Realistic Spin-off?
Posted: Jul 09, 2008 12:27 am
As much as I love the HM series, one thing that really bothers me are the insane things like having to 65,235 mine floors, numerous requirements to rescue the later harvest sprites or to marry Witch Princess, etc.
The following are ideas which I think would enrich the game by making it more realistic, and also to minimize our spending on "real time."
1) No more money Cheats, less Save/Load trick
Personally I dislike that you can earn 100,000 G in less than 2 weeks in a casino. The game should focus on farming, not mining or gambling.
It would be nice if you cannot save and reload during excavation. For example, as soon as you enter the mine, save is unable thus you cannot keep loading to save your stamina/fatigue once you found out which rock contains alexandrite, etc. This way when you actually find a valuable things in the mine, it will make the effort worth it.
2) Time Flow
A bit like AWL, I think there should be no indoor time stop. That way you cannot upgrade your tools by just simply whacking your hammer indoor while alternate with drinking grape juices.
Also this make mining more challenging. It would be nice to introduce camping in the mine (like Rune Factory, but more realistic). And with the save/reload unable, you have to be careful with your stocks and whatnot when trying to reach the bottom floor of the mine.
3) Villagers' Schedule and Gifts
Villagers should have a more liberal schedule. For example, during 6-8 am Nami has a 80% chance to stay in her room, 20% to go out to gaze at the beach. Then at lunch time she has 50% to dine at the inn, 25% to eat at Kai's during the summer, or in the morning we could see her help Ruby cooking in the kitchen, making her own lunch box which she would eat at the pond.
Also, let's say if it rains, there are chances that villages would be sick the next day and would stay at home. This would also change how different items would please them--like how certain grasses are good gifts for villagers with flu, or how relax tea would gain more friendship point if the recipient just finishes the day's hard work. Also if you try to give a villager a meal (i.e. pizza) right after they have lunch, they might not accept the gift. Or if they do, the friendship is gained less than when they are hungry.
Seasons, weathers, locations all should affect how the villagers would treat their gifts. If Carter is working, then he might not like receiving gifts because they would encumber him; thus it's best to give him during his breaks, or when he's already finished with work.
With more "unpredictable" schedule, I think the game would be more fun since you would be surprised to find such and such villager in a location at a time where you wouldn't think of.
Last thing, it's best if giving the same gift over and over will yield less friendship/love point. If you give 3 wines to Merlin 3 days in a row, on the 3rd day he will no longer be much interested in the gift. This will allow players to be more creative with how they give gifts. Like giving turbojolts to Merlin when he just finishes his work will boost up your friendship point with him drastically, even though he usually is indifferent to the item. Also there should be limit to how much you can give gifts per day, so no more birthday gifts-giving spree to boost friendship point to 255.
others:
a) villagers have schedules on festival days, not just locking up in their house. We could see them setting up the tent for food contest, etc.
b) out of town visitors visit town more randomly. I.e. no more Popouri once a week--some week she might not come at all, some week she might decide to stay over for 2 nights in a row at the inner inn.
4) Animations and Interactions
As many people had complained, we need animations. Vesta watering her crops, Celia harvesting the corns, Dr. checking Galen's health, Murray securing his own outdoor spot to sleep, Chris bringing out her umbrellas as she leaves for work on a rainy day, Hugh jogging and then taking a break by buying hot dogs from Kai at the beach.
While the characters are having "interacting animations" (i.e. Kai handing the hot dog to Hugh), they should be busy for you to initiate conservation with them, nor you can give them gift at that moment. As the characters are interacting, there could be emoticons showing how they are feeling--like an emotion that shows Kai is annoyed by Rick. Thus each villager would have "mood" for different moment, which would affect how they would treat you and your gifts. Also Vesta could give you special discounts if she's in a good mood, etc.
It would be nice if characters have routine like brushing their teeth in the morning, taking a bath in the evening. If two villagers are seen in the spa, they could be conversing with one another, making the game have a more interactive environment.
others:
a) villagers could ride on bike, which make them move around much faster, making you having a hard time catching them and initiating conversation, etc. There could be a mini bus station which people like Chris and Grant would walk to in the morning to catch their bus to work. Sometimes the bus would be late and would put them in bad mood. Mineral Town folks could come with a bus, etc.
b) characters changed into pajamas, casual cloths on weekends, etc. This assume that all houses would have toilet now, and whenever villagers go into the bathroom to change their clothing, the doors would be locked.
5) Rucksack, Item sizes & weights
I don't mind stacking since it's convenient. But firstly, whenever you are holding 99 flowers and talking to a villager, you should give only one, not all. And whenever you throw 10 fishes into your pond, all 10 fishes should count, not just one. This could be easily fixed.
Now to my idea...
Carrying 99 lumbers should not be possible. The game should introduce a size and weight system. For example, you can carry up to 50 kg with small rucksack which can only squeeze in 20 bottles of milk. As you buy a bigger rucksack from Karen, you can squeeze in 50, 100, etc. You should be able to carry more with your farm points, or finding a power berry, wearing accessory, "level up" your tools (i.e. testament that you have more strength). Same with fatigue and stamina, the max fp and sp should increase as you have more experience with farm.
Small items such as grasses should count only 0.1 kg, while a hoe is 8 kg, for example. Grasses take very small size in your rucksack while a pineapple takes up 1/15 of your sack's space. This mean you have to plan more carefully on what you hold. Of course this might irritate players as it means less convenience, but by having your max weight/rucksack size increased due to winning festivals, saving up for new rucksack etc., the game would be less monotonous to play.
6) Special Accessory, New Farming Mode
Accessory like tool necklace is a cheat in itself. Though if the time flow indoor suggesting I wrote above became true, it's less of a cheat. But personally I would rather not have these special things until you have put much effort in the game. For example, you only win tool necklace only after you get married. And I actually dislike any kappa/goddess items--I would take them out altogether though they could used as a token for enduring your farm for 4 years, or if you win 2 cow festivals in a row, etc.
Now to the teleport stone. Personally I like this item very much. Why? Because it saves time in our real life. However, I think it would be more realistic if they take out this accessory altogether. My suggestion: you have an option to "teleport" when you click on a location on the map, but this teleport is not instantaneous: the game would calculate the time needed to travel to the spot for you, and prompt you with a question like "traveling to this location would take 15 minutes, would you like to take this action?"
This way you can move around efficiently, still maintaining realism, and saving our precious real time. Also since villagers' schedule would be more complex from what I suggested above, using teleport means you can miss out seeing villagers interacting with the other, etc. Thus this would give more incentive to walk/run on your own instead of teleporting all the time.
For farming/animal care, we should get a mode which allows us to specify what would like to do. For example, once you go into this mode, your farm appears on your touch screen, and you can select which spot of land you want to dig, which one you want to harvest, which one you want to water, which animal you want to take care. You can drag a whole farm area and select "watering" or "harvesting" and the game would calculate the time, fatigue and stamina must be spent to complete the action. Of course you can choose not to use this mode, and you will get the same harvest moon game playing experience, but this will tremendously help us who want to save time in our real life (I'm all about saving time in real life).
7) Hunger Point, Mood Point, Health Point, Bladder Point, Sleep Point, maybe even Nutrition Point
I assure you I don't want to make this into the Sims, but Bladder Point would make good use of toilet. Health point requires you to take shower after work, or take correct medicines if you catch a sickness (there could be a variety of sickness in the game, and different medicines/food cure them). Hunger Point makes sure that food you cook is just more than serving as gifts or to complete shipment list. It would be nice if every morning there are no "free food" and you have to cook something up or eat things you brought. And if you keep eating the same thing over and over, the food starts to loose its power and your mood point would become low. This also allows things such as Kai's or Ruby's place to be more significant since you can stop over for lunch, where you would find other villagers also coming for lunch. If there's an available spot on a table, and let's say Galen, Nina, and Nami are dining on it, when you sit at the chair, the game asks you whether you are eating lunch at that spot or not. During lunch, the people sitting near you would automatically gain friendship point with you. Each cooking item takes different time to eat (i.e. it's faster to eat an ice-cream than a gratin). Each cooking item also takes different time to cook (thus harder recipes that replenishes lots of stamina might take 40 minutes while a salad take only 5). If your hunger nearly at max, your character might refuse to eat anymore. This means you cannot spam drinking grape juices just to replenish stamina/fatigue, and the jolts would be better since they don't fill you up quickly.
If you are in the bad mood, the villagers might not want to be around you, your fatigue could rise faster, sometimes your character might lazy off to doze etc.
As for nutrition point, I think it could ask us the players to eat a more variety of food to gain a balanced diet. For example, if we decide to eat popcorn for every breakfasts our character might temporary have lower max stamina/fatigue.
For sleep point, I think this is important. In current harvest moon titles, you can replenish your stamina/fatigue by eating food before going to sleep at 5:50, then you'll be able to wake up the next day fine. I think it's better that sleep point is introduced so it's more realistic. Also this would mean the years would fly by quicker since we cannot stay up late everyday.
The following are ideas which I think would enrich the game by making it more realistic, and also to minimize our spending on "real time."
1) No more money Cheats, less Save/Load trick
Personally I dislike that you can earn 100,000 G in less than 2 weeks in a casino. The game should focus on farming, not mining or gambling.
It would be nice if you cannot save and reload during excavation. For example, as soon as you enter the mine, save is unable thus you cannot keep loading to save your stamina/fatigue once you found out which rock contains alexandrite, etc. This way when you actually find a valuable things in the mine, it will make the effort worth it.
2) Time Flow
A bit like AWL, I think there should be no indoor time stop. That way you cannot upgrade your tools by just simply whacking your hammer indoor while alternate with drinking grape juices.
Also this make mining more challenging. It would be nice to introduce camping in the mine (like Rune Factory, but more realistic). And with the save/reload unable, you have to be careful with your stocks and whatnot when trying to reach the bottom floor of the mine.
3) Villagers' Schedule and Gifts
Villagers should have a more liberal schedule. For example, during 6-8 am Nami has a 80% chance to stay in her room, 20% to go out to gaze at the beach. Then at lunch time she has 50% to dine at the inn, 25% to eat at Kai's during the summer, or in the morning we could see her help Ruby cooking in the kitchen, making her own lunch box which she would eat at the pond.
Also, let's say if it rains, there are chances that villages would be sick the next day and would stay at home. This would also change how different items would please them--like how certain grasses are good gifts for villagers with flu, or how relax tea would gain more friendship point if the recipient just finishes the day's hard work. Also if you try to give a villager a meal (i.e. pizza) right after they have lunch, they might not accept the gift. Or if they do, the friendship is gained less than when they are hungry.
Seasons, weathers, locations all should affect how the villagers would treat their gifts. If Carter is working, then he might not like receiving gifts because they would encumber him; thus it's best to give him during his breaks, or when he's already finished with work.
With more "unpredictable" schedule, I think the game would be more fun since you would be surprised to find such and such villager in a location at a time where you wouldn't think of.
Last thing, it's best if giving the same gift over and over will yield less friendship/love point. If you give 3 wines to Merlin 3 days in a row, on the 3rd day he will no longer be much interested in the gift. This will allow players to be more creative with how they give gifts. Like giving turbojolts to Merlin when he just finishes his work will boost up your friendship point with him drastically, even though he usually is indifferent to the item. Also there should be limit to how much you can give gifts per day, so no more birthday gifts-giving spree to boost friendship point to 255.
others:
a) villagers have schedules on festival days, not just locking up in their house. We could see them setting up the tent for food contest, etc.
b) out of town visitors visit town more randomly. I.e. no more Popouri once a week--some week she might not come at all, some week she might decide to stay over for 2 nights in a row at the inner inn.
4) Animations and Interactions
As many people had complained, we need animations. Vesta watering her crops, Celia harvesting the corns, Dr. checking Galen's health, Murray securing his own outdoor spot to sleep, Chris bringing out her umbrellas as she leaves for work on a rainy day, Hugh jogging and then taking a break by buying hot dogs from Kai at the beach.
While the characters are having "interacting animations" (i.e. Kai handing the hot dog to Hugh), they should be busy for you to initiate conservation with them, nor you can give them gift at that moment. As the characters are interacting, there could be emoticons showing how they are feeling--like an emotion that shows Kai is annoyed by Rick. Thus each villager would have "mood" for different moment, which would affect how they would treat you and your gifts. Also Vesta could give you special discounts if she's in a good mood, etc.
It would be nice if characters have routine like brushing their teeth in the morning, taking a bath in the evening. If two villagers are seen in the spa, they could be conversing with one another, making the game have a more interactive environment.
others:
a) villagers could ride on bike, which make them move around much faster, making you having a hard time catching them and initiating conversation, etc. There could be a mini bus station which people like Chris and Grant would walk to in the morning to catch their bus to work. Sometimes the bus would be late and would put them in bad mood. Mineral Town folks could come with a bus, etc.
b) characters changed into pajamas, casual cloths on weekends, etc. This assume that all houses would have toilet now, and whenever villagers go into the bathroom to change their clothing, the doors would be locked.
5) Rucksack, Item sizes & weights
I don't mind stacking since it's convenient. But firstly, whenever you are holding 99 flowers and talking to a villager, you should give only one, not all. And whenever you throw 10 fishes into your pond, all 10 fishes should count, not just one. This could be easily fixed.
Now to my idea...
Carrying 99 lumbers should not be possible. The game should introduce a size and weight system. For example, you can carry up to 50 kg with small rucksack which can only squeeze in 20 bottles of milk. As you buy a bigger rucksack from Karen, you can squeeze in 50, 100, etc. You should be able to carry more with your farm points, or finding a power berry, wearing accessory, "level up" your tools (i.e. testament that you have more strength). Same with fatigue and stamina, the max fp and sp should increase as you have more experience with farm.
Small items such as grasses should count only 0.1 kg, while a hoe is 8 kg, for example. Grasses take very small size in your rucksack while a pineapple takes up 1/15 of your sack's space. This mean you have to plan more carefully on what you hold. Of course this might irritate players as it means less convenience, but by having your max weight/rucksack size increased due to winning festivals, saving up for new rucksack etc., the game would be less monotonous to play.
6) Special Accessory, New Farming Mode
Accessory like tool necklace is a cheat in itself. Though if the time flow indoor suggesting I wrote above became true, it's less of a cheat. But personally I would rather not have these special things until you have put much effort in the game. For example, you only win tool necklace only after you get married. And I actually dislike any kappa/goddess items--I would take them out altogether though they could used as a token for enduring your farm for 4 years, or if you win 2 cow festivals in a row, etc.
Now to the teleport stone. Personally I like this item very much. Why? Because it saves time in our real life. However, I think it would be more realistic if they take out this accessory altogether. My suggestion: you have an option to "teleport" when you click on a location on the map, but this teleport is not instantaneous: the game would calculate the time needed to travel to the spot for you, and prompt you with a question like "traveling to this location would take 15 minutes, would you like to take this action?"
This way you can move around efficiently, still maintaining realism, and saving our precious real time. Also since villagers' schedule would be more complex from what I suggested above, using teleport means you can miss out seeing villagers interacting with the other, etc. Thus this would give more incentive to walk/run on your own instead of teleporting all the time.
For farming/animal care, we should get a mode which allows us to specify what would like to do. For example, once you go into this mode, your farm appears on your touch screen, and you can select which spot of land you want to dig, which one you want to harvest, which one you want to water, which animal you want to take care. You can drag a whole farm area and select "watering" or "harvesting" and the game would calculate the time, fatigue and stamina must be spent to complete the action. Of course you can choose not to use this mode, and you will get the same harvest moon game playing experience, but this will tremendously help us who want to save time in our real life (I'm all about saving time in real life).
7) Hunger Point, Mood Point, Health Point, Bladder Point, Sleep Point, maybe even Nutrition Point
I assure you I don't want to make this into the Sims, but Bladder Point would make good use of toilet. Health point requires you to take shower after work, or take correct medicines if you catch a sickness (there could be a variety of sickness in the game, and different medicines/food cure them). Hunger Point makes sure that food you cook is just more than serving as gifts or to complete shipment list. It would be nice if every morning there are no "free food" and you have to cook something up or eat things you brought. And if you keep eating the same thing over and over, the food starts to loose its power and your mood point would become low. This also allows things such as Kai's or Ruby's place to be more significant since you can stop over for lunch, where you would find other villagers also coming for lunch. If there's an available spot on a table, and let's say Galen, Nina, and Nami are dining on it, when you sit at the chair, the game asks you whether you are eating lunch at that spot or not. During lunch, the people sitting near you would automatically gain friendship point with you. Each cooking item takes different time to eat (i.e. it's faster to eat an ice-cream than a gratin). Each cooking item also takes different time to cook (thus harder recipes that replenishes lots of stamina might take 40 minutes while a salad take only 5). If your hunger nearly at max, your character might refuse to eat anymore. This means you cannot spam drinking grape juices just to replenish stamina/fatigue, and the jolts would be better since they don't fill you up quickly.
If you are in the bad mood, the villagers might not want to be around you, your fatigue could rise faster, sometimes your character might lazy off to doze etc.
As for nutrition point, I think it could ask us the players to eat a more variety of food to gain a balanced diet. For example, if we decide to eat popcorn for every breakfasts our character might temporary have lower max stamina/fatigue.
For sleep point, I think this is important. In current harvest moon titles, you can replenish your stamina/fatigue by eating food before going to sleep at 5:50, then you'll be able to wake up the next day fine. I think it's better that sleep point is introduced so it's more realistic. Also this would mean the years would fly by quicker since we cannot stay up late everyday.
Maybe you could become a gaming programmer and make your own game someday :D or like others said take this to *blank*...makes HM LOL XD *just woke up* and see if they'd make a later game more like this ^_^ I wouldn't change anything about the mines though, because even if you can cheat with the save/reload, it's still a challenge to get to the bottom of all the mines.