Random Villagers Moving In?

Confire · Aug 7, 2017

So I've read countless plot reset guides, which I guess the primary purpose of is to control where a house will be built to prevent it from being in an unwanted area. BUT it also resets WHO is going to move in, correct?

This is what happened to me. Iggly said he's moving on the 10th. I said okay, goodbye. I time travel to the 11th, set the time to 5:58 AM on my mayor, enter the game, immediately save and quit. I make a new character, run around my town looking for a plot. Don't find one, so I restart the process, traveling 2 days forward, keeping the time at 5:58 AM.

Now on the loading screen I see a plot, but when I enter the game, I can't find it. So I assume it was a glitch of some sort and again exit without saving, and make a new character. Now suddenly, Walker moved in??????

How did this happen?? I always set the time to before 6 AM, and entered the game a few minutes past. Not only did I not find the plot, but even if I had found it, I guess that wouldn't matter because the location didn't change or the villager? I didn't even save on my new character. What am I doing wrong??

He was my 9th villager. I don't get new villagers from visiting other towns or my campsite, it's always someone moving in after someone moved out.

To clarify, what I'm trying to accomplish is randomizing who is going to move in until it's an animal that I want.

Pancake225 · Aug 7, 2017

Welcome to the forums. All I can say is good luck. I hope someone helps you figuring out what happend.
Time traveling can be harmful and I highly don't recommend it.
: )

Confire · Aug 7, 2017

Pancake225 said:
Welcome to the forums. All I can say is good luck. I hope someone helps you figuring out what happend.
Time traveling can be harmful and I highly don't recommend it.
: )

Pancake225,

why do you think time traveling is harmful. If you have the beautiful town ordinance nothing happens.

katysu · Aug 7, 2017

There are 2 ways of changing time - with Isabelle at the front screen of the game or you can change time on the system in system settings and then load the game. If you change time on the system, the game picks up the time from the system as it loads. Any difference between the two times will remain unless you physically change them to be the same (using a real life clock with seconds).

If you change time with Isabelle you have to do what you have been doing ie loading with the Mayor prior to the start of day to have the correct time. Then load with your new save file after 6am. New save files can't change the time, hence the reason for having to load the Mayor first.

I find this very confusing, and you are not the only one that has found out it doesn't always work.
I think your problem is that 5.58am is very close to 6am and the TT inbetween when not finding a plot.

Finding a plot is random if the incoming villager is game generated - on one load you might not find one, reset without saving, reload again (with no TT to another day) - and one appears. Because Iggly had been asked to move in, his plot was there, you just didn't find it. I don't understand why you TT 2 days forward - I would say that is where Iggly went into a black hole and another villager got generated.

I always change time with the system before loading the game. It does have disadvantages - mainly if you play other time related games. I don't, but would guess changing the time back to what it was after you plot reset makes it all OK?

If you change time with the system (in system settings) you don't have to do this thing of loading the Mayor prior to 6am - you can go straight into loading your new save file on the new day -
IMPORTANT - the first play of that new day (the actual time doesn't matter, it doesn't have to be 6am) has to be with the new save file.
You must start the day with the new save file - (if you start with an existing character then the game sets/saves as it loads).
If you don't like what you find with your new save file (either no plot or a plot in a bad place), reset without saving and try again - you stay on the same day, you don't TT to another day.

I'll try and find a reddit thread that explains both methods in some detail.
I can't find the thread I'm looking for and there are probably better ones here on Bell Trees.

There is this, might confuse tho

https://www.reddit.com/r/AnimalCrossing/comments/2dlfq9/plot_reset_trickwhy_do_i_keep_failing/

Hyoon · Aug 7, 2017

According to this guide, the loading screen displays your town randomly. Meaning since you haven't logged in to any character, the day hasn't been set yet so it's not guaranteed that a plot will appear.

I also saw in this guide that apparently sometimes a plot can appear as a fully built house after a certain date has passed (??? I'm not sure about the validity of this). I'm guessing if you saw that house as a new character, this might be the case. Because I don't see how if you went on a new character and didn't see a plot and then suddenly a house was built, it doesn't make any sense.

Sheando · Aug 7, 2017

I'm a little confused by your post, to be honest. I'm going to do my best to answer it, but I feel like I'm not totally understanding your question, sorry!

As Hyoon said, what you see on the loading screen isn't guaranteed to be accurate. If that were the case, it would be impossible to reload the game with a new character to change plot location or random move-in, because the game would already have selected an outcome when you open it and see the loading screen. However, this is not the case; only entering your town tells the game to load the next day. Anything randomly generated is not "locked in" until you load the game as an existing character or save the game as anyone.

I assume that what you mean is that on the 13th, Walker's house was already there, fully built?

Okay, so on the 11th, you checked your town with a new character, but you don't mention saving. If you want to save the game in that state – no plot on the 11th – you have to do just that: save. On the 11th, it was possible but NOT guaranteed that you would receive a random move-in. Loading with a new character generates one of these possible outcomes. In your case, no plot. However, without saving, you left the game open to select from any of those possible outcomes all over again. So when you loaded on the 13th and saved with your mayor first thing in the morning, you told to game to re-generate one of the random outcomes not only for the 13th, but also for the 11th and 12th (because the game had no saved data about those days). So the game decided that Walker had plotted on the 11th or 12th, and on the 13th, you found his house.

I'm not understanding why you need to save with your mayor at 5:58 a.m., either on the 11th or the 13th. Why couldn't you have just saved at the end of the day on the 10th and then reloaded in the morning on the 11th with a new character? That is what I do (I change the DS clock, not the in-game clock), and it has always worked for me. Just because the game didn't generate a plot immediately on the 11th doesn't mean that it is certain not to generate one on the 11th. You can try repeatedly and see if it works, but if not, it's possible that the game isn't ready for a new plot yet. So TT to the 12th, create a new character, and look around. If you don't care about playing "normally," you don't have to save every day with your mayor; you just need to keep creating a new character until you find a plot/villager you like, and then you have to save with that new character in order to lock that plot and villager down.

Hopefully this helps? Feel free to clarify if I'm still not understanding the nature of your question!

Confire · Aug 7, 2017

Sheando said:
I'm a little confused by your post, to be honest. I'm going to do my best to answer it, but I feel like I'm not totally understanding your question, sorry!

As Hyoon said, what you see on the loading screen isn't guaranteed to be accurate. If that were the case, it would be impossible to reload the game with a new character to change plot location or random move-in, because the game would already have selected an outcome when you open it and see the loading screen. However, this is not the case; only entering your town tells the game to load the next day. Anything randomly generated is not "locked in" until you load the game as an existing character or save the game as anyone.

I assume that what you mean is that on the 13th, Walker's house was already there, fully built?

Okay, so on the 11th, you checked your town with a new character, but you don't mention saving. If you want to save the game in that state ? no plot on the 11th ? you have to do just that: save. On the 11th, it was possible but NOT guaranteed that you would receive a random move-in. Loading with a new character generates one of these possible outcomes. In your case, no plot. However, without saving, you left the game open to select from any of those possible outcomes all over again. So when you loaded on the 13th and saved with your mayor first thing in the morning, you told to game to re-generate one of the random outcomes not only for the 13th, but also for the 11th and 12th (because the game had no saved data about those days). So the game decided that Walker had plotted on the 11th or 12th, and on the 13th, you found his house.

I'm not understanding why you need to save with your mayor at 5:58 a.m., either on the 11th or the 13th. Why couldn't you have just saved at the end of the day on the 10th and then reloaded in the morning on the 11th with a new character? That is what I do (I change the DS clock, not the in-game clock), and it has always worked for me. Just because the game didn't generate a plot immediately on the 11th doesn't mean that it is certain not to generate one on the 11th. You can try repeatedly and see if it works, but if not, it's possible that the game isn't ready for a new plot yet. So TT to the 12th, create a new character, and look around. If you don't care about playing "normally," you don't have to save every day with your mayor; you just need to keep creating a new character until you find a plot/villager you like, and then you have to save with that new character in order to lock that plot and villager down.

Hopefully this helps? Feel free to clarify if I'm still not understanding the nature of your question!

Thank you for the explanation. I think I understand now. My mistake was that I didn't even play the 10th, I just went straight to the next day, because since Iggly told me he's moving out on the 10th I thought on that day he'd still be in the town, just all packed up to leave.

I get confused because most of the plot reset guides give this scenario where you pick up a villager from your camp, and you don't care WHO it is, just where their house will be, and my thing is I want to pick which villager is moving in, after one of mine moves out. So what you're saying is, what I should have done is play the 10th, then after 6 AM save and exit on my mayor and make a new character, look for the plot and keep exiting without saving until I see a plot? At what point do I change the time on my DS? Do I do it every single time to advance ahead one day if there's no plot on say, the 11th? Or do I change the time once, stay on one day, and just exit without saving over and over and eventually a plot will show up? And by doing this method, will the villager moving in keep changing or will it be the same villager's plot just in different spots?

mayorlincoln · Aug 8, 2017

To answer your latest question, you just keep resetting on the same day! So since you had a move out on the 10th, you load with a new character over and over again on the 11th until you get the character you want. I've made the mistake lots of times of not seeing a plot the first day and choosing to go to the next day so that I have higher chances, and every time I do that I end up with someone I don't want!

If you want to guarantee that there will be a plot every time you load, there's an alternate method but it may confuse you a little, so sorry in advance if it does! I'll walk through it day by day:
10th- Villager moves out
11th- Load the game with a new character. See the plot you want? save and quit, all done! If there is no plot (and really make sure you look everywhere) save and quit. That saves it in the game that there was no move in this day. Delete this new character after it's all been set up and saved.
12th- Load with a new character again. Do the same thing- save when there is no plot anywhere. Delete the character afterwards.
13th, 14th, 15th, 16th- Do this same thing, saving each day as a day without a plot. Just quit without saving if there's a plot you don't like, and load the same day again with a new character until there's no plot there. Save, quit, delete the character.
17th- This day someone HAS to move in, according to the game's algorithms. So load with a new character and there will be a plot of land there every time you load, so it's quicker to keep quitting until you find the one you want

And to your other question- the character will change every time, so if you get the character you like but in a bad spot, next time you load it will be both a new character and a new placement. According to the update though, characters won't move in on top of qr codes, so I recommend covering all of your town where you don't want them to be with qr codes! Then you'll always know where the plot will pop up, making plot resetting less of a hassle

Good luck!!

Confire · Aug 8, 2017

mayorlincoln said:
To answer your latest question, you just keep resetting on the same day! So since you had a move out on the 10th, you load with a new character over and over again on the 11th until you get the character you want. I've made the mistake lots of times of not seeing a plot the first day and choosing to go to the next day so that I have higher chances, and every time I do that I end up with someone I don't want!

If you want to guarantee that there will be a plot every time you load, there's an alternate method but it may confuse you a little, so sorry in advance if it does! I'll walk through it day by day:
10th- Villager moves out
11th- Load the game with a new character. See the plot you want? save and quit, all done! If there is no plot (and really make sure you look everywhere) save and quit. That saves it in the game that there was no move in this day. Delete this new character after it's all been set up and saved.
12th- Load with a new character again. Do the same thing- save when there is no plot anywhere. Delete the character afterwards.
13th, 14th, 15th, 16th- Do this same thing, saving each day as a day without a plot. Just quit without saving if there's a plot you don't like, and load the same day again with a new character until there's no plot there. Save, quit, delete the character.
17th- This day someone HAS to move in, according to the game's algorithms. So load with a new character and there will be a plot of land there every time you load, so it's quicker to keep quitting until you find the one you want

And to your other question- the character will change every time, so if you get the character you like but in a bad spot, next time you load it will be both a new character and a new placement. According to the update though, characters won't move in on top of qr codes, so I recommend covering all of your town where you don't want them to be with qr codes! Then you'll always know where the plot will pop up, making plot resetting less of a hassle

Good luck!!

I see now, thanks so much! Thank you everyone who replied.

Random Villagers Moving In?

Confire

Member

Pancake225

Senior Member

Confire

Member

katysu

Senior Member

Hyoon

꼭 같이 가줄래?

Sheando

give me the pointy animals

Confire

Member

mayorlincoln

Senior Member

Confire

Member

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