Feels like I'm not making any progress

[KliPeH]

Hi folks, I have been playing for just over 4 hours and feel like I am making zero progress towards the goals the game set out for me. I just don't really know what I'm supposed to be doing. It's extremely open-ended and I can't seem to move forward when it comes to farming, building, upgrading my workstations and tools, or talking with the other villagers.

Every item costs about as much as I make in a week, and it seems my crops are not a renewable resource since I have to keep buying seeds for them. I am keeping my produce in case a quest requires it, or am I just meant to sell everything I make from farming and mining? Fishing seems to be making me a nice profit but the minigame gets extremely dull and boring, so I'm just not willing to sit there and fish all day long.

By the time I get around the village and talk to everyone to tick the box of talking to them daily the day ends and I have to go back home. I move around extremely slowly and my inventory barely allows me to do anything before it fills up to the brim, which is again crucial when mining and / or fishing.

I tried gifting a bunch of items I had on hand to the villagers but the game is not transparent about how relationships work and what people do or do not like. I am barely getting by myself, how am I supposed to afford luxurious gifts for the residents?

I did a couple of bounty board quests but they paid laughably little. I can't seem to afford neither the backpack nor the coop nor the house upgrade, I don't even understand how I'm supposed to upgrade the tools with the copper bars I've got since I don't have any constructive recipes available to me.

Please help, I have no idea what I'm doing lol.

[Zekaun1]

I also have just started playing the game (just more than 20 hrs). My first few hours it was overwhelming since I've been playing hardcore games which makes me instantly think to speed run the game (which obviously i cant), overtime i learned to appreciate the game more and more, and finally found my own pace.

I suggest try downloading mods like "look up" and such so that it is much easier to progress since you'll be able to know which ones you need for the community center. This also made things fun for me since i would not need to search anymore on wikis of what items i need to horde and which ones to sell.

[Útost Alronbem]

Originally posted by Zekaun1:

I suggest try downloading mods like "look up" and such so that it is much easier to progress since you'll be able to know which ones you need for the community center.

If modding is an option, EnergyTime fixes uneven pacing - and for informational needs which are not covered by in-game UI there's always pen and paper.
Except walnuts which is well into local variant of NG+ (called achieving Perfection).

[Space is the Place]

Originally posted by Zekaun1:

I also have just started playing the game (just more than 20 hrs). My first few hours it was overwhelming since I've been playing hardcore games which makes me instantly think to speed run the game (which obviously i cant), overtime i learned to appreciate the game more and more, and finally found my own pace.

I think this is an issue lots of us encountered, and it´s not the falt of the game itself, but rather than most of us are used to other types of games. Even when I have played some other crafting games or micromanagement ones, they always tend to up the challenge with timers.

Perhaps the people more acostum to the early java farming simulators felt more at home that plenty of us. I mean, who else got the slingshot and their lizard brain told them "get ready, in a few hours you will upgrade to a double barrel shotgun and start defending your farm from invading zombie aliens".