Hello. I am new to these forums. I spend almost 200 hours playing SD and I would like to contribute both as a lover of this kind of games (Hell, Rune Factory 4 is one of my favorite games ever) and as a Game designer with certain experience. Hopefully I can help with some suggestions. As I said, I am a big fan of Rune Factory 4. And although I love Stardew Valley and the game has huge unique successes (I love the community center and the bundles), i think overall it lags behind Rune Factory 4. After thinking a lot in what could be the reasons I ended up suspecting the lack of a proper crafting system is part of it. Let me explain from the basis. The core gameplay loop is to be able to find new or better materials to use them into new and better items for both selling or use them. A clear example is the cooking mechanic: it takes crops and other animal goods and transforms them into something more valuable or useful. Yet, I find all that is related with combat is lacking in this point. Most of the weapons are given and they kind of have the same purpose. It's sad that as a player you cannot make an iron sword with wood and iron, upgrade it to iridium sword or even add a ruby to add some fire power that can kill mummies. On the same page, armor, wands and other elements could be crafted, providing new tools for the combat. Obviously, this feature cannot come by itself and need some support. First, a proper crafting table. Second, blueprints to make all these tools. They might be found inside dungeons, but then new types of dungeons might be required for orthogonality purposes (did anyone say deep forest dungeon?). Probably a deeper combat system might need to be created along with new enemies. Escalating enemies might be also a good idea to adapt the challenge to the newly created weapons. All this for me seem like a good starting point to create a cool endgame where the players could simply measure how deep in each of the dungeons they can go. It can also work as a money sink feature where to spend all those millions earned through the ancient berry wine. I hope you like it. Probably I am not the first one noticing this. How would you expand the idea?
I would like the ability to craft weapons and armor. That's basically the one thing that I liked out of the Rune Factory franchises. I never played 4 because I do not have the neurologic function to use a hand held device. I prefer STV in terms of plotlines and NPC interaction...And combat. Every RF game I did play had too many things that felt like there should have been a story line or a way to interact and just didn't. There were too many make work things that were clearly only there so they could say, "40 hours of game play!" I hated those wretched little runies. There should have been a way to get someone else's heart points up and have them deal with the miserable expletives deleted. The RF games all felt flat and rushed to market. The other thing that I absolutely hated about RF was the combat. It was designed for a hyperactive 8 year old after 2 double espressos. It depended on special attacks that I simply don't have the neurologic function to do. There was no alternative. Can't get past the minor boss 1 hour in and the game is effectively over. STV has alternate ways of doing things. It works on a PC, no need to have to update a platform every 3 years. People who've had minor strokes or other nerve damage can actually sometimes use the game as a sort of physical therapy. Aging gamers and some disabled gamers have something they can try again. RF says, "Ha Ha, you can't play anymore! Thanks for buying the game, and especially for buying the platform that you can't use for anything else." I know nothing of programming but would suggest that if I were doing it, given the basic theme of the game, I'd have the character have Robin build a shed and then When Clint is up to sufficient heart points you could provide materials and money to have him upgrade it into a forge
Thanks for the response. Obviously, every person have different tastes and as I said, SV has its unique points. It's sad that you cannot play on a handheld because actually the RF games that are not of DS/3DS are probably the worst of the series (I also hate the runnies, ugg). But Rune Factory 4 for me it's the best of all the genre. It would be great if they released the game for other devices including PC. I love your idea of upgrading a shed into a forge. I think it suits very well the spirit of SV. Evolving sheds into different types of buildings is a neat idea.
