Is there a real challenge to this game?

[Not Known]

I've tried several times to play this game, but stopped pretty quickly after the character wakes up the first day. I suppose I'm impatient, but it may just be that I'm not seeing this game for what it is.

[Mysterious Sir Knight]

Nakos a écrit :

I hope you understand, that's a subjective impression. If you prefer the look of Valheim, that's certainly fine, but the artistic presentation of Stardew Valley is a deliberate choice. Suggesting that it's inherently inferior isn't really fair. It's intentionally a different style of game.

By 'Better' they could just mean 'More Pixels'.

[Nakos]

Mysterious Sir K a écrit :

By 'Better' they could just mean 'More Pixels'.

I suppose...

To me, (the use of) the term "better" implies a certain judgement. One I don't really think is fair, given the intentional stylistic differences.

It's perfectly fine to prefer a 1st person or 3rd person 3D aesthetic; for some types of games that's an excellent way to present the concept the developers are trying to give the player. But pixilated games have their own aesthetic, and as that aesthetic goes, this one (SDV) is extremely well done.

It would certainly be fair to say that the technical architecture of Valheim is more complex than that of SDV, but technical architecture and game design are two different things. A game can be stylistically simple, yet still be a superb design. A game can also be quite complex stylistically, and yet be an inferior design.

(As a side note: Valheim is built on Unity (which means the underlying work is that of dozens, perhaps hundreds of engineers), whereas CA largely built SDV by himself).

I haven't personally played Valheim (although I do like the genre, and have considered it), but I've played a heck of a lot of SDV. To me, "better" is the choice between which game captured and held my attention. And ... that's SDV.

But of course, that too is subjectivity (mine in this case).

[Mysterious Sir Knight]

Nakos a écrit :

Snip for Space

Yeah, words are used in weird ways annoyingly often, the ways people use them make less and less sense every single year it feels like.

But yeah anyway rant aside; it was fairly clear that they were saying it was 'better quality', not quite 'better' because that's obviously subjective.

[Maya-Neko]

No, by itself, there's literally no challenge. The game can be as slow paced as you want it to be, since everything is repeatable and there's no ending. The game was even made to have this relaxing pressure-less gameplay in mind and everything leads to success eventually

If you want it to be challenging, then it can only be done through rules you make up yourself. There's also quite much room for min-maxing strategies if you're into that sort of games and it has a somewhat active speedrunning community.

[Not Known]

Nakos a écrit :

kristynagel a écrit :

That game [Valheim] LOOKS far better than Stardew,

I hope you understand, that's a subjective impression. If you prefer the look of Valheim, that's certainly fine, but the artistic presentation of Stardew Valley is a deliberate choice. Suggesting that it's inherently inferior isn't really fair. It's intentionally a different style of game.

Perhaps I didn't word that correctly. I fully realize they're two completely different art styles, and intentional. I grew up (1970's) up on some VERY ugly graphics :D

[arkkumanu]

Looks like you are just not the target audience for Stardew Valley. Seems like you are looking for an open world survival craft game. This is not it. SDV is a farming/life simulator with rpg elements. It's a whole different genre. The kinds of challenges you are looking for do not exist in SDV, even if you add mods.

You don't have to like Stardew Valley. It's okay to move on to other games. Complaining about core game elements, which appeal to the game's main audience, is kind of pointless. SDV is not going to magically transform into a 3D open world survival craft game for you. ^^;;

[red255]

kristynagel a écrit :

Perhaps I didn't word that correctly. I fully realize they're two completely different art styles, and intentional. I grew up (1970's) up on some VERY ugly graphics :D

theres old art that aged well, and old art that didn't age well.

[Nakos]

kristynagel a écrit :

Perhaps I didn't word that correctly. I fully realize they're two completely different art styles, and intentional. I grew up (1970's) up on some VERY ugly graphics :D

Fair enough.

We're probably of similar ages. The first "computer game" I ever played was Lunar Lander. It ran on a PDP11 that my school had. It ... didn't have "graphics" at all. Eventually my father (who did silicon chip design at a GTE foundry during the 70's, 80's and 90's) got himself his own computer (which he'd let me use when he was done working). One that actually had a monitor rather than a teletype interface. But yes, I remember those early graphics.

At the same time, I look at the games that have been designed over the last 40+ years and I've noticed that sometimes, the games with the simpler, more "cartoony" interfaces age better. KoTOR was considered pretty cutting edge back when it came out ... these days ... yeesh that looks crude. That's not to say that all "cartoony" games looked good in the beginning, nor do they look good now. But ... some do. Some pixelated interfaces are pretty detailed and even beautiful, despite the nominally "cruder" design concept.

But that said, if you like Valhiem, you might also take a look at Conan Exiles, it's a similar style (of game) built in UE4. So ... that one has a pretty modern graphics style.

[ULTRA]

Valheim uses a licensed engine and licensed art assets. Of course it looks better - all the work was done before they began. Not to mention its early access development cycle makes this game's development look like a special forces operation. The worst thing you can say about how Stardew was handled is that it released as, "Harvest Moon but with co-op," but without co-op. Meanwhile Iron Gate very obviously lied about their development timeline.

Also, don't play Conan Exiles. Funcom doesn't need to be encouraged.

[EleventhStar]

there is plenty of optimization/efficiency challenge if you want.

making 10m gold in year 1 isn't trivial. and you can add w/e you want on top of that like maxing all friendships in year 1.

it's just a different skillset than fps/action games.

[red255]

EleventhStar a écrit :

making 10m gold in year 1 isn't trivial. and you can add w/e you want on top of that like maxing all friendships in year 1.

End of summer year 1 isn't trivial, year 1? no its pretty trivial.

thing is I did that and immediately felt burn out.

you gotta, enjoy the game, enjoy its flow man.

[saurce]

Amberbaum a écrit :

red255 a écrit :

for godsakes at least play the vanilla game for 2 in game years before deciding you need mods.

No. Let people play how they want. If it actually eases their "pains" they have with a game and it "fixes it" for them, meaning it makes it playable for them, then they should try it. Mods can always be removed. It's super easy to do in SV (talking about non-content mods).

I personally can't stand the speed of our character. Especially bad with the size of the maps. I play other similar games that have a much better speed to map ratio. No, I don't want to wait and grind until I get my first coffee. I use CJB Cheats Menu to permamently give my char a +2 speed boost. And I activated "pet animals each day" and "no relationship decay"

Edit: How others play won't affect you.

Genuine question: Why did you download mods that make you not have to play the game?

This game is literally about farming, exploring NPC dialogue for storytelling by maintaining friendships, and time management. You've effectively turned all those features off.

So... Why do you play this game lol?

[tdaeon]

IDK, I am addicted to starting new chars and farms. There is just something about the tough times in the beginning that makes it fun. There is satisfaction in getting past the obstacles-like not enough back pack space or having enough moola to buy all the seeds and upgrades you need/want. Then there is the fun of designing new farms...

All in all it hits the spot for some and not others. Maybe give the game at least the first Spring season to see if you really just hate it or try a mod or two as others have suggested to see if that makes it playable for you. Xx

[Nakos]

ULTRA a écrit :

Also, don't play Conan Exiles. Funcom doesn't need to be encouraged.

Well ... I'm not personally terribly fond of Tencent, and they own Funcom now. But overall, the base game and the DLCs that predated Tencent are still functional. Yeah, the game has some long standing bugs. It's also still a pretty big sandbox style game, and you can pretty much just ignore the GaaS stuff. Mind you, I just play SP solo, I don't do the online servers (or bother with the PvP aspects).

So... yeah, I agree somewhat. But CE is still a game that's of a similar genre to Valhiem.

Another survival/sandbox style game would be The Long Dark. (There's also Core Keeper, and Starbound as well, but both of those are 2D/pixelated, and kristynagel seems to prefer 3D interfaces).

tdaeon a écrit :

IDK, I am addicted to starting new chars and farms. There is just something about the tough times in the beginning that makes it fun. There is satisfaction in getting past the obstacles-like not enough back pack space or having enough moola to buy all the seeds and upgrades you need/want. Then there is the fun of designing new farms...

Yeah, I like the early game too. When you need everything, but have nothing, and have to struggle (and prioritize) to develop what you need ... that's the fun part for me. Once I've gotten past the hurdle of most of the early challenges, I gradually lose interest. I seldom play into year 3, when money ceases to be an issue ... I just lose interest.

[NBOX21]

ULTRA a écrit :

It's kind of an "intrinsic" type game. The objectives are basically all collection of various types, but the game is meant to convince you to take on various short-term goals and when you start to even consider these goals then you realize (as mentioned above) it's a time management game. Basically, think Legend of Zelda but time-sensitive.

So... Majora's Mask?