Anyone else feel the same way?

[No' Name]

So I bought the game way back when it first launched, played the heck out of it, after seeing what it had to offer for a week or so, I decided to make a new playthrough, because I had decided I was going to Marry Abigail before the end of Summer, which I did back then. However that's where I soon afterward felt myself just getting bored of the game entirely, and have tried to play this game on, and off, but just couldn't get that same feeling I had when I first played the game, and had that motivation of "Wooing" Abigail before Summer ended, this is all during the first year mind you.

So as mods came out, I tried them on and off, none of them really appealed to me, and none still do really, except cosmetic one's such as seasonal clothing, where it's actually refreshing to see the characters wear something new each day, other than that, I really couldn't see a massive use for mods, as it wasn't really making my life any easier, or difficult with the game.

Coming back after a while of not touching it, I didn't touch 1.4,, heck I'm not even sure I was around during 1.3, alas, coming back when 1.5 hit, I seen a bunch of new content I haven't previously experienced, and much more with 1.5. Sadly after doing some research, it seems as if it's more or less "End Game" stuff with the exception of the beach farm for the most part.

Anyways, after coming back, I once again decided to try and get Abigail before the end of first year's summer, and I was insanely lucky with the amount of Amethysts being forked out to me in dungeons, so I was able to give her favorite gift twice every week, whilst talking with her, got super lucky with the rainy whether that allowed me to purchase the Mermaid Bracelet, and by the 28th of summer first year was able to get Married. However, this isn't the part that has be bored right now, or at least not all of it.

It's the feeling I get now where it "Feels" like I've done everything the game has to offer, even though quite clearly I haven't. However, I have my house upgraded to the point where I have a nursery now, two extra rooms, and not sure if it's a bug or not, but renovating my house after obtaining a nursery didn't cost a dime, I was able to demo the house, and get the extra rooms. Bought myself a nice catalogue to get all the Wallpaper's and Floorings, and now just awaiting the arrival of the kid.

I started a new on the Beach Farm, and after getting to the end of summer, finally decided I was tired of manually watering plants, so I finally installed the mod that allowed me to use sprinklers on the farm, as much as I wanted to keep to the quirk of the farm, it's just a bit much for me.

I maxed out my fishing, my mining, got to the 120th floor of the cave within a month, unlocked the bus to Skull Cavern, got to the 25th floor within a little over half of the summer.

Thought getting a Chicken Coop, and Barn would help out a bit, or give me something more to do, but it honestly feels like it doesn't.

Maybe I'm just burnt out because of how much I have played this lately, also due to not picking a different spouse, but it's just the "Feeling" like I've done everything now that has set in. Again, quite clearly I haven't, but, at this point in time trying to finish the community center, I almost want to install those "Cheat" mods, just so I can "move on already". I'm currently in the middle of Fall first year, and I'm dreading the thought of when winter comes around.

I also missed the Octopus in Summer, which kinda upsets me, because I don't think I've ever seen what's past the Glittering Rock.

Anyways, just my thoughts.

[GeorgeJJR]

How many hours have you put into the game? For most people, almost every activity gets tiring if you spend too much time on it -- its why even people paid to do "fun" activities like professional athletes, musicians and actors take off-seasons and breaks. And even the best computer games are much more limited than sports, music and acting.

Your line "Maybe I'm just burnt out because of how much I have played this lately" is probably right on the money.

[Yirggzmb]

Honestly, I would guess it probably *is* because of rushing and trying to get everything really quickly. I tend to burn out if I spend a lot of energy really really trying to complete all the things asap, and also get more frustrated if I miss things and have to wait.

I'd also add that, personally, getting married basically "killed" the game for me the one time I bothered with it. That said, it was mostly because my spouse would get cranky with me for merely trying to improve friendship with the other "marriage candidates". The wiki is telling me that this has since been adjusted some and is less of a problem though.

Some suggestions, take or leave as you like:
- It seems you enjoyed the process of "wooing" your partner in game. Do you think channeling some of that energy into then being "really good friends" with other people would give you the same feeling?
- I do not believe the octopus is required for finishing the fishing bundle, which is the one that removes the glittering rock. So it's ok that you missed it.
- Most of the fish in the fishing bundle can be caught in multiple seasons
- The crab pot part of the fishing bundle can be completed without ever putting out a crab pot
- Winter is a great time for fishing as there's a decent amount of winter-only fish that sell for a good amount
- Since animal stuff is a big part of the bundles, perhaps you'd enjoy having several animals? They're set up so you basically need one of each anyway, or getting lucky with the travelling cart
- Would completing the museum be fun for you?
- The special orders board has been enjoyable, for me, as a way to have different things to do

And honestly, after a certain point, the game is going to run out of things to do and continuing to play after that is a matter of just wanting to. You may end up hitting that point sooner than the game does, and that may end up being ok.

[Pixel Peeper]

You're essentially repeating content you've already done.

If you want to see the new content you should either be using your most advanced save (assuming you're close to completing the Community Centre) or starting a new playthrough on the Joja route to very quickly unlock Ginger Island.

There's literally nothing beyond the boulder so you don't worry about that. All removing it does is give you an extremely, extremely inefficient way of collecting minerals randomly.

[kingjames488]

nope. I've never even bothered getting married and the game is still fun to play through as a farming sandbox off and on. maybe you want something more RPGish?

[Ulthwé]

Games don't have an infinite amount of content to offer. At some point any game will lead to boredom. I got 107 hours on a single save, it was really fun playing, I didn't achieve the whole game though, so I guess i could play another hundred hours, but after that, I would probably move on as well. It is already huge for a game which didn't cost a lot as someone pointed out!

[GamerBear]

It's naturally to feel burnt out on a game, or anything you like really, when you put too many consecutive hours into it. I played Fallout 76 for a few weeks straight, now I'm taking a break and don't even want to do this season. The last week of 2020 I started a new farm to try out 1.5 of Stardew, I put 60 hours into it wanting to make sure I got the 4 candles and afterwards I did feel a bit burnt out and haven't put much time into the game.

I realized that, for me at least, I set my goal to be something in the middle of the game (year 2) when there is still a lot of other things I haven't done (Gold Clock, Max Friendship, 100% the game, etc). I put so much energy into that middle of the game goal that mentally I felt like I hit my accomplishment, and I just couldn't set the next goal without taking a break. I might feel bored, but I'm not really, it's probably more of exhausted.

My solution is that I'm taking a week off while I put together a checklist of all sorts of things I want to do, and then I'll time box my playing (a lot easier now that I'm back at work), make sure I have days off in between, and then try to make smaller bite size chunks of tasks to get to 100% the game.

[Tristin]

My second playthrough was much easier(per se info-wise) and much more planned than the first one. I literally searched up everything and planned everything, and filled the day with packed activities. Just from reading that you missed something, got excited for amethyst, got tired of watering tells me that you are just tired of doing tedious game. SDV is tedious game.

So to seeing you don't like tedious games anymore, sure it is understandable. But to see that you have may have not planned throughout and min-max everything with good thorough search shows that you were just doing repeated activities, same as previous playthrough. So, no wonder you get tired of it.

Try doing something different.. I see that you are going for somewhat of a speed run, quickly doing marriage whatnot. How about marrying and divorcing everyone? That's what I plan to do, and am half way there. Get all the possible items you can get, prepare all the items in large set amount so that whatever quest or new content comes out, you got the items (surely did for me for 1.5.0). Make the most efficient farm layout, make the most prettiest farm, use all the world for profit even in the NPC areas by detailing their path so they don't destroy your things.. etc. So hey, there's just plenty. You are just tired of doing tedious kind of game because you are rushing and we all are playing rushing game. Ever thought why people don't enjoy MMORPG anymore?

Also, be sure to backup your savefiles. I didn't really have to repeat too much because I started to backup my savefiles and continue. Since I only do new contents, I am not bored. I've aimed so much perfection in my savefile play, that I still remember everything even when I came back, and enjoy new contents.

[No' Name]

Originally posted by Tristin:

My second playthrough was much easier(per se info-wise) and much more planned than the first one. I literally searched up everything and planned everything, and filled the day with packed activities.

Just from reading that you missed something, got excited for amethyst, got tired of watering tells me that you are just tired of doing tedious game. SDV is tedious game.

So to seeing you don't like tedious games anymore, sure it is understandable. But to see that you have may have not planned throughout and min-max everything with good thorough search shows that you were just doing repeated activities, same as previous playthrough. So, no wonder you get tired of it.

Try doing something different... Not relying on mods or anything.

lol What are you talking about? The only mods I had before Fall, were Seasonal Outfits, NPC locations, and a mod that shows the price of items.

To say I haven't planned anything out is also ludicrous, seeing how I am already married with a child on the way, and I'm in my first year on day 13 in Fall. I think I've done quite a bit of planning.

Not only that, I have a house that has a nursery, made nearly 300K, finished the Cave (120 floor), went opened up the bus to Skull Cavern, finished getting to the 25th floor for the Extra 10K via the quest.

I have maxed out mining, fishing, my Farming, and foraging are both level 8, I'm confused on what you think I don't exactly have planned out?

Getting all that Amethyst is a chore, since it's not easy to come by, and unless I have the machine to duplicate them, which I did not, and even if I did, I wouldn't have been able to get married this early on, had I waited to get the recipe for it.

Did you even read what I posted? This is more than my second attempt at the game.

[Tristin]

Oh my bad. I'm just saying there's plenty to enjoy out of the game. Or maybe slow it down perhaps.

[masterful40]

The best way to fix that is just to take a break from the game. Just play something else for a month or so until you feel like coming back to Stardew. Works every time

[FafnirChaos]

I think the problem is your running through the game hoping to get to the end on a first play-through... This isn't that type of game. Look at it this way, in old school RPG's you grind and grind in order to proceed, this is pretty much the same as that. Skill means nothing in this game(Other then fishing) and is mostly just prepping for the next day.

[Watermelon Cat]

I've had a sort of similar experience with the 1.5 update. I love this game and used to play it for marathon sessions with a "just another day" thing going with it. Picking up my old saves though and trying to go through the new content has sort of left me feeling burnt out trying to find the new island stuff. Part of it is probably that I have built up my main farms to the point that they have this massive productivity that it just feels wrong to neglect even though I rationally know that it doesn't matter if I don't plant another massive crop of ancient fruit etc.

I've also sort of started getting this feeling of "Oh, another holiday is coming up. I should really see if there is new content." but at the same time sort of being frustrated that it will delay me from being able to continue working on the new areas etc.

Don't get me wrong, it's an amazing update and I'm grateful that so much effort is still being poured into the game.

I just find the concept of unlocking all of this stuff on my various farms daunting and haven't really gotten into it to the point that I usually only find myself playing for a couple in game days at a time.

[Sachith Perera]

I get that feeling. I came back to try out the beach layout. Got overwhelmed by the sheer size of it and early-game energy depletion of constant watering. I was maintaining a sizeable
strawberry field. I didn't make it to the first Summer.
Then I loaded up my previous year 3 save from a year ago to check out end game content. I'm not a fan of combat so the new Ginger island content wasn't that appealing, even with all the things like a tropical bar and new fruits. I'm going to start over with a Hill-top layout, which I have never tried. Stardew is clearly about the journey, not the destination.

[Včelí medvídek]

Do things differently. Eg. dont head toward same setup (like main profit go from ancient wine) - instead be a rancher and make 4 barns with sheeps as only source of profit or make large flower fields and lot of bees as your main job... pick second sikill perks than you usually do, be a breeder and make profit only from raising new ducks and sell the adults...

Date all possible bacheloress at once and piss them the off, throw mayor pants into luau soup.. chase ssecrets and easter eggs..

It is sandbox with somehoiw finite options and content - so especially if you finished the game (or reached end content) once you have not much to explore (well, there are things like all clue notes or nex patch content) so the way how stay attached is set own goals or rules (e.g. there are people that play with rules not buying any seeds ever.. or they target get 1 mio in cash - not profit - by end of year 1...

This type of things. if nothing works it is time go away and look for other game. I am now returned to game after year+ break and so far having good time on beach farm (no spinklers so I change my habits and targets away from large scale farming)

EDIT - now I have noted you sued mods to bypass beach farm limit. In other topic yopu mention you start by heavy focus on fishing (as msot efficient earlky money income for sure...) No wonder you are burned out from game if you have this powergaming mentality and apply it in all your games.

[ChrillBill]

Almost 500 hours, 5 different farms and no I am not the least bored. I am actually looking forward to a brand new playthrough to try the Four Corners map (which I haven't done).

For me each playthrough is like a story with a unique character who sets out on a journey and who also has their own set of goals. I do make great use of my imagination and creativity in these type of games and that is one thing that I think makes them so fantastic. The freedom, opportunity and the fact that you basically have all the time you could wish for in the game. The only thing that the game decides for me at start is that I have inherited a farm from my grandpa. Who is the character I just created? What type of farm do I want? What am I gonna focus on and perhaps ban all together? Who do I want as my friend/s? Who have I decided that I don't like and doesn't like me back? And the list goes on really. I mean there is just so much the game can do and I know that not everyone enjoys this way of playing. There are those who feel like it is "over" when they have restored the town, built their farm and earned a lot of money. I have seen so many times in here players who are ready to quit from boredom after year 2 and I respect it. But I cannot relate to it just as I am sure there are those who cannot relate to the way I am treating these sandbox games.

Just sharing my own view. I have never felt the least ready to move on before year 5 in game and I still visit (play) my old farms to this very day and will probably continue to do so. They are tucked away safely and I love each and every farm, character and story that I have created in this game :D