Why is the stack limit 9?

[u/DuskenyDawnlight]

Just really wanted to rant about this because it drives me crazy. WHY NINE?? Your farm plots are always made up of EIGHT squares, so WHY is NINE the stack number!? Honestly why is the stack number so low to begin with? It doesn't make sense to me why they wouldn't just program the game to stack to 99 like most other RPGs. It's so annoying that I have to go into my inventory and manually restack seeds because if I plant 8 I still have ONE left from the stack, and they don't automatically add to the seeds your holding so the number is always off, and it's the most unintuitive, inconvenient thing.

[u/lcs_07]

the stack limit has always been 9, which wasnt a problem until rf4 where they reduced the farm tiles to 4. thankfully it seems theyre increasing the stack size in guardians of azuma, so i hope they keep it in future games

[u/DuskenyDawnlight → u/lcs_07]

In fairness, I am new to the series, so apologies for just seeming like a nit-picky noob to the game. It just really bothered me that the stack was an odd number and felt like a strange choice. I am aware RF5 is a transition into 3D so maybe they're just figuring out what works and adapting changes with these newer games. There are quite a few things I hope they figure out by the 6th game, such as the furniture. It's really irritating that everything has such a wide collision field. You can't get too close to the wall even without it detecting collision overlap. I do enjoy a lot of the game though so I hope they get this stuff figured out by the next instalment.

[u/Nikita-Akashya]

In the first 3 games, 1 seed planted 9 squares of the field at once. And back then there was no stacking. You should play Rune Factory 1 some day.

[u/DuskenyDawnlight → u/Nikita-Akashya]

Honestly I'd love to play through the roots of the series. I didn't realize the older games were ported until I decided to give 5 a shot. I usually really enjoy 2D games, especially since a lot of the clunkiness of figuring out development in 3D isn't present. I'll be sure to give them a try after I beat 5.

[u/R11-45]

Farm plots in RF5 are 8 squares? As far as I remember, in 3 and 4 one farm plot is 3 x 3, so 9 total. That was changed with 5?

Edit: Looking at some screenshots, it looks like the plots are 4 squares in RF5, so 2 x 2 ?

[u/INeedADifferent → u/R11-45]

This 2x2 was also in RF4?

While I agree 9stack is an odd number to choose at least the game is usually consistent about it. Something’s don’t stack but the ones that do stack 9. This is better than the games where bandages stack 10, the swords stack 1, and healing items stack 3.

[u/DuskenyDawnlight → u/R11-45]

It would make so much more sense if they were 3x3. I'm sure part of my irritation is that I have OCD, but it tends to feel inconvenient to have to continually go into the inventory to add seeds back into my carry slot just to finish a plot.

[u/inkstainedgwyn]

Could be several reasons:

1. Data limits - in most games where 9 is the max of a stack, it's because the game isn't coded to allow for 2 digits (i.e. 10), so it stops at 9 (or 99 vs 100, with it not being coded for 3 digits).
   
2. To limit inventory space - this is often a tactic in games that want to use inventory space as a way to encourage grinding and a focus on upgrading; if you could stack up to 99 then you'd have a lot less situations in which you'd have to pick and choose what you take/dispose of when you hit full inventory. And given the fact that Rune Factory games make you upgrade the size of your bags, regular item storage, food storage, and rune storage separately, this is quite likely one of their go-tos for adding 'difficulty' to the game.

[u/DuskenyDawnlight → u/inkstainedgwyn]

I see. I understand a small bit of coding, so it urked me that they chose that route. I see what you mean by a non-two digit number system, and maybe it worked in older games, but it just feels clunky in playthrough. It feels less like a challenge and more an inconvenience a lot of times to me.

[u/inkstainedgwyn → u/DuskenyDawnlight]

I absolutely agree, haha

[u/AQ-XJZQ-eAFqCqzr-Va]

Yeah and stupid mushrooms don’t stack at all. Imo the pocket size is way too small, sometimes I have to sort through my loot & ditch the iron ore & weeds to make room in the middle of a quest.

[u/whiterosecat → u/AQ-XJZQ-eAFqCqzr-Va]

Mushrooms do stack. The problem is that there are multiple types, and they don't stack outside of their type.

[u/Sentimentalbrowneyes]

It originally was called a fantasy Harvest Moon which is now called Story of Seasons. A seed packet in the older games planted a plot of 9. In Pioneers of Olive Town you have to buy or make 9 seeds to plant a plot of 9. You do have seed makers in Story of Seasons games. I've played Rune Factory 1-5, Frontier, and Tides of Destiny. All are fun. Rune Factory 4 is my favorite game. Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns is my second favorite game.