Any mods allowed?

[I Kinda Fail]

I'm not trying to cheat, but I'd love to try some mods to change the appearance of my animals, buildings, etc. Maybe a button to help me find the horse, or add an extra bridge between Pierre's and Clint's, or one that makes fences degrade slower.

But I dunno, I guess some of those are cheaty, even if they are quality of life improvements.

That said - Are ANY mods allowed, without the game disabling achievements and whatnot? For example, if I turn my horse into a Ponyta, will I still be able to get the fishing achievement? Or... I dunno. Any advice? :P I guess achievements don't matter "that" much, but still... would love some quality of life fixes that mods allow.

[Vroomi]

Cheating is technically not possible in a game without multiplayer as it doesn't grant you unfair advantage over other players.

Retextures, portraits and mods in general are all allowed and supported by CA. The only mods that would possibly disable achievements are the ones using SMAPI or are achievement-related.

[I Kinda Fail]

Well, I meant cheating as in, everything is easy mode. Stuff sells for 5x as much, all bundles unlocked, all skills to level 10, have every skill perk, able to wear 10 rings, horse runs 5x faster, etc.

I just want small stuff to make the game less tedious. Like, if there's a mod that makes plants stop randomly withering or dying, despite being next to a scarecrow and lightning rod, I want it.

Shortcuts would be great too, but the only one I can think of would be in town - an extra staircase between river and Robin's house, and a bridge to Clint's...

[Vroomi]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

-skip-

Well, yeah.

Also, if you'd like, you can look up mods from nexusmods, I think it was - you'll probably find it while looking.

[Zee]

If you do use SMAPI, you can still get the game to run through Steam. These instructions will tell you how to launch the former, and achievements do still get counted as you use this; the Steam overlay is completely functional: https://steamcommunity.com/app/413150/discussions/0/405694115207543579/#c405694115207585179

[Mackenzie]

Originally posted by I Kinda Fail:

Are ANY mods allowed, without the game disabling achievements and whatnot? For example, if I turn my horse into a Ponyta, will I still be able to get the fishing achievement? Or... I dunno. Any advice? :P I guess achievements don't matter "that" much, but still... would love some quality of life fixes that mods allow.

As far as I can tell, basic texture and text asset modifications do not negate achievements. Only script or dll modifications like SMAPI from what I understand can indirectly disable achievements by messing with the Steam overlay.

As an achievement hunter though, I'd recommend you earn the achievements the legit way via vanilla so you can feel you truly achieved them without the need of any crutches whatsoever for maximum personal satisfaction, and then perhaps start your quality of life modifications after that point. Graphical mods don't count as advantageous or cheating unless they hide or reveal things to make your gameplay easier.

Originally posted by Kryztal:

Cheating is technically not possible in a game without multiplayer as it doesn't grant you unfair advantage over other players.

Cheating is a thing in single player games. Cheat modding, cheat codes and many other forms of cheating have been in single player gaming long before multiplayer was a common aspect of video games. It is very much so technically possible to cheat in a single player game, even if you are only cheating the intended unmodified experience from yourself, you are still cheating and being a cheater by giving yourself an advantage or making something by design easier for you.

It's frowned upon in multiplayer as you get an advantage over others and that's why there are anti-cheat systems like VAC and for obvious reasons, this is the only reason you can justify calling someone out negatively for their behaviour, whereas single player you're not harming anyone else. So it may be harmless to cheat in single player, but you're still cheating.

[Mieumieu]

In a game where you have to earn achievements they still very much count it as "cheating" if you do things that make it easier for you to get them as that's still affecting others who got them the legitimate way.

It all depends on the game of course. Many of them disable achievements when running mods (officially using Steam Workshop). Some others don't, though when they don't it makes it so the achievements are really basically nothing since you can just set up things to make them super easy to get.

Adding shortcuts and things *should* negate Acheivements I think even if it's just to save time running around something, and of course graphical changes just for looks should not negate them. But you're asking if they do and not if they should :D

As to crops dying - the Lightning Rods don't always intercept the lightning strikes and aren't supposed to always catch them. So very often lightning will still strike your crops no matter how many rods are around, and it's supposed to be like that and working as intended when crops still get hit. So it's not them dying for no reason, lightning rods just aren't a 100% protection.

[Mackenzie]

Disappearing crops have a RNG based chance to happen, one plant per day of storm. Lightning irrelevant. Lightning can strike but that's a different mechanics. On non-storm days plants have a similar RNG based chance to wilt daily, though be it a much smaller chance.