What do you do when one of your favourite games is going to get a significant update? Start a new game, of course! Oh, and also buy it for your partner so you can play co-op.
I've been sick for the past couple of days and have barely been able to do anything, so was happy that I woke up this morning feeling healthy enough to actually get out of bed -- and it was an added bonus that it was Stardew Valley Update Day! šš
If you're a Stardew Valley aficionado you're probably already well-versed in today's update, but if not, you can find today's spoiler-filled patch-notes at the following link:
https://www.stardewvalley.net/stardew-valley-1-4-update-full-changelog/
First thing's first, I leap into Host Mode and create us a new farm! š
Menus don't pause the game, events don't pause time so you really need to skip them if you don't want to waste 4 hours... we chose to do shared money so every time it makes the rattling coins sound my partner whips around and glares at me, then hisses, "What did you just buy?!"
"Um... Gus was selling a pink cake. That'll give us some good points at the Autumn Festival. The grange display."
"It's Spring!"
"I play, thinking in advance!"
"Rabble rabble rabble!!!!"
Anyway.
We soon got into a groove. We both love the fishing minigame that the SDV Community collectively seems to hate so it wasn't long before our farm was raking in a good amount of money. Enough to buy 80 strawberry seeds for Spring next year and still have 10,000 moneys left over. Muahaha!
I also beat Abigail at the easter egg hunt so I won a cool hat. Well. Not cool cool. But, a hat.
As the end of the Season began to loom, I decided that I'd be useful and go to the mines and start collecting us copious amounts of copper and iron so we could craft important things, while
We're playing without mods, which is a first for me since the game released many moons ago, so we don't have spiffy sprinklers or what-have-you. We're going to be able to make a bunch of the super low quality sprinklers and put them in rows and at least have a teensy bit of automation going though.
Summer is approaching and I plan to have tomatoes, hops, blueberries, and a row of corn on automate. The rest will be a lot of melons.
JUICY MELONS.
Anyway.
Some of the new things that I've noticed in-game so far.
ā Of course at character creation there are some new clothes, female farmers can wear skirts!!!, new hairstyles, new pet breeds.š
ā When you're upgrading tools, you now get a notification at the side of your screen the morning of readiness. š
ā A couple of the people, most notably Alex and Elliot, have a routine change - you can find Alex hanging out at Haley's house now, and Elliot hangs out with Leah at the pub some nights.
ā FISHING PONDS. We've already built one. Now just need to stock it, and buy more, and stock those too. FISH. š
ā Speaking of fishing, getting "max" on the cast seems a lot easier now! Also, NEW FISH. Found a Flounder.
ā Upgradeable trash receptacle in your inventory! Retains a percentage of the value when you throw things in the bin. š
Probably a lot more but those are just off the top of my head.
There are significant improvements overall so far, a lot of little quality of life adjustments, and I'm looking forward to discovering MORE.
Yes, I read the patchnotes, I don't give a damn about spoilers and happily drink in everything I can, but it's still nice actually coming across these things in game. ššš
Now, we're just waiting for our son's bedtime so we can get back to the Valley and do more farming!
Sooooooooon! š
Until next time!
All screenshots in this post are courtesy of me, 