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Terraforming: How to get over being overwhelmed??

Jacob

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There may be a topic like this out there that I glossed over, so maybe this can be merged with another thread but I'm pretty much at a loss for ideas with my island at this point. I'm sure I'm not alone so hopefully someone can give advice!

I unlocked the terraforming tool, and I had immediate creative block. I assumed clearing the areas of rivers and ponds would be a good first start. Breaking everything down to build it back up is still how I imagine this would work best for me. But now that the rivers are gone, I have even less of a clue where paths, buildings, water, cliffs, everything should go.

Where did you/do you find your inspiration for terraforming and whole island layouts?
Do you have tips for beginning recrafting the island?
What HASN'T worked out for you and what has??? Work around trees/bridges or get rid of them entirely?

Help :]
 
I'm in the same position and I find the best thing to do is focus on one area at a time and go from there. I also like to watch YouTube videos of island tours and look on reddit or here for inspiration.

I think the important thing to remember is all of these gorgeous islands we see weren't built overnight, the best thing to do is go at your own pace and make mistakes as that's the only way you'll learn c: (and obviously have fun!!)

Personally I've found getting rid of trees helps immensely but I'm a bit of a perfectionist so struggle with making sure everything is lined up when working with large sections of land. If you're really struggling with something, take a break from it and go back to it when you're ready.
 
It might be a good idea to find a template and draw some ideas out on paper! Once you've figured out how you want it to look, you ca start to plan which bits get sorted first. I don't have terraforming unlocked yet as I'm not a TTer but I've had my island plan sorted since before the game game out and have been figuring out which bits to do first as I've been playing. This has also helped me be able to start building up my residential and shopping area and I know where I can put stuff without having to later move it for terraforming.
 
I started my sketching out some ideas for my island on graph paper (which I also did for my New Leaf town, but this wasn't that detailed or acre by acre), then I used that one Map Creator spreadsheet to get a better idea of the scale for the things I had in mind. I haven't unlocked the terraforming tool yet (I'm foaming at the mouth waiting for it), but I also think some of my ideas won't work in reality once I start playing around so I'll just free form some of it.
 
Start with what you have, what I mean by that is start aligning all your villagers houses, stores, museum which will take a good amount of space on your island. From then on, it'll be easier for you to add what will be around it :) (check my video below if you need some inspiration 8D)
 
Imagine what sections you want and begin from there. Start from a corner and do things in chunks. I did my little bamboo forest in the mountains on the top right of my town for example.

Or maybe figure out where you want your paths first.
 
I agree with luantoine12! I've just been feeling out for example where im running around the most, what "paths" i naturally take to get between places the most, and have worked around that. So lined my frequent travel paths with the trees just by eating fruits and digging them up and lining/creating "paths" like that just according to where i exactly walk the most. I know not everyone is like this but I was also intimidated at the thought of clean slating my island and building it back up "how i want" bc tbh i dont have a specific idea of what i want. So I've just been terraforming only where in my everyday play i run into something like "oh i wish this bit of the island were like this."

It's slower and less drastic than erasing everything and trying to come up with stuff, but i do feel like it makes it easier to just customize your island based off how you play and where you go etc

every once in a while i just get small inspirations and ideas for small chunks of my islands. and i just take it a piece at a time and try not to put any particular pressure on myself to instantly come up with ideas
 
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Ok so I had 0 clue what I wanted to do with my island just that I needed it to be flat and empty with all the villagers out of my way so I could terraform. That was... frustrating both in actually flattening the land and realizing I had NO idea what I wanted to do with my now empty town.

What worked for me was taking a picture of my map and just... drawing on it honestly coming up with fun and silly ideas. I think I made like 20 different drafts of what I wanted to do before I finally settled down on one design.
These drawings werent like.. printing out the picture and scaling everything either. They were taken on my phone and then doodled on in snap chat. I think if I did the other way making sure everything was PERFECTLY planned I would of been a lot more frustrated in not getting what I wanted and having to improvise.

Which is also very important-- play around with the mechanics and improvise. It makes for some nice surprises!!! And DONT limit yourself. The sky is the limit; you want to make a giant teacup that is overflowing with water into a lake below??? You make that. You want an area where the houses are all on their own cliffs with ramps going up to them? Make it happen! Waterfall valleys and mazes meant to confuse visitors??? You can do that. And if it doesnt work out you can just take it all down again. Even if it does work out, know that at any point if you want to change it you CAN.

If you are going for a specific shape like a heart or a circle or anything but have difficulty translating that into the pixel-like mechanics of terraforming.... look at pixel art!

Take breaks too. If you have to move someone's house out of the way to finish an area, use that as a break time. Spend the rest of the day fishing or doing other areas in your town and come back to it the next day or in an hour or two. It's a process you shouldn't worry about doing in one sitting c:
 
i drew everything i wanted on a sticky note before the game even came out and adjusted as needed with my new knowledge. drawing out on paper definitely helps a lot. then i just took it bit by bit so i had a few completed areas to admire amidst semi chaos lol
 
You don't need to use terraforming to beat the game or even progress. Just stay away from it, maybe? If you want to use it, but have no ideas, I suggest getting inspiration from other towns. Surely there's always been a map you've wanted in an Animal Crossing game, or something about your map that is annoying you can fix?

For me personally, I never like rivers in Animal Crossing because they are an obstacle. In New Horizons, it's worse. Not only are the rivers worse, but every few seconds while exploring the town I have to take out a vaulting pole, or even latter. It slows me down. I'm going to clean up all cliffs and rivers and make things flow better.
 
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To be honest, I already had ideas in my head on what I wanted to do so I just decided work around some of the obstacles (since my island layout wasn't going to be exactly how I imagined it). Once I realized that wasn't working out I decided to completely revamp my island (needless to say, it was a lot of work.) I did get overwhelmed at times so usually when that happens I just take a little break.
 
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