The critically acclaimed farming simulator Stardew Valley may have a massive list of farming tips and tricks to get the best produce, yet the game is still missing essential components.
Farming in Stardew Valley has a major learning curve for starting players, but it becomes one of the easiest features for returning players. For those returning for repeat playthroughs, it becomes apparent that farming takes a backseat to the rest of the game. Activities such as gaining hearts with the folks of Pelican Town, venturing into the mines, fishing, and completing the community center bundles are all sure to distract players from the farm. There are elements to farming, such as collecting enough resources to build a barn or a chicken coop. The problem with farming is that it quickly becomes a repetitive loop and does not allow for any diverse play.
Herbs, Spices, and Cooking
Some crops in Stardew Valley sell for higher than others based on how long they take to grow. Some crops take half a season to grow, and most crops only grow in a particular season. This means that every season has a limited play style when attending to crops. Players can invest in a greenhouse that allows crops to grow year-round, which is very useful for cooking recipes in Stardew Valley. However, there is a disparity in cooking, particularly that relates to the gardening mechanics.
If Stardew Valley continues updating, add herbs and spices into the farming and cooking mechanics. The addition of herbs and spices would increase the number of recipes available, and they would help increase the quality of dishes. Ensuring gold and iridium quality dishes would increase profits by a significant margin in the early game. Increasing the quality of dishes would also help players in the mines by maximizing energy and health points and ensuring quicker hearts with Pelican Town residents. There are many other ways the cooking mechanics in Stardew Valley could improve farming.
Trading and Bartering Goods
Gifting is, most of the time, a one-way transaction in ConcernedApe's Stardew Valley. And while it is rewarding to find out about each character by unlocking cutscenes, little other players can do with items then sell them. A trading market could fix this issue by allowing players to trade any material for something else they need.
There are many situations in Stardew Valley where players will find a disparity of certain items required in the early game. Including a market or trading goods and bartering with shop owners aside from the Traveling Cart and Desert Trader would be an easy way to fix these disparity issues. For example, Haley loves sunflowers which only grow in the summer. So if players want to continue gifting sunflowers to Haley, players will either need the greenhouse or to stock up ahead of time. If there were a market or trading system, players could potentially trade crops or materials for more urgently needed items at a moment's notice. The market could be once a week, yet it would still open the possibility for rare seeds or items to be traded for items players do not need. There is technically a trading system with the desert salesman, but many of his items require many monster parts.
Livestock Competitions
Many players will begin to acquire livestock around the summer of the first year after building a barn or coop in Stardew Valley. Each animal in the player's livestock requires attention to acquire more hearts. Filling up the heart gauge with livestock has them output higher-quality items such as milk and egg. At the end of the third year, the player's grandfather will rate the farm's progress. It is imperative to have full heart points with the livestock to ensure a higher rating. Other than these two things, the player's relationship with livestock ends there.
Something that could make livestock even more useful would be to include a livestock competition. It can get tedious attending to livestock in the late game, especially when they begin reproducing. An annual livestock competition with a reward would incentivize players to attend to the livelihood of Stardew Valley's animals. It also would ensure players higher quality products from livestock year-round, meaning higher quality dishes, meaning more money for more projects.
Stardew Valley is available for Mobile, PC, PS4, Switch, and Xbox One.