A new Stardew Valley patch is here, and we can all rest easy: it fixes Mr. Raccoon

Yet another Stardew Valley patch has arrived, this one "mostly bug fixes and translation changes" according to creator Eric Barone. But that doesn't mean it's not important: This one keeps Mr. Raccoon from disappearing during the raccoon cutscene in multiplayer. I think we can all agree that's vital stuff.

I don't play Stardew Valley, but even so I really enjoy the patch notes. They're often inscrutable, yet somehow undeniably wholesome—which characterizes the game itself pretty well, too. Some of the changes are fairly conventional gameplay tweaks, but the fixes are quite often the sort of thing you just don't see elsewhere.

A few examples that catch my eye:

???? Fixed a case where Mr. raccoon could disappear during the raccoon cutscene in multiplayer

???? Fixed being able to give a wilted bouquet to your spouse

???? Fixed cases where you’d see Mayor Lewis’ giftbox note again when collecting 15 parsnips from a different chest.

???? Fixed prismatic hat effects not working in French

???? Fixed sewer event in German

???? Fixed soft lock when watching weather TV channel if tomorrow’s weather is custom

It's almost like a bizarre free verse haiku, inspired by either the best or the worst hallucinogens known to humanity. Is that too much of a stretch? At the very least, much of it is delightfully whimsical, even if I'm not entirely sure what "prismatic hat effects not working in French" means.

Barone has been on quite a tear since releasing the major Stardew Valley 1.6 update in March: The 1.6.4 update landed just last week, adding "two inappropriate names to the list to exclude from the name generator." That's maybe not whimsical in the strictest sense, but it is pretty funny. I'm sorry to say, however, that there's still no word on when the 1.6 update will come to consoles and mobile devices: Barone said those ports "are still in progress."

The full Stardew Valley 1.6.6 patch notes are below:

Balance and Gameplay changes:

-Bee houses now work with flowers in garden pots.
-“Minecart depot” alternative layout now only appears in the upper or lava mine areas.
-You can now turn the gold clock on or off
-Added coal -> mahogany seed trade at raccoons
-50% mastery XP now only applies to farming, as originally intended.

Translation changes:

-Reverted Chinese text to 1.6.3
-Reverted Chinese default font to the original
-Added an option to use the smooth font introduced in 1.6.4
-Added a dialogue font size slider for Chinese
-Added complete Russian translated movie & desert festival sprites
-Added option for Russian to use the “old” font

Bug fixes:

-Fixed a case where Mr. raccoon could disappear during the raccoon cutscene in multiplayer
-Fixed being able to trash Pierre’s Missing Stocklist, or give it away at the Feast of the Winter Star.
-Fixed being able to give a wilted bouquet to your spouse.
-Fixed issue causing only 1 omni geode to be produced from the skull cavern chest.
-Fixed crash when a save contains some invalid animal home data.
-Fixed a crash when talking to Penny in French.
-Fixed a malformed Willy farm event in German.
-Fixed an incorrectly blocking map tile in the Forest Farm map.
-Fixed some machines and some desert festival logic not working for Linux/macOS players using the compatibility branch.
-Fixed a case where an area was inaccessible in the volcano dungeon
-Fixed sewer event in German
-Fixed cases where you’d see Mayor Lewis’ giftbox note again when collecting 15 parsnips from a different chest.
-Fixed emily makeover event from being hard to skip
-Fixed Calico Egg Rating prize edge cases for farmhands
-Fixed prismatic hat effects not working in French.
-Fixed being able to “advance” the ready check menu by pressing Y, which lead to many issues.
-Fixed island outfits not being loaded for farmhands
-Minor optimizations.

Fixes for modded players:

-Fixed error showing non-flavored roe items.
-Fixed error if a mod sets an NPC’s ‘friends and family’ data to null.
-Fixed error loading a save containing enchanted weapons whose ID changed or data was removed.
-Fixed soft lock when watching weather TV channel if tomorrow’s weather is custom.
-Fixed temporary maps that aren’t part of a location not using seasonal tilesheets.
-Fixed summit cutscene showing custom fish with wrong sprites.

Changes for mod authors:

-In Data/Objects, added two new fields: CanBeGivenAsGift and CanBeTrashed. Setting CanBeGivenAsGift: false adds the not_giftable context tag automatically.