So im trying to write some rules for my next playthrough to force myself not to use my go to strategies. My main goal is to keep any one cash crop or other money maker from scaling up enough to take over the whole farm. I’m leaning towards 24 as a numerical limit for several things for a few reasons. Groups of 24 can be divided (into rows and columns) in many different ways, it lines up well with multiple existing mechanics, and sets a constraint that’s not too tight in the early game but still rules out things like ginger ancient fruit island or factory farmed truffle pigs. What i have so far is:

I can grow no more than 24 of any one plant at a time. This is the area of three quality sprinklers or one iridium. Im hoping this limit will make me use less desirable plants I would usually ignore. Im also going to apply this to fruit trees and to planted wild trees as a limit on a mushroom log forest. (That might seem like a lot of mushrooms but it is less than I’ve been doing.)

No more than 24 barn animals and 24 coop animals and no more than 4 of each animal in any barn or coop. A limit on expansion and something to plan my selection of animals around.

No more than 24 fish ponds and no more than 1 pond of any type of fish. This is where im worried 24 might be too high a limit but the number of fish that are that profitable to farm for roe is a lot less than 24. If there’s a reason to farm that many its the wide variety of other items they can drop like geods, seeds, pearls, etc.

No more than 24 of any consumable when I enter the mine or caverns. Farewell 900 life elixers and bombs. See you at 1:50 am. Take care of all the staircases. Im hoping that this will untrivialize the combat.

What do people think? Are there any big areas of the game im missing? Im not sure I want to limit foraging or fishing. They don’t have a game dominating strategy like farming and they don’t get way easier like the caverns with limitless healing.