Based on the multiplayer news they just released I have to say the mode looks solid but they are making some really bad moves with some of the aspects. 1. Robin will talk to you about building houses for farmhands allowing Co op. So players have to sacrifice workable space on their farm in order to be allowed to play multiplayer? The more people you want to play with the more land you have to sacrifice. This is a terrible idea. It would be far better to add a little side path off the farm if you play multiplayer that leads to a farm hand area where their houses are rather than taking up space on your farm. 2. No local multiplayer or split screen. Considering the number of people I've seen saying they would like to play with their spouses/family this is a completely awful decision. The game was a smash hit you made plenty of money you can afford to take the time to work out having local co op for those that want it. 3. Main character determines when to sleep. Why? Why force a cut off for players who want to finish up something just because the main player is done with the day. A better method would be to have some kind of simple sleep mini game, maybe like "counting sheep" or "catching Zs" for the players who have chosen to sleep while waiting for the others to finish up what they are doing. Overall the mode sounds solid but these are just some things that really should be fixed. http://stardewvalley.net/stardew-valley-multiplayer-news/
It sounds like playing multiplayer will require starting a new save/farm that you can invite 3 friends to play on too. Or at least it sounds that way to me. We'll have to wait and see how it actually works. I suspect and hope the maps will be larger to accommodate that. No local multiplayer has become the normal so I'm not really suprised there. That kind of play has to be built/planned on from the beginning. The host being the one who ends the day is a technical limitation. Not a big deal to me. It'll just require communication, which is part of the whole cooperative multi-player thing anyway.
I kinda have to disagree on points 1 and 3... Not saying you're automatically wrong, but, I don't think its that bad. 1) You get fairly enough workable space on the base farm. By just making the right half of the farm, under your house, to automatic wattering crop area, and using the greenhouse to its full advantage, you can very easily make between 50k g and 100k g per harvest, plus they are cabins, so it probably wont be that big, perhaps at worst as big as the mainhouse, which is about the size of a slime hutch I think. Its not that bad. On my farm, I separated the whole map in a grid depending on exits, the right consists entirely of automatic wattering of crops, which sure, takes about two days to fully plant everything, but past that, I just need to wait for harvests. The top area left, right next to my house, is the "crafting and artisanry" area, which consists of furnaces, my horse, a shed, and a silo. Top left of the map until grampa's shrine are a silo, a few sap trees, the greenhouse, and fruit trees all the way. And the "under road" (the road passes in front of the greenhouse) area has a barn, two coops, and lower that way, 3 slime hutches, and an exterior slime pen. I still have space to work with, and at worst, I could just make buildings closer to each other and remove the slime pen which I made for fun, or even the fruit trees, which I have another batch in my greenhouse, and I win fairly enough every harvests by now. I'd have enough space for 3 cabins I'm sure. Now though, IT WOULD BE A PROBLEM, possibly, on some of the other farms, especially the fishing one, but since you'd play with multiple players, unless every players wants to fish, I don't see the point of picking the fishing farm then, I mean, more players means more things can be done in one day, so its way better to take a farm with enough workable space for that anyway in my opinion. Your solution isn't bad though. 2) I got nothing to say on split screen, it could be nice, but I don't care much for it, I don't have friends who would come by my place to play Stardew, BUT for console users especially, it would be a very nice touch. 3) I guess because its the main character's farm. He doesn't have to "cut others", but if a player would, say, go AFK in the middle of nowhere, would it be fair that everybody has to wait until 2am for him to fall of exhaustion? It also prevents griefing in general from other players who would cut events and such. I think its fine, the main player can also just wait at his house until his friends say "okay good, we can go to sleep", or he can also HELP THEM with whatever they are doing if he's done doing whatever he's doing. So really, its most likely fine, since its a pretty chill game. There's no reason to rush a day anyway. Either way, I'm looking forward to the release of multiplayer.
Personally, I'm going to give it a chance before I start complaining about anything. I mean, at least try it first and see how it goes ya know? To address the concerns above though... There could possibly be an area of the farm specifically set aside for building the cabins. We don't know that it's going to cut into the current layout but like mentioned above, the cabins could be pretty small. We all know this game has no realism with space inside vs. outside a building. lol I'm not quite understanding the split screen thing and why it's an issue. Won't everyone be playing from their own computer anyway? I think it makes perfect sense that the host of the game decides things like sleeping and festival times. It's still their farm and their game, so they get to make the rules. Things like this do prevent griefing, along with the other reasons Chizuru mentioned above. My only concern is mods and how those are going to run. I suppose things that are completely for looks wouldn't matter much but if you're someone like me who relies heavily on Timespeed or similar mods that change the game's mechanics, it's going to be interesting to see how those are worked into multiplayer, or if they even can be. In the end, nothing is really a huge deal. I've played this game so much I've already made the most of what it offers, so anything beyond this is just icing on the cake. If multiplayer has a few features that aren't super convenient for me, it's just something I'll have to live with when I want to play with other people.
As long as the cabins don't take up more space than a shed, I really don't mind. If they're bigger, I might be a little bothered, but it'll be fine as there's still plenty of space. Splitscreen wouldn't make sense unless you could connect and use two mice (and maybe even two keyboards) to the same computer (which I will admit I don't know if that works or not), though not having local multiplayer is a shame since you'd need to be online. Not being able to play the game offline in multiplayer is a bit of a bummer, but nothing that affects me personally since the people I could play with do not live near me. As far as one player having the say in festivals and stuff, doesn't detract IMO. Since I don't play with mods, I don't have to worry about that either. So, all in all... for me personally nothing they've said is a bad feature. *shrugs*
- I hope that the farms get an extra "player-cabin-area". We have to wait and see. - The no splitscreen decision seems kind of weird considering console players. I will play on PC with my friends, but it still sucks for console players. Things I would like to know: - how is money distributed? - do farmhands get different dialogues with NPCs? - does everyone get his/her own cat? - what happens when two players pursue one single? First come first serve? - does everyone get stardrops at the same time? Can a farmhand get the Master Cannoli one after the first player unlocked it without the special item? - in the mine: do monster get harder or more numerous, if more than one player is present? - how big is the farmhand cabin and can it be upgraded like the farmhouse? - does everyone get a horse at the same time or do we have to build a stable for each player? I hope that a patch in the far future will enable multiple farms so that you can have a friendly competition or just more space.
This. I don't feel there's any need to borrow trouble, so to speak. Might be a good idea to wait and see what ChuckleFish comes up with. There's time enough to disagree with a development after it happens.
The split screen is an issue because this game is already on 2 consoles outside of pc. It's coming to switch AND ps vita. And console players usually enjoy split screen co op so they can physically play with others. Especially if the other person may not have the same console as you. Or doesn't have a console at all anymore and happens to like the game. It's similar to how divinity did it. There is an online co-op and there is a split screen co-op. I think that feature is, more or less, a bigger concern for console players than it is pc players.
Another reason is that some people have really bad internet in their area and can't maintain a stable connection. So it could be a benefit for some PC players too
Ah, gotcha. See, I only play from PC and pretty much know nothing about how console versions of anything work, so I wasn't getting why the split screen thing was weird, as I'm thinking everyone would play from their own device (be it a computer, console etc.) vs. like a 2-player situation on the same screen.
I just hope they include a direct connect to IP option, and even possibly a lan option. As a GOG buyer, with a nephew I play games with that is primarily a Steam user, I'd like to be able to play with him without purchasing the game twice. I like this game, but not enough to purchase it twice.
Yeah, I'm wondering how that's going to work myself. If GoG people can only play with GoG people and Steam with Steam that's what I'd call a real issue. I mean, it wouldn't bother me personally but I'd accept criticism of that as legitimate.
1. Its not a big deal for me personally, I run under 400 crops on average not counting my greenhouse. 2. My girlfriend and I both play, so local/split screen co-op would be sweet for us. We play differently and would compliment each other rather nicely in co-op. She likes to mess with the animals and I like messing with crops and the layout of my farm. I play on xbox predominantly at the moment, its just easier/convenient to pick up my controller and play a couple of hours and she plays on mac. 3. Isnt an issue either if Im playing with my gf, hopefully locally. I dont really have any friends that play SV, and im not comfortable letting strangers on my farm ;-) I have SV on two platforms already (X1 & steam), and I might just buy the Nintendo switch if they have a SV themed edition, im on the fence....if it had local co-op it would be a no brainer.
It may have become the norm, but I tend to not buy games that are not local coop. I play games on a console to play with my son. I guarantee you a lot of people do this. Which is why mine craft sold so well on console and other coop games since they are few and far between anymore. Heck it's the only reason I still buy Nintendo consoles.
On the GOG issue, I expect they'll do the same as Starbound, that is Steam users can invite, but IP connect is an option for everyone. However it's possible this will go differently since Stardew Value, already has some GOG Galaxy integration I think... not sure what it's for, achievements, maybe? Never saw the need to use. Anyway it's conceivable they'll rely on that for the GOG version, but adding an IP option still seems like a no-brainer. That way there's a fallback option everyone can use to play together.
Yeah, local co-op would be really wonderful. I was looking forward to play with my wife. She loves Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons games and I played a lot of Harvest Moon on the GameCube, longing for a new farming game. I will buy it for the Switch, but I'm totally pissed off by the lack of local multiplayer :/ Sleep sweet dreams. A SV themed Switch is out of question. Game-themed consoles need a big investment from the publishers. You won't see any indie-themed console ever. Minecraft themed XBO was possible just because Microsoft bought Mojang and the game. This announcement was a big hit to my hype on the Switch release I haven't been following the development of this game, I actually had heard of it a long time ago but never invested some time in it, but I was getting excited to have it on the Switch. Since they announced it would be the first console having multiplayer and given the Switch is a natural local co-op console, I was really looking forward to it. I don't think that multiplayer was badly advertised; I'm more inclined to think this all came from my expectations about how multiplayer would work. Still, its a big bummer we won't be able to play with friends/GFs/BFs/wives/husbands/sons/daughters/whatever on the same TV... :/
What I'm concerned about is how mods on the PC will work. Will everyone need to have the exact same content folder? And could people play with different textures unique to their files or would everyone need to use the same textures?
That's what I'm curious about too. I would think textural mods wouldn't matter but things like Timespeed that change how the game runs would definitely have to match on all sides.
No different than how Minecraft does multiplayer modded, everyone needs the same suite of mods, and the same versions of the same mods. This is something SMAPI 2.0 is going to have to do sanity checking on, much like how Forge does it for Minecraft. In fact... this gives me an idea...
