Isnt tractor mod cheat mod?

[Emik él Bla]

I havent play tractor mod since it looks like cheating a bit because isnt it make farming a lot faster and easier. Can you change my mind please xd

(does it use any source other than seed like player's energy or oil?)

[BCD]

I never used the tractor mod, but cheating is something there's little reason to care about in a singleplayer/coop game like SDV. There is actually, literally, a cheats mod (CJB Cheats Menu), but I don't see why one would care if people use it or not.
SDV doesn't use VAC either, so the only people who could be policing this is other players, and I don't know if that would be very nice.

[Emik él Bla]

Originally posted by BCD:

I never used the tractor mod, but cheating is something there's little reason to care about in a singleplayer/coop game like SDV. There is actually, literally, a cheats mod (CJB Cheats Menu), but I don't see why one would care if people use it or not.
SDV doesn't use VAC either, so the only people who could be policing this is other players, and I don't know if that would be very nice.

with cheating i mean making the game really easy and devouring the game balance which makes it boring for me. What i am asking is is it balanced or not?

[nodehappy]

Stardew Valley is not VAC enabled. Players can enjoy the game in a manner that suits their playstyles, whether through the use of mods or making alterations to the save file. It should be your first preference to play the game as ConcernedApe intended before making alterations.

[FafnirChaos]

Cheating in these type of games really doesn't matter. When it comes to competitive games yeah it is a huge problem.

Whatever you see as cheating is cheating in these games, So if you think the tractor mod is cheating and you don't want to cheat, then don't use it. If someone see's the tractor mod as not cheating and wants to use it, then use it.

[Nakos]

The only games that are VAC enabled are the ones with competitive PvP.

And ... not even all of them have the VAC system, because that's a digital infrastructure agreement with Steam/Valve, and not all the publishers/developers want to buy into that. Some companies create and maintain their own systems (like Bungie does with Destiny 2).

[CloudSeeker]

It depends on what you qualify as a cheat.

By definition. Any outside modification of the game files is a cheat. It allow you to do things which is not in the original code and game design. Any mod does change the rules of the games and is therefore "cheating". Even if it makes the game better, it is by definition cheating.

Is the Tractor mod a cheat? In my opinion, no it is not. It is a quality of life mod. Based on the fact it cost:
150,000g (180,000g if you buy the iron and coal)
20 Iron Bar (Blacksmith cost: 30,000g)
5 Iridium Bars
5 Battery Packs
You are already at the point you don't really need a tractor to make enough money to fix any issue in the game. When you are at this point in the game. Giving yourself a cheat that allow you to not do a massive chore when it comes to digging, fertilizing, planting, watering and harvesting your field. I say cheating is more then well justified. The point of the game is to have fun while playing. When you reached the point the main loop of the game is boring as you just want to do other stuff, the main gameplay loop does not serve its purpose. If a mod fix that issue, then it is fine.

[josseriot]

Originally posted by Emik él Bla:

I havent play tractor mod since it looks like cheating a bit because isnt it make farming a lot faster and easier. Can you change my mind please xd

(does it use any source other than seed like player's energy or oil?)

You're confusing one issue (balance) with another (cheating). Cheating is pretty subjective, but like other replies have said, it really doesn't matter in a game like SV. It's really only matters where it's a competition between players where a mod or add-on gives a player an advantage outside of the established rules all competing players are expected to play by. In single player or even multiplay co-op where there is no player vs player competitive element, that concept of cheating doesn't really apply.

But the idea of balance is another issue and can apply here. When we talk about balance in a game, we mean that balance between the effort and time a player puts into a game vs what rewards or progress the player earns for their effort. This is to make the game more satisfying to play for most players. Would it be satisfying to have a feature that let you near-instantly till and plant large areas of crop without doing a lot to progress to that level? Probably not for a lot of players. Which is why the vanilla game has a tiered system of tools and a limited number of farming additions that are mostly for late game, all of which require you to play the game for a certain amount of time before you have access to them.

If someone want to add a mod that breaks that vanilla game balance, that's their choice. A player might have a perfectly good reason for doing so--some very complex mods or modpacks do this because they add other items to the game that create a different system of balance. ConcernedApe made the game with the kind of balance he thinks works for it, and you can play by it or mod around it. If CA didn't want that, he could have closed to game to any legit modding, but he didn't. But it's not cheating because it has no impact on how anyone else plays the game. It just breaks the balance in that one person's game, so as other people have said, it really doesn't matter.

[Emik él Bla]

Thank you to you all for both explations and sharing your opinions.

[Včelí medvídek]

Imho tractor is way too powerful/unbalanced hence close to cheating. But as all said it is about personal preference.

[I Kinda Fail]

It's one of those ones that imo is on the more balanced side, since it's treated as a normal building; you have to pay for it and provide supplies, and it takes up space on your farm. I know there's a mod that also lets you build a Winery building, which is similar to a shed but kegs and casks but work faster in there. Obviously it depends on the rates and numbers, but that seems balanced to me; investing money to make moneymaking easier.

There's some arguments about what's considered balanced or not. For example, I'd love a mod that lets me make "deluxe crab pots" to get better loot, like gold star lobsters, or they never catch trash. Others would prefer a mod that just adds random quality to crab pots like fish have, since they're not worth as much money but take a lot of resources to make. Both of those are arguably balanced, depending who you ask... but most will agree the Automate mod, which will harvest hundreds of crab pots for you, is unbalanced.

[xAlphaStarOmegax]

I think it's subjective, one person may consider it cheating, whereas another person don't see it as cheating. I personally don't see it as cheating, I feel that modding SDV fleshes it out.

[Dan Niton]

Originally posted by Emik él Bla:

Originally posted by BCD:

I never used the tractor mod, but cheating is something there's little reason to care about in a singleplayer/coop game like SDV. There is actually, literally, a cheats mod (CJB Cheats Menu), but I don't see why one would care if people use it or not.
SDV doesn't use VAC either, so the only people who could be policing this is other players, and I don't know if that would be very nice.

with cheating i mean making the game really easy and devouring the game balance which makes it boring for me. What i am asking is is it balanced or not?

These are "mods", what do you think. The only way for you to find out if a mod makes the game too easy is for you to try it out yourself.

[estehmanis]

The real cost of using normal tools is time and effort, but tractor's building cost is pretty high, so by the time you could built it you're probably not restricted by money and time anymore (meaning cc bundles already done). I mostly play just to decorate my farm now, so spending hours cleaning and farming is just not interesting anymore, i've done it.

So yeah, it's really subjective.

I recomend you try it first, then if you feel that it's ruining the game for you and there's no tweaks in the mod to make it better, then just delete it. You could always use 1 time cheat to get your money back.

[ChrillBill]

I think it's more quality of life rather than actual cheating. Same could be said with auto-grabbers for example. By the time you get them you may already have spent plenty of time and effort on collecting produce from your animals. If you want to keep it that way, then don't get the auto-grabbers. Same with tractor, kinda.