Poverty Farm

[Snowy Sprout]

Can we complete the Community Center upgrades, get all our skills up to level 10, and max friendship with everyone in the valley (except marriage candidates)?

Rules:
I can do anything I want, grow anything I want, but I'm not allowed to sell anything. The only money I can make is through mail, Help Wanted's, and other types of quests.

Edit/"Cheat" Rules:
I can sell things that have no real reason to exist except to be sold. I can sell things that aren't "farmable" in the traditional way, such as old weapons and boots. In an emergency I can sell anything I want, because it's my game and what the heck. But I really don't want to grow cash crops or do any activity on purpose (normally) to make money, other than jobbing.

I am fudging these rules in two ways: In the first week I'm allowing myself to fish for enough money to buy a backpack upgrade and a fiberglass rod, because I don't enjoy self-torture. I won't sell any fish beyond the minimum needed for those two things. Also I'm going to do the chair trick to sneak into the secret woods, because I say so.

Strategies for maximizing XP (or friendship) per gold are welcome!

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by soaringfreedom:

don't know if its vanilla or SVE, but the community center later becomes more active for the villagers, as they then have a monthly community day, where EVERYONE (almost) goes there for a gathering and food. If you just happen to have a quest requiring to give 50 loved gifts, everyone is located in one area, so its easy to complete the quest.

Also when you obtain Pierre's lost list, you can buy all seeds in any season from him. I always found him to be quite friendly.

The community day you mention is not vanilla. Many villagers spend time in the CC every week, but it is not a large gathering place. It bothers me that after so much work put into it, the building is utterly useless in vanilla, and only serves to give NPC's another place to remember they might be hanging out.

Pierre's lost list is still available as a quest after choosing Joja route. It becomes a reason why Pierre is worth shopping at again, though largely by that time normal crops are not important anymore.

Pierre was always friendly enough to the player. I dislike him because he neglects his family, and speaks of his dreams of someday opening a chain of supermarkets so that he can become unimaginably wealthy. Every festival finds him behind a counter, not out enjoying things with his family. He and his wife both have dialogue that implies they've had a rocky marriage, which is barely being held together now. He has a "secret stash" that the player finds and one dialogue option is to tell him "Your wife ought to know about this". So he's keeping some kind of important secret from Caroline which could be damaging, or could violate her trust, or could otherwise lead to problems, but he isn't willing to change anything about it. Just because he's friendly to his customers doesn't mean he's someone I would like. That's just business.

[Queen Droxxanna]

LOL. Well Caroline has a secret from Pierre too, which you only learn about in SVE. A BIG secret. When he learns the secret, he handles it well. I almost didn't learn the secret myself because my game kept freezing when I followed Caroline in the dark,, saw her sneaking thru the woods.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by soaringfreedom:

LOL. Well Caroline has a secret from Pierre too, which you only learn about in SVE. A BIG secret. When he learns the secret, he handles it well. I almost didn't learn the secret myself because my game kept freezing when I followed Caroline in the dark,, saw her sneaking thru the woods.

That's not just an SVE secret. It's implied through dialogue from both Caroline and the Wizard, as well as Abigail's purple hair that never fades, and her tendency to eat rocks.

One may speculate whether this is the cause of their marital distress, or whether their marital distress caused the infidelity. I tend to believe the latter. All the dialogue from Caroline about Pierre is how she wishes he would spend more time with the family and care more. Pierre never has any dialogue about his family at all. When he gets personal, all he talks about is money.

[Queen Droxxanna]

I guess I never really paid attention to some of their conversations, i'm usually giving them gifts when I talk to them, except for the one with Pierre's hidden stash. I will have to talk to them more. Some of the villager dialogues are a bit negative. Thinking of adding that mod that adds more romance to the npc's.

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

Originally posted by soaringfreedom:

LOL. Well Caroline has a secret from Pierre too, which you only learn about in SVE. A BIG secret. When he learns the secret, he handles it well. I almost didn't learn the secret myself because my game kept freezing when I followed Caroline in the dark,, saw her sneaking thru the woods.

That's not just an SVE secret. It's implied through dialogue from both Caroline and the Wizard, as well as Abigail's purple hair that never fades, and her tendency to eat rocks.

One may speculate whether this is the cause of their marital distress, or whether their marital distress caused the infidelity. I tend to believe the latter. All the dialogue from Caroline about Pierre is how she wishes he would spend more time with the family and care more. Pierre never has any dialogue about his family at all. When he gets personal, all he talks about is money.

Hmm... well.. you could certainly be correct.

But Abigail is 18/19 (she mentions she's taking college level courses, despite the fact that she lives at home, and her mother still treats her like a child). So, sure, Pierre is distant with his family and does seem to care a lot about money, but that could just as easily be a result of the infidelity rather than the cause.

If you talk to the Wizard, it's pretty clear he knew exactly what he was doing, and his marriage ended over the issue. It's never stated explicitly, but it is strongly implied.

So ... sure, maybe Pierre's at fault, but the way he acts now could just as easily be a reaction to feeling betrayed I mean, it's not like Abigail is his daughter, not that that's her fault either, but.... I'm not trying to be definitive one way or the other, just to play devil's advocate a bit.

Also, I'm pretty sure that the eating rocks thing was just a bug, but since people thought it was funny, CA left it in.



I suppose ... that really, it's about how the tragedy has impacted 5 lives.

Buuuut... that also gets into some of the deeper aspects of the game again, where lovely little "Peyton Place" isn't quite so perfect when you look a bit closer.

[Snowy Sprout]

Mon. Spring 1 Year 2:

For funsies I am cashing in everything I've hoarded all year, to see what it is worth. I'm not going to save this day, I just want the numbers. So I sorted out all the fish, shells, gems, weapons, etc. as well as cashing in all my paychecks that have been just held in waiting so far.

I'm annoyed, even for a "pretend" day, because the Special Order choice today was between the month-long quest to pick leeks for George, or a two-week quest to make potato juice for Pam. I want to do both these orders! But the George one can only be offered the first week of spring. The potato one could be offered any of the first three weeks of spring. But I'm worried that it won't be offered again, and I really want to do it!

But that's no big deal. Just me wanting to do everything! Lol

Cashing in all the hoarded fish that I would be willing to sell (if I sold anything) brings me up to: $21,325.
Add to that all the gems, and now I have: $39, 215.
Adding in spare weapons, rings, and fish I found in the mines chest, and now I have: $45,697.
On top of all that, cashing in my paychecks brings me up to: $71,152.

So basically, that would be the money to pay for bus repairs (including Joja membership), upgrade my house, upgrade both my tools, and buy the iridium fishing rod. All while still not selling any crops or any artisan goods from my farm. Gosh, and I forgot to even calculate how much I'd get if I made/sold all the seed packets from the wild forage I collected!

Going back and selling seed packets and a few other small things I missed the first time around, I found another 70k or so. so together it would be over $140,000!

This is the value of a year of poverty. Uncashed potential, earned almost accidentally, with no particular goal or choice to prioritize profit. No grinding. Only prioritizing friendship, doing jobs (which is a friendship thing too), and fixing up the CC (which also could be seen as friendship towards the junimos).

If I wanted to cash these things in I could upgrade my barn (twice) and my coop, buy the pig and the duck I need, pay off the bus repair and complete the CC, while still having $33k left over to upgrade house, tools, fishing rod, and idk maybe buy a few fruit trees or something.

That is if I choose to sell the stuff I've collected all year. It would launch me right into mid-game, skull caverns, desert, etc. I'd be on my way towards opening up Ginger Island.
All of that is still without selling crops or artisan goods. Should I do it?

[Queen Droxxanna]

lol, well you can either sell and improve, or continue to HOARD, and I don't think you want to be know as a hoarder.
Upgrading would allow you to expand your farm, and upgrading your house would let you start a family. I'm sure there is someone who's life will be greatly improved by marrying you, and they would be eternally greatful.
You could continue to be generous and friendly to the villagers and improve their lives, and working solely to complete quests as the town handyman and hero, rather then grinding for wealth.

[Snowy Sprout]

The original point of the Poverty Run came because I wanted to sleep through Year One, and wake up on Spring 1 of Year Two, and start playing fresh from there.

But then I got curious about the value of the forage etc. lying around on the ground, and thought I should at least roam around and collect that so it didn't go to waste, holding it all in a chest to make into seeds or sell when I started my game "for real".

And of course I would want to watch the TV just to get all the recipes.

And when Marnie came to give me a cat, obviously I had to pet it and give it water every day. Which made me realize I really ought to just say hello to people to be friendly, even if I had no gifts to give them.

But then I realized I did have some seeds that came to me sorta "free" from Lewis, and the library, and those would make nice gifts, and some people did like forage as gifts...

And of course I would want to attend the festivals.

And it wouldn't hurt to open up the mines down to the bottom floor just for the sake of having it open when I began to play "for real" on Year Two.

And as long as I had this fishing rod, it didn't hurt just to fish in my spare time when I felt like it, and hang on to all the fish to sell on Day 1 of Year Two for a nice cash boost to get me started.

And then I finally noticed there were jobs on the job board which I could be doing, and it would be a waste to ignore them all, both for the sake of the friendship and the free money it offered.

And as long as I was wandering around, I could surely open the CC and donate a few things just to get ahead for next year (never thinking at all that I would practically complete it).

And that's why I came up with the idea of a Poverty Run. Not selling anything. Not trying to make money through crops or artisan goods or fishing or mining. Doing nothing intentional to make money other than jobs. Thinking it was all just a hoot to watch a year (or two) go by while "doing nothing".

Even the idea of letting it run for a second year only happened because I got kinda curious what grade at Grampa's Evaluation a player could get who "did nothing". I figured that completing the CC was frankly impossible, and only MAYBE kinda possible if I gave it two full years for important items to show up (such as animal products, which I knew I'd need to get from the travelling cart). I thought it would take two years to make full friendships with everyone, doing nothing but just saying "Hi" as I walked by. I never imagined how much more effective than that a life of wandering around somewhat aimlessly could be!

But now I'm so invested. I feel strongly about the storyline that has been created. I feel a lot towards the people who have been so friendly and kind and interested in the comments of this thread.

I'm really at a loss. Have I, in fact, completed the Poverty Run, at least as far as the curiosity of how it would go is concerned? Do I want to continue playing? Would anyone care, now that the ending is sortof a given? Are there any questions left to find the answers to?

If I continued to play, how would I do it? Should I sell all this stuff, get my boost for starting Year Two as I originally envisioned, and play as normal? That seems almost boring, given that making money with no restrictions is ridiculously easy.

Should I continue grinding along in Poverty Rules, never selling things and just hoping I can find a duck feather and a truffle at the travelling cart, and steadily making money through jobs while I save for the Bus Repair? Should I complete the CC, even though my honest feelings are that going the Joja route is more fun and makes for better play? The only reason I can think of NOT to do the Joja route would be so that I could complete the Movie Theater by doing bundles again, rather than needing cash to pay for it. But that begs the question whether the Movie Theater is even necessary, given that I have practically full hearts with everyone anyway? (Except marriage candidates, whom I really do not enjoy.)

Would it be fun to see how hard it would be to open Ginger Island while still living by Poverty Rules, never selling things?

Maybe it would at least be funny to get to the Island and open up the Island House, and let that be the moment when I finally get a kitchen! lol

Idk. If people actually care, I would do it. I like doing things for friends. I like to think that what I do, or what I write about, is interesting. If people were enjoying my written let's play, and wanted it to continue, then that would be motivation for me to keep doing it. But I'm afraid that nobody would really care. I mean, people are sweet, and generally have been very supportive, but I'm worried that this playthrough is at a tipping point where it either comes to a natural conclusion or becomes a boring grind to anyone who isn't the player. I don't want to bore anyone.

Geeze, I didn't realize how much I had to say about this whole issue. This has been not one, but TWO long posts, going over all the thoughts involved.

Maybe it's too much to even ask for a response to all of this. But if you have anything you'd like to say about this run, I would be very interested! I'm vastly curious how other people would interpret this playthrough, both with its implications on real life, as well as simple game mechanics.

Whether anyone responds or not, whether this playthrough continues or not, I want to thank anyone and everyone who has been on this journey with me. I would not have done it without you, and I have enjoyed every bit of it! I learned a lot, and will continue to carry these lessons through many aspects of my life. Thank you all, so much!

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by soaringfreedom:

lol, well you can either sell and improve, or continue to HOARD, and I don't think you want to be know as a hoarder.
Upgrading would allow you to expand your farm, and upgrading your house would let you start a family. I'm sure there is someone who's life will be greatly improved by marrying you, and they would be eternally greatful.
You could continue to be generous and friendly to the villagers and improve their lives, and working solely to complete quests as the town handyman and hero, rather then grinding for wealth.

So, you vote for selling excess accumulated stuff, launching into midgame in Year Two, but continuing thereafter with Poverty Ethics of generally DOING stuff to make money rather than SELLING stuff to make money. Thank you! I appreciate your interest and your vote.

A big advantage of this play style would be to continue to prioritize only growing things because I want them. That is so unusual in this game! Animals and crops are usually a source of money. But when they're instead seen only for the value they personally bring to the farmer for their own goods, it is a huge perspective shift. I would want a steady source of wool so I can try tailoring lots of clothes! I don't particularly need a pig for any reason, though, other than donating one truffle to the CC, and maybe a couple quests for truffle oil later.

I guess truffle oil is also used to make Rain Totems, but that's about it, and idk if making rain really matters much in this run.

Breeding dinosaurs would be fun, just to have them. I could use the eggs to make a neat outfit. Maybe I could turn into Haley and try to come up with every type of outfit possible in the game.

[Nakos]

Originally posted by Snowy Sprout:

It would launch me right into mid-game, skull caverns, desert, etc. I'd be on my way towards opening up Ginger Island.
All of that is still without selling crops or artisan goods. Should I do it?

I think that has to be your call.

Which would be more fun for you?

[Snowy Sprout]

I could spend Year Two trying to get achievements. I've never done most of them. Some of them I will NEVER do, because I will never have the skill nor the interest to complete Journey of the Prairie King, much less do Fector's Challenge. Even earning 10 million sounds boring.
But I could do these, which I have never done before:
* Ship every item
* Complete the Museum Collection
* Cook every recipe
* Catch every fish
* Ship 15 of each crop
* Ship 300 of one crop
* Complete all Monster Slayer goals

Ugh. If I want to achieve True Perfection (for the first and only time) I would also need to:
* Get one of each Obelisk
* Get a Gold Clock
* Marry, for the mercenary reason to get all 7 stardrops.

To do the Obelisks and Clock would require earning thirteen million gold. I would have to sell stuff to earn that, and frankly the very idea bores me a lot.

I think we can say "True Perfection" is not a label I covet, nor a set of achievements I care to do.

[Nakos]

Well, like I say, I enjoy reading your reports of what's going on and I enjoy the analysis of your decision choices. And I enjoy seeing how much you manage to accomplish despite some fairly strict starting conditions.

But as I said above, it's really about what you want. Don't feel like you have to do it for me.

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Nakos:

Well, like I say, I enjoy reading your reports of what's going on and I enjoy the analysis of your decision choices. And I enjoy seeing how much you manage to accomplish despite some fairly strict starting conditions.

But as I said above, it's really about what you want. Don't feel like you have to do it for me.

:hearts:

:) It's not about "having to do it" for someone. It's a game I enjoy doing. But I'm really really used to people being bored by my tendency to over-analyse, or just talk too much. Now and then I very much need reassurance that this is still a conversation others are interested in.

I get a lot of energy from interacting with others on this type of topic. But if others lose interest I don't want to be talking to myself in an empty room. That would be embarrassing.

It's important for me to check in and be sure this ride is still fun for everyone, not just me.

[Avilyn]

It would be really interesting to see your journey to Ginger Island, all while continuing your poverty run. GI itself I think would be less challenging than CC, just because nothing on GI costs actual gold (although trying to get through the volcano without good gear/iridium pickaxe would definitely be more difficult).

[Snowy Sprout]

Originally posted by Avilyn:

It would be really interesting to see your journey to Ginger Island, all while continuing your poverty run. GI itself I think would be less challenging than CC, just because nothing on GI costs actual gold (although trying to get through the volcano without good gear/iridium pickaxe would definitely be more difficult).

Well, another player posted about a pacifism run, getting through the volcano not killing anything but just dodging and running. Maybe I could try that.

And bombs. Lots of bombs.