Hey there, thanks for playing the game. Whew, that’s a lot to address, I’ll try to answer what I can. As for gamepad support, I would like to, and plan to, have it at some point. It isn’t high on my priority list at the moment. Currently, I’ve been asked for re-bindable keys a lot so that’s on the docket at least.
I’m curious to know which part of fishing you don’t understand? From what I’ve seen I know people tend to struggle with the minigame at first but once people do it a couple of times I think they get the hang of it.
Tree chopping does take quite a bit of energy at the start. I know the early game is a bit of a slog due to high stamina costs. I may end up adjusting costs at some point but I have to consider it a bit before just making changes. The best advice I have is just level up your axe skill and upgrade the axe as soon as you can, should make it easier.
As far as the cooking UI goes, yeah I’ll admit it isn’t the most intuitive. I have it on my list of things to look at. You’re wood shouldn’t just disappear but I’ll do a once over for bugs. What should be happening is you add wood to the oven which raises the “heat” counter right above it. Most things need a certain amount of heat to be cooked.
As for quests, yep, a lot of early quests require basic resources. All the quests in the game right now are the early ones. Later ones will require a wider array of things to complete.
I’m not quite sure I understand the next paragraph, so I’m sorry if this isn’t an answer. You can build a few buildings on your farm right now, barn, coop, stable, and well I think. There are plans for more buildings in the future. You can plant an orchard, you can buy saplings from Remi on the days she comes into town. There are also renewable crops, when you buy seeds from Lylah the description should tell you if they are renewable. A BBQ pit or something of a similar nature wouldn’t be a bad idea for mobile cooking, I might take that idea. As far as furniture goes if you do quests (specifically for Simeon) you can unlock furniture blueprints which you can order from the shipping chest and place in your house. You do gain have a stamina skill, I think it’s called endurance, that will give you more max stamina. Once combat is in the game you will have health. There is a lot planned for NPCs that I won’t go into here but rest assured they will be some sort of relationship/friendship mechanics in the game. At the moment I’m just trying to get them all in the game first.
Foraging will play a bigger role in the game once some other systems are implemented, but I do like the idea of a merchant that trades in plants. I’ll have to keep it in mind.
As I said further up you can get tree saplings to plant an orchard, just find Remi outside the general store on the days she is in town. Flowers are something I considered and didn’t follow through on. Perhaps in the future I’ll pursue them. As for fertilizers they don’t exist yet, I have plans however.
I hope I answered everything you mentioned. Again, thanks for playing, I’m glad you seem to be finding some enjoyment out of it.