I'm at 25 Winter, Year 1 and have 10 hearts for Leah. I've been buying Salads are the bar at 220g a pop, x2 a week. I could have been saving gold by making cheap wine
This is my 5th re-roll, and picked up a pace or gaming style that works ok, I guess.
My first 4 was more of a min-max style just to see how far I go and how the game is.
First: Max Farm like doing a FarmVille FB app. Learned that energy can be a problem, and the needed boost coins for seeds. I mean, I can gain some energy from harvested food, or foraged, but consuming those cut off my profit.
So doing full time farming has merit just to get the initial coin profit to have the optimal seeds supply for summer season.
Second: Balance to a farm plot that is hoe watered by 9a-10a. The remaining was to meet people and quests. I guess this route was "tainted" when I got the fishing pole and I felt I wasted a day catching mu first fish and messing up every bite thereafter.
I did google/reddit and it seems that first impression of fishing "sucks" -- but I put this first impression as a bad starting location for a level 0 fishing. It should not be in the ocean/pier--and should be in the trash laden home pond instead for up to level 2 fishing for a better rod at least.
Third: Forager. This attempt seems viable. After the minimal farming duties done by 9a-10a, cutting wood and making Field Snacks to make cutting wood continues until midnight is feasable. Cutting wood increases foraging, which then leads to moving about and gathering leeks, wild horseradish, and other spring forage items.
Doing Foraging helps boots money is spring in terms of getting free seeds to plant. These also opens the Community Center quest lines referred to as "Bundle Quests" The rewards are good too. And most of all, it leads to the completion of the Greenhouse.
Fourth: Miner. At this point of my attempt, I've read a bit more in reddit. And it does seem more of a logical step for me because I want to upgrade my tools sooner. 1 tile watering into 3 tiles is a huge time saver; and I've read 2x3 tile watering, as well as sprinkler systems.
I got the hang of mining, and eventually stopped, as I was "bored" doing the same grind. Or rather, I hit a wall of "inefficiency" meaning 1 swing=1 rock done became 2 swing=1 rock down. I needed an upgrade, but lack the gold. So once again, I need a better coin profit to support more mining.
And this is how I came to my Fifth and current re-roll.
Fifth: I went for a more balanced approach.
First of all, I play dual monitor, so I have Google Docs up to my SDV journal in this simple format:
(used for cut and paste) Sunny_Clear Rain Extra_Luck Displeased Neutral Annoyed Perturbed
(used for cut and paste day template)
Spring X
Weather Tomorrow:
Luck Today:
(put 3 most important things to do / plan for, i.e. Gift 2x Leah, Salad 220g)
To do:
1. Go to Pier before 5pm
2. Bundle: need 5 gold Parsnips
3.
(append daily, current date at top, so first page has all needed info)
Spring 2
Weather Tomorrow: Rain
Luck: Displeased
Chop Wood and Wild Forage
Action: Chop wood
Gather weeds
Level up: Foraging 1. +1 Axe (Wild Seeds, Field Snack)
51 fiber = 51 gold
Spring 1
Weather Tomorrow: Clear Sunny
Luck: Good Humor
Chop Wood and Wild Forage
Buy 25x Parsnip, Plant 25x + 15x
27 wood, 3 stone
105 fiber = 105gold
I eventually have
Museum Donated
1. list items in order: shelf 1
2. etc...
Anyway, having written down what is weather tomorrow makes it easier to plan things, like mining asap.
When luck is extra_luck or good_fortune, I do mining that day after watering. Otherwise, foraging.
I'm also a pack rat, and have yet to figure out an optimal storage system.
In winter, I have quite a few chests.
Left side of farm.
Seed & Fruit Chest. next to Seed Maker, and 1 Keg.
Wood & Mining Chest: wood, hardwood, field snacks, mining dump: ores, coal. next to 1 Charcoal, 2 Furnace.
Bars: eventually, bars go here for easier inventory overview.
Right side of farm.
Season Forage and Crop dump: current season's.
Above mail box:
Chest for Vegetables--eventually moved to Kitchen after upgrade.
Chest for Flowers only.
Right side of overnight box: Chest - Fishes only.
bottomw of overnight box:
Preserve Jar.
Chest: fruits for jelly, jelly, tapper items.
Chest: Beach forage.
2nd Preserve Jar.
I used to have trash chest, moved to Chicken Eggs.
Chicken Coop
Chicken Names: Chicka, Chicke, Chicko, Chicku
Mayo Maker
1 Chest outside for eggs, mayo, and trash: broken cd, broke glasses, jola cola
The amount of time for chickens isn't as profitable, but needed for the Bundle quest. There is an upgrade to this Coop for the next tier.
Barn
Cow Names: Cowsea, Cowsee, Cowseo, Cowseu
Cheese Maker
1 Chest outside for milk and cheese.
1 Chest inside. I probably don't need it, but I prefer to have my Milk Pail ready as I enter.
1 Silo.
I was not happy where I initially placed my Silo, so I learned how to edit the xml save file to move it left of the greenhouse footprint.
And at the same time, I was able to duplicate 2 more silos--I just found it convenient to keep the dupes
1 Stable. For the Horse.
Horse name: Horsea