This game is great! (Relationship Dynamics)

[Vexare]

I'm going to preface my post with the admission I've never really gotten into 'cozy farm sim' games before now. Maybe shocking to some, but I'm not a fan of Stardew Valley due to the repetition and grinding of materials in an endless loop.

So why did I buy this one and love it? Why is it different?

The Relationship dynamics actually feel much more realistic and rewarding. That's the best explanation I've come up with that sums up what motivates me to keep playing it.

That 'endless loop' I said I didn't like about Stardew is completely different for this game because you become very motivated to keep your 'lineage' alive and prospering over just your farm. This goal is much more rewarding, to me, than spending years in a farm sim where you have multi-million dollar crops and artisan goods to show for your time. I became obsessed with finding a partner, keeping everyone healthy from the dreaded pox, and progressing my tiny farm into a better place for my family to live and go on into the next generation. I'm a huge Sims fan over many years of playing it and this game touches along some of the same dynamic motivations in a simplified system that I think is worth making more complex and interesting as the game progresses.


Here are a few Relationship & Family Suggestions I would like to pitch at the developers:

1. Family Entertainment - I'd love to see more ways for families to interact both in the home, and outside. Activities that help my character's children grow and learn, fun ways to work together (cook, read, play games, etc) that builds character traits, skills and bonuses is very motivating to me.
   
   
2. Neighborly Benefits - Sending my child to apprentice with another family should require a good relationship with that family as well as boost (buff) production and happiness for both families. Additionally, my character should be able to apprentice a child from another family as 'farm help' just like they can with mine. This would enable me to send my child to learn other skills in another family while also gaining a helper on my farm with crops/animals.
   
   
3. Family Dynamic Options - After participating in the 'male pregnancy' discussion (it's a respectfully good debate), I think Family Dynamics in this game are great and allows for all types of families... blended families with stepkids, adoptive families, same sex couples and families, and yes, even same sex pregnancy. However, I think these things should be optional and up to the player to decide. Currently you can choose which kids from another family move into your household if you marry their parent, this is great (except only 4 in a household is tough). You can choose your own partner regardless of sex or gender, and you get to choose whether you want to have children or not as well as which parent has the pregnancy. I would like to see the option in settings to turn that off if the player would prefer opposite sex couples only. Choices are always a good thing so that all players can play the way they are comfortable and does not go against their personal beliefs.
   
   
4. Extended Families - This was brought up in another post and I think it's very important the developers take a look at as the game matures and family lineages grow larger. How do you address the problem of incestuous marriages in a community so small? There aren't enough villagers for everyone to get a spouse randomly, so invariably someone's going to end up related. Someone pointed out an Uncle married their Niece/Nephew randomly in the village population. While historically yes, this did happen sometimes in societies, we generally discourage it for genetic reasons. I think it needs some programming work to tag blood-related relatives as off limits for random marriages. Now that I know this is a thing, I'm not wanting to send my kids out into the world away from the family (and I can't bring a spouse in for them due to the family size limit) if they might accidentally marry a close blood-relative. The fact that there's a pool of new/random people who arrive on the ship every Saturday should help inject new blood into the village genetic pool to avoid relatives marrying. Please take a look at this for future updates.
   
   
5. Family Traits - It seems, currently, children get random traits when they age up to adults. I'd like to see an option for players to influence the traits their children get via the time and effort they spend with the child. This would motivate players to work with their offspring and be rewarded with optional traits that will make the child into better workers as they become adults in whatever trade skill they choose. Give me some quests that increase learning and creativity for my offspring and then when they age up, I can choose from 2-3 traits they can "inherit" from my current parent, or traits they learned via their apprenticeship or farm help progress. Gifts I give my child could even affect what traits they might receive. Lots of fun motivating ways to handle this mechanic!
   
   
6. Family Tree & Lineage Rewards - Ah, the infamous "Legacy Challenge" from The Sims! While this game is in no way a contender for a Sims competitor, it definitely has aspects that could be made more detailed for those who do love legacy style gameplay. I read that family trees are definitely in the works so that's great. I'd also like to see some sort of reward to the player for successfully continuing their lineage for a specific number of generations, or even per generation... even if just a decor item or something unique for that family such as a permanent buff chosen for the heir/head of household. This adds an extra layer of motivation and goals to the game loop other games don't offer and would make Echoes of the Plum Grow truly unique.

Summary: I love this game so far, and look forward to seeing where the developers take it! I appreciate many of the QoL features that make it less monotonous and repetitive, setting it apart from other life-sim farming games. My favorite game mechanic is the family and lineage and I would like to see the developers work on that with more detail, more options, and goals/quests that continue to motivate me to work on my character's skills and relationships over time.

Thanks for the adorable game and great job!

[donii]

+1 love this and agree with your relationship & family suggestions!

[WildlifeLover&GameEnthusiast]

I agree with all of this. Well said!

[bridgeofblues]

Hundred percent, allowing male pregnancy or nod, and just allowing the player have the options of having relationships and marriages being hetero homosexual and otherwise

[flappy bird user]

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

Hundred percent, allowing male pregnancy or nod, and just allowing the player have the options of having relationships and marriages being hetero homosexual and otherwise

dude. it's not going to change.

[bridgeofblues]

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

Hundred percent, allowing male pregnancy or nod, and just allowing the player have the options of having relationships and marriages being hetero homosexual and otherwise

dude. it's not going to change.

How about shut it.

[flappy bird user]

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

dude. it's not going to change.

How about shut it.

so much for the tolerant right ://

[bridgeofblues]

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

How about shut it.

so much for the tolerant right ://

Because you've been like this in two different threads.

[flappy bird user]

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

so much for the tolerant right ://

Because you've been like this in two different threads.

could say the same for u! :3 it's not changing and devs have confirmed it. let it go

[bridgeofblues]

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

Because you've been like this in two different threads.

could say the same for u! :3 it's not changing and devs have confirmed it. let it go

I was actually on the discord for a while, but fell off. I'm a little disappointed. I just wish they gave us an option. The doing it through mods, is aggravating. Especially when they don't even have a steam workshop set up.

[flappy bird user]

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

could say the same for u! :3 it's not changing and devs have confirmed it. let it go

I was actually on the discord for a while, but fell off. I'm a little disappointed. I just wish they gave us an option. The doing it through mods, is aggravating. Especially when they don't even have a steam workshop set up.

womp womp learn how to mod

[bridgeofblues]

Originally posted by flappy bird user:

Originally posted by bridgeofblues:

I was actually on the discord for a while, but fell off. I'm a little disappointed. I just wish they gave us an option. The doing it through mods, is aggravating. Especially when they don't even have a steam workshop set up.

womp womp learn how to mod

Real mature

[The Toot Owl]

If you want to talk about the trigger subject please make your own thread, the OP started this thread for a different reason.

[bridgeofblues]

Originally posted by The Toot Owl:

If you want to talk about the trigger subject please make your own thread, the OP started this thread for a different reason.

It just brought up allowed the player to have an option simple as well. I agree with everything they actually listed.