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[AlStar]

I've always found the tavern on Friday and Saturday nights to be the best way to make sure that I manage to catch up with most of the town (damn children, non-drinkers, and non-humans!) - with the added bonus that, if you're willing to be a bit spendy, you can just buy food or drinks right at the bar to give to people. Loved gifts, too (beer for Pam and Shane, salad for Leah).

I also started a new beach farm with the new version. Currently in Spring, year 2. Working on finally getting all of the community center unlocked, as I currently only have the minecarts working (which is still a huge timesaver). The beach
 definitely has a different vibe to it then any of the other plots. Currently I'm wasting a lot of space, with a large portion of my farm turning into a forest, but, finances permitting, I'm planning on converting most of that into an orchard and/or fish ponds (which I haven't played with yet). Gold watering can is probably going to be my first golden upgrade.

[DeepWinter]

(accidental message)

[E. Albright]

I kinda feel like I should have done Beach, but I went with stream again, and overall I'm fairly satisfied with how that's working. It's not optimal, but it's homey.

1/3 of the way through Autumn 2. Everything has suddenly came together in the past 2 weeks or so - I finally managed to get the 10th small milk of a single quality for Home Chef bundle (it took 2.5 cows to get that - in retrospect, I should have neglected and/or woke up a cow until I hit 10 of a kind), and my pig grew up and got me a truffle for the not-home-Chef bundle - and the friendship boost from that bumped me to where everyone in town is 4+ (and most are 10). Hit 120 in the mine. Got the final house upgrade and built all the casks. Community Center is done, and all I need is 3 iridium ore and I'll be able to see the 1.5 content. The only other thing left before things stop feeling like a rushed grind and more like an idle country farmer's sandbox is (ugh) get Seb, Shane, and Alex from 4-5 up to 10 so I can marry someone else.

That's the hard choice, of course. My first game I had my heart set on Leah until sad-sack Penny guilted me to the altar. I shouldn't resent her for that, but every playthrough since I always sorta have. So I kinda feel like I should - at long last - go back and marry Leah. But at the same time, it's not for nothing that I unerringly went for Haley on my 2nd and 3rd playthroughs - 10 <3 Haley is Best Girl even if 0 <3 Haley is TEH WORST - and there's a strong sense of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" pushing me back in that direction yet again. Not least because if I don't end up with Haley, she's doomed to end up with ol' Protein-For-Brains...

(And yes, those are all the contenders in the running - sad, but true.)

[Rolan7]

I hit a Borderlands 3-shaped roadblock right as I hit Winter year 2, but I'm finally back to the beach map.  I do like how it encouraged me to change tactics.  Some things I discovered:

Despite always taking Forager, I never realized how easy it is to craft and plant spring/fall/summer/winter forage seeds.  I did a bunch of outdoor farming in Winter 1, which is apparently possible, and all the yields were iridium because they count as forage for the perk (I think I got it midway through the winter - it levels crazy fast if you plant a ton of forage crops).  One of the forages each season can be placed in the seed processor, or you can just smoosh-craft all the season's crops in proportion to get a bigger set of seasonal seeds.  Convenient 7-day growth cycle, too.  They're not even that bad in the greenhouse until starfruit and ancient fruit!

I went heavy into hogs this time and it really pays off, again with the Forager perk which counts for truffles.  No yield during the winter obviously, but over 1250 per truffle is great even without making oil.  This was kinda new to me because I never bothered much with large pastures, but the lack of automatic watering encouraged me to try.  It's easier than I expected, and I'm going to try to launch into Year 3 with 2 large barns and over half the map as pasture.  I think, based on year 1, that the grass will regrow fast enough based on my placements.
Okay that's just me being an obsessive minmaxer, now for the important stuff.

Haley and Alex deserve each other   Alex is rude and wastes shoes, but he's got understandable trauma and worries.  I don't know what Haley's excuse is yet, but I'm okay not dating either of them.

Shane makes me sad and I don't think it's healthy for me to date him.  The game should REALLY punish me for giving him his favorite gift after the heart events.  I try to check up on him.  (oh crap, is he out of work now?  Maybe I should stalk him one day, hopefully he hangs out in the community center...)

Sebastian is best guy and I almost wanted to marry him again, but I didn't want to repeat content so I avoided him out of awkwardness.  Sorta tragic.

I accidentally fell for Leah, even more than in previous runs.  I found myself really wanting her career to succeed, and I run into her a lot even outside the saloon just doing my forest things.  I like to think we're really good friends, but there's some tension there.

I see Harvey like once a month and at festivals.  The guy's nice, we just never cross paths?  I never saw the point of the clinic really.  Sorta-same with Maru, she's really cool and all but I'd rather leave them to nerd out together.

So then, Elliot.  ...Ah jeez, I can't believe I married Elliot.  He's *nice*, I like his glamorous hair and speech, he's a writer - all really cool!  Plus he lives on a beach so that's just *fate*, right?  He's just, you know, really nice.
...Fuck, I was always going to get a divorce, wasn't I?  What a cruel story I'm telling here. 

Oh and Abigail's nice I guess.  I hope she actually becomes an adventuress some day?  She can come off as a little young for me, but I'm in my 30's so that's on me.  Like, Maru and Sebastian live with their parents too, but it's a small town and they both have serious jobs.

I love that Emily is dateable now (since one of the first patches I think).  The whole crystal/chakra deal is pretty sweet.  Not my type romantically, but definitely a fun friend.

I guess that's everyone... I still think Marney is beautiful, but she's already explicitly in love <3  I want an option to date Clint, honestly, the poor doofus >.>

Aromantic shadow housemate is also a cool path I want to check out sometime, Krobus is great and he's so easy to please.

But... yeah, I might need to visit the witch's shrines and undo some damage soon.  (No children involved, don't worry.  I was gonna, but something kept stopping me at the prompt.)

[Glloyd]

You forgot about Penny and Sam!

[Rolan7]

Aw heck!

Penny's really cool, I just tend to miss seeing her since she spends so much time tutoring in the library.  I'm pretty sure I can get the "community upgrade" done here in year 2, which she really deserves   I don't know what her favorite gifts are (I try to avoid looking it up) but I did notice she likes random artifacts which is cool to me.

Sam is Sebastian's friend who plays guitar, I keep forgetting he exists.  He seems like a cool bandmate though!

[Vector]

So then, Elliot.  ...Ah jeez, I can't believe I married Elliot.  He's *nice*, I like his glamorous hair and speech, he's a writer - all really cool!  Plus he lives on a beach so that's just *fate*, right?  He's just, you know, really nice.

As I recall saying here all those years ago: for some reason his lines all get read in my head with the Norio Wakamoto voice

I might actually pick this up again with the massive new updoot. It looks like it's become more fun?

[Mephansteras]

The update has been good, yeah, though I haven't seen all the new end-game content yet.

The beach has been a fun map to do. Especially if you're not really big on farming itself. It kinda encourages you to do other stuff.

One thing I am super happy about, and not sure when was added in, was the auto-collector for animals. My very first game kinda stalled because I just hated *having* to do animal stuff pretty much every day even with full Esprinklers and the like. So that's helped this run out a lot.

I've been paying more attention to Haley this run, since she seems like a beach kind of girl, and she really does grow up more than any of the other ladies through her events. It's been nice to see. Though, really, all of the datable ladies in this game are pretty good when you go through their events. Also...all too young for me other than Emily really, so I just kind of ignore my personal age and just assume my avatar is a lot younger.

[Rolan7]

Elliot voiced by Norio Wakamoto?  Marriage saved!
(Also I was being overdramatic due to mood swing, and also also I looked through some screenshots I took while dating.  Elliot's a sweetheart.)

One thing I am super happy about, and not sure when was added in, was the auto-collector for animals. My very first game kinda stalled because I just hated *having* to do animal stuff pretty much every day even with full Esprinklers and the like. So that's helped this run out a lot.

Yeah!  That wasn't this latest update, and it really helped me keep interest in the previous version.  I still run through and pet them, usually, but that's a lot faster than collecting (particularly from cows).

And yet here I am setting up for trufflepalooza... but that's because of the beach map, and it's more dynamic/interesting than picking up eggs.

Fun fact:  The dwarf dislikes gold.  Hurtful stereotyping, perhaps.  But why does Willy hate seafoam pudding??

[LordPorkins]

I love that Emily is dateable now (since one of the first patches I think).  The whole crystal/chakra deal is pretty sweet.  Not my type romantically, but definitely a fun friend.

I guess that's everyone... I still think Marney is beautiful, but she's already explicitly in love <3  I want an option to date Clint, honestly, the poor doofus >.>

There was actually a poll way back when on who should be the next marriage candidates. Emily and Shane won. I think Marnie was on there actually. Unfortunately it looks like she's gonna be off the table permanently. Shame.

Also I don't recall if Clint was available as a voting option. I think ConcernedApe doesn't want Vendors to be dateable, which makes sense gameplay-wise.

[Rolan7]

I just got Shane's "blue chickens" event, and it's a lot more uplifting than I remembered   The game's just surprisingly heavy in a lot of ways.  With most of the characters, if I think about it enough.  I like that about it.

[E. Albright]

I won't deny 0 <3 Haley deserves 0 <3 Alex - but she also deserves 10 <3 Alex. Which is what why I tend to write off the bachelors - even the best of them (Seb) feels the same at 0 and 10 (in fact, I'm tempted to say I like him more at 0 more than 10). The only exception is Shane, and I don't like him enough to deal with him, even before getting into how he is when you're married (which admittedly I only know of from seeing what his room will look like... but that's enough, alas).

As far as age goes, my impression was always that Harvey was the only one who was probably 30+, while Emily, Leah, and Elliot were 25-30.

I also agree with the observation that Harvey and Maru don't really feel like candidates as much just 'cause they're more "out of sight, out of mind". OTOH, those two also serve as a counterpoint to the idea of not having merchants as spouse, even if theirs is the shop I've never even once bought anything from.

I haven't actually used the ranching grabber thingies, but I installed one for my barn on my last day and was gonna get one for the coop my next day - and if they work as advertised, I won't regret for a second that a pair costs $50k. Especially since my half-hearted 2.5 day blackberry harvest for year two netted about that much anyway, hehehe...

[Nighthawk]

I haven't played enough of the game to give opinions on all of the characters, but I did play long enough to marry Haley in one of my runs, and I was pleasantly surprised.

I'll be the first to admit that she's a huge pain by default and not the kind of person I would ever want to be around, but I found it cute how sweet she becomes post-marriage. I guess (assuming there was any kind of plan in the writing) she was written to be the kind of person who had nothing she really cared much about until the PC comes around and shows some interest in her. Then again, I'm a sucker for characters who start out terrible but turn their act around.

I also find it entertaining that she hates Prismatic Shards, which are a universally loved item for everyone else. Maybe a hint that she's not as generic as everyone think she is? Or she's just a hipster. Dunno. Either way, spam coconuts to win.

[Rolan7]

It'd be kinda cool if people accepted more than 2 gifts per week if they were *different* gifts.  Switch things up.  Having a chest of pomegranates or frozen tears right next to my husbando is kinda weak.  I got the crab event last night, and went out of my way to buy some crab cakes for Elliot just for variety.  It's double pointless since the relationship is maxed, but it still felt nice.

Having more opportunities to gift would make me less scared of experimenting, right?  Anything that keeps me from going to the wiki is good.

Also prismatic shards are way too precious for me to gift them, lol

[Mephansteras]

I find that Stardew valley is best played with an eye towards not min-maxing. Because, really, nothing needs you to actually do it quickly. You don't need to most money from every season. You don't need to give everyone the absolute best present on their birthday. You don't really need to do much at all.

Part of the charm of the game for me is getting away from my usual video game tendencies. And in a way the beach map does that amazingly well. Because I can't super-farm it, I don't. I relax more, hang out doing stuff I enjoy and slack off on the stuff I don't. Because I can't lose. I can't go broke, or lose the farm, or have someone swoop in and 'steal' the person I'm wooing away from me no matter how long I take. And it's not even a "we made the game so easy you can't lose". It's a "why should you have to be able to lose?" kinda game.

It's nice.