Slowing the passage of time in-game?

[ceynomore]

Okay, just got this game a few weeks ago, finally started playing it for real.

So, to the developer(s), whom I am pretty sure are really, secretly, a team of squirrels chugging Surge all the time, are there any plans to slow down how fast the time goes by? I know Winter is Coming and we have to hurriedly prepare, but it takes enjoyment away from the game, to be honest. At least for me and other people I've spoken to.

I feel like a small adjustment, would find a happy medium between "fast enough to breeze through without getting bogged down" and "oh jesus god why I am running running running trying to get things done AW HELL I MISSED THE THING" or "I FORGOT A THING now I have to run back but oops it's too late"?

I think the current rate is every 10 seconds IRL, 10 minutes passes by in game? I play the game to reduce my anxiety, because it's a LOVELY game, but sometimes it actually affects my anxiety / makes it worse, as well, because of the lack of "ahhh, I can just take a breather and wander around for a minute with no worries". And then the game becomes frustrating.

I'd be more amiable to 20 or 30 seconds per ingame 10 minutes, I guess I'm used to how slow Harvest Moon was, but I really hate the "rushed" feeling of this game sometimes. Still, I've read how some people think 10 seconds = 10 minutes is "too slow", and I personally don't understand that unless someone is trying to do a serious speedrun / crunch / it's just a numbers game and less about enjoyment.

[Nightlight]

I'm just starting out as well; however I actually love how fast the passage of time is in this game and would be very unhappy if it was ever slowed down. I've been playing HM/SoS games for a long time and one of the things that can practically kill them for me is slow time progression. It can really turn a game that I should love and think is great into a game that I simply just like and think is kind of a drag to get through (that's what happened to me with Harvest Moon: Animal Parade.) Of course, there are people who like/prefer slower time progression, and I respect that, but it's definitely not for me. IMO, Stardew Valley goes at just the right pace, not too fast (HM SNES,) but not too slow (HM AP.)

[Spockus]

Am i the only one who has never f*cked up to the point where I have to restart a day? Also the game is actually very long, you don't have any major events occur besides festivals until Kent's return at the start of year 2.

[Duplo]

There is a time slow mod, but I never honestly felt the need for it. Mind you that when I played Harvest Moon back in the day, I'd love to freeze time in-doors, but it just doesn't seem as necessary these days to micromanage every moment- especially in a chill game like Stardew.

The days are also moderately long as is.

[Alfon]

I can't believe this XD, so many people with anxiety problems XD. Ok, this is a tip: You don't need to do EVERYTHING at the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ same time. Losing a minigame or a festival is not the end of the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ world. Losing a birthday doesn't mean really anything, you'll have hundreds of oportunities to fix it in the future.

Maybe this has something to do with how linear videogames have become, if you leave true freedom, people don't know what to do with it and they create their own chains XD, it's really interesting from a psychological point of view.

Take it easy, guys. One year happens really fast. Don't need to worry for losing events or shopping. I assure you, you will have another chance XD

Almost three years here and I never restarted any day. Not needed, cause the game let us do everything at our own pace.

[tehdoktur]

Originally posted by cey:

... it takes enjoyment away from the game, to be honest. At least for me and other people I've spoken to.

I'd be in that group. I still think it's an excellent game but I, often enough to put a voice in this thread, fall into the "at times it takes enjoyment away from the game" catagory.

Originally posted by cey:

... I play the game to reduce my anxiety, because it's a LOVELY game, but sometimes it actually affects my anxiety / makes it worse, as well, because of the lack of "ahhh, I can just take a breather and wander around for a minute with no worries". And then the game becomes frustrating.

I can see this, to more than a small extent this game falls in the 'casual' games genre and sometimes the pacing leans away from 'play and enjoy as you like' and more into 'rush rush rush run run run to get this done'.

Originally posted by cey:

... Still, I've read how some people think 10 seconds = 10 minutes is "too slow", ...

Another reason some control, even just adding a '50% slower' and '50% faster' choice, would allow all play types to be more enjoyable.

Originally posted by dino_inc:

If you want, you could get a time mod to slow down the rate of the game.

True, but it would be nice if (even some) choice of game speed was a core feature of the game not something that required multiple steps on the users end and always some (even if albeit small) risk of an error.

Is there something I'm missing here as to why it would be a hard (or negative) option to add to the game and why letting it be a variable wouldn't just increase player enjoyment across the board? On the face it just seems like a designer win/win to include in this style of game.
(People who want slower can, people who want faster can, people who want it the same can.)

[Danté]

Is it just me that is being reminded of LoZ:Ocarina of Time by this kind of stuff or?

[Sezz]

Unlocking the minecarts really helps cut down the amount of time you take walking across town. I feel like I have heaps of extra time to spend in the mines now.

[Geothermal1159]

Originally posted by tehdoktur:

Is there something I'm missing here as to why it would be a hard (or negative) option to add to the game and why letting it be a variable wouldn't just increase player enjoyment across the board? On the face it just seems like a designer win/win to include in this style of game.
(People who want slower can, people who want faster can, people who want it the same can.)

My question is though what happens to the player character if you play it slower?
If not then why would you ever play it on the faster mode?

Just think about if the only things that change in the slow mode is that you get more time to do everything then why would you not take advantage of this by tilling/fishing/spelunking/gift giving more as opposed to the faster version that only reduces the time you have other than as a challenge?

[Geothermal1159]

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

My question is though what happens to the player character if you play it slower?
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Nothing

If not then why would you ever play it on the faster mode?
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Because they like it going faster


Just think about if the only things that change in the slow mode is that you get more time to do everything then why would you not take advantage of this by tilling/fishing/spelunking/gift giving more as opposed to the faster version that only reduces the time you have other than as a challenge?
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There's a large number of people who think slower would be to slow and would play the faster version so that the game would go faster. Heck, I even use all three speeds when I play plague inc depending on how fast I want the game to go, not to make into any sort of challenge.

1) This is the most interesting way I have ever seen someone do a quote in the forums ever and was slightly confused at first but I sorta like it.

Anyways

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

Just think about if the only things that change in the slow mode is that you get more time to do everything then why would you not take advantage of this by tilling/fishing/spelunking/gift giving more as opposed to the faster version that only reduces the time you have other than as a challenge?
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There's a large number of people who think slower would be to slow and would play the faster version so that the game would go faster. Heck, I even use all three speeds when I play plague inc depending on how fast I want the game to go, not to make into any sort of challenge.

Plague Inc is a very different game with a very different objective as well as how to achieve those goals and also the interaction is very minmal compared to this game (you click a few bubbles and the game is paused whenever you look at the upgrades).

Also "liking to play faster" would be handicapping yourself as you are litterally only reducing the amount of time you have to complete any activity for no gain other than being too impatient or doing a challenge run as there would be no benifit to playing the faster speed.

[Alfon]

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

Also "liking to play faster" would be handicapping yourself as you are litterally only reducing the amount of time you have to complete any activity for no gain other than being too impatient or doing a challenge run as there would be no benifit to playing the faster speed.
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This assumes that the game has an overarching objective when by it's very nature it relies heavily on users deciding there own personal goals. There is no victory screen, the game is endless, barely anything is misable and there's literally nothing to handicap.

Yeah, that's the problem. People can't understand the meaning of "FREEDOM". They create stupidly tight-closed goals and when they can't reach them, they come here complaining about how fast the time passes.

The game is ok. The problem is from the player part. In two years, in this game, if you play quickly you can have almost everything done. If each day were longer, you could complete the game in less than one year losing the sense of progression.

The game is ok, guys. Some of you are the problem. I think the logical thing here would be to adapt to the game. Not making the game adapt to you.

Anyway. I really do not expect a lot of people to understand this.

[survivalistic]

I have not read all comments , but to give my opinnion on the mather , in stardew valley there is no rush and you can never miss out on something. im playing on year 3 about 70+ hours into the game , and i have not completed the community bundles yet , i have not befriended anyone (only have a wife) im at level 105 in the mines , ive got deluxe barn and all that stuff , i have only upgraded my house once...you could argue that i am a bad player but in this game you actually cannot be bad you play at your own pace , i am also bad with schedules and i am the worst planner but i have achieved lots of things even when it toolk me long , most people already finished the entire game on year 3 to give you an idea how slow i am. im bassicly less then halfway through the game i have lots and lots todo but that doesnt bother me at all i continue. you bassicly get infinite time to finish the game and there are no losers or winners you bassicly progress however you want. ive nothing against mods but i think a game should be played as the developer intended it to be, slowing down time wil only make the game easier and less of a achievement in the end. i think it would be almost like cheating if you would do such a thing. look at it this way the years you have wasted ingame wil give you more playtime and more stuff todo in the end , dont rush through the experience , but experience the game as intended. i might finish the game in year 10 instead of 3 but really what does it mather when its fun todo?

[Geothermal1159]

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

Plague Inc is a very different game with a very different objective as well as how to achieve those goals and also the interaction is very minmal compared to this game
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It still shows that people will play at different speeds dependent on how much time they feel like devoting to the objective. Especially with SDV save system, there would be a prounced difference on how fast you could save/progress through the years.

It is still not a very great example due to the fact that in Plague Inc when you speed something up EVERYTHING is speed up and when something is slown down EVERYTHING is slown down unlike what is being suggested for SDV which would give the player more time in the day without slowing down the character to compensate or some other way to balance it.

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

Also "liking to play faster" would be handicapping yourself as you are litterally only reducing the amount of time you have to complete any activity for no gain other than being too impatient or doing a challenge run as there would be no benifit to playing the faster speed.
-------------

This assumes that the game has an overarching objective when by it's very nature it relies heavily on users deciding there own personal goals. There is no victory screen, the game is endless, barely anything is misable and there's literally nothing to handicap.

The game does not need a victory screen nor does it even need to have it's own goals for there to be a handicap especially when what is being talked about is something that would literally give your character more time to complete any goals you set up for yourself in any given day compared to one that takes away the amount of time to do it.

To note this is different than Plague Inc as with Plague Inc any actions can be done as quickly as you can click and move the mouse with everything else being more or less automated (Exceptions being vampire, zombies, monkeys, trojan jets, ect... but they are still speed up or slown down by the global speed) so if you speed up time it isn't handicapping yourself timewise as you still have the same amount of relative time same with slowing things down.

[Geothermal1159]

Originally posted by SlackerBoe:

Except that's not at all what's happening. There is no problem at all, only preference. Just because I can enjoy something more one way does not mean that it's bad or unenjoyable the way it is.

But from what I am reading people ARE finding it unenjoyable to try and complete a bunch of things in a time crunch thus the reason why this thread was made.

All Sorenzor said was that people don't need to try and do so many things at once everyday as it isn't neccessary as you have unlimited time and there are no missable events so they should just relax a bit and take things a bit slower themselves and not try to make the game take it slower for them. (correct me if I am wrong but this was the impression that I got from what I read of Sorenzor's post)

[Spockus]

Just to ask, when do y'all generally go to bed on Stardew? I feel like some people don't realize that the energy penalty you take for staying up past midnight doesn't really handicap you all that much, I just eat a Blackberry cobbler or a few eggs to put my energy back up, and that's if I even need it all since my max is like 410.

[kevinshow]

Currently I am sleeping around 8-9pm, mostly because my energy runs out around then. There was even one time I slept around 1 or 2pm. However, as I advance more and can get the energy foods, I'll be able to stay up later.

When I go mining, I tend to return between 12-1 am to get to sleep. I use the energy foods (which are also HP foods) there since I want to stay mining as long as possible.