So I was reading a particular story and one of its major elements was the difficulty of farming. This is because their crops are alive and dangerous and don't like to be eaten. In short, crops grow into mobs! The player must defeat the mob to secure the crop, or risk the danger of it running away and causing havoc. More valuable crops will naturally lend itself to more dangerous mobs. A lowly parsnip may only do a few damage and have a few HP, while a gold gem berry boy could be throwing powerful hexes that quickly drain the player's health. What does this mean for the player? Starting farmers won't be concerned as they only grow small crops and can scythe their way to victory. HP is basically free on farming days anyway. Instead it places intense pressure on endgame farmers who attempt to grow thousands of high end crops. A gigantic farm of starfruit could very easily overwhelm the player and passing will result in losing vast portions of the valuable crop. Fences will be critical to cage in crop fields to reduce swarming and separate competitive crops. It also explains why Pierre won't sell you high end crops until second year. He is afraid for the town should a dangerous raddish or red cabbage harvest break free. Animals attacked by crops will fail to produce and lose happiness, so you better lock them inside before a harvest. Your spouse may help out or stay inside if a crop is too intimidating. Your pet will happily help you subdue some early game crops because your pet is awesome. So as a quick idea of what kind of grown crops players might be dealing with: Parsnip: 2-5 damage, 5-15 health, acts like a bouncy slime. Cauliflower: 3-8 damage, 30-50 health, acts like a flying bat Sweet Gem berry: 12-25 damage, 100-200 health, ranged spell caster with annoying debuff. Thoughts? Concerns?
Sounds rather like a grim dawn mod than stardew valley. But if you change the interface, getting a solid 3d - engine, adds random loot, more active abilities and different character classes it could be fun. I mean basically an hack and slay rpg to grow your own worst enemy. However obviously not in stardew valley ^^
