---
# System prepended metadata

title: Stardew Valley mod ideas
tags: [stardew]

---

---
title: Stardew Valley mod ideas
tags: stardew
---

Legend:

* 🔧 -- configurable (via `config.json` or [Generic Mod Config Menu](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/5098))

# Better Spouse Chores / Hobbies

Each spouse has several hobbies, each one having a benefit they can grant to their married player. The player may choose which benefits they would prefer to see.

## Chores / Hobbies

All of those benefits should only trigger if they actually have any effect. For example, unlike vanilla, spouses will not try to water crops watered by sprinklers, or pet animals if all animal buildings have Auto-Petters.

Each time a spouse decides to grant a benefit, they choose a weighted random chore. Each spouse has their own set of chore weights -- their preferences.

Additionally, some chores can be configured to have their weight further reduced if the chore would not grant much of a benefit to the player (for example, repairing just one or no fences at all).

Weights of the chores that were not picked are remembered and will partially influence the next chore choices, until they are picked. This means even if a spouse does not like to do a specific task, they will still rarely do it.

### Cooking

The spouse will give the player some kind of cooked item (spouses already randomly do that in vanilla).

### Mining

The spouse will give the player some kind of metal bar / mineral. There is a higher chance to get a mineral the player didn't donate to a museum yet.

### Archaeology

The spouse will give the player some kind of artifact. There is a higher chance to get an artifact the player didn't donate to a museum yet.

### Ranching

The spouse will pet and feed the farm animals (spouses already randomly do that in vanilla).

### Farming

The spouse will water the crops (spouses already randomly do that in vanilla).

The spouse may also pick up grown crops and put them in chests (if those crops are already in any chest on the farm).

### Fishing

The spouse will pick up fish caught in crab pots around the whole Pelican Town and put them in a chest on the farm.

The spouse will also pick up bait from Worm Bins and refill as many crab pots as possible. The remaining bait will be put into a chest.

### Carpentry

The spouse will repair broken fences on the farm (spouses already randomly do that in vanilla).

### Shopping

The spouse will give the player some kind of item another villager likes or loves, if that villager's birthday is soon.

### Tailoring

The spouse will give the player a random piece of attire.

### Gathering

The spouse will collect items ready to be picked up from machines on the farm. The spouse will also collect items laying on the floor on the farm (including fruits in the farm cave, if bats were chosen).

The spouse will only do so if there is an existing chest with the same item on the farm.

### Brewing

The spouse will collect items from Kegs and replace them with new items found in any chest on the farm. They will also put the resulting items in Casks if any are free, or if not, in chests.

# Flower/Garden Farm

Adds a new beautiful farm type on which flowers of the current season grow by themselves (as foragables, probably; if possible they should work in such a way, that a Bee House would work with it). The benefit of this farm is that most (all?) of the villagers like flowers, and some even love them (also maybe easy early non-wild Honey).

# Horse Flute Transportation Services

Allows you to use a Horse Flute even if another player is riding your horse. That player is teleported along with the horse.

Additionally drops that player from the horse and blocks them from mounting it up again for a short time^🔧^.

## Compatibility

The mod should be compatible with the following mods:

* [Horse Flute Anywhere](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/7500)

# Scaling Help Wanted Quest Rewards

Allows turning in "Help Wanted" quests late.

Turning in quests on the first day has a +20%^🔧^ reward bonus.

Turning in quests late reduces the rewards by 50%^🔧^.

## Compatibility

The mod should be compatible with the following mods:

* [Mail Services Mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/7842/) -- Allows turning in quest items via mail.

# Economy

Introduces various mechanics to counter-act farming and aging wine being always the best way of income, making other crops and professions actually important.

## Supply and Demand^🔧^

Selling more and more of the same stuff reduces the price of said thing. Buying more and more of the same stuff increases the price of said thing. Multiple days/weeks/seasons have to pass to get it back to the original price.

Prices should be changed depending on multiple factors:
* Exact item ("Starfruit Wine")
* Item ("(Any) Wine")
* Item subsubcategory ("Fruit Artisan Product" -- includes Jelly and Juice/Wine)  
    :::warning
    This is probably an overkill and it should probably be condensed and possibly switched around with Item subcategory, but that's not final.
    :::
* Item subcategory ("Crop Artisan Product" -- includes the "Fruit Artisan Product" and "Vegetable Artisan Product" subsubcategories)  
    :::warning
    Checking it automatically will probably be really painful, and I'd rather avoid having to manually register items -- this will allow greater mod compatibility.
    :::
* Item category ("Artisan Product")

## Out of Season^🔧^

Increases prices (both buy and sell) for out of season items. Smaller increase for 1 season away, larger for 2 seasons away.

Items affected:

* All crops + seeds
* Artisan products from crops
* Foragables
* Beach foragables
* Fish
* Mixed seeds (in Winter)
* Truffle + Truffle Oil (in Winter)
* Fruit tree fruits (in Winter)

# Poor and Wonderful Qualities

Adds two new item qualities to the game -- poor, represented by a dark gray icon, and wonderful, represented by a rainbow icon.

The mod should be split into multiple parts -- one being just a framework for the new qualities, and the others being actual parts that allow you to get items of said qualities.

Poor quality items sell for 50%^🔧^ of their base price.

Wonderful quality items sell for 250%^🔧^ of their base price.

Items of poor quality actually lower the gift tier when gifted. A normally loved item will actually count as only a liked gift; a liked gift will count as a neutral gift; etc.^🔧^

Items of wonderful quality have an even bigger friendship multiplier than iridium quality.^🔧^

## Fertilizers Matter

A module for the Qualities mod.

Any crop without any fertilizer will be one quality level lower (meaning they can be of poor quality).

## Sad Animals Quality

A module for the Qualities mod.

Sad animals produce one quality level lower items (meaning they can be of poor quality).

## Wonderful Cask Quality

A module for the Qualities mod.

Allows casks to continue aging products beyond their iridium quality, up to the new wonderful quality.

Aging products from iridium to wonderful quality takes the same time as aging them from gold to iridium quality.

### Compatibility

The mod should be compatible with the following mods:

* [Advanced Casks Mod](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/8413)

## Bait Matters

A module for the Qualities mod.

Fishing without bait or tackles has a 50%^🔧^ chance of catches being one quality level lower (meaning they can be of poor quality).

## Wonderful Perfect Fishing

A module for the Qualities mod.

Getting the third^🔧^ perfect catch in a row will increase the catch quality by 2 levels instead of 1 (meaning they can be of wonderful quality).

# Roguery Skill

Adds a new Roguery skill, focused on two things:

* Lockpicking, which allows you to play a minigame to open doors and lockboxes,
* Thievery, which allows you to ~~steal~~ acquire additional items from enemies and shoplift NPC shops.

Inspirations:

* Mods:
    * [Lockpicks](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/3521)
    * [Shoplifter](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/8569)
* Other games
    * [Dying Light lockpicking](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAmsqEBvcos) -- this is basically how the minigame would work.

## Development legal/moral considerations

Authors of both of the inspiration mods seem to still be (semi-)active (also the Shoplifter mod was updated very recently), so taking the ideas and putting them in a mod of my own might not be taken very well.

This mod could use the other 2 mods as dependencies instead, but they would have to be hooked into and modified to allow implementing ideas unique to this mod.

The best way to proceed forward would probably be to talk to both mods' authors and get an approval for using their mechanics in this mod. Or... maybe a collaboration?

## Lockpicking

A little after getting to know Marlon (from the Adventurer's Guild), he will send you a mail about how lockpicking may be useful on your adventures. He will send you a recipe for crafting lockpicks, and brief on their usage. He will also mention it's possible to use them on doors in town, but that you're doing it of your own accord and that he's not responsible for any trouble you get yourself into.

### Artifact Troves

Lockpicking allows you to open Artifact Troves yourself, which has two benefits:

* You don't have to pay Clint to open one.
* ...apparently Clint has been taking some loot for himself, without you knowing -- now you can have all of it for yourself! You get double the loot from each Artifact Trove.

To open an Artifact Trove, select it in the top row of inventory and press the Use Tool keybind.

### Doors

Lockpicking is mostly used for forcing various doors open. Doors opened via lockpicking will stay open until the end of the day.

#### Bedrooms

Early on you can use lockpicking to open doors to NPC bedrooms you don't have enough friendship with yet.

#### Sewers

A bit higher level of lockpicking will allow you to get into the sewers early, without receiving a key for completing the Museum requirements.

#### Exterior doors

Even higher level of the skill will allow opening exterior doors at "closed" hours, like Pierre's or Marnie's shop.

### Bus

You can also lockpick the bus to get to the Desert early/late and without a fee, when Pam is not there yet/anymore. The bus still has to be repaired first.

#### Returning early

If you return early and Pam is already/still there (between 10 AM and 5 PM), you will get caught.

Pam will make you pay the ticket fine.

Additionally, many of the villagers will think your actions were irresponsible and you will also lose some friendship with them. Some villagers will think it was "cool", and you will gain some friendship with them. You will also receive a mail the next day from one of the villagers, saying how irresponsible or cool that was, depending on the villager it was received from. If it was your first time getting caught, you will receive two mails (just so you realize this had both positive and negative friendship effects).

Your spouse will always react negatively, no matter whether they're the "cool" or "responsible" kind of character.

##### Teleporting back

Teleporting back is fine, and the bus will magically be back where it was! Yay for magic. There will be no penalty for doing so.

:::warning
In the future this could be changed so that the bus does not come back until the next day, with a one-time cutscene showing someone from the Desert/Oasis driving the bus back to the Valley and talking to Pam.
:::

### Training Kits

A Lockpicking Training Kit can be purchased from the Adventurer's Guild, which can be used for early levelling of your Roguery skill. This is mostly useful for people who aren't that good at skill-based minigames, so they can get their level to a point where the minigame becomes easy enough for them.

### Tailored Lockpicks

A specialized lockpick tailored for a specific door can be crafted, to allow opening a specific door without the need of playing the minigame.

To craft such a lockpick, you need to stand next to the door you want to make a tailored lockpick for. The Tailored Lockpick crafting recipe uses a normal Lockpick as the material. The recipe has a chance to fail, while still using up a normal Lockpick.

Using a Tailored Lockpick unlocks a door instantly.

Unfortunately, if you use a Tailored Lockpick too often, the owner of the place you're getting into will change the lock, at which point your Tailored Lockpick becomes useless, which will be indicated on the item if an NPC mentions it to you or after you fail an attempt to open a door with it.

#### Normal vs Tailored

||Normal|Tailored|
|-|-|-|
|Ease of use|Requires minigame|Instant, easy|
|Materials|Some; more if you are bad at the minigame|Some; more if used often|
|Usability|Works with any door|Is door-specific|

### Social effect

If an NPC notices you during the door lockpicking minigame, you'll lose friendship with them, similar to looking through trash. Lockbox lockpicking is fine.

If an NPC does not notice you during lockpicking, they might have additional dialogue about how they probably just left the door open.

If done too often, the NPC might have additional dialogue about them planning to change the lock.

## Shoplifting

You can shoplift any shops, as long as the seller NPC is not at the counter. Doing so will give you one of the three possibilities:

* **Stock** -- Items they would normally sell,
* **Sold Items** -- Items you recently sold to them,
* **Paid Money** -- Some money (more if you recently bought items from them).

### Social effect

If any NPC notices you shoplifting, you'll lose friendship with all of the NPCs in the building / nearby. If it's an interior shop, you will also be banned for several days from entering the shop.

## Skill levelling

Following actions grant Roguery experience:

* Lockpicking doors,
* Lockpicking Artifact Troves,
* Lockpicking on training kits,
* Hitting enemies in combat for the first time,
* Shoplifting.

## Skill level effects

Levelling up your Roguery skill has following effects:

* Lockpicking minigame gets slightly easier, depending on the Roguery skill level.
* Enemies have a chance of dropping an additional item from their loot pool when defeated. The chance depends on the Roguery skill level.
    :::info
    An enemy has to be hit with a melee or ranged weapon for the effect to trigger. If the enemy is damaged only via other sources (like Bombs), it will not trigger.
    :::
    :::info
    In multiplayer, only the highest Roguery skill that tagged the enemy is taken into account.
    If player A with roguery at 1 hits an enemy, and player B with roguery at 7 hits the same enemy, level 7 will be used for calculations.
    If player A with roguery at 1 hits an enemy, but player B with roguery at 7 does not, level 1 will be used for calculations.
    :::

## Professions

* **Level 5: Lockpicker** -- Reduced range at which NPCs can notice you while lockpicking. Chance to dig up an Artifact Trove from any Dig Spot.
    * **Level 10: Locksmith** -- You no longer need a Lockpick for lockpicking.
        :::info
        A Lockpick is still required to craft a Tailored Lockpick. A Tailored Lockpick is still required to pick a door instantly.
        :::
    * **Level 10: Treasure Hunter** -- Receive an additional item when opening Artifact Troves.
* **Level 5: Bandit** -- Hitting an enemy for the first time has a chance of dropping an additional item (from its loot table). Reduced range at which NPCs can notice you shoplifting.
    * **Level 10: Burglar** -- Receive extra items while shoplifting.  
        :::info
        What this actually does is that a successful shoplifting attempt will give you 2 of the 3 things possible from the list in the Shoplifting section (**Stock** / **Sold Items** / **Paid Money**).
        :::
    * **Level 10: Mugger** -- Each hit on an enemy has a cumulatively decreasing chance of dropping an additional item.
        :::info
        The formula is $\frac{1}{n + 1}$, where $n$ is the hit number.
        The first hit has a $\frac{1}{2}$ ($50\%$) chance of dropping an item, the second hit $\frac{1}{3}$ ($33\%$) chance, the fourth $\frac{1}{4}$ ($25\%$), etc.
        :::

# Explorer Skill

A skill related to panning, exploring (???) and treasure hunting (???).

:::info
I just want more skills, and panning is already a thing that isn't expanded upon in this way just yet...
:::

## Professions

TBD. Possible profession names: Panner, Treasure Hunter, Pirate.

* **Level 5: ???** --
    * **Level 10: ???** --
    * **Level 10: ???** --
* **Level 5: ???** --
    * **Level 10: ???** --
    * **Level 10: ???** --

# Combined Energy and Time

Completely changes how the energy mechanic works. The goal of the mod is to stop penalizing slow players for taking their time, while also not penalizing min-maxers.

Sort of inspired by https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/6488.

## Energy Bar

```
(...|...|...|...........)|E
```

The base energy level is now half of the energy bar, and this is where it will be most of the time.

```
(###|###|###|...........)|E
```

To begin with, time passes somewhat slower.

Whenever your energy is below half, the time passes faster. The less energy, the faster the time goes. At the same time, your energy regenerates up to the half energy bar threshold, also increasingly faster.

:::warning
The below depiction may show several thresholds below half, but it's not yet decided whether there will be several thresholds or whether a math function will be used to increase the effect on lower energy levels.
:::

```
(###|###|##.|...........)|E

(###|###|...|...........)|E

(###|...|...|...........)|E
```

Whenever your energy is above half, time passes even slower than by default. At the same time, your energy very slowly passively goes down until it reaches the half bar threshold.

```
(###|###|###|######.....)|E
```

The energy percentage is taken into account, not the actual values. This means having more max energy (be it via Stardrops or buffs) is beneficial to the player when going below the threshold (and allows storing more energy above the threshold).

## Idle regeneration methods

Staying in the bed does not regenerate enough energy to go above the half bar threshold. Spa does regenerate enough energy to go above the threshold.

## Food

Food regenerates energy as usual. All the above rules still apply.

## Exhaustion

Energy will regenerate faster than the player could ever use it, so exhaustion is no longer possible with this mod.

## Sleeping

Sleeping between days is left as-is, and regenerates the same amount of energy. The following day, the player wakes up with energy above the threshold, meaning they get the benefit of time passing slower at the beginning of the day.

An exception is when the player goes to sleep late in the night. Usually, if the amount of energy the player should wake up with is lower than his current energy, then it's ignored. This is not true here -- the player's energy is always overriden after sleeping. Otherwise going to bed late would not penalize the player anymore.

## Multiplayer

The time passage scales with the number of players, in such a way, that if all players do basically the same actions, then their time passage should scale in the same way as if only one player was doing it. If only one player is doing all of the work, and the others are idle, then the time will pass only slightly faster.

### (Cutscene) Pausing

If a player is in a cutscene, the time should probably also slow down. TBD

## UI

At that point the energy bar does not have to be so prominent, so it could be displayed in a different way (maybe somewhere around the clock?) or removed altogether (not preferred, as the player may want to know how much over the threshold they are).

## NPC Schedules

Right now I have no idea how to handle NPC schedules with this mod. One way would be to just speed up the NPC move speed; another would be to carefully choose the time flow speed in such a way that would not disrupt the schedules *too* much.

## Machines

Machines should still be tied to the in-game time.

## Compatibility

The mod should be compatible with the following mods:

* [Automate](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/1063) -- Automates machines next to chests.
* [Pause Time in Multiplayer](https://www.nexusmods.com/stardewvalley/mods/10328) -- Pauses time completely when all players pause.