Steam/PC Mega Thread

[JasonM]

I don't mind the fishing in Stardew. It's a bit tricky in the beginning, and there's only a handful of fish that really give me fits (the one's that like to juke back and forth). Also once you get the Lvl 3 rod your sweet spot will be bigger and you can also start adding floats to it that greatly expand the sweet spot further.

[FLiam]

Is Stardew easy enough to get into? 

[Meacon Keaton]

Absolutely. I recommend it to everyone.

[apsham]

I am so excited for the 1.5 update to land on Switch soon, I've been playing it on PC as well.

But yeah. It's so easy to get into - there's always something to do, and you don't really have to worry about missing anything. There are no real time limits, if you miss something in one season you just play through until the next year and then by the time you're at the end of the game you're trying new things you never tried, maximizing your output, etc.

I recommend it to everyone. It's so cheap for what you get on every platform it's on.

[JasonM]

23 minutes ago, Liam Mk2 said:

Is Stardew easy enough to get into? 

It's heavily inspired by Harvest Moon, most notable HM64/Friends of Mineral Town. As such the general premise of the game is quite simple, you plant crops and you harvest them for money. You use the money to buy more crops, farm animals, and more stuff.

There's some low level dungeon crawling in the game (you go into the mine to find ore to craft farm tools, and slay some critters). There's fishing in there for more ways to make money, too.

You collect bundles of goods to fixer-upper the local community center and revitalize the local town. And you spend your days handing boiled eggs to your favourite girl/boy in the hope of marrying them some day and getting kids.

In the beginning your farm tools (hoe/scythe/hammer/axe/watering can) can only reach one tile or have to chop longer to take down a tree, but you upgrade it using the ore found in the mine, and thus you become more easily able to tend to your fields.

You also get sprinklers in Stardew Valley (as opposed to HM games), which can automate a great deal of the farming and allow you to focus on the other parts.

There's no real difficulty curve in the game, nor are there any particularly complex systems other than figuring out what kind of gifts certain townies like, and acquiring goods for crafting. (There's no real guess work involved in crafting)

The original trailer does a good job in illustrating what kind of game it is:

 

Edited January 28, 2021 by Jasonmufc

[RPS]

22 minutes ago, Liam Mk2 said:

Is Stardew easy enough to get into? 

Yeah, it is. 

It is funny. If somebody were to ask me "Did you like Stardew Valley?" I would probably scoff and say "it was fine". But I probably played 60 hours of the game. It is fun enough. I personally never found the game mechanisms all that interesting, but obviously it was good enough for 60 hours. 

[Bobfoc]

There's something satisfying about putting in the work to tend to your crops and eventually see them grow and be ready for harvest. It's a game that has a comfortable familiarity about its routine. While I wouldn't say it's "fun" in the heart-pounding adrenaline rush sense of the term, it's enjoyable as a game to unwind with.

[Meacon Keaton]

It’s the kind of game where I won’t play it for two months but then I sit down to play it and it’s six hours later and I’ll play it every day for two weeks straight.

[RPS]

Just now, Meacon Keaton said:

It’s the kind of game where I won’t play it for two months but then I sit down to play it and it’s six hours later and I’ll play it every day for two weeks straight.

Because you are not a HARDCORE INTENSE GAMER right Meacon? 

[Meacon Keaton]

Just now, RPS said:

Because you are not a HARDCORE INTENSE GAMER right Meacon? 

I don’t know! I don’t think so!

Also my six year old and I played it together just last night. It’s one of those games where anybody at any stage of life can enjoy it.

[RPS]

1 minute ago, Meacon Keaton said:

I don’t know! I don’t think so!

Also my six year old and I played it together just last night. It’s one of those games where anybody at any stage of life can enjoy it.

I feel like my kids would not understand the idea of the day and night cycles and the energy structure, so I just let them play Animal Crossing. 

[Meacon Keaton]

1 minute ago, RPS said:

I feel like my kids would not understand the idea of the day and night cycles and the energy structure, so I just let them play Animal Crossing. 

Funny you say that, because I was just wondering last night if she’d understand what to do in Animal Crossing. I’ve never played it so I have no clue. You think if she gets and understands the concept of Stardew she’d be ok with AC?

[Mick]

It's great. Raise crops/animals, go through a 100 floor mine and others fighting monsters, fish, etc. Play through the seasons with different events and growing different crops, but keep in mind: 

Winter is Coming. 

 

Spoiler

Especially for you, Joja Mart and Mayor Lewis 😠 

 

(seriously, fuck Mayor Lewis. Only dude in town with a car, has a business tax in place, and he can't even contribute to new text books for all two kids in town. Douche.)

(but seriously, winter IS coming  ) 

[RPS]

Just now, Meacon Keaton said:

Funny you say that, because I was just wondering last night if she’d understand what to do in Animal Crossing. I’ve never played it so I have no clue. You think if she gets and understands the concept of Stardew she’d be ok with AC?

I think Animal Crossing is 100% more accessible for a kid, but also less interesting from a gameplay perspective. 

They play once or twice a week and each kid gets a 20-30 minute turn. My youngest just swims in the ocean. Like I cannot stress this enough - that is all she does. For 20-30 minutes. Just wanders the ocean. I do not even understand how my other two can sit there in boredom and watch her swim. She just loves it. She loves going to the net and swimming around the whole island. My middle child talks to every villager and makes a design and places it on the ground. My oldest child understands the purpose of the game and goes around, buys stuff, sells stuff, etc. It is kind of humorous to me. 

With Stardew Valley, I think there is a "goal" to the game. In Animal Crossing, that lack of a narrative ultimately means there is no goal to the game, just ultimately whatever you want to fill your time doing. 

[Mick]

 

 

I'm married and the wife's pregnant...but sure.

[Liam]

This may sound odd, but I always find SV little overwhelming inasmuch as working out what is best to do with my time. I know that basically isn't the point if you don't want it to be, yet I always feel like I'm doing something wrong.

[Pooker]

I have 90 hours in the game and I always feel that way. Should I go to the caves today? Go fishing? Chop down trees? Am I planting too many crops? Not enough crops? Did I milk the cows?

Today it was trying to figure out if I should build a silo or upgrade my house. Have one silo right now, which is good for my two cows and my four chickens. But no upgrades to my house yet. Found out I didn't have enough wood chopped for the house, so decided to go with the second silo. But, left the clay and copper at home. Went back home, dropped off the stone I had taken, picked up the clay and copper bars. Got back to the builders place, found out I needed the stone, not the wood. Had to make another trip home. There goes half the day.

[Draevyn]

1 hour ago, Pooker said:

I have 90 hours in the game and I always feel that way. Should I go to the caves today? Go fishing? Chop down trees? Am I planting too many crops? Not enough crops? Did I milk the cows?

Today it was trying to figure out if I should build a silo or upgrade my house. Have one silo right now, which is good for my two cows and my four chickens. But no upgrades to my house yet. Found out I didn't have enough wood chopped for the house, so decided to go with the second silo. But, left the clay and copper at home. Went back home, dropped off the stone I had taken, picked up the clay and copper bars. Got back to the builders place, found out I needed the stone, not the wood. Had to make another trip home. There goes half the day.

I feel like there's a "Back in my day" story from my Grandpa here.

[Pooker]

"Back in my day, we just took everything we had to the builders! We were never unprepared and always ready for everything! And we had plenty of time in the day to get everything done!"

Maybe something like that?

[Azazel]

I'm not sure what the issue with fishing is, I like it.

My goal in the game right now, since my farm is basically making a lot of money with very little work from me now is to just kind of complete everything.  The Community Center is done.  I have max friendship with everybody in town except Dwarf/Krobus and they are both like 75% of the way done.  I have all the fish I can possible catch at the moment (except the Lava Eel) and I will catch all of them once the seasons/plot advance so I can catch the rest I am missing.

Cooking all the recipes is going to be a hard one, mostly because I had no idea I had to watch the TV show once a week to get one.  Luckily I can still get them and they air re-run episodes once a week so I can fill in the ones I missed.  I don't think getting the ingredients will be hard since I started stocking extra seeds and keeping a handful of each type of crop just in case I need them.