Getting Back Into It!

So I haven't played ACNL in a hot minute, thankfully most of my villagers are off cards so nobody moved from Salem when I started it up for the photo Contest. My hair was a mess and there were weeds here and there but it was mostly intact and I realized how much I actually really miss playing. So I need some help and motivation to get back into it!

What usually helps you play more often?
Should I try to start back up both of my towns or just focus on one?

Definitely focus on one!! I vaguely remember we both started new towns for the 1-year challenge thing and failed lol. I notice i can only put my efforts into one town otherwise I'll get overwhelmed.

For me play stays the most interesting if I have something new to look forward to each day, such as seeing a new completed PWP. A lot of other simpler things, too, like if I planted a new hedge or a group of trees. If I am breeding, it is looking to see if I got a new hybrid. I actually don't need more bells, but I like picking my perfect fruit orchard and selling it in my second town. I love to go to Nooks Homes to see if another piece of exterior for any of my characters have arrived. I am always looking at the island for silver axes...they are in high demand. I pick up coral there, too, and use it to decorate my town and houses. I do some of the tours for medals to buy hibiscus starts, mostly.

I like to keep a dozen or so of usually unorderables to put out cheap in the Flea Market. I go there often and pay attention to villagers pinging on an item. Villagers conversations and comments are still interesting to me so I talk to them often. I like to get them things (within reason) and deliver packages.

I love refurbishing furniture and am still amazed at how much can be customized in many different ways. Like I just discovered how many different choices there are for the stained glass! Also, I never cared for the ranch series very much until I discovered that it is quite stunning refurbished white. There are many ways to keep the game fresh.

I like to go to dream towns for the fun of it and to get new landscaping and furnishing ideas. So many creative people out there! Along this line, probably what motivates me most right now is building my town to a dream town. My goal is to make it beautiful and interesting, and, hopefully, inspiring.

It's the middle of the night here, so I have rambled, but I hope I have given you some fuel for motivation in Valo and Salem. Have fun with them, and welcome back to ACNL!

dizzy bone said:

Definitely focus on one!! I vaguely remember we both started new towns for the 1-year challenge thing and failed lol. I notice i can only put my efforts into one town otherwise I'll get overwhelmed.

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I was really good at the beginning! XD Pretty much everyone disappeared though after the first few months, but such is normal.

Yeah focus on one. I'm very surprised and impressed how people can keep up more than one (unless it's just a cycling town or they don't have dreamies etc.) but yeah nice beans you're back into it.

I kinda want the game again but idk how playable it'll be in Japanese so...

I recently got back into playing, too. I've started up my Salem, and it's looking good, but I still haven't booted up Hollowyn. I'm almost afraid to do so, since I can't imagine not losing villagers in both towns (Salem still had everyone and I didn't even have a mess to clean up).

I miss my villagers in Hollowyn, but I think I need to just focus on Salem right now. Once I'm really back into the habit of playing, then I can add my second town in again.

I've just picked up my game again after about 7-8 months of not playing. I've found I am best when I do my daily tasks in the morning and then I unwind by doing island tours and bug hints and things in the evenings.

mayortash said:

I've just picked up my game again after about 7-8 months of not playing. I've found I am best when I do my daily tasks in the morning and then I unwind by doing island tours and bug hints and things in the evenings.

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I'll have to find a way to make this work for me cause that is what I used to do, but with my wacky schedule I might have to TT a bit.

I've been slowly trying to just play a few minutes here and there for now, trying to get back into it, I need to get my villagers back used to me, right now all they want is petitions and I don't feel like traveling to different towns. I'm going to try to focus on finishing my PWP's and then hopefully start gathering what I need for my two side characters' houses.

I like redesigning my house by changing rooms/themes around.
I also find redesigning my town helps to by chopping down trees and replanting them, moving flowers and paths around etc.
If I'm stuck I might write to my villagers telling them my problems and going on island tours.

Remembering that I need to get PWP's is always what makes me not want to play the game and so I basically just push through that and decorate other parts of my town. I actually spend more time on this website than I actually do playing...

Played for a bit more, got a painting from one of my villagers (which I still need a lot of) so that was really cool, and it was real! And I set up a PWP for a scarecrow I needed to set and paid so it will be ready tomorrow. Going to try to bring my 3DS to town when I got shopping on Tuesday so I can get tons of coins from walking as I need to buy the rest of the fortune cookie stuff. (Hopefully I'll get some street passes too.) But I am doing it, I'm finally playing again! I'm proud!

Going to keep working on customizing stuff that I have a ton of, and hopefully getting the last PWP's I need from my villagers.

Start with your main town first and slowly get back into playing it. Connect with your villagers again to make sure their happy.
With the update there a lot of new furniture. That's been keeping me busy with my players houses. I've been putting RV items at retail for the villagers to buy. Also been giving them RV items as gifts.

I always play as the mayor first and check to make sure everyone is happy. Take a break and play another game. Come back and than play one of my extra players. The villagers are happy when they extra players get out to play.

Right now I have all my other towns frozen on the date last played. I do open the towns once and awhile when I have some spare time. Most of that time is on the date last played. I can get some stuff done without worrying about a villager leaving.

Walking around town once a week to see what can be changed helps and gave me things to do. With the RV campsite in the wrong place it took me along time to figure what to do. The trees in the opening didn't work.

stitchmaker said:

Start with your main town first and slowly get back into playing it. Connect with your villagers again to make sure their happy.
With the update there a lot of new furniture. That's been keeping me busy with my players houses. I've been putting RV items at retail for the villagers to buy. Also been giving them RV items as gifts.

I always play as the mayor first and check to make sure everyone is happy. Take a break and play another game. Come back and than play one of my extra players. The villagers are happy when they extra players get out to play.

Right now I have all my other towns frozen on the date last played. I do open the towns once and awhile when I have some spare time. Most of that time is on the date last played. I can get some stuff done without worrying about a villager leaving.

Walking around town once a week to see what can be changed helps and gave me things to do. With the RV campsite in the wrong place it took me along time to figure what to do. The trees in the opening didn't work.

Click to expand...

I am really enjoying the new furniture and working on getting some of the pieces into my house even though it's near completion. Trying to switch some stuff out and whatnot. Thankfully the RV site isn't accessible in dreams, which is my goal for my town, to be a really cool dream town, so I just left the trees and stuff blocking it cause that would have been awkward to work with where it showed up at right next to my town hall.

Even though I was SURE I didn't want a fourth villagers now I think I might go back on that... There's a big empty space that I kind of want to put a house on now, and make it like another little shop, since my other houses are: My mayor's house, an evil witches house, and a costume shop. Now I think I should make like a little snack shack/ building for my pumpkin patch to put above it in the big empty space... But then I am nervous something will happen to a villager and I wont have means to plot reset for them or their replacement... =[ So I am really torn now... Put in a lot of work on my days off thankfully and it's coming along, moving some stuff around, slowly getting PWP suggestions.

For me, I think the update inspired me to come back. With all the new WA items, there's more options especially to fit my theme and it sort of threw me back into wanting to complete my town(s). Plus, I've always put off getting the supplies I need because large trades can feel so tedious...but I've just forced myself to do it and seeing things come along from that also gives me a boost in continuing to establish what I want my town to be.
If you're looking for advice on doing it the natural way (growing all yourself, saving all bush starts, etc). I can't really help there. I do them but I can't possibly do a rate that would help me achieve much quickly. XD If I had to wait for the items, I would probably end up leaving again. I enjoy the game a lot but I just don't have the time and waiting would fade into overlooking checking in daily. I think I'll enjoy my game more having everything complete which will give me the time to just enjoy fishing, bug catching, island activities, etc.
I keep multiple towns going but I really only am focused on one ATM to develop fully. I just like to keep the date current in the others. I think you should do what you feel you can handle.

I'm scared to go to Valo, I know that card villagers aren't supposed to be able to leave without you saying it's ok but I'm terrified Etoile will be gone and I lost her card so I would just hate that and it'd break my heart! Once I get into the groove of Salem and get closer to finished I think I'll pick Valo back up. I miss it, it's fun cause the two towns are so different. XD