does anyone else here play? who did you marry? what’s your farming style?

I bought the game a few days ago. I'm really excited to start it (definitely this week).

I love the cozy (farm) simulators like Fae Farm, Moonstone Island, Sprout Valley, and Animal Crossing. But I've heard Stardew Valley is one of the best OG ones that kick-started the others.

Me, I love it! I'm not a great farmer, I never really plan what crops to plant or anything so I'm always poor.

I always marry Harvey. I think he's really sweet!

I love the game so far. I recently saw if you don't get married, you can ask Krobus (the shadow person) to be your roommate, so I may do that... But Idk if I'd miss out on children or a wedding dress or anything my first go. Do children provide anything helpful in-game?

Honestly you don't miss out on anything with the kids. They don't do anything at all, they're a bit annoying. They never grow past the toddler stage and don't do anything other than stand in your house.

I've never had Krobus move in with me so I don't know exactly what happens there, but I'm sure I've found i get married in my normal clothes anyway and I think you can craft a wedding dress regardless, so it might just be the ceremony bit you miss out on. You can always get divorced!

i tend to go through on-and-off phases with the game where i'll play obsessively for a few weeks/months and then go long stretches without touching it. most recently i got back into it this past fall and have spent a few hundred hours on two new save files. because i go so long between playing, i always have a backlog of updated/added content to explore.

i got into the pretty typical "greenhouse full of ancient fruit + shed full of kegs + basement full of casks" setup years ago, so that's generally my go-to, but i also try to diversify what i do with other aspects of my farm. lately i've been playing around with the other farm layouts and experimenting with design & decoration.

in my first save i ended up marrying maru, but in others i've also married penny and leah. i also like abigail a lot and will probably marry her in one of my other saves. but overall i think leah is my favorite.

there's no benefit to having children, no. in fact i find them kind of creepy (they don't talk to do anything or grow up, just wander around as perpetual dead-eyed toddlers) and have always refused to have them. although now i'm trying to do so in one of my saves just for the sake of getting the steam achievement for being married with two kids—except now that i actually want them, my spouse is refusing to bring up the option lol.

Thank you for the input. It's interesting you can get divorced on there. I heard you can get married, have kids, divorce, then get Krobus as the roommate. But that's so much work. From a small video clip, I learned Krobus is a nice roommate who gives hugs.

Cool, I think you also cemented that I don't need kids. I'm playing on switch anyway. Ooh, you reminded me, I need to build a shed for kegs and whatnot. :)

Do you either of you have a recommended farm map that you start with? I picked the forest farm (with the eight regenerating hard wood logs); it seems pretty good.

Overall, I just love the dialogue in the game. There are such sweet moments. I do wish you could marry a few of the non-single characters though. Initially, I thought I might pick Pam or Gus, but they're not available.

I'm a bit boring and always go for the standard farm - I did go for the forest farm once. Although recently I've been playing the Stardew Valley Expanded mod, which comes with a different bigger farm which I quite like! You can unlock a second shed and get a lot more space.

Oh neat. I just looked up the Expanded mod, and it looks amazing. I may have to get it the game on Steam eventually so I can try that.

Yeah I definitely recommend it! There is a lot extra though so it can feel a bit overwhelming, especially if you've not mastered the main game yet. I also installed Ridgeside Village and East Scarp as well, but it kinda feels toooooo big now, there's so much stuff I'm probably not doing. I might uninstall those two and stick with Expanded.

Ah, okay. Are those mods as well? I will definitely get through my first run of the base game. I need to learn/enjoy it first.

But at least the Steam version goes on sale all the time. Do you play it on PC or have the steam deck?

Yeah, they're both mods that add on new towns and characters. I'm a bit more familiar with the Ridgeside Village stuff now but I'm sure there's loads I'm not doing in East Scarp!

I play on Steamdeck. I started out on Switch though and had a few different save files on there. Realising I could mod on Steamdeck made my year haha.

That's really cool you can put the mods on the deck! I hope to get one later this year. In hindsight, I might have gotten the deck instead of the switch. But I did really enjoy Animal Crossing.

How exciting, that's something to look forward to after finishing. :)

OMFG I love the game!

Two of my farms I do animal husbandry so I've gotten to doing the Joja Run for the auto petter.

I like to see all the heart events and with the update you get portraits for everyone you marry so...but Sebastian tends to be my favorite. I love frogs and he rescues frogs after you marry him!

Plus I see a lot of myself in him.

As I do animal husbandry I look for farms that are good for that.

Beach Farm and Meadowlands Farm. The latter starts with a coop and two chickens.

Thanks, both of those locations looked nice. I think I read you can't put sprinklers down in the beach. But I do like animal husbandry a little more than farming and just use the greenhouse now that I've unlocked it. So that shouldn't be a big deal. That's cool that latter has the coop too!

Welcome :)

Yep, you can't put sprinklers on the majority of the beach. Before the latest update, I was suggested the Beach Farm for animal husbandry for that reason.