Have you checked "The Forest". Has fighting, crafting and somewhat of a story and quests.

Originally posted by Shwartzs:

I took over a whole continent with my buildings and I portal to each one of those locations, I have fields of farming, stone buildings for crafting with forges, fields of trees I planted and used them to make stone pathways between some locations, dug out of the side of a mountain and build a stone castle into it off a creek that opens up the closer you travel towards open water, and built a sidewalk down the mountain and the creek then made my private boat launch in a protected area. And I even have a huge Ark like building the portals taking you all over the world, one to several different islands to continents from one biome to the next. Remember Comfort level as of now is 17, meaning the higher comfort level you have near where you sleep, gains you a rested buff. you'll learn how that goes over time. Trenching around a garden keeps the forest creatures from attacking your crops, wards help to fortify everything else. and there are mods to help make farming little less tedious

Bro, what are you talking about ? Did you post in the wrong discussion ? And nice spoilers bro

Originally posted by Ulthar:

these are great responses. I feel like it's 80% there - but it's the lack of story that will probably not appeal to my wife.

Are there any games that you would suggest that fit the bill?

Outward. Check that game out, it has everything you asked for except the building part. You can't build your own house, but you can buy/own multiple houses at a point in the game.

Both of you can start a new game and join each other worlds whenever you like and co-op thru the game. The only downside is, only the host gets quest rewards, but that shouldn't be a problem if you like the game coz you can just switch to the other players world and progress there, you can even pick a different story path on the new world and get different quest rewards too

You only need one copy of the game to play co-op locally or via the internet ( still split-screen). So you can both check the game out, and refund it if it's not your cup of tea

Originally posted by Ulthar:

these are great responses. I feel like it's 80% there - but it's the lack of story that will probably not appeal to my wife.

Are there any games that you would suggest that fit the bill?

Not sure any of them fit 100%, but there are a few worth checking out potentially. Going off you don't want PVP, you'd prefer to be able to play at your pace even if that's months in between sessions, you still want it to be cooperative with your wife, you want a bit more lore and perhaps a bit less focus on combat:

-For lore, Ark came to mind. That game is packed full of lore and finding the notes with it (on the story maps) even gives you an experience boost. However, it is a massive game for starters (over 360GB for the full install last i checked, though you can reduce that a bit by not installing the maps/DLCs you are not currently using), it can be quite expensive, many of the dedicated servers are toxic (especially official, but the PVE servers are not as bad as any PVP server), the public servers do have decay timers (but private ones can disable this), and it can be an overall pain in the neck to set up. Then, in game, the start is absolutely brutal, you die a LOT. That's just how it goes. It's not until much later game that you find out why it's so addictive, if you even get that far. Overall, probably not a recommend but worth a peek to decide for yourself.

-Raft could be another good one, but also one where the best/easiest setup is that whoever plays most ends up hosting the world as the host will have to be online to play at all. At the start you really have no idea what's going on or what the story is, you might have to play a bit to even discover there actually is a story...but you will indeed find it and it's actually the main focus overall. There is some combat, but that also isn't the main focus. At the start your biggest threat is falling off the raft and getting bitten by the shark. Your "base" is the raft the game is named for, and you continue building onto that as it moves around the world, but you can also anchor (when you have an anchor) to explore interesting locations you float across as well. Most of the game is focused around that building, collecting the materials to do so, and of course not dying in the process all fundamentally oriented towards working your way up into being able to follow the story.

-Grounded is another that comes to mind. It's co-op for up to 4 players, but again, whoever plays most often should host the game. Host can play alone but whoever joins needs the host be online to play. This one also requires an xbox (or really anything microsoft owns, i used a mojang login after they bought minecraft and other users apparently used their ancient hotmail accounts) login in order to play co-op though, or get achievements. It is also very story focused and in some ways the building can actually be a bit limited (though the kind that enough creativity makes up for it). It also lacks decay timers, worst that happens is one of you loses a few base pieces to a raid while the other is offline (but raids also only happen where the player is, so you wont go back to an old base to find it wrecked). The downside on this one tends to be the combat related learning curve. There's tons of fights you can cheese with a bow or other projectile mind you, but the melee combat is HEAVILY reliant on the block/parry system which requires some practiced timing. It can end up rather difficult if you aren't great with timing, especially for bosses.

You're here for the building yeah?
It depends on how much you want to build a base, it's second to none in versatility

There is no story per se but it is a beautiful game, i think you'd have a lot of fun, just roaming around the picturesque areas trying to find the perfect place, raise boar, go hunting, forage, plant crops harvest n whip up recipes, the world itself has/is the story, base building /crafting and exploration is the really big factor here.

the idea around base building is brilliant also, those items on the wall, the herb rack, they aren't just aesthetics.

every thing can be taken at your own pace, there is no decay though death drops everything and you lose a dash of skill and .. after a few game days that gear will despawn (correct me if i am wrong)

game pass has a first month free atm? and it has valheim as a preview but i dont think you can transfer saves

This game does not have public servers. It's played either on your own computer, or set up on one at your house, or you can rent a server to play with friends that you invite. No PvP unless you and your friends decide to do it. No item decay because you're not taking up anyone else's server space.

You progress though (currently) six biomes and the goal is to kill the boss of each zone. Two biomes are yet unfinished and will take awhile, but the game has a lot of content in its current state. You gather resources, farm, craft, with the goal of getting strong enough to move up. You can also make fun buildings while you're at it. The scenery is beautiful. The randomized map means you will have to explore all over again for each play through.

Definitely not for you. Crafting and fighting monsters is the core of the game. There is no story and the only NPCs are just idle. They say hello to you and you have to kill them to progress in the game.

My husband and I have played this one together but I'm not sure it fits all of your requests.

-PVP is an option both players opt in for if you want to engage in, so its not something you have to have at any point.

-usually if a server is hosted "peer to peer" (meaning one of you hosts it privately on your machine) then the host would need to be present to run the server but technically speaking they dont actually have to play either (and thats true for a lot of co-op games), or you could set up a small cheap dedicated server that is still private but always online (barring things like maintenance, update, or general internet issues). If one of you ends up playing more often than the other though it could also be just fine to have that person host, and they can play privately without you but you can also join them when you are able to (you can even share map discoveries once you unlock the cartography table, so you can learn what the other has while you were away).

-There isn't a whole lot of story yet, but it's also early access so it's possible that could change. For now, the general idea seems to be you are technically an already dead viking essentially trying to prove your worth to enter Valhalla by overcoming the trials of Valhiem (with the trials being the bosses most likely). So as it stands right now, not a super fleshed out story and what does exist is already focused on why it is you do need to constantly fight and improve. There are a few friendly NPCs besides the enemies, but they are not incredibly fleshed out either. One is basically the tutorial crow, Hugin, if you know mythology it makes a lil more sense but realistically its not necessary to know either. The crow just pops up to inform you of stuff as you encounter new things. The other big one that comes to mind exists to be a trader, so nothing super special there to discover either. Otherwise, it is indeed mostly just "fight this thing to get the next key to progression so you can go over there and get strong enough to fight the next thing which gives you the next progression key to then go over THERE and....." you get the idea. Though you can still enjoy a whole lot of other side activities as well, like i personally enjoy building and find gardening to be a bit soothing as well, especially when you get a kitchen set up.

Originally posted by Ulthar:

I've considered games like this before and nothing quite stood out perfectly.

I do not want PVP, and I want to be able to play and then stop for a few months without losing my house due to item decay.

I would like it to be where me and my wife can play together, or seprately but in the same map/game and join our items/efforts.

I do not want to generically fight monsters, craft and then basically that's it. is there any story? NPCs other than monsters to be killed?

Is this that game?

you level your skills, you die, you lose a little of the points to random skills, your character never levels itself, no quests... which is nice in my opinion.

I took over a whole continent with my buildings and I portal to each one of those locations, I have fields of farming, stone buildings for crafting with forges, fields of trees I planted and used them to make stone pathways between some locations, dug out of the side of a mountain and build a stone castle into it off a creek that opens up the closer you travel towards open water, and built a sidewalk down the mountain and the creek then made my private boat launch in a protected area. And I even have a huge Ark like building the portals taking you all over the world, one to several different islands to continents from one biome to the next. Remember Comfort level as of now is 17, meaning the higher comfort level you have near where you sleep, gains you a rested buff. you'll learn how that goes over time. Trenching around a garden keeps the forest creatures from attacking your crops, wards help to fortify everything else. and there are mods to help make farming little less tedious

these are great responses. I feel like it's 80% there - but it's the lack of story that will probably not appeal to my wife.

Are there any games that you would suggest that fit the bill?

Originally posted by RequiemsRose:

My husband and I have played this one together but I'm not sure it fits all of your requests.

-PVP is an option both players opt in for if you want to engage in, so its not something you have to have at any point.

-usually if a server is hosted "peer to peer" (meaning one of you hosts it privately on your machine) then the host would need to be present to run the server but technically speaking they dont actually have to play either (and thats true for a lot of co-op games), or you could set up a small cheap dedicated server that is still private but always online (barring things like maintenance, update, or general internet issues). If one of you ends up playing more often than the other though it could also be just fine to have that person host, and they can play privately without you but you can also join them when you are able to (you can even share map discoveries once you unlock the cartography table, so you can learn what the other has while you were away).

-There isn't a whole lot of story yet, but it's also early access so it's possible that could change. For now, the general idea seems to be you are technically an already dead viking essentially trying to prove your worth to enter Valhalla by overcoming the trials of Valhiem (with the trials being the bosses most likely). So as it stands right now, not a super fleshed out story and what does exist is already focused on why it is you do need to constantly fight and improve. There are a few friendly NPCs besides the enemies, but they are not incredibly fleshed out either. One is basically the tutorial crow, Hugin, if you know mythology it makes a lil more sense but realistically its not necessary to know either. The crow just pops up to inform you of stuff as you encounter new things. The other big one that comes to mind exists to be a trader, so nothing super special there to discover either. Otherwise, it is indeed mostly just "fight this thing to get the next key to progression so you can go over there and get strong enough to fight the next thing which gives you the next progression key to then go over THERE and....." you get the idea. Though you can still enjoy a whole lot of other side activities as well, like i personally enjoy building and find gardening to be a bit soothing as well, especially when you get a kitchen set up.

technically the normal monsters like greydwarves have some lore

Crafting and combat are the core elements of the game. It's basically Minecraft with a more serious combat element. However, many of the building materials like Stone are "locked" behind combat progression points. For instance you need to beat the first boss to even be able to mine materials/stone, then progress through swamps (arguably a pretty significant step up) to acquire iron just to be able to use stone to build.

One potential issue is that there is no difficulty selection for the game but gear does scale well and the combat system is quite forgiving once you get the hang of it, especially teaming up. It is a gorgeous game world to explore and build in, but it does have a distinct danger element to it, but you are fully free to take that at your own speed. If I had to pick a similar game I'd say something like The Forest, though no real story to follow, just make your own like Minecraft.

I guess when you think about all those rune stones then there is a story of sorts. Some of them give hints some are funny but unless I'm really in a hurry I always read them. Well look at them as after so many hours playing I don't often come across one I haven't read before.

There is no story. From the moment the valkarie flies you in to land into Valheim for the first time, you are the narrator, you tell the story, not the game.

Add me ulthar :3