Next Stardew Valley Update Will ‘Polish’ the Game, Enhance Endgame Content

Stardew Valley has a substantial update on the way. Update 1.4 brings the game to the level of polish that ConcernedApe has been striving for, fixing bugs that have been present for a while, as well as enhancing content in nearly every aspect of the game. It will come to PC on November 26, 2019, with the console update slated for a later as-yet-unknown date. The goal right now is to release it simultaneously for all consoles and mobile within a few weeks of the PC update’s release, but additional testing is needed before he is comfortable stating a release date. The good news for console players is that the 1.3 multiplayer update is now live after a series of delays.

The changes implemented with Update 1.4 will be plentiful, ranging from a variety of fixes for ongoing bugs to “expanded and improved” content across the entire game. For example, the once-worthless Wild Bait will now give you the chance to catch double fish. Every spouse will have a “unique 14-heart event after marriage.” Additional end game content tuneups keep the game going after players have completed everything else, but ConcernedApe didn’t want to spoil the discovery for players, simply saying that players would need to “wait and see.” These are “boosts” to a number of “holes or weak points” that ConcernedApe wanted to improve.

Additionally, this update effectively brings Stardew Valley to a certain level of quality that ConcernedApe has been targeting.

One of my main goals with 1.4 was to finally “polish” the game to the degree that I’ve always wanted. What I mean by that is that I wanted to fix all the bugs that have been lingering in the game, to fix a lot of weird or annoying things about the controls & feel of the game, and add in a lot of “quality of life” features that will make the game more seamless to play. I feel pretty confident that this goal has been met!

Stardew Valley update 1.4 is the first one to be developed by a team, instead of solely by  Eric “ConcernedApe” Barone, who developed the entire game alone, along with all of its updates. Barone notes “after seven years of working completely solo,  I formed a small team earlier this year to help me continue working on Stardew Valley.” He also stated he’s working on a separate new project completely on his own as well.

In addition, the following notes were mentioned as part of the official blog post:

• The PS Vita version is still slated to get another update to fix some problems, though it will remain on 1.2 content-wise.
• There are currently no plans to bring multiplayer to mobile.
• 1.4 has some optimization improvements that should make performance better on consoles.

The PC version of Update 1.4 is also getting the ability to screenshot entire farms and areas of the game via hotkey, but it wasn’t mentioned as part of the console release, specifically calling out PC when the feature was noted. We’ll have to wait for the official console patch notes to see if that feature makes it into controller-bearing hands or not.

[Source: ConcernedApe]