0.9.3_7124 π« Addressing the grind
This one was a bit hard to title, since it's got a wide variety of changes that sort of make up the whole "ah, we made the game feel less grindy". The short of it is, we've increased the scope of what you can do and how you can achieve these goals, instead of "wait for 30 Turnips to grow". However, since these are still paced with the intention that an unguided play-through can be roughly one season per Obelisk and MIAO, they still require some elbow grease! Paw grease? Ew...
There's also some quality of life additions and bug fixes, so feel free to jump between headers if you'd like to skip something!
So, I'd say they're broken down into three parts:
Obelisk offering changes
MIAO changes
Fertilizer and Seed Maker changes
I'll go through those three first, then at the bottom, touch on the QoL, balance, and fixes we've also included with this patch.
π Obelisk Changes
This is something we've had an issue with both the Obelisk and MIAO: they ask for specific, arbitrary items that sometimes feel like they overlap (GP Obelisk asks for 30 turnips, MIAO1 asks for 30 potatoes, etc.)
We want to stick by Snacko's whole "there should be a lot of player choice and agency" core concept, so the Obelisks have been changed to reflect that.
Obelisk slots now have slots that are a choice between different options
Hovering over one of these "optional" slots will stop the auto-cycling
Each optional slot has 3 options that span a variety of different activities or ways to obtain them (ex: fishing, cooking, resource gathering, farming)
If you had items inside your Obelisk that is still a work in progress, they were refunded to your overflow storage
The kind of gameplay we'd like to encourage is looking through the options and weighing what you'd rather do: "I can try my luck and get 3 gems! I'm not interested in the Amethyst's effects on my tools anyways!" versus "Hmm, maybe it's just easier if I get a bunch Cobalt and wait for my furnace to make some Glass"
π₯ Full list of Obelisk changes:
π» Grassy Plains
Earth Fragment X25 β Unchanged
Carrot X30 β Myst Crystal X10
Turnip X30 β Apple X30 / Koi X1 / Plain Cake X1
Apple X40 β Turnip X30 / Cypress Wall Panel X25 / Concrete Slab X25
Bamboo Shoot X10 β Onion X30 / Bamboo Shoot X40 / Simple Stove X1
Note Bamboo Shoot drop rates should now be more consistent due to last RNG hotfix
π΅ Desert Canyon
Fire Fragment X99 β Fire Fragment X70
Fire Fragment X99 β Myst Crystal X35
Gold Bar X20 β Bone X50 / Surgeonfish X1 / Basic Ramen X1
Tomato X30 β Tomato X30 / Potato X30 / Coconut Timber Wall Panel X25
Potato X10 β Clay Tile X50 / Gold Bar X25 / Lapis X2
Coconut X10 β Fire Fragment X50 / Corn X30 / Sleek Lamppost X3
π Mushroom Forest
Water Fragment X99 β Unchanged
Water Fragment X99 β Myst Crystal X60
Water Fragment X99 β Mushroom Floor Lamp X10 / Mystfish X1 / Curry X1
Cobalt Bar X40 β Milk β3 X20 / Wheat β2 X20 / Redwood Wall Panel X30
Milk β3 X30 β Slate Bar X50 / Glass X30 / Amethyst X3
Spinach β2 X10 β Water Fragment X80 / Myst Crystal X60 / Espresso Dye X30
Aer Cap X10 β Egg β3 X20 / Green Bell Pepper β2 X20 / Emerald Dye X2
βοΈ Frozen Tundra
Air Fragment X99 β Unchanged
Air Fragment X99 β Myst Crystal X99
Air Fragment X99 β Egg β5 X40 / Carrot β5 X30 / Obsidian Bar X80
Obsidian Bar X50 β Traditional Ice Box X1 / Snacko Special Sandwich X1 / Great White Shark X1
Egg β4 X30 β Vintage Vanity X2 / Temari Dragon X1 / Cabbage β3 X20
Turnip β3 X10 β Metal Framing X15 / Cotton β3 X30 / Diamond X4
Snacko Special Sandwich X1 β Squid X1 / Fish Tacos X1 / Bomb Arrow X40
Added Air Fragment X99 / Myst Crystal X99 / Spinach β5 X20 / Nobu Jr. Plush X3
πΎ MIAO Changes
To go along with the Obelisk changes, we've also reworked the MIAO goals to better align with natural gameplay and ways to nudge you to try different things, rather than grinding for arbitrary items, like shipping corn.
Now, the MIAO will offer a variety of subtasks such as:
Cook 5 times (like, anything. Even Dubious Dishes.)
Donate 20 items to the Cultural Center
Earn 500,000 Cocoa Beans
...and so on
We've tried to think about ways that different people would like to play the game, and included activities that would allow you to complete the goal in different ways. If you hate fishing, you can always just donate furniture or cooked dishes to the Cultural Center! Stuff like that.
π₯ Full list of MIAO changes:
MIAO 1
Invite a Grocer β Unchanged
Invite a Carpenter β Unchanged
Place 10 Brick Planters β Upgrade a tool
Ship 30 Potatoes β Cook 5 times
Removed Craft a Basic Stove
MIAO 2
Invite an Alchemist β Unchanged
Invite a Mail Clerk β Unchanged
Get a Fluffy Cow or Fuzzy Chicken β Unchanged
Ship 3 Rubies β Restore the statue in town
Added Learn how to craft a Kart
MIAO 3
Invite a Restauranter β Unchanged
Ship 30 Wheat β Learn 150 Crafting Recipes
Mine 100 Times β Donate 20 items to the Cultural Center
Ship 10 Mushroom Pasta β Speed up a station 50 times
MIAO 4
Ship 10 Obsidian Bars β Earn c500,000
Ship 30 Corn β Make 3 friends (5 flowers)
Fertilize 100 Times β Destroy 10 trees with a Bomb Arrow
Added Have a level 5 tool
Added Expand your house
π± Farming Changes
For the longest time, 1 Fertilizer application = 1 Star level.
That, uh doesn't seem right, does it? And the Seedmaker as well. 1 crop = 1 seed. Wait a minute...
So now, that's fixed!
You need to fertilize your crops at least three times
Just because you've fertilized it 9 times doesn't mean it'll grow even better! Once you hit 3X, the rest is just overdoing it
A combination of fertilizing and adding to the Seed Maker is key to raising the quality of your crops!
Seed Makers now give 2 seeds for every crop, at +1 quality
Adding a Myst Crystal to the maker will give you a chance of getting an β¨extraβ¨ seed from a crop.
Adding a Cat-a-lyzer in the maker will reduce the time to generate each batch of seeds. Of course, you can also whack the maker with your tools
NEW β¨ New crop to grow: Myst Flower
Myst Flowers can be crafted into 3 Myst Crystals per flower. They take a while to grow, but they'll regrow several times. It's a more passive way to obtain crystals without having to run down to the mines
Old players will get the quest automatically added to their save file. New players will unlock the tutorial and the seeds when an alchemist moves to the island
Myst Flowers can be also placed as a decoration
π€ Balance/QoL
Removed gems from pinball machine, you can still have a chance to get shards
Gem shards are now more expensive when bought at the Alchemist
Removed Myst Crystals as a buyable item from Alchemist shop
Removed tools and gems crafting recipe from blueprint shop; tools are now unlocked by default and gems will be learned during the newly "tool upgrade" quest
New quest "Them Apples" for new players to help nudge towards the Grassy Plains to start the MSQ
New quest that gets posted early game to let players know how dyes are obtained and give a couple of colors to play around with
New quest that gets posted early game to give players the basic bush and flower crafting recipes instead of inside the blueprint shop. Nobu also mentions how a sword is an easy way to gather petals and Plant Material
NEW β¨ Save files will now show you a screenshot of where you saved. If it's an autosave from sleeping, you will be loafed
π Fixes
Mine doorways were only destroyable using un-upgraded tools or bomb arrows
Townhouses did not retain buildables placed inside
Specific inventory bug where moving two storage containers with a gamepad twice resulted in an empty inventory generated (items are still there, save migration to fix those affected coming later)