Ever since its launch, Dinkum has been an extremely popular game in the farming simulator genre, and rightfully so. The game is vivid and everything feels intuitive. It also has some special details that would only be noticed by a keen eye, and is also based on farms in Australia.
Dinkum is one of the few long-lasting games among many short-life games, but just like with any of them, it has its own shortcomings. While the game feels amazing and immersive, there are a few things that could enhance the experience and player retention.
7 Pause Button Mid-Day
Currently, Dinkum gets saved every time you go to bed and decide to end your day. This means that if you need to leave for any reason during a certain day, you're either forced to lose the day's progress or sleep early, which wastes a lot of time.
Being in that situation is never a good feeling. Hence, a pause or save button in the middle of the day would be a fantastic quality of life change. While it's understandable not to have an option to save in the mid-day, having no pause button makes it a little frustrating in case you need to put the game down for any reason.
6 Shared Storage In Multiplayer
If you've tried out the multiplayer mode in Dinkum, you've most likely seen a few glaring issues, one of them being separate storage. During the early game, there is a storage box in the temporary town hall on the left side, when you enter. This can be used to store items until you have the required material to create your own storage.
The issue is that currently, it has different storage for all the players. This means that the items you put in there cannot be seen by other players. While this is a preventive measure for playing with strangers, it takes away from the immersion, There should ideally be an option to share the storage with friends at least.
5 Toggle Flashlight
After giving John a permanent residence, you'll be able to buy a flashlight using some Dinks. It can be used at night to find your way home, but its main use comes when you unlock deep mines. These mines are extremely dark, and a light source is necessary for navigation.
Currently, you have to equip the flashlight to be able to use it, which makes it pretty hard to fight mobs, since you have to do it in the dark. Being able to toggle a flashlight even when it's not equipped, or having an artifact of some sort to provide you with light would be great.
4 Better Weapons
At the moment, the best weapons you can craft in the game are the Iron Spear and Hammer. These are extremely easy to acquire once you've unlocked deep mines, and they don't deal a huge amount of damage. Although, you can acquire better weapons if you meet the stranger that appears on rainy days.
Unfortunately, finding this stranger is completely random, so there's nothing to grind for in terms of weapons after the Iron tools. New craftable weapons along with new ores like gold or silver would be a great addition to the game.
3 Signs For Storage Boxes
As a farming sim enjoyer, there's a high chance that you like hoarding things, even when it comes to Roo Poo. Eventually, you're going to run out of storage space. While it's easy to craft storage boxes, it's equally hard to find the correct one when you're looking for a certain item.
A quick way to solve this issue is to introduce a way to put a sign on your storage. This can be done using simple text or symbols, or even colours for that matter. This can reduce a lot of frustration.
2 Shared Story Progression In Multiplayer
Another gaping problem in the multiplayer mode is the difference in story progression between the host and the other players. For example, Fletch gives you a free Furnace and other items at the start of the game, but only the host can claim them.
Additionally, other players are treated as guests in your world, and they can't have the same storylines as you, which is a problem. It sort of defeats the purpose of playing with your friends, as only one player experiences the story. This can easily be solved by adding a shared progression feature to the game.
1 Easy Access To Tool Repair
Once you make John's permanent shop, a new person will visit your world every second day. In order to repair your tools, you need to be lucky enough to get Franklyn to visit, and you also need to have a bunch of Shiny Disks for him. Moreover, the Repair Kit bought from this resident can only be used once.
Crafting tools over and over can be frustrating, but repairing them isn't any less frustrating at the moment. Days can pass by before you get a visit from Franklyn, and if he visits too early, you might not have enough Shiny Disks for him. Access to tool repair is important and should be easier, with less RNG.
Dinkum's RNG can be frustrating in general, but the importance of certain NPCs and their lack of visits makes it worse. For example, if you're raising an animal and Irwin doesn't visit for a long time, they could die of hunger because you can't buy food.