Farming,

[barbie]

Faming is fun in this game, who agrees?

[NightmareGats]

the worst part of this game is farming.

[Loulan]

First couple of days, like three, it's okay. Then you see that you need tons of money and have to farm a lot, then it becomes a chore.

[Mysterious Sir Knight]

Farming sucks if you refuse to use Basic Sprinklers like some people. Watering is truly painful if you have huge fields, so to keep things simple I just save up 10-15 copper and iron bars then make 10-15 sprinklers as soon as I hit farming level 2, then I don't water manually ever again. There's also an optimized pattern for Basic Sprinklers:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8c6zybnaPe0?feature=share

[Coffee Addict]

farming is where i make 90% of my money i hate dealing with the animals

[Ryika]

It's one of the first things that can be automated, which makes it fun for me. I usually play very casually these days, and one of my early goals is getting a bunch of Quality sprinklers.

Big harvests feel very rewarding, especially on 0.25 profit where money remains relevant for quite a while.

[hallaloth]

Fishing < Farming

[mansman]

It really depends on how your playthrough goes. If you get rain on the right days and concentrate on getting your watering can upgraded very early in the playthrough things go pretty smoothly. If those things don't align, it can be a real slog the first few seasons. I usually target having a steel can by the end of spring y1. The energy savings and 5 tile range helps a lot.

[Jelly P. Nut]

i agree

[Nakos]

At its core, the game is a farming sim. You can do lots of other things, and there's some substantial effort to provide variety, but down at the heart, it's still all about farming.

Generally speaking, I do a run once or twice a year. It's restful. Like a mental vacation.

[ULTRA]

Originally posted by Mysterious Sir K:

Farming sucks if you refuse to use Basic Sprinklers like some people. Watering is truly painful if you have huge fields, so to keep things simple I just save up 10-15 copper and iron bars then make 10-15 sprinklers as soon as I hit farming level 2, then I don't water manually ever again. There's also an optimized pattern for Basic Sprinklers:
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8c6zybnaPe0?feature=share

Lol the video was a "short" and was still too long. Just say, "place sprinklers wherever a knight could walk on a chess board."

[Mysterious Sir Knight]

Originally posted by ULTRA:

Lol the video was a "short" and was still too long. Just say, "place sprinklers wherever a knight could walk on a chess board."

I didn't say that because it doesn't work. All of them must be made in the same left or right direction. As in, it must take 2 steps forward then 1 step to the left or right, but if you interchange between left and right then the pattern will be messed up.

[nanami]

plant those 15 parsnips water them 3 times then buy 400 parsnips plant them over a couple days no need to water them if your lucky to get 4 days of rain can get the 8000 gold to buy them from fishing or whatever. now you got farming 6 just need to get to floor 80 in mines and cover the map in quality sprinklers. or if you would rather go with potato would need 229 after those first 15 parsnips but it costs i think a bout 11000 to 12000 which is why i go with the parsnips. have never had to upgrade my watering can

[NBOX21]

If the farming itself wasn't fun, I don't think this game would be nearly as beloved as it is for a lot of people, myself included.

Not saying there aren't other reasons why people love this game because there absolutely are, but rather the core essence of this game that is the farming is probably the most important part to get right given the kind of game it is.

[Phirestar]

The only thing I dislike about it is the fact that there’s almost no gameplay incentive to grow anything outside of the most profitable crop(s) you can afford. Stardew Valley has been optimized to the point that I have seen brand new players come into the game and fall right into playing the meta crop choices.

This is why I really like the Longevity mod’s addition of variable shipment prices, where each day the amount of money that every item in the game sells for changes, depending on factors like the time of year, the amount of that product you’ve sold recently, as well as a “randomness” parameter. You’re rewarded with bonus profits for strategic selling, and you’re encouraged to engage with as much of the game’s content as possible in order to maximize revenue.

I don’t expect a system like that to be added to the vanilla game, since I don’t think it aligns with ConcernedApe’s idea of what Stardew Valley should be. But maybe there could be something that accomplishes a similar goal. Perhaps something like “specialty shipments”, where you’re given a contract to ship a selection of several types of produce together, and if you’re able to fulfill the order within a certain period of time you’ll get the full profit plus a large sum of gold on top.

Maybe it could even offer other types of rewards, like receiving some rare resources or late-game materials earlier on in your playthrough than you could normally acquire them otherwise. I do feel there should be more of a purpose to your produce than solely its monetary value. It would help break up that issue of gold being the one and only determining factor of what you grow and make on your farm. Alternatively, put more emphasis on using the crops for your own purposes, like with cooking or maybe some other, new gameplay system.

[Ryika]

Originally posted by Mysterious Sir K:

I didn't say that because it doesn't work. All of them must be made in the same left or right direction. As in, it must take 2 steps forward then 1 step to the left or right, but if you interchange between left and right then the pattern will be messed up.

Honestly, building the pattern isn't even the problem, it's just a grid, shifted one tile to one side.

The real problem is that the pattern looks aaaaawful, and that the resources are wasted once you are decked out on "proper" sprinklers which happens really quickly even with a more casual approach. I'd much rather use them to start building Crab Pots and Tappers and get my permanent industry going.

But that's kind of the beauty of Stardew Valley. As long as you don't care about hyperoptimized play, you can use a lot of approaches and they'll all get you closer to your goal.