NO LONGER BE WORKING ON TERRARIA after the 1.1 Update.

Do you see 2013? That was the release of the 1.2 update which added nearly double the content of the game in. See July 2015? That was the 1.3 update, which added EVEN MORE STILL. Do you see the trend? After 2 or so years Redigit is able to inject a TON more cash by making a nice, big update. This correlates with the steam sales, as well, as more people start talking and searching terraria, a sale probably goes up, and he makes a ton of cash.

Making a game like this isn't just a one and done thing like a nintendo game (like harvest moon), it generates more interest by having the potential for free or DLC updates, making it a sustainable idea, and not just a one time cash injection (CA has already made millions on this game at least considering the game is like 15$ or something and he has already sold 1 Million copies. Even if he gets cuts by GOG and Steam and Chucklefish he has made TONS of cash.)

So yes, your suggestion in a whole is dumb. It WOULD be hard for CA to, say, eventually double the content of his game. But that is how these games sell. A friend says "They added a bunch of stuff", finds out his friend doesn't have it, buys it for them, etc. And it will be even more marketable after some content updates and multiplayer, which will force people like me to buy ANOTHER copy for my girlfriend, and make my friend Jack interested in playing (we play games like Terraria together)

And this right here is the original thought I wanted to upvote almost down to a Tee. Too easy = too easy to get money = progression gone. I honestly think that blueberries should be nerfed to be half price. But that's just me.

 

The game is as hard or as easy as you make it. Think blueberries are too lucrative? Don't grow as many.

 

But I take it as a logistics game and tried to find the most lucrative crop through trial and error. My next project is making my greenhouse half ancient fruit and half rare seeds and then making a wine barn for it

 

I really only agree with you on one point. Please don't implement the "save anywhere" feature.

Having to sleep to save the game, which then ticks the clock forward and progresses you to a new day with all these things to do is the single most important feature in keeping the game enjoyable. It makes the game infectious and hard to put down and is, by itself, the part of the game that give it that "just one more day" feeling. I both love and hate that I must sleep to save because I want to wrap everything up neatly and then leave, but saving also puts me into a spot where I have so much to do again. I wouldn't change that even if I had the power to, myself.

 

Another point... CA said on twitter (https://twitter.com/ConcernedApe/status/720640028213252097) that he will be adding more end game content in "1.1", which is probably the first major content update (He also said he will be adding lots of stuff in 1.1)

I read "End game" as "Stuff that is super expensive and hard to get but will help immensely". Right now the end game is Kegs and Ancient Fruit and stuff. Can't wait to see a change in the "progression cap" so to say.

So we should have something to spend out gold on soon. Maybe some projects to make the town itself better? Why not a way to turn the old joja store into a school house or something? And an alternate end game thing to do for Joja like replace all the shops completely with Joja (because eviiiil)