>>716188821How about dedicated questlines for each of them beyond just bringing them the same item over and over and over again?
Since the characters have set schedules every day of the week, this should be easy.
Here are some examples;
>One character is rumored to sneak out at late at night on the weekends, which you can observe. If you catch her (Abigail) without being noticed, you can follow her to her secret hideaway treehouse where you confront her and unlock her romantic questline.>If you are present at the beach in a specific time on a specific day, and the kid (Vincent) starts drowning and you have to save him. The mother thanks you profusely and eventually invites you to dinner where you talk a lot with Sam and start his questline.>Leah's boyfriend returns to town and wants you to help him get back with her, and asks you to do a number of schemes to make it happen (delivering loveletters, secret messages, ect). However, Leah misinterprets all of these and actually thinks they're coming from YOU. She kisses you at the flower festival and the boyfriend emerges furious, prompting a big cutscene where you decide whether to let her go or keep her.I could do more, but you get the point.
The characters are too basic and need more emotional engagement from the player.
Romance in Stardew should make you feel tension, anxiety, excitement, and warmth, but instead it just feels like another chore.
In addition to that
-Make all the NPCs straight (with the romance questlines being exchanged for friendship questlines if they are same-sex)
-Let you talk to them more than once/twice a day
-Add more interesting rumors/quests/attributes to characters that you can observe and interact with.
-Make them more different than each other
-Add a dislike/hate meter too, so that friendships with some NPCs can cause other NPCs to dislike or resent you. (For example, Alex may start to resent you if you begin sexually pursuing Haley, or vice versa).