I was afraid that this would happen.

[One (1) Lini]

I'll be honest, I went into this knowing that it'd be very timegated and I figured I'd be okay with it. I've played animal crossing since the gamecube days after all.

But Cozy Grove has felt... let's say difficult to keep with at times, obviously there needs to be some tweaking and re-balancing done, I've had my annoyances but found solace in that even if progress is painfully slow at times (I actually find the story hard to follow because it's so spaced out), I was at least making slow but steady progress.

But today was the first day without a story quest.
I mean, I guess I got an item from one of the NPCs which was a bit weird 'cause it doesn't have that "hold on to this for later" text that quest items do, but I got no quest, area was already lit. Okay, moving on, buy the log from kit and feed it to Flamey and... No more spirit logs out there today? What? Was that the only one today? Surely that's a mistake, even on the slowest days I've at least been able to do some sort of story quest.

But no, only daily quests today. I've got two rows of storage dedicated to Story quest items, and I've been waiting to get the photo for Allison for days, but the NPC who gives photos has just been giving timed dailies... except for today when he decided not to give me a quest at all. Captain, Jeremiah and Tree bear (I can never remember her name) also just stood there and didn't even give a daily, much less a story quest.

So I guess I've hit a point where I'm not even getting that slow and steady feeling now. I'm hoping that this was a one time hiccup, 'cause if the game is going to start spacing things out just for the sake of it with no content whatsoever as a cookie, then I'm not sure if I can muster up the will to keep coming back. It's already hard to keep track of things as is, but today I really got the impression of downright antagonism from the game.

[Kasiornis]

I have a feeling that the game was balanced for more casual players, for someone who plays a lot less, gathers less materials and do quests slower. And when you do everything at first opportunity you may encounter a situation when you did everything too fast and the game simply "waits" a couple days more believing you need more time to do that.

I kinda know what you talking about, had the same situation (and no, not one-time hiccup) with Master Machete. At some day top tier bushes started to appear, but I couldt do anything about them. Thought I'll get a mission from Scout or Farmer as usual, but no - just dailies. And two days in a row - just dailies and nothing else, and only at 3rd day I finally got the quest, progressed the story and got the tool to use.

A bit frustrating - I guess, but I expected that too. I'm pretty sure devs are a bit new to this kind of games, they're trying their best, but the game is still rough on edges in terms of balancing the progression speed.
And there is no need to feel frustrated, just check the stuff you actually can do and leave the game for other stuff in your life, as you did before. Not a big deal, you'll get there eventually.

[Nefrarya]

As for the story, I've found it helpful to look into Charlotte's book of memories, it has a summary of the story snippets you uncovered.

[oblong0range]

As you open up more of the island it feels like there is enough to do that you arent bummed about non-story quests. I wasn't sold on it in the beginning either but I really look forward to 5 am est now. I know that our time is precious though so investing time in something you may or may not enjoy is a decision you should feel confident making.

WIth that being said, yesterday was also the first time only a few of the bears gave me quests. Since I have one bear waiting on an item I felt it even more. I have other games that I play though and am looking forward to what the change of season will bring.

[LotusBlade]

Yes such days do happen, got it twice. I think game is stalling player if he progresses way too fast.

From the other hand, after such hiccup i am getting vice versa situation with 5+ story quests at once, so overall it is balanced if we look at "story-quests ammount per week" instead of "story-quests per day". This is mostly due to human negative nature of remembering only bad situation/days and not appreciating good ones.

Most of the days i am getting 2 logs from quests and 1 from shop, but sometimes 3-4 logs daily.

[V.V.]

I could care less about the logs... I'm annoyed by all the baked food I need to make to feed all my animals. Then on top of that, they always ask for the same ones and I just got another quest today wanting that same baked good that I keep having to make to feed my animals. I'm low key annoyed by this.

Not enough walnuts in the world to keep up with these demands.

[LotusBlade]

Originally posted by V.V.:

Not enough walnuts in the world to keep up with these demands. :Deathstone:

At day 25-ish don't have any problems with any foods. Nut trees producing walnuts, if you have 5-8 it should be enough to keep up a good pace. Have around 25 food recipes, animals are asking for different salats, some pickled fruits, tart and cookies with jam in the middle, most of which easy to make and even gifted for doing quests.

Currently the only thing that stalls me is lack of hungry animals.

[Urfarah]

Today one of my deers asked me for a Famer's Salad (6 fancy greens, 1 happy imp essence, and 10 roasted fruit) and I straight up sold them and bought another deer. I can deal with cheap recipes but when they get too fancy and ask me for anything that costs imp essence or multiple roasted fruit, it's just not worth it. Imp essence is a pain to come by and roasted fruit is the ingredient for fruit tincture, THE main source of money, so, it's not even a possibility trading those precious materials for a measly 3 deer essence and an onion.

[Nefrarya]

Originally posted by Urfarah:

Today one of my deers asked me for a Famer's Salad (6 fancy greens, 1 happy imp essence, and 10 roasted fruit) and I straight up sold them and bought another deer. [...]

Harsh. But I totally get it.

[Freakins]

lol you guys all just seem so impatient. I see post after post about how slow this game is etc etc. It's supposed to be a casual, chill game. I find it a very relaxing and adorable respite from other more intense games. As you play and open up new areas, there's much more to do so I encourage you to keep going and just let the world unfold. I'm a hoarder in games so I tend to hang on to things thinking bears or animals are going to want items. I know if you haven't upgraded your backpack, it can be difficult to do this. As for making money, selling things like veggie broth, mushroom tofu, the fruit jam as mentioned, shells (they've actually increased the value lately), donating things to Captain's colllection (esp rarer fish and shells) with get you lots of coin. I too get disappointed when there's slow progression of the island but I then go to arranging little spaces with the themed decorations and animals. It isn't a game for everyone but if you are an in-game hoarder like me and appreciate the cute detailed little world then it's worth the time imo.

[Nefrarya]

There's nice slow that flows really well and gives the feeling of steady progression & small accomplishments. And then there is throwing-sand-in-the-gears slow that is just grating for no discernible reason.

[LotusBlade]

Originally posted by Urfarah:

Today one of my deers asked me for a Famer's Salad (6 fancy greens, 1 happy imp essence, and 10 roasted fruit) and I straight up sold them and bought another deer. I can deal with cheap recipes but when they get too fancy and ask me for anything that costs imp essence or multiple roasted fruit, it's just not worth it.

That is a mistake. Why? Because you need adult and old creatures essences to craft strong foods, even by day 25+ i have no single old animal, sadly. Top tier food requirements are CHEAP, but the only problem is epic essences.

Examples:
— Cob Salad (2 eggs, 6 fancy greens, 1 happy bird ess) = $4800;
— Pretzel (2 flour, 1 salt, 1 happy bird ess) = $4000;
— Vegan Challah (2 flour, 5 roast veggies, 1 joy bird ess) = $6000;
— Sour Dough (2 flour, 2 salt, 1 joy deer ess) = $6000;
— Lembas (2 flour, 5 roast muchrooms, 1 joy imp ess) = $6000.

Gathering from a single animal means you can make 3 of such foods at once and earn up to 18k daily per animal. This allows to buy everything from fox even without fruit trees / bushes / fishing.

Flour is not a problem if you have few nut trees.
Salt can be bought from Fox for 1k or found from ores.
Roast mush and veggies,- there is even nothing to discuss, you get tons of it daily.
The only problem is essences, so do not sell creatures.

[Urfarah]

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

That is a mistake.

I don't really care. When I have another 5 deer that are not making absurd demands and 6 birds, I can spare a deer and a bird if/when they act up. I don't have that many joyous essences to spare, true, but I'm positively swimming in happy bird and deer essences (50+). One deer/bird less for a couple of days is no problem at all and I designed it to be such (by creating the environment to house a lot of them since it's cheap). My camp looks like a complete mess, but it works quite well.

I had also a demon bird make that same Farmer's Salad request a couple of days ago. Fortunately it coincided with Capt. Bear asking me for a bird, so I gave that little devil away without a second thought.

[Freakins]

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

Originally posted by Urfarah:

Today one of my deers asked me for a Famer's Salad (6 fancy greens, 1 happy imp essence, and 10 roasted fruit) and I straight up sold them and bought another deer. I can deal with cheap recipes but when they get too fancy and ask me for anything that costs imp essence or multiple roasted fruit, it's just not worth it.

That is a mistake. Why? Because you need adult and old creatures essences to craft strong foods, even by day 25+ i have no single old animal, sadly. Top tier food requirements are CHEAP, but the only problem is epic essences.

Examples:
— Cob Salad (2 eggs, 6 fancy greens, 1 happy bird ess) = $4800;
— Pretzel (2 flour, 1 salt, 1 happy bird ess) = $4000;
— Vegan Challah (2 flour, 5 roast veggies, 1 joy bird ess) = $6000;
— Sour Dough (2 flour, 2 salt, 1 joy deer ess) = $6000;
— Lembas (2 flour, 5 roast muchrooms, 1 joy imp ess) = $6000.

Gathering from a single animal means you can make 3 of such foods at once and earn up to 18k daily per animal. This allows to buy everything from fox even without fruit trees / bushes / fishing.

Flour is not a problem if you have few nut trees.
Salt can be bought from Fox for 1k or found from ores.
Roast mush and veggies,- there is even nothing to discuss, you get tons of it daily.
The only problem is essences, so do not sell creatures.

Don't forget you get "epic essences" from quests, uniting broken-hearted imps as well. Granted it's not a lot but it does help. And of course some of those recipes you listed not everyone has yet. I'm day 28 and I don't have pretzel, sour dough or lembas. I've fished, donated etc to get recipes and it's pretty random with some of them.

[Freakins]

Originally posted by Urfarah:

Originally posted by LotusBlade:

That is a mistake.

I don't really care. When I have another 5 deer that are not making absurd demands and 6 birds, I can spare a deer and a bird if/when they act up. I don't have that many joyous essences to spare, true, but I'm positively swimming in happy bird and deer essences (50+). One deer/bird less for a couple of days is no problem at all and I designed it to be such (by creating the environment to house a lot of them since it's cheap). My camp looks like a complete mess, but it works quite well.

I had also a demon bird make that same Farmer's Salad request a couple of days ago. Fortunately it coincided with Capt. Bear asking me for a bird, so I gave that little devil away without a second thought.

lol everyone has the way they want to play and yours is neither wrong nor right. It's YOUR way. You might consider taking those extra essences and converting them up to joyous if that's what you need. You can get those recipes by donating to the Captain or I've also found them while fishing.

[Urfarah]

Yeah, I've been hoarding essences a bit because I don't know what the quests/crafting might ask (been going for the spooky/witchy theme but it's so hard to get the recipes and furniture you want). Was doing the same with iron until yesterday, when I converted around 100 ingots to silver because I was starting to run out of space.

It would be very nice if we had an organized logbook that showed all the possible things you can make and simply highlighted the ones you already have a recipe for (because my Capt. Bear donation book is already looking like a complete mess and there's no way to properly sort any of the stuff in there by filters, like rarity and such. And that book doesn't list furniture, which is a huge downside). But, alas, no such luck.