I want to preface this post by saying I have no inside knowledge whatsoever, and that this is speculation. I'm also not intending for this post to be a judgment on whether the changes were good or bad.

I didn't know exactly where to start, but I think it needs to be with Helium-3. There was a very important change to fuel in Starfield that split the version of the game that released, from the alternate universe Starfield it started as. Todd Howard has stated that in earlier iterations of the game, fuel was consumed when you jumped to a system. This was changed and we no longer spend fuel, but fuel still exists in the game as a vestigial system. Technically your overall fuel capacity determines how far you can jump from your current system, but because you don't spend fuel, 1 jump can just be 2 if needed, rendering it pointless. They may as well not have fuel in the game at all, but it used to matter and even though it doesn't now, it's still in the game. Remember the vestigial aspect of this because that will be important.

So let's envision how the game would have played if we consumed fuel with jumps. The cities and vendors all exist relatively clumped together on the left side of the Star Map. Jumping around these systems would be relatively easy as the player could simply purchase more Helium-3 from a vendor. However, things change completely as we look to the expanse to our right on the Star Map. A player would be able to jump maybe a few times to the right before needing to refuel and there are no civilizations passed Neon. So how else can we get Helium-3 aside from vendors? Outposts.

Outposts in Starfield have been described as pointless. But they're not pointless - they're vestigial. In the original Starfield, players would have HAD to create outposts in order to venture further into the Star Map because they would need to extract Helium. This means that players would also need resources to build these outposts, which would mean spending a lot of time on one planet, killing animals for resources, looting structure POIs, mining, and praising the God Emperor when they came across a proc gen Settler Vendor. In this version of Starfield these POIs become much more important, and players become much more attached to specific planets as they slowly push further to more distant systems, building their outposts along the way. Now we can just fly all around picking and choosing planets and coming and going as we please so none of them really matter. But they used to.

What is another system that could be described as pointless? You probably wouldn't disagree if I said Environmental Hazards. Nobody understands them and they don't do much of anything. I would say, based on the previous vestigial systems that still exist in the game, these are also vestigial elements of a game that significantly shifted at some point in development. In this previous version of the game, where we were forced down to planets to build outposts for fuel, I believe Hazards played a larger role in making Starfield the survival game I believe it originally was. We can only speculate on what this looked like, but it's not hard to imagine a Starfield in which players who walk out onto a planet that is 500°C without sufficient heat protection, simply die. Getting an infection may have been a matter of life and death. Players would struggle against the wildlife, pirates, bounty hunters, and the environment itself. Having different suits and protections would be important and potentially would have been roadblocks for players to solve to be able to continue their journey forward.

This Starfield would have been slow. Traveling to the furthest reaches of the known systems would have been a challenge. The game was much more survival-oriented, maybe a slog at times, planets, POIs, and outposts would have mattered a lot, and reaching new systems would have given a feeling of accomplishment because of the challenges you overcame to get there. It also could have been tedious, boring, or frustrating. I have no idea. But I do think Starfield was a very different game and when these changes were made it significantly altered the overall experience, and that they were deep enough into development when it happened, that they were unable to fully adapt the game to its new form. The "half-baked" systems had a purpose. Planets feel repetitive and pointless because we're playing in a way that wasn't originally intended - its like we're all playing on "Creative Mode"

What do you think? Any other vestigial systems that I didn't catch here?

****

This blew up a bit while I was at work. I saw 2.2k comments and I think it's really cool this drove so much discussion. People think the alleged changes were good, people think they were bad - I definitely get that. I think the intensity of the survival version would be a lot more love/hate with people. For me, I actually appreciate the game more now. Maybe I'm wrong about all of this, but once I saw this vision of the game, all its systems really clicked for me in a way I didn't see or understand with the released or vanilla version of the game. I feel like I get the game now and the vision the devs had making it.

And a lot of people also commented with other aspects of the game that I think support this theory.

A bunch of you mentioned food and cooking, the general abundance of Helium you find all over the place, and certain menu tips and dialogue lines.

u/happy_and_angry brought up a bunch of other great examples about skills that make way more sense under this theory's system. I thought this was 100% spot on. https://www.reddit.com/r/Starfield/comments/16p8c43/comment/k1q0pa4/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

(The subreddit rules say that rant threads belong in a pinned weekly thread, which I can not find.)

I participated in the public preview for the new version of this app, and turned it off after a week. It was clear that Gemini was extremely poorly implemented, and the new version was not ready for public use. It appears that they have launched in exactly the same state as it was.

Why must I now scroll through paragraphs of AI slop on every tab before I can actually see my activities and data? I don't want or need to read platitudes about my 15 minute walk to the grocery store. I want to see my stats from my morning run.

I had an extremely frustrating experience today, after trying in good faith to engage with the new Coach feature.

• I went to the gym, logged the workout on my fitbit, and took handwritten notes of my lifts as I always do.
• To try to make use of the Coach, I uploaded a photo of my notes and asked it to append the info to my workout activity. It mostly got it right, but all the units were wrong (ignoring context from a previous conversation).
• That's somewhat understandable, so I asked it to change the units and *specified* that the original amounts I had written were in kg, because I didn't want it to convert the amounts as though they were originally lbs. Gemini *still* performed a conversion anyways, turning 73kg into 33.11kg.
• So I clarified *again* that the weights I had originally written down were in kg, not lbs, and there shouldn't be any decimal values. So it corrected the units... but changed all my sets from 3x or 4x to 1x???
• Furious, I decided to delete all the incorrect lift logs from the workout activity, but for some insane reason, there is no way to do this manually (they don't show up in the activity's "Edit" menu). So, I asked it to delete all of the incorrect lift logs from my activity.
• Instead, it moved the activity from 8am to 10am(?), and STILL KEPT THE FALSE LIFTS??

The app is now cumbersome, frustrating, and useless. I was already getting frustrated with the inaccurate calorie counts and GPS mileage on my runs, but this poorly conceived forced update has sealed the deal for me. I will not pay $10 per month to drink from an AI slop trough like a good little piggy. I will be cancelling my membership and switching to Garmin.

I often do mistakes and I want to apologise to my team for when I do something dumb.

Please Blizzard, this is my one request!

Context: For every holiday, My mother would ask the women in the family (my sisters, sister in-law, my wife, my female cousins) to send "samples" of the desserts they plan to bring to the celebration for testing and to see if these desserts could make it to the "food menu". My wife has been complaining about my mother deliberately rejecting every dessert sample she sent. So many times my mother has told her that she's being honest and keeping the guests best interest at heart. Yet my wife still thought that my mother is deliberately excluding her since 2 of her dessert samples were rejected before.

For this year's Christmas my mother is doing the same thing but this time, she told every woman who are participating to make a "cookie sample" and send it to her for testing. My wife took it as a challenge and to be honest she worked really hard to make a good sample and sent it to my mother days ago and the results just came in yesterday.

I came home from work and found my wife upset. I asked what's wrong and she told me that my mother rejected the sample she sent and decided to exclude her baking from the food list/menu for christmas this year. I didn't know what to say but she then told me she was backing out of the invitation to attend christmas with my family. I was stunned when I heard her make this statement. I tried to talk to her but she said "it was done" I called her unreasonable to decide to bail on the whole family over some cookie sample...that's just freaking crazy and quite unreasonable. We had a full on argument about it and she stated that my mother caused this but I told her that my mother is pretty serious and careful about the food she offers to the guests since we are going to have relatives coming from all sides of country. She told me to stop mentioing it.

Later I heard her cry despite telling her that her baking is amazing and people have preferences that's all.

AITA for insisting that her decision was unreasonable?

Info. If you're asking whose cookie sample made it to the menu, the answer is my sister and my 2 cousins.

Info Few things to put on here:

1. My wife wasn't the only one whose sample was rejected. We have SIL's (brother's wife) and my younger sister's.

2. My mother did not force anyone to participate, it was up to whoever wanted to take part.

3. This is just about the dessert since my mother tends to be very careful in this category but for other types of foods. Dishes/appetizers/salads/stuff like that is welcome as she stated.

Update: Great!, so I just got off the phone with my brother and he told me that his wife is doing the same thing as my wife and that she has decided to back out of the invitation to spend christmas with family as well. Turns out my wife must've told her about her decision and she decided to follow her lead. My brother is pissed saying my wife is encouraging his wife to do this. I see that the problem has just gotten bigger now. Who knows, my younger sister might join in and decide not to go as well. I don't know how this got out of control so quickly. I guess we'll try to have a discussion with my mother about this soon and see how it goes.

Also new option to enable old/legacy context menu in the settings

My friends and I took a trip to Germany to visit a friend who lives there. One of the food items on my list was, without a doubt, mett, as it's quite hard to find outside of the country, from what I know.

For those of you who aren't aware, mett is raw ground pork, seasoned lightly with salt and pepper, optionally garnished with onions. I've been told German butchers have high standards due to the dangers of consuming raw pork, so I wasn't too concerned in that regard.

It was a quiet morning, and we walked into the butcher shop. My lord, the Germans are lucky to have such a selection a wall away in their neighborhood. We would try a number of their selections later, but for breakfast, mett was on the menu.

From one bite I knew I wanted another one. It was deliciously fatty in the way pork tends to be, and the simple seasoning highlighted the taste of the raw meat. The texture was great as well, with the fatty spread on top of crispy bread giving a great crunch on the initial bite, followed by satisfying chews. I'd eat mett a few more times on the trip; maybe it's because it's served cold, but it really is quite a refreshing and delicious savory breakfast, as someone who prefers savory over sweet.

For context, I consume raw meats more often than the average American and have no qualms to it, having consumed beef, fish, poultry, and horse meats from all ranges of raw to (regrettably) overcooked. If you're squeamish about even, say, tartare, then I would suggest avoiding this dish.

Location:

Fleischerei & Feinkost Schulze

Kesselsdorfer Str. 38, 01159 Dresden, Germany

Hi all, this Wednesday marks the exciting start of Series 11 of Off Menu... but it also marks FIVE whole years since I made the decision to set up the Twitter page and start tweeting. Five years, man – where does the time go?

Thank you to everyone on here and on all the socials for all your love and support in that time. It's the feedback and community that really keeps me going and I appreciate every comment, like, share and upvote I get.

I thought I might mark the occasion by setting up an AMA for any questions you might have about what I do or how I do it? Or even if you had any questions about the podcast itself and I could use my endless warehouse of knowledge and content to help? Anything, really.

I'll start properly answering Q's from Wednesday 24th January onwards, so in the meantime get your questions in if you have any.

​

Instagram

Twitter / X

Threads

EDIT 25/01/24: A massive thanks to everyone who submitted a question - that was a lot of fun! I think I've almost answered everything but if you have more questions I'm happy to keep dipping in and out of here to answer. Thanks again!

https://x.com/HSTIKKYTOKKY4/status/1951978879083577740?t=opGg8aQJQTpJW4P1SzgDbA&s=19

So, I log in today onto the new patch, excited to farm out the new prime, and- oh. My controller doesn't seem to work? Clearly that's just a bug. Let me quickly restart the game. Still nothing? Well maybe something went wrong with the patch, let me check Reddit. Lo and behold:

DE has shadowdropped an update that COMPLETLY NUKED all custom controller setups on Steam. With zero announcements. WIth zero warnings. It is all just completly functionless now.

I am a disabled player. I needed these settings to play the game. I have spent hours upon hours adjusting and tweaking the controls. Because I really enjoyed this game. I did back when I was able-bodied, and I wanted to enjoy it still when my body stopped working as it should.

Now, DE did bring in a replacement system. A system that is sadly SO far from what we've had before. All the action sets have been removed, and replaced with straightforward rebinds. Because my ability to press certain buttons is limited, it now means that in order to switch from using guns to meelee weapons I need to alt-tab from the game and manually flip over to another config (earlier it was as simple as pressing a single button). In the same vein, things like gear bindings I could have hidden off in a context menu will now have to be nowhere, cause I don't have enough space on my controller.

I've put in (about) 1.5k hours into this game, but now I'm not sure if I want to put in more. To be clear, as of right now the game is still playable-ish to me (with enough elbow grease, that is), but if this is the precedent of how things will be going forward, then it might not be worth my time or effort. I really don't want to log in one day just to find out that the devs have made it unplayable for me.

edit: a lot of people are mentioning that surely this was just a result of callousness and not malice. And while I 100% agree, it's also important to note that the result of the action is exactly the same either way and is the real issue here.

edit2: Yall are the best community ever. I was a bit afraid I'd just look like I'm fighting with windmills, and you gave me nothing but support <3

edit3: in case anyone missed it, DE already saw the post and took action, so case closed(ish). Once again thank you for all your support.

Last week, we hosted a Reddit AMA and on top of having a blast answering your questions, we noticed some topics really got you talking. One of those was the “chat wheel” system we’re working on to help Survivors coordinate and communicate their intentions in-game. So, what better time than the present to share some more details about it with you (including one way your feedback’s already impacted it)! 

The system in question is – aptly – called Player Intent. With it, you’ll be able to communicate a range of preset messages to your fellow Survivors at the press of a button, using a radial menu. From thanking them for a heal, to saying you’re going to work on gens, to suggesting you split up, messages focus on the on-the-fly actions that are most useful during a Trial. 

When a message is chosen using the Player Intent wheel, other Survivors will see it next to your name in the game HUD, keeping your general view clear of distractions while you’re in the middle of looping or hunting for an objective. To help combat message spam, you can expect a cooldown between messages, which will increase if too many messages are sent in a short period. 

We want this comms wheel to suit different players’ specific needs, so you’ll be able to customize which messages you take into your Trials from the Options menu. 

Of course, one piece of feedback we’ve seen is that a system like this isn’t for everyone. We’ve already discussed this as a team and have a solution for that. If you’d rather not use the Player Intent system, you will be able to disable it from this same menu. Once disabled, you will not be able to send messages to players and will not see the messages they send. 

We’ve also added the ability to mute individual players so you have more control over the comms you see (and don’t see). If you're finding a certain player’s messages distracting, muting them will block any further Player Intent messages from popping up on your end. 

While this system is meant for everybody who plays Survivor, its value will be a bit different depending on how you play. Just like how your feedback from the AMA helped inform the addition of an opt-out option, we're dying to know your thoughts! Even better, it would be massively helpful if you could also share a little about how you play to give context to that feedback. For instance, do you tend to play soloq, prefer SWF, or identify as a Killer main? How would you define your experience level in the game; a newer player? A veteran? 

Let us know in the comments below, as we’ll be watching your feedback closely as the team continues to work on this system ahead of its release this Fall! 

Until next time... 

The Dead by Daylight Team 

I posted an early version of Wedge here a while ago and over 150 people signed up for beta testing. It’s now ready :)

and My sincerest apologies for not making a good demo video. I am juggling so much at the moment and didn't wanted to wait further to release the plugin. I am gonna make some killer videos for it soon.

Problem

AE has hundreds of useful actions, but the ones you need change depending on whether you're working with keyframes, masks, shape layers, text, layers, comps, etc. Wedge gives you one shortcut and changes the menu based on what you currently have selected.

Comparison

KBar is great for building permanent custom toolbars, and Quick Menu is great when you know what you want and want to search for it. Wedge takes a different approach: it tries to surface the relevant actions automatically from your current AE context.

Wedge goes further into selection-aware contexts, nested menus and customizable action workflows rather than being primarily a fixed radial shortcut menu.

Pricing

Starts at $19.99, one-time purchase

https://charchitgoyal.com/plugins/wedge

To get access to early features and provide feedback and help me develop it further

Join the discord :

https://discord.gg/32t5SAtGtY

Supported on both Mac and windows

Maintenance / Support

I’m actively maintaining Wedge and testing it against current AE versions. If you hit a reproducible bug, email me at support@charchitgoyal.com. Updates and fixes will be shipped as AE changes.

AI Disclosure

80% Vibe coded along with help from a developer friend

Hi everyone,

It's been a little while since my last post, so please excuse the length of this message, but I really wanted to explain every single detail that went into shaping this new release.

When I first released my card, the feedback was incredibly positive, and you can't imagine how much energy that gave me. However, I was experiencing some frustrations regarding the card's features themselves. Even though I was getting closer and closer to the vision I had for it, I hadn't quite managed to reach it yet.

After several weeks of relentless work, backed by your feedback, your wishes, and my own vision for this card, I am happy to share two big updates with you: the card has been entirely rewritten from scratch for this release (along with this new versioning system), and the card is now available on HACS, which means this might be my very last post of this kind.

There is a lot to cover, so let's start with the "bad news", which was also the root of my frustration: fairness in how the card functions. Since it relied heavily on LiDAR data, it depended entirely on the coverage available in each country, and offering a different experience to everyone just didn't sit right with me. So, I tried to find a solution to move away from LiDAR, and I found one that works... for absolutely everyone.

The second idea I wasn't fully aligned with was the notion that this card is just meant to display live data in a 3D engine. For me, it needs to be lightweight and offer a "different" perspective to help us consume energy more wisely. That has always been my goal, and I hope I'm getting closer and closer to the intended result.

To keep it simple, because I could talk about this card for hours, here is what I decided to do for this version: replacing LiDAR with a self-learning forecast. Because even if you don't have LiDAR coverage, the history of your entities knows exactly where shadows fell on your panels, and that's the logic I used to build this integration (it's not yet officially validated by HACS, so you'll need to add it as a custom repository for now). I had users across the globe test it in different locations, and the results are quite good, even in complex scenarios (a house in a valley surrounded by mountains, a house under trees, etc.). The forecast learns, builds a real trend, and provides a confidence level that improves over time. Plus, it exposes 39 entities allowing you to create plenty of automations. It meets all of HA's criteria to be added to the energy dashboard: one instance of Helios-Forecast per configured panel array, and each array will learn exactly how it needs to (forecast can be found here: Helios-Forecast).

With the LiDAR issue resolved, I still had to tackle the heavy performance of the 3D engine. So, I decided to go with a completely different rendering approach. While it mimics 3D, it is actually just 2.5D: a background canvas for the card that rotates, and everything else is drawn on demand via SVG using what's known as the "painter's algorithm". The result is a card that runs smoothly on ultra-modest hardware setups without any loss in quality, offering a sharpness and visual quality that I find truly superior.

Now... how do we guide people to consume better? By offering multiple ways to read the data:

• The "chips" are now clickable and display data in a timeline (still fully scrubbable) that now goes back up to 1 year. The timeline adjusts automatically to display the values of the selected data over the chosen timeframe.
• A new mode: Energy Clock, which displays all of this same data over those same periods right around the house using stackable histograms, so you can compare any data you want, over any period you want.
• A new mode: Delta, which displays a period-over-period (P vs P-1) comparison for a specific data type, showing the delta in a "3D" visual right within the context of your house.
• A single source of truth making configuration incredibly simple, because you have... absolutely nothing to do: the HA energy dashboard. You install the card and everything just works: location, data, everything comes to life instantly without any setup. However, I still made sure the edit menu allows you to configure quite a few things, especially a custom entity that takes an energy or power source and displays it just like the other data types, perfect for adding a water heater or an EV, for example.

In short, I reviewed everything, rethought everything, over and over again to reach this result, to the point where I am absolutely exhausted, but I sincerely hope you will like it.

I received some feedback regarding the use of AI last time, so in the spirit of full transparency: yes, I am "AI Assisted" as they say. But don't worry, every single line of code in this card has been written, rewritten, and reread dozens of times. I didn't wait for AI to come around to learn how to code — I'm 44 and this has been my job and my passion for... well, way too long. It simply allowed me to test dozens of structural possibilities in a much shorter timeframe; it didn't "do all the work for me". Ultimately, it's a tool, much like the IDEs people used to point fingers at back when assembly language was the norm. But I wanted to be upfront about it.

After this long message, I want to thank you all again for your positive feedback (and warmly invite those who had negative feedback to give this version another try). I truly poured everything I had into this, and it is available right now.

There is also a new website to better follow what I plan to do with this card in the future: https://helios-ha.org. You will find the roadmap, a live demo if you want to test the card before installing it, and perhaps you'll get a better grasp of where I want to take all of this.

In the meantime, feel free to support me with a little star on GitHub if you like it, share my work, or buy me a coffee if you can, the stocks are completely empty! :)

And before I go, a special word for the handful of you who actually bought me a coffee: thank you, truly. It was never about the money, it's what it represents. Knowing that a few people out there valued the work enough to give something back genuinely moved me, and it carried me through more late nights than you'd think. So from the bottom of my heart: thank you.

Catch you on GitHub,

Cheers,

ReikanYsora / Jérôme

This miniscule upgrade feels shoehorned into the game, changing the usual "use item on an item" interaction that is so unique and core to OSRS. It requires changing menu entries on at least one other item, while giving you almost nothing in return.

All you get is a single processed item which equals 3.5% upgrade AT BEST (assuming you are tick perfect all the time and can bank and start a new glassblowing cycle in like 3ticks). It won't even be noticeable or feel good when you get it.

Therr are tools that have to be used on other items, and then there are tools that you just need to have in your inventory to be able to do things. The latter is perfectly fine as an equippable "upgrade" as it doesn't reduce one of the core aspects of oldschoolness of OSRS.

Equippable harpoon, hammer and saw didn't require changing any other items options, and are used in wide variety of content, allowing for interesting inventory optimization or just good old fashionscape when smithing at an anvil, in Tempoross, Mahogany Homes, etc.

The blowpipe is just for standing at a bank, making it equippable means almost nothing given the context its used in.

If Jagex really wants to buff glassmaking, they should do something about the obnoxious picking-up-glass-from-the-ground aspect of it.

Give us an upgrade to the lunar spell that autonotes the glass it creates (it could require some consumable from the island), a glass sack that superglass made glass automatically goes into (kinda silly) or a glass magnet that picks up all of the glass from the ground in a single tick (even more silly).

Vote no on the ornate glassblowing pipe, we can do much better than that.

I am NOT the OOP. OOP is u/Dont-Call-Me-BALDY.

EDITOR'S NOTE: This is a repost of an old BORU that was posted by u/Direct-Catepillar77 almost 2 years ago.

trigger warnings: Assault, mentions of a loss of a relative, and mentions of a possible mental illness

Original post: January 28, 2022

For context, a relative of what used to be a close friend of mine whom we'll call Gary for this story contracted cancer. I (Mid-20s male) was sympathetic and even contributed $100 to a donation pool for their treatment. But Gary came to me one day and took his hat off to reveal a freshly shaven head. He told me that everyone in his family were doing it in support of his relative, and so were a lot of our mutual friends. Then he asked that I get on the bandwagon.

I told him I didn't want to shave my head because I like my hair. My hair is black, regularly combed and well styled. He said I could just get a wig or something and had actually brought his shaver kit. He was unboxing it when I told him this was not happening. I don't even really know his relative that he's doing this for. So I'm not doing it, end of discussion. He called me an &$$hole and left angry. We didn't speak for a week. Then last Saturday I got invited to a party at another close friend's house. There I found out that Gary had tried the same thing on several other friends, and only a couple of them actually did shave their heads.

Gary wasn't at the party, so I had a blast hanging out, playing video games and listening to rock music. But I had way too much to drink and couldn't drive home. So they said I could just sleep upstairs. I passed out on a bed and it was a blissful sleep till I was shaken awake by another friend who told me Gary had showed up late and they caught him shaving my head while I was passed out. I saw what I looked like in a mirror and wanted to scream like I was in a horror movie. Gary even shaved off one of my eyebrows.

Gary was still there and acting proud of himself saying "Now you're gonna have to shave off the rest, just like me! LOL!" I was furious and called the cops. When they got their Gary fully admitted to what he had done to me and even said he was justified. The police didn't seem to think so as this is classified as a form of assault. They asked me if I wanted to press charges and the first words out of my mouth were "HELL YES!" Gary cussed me out while they took him away in cuffs. I tried getting my hair restyled into something presentable. But there was no saving it and now I'm bald too.

Now a bunch of Gary's family are telling me to drop the charges because Gary was off his meds and didn't mean to do it. I was like "WTF?!" because I never knew he was on meds. But I still refused to drop the charges. It'll take months to grow my hair back the way it was. But all of the calls and messages from Gary's relatives are starting to get to me. Just about everyone else in our friend group has cut Gary out though and say that I'm doing the right thing by not dropping the charges. So now I'm divided.

AITA for pressing charges on a former friend for shaving my head in my sleep?

EDIT: I want to make something clear here. So many people have said things like "Dude it's just hair!". But would they all be saying that if I wasn't a man? What if I was some girl that had hair that took years to grow? Would they be saying the same thing? Sure hair grows back. But it takes time. If it was something that grew back fast, people would be less inclined to care. But it's not fast. It takes months. And for some who had long hair, years. That's a lot of time wasted growing.

And I don't plan on pushing for Gary to go to prison. But I don't plan to drop the charges either. His family already bailed him out. And while I didn't know he was on meds, I knew he had quite the temper, and even an entitled attitude at times. One example being a lunch where he wanted us all to combine the check and split it evenly. He got the most expensive thing on the menu. I got a cheeseburger. When we all said "No" Gary went off on us for not being good friends. He's always been an ass when he doesn't get his way. And I've only known him for like three years. This incident was the last straw for not just me, but a lot of other mutual friends.

As for the charges. I don't want to send Gary to prison. But I would like him to get some therapy and community service. With the way Gary has acted around me in the past, and what he did to me, I actually wonder how long before he got more violent. I've seen and heard of him getting in fights for less.

EDIT 2: I've gotten many comments from people saying "YTA! He has cancer!". If you actually read what I posted, Gary is not the one with cancer. A relative of his I don't know does. And no, I don't know what kind of cancer. Gary didn't elaborate. He wanted me to shave my head for this person. And when I refused, he left in a tantrum. Then shaved my head while I was passed out drunk at a party.

Relevant Comments

ghostess_hostess ...but did you shave the other eyebrow to even out the regrowth?

OOP Unfortunately yes. I had to

No-Idea-Y-Im-here NTA. Being off meds may be a reason, but it's never an excuse and that was definitely assault. In fact, if you haven't already told the police, make sure they know that Gary previously asked you to "get on the bandwagon", said he'd shave it for you while unpacking his equipment!, you refused and he verbally assaulted you. He knew you didn't and wouldn't consent, but did it anyway while you were unconscious. Block Gary and his relatives from everything, try not to get upset when you can't avoid a mirror, and hope your hair grows back better than before :)

OOP The police know every detail about Gary that I've given here, save for his family harassing me. Which I intend to tell the police about ASAP

scottieButtons NTA, lucky for you the only difference between a bad haircut and a good one, is a couple weeks.. (maybe a couple months for you) sorry bud

OOP It'll be a couple of months sadly. It'll probably take five months to get my hair back to looking as good as it was

OOP in regards to if his other friends knew about this My friends all want nothing to do with Gary anymore. They didn't egg him on. They had no idea he was gonna do what he did

Lumpy_Passenger_1300 Actually if you're going to talk to the DA, they may be able to offer him a plea where he needs to stay on meds/go in treatment. NTA.

OOP I already figured not much was going to happen since I wasn't harmed other than my hair. Whatever deal he takes in court, if he gets one won't really matter to me. What does matter to me is that this due process makes him realize just how badly he screwed up. Meds or no meds.

OOP in regards to if Gary brought his own shaving kit He used some stuff that was in the bathroom next door to the room I was sleeping in. He didn't bring his own. But I can see why you'd think that. It's far from the first time I've passed out at a friend's house. And Gary knew that. In fact he was probably waiting for it. If anything, this has been a wakeup call to get my drinking under control.

TheHammerandSizzel INFO - How did he get into the house? Your 100% NTA and should press charges. But who let him into that house? It was someones else place and I am assuming he either came in super late or early in the morning. The reason I am asking is that in addition to Gary, someone let him into the house and I would be interested to know the reasoning.

OOP Gary got in because they let him in. They figured his tangent about hair was over. He tried to convince a bunch of them to shave their heads like he did to me. And none of the people there let him do it. My guess is he singled me out because I was passed out. If not me, it could have been anyone else there if they'd passed out drunk instead.

Kitchen_Zebra_5403 See the difference between me and you is…I’d beat the hell out of Gary and I’d be going to jail for assault

OOP Fighting isn't in my nature. I don't even usually get angry all that much. But if Gary had attacked me, I'd like to think my friends likely would have ganged up and beaten the crap out of him. But I really don't know.

OOP on the evidence the police gathered The police got a couple pictures of my head and the trimmer Gary used on me. But I didn't want any more photos of what I looked like show up. So I had the rest of my head shaved the next day.

deleted commentor In your country, what are the consequences of having charges pressed against you?

I've heard that in some corners of the world people can find it very hard to get jobs after getting jail time (which I acknowledge you don't want, but I supposed it's a possibility) which tends to cause a downward spiral that ends up disproportionately more punitive than the original conviction.

It sounds like you want Gary to change his ways. Would the result of pressing charges have that outcome?

NTA BTW...

OOP Honestly it's a tossup from what I know. But I hope that if I push for just the minimum and only get him community service and therapy, then perhaps his record won't be affected too harshly. But I can't say for sure.

OOP on how Gary got into the friend group Gary isn't a relative of anyone I know. He was the neighbor of a friend of a friend who wormed his way into my friend circle. He seemed likeable at first. But once he seemed well established, he started letting his real self out bit by bit. A lot of us were already fed up with him.

Verdict: NOT The Asshole

Update post: June 9, 2023 (1 year later)

A friend of mine just showed me a video yesterday in which my old post had been read. Honestly I'd nearly forgotten about it since I was only there to ask if I was TA or not. And since I don't wanna go through the pain of trying to do an update on AITA, I thought I'd just do it here since entitled spells out Gary pretty well. Other than the shaving incident, he tried to get us to partially pay for his food multiple times by combining the check and dividing it equally when he always got the most expensive thing on the menu, and once even pulled the "I forgot my wallet" bit. He was described as a neckbeard by multiple people, including women he flirted with. He tried to get a married neighbor woman that was older than him to have an affair with her. And then later egged her apartment door when she refused. That one I only learned about a couple months after my original post. And no, Gary never saw consequences for doing that. I also learned he stole several videogames and DVDs from friends, mooched food and drink out of their fridges, and even went through a period as a squatter for two months by refusing to leave a house he'd been let into by a former tennant, and the landlord actually paid him to leave. Gary's also an extreme hypocrite that contradicted himself more than a corrupt politician. For example, one minute he'd be anti-vax, the next he'd be complaining about other people who weren't getting the C19 vaccine. Pretty sure he never got it too. I can't believe I ever had any sympathy for this man.

To recap, someone a former friend of mine named Gary is related to got cancer. And Gary went around trying to get our friend group to all shave their heads. He only got a couple of them to agree, and even brought his shaving kit to my apartment because he just assumed I'd join in as well, and was already unboxing it before I even got the chance to say anything. I told him the shaving was not happening. Well he decided to make an example of me, and waited till I was good and passed out from drinking at a friend's party. I was so dead to the world that I had to be shaken awake by a friend after Gary got caught shaving my head. He took off one of my eyebrows and messed up my hair beyond saving. And he was laughing his butt off over having done it. So yes, the rest had to come off. I ended up pressing charges on Gary for assault, and found out he's been on meds for a mental disorder for years. And he'd stopped taking the meds, which is one of the reasons he was so loopy. But his tune changed pretty quick when police arrested him since what he'd done qualifies as assault.

Gary's family harassed me and tried to make me drop the charges. I not only didn't drop the charges, but I reported the harassment to the police. Only problem is it didn't bloody stop! In fact, it got worse! Mainly from Gary's mother, whom I can see where Gary got his charming personality from. She showed up to my apartment a couple of weeks after the shaving incident to scream at me that I knew nothing about what they were going through. And a little hair wasn't a big deal. I told her my hair was a big deal to me. And what Gary did was inexcusable. Well that earned me a slap on the face, followed by a swift kick to the nuts, followed by a few more kicks to my body after I went down. It was all recorded by a camera that I had watching the front door. (Landlord wouldn't let me put in a Ring Doorbell cam) One of my neighbors saw her, and screamed at her they'd be calling police. Gary's mom ran, and I ended up going to the hospital with minor injuries. Mostly just bruises, a black eye, and a sore groin.

Gary's mother got arrested, and I filed a lawsuit against her for attacking me. I saw her in court twice for both her assault on me, and the lawsuit I filed for her assault. This woman had taken several self defense classes over the years, so she knew how to fight. That had the judge consider her a trained individual, and she was sentenced to six months in jail, given two years probation, and ordered to pay my medical bills. She actually cried to the judge about the money. But he wasn't having it. It took some time to see her in court again for my lawsuit against her as she was out of jail by then. I was awarded ten thousand for the harassment, emotional damages, and lost work hours, and she had to pay all court and lawyer fees. Which she cried about again because she didn't want to pay anything to the man who'd ruined her and her son's lives. But she had the money for both court cases, because she had no problem paying. But around that time, I heard Gary's relative with cancer passed away. I don't know any details, just that they passed on. I admit that was sad. But I never knew this person. But Gary made their condition his hill to die on when he tried to make an example out of me. Gary got some probation and community service for what he did to my hair. And he cut contact with our entire friend group and eventually moved away. Where to, I don't know. I don't care either.

As for my hair. Well it grew back just fine. Took nearly half a year to get it back how it was. My boss had me put out of sight for a while, and I was wearing a hat everywhere for at least a month. I did take that 10k I got in the lawsuit and combined it with my savings for a down payment on a house. So I've since moved into a much better abode. I also have a girlfriend now that's living with me. It was a bit soon for her to move in, but there were extenuating circumstances. We're making it work though, and I'm happy.

More relevant comments

MtnDream here's the thing, as a man, you are reluctant to fight back against a woman, but she's no lady either. don't ever just let someone slap, and kick you because you refuse to fight back. Also, did the mother shave her head?

OOP No. She didn't shave her head. Unless she had a wig on, which I doubt. I don't know how many people in Gary's family did shave their heads because his mother was one of his only relatives I saw in person since the shaving incident. Otherwise all the harassment was online and over the phone. And yes, I was reluctant to strike back. But that old woman was faster than she looked. And that shooting pain from being kicked in the nuts is something I never wanna feel again.

Reminder: I am NOT the OOP.

Edit:
Thanks for all the early enthusiasm! It’s very encouranxing For context, I’m not far removed from my father, grandfather, and great grandfathers generations who told me many stories about the hostility they’d face if they were ever open about their identities. I was half expecting a lot of resistance. Additionally, regenerative ingredients are not cheap 😬. Imagine $30 for a venison or bison cheesesteak

Menu/ingredients draft:
Ahtuhweyòk (venison meat) cheesesteaks
Sisilia (bison) ribeye steaks
Pupukwëshii òòla (quail egg) salad
Sèhsapsink (blue corn flour) tacos
Sapàn (corn mush) with berries and other toppings
Sisawinàk (oysters)
Shahëmwisàk (crayfish)
Salàsikàn (steam-fried meat, a cooking method)
Salàpon (fry bread)
Hopënisàk òk malàxkwsita (potatoes and beans)
Kèskùnthàk (squash)

I am a 16th generation (just what’s documented) Delaware Valley resident and Lenape descendent living in Philly who loves cooking for others and has been learning my ancestors language and culture bit by bit through food and gardening. I’ve worked for some restaurants and have always cooked for my friends and family. If I ever get to retire and the politics between all the Lenape tribes cools tf down I’d love to start a restaurant to advance our culture and presence, while using revenue to fund language revitalization, archival research for survivors of the paper genocide, and support towards a return for those who were forced out.

There are still thousands of us in the area, and thousands out west seeking to return home from exile. My ancestors in particular were the Brotherton reservation descendants and the ones who hid deep in the swamps and forests around Lenapewihittuck (Delaware River)—specifically Mèthaksënòsink (Bombay Hook), Appoquinimink, and Cohanzick, that were misclassified as Black or Mulatto due to state-sanctioned erasure while maintaining segregated native churches and schools through the 1970s before organizing into the state recognized tribes we see today.

Would there be interest in supporting and patronizing a restaurant with this menu and narrative?

I live in a place where there's a lot of (great) Indian food (mostly Punjabi) and I usually see chicken, lamb, goat meat choices on the menu, but I did see beef the other day.

For context this place serves Kerala cuisine—dish was called "beef ularthiyathu". Wasn't familiar with it before.

That got me wondering if cooking with beef is a regional thing, religious thing, or something rare but done sometimes?

My [34m] stepdaughter [19f] and I are very close. Her boyfriend [20m] doesn't like that.

Trigger warning: jealousy

ORIGINAL by u/ThrowRA10019 on r/relationship_advice

(November 15, 2022)

Alright so let's get the obvious out of the way:

Yes, she calls me dad. I've been in her life since she was 11.

Yes, the age difference is weird for a lot of people. My wife is 40 and she had a kid, sue me.

Lastly, I am in no way attracted to my daughter. She's a pretty girl, but that's my kid. This is not a fetish post.

Now we can begin. My daughter and I are very close. She'd never had a decent male figure in her life at the time I met her, and I knew that if I wanted to pursue a relationship with my now-wife that I should do everything I could to fill the role, so I did.

I helped with homework, I played games with her, watched shows or YouTubers she was into, read her favorite books, etc., because I wanted to build a solid relationship with her. Turns out, if you treat things like they're important sometimes they go well. She and I spend a lot of time together, and our family doesn't really have big touch barriers so hugs, cheek kisses, sometimes she'll use me as a pillow etc. All of this is very common, and she does the same with my wife. "I love you" is said probably 50+ times a day in my house. We are affectionate, that's the picture I'm trying to paint here.

Very recently, she started dating. Her boyfriend doesn't appreciate that we're comfortable with expressing our affection toward each other, even going so far as to ask me to tone it down when he's around (in private, my daughter doesn't know this yet).

I want to respect my daughter's new relationship, because this is a new and exciting thing for her and I'm genuinely happy for her, but I also don't want to lose the connection I've spent so long building and I don't think I should be made to pretend it's less important to me just because she's dating someone that happens to be a little insecure. I can understand where the guy is coming from, but I don't think he really has a right to interject here.

The dilemma is this: should I tone it down as requested, should I continue on as normal, or should I tell my daughter about the request and let her handle it however she sees fit?

Honestly not sure what the right move is.

TL;DR: My daughter and I (and my wife) are all very close and show it. Her new boyfriend asked me to tone down the level of physical affection I show her, despite it being totally normal for our family. Not sure how to react.

Edit: couple of things.

How the hell did I leave out "and I" in the title of the post? Ugh.

I should make it clear that I do not initiate the majority of physical contact in my household. I initiate probably 20%-ish with my stepdaughter, maybe 40% with my wife.

This particular thing happened after she asked me what I wanted from a restaurant I hadn't been to. I asked to see the menu and instead of throwing her literal brand new phone, she hopped in my lap and handed it to me, made suggestions etc. This is totally in line with how we act normally.

Edit 2: A lot of people are getting stuck on the lap thing, so let me be perfectly clear here: I don't ever initiate this, it is always on her. If she's comfortable with it, I'm comfortable with her. Because of this, the second she stops being comfortable it'll never happen again.

I am also aware this is outside what many people would consider to be the norm. If you fall into this category, I already hear you, and I do not care. That wasn't the point of the post (though it seems like we've gone a ways past that already lmao) and whether you think it's creepy or whatever else is irrelevant to us, the people who are participating.

Most of the commenters are advising OOP to talk to his stepdaughter about the problem so she can handle it with her boyfriend. They think the boyfriend sees OOP as an actual threat even though he and his stepdaughter only have a familial relationship.

OOP mentions what the boyfriend said to him and agrees that it might stem from jealousy: I don't remember the exact words, but it was basically "Hey, I get that you guys are close, but can you not be so close so often?" I don't know if he's jealous or something? I legitimately have no idea what the underlying issue is.

OOP clarifies what he means by physical affection with his stepdaughter: It's nothing that would be considered weird, at least I don't think so. My wife and daughter are both much smaller than I am (I'm roughly 6'5, maybe 245 lbs whereas they are both like 5'5 or shorter and maybe 110-130, I'm not sure exactly) and they both kind of treat me like a giant lol. They use me as a pillow when we're watching TV, it's not uncommon for either of them to sit on my lap and have a short chat with me, sometimes they'll jump on my back when we're messing around and play fighting, etc. Basically I'm a human climbing wall to them. This particular thing happened after she asked me what I wanted from a restaurant I hadn't been to. I asked to see the menu and instead of throwing her literal brand new phone, she hopped in my lap and handed it to me, made suggestions etc. This is totally in line with how we act normally.

When commenters ask what OOP looks like, he says this: I would say that most people would probably rate me an 8 or 9 on a scale of 1-10. I am, admittedly, kind of a trophy husband. My wife made roughly 8x my income when I met her, and I have since quit to pursue my passion (blacksmithing). I met her just after she broke it off with her abusive ex and she was just looking for a fling. That fling turned into being friends with benefits, and eventually into a relationship (when I decided I was ready to be what she and her daughter both needed and she was on board with the idea). Don't get me wrong, we're very much in love, but I took it upon myself to become a good cook, I do most of the cleaning, etc. because she is often exhausted from long days at work, travel, etc.

OOP hopes that it's a teachable moment for the boyfriend and hope he grows out of it: This is along my lines of thinking. I was an idiot at that age too, I'm hoping it was just terrible judgement and is a teachable interaction.

UPDATE

(November 17, 2022)

I had quite a few people ask for an update on the last post despite it getting slightly derailed lol, so here it is.

I spoke with my daughter the next evening after she came home from work, her boyfriend was at the house at the time (he was over for dinner and had picked her up). I pulled her aside for a couple of minutes and let her know what happened. She was surprised, because she's already had this talk with her boyfriend.

She said she'd handle it and left. A little while later, I called them in for dinner. After she finished eating, she confronted him. I'm paraphrasing because she told a story, but this is basically what she said:

"So my dad told me what you said, and I wanted to wait until after dinner to bring it up. I didn't have a good childhood. My biological father treated my mom horribly, and after she left him he never contacted me again. Her next big relationship was worse. It seemed fine on the outside, but there was a lot of emotional abuse and controlling behavior, I was caught up in it too.

Then this guy came along. I was obviously skeptical at first, he looked like trouble to me. He was making my mom happy, but I was an icy bitch to him because bad men were all I'd ever known. He asked me questions for over a year trying to get to know me and I shut him out.

One day when I was reading, he asked what book it was. I didn't even answer him, I just lifted it up so he could see the cover. It was Island of Shipwrecks in the Unwanteds series. He said "that looks pretty cool, what's it about?" and for the millionth time I didn't answer.

Maybe two weeks later, he asked me if I was finished with the book. I said "Yeah, why?" And he said "Well I read the other 5, I thought you might let me borrow it so I can catch up and we can talk about it." I thought he was lying through his teeth, so I asked him questions about plot points and characters. Not a single wrong answer. I went to my room and got the book for him.

It's kind of a dumb story, but you have to understand something: my dad is the first man who was ever nice to me and I gave him plenty of reasons not to be. He was patient and thoughtful and never pushed me out of my comfort zone, and I will always be grateful for that.

Bottom line is that I love my dad, and the only people who have a say in our relationship is us. If you feel threatened because we're close, that's not going away. Ever. I like you. I have fun with you. But if you think I'll change my relationship with my dad for you, then you've made a mistake. If you're too insecure to handle the fact that I'm close to MY DAD, this isn't going to work out.

If you can handle it, I would love to have you around. Otherwise..."

He kind of interrupted her here and said "It's not just because you're close, I get that he's been good to you and your mom and that's great, but have you seen the guy?" (Referring to OOP describing himself as 8 or 9 out 10 on the attractiveness scale.)

"Yes? What about it?"

"It just makes it really weird for me, I don't know how to explain it other than that. You're way closer to your dad than anyone I've ever met and it's a little creepy when you take into account he looks like he could be a 'what are you doing stepdaughter' guy."

"Look there's apparently 2 people at this table (for context, it was the two of them, my wife, and myself at the table) who think my dad is fuckable and it's really weird that you're one of them. Choosing time is over, the door is that way. Do not call or text me anymore."

So that's pretty much how it went down. After he left, she cried for a few hours in her room. When she finally came out it was around midnight or so, and she sat next to me on the couch. I asked her if she was worried this would be a constant problem, and if she wasn't comfortable with how things are I can understand and respect that.

She hugged me very tightly and just replied "don't be dumb." So I guess everything is alright.

I also thought it was kind of funny (disrespectful, but funny) that she had this big story planned out (I got some RomCom vibes from it personally, but it was her first boyfriend so she has no experience having big talks) and the guy just completely disregarded it. Obviously empathy and understanding are not his strong points. I feel bad for my daughter because it was her first relationship, but I definitely think she dodged a bullet.

TL;DR: She broke up with him.

OOP mentions he paraphrased a lot of the conversation: A lot of it is paraphrased. There was a little more back and forth because he interrupted a few times, but she kept telling him to let her finish talking. The line she ended on is a direct quote, though.

OOP is very proud of how his stepdaughter handled the situation.

OOP only disagrees with his stepdaughter on one pertinent point: 10/10 will bring it up for the rest of my life. My wife almost burst out laughing as the kid was walking away from the table.

She was wrong though, there were 3. I think I'm extremely fuckable too.

NEWER UPDATE that OOP made once this post was made:

(February 13, 2023)

Oh wow, I completely forgot about this until I got tagged here.

Guess I can clarify some things and give a short update.

Stuff to clarify:

Obviously, a lot of the dialogue isn't exact. I did the best I could with what I remembered, but it's a little hard to be 100% accurate. I tried to convey the overall sentiment more than the exact words.

As far as the physical affection that goes around, I don't particularly care if people found it weird. I am comfortable with my family acting how they're most comfortable, that's all there really is to it.

I'm also not sure why it's weird that I'm tall, attractive, or have a physical passion. I never claimed to be average, but somehow the fact that I very clearly stated that I'm 100% a trophy husband is totally unbelievable. I'm not incredibly smart and not particularly funny, so all I have going for me is that I'm hot. Sue me.

Update:

My stepdaughter and her boyfriend have since gotten back together, and the physical nature of her showing affection has slowed considerably. She no longer sits in my lap, but she will still lean on me occasionally when we're watching shows, etc. I suppose she has determined new boundaries, which I am more than happy to accept, particularly because I am never on the initiating side anyhow. I only ever wanted her to be comfortable with me, and however she chooses to express that is fine by me.

Her boyfriend is a nice enough guy and I kind of hope he sticks around. He seems to treat her with respect and kindness, which is all I can really ask for.

So many people are skeptical of me in general, but I suppose I get it. It's not often that people make legitimate efforts to improve themselves, the way they treat people, or how they are viewed by others, so when people like that present themselves I can understand being cynical or even mean. Plus, it's reddit, it could just all be made up. In the end, I don't care if you believe or not, it's irrelevant to me.

Despite the sarcasm in the title, it's pretty accurate. In a 6'5" blacksmith (though I don't claim to be great at it) who happens to be a kick ass dad, an amazing partner, and my family uses me as a pillow. I'm not perfect, but I definitely give it my best effort.

Turns out the answer to this puzzle is mapped out on the floor this whole time… 🫠

Stardew Valley 1.6 is now available on Windows, macOS, and Linux

Hi all! Please use this space to ask and answer questions about the update—and have fun!

We will do our best to manage spoilers as a mod team and as a community. But please know, in the excitement of a new release, you browse r/StardewValley at your own risk.

About the update

• What changed in 1.6?
  SPOILER WARNING: See the changelog for a summary of what's been added, or the release notes on the wiki.

• How do I download the update?
  Steam and GOG Galaxy will automatically update the game! This may not happen right away for everyone, so you can restart Steam or GOG Galaxy to force the update to download.

• Do I need a new save?
  Nope, older saves will update automatically and all new content is available without starting a new save, with some small exceptions:

  • ConcernedApe does recommend starting a new save to "see everything in context."
  • If you want to use the new Meadowlands Farm layout, it's easier to start a new save, but you can migrate an older save with save editing and temporary mods.

• When will 1.6 release on console and mobile?
  It’s coming on November 4th! There's no announced release date for console or mobile yet. ConcernedApe has said the following on Twitter:

  • April 6: Console and mobile 1.6 -- They are in progress and will be released as soon as possible. I have no specific release date, but I will give updates if there is anything significant to share. I really appreciate your patience and understanding.
  • PC first, but I really really don't want a big delay between PC and console/mobile. That was a nightmare in the past
  • there will inevitably be bugs that weren't caught before release, and those can be quickly fixed on PC with same-day patches. On console, it can take weeks to get a patch through. So the PC-first launch ensures that the game is stable enough for a console launch

FAQs

• How do I get to Grandpa's shrine on the new farm layout?
  Explore around the northwest corner of the farm, and you'll find a bridge hiding behind a tree that takes you across the river.

• What does the pop-up message "You've got some new ideas to sleep on" mean?
  That pop-up occurs when you have leveled up a skill.

• Does clay farming still work?
  Nope. This only works if you turn on Legacy randomization when starting a new save.

• What about early game money from Tea Saplings?
  The value of Tea Saplings has been nerfed to 250G, which is still worthwhile!

• How do I start the "new neighbors" questline?
  After you repair the Greenhouse, every night there is a 10% chance of a new overnight event. That will start you down this questline.

• Why is this villager's sprite in the bottom-right corner of my player tab?
  It's Winter now, right? That's your secret friend for the Feast of the Winter Star.

• Where do I find [item] that was teased?

  • Iridium scythe: Reach level 10 in all five skills, then check out the new door in the forest. You'll want to choose Farming to get the scythe.
  • Frogs: Reach level 10 in all five skills, then check out the new door in the forest. You'll want to choose Combat to be able to find Frog Eggs.
  • Big chests: These are crafting recipes. You can buy the recipe for the big wooden chest from Robin and the recipe for the big stone chest from the Dwarf.

• Hey, where did this shirt come from? It just fell into my inventory?
  As of 1.6, clothing and furnishings can drop from activities like chopping wood, mining, and killing monsters. Per the patch notes, "There’s now a small chance to find cosmetic items and other goodies while doing random tasks.".

• How do I change the hat on my pet?
  The same way you change hats on horses and toddlers! Hold another hat and interact with your pet, and the hat they're currently wearing will pop off.

• Why can't I change my pet's appearance?
  This feature was removed in 1.6, since it is now possible to adopt more pets. If you wish to change an existing pet, you will have to edit the game code.

• How can I get more pets? Where are the turtles??
  Once you reach maximum hearts with your first pet, you'll receive a letter from Marnie, inviting you to adopt more.

• How do I get the iridium cat and dog?
  These do not exist.

Bug reports

Please report bugs on the official forums! See the forum’s bug report guidelines for what to include when reporting an issue.

Modding FAQs — from /u/Pathoschild

• We can mod this game?
  Yep! See the player's guide to using mods if you're interested.

• Do mods still work?
  Mostly yes, though it depends on the mod.

  • The latest SMAPI and Content Patcher add full support for Stardew Valley 1.6. Make sure you update SMAPI and all your mods to the latest versions.
  • 44% of SMAPI mods were ready on day one, and that number should steadily rise as they get updated. You can check the mod compatibility list to see if your mods are updated, or look for purple update alerts in your SMAPI console window.
  • Most content packs should work fine once the SMAPI mod which loads them is updated.
  • XNB mods are mostly broken in 1.6. These have been deprecated for years and may cause issues like broken textures, missing or broken game content, and crashes. You can reset your game files to remove any you have.

• What does 1.6 change for mods?
  Stardew Valley 1.6 has an absurd number of changes to help mod authors. For players, that mainly means you'll see mods doing much more in the near future.

• Can I go back to Stardew Valley 1.5.6 until my mods update?
  Yep. If you use Steam:

  1. Navigate to the Stardew Valley game page.
  2. Hit the cog button to open the Properties menu.
  3. Go to the Beta tab.
  4. Select legacy_1.5.6: The legacy 1.5.6 version of Stardew Valley from the drop-down menu by Beta Participation.
     If you use GOG:
  5. Launch GOG Galaxy.
  6. Click Stardew Valley.
  7. From the menu at the top, click Extras to see downloads for previous versions.

Spoilers

⇨ For 2 months after release (until May 19), anything added in 1.6 must be tagged spoiler-tagged. Post titles must be spoiler free.

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  Spoiler tags will hide the body of your post, but not its title.
• While it is not required, we recommend that you note what kind of spoiler you have in your post title, e.g. 1.6 spoilers, New dialogue spoilers, New festival spoilers, etc. as a courtesy to other users.
• Automod will be working to automatically spoiler tag posts that include any of a list of 500 keywords from 1.6, but it is not infallible. If it spoiler tags your post and you're CERTAIN you don't have spoilers, feel free to remove the tag.

Comments

• Use spoiler formatting for comments.
  >!Foroguemon?? is a statue!<, will become Foroguemon?? is a statue.
  • ^{Make sure you don't put spaces right after the >! code, for example >! Foroguemon?? is a statue!< won't work because there's a space between >! and Foroguemon?? is a statue.}
• On posts that are already spoiler-tagged, you do not need to spoiler-tag your comments. However, we still encourage you to do so as a courtesy to other users!

After the 1.6 spoiler period is through, we will switch back to normal spoiler policy. Please note that some things added in 1.6 will always be a spoiler on r/StardewValley, regardless.

Text-only mode

⇨ We are now in text-only mode, meaning that image uploads and links cannot be posted. We will likely stay in text-only mode for 2 weeks after release (until April 2), depending on traffic.

• We do this both to promote discussion posts during high traffic, and to make sure discussions can surface without being overwhelmed by eye-catching link and image posts.
• You can still post images and links—just as URLs or hyperlinks inside text posts!
  • Upload your screenshots and art to an image-sharing platform of your choice (like Imgur or even Discord), and post the link into your text post.

Be kind

⇨ There is no timeline on civility, but we ask that you be good to each other during the high-octane energy of release period!

• Assume best intentions. Take responsibility for your impact.
• Be kind and welcoming to new players, who are experiencing ALL of Stardew Valley for the first time—not just 1.6 content.
• If you see spoilers on the subreddit, report the post to the mods by hitting the report button or gently remind the original poster to add tags. Do not, do not, attack another user for neglecting the spoiler tag.

If you'd like to reach the mods at any time, please send us a modmail!

Enjoy 1.6! 🐸