the order in which you add things/people to the game can be altered to suit your wants. Not all quests have to be filled right away, and its all in who you talk to first. If you want to ignore the miners and focus on flowers, I think thats ok. I had one miners quest in fall of my first year that I simply could not fulfill because I never got the baker along far enough to give me the recipe for pumpkin pie, so the miners had to wait - as a result they never got their dinner with pie until year 3, because that's when I got the pie recipe.
Just keep in mind that ignore some quests may have long term effects on other achievements.
As far as using cheats for more money, doing so once in a while does NOT make the whole game easier, just makes some progression faster, but you still have to wait for some things to occur that are seasonally/yearly tied. Cheating for money still wont let you find and hatch dragon eggs till well into year 4. I never used any cheats/mods when I first started to play, and I still became a millionaire by selling alot of flower bouquets .

Something I just learned: I started a new play through on the River Map, using my same character -- and low and behold, all the money I had earned on the first map stayed in my pockets, so I was able to purchase several updates and blueprints right away. But I still wanted a challenge, so I instead now play with my second character, who has no achievements or money, and the game continues as originally planned, its just that I have a bigger shop, the hen house, and several npc's in town right at the beginning. I still have to collect and grow crops and tame animals.

Yeah, I noticed the same thing when restarting with my original character. It was nice having the glider at the very beginning! XD

If I understand you correctly, you'd have to start with a new character AND a new world in order to get a truly fresh start? It hadn't occurred to me that the world would be as you'd left it with the other character, but that makes sense. hmmm.

Originally posted by kittyalliance:

Yeah, I noticed the same thing when restarting with my original character. It was nice having the glider at the very beginning! XD

If I understand you correctly, you'd have to start with a new character AND a new world in order to get a truly fresh start? It hadn't occurred to me that the world would be as you'd left it with the other character, but that makes sense. hmmm.

You coud just leave your money and items in one o the current worlds.

All the your achievements, money and items stay with your character. The quests stay with the world. You would have to make a new character if you wanted to start completely fresh. When I started on the river map, I took a dragon and some money with me. But I only used a bit of the money at a time so I didn't unlock stuff too quickly but having that dragon to get around made it a whole lot easier. I did make a new character though so I could get the achievements again.