I'm 72, and I really enjoyed domesticating animals, constructing home environments (e.g. I loved the christmas tree last year with presents). Cooking was REALLY fun. I collected all the neat little things for the recipes. I learned how to fight from this game, which may not be a big deal for you guys, but for me, at 72, that's pretty big. When I killed a troll by myself, that was big for me. Learning to drive that boat took me a while, but I conquered it (so the boats were extremely fun, until later on when they became a long chore).
Take this with a grain of salt because we really like the game and we are always thinking about going back, and don't regret the majority (over 50%) of hours spent playing, but these notes may help developers sell the game better to new players.
At 500+ hours, we couldn't find the trader (travelling to many biomes), which means no fishing pole 🙁 We had LOADS of money. We actually saw the Mistlands a few times on our journeys and even have a tower in the black forest next to it waaaaay far from home.
The Metal System retrieval/processing became altogether too grindy – I don't know how you'd lessen the grind, maybe make a specific portal achievement that allows some metals to pass through, idk. That might affect the need for having storage on the ship, so maybe even making the ore weigh less. I don't know, but this and the building thingy below are the main reasons why my son stopped playing the game with me.
He said quality of life features needed upgrades, but I really still don't know what that means.
He said: "Long land builds ended in game spec errors, for example limits on digging were unclear"
Final Note: I know that mods are available to customize the game, but overall, mods are too complicated for me, and honestly, just not fun to learn. This is not to disrespect the modding community, I think you are wonderful, but remember I'm 72. I hope some you who make good mods get hired.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/valheim/comments/zv3c40/valheim_is_a_great_game_tons_of_fun_would_love_to/
