Why shared money works (and is superior)

[Horko Rosso]

Alright, I've seen a lot of posts about "Shared money is dumb!" or whatever, but if you think about it a little bit more, shared money makes the most sense

So, tell me, why doesn't individual money work?

Alright, let's start by thinking the game has individual money, so the first question is, who gets what? What's stopping other players from taking your crops and putting it in their basket? Or players who get to the mine a little bit faster than you, they get to sell everything and you either have to catch up to them or wait until tomorrow. That's not very fun, that sounds awfully competetive for a cooperative game.

Yeah but wait, we're mature people! We can talk about who gets what

Oh, you mean you're able to talk about who gets what money and what they get to spend the money on...?

Okay, okay, so why is shared money better?

Good question! I'll tell ya.

Let's talk about the first backpack upgrade, 2000! Not bad, right? But wait, what if you have a specific person dedicated to farming, they're going to earn a lot more a lot sooner, because you don't make much from fishing at first... that kinda sucks, huh?

Okay, but what if money was split up between all the players instead of just shared?

Okay, that means you only earn 50%, 33% or even 25% of the total money, so the backpack is relatively 2, 3, or 4 times more expensive, and that's one of the cheaper individual upgrades, UNLESS each player is bringing in the same amount of money.

So is there anyway that individual money could work?

Sure, we could have a group bank, or be able to donate money to each other, but, what's the point of that when we can just all share money? Being able to donate money or have a group bank on a game of only a small amount of people/friends you have personally invited feels kinda... pointless when you can all share money.

My (farfetched) suggestion!

I personally think that some sort of competetive mode would be kind of cool, each player gets their own farm, they each have individual money, they are each scored differently, and so on.

But, Stardew Valley isn't really the kind of game that I play to be competetive, so it's hard to see this mode fitting in the game, but it's just a thing that would be kind of cool.


I am really enjoying the beta so far, the multiplayer is very well done, and I am having a lot of fun and 0 problems when it comes to enjoyment.

[ULTRA]

At least we have evolved from talking about something that will never come out to talking about Marxism and libertarianism for the 25th consecutive year on the internet

[rad rat ray]

individual wallets are better, but regardless, it should be an option either way. if you prefer shared money, then fine, and I can see it working better with certain playstyles, but yes, individual money does work and yes it should be an option.

Alright, let's start by thinking the game has individual money, so the first question is, who gets what? What's stopping other players from taking your crops and putting it in their basket?

Deciding who gets what is extremely simple compared to deciding who spends what -- you make it, you sell it. On the other hand, deciding who gets to use the money that you share requires more conversation. Is that a bad thing? Not necessarily, some might even prefer it, but you can't act like discussion is points against individual wallet while being a good thing with a shared wallet.

What's stopping someone from selling all your crops? Nothing. What's stopping someone from spending all the money you worked hard to earn? Nothing. What's stopping someone from harvesting all your crops and getting all the farming experience? Nothing. What's stopping someone from taking all your crops and giving them to townsfolk to boost their personal relationships? Nothing.

The solution is -- don't play with douche bags. This applies to both game modes.

Or players who get to the mine a little bit faster than you, they get to sell everything and you either have to catch up to them or wait until tomorrow. That's not very fun, that sounds awfully competetive for a cooperative game.

same as above, you can discuss these things with your friends. right now, they can already take all the items in the chests so that you can't use them, which is more important than selling whatever it is you're talking about as you can sell things from anywhere else on the map.

Yeah but wait, we're mature people! We can talk about who gets what

Oh, you mean you're able to talk about who gets what money and what they get to spend the money on...?

This is only further proof that there is still reason to interact even if you had individual wallets. Not everyone wants to optimize their farm as fast as possble, some people just want to relax and enjoy the game. It is about having the freedom to play the game in other ways, you don't have to choose this game mode.

Let's talk about the first backpack upgrade, 2000! Not bad, right? But wait, what if you have a specific person dedicated to farming, they're going to earn a lot more a lot sooner, because you don't make much from fishing at first... that kinda sucks, huh?

the backpack upgrade is actually a good example of why shared money is annoying to me, but either way, people seem to underestimate the size of your farm. even if two people wanted to farm a lot you each get 15 parsnip seeds at the beginning and you have hundreds of tiles of space to work with.

Sure, we could have a group bank, or be able to donate money to each other, but, what's the point of that when we can just all share money? Being able to donate money or have a group bank on a game of only a small amount of people/friends you have personally invited feels kinda... pointless when you can all share money.

the point is that we get the freedom to choose and that we can just relax and play with our friends on the farm without any hassle of who gets to spend what. It's not a matter of not trusting our friends it's a matter of doing our own thing while occasionally meeting up to work together. don't say "just play solo" this is something we have fun doing.

I personally think that some sort of competetive mode would be kind of cool, each player gets their own farm, they each have individual money, , and so on.

But, Stardew Valley isn't really the kind of game that I play to be competetive, so it's hard to see this mode fitting in the game, but it's just a thing that would be kind of cool.

I'm not really interested in competitive, just playing the game with friends and having a good time.

I am really enjoying the beta so far, the multiplayer is very well done, and I am having a lot of fun and 0 problems when it comes to enjoyment.

I'm really enjoying it too, but I think that it could be better if we had more options.

Also worth mentioning that the developer recently tweeted that he was considering changing some things/adding some new things in not related to bugs, but that his priority is on bugs right now.

[Seraphita]

As I said before, if YOU think that separate money works (without doing a balance break), it's your job to convince the devs that it should be added to the game. Then hope for it being added.

[rad rat ray]

Originally posted by Zero:

As I said before, if YOU think that separate money works (without doing a balance break), it's your job to convince the devs that it should be added to the game. Then hope for it being added.

read last paragraph, it's possible he's already considering it

[Seraphita]

Originally posted by rad rat ray:

read last paragraph, it's possible he's already considering it

You said "considering changing some things", it doesn't say anything about wallet. Therefore, don't give up yet. My point still stands. It's your job to convince the devs that your idea is good.

[rad rat ray]

Originally posted by Zero:

Originally posted by rad rat ray:

read last paragraph, it's possible he's already considering it

You said "considering changing some things", it doesn't say anything about wallet. Therefore, don't give up yet. My point still stands. It's your job to convince the devs that your idea is good.

no, he said changing and adding. that's why I said it's a possibility. either way, that's not how criticism works. you don't tell someone "talk to them directly" you post feedback when something is in beta, or even when it's not in beta, so they can improve the game.

[Seraphita]

Ugh... I wonder why you're so dense... Do you understand english properly or not? I never said "talk to them directly". I said. "it's your job to convince the devs". And you do this with feedback about the beta. You need to convince the devs through said feedback that your idea is good.

And "changing and adding things" still does not guarantee anything about the wallet. Hopefully you understand that I'm just trying to help you, here. Not even disagreeing with you or anything. If you think that your idea is great then give them feedback and explain why you think it's needed.

[Noct]

I prefer shared wallet but that doesn't mean I want to force that style on someone else. I think there should be an option, decided by the Host, to play wallets as shared (Co-Op) or separate (Multiplayer).

It migth be wishful thinking it will be added or changed in time for launch, as I'm sure he is just focused on fixing bugs for now. However there is nothing wrong with making your voice heard for a perhaps 1.3.1 addition after launch when bugs fixed.
-

[Chocice75]

If shared money is removed in multiplayer, I'll never play the multiplayer again because it's supposed to be co-op, not "Who harvests the crops first!" or "Who mines faster!" or "Who catches more fish!".
And anyway, the host can take things from an offline farmhand's inventory, so they can just take everything the farmhand forgot to sell and sell it themselves.

[Seraphita]

^ This is a problem with separate money. It will be hell AND effectively competitive mode. Oh I need more money but I don't have any. Let's steal some of my friend's crop. Wtf. This is not PVP SV, it's cooperation SV. Aka shared money. Stealing crops can't hurt anybody in shared money.

[rad rat ray]

Originally posted by Zero:

Ugh... I wonder why you're so dense... Do you understand english properly or not? I never said "talk to them directly". I said. "it's your job to convince the devs". And you do this with feedback about the beta. You need to convince the devs through said feedback that your idea is good.

literally exactly what I'm doing here

And "changing and adding things" still does not guarantee anything about the wallet.

literally said "possibility" about 3 times now

Hopefully you understand that I'm just trying to help you, here. Not even disagreeing with you or anything. If you think that your idea is great then give them feedback and explain why you think it's needed.

By calling someone dense even though you're the one who doesn't understand?

[rad rat ray]

Originally posted by Noct:

I prefer shared wallet but that doesn't mean I want to force that style on someone else. I think there should be an option, decided by the Host, to play wallets as shared (Co-Op) or separate (Multiplayer).

Exactly

If shared money is removed in multiplayer, I'll never play the multiplayer again

Good news, it won't be removed nor is anyone asking for it to be removed.

[No' Name]

TL;DR (too long, didn't read myself, this is no short answer) EDIT*

Let's ask ourselves how NOT sharing money would work?

Simple, you add a trigger inside the game allowing other farmhands unable to touch your crops, and or items, and put a sale box by ALL the Cabins, thus activating another trigger, which is separate to each and every playing in the game. (Simple Rpg Maker triggers really).

You could also program in an option, where the host could choose, whether money was shared, or not, to at least give players the option to share money, or to have separate money.

I'm by no means bashing this post, I'm just saying, adding certain triggers, and or programming them in, isn't that hard, it simply takes a bit of time, and money, which clearly the Devs did NOT care for.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but this "Beta" of multiplayer, is simply a rip off of somebody else's work, who created a Multiplayer MOD a long time ago, which acts exactly the same, only now it's "Official". Again, this isn't trying to bash the Devs, the game, or anyone else in anyway. It's simply stating the obvious (from my knowledge that is).

I think the only thing that was really different from the MOD, was adding in Cabins.

That being said, I think sharing money is a good idea, because if you all own a Farm together, the game should be based on cooperation. And for the most part, even playing with random people, everyone is generally nice about things, and usually brings up what they want to do, or ask if they can spend the money on certain items. So I've no real beef with anyone I've played with.

Though people really should stop treating the "Host" of the game like royalty, because at the end of the day, everyone who joins, is part of the same game.

Just my opinion.

[rad rat ray]

Stealing crops can't hurt anybody in shared money.

here, let me harvest somebody else's crops and get all the farming experience for myself. Here, let me take the crops and give them to other townsfolk to increase my relationship with them. Or should we make skills and relationships the same too? or here, let me harvest your crops and just throw them away.

stop pretending this option is going to stop people from trolling -- it won't

[Seraphita]

Originally posted by rad rat ray:

Originally posted by Zero:

Ugh... I wonder why you're so dense... Do you understand english properly or not? I never said "talk to them directly". I said. "it's your job to convince the devs". And you do this with feedback about the beta. You need to convince the devs through said feedback that your idea is good.

literally exactly what I'm doing here

And "changing and adding things" still does not guarantee anything about the wallet.

literally said "possibility" about 3 times now

Hopefully you understand that I'm just trying to help you, here. Not even disagreeing with you or anything. If you think that your idea is great then give them feedback and explain why you think it's needed.

By calling someone dense even though you're the one who doesn't understand?

Let's correct you. Possibility is AIR. It doesn't mean ♥♥♥♥ unless the words of the dev was "we might consider wallet". Did he say so? If he did, please link it in this thread, thanks. Next...

If you were literally doing that here, where is your thread? I don't see it. What you are doing HERE is only disagree with another thread. Devs won't look at every thread in search of criticism. If they even look at this forum, they will rather look at both sides (and this means criticism threads)

So yes, I called you dense because you don't seem to understand english or whatever is being explained to you. And you keep arguing with me even though that will achieve nothing for you.