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Forcing villagers to move where you want (Naturally)

courier6

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Ever since the update to New Leaf, villagers no longer move onto your paths! Yay!
And, for that exact reason, allows you to force villagers to move into specific areas.
While many have figured it out, I'd like to make a guide to help others with it.​
NOTES
★ Villager houses fit in a 3x3 area, although, each house needs to be at least 5x5; Meaning that ALL villager houses need at least 1 ''path'' surrounding the house.
★ If there is NOT any space made for a villager (3x3 / 5x5 area) they will move where ever.

With that said, this is a very simple tutorial on how to set up your town to force villagers to move into spots you'd like!​
KEY
H = Villager house [space]
X = Space (and/or) Path
----------------------------
Each house would need a 5x5 area surrounding it
(This includes rivers, each house must be exactly 1 space away from a river/pond; if a space is not left; a villager will not move in)
XXXXX
XHHHX
XHHHX
XHHHX
XXHXX
XXXXX
This is our example house, a 3x3 in the center, and a 5x5 surrounding it. Ensuring that a villager can move in.

Now, let's say we want to have 4 villagers moved into a square space.
Each house would need at least 2 horizontal spaces in between, and at least 2 spaces vertical in between.
You can't have villager houses less than 2 horizontal and vertical spaces, other wise villagers will not move in.
To put in perspective, each house functions just as a PWP, there needs to be at least 1 (or more) ''paths'' of space in order to be successfully, built.

XXXXXXXXXX
XHHHXXHHHX
XHHHXXHHHX
XHHHXXHHHX
XXHXXXXHXX
XXXXXXXXXX
XXXXXXXXXX
XHHHXXHHHX
XHHHXXHHHX
XHHHXXHHHX
XXHXXXXHXX
XXXXXXXXXX
Each house has both two horizontal, and two vertical, allowing each villager to move in as close as they can get.

HOW TO STOP VILLAGERS FROM MOVING INTO RANDOM LOCATIONS...
"Courier, villagers are moving in, but not in the spaces I made for them!"

Well, that's because there's space for them to move into.
While villagers NEED a 5x5 space, they can move into any 3x3 space.

Which means you just have to figure out how to patch up those 3x3 spaces. Here are two suggestions that I use, there may be more, but I just use these mainly!

1) Build PWPs
PWPs take up their own spaces, and if you build PWPs in a place that takes up the 3x3 area... then you're set! No villagers will dare to move there!

2) Place paths
Since villagers no longer move onto paths, you can place your paths without worry, you can place paths in random locations, blocking up any 3x3 spaces. While it may look ugly at first, we know what you're trying to do. (Note: Placing paths in diagonals, or just randomly, saves lots of time); you can also use matching paths! (Such as water, grass, stepping stones) to hide those areas... This looks a lot better!


I hope this helped anyone! Thanks for reading!
 
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Shouldn't it be like this?
XXXXX
XHHHX
XHHHX
XHHHX
XXHXX
XXXXX

Since a house is already 3x3 and the extra space in front of the door would need a 4th row.
 
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Shouldn't it be like this?
XXXXX
XHHHX
XHHHX
XHHHX
XXHXX
XXXXX

Since a house is already 3x3 and the extra space in front of the door would need a 4th row.

I SWEAR i put that, but you are absolutely right!
 
Oh, I didn't know that villagers no longer move onto paths! This is wonderful to know, thank you!
 
This is a really nice guide! I didn't even know that was part of the update. That's really nice of Nintendo. Thank you for making this! :)
 
very helpful, thank you! ^^
 
This is pretty accurate (based from my personal experience) so good job for making a comprehensive guide! :)
 
Honestly, if I were to ask, this needs to be stickied because I've seen a lot of people asking questions about villagers moving/not moving on patterns, how to put/lay them down, the space required for the houses and all those kind of stuff. Some are even doubting if this is true xD
 
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Whoa wait, villagers won't move onto paths anymore? Nice. :')
 
Wow thank you SO much for this, I definitely had no idea about this! I just reset my town recently and so far my new villagers have moved in at perfect spots because I placed paths everywhere :D
 
When I got Chrissy from another player, she didn't move into the 5X5 space I had for her, but a random spot that HAD QR and only one bamboo and bush (that were next to each other) over it. It probably happened because I didn't cover the area around a rock (in case it happened to be a money rock on any given day). I just want to warn others to be careful.
 
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Also beware of what ordnance you have. In my case on my spare town, I did not have beautiful ordnance. This meant that I had to leave random spots open to allow weeds to spawn, along with the breakable rock. there did have to be multiple spots left (not just the required).

What did happen to me, is that when I left just the space available that I wanted, I had weeds appear there, which then let the villager spawn to a random (and of course inconvenient) spot.

And another gotcha, if you harvest fossils, then you need to leave spaces for them to appear also - this is why it is best to leave fossils + pitfall buried (and do not break the unbreakable rock) so that they do not throw off the space you want the villager to appear.
 
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