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Ultimate grass wear repair thread.

TTing is the ultimate fix. I was TTing to try and get some villagers out, ended up TTing through most of September where it rained a lot, and as I walked around I noticed a lot of bare patches were starting to grow back. By the time I was done and reverted to my normal date/time, the bare patches were gone.
 
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Ugh... I will NEVER Time Travel and it's really unfair that it's the only way to fix grass wear. It's like they're shoving the concept of paths down our throats. That's just not how I play the game. Just goes to show that Nintendo can't make intelligent decisions in their games. There was a lot of backlash over the grass deterioration in City Folk from what I saw. A smart bunch of people would have thought "let's not put that back in." or at least tweak it so you actively have to do something (like wear special shoes or use a special tool) to create natural dirt paths. But we're not dealing with smart developers I guess.

-.- Now I almost want to stop playing again. God this is so stupid.
 
Make your ordinance beautiful then time travel a couple weeks or months. In my adventures through time I've healed many a path I've made.
 
I'm with you, Berri. It IS highly annoying. I know some people like them, but the majority do not from what I've read. At least give us the option to correct it easily if we want to. Surely they can give us a patch or something?? It feels like they're purposefully trying to frustrate those who hate this aspect of the game.

ETA: I also do not run in my town and have horrible grass wear. AND, yes, the villagers most certainly wear grass. I don't know how people can argue differently there. It is all over the freaking place in my town in areas I rarely go (i.e. in front of their houses)
 
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Since putting down paths I've found unwanted grass wear has really decreased. Flower gardens and daily watering will keep your grass healthy. I haven't had an issue with grass wear like I did in CF, it's MUCH more manageable. And I open the game many times a day and it doesn't make a difference. My best advice is not to stress over it because if you take a step back and calm down you'll realize it's not terrible.
 
Don't plant flowers ON the dirt patch, plant them AROUND it. Water those, when the grass under them has grown back to a dark green then replant the flowers further in and repeat. Yes it will take a long time but it does work. Obviously if you can catch the grass wear before the grass disappears totally then it's easier to have it grow back.
 
Yeah but I don't want to put down paths. My town won't look natural anymore it'll just look artificial and planned. I loved how natural and random everything was in Population Growing. It felt like a town in the woods. I don't want my town to be dominated by foot paths considering the villagers won't even use them! And they wear down the grass too!

Animal Crossing isn't a gardening simulator. I don't want to spend a majority of my play time walking down a path and watering flowers every day. That's the reason I stopped playing for 2 months last time! I stopped being able to go fishing and earning money to upgrade my house and do town projects! Keeping your grass alive through garden work should not be a requirement in a game like this. Grass should NOT decay. Watering flowers should only be needed to increase the likelihood of hybrid flowers growing. If I wanted to play a game about watering plants all day I'd plug my wii back in and play Harvest Moon: Animal Parade.

I bought Animal Crossing wanting a game where I can build a little town to suit my tastes, make friends with animals, and decorate a house and design clothing. Which is what the root of Animal Crossing was supposed to be! I didn't buy a grass care simulator.

Telling me to not stress over it isn't going to help. I have OCD issues. I like to be in full control of elements I should be able to control in a game, and knowing that there's nothing I can do to prevent my town from becoming a desert wasteland besides not playing like I want to is more than a little upsetting. I thought I'd be safe if I didn't run around town. Apparently not, and that is really unfair to me as a player. I'm fine with being unable to control what items are in stores, what kind of fortune cookies I get, and who moves into my town and even where they plant their house. However, considering the fact grass does not die out this fast in real life makes this 'feature' a huge, glaring flaw for people like me who wanted to have a lush, beautiful nature-town. If that were the case, my back yard would be a dirt patch from my mother's 7 dogs running around out there all day.

Nintendo really needs to offer a way to fix this issue for those of us who do not want to lay down paths and actually want to walk around our town. Or play our game the way they advertised, for that matter. We have all this space, and it seems Nintendo just does not want you to explore your town. I guess we're expected to not use the grass as all and completely cover the ground with patterns or something. Time Traveling is not an option for me and I should not have to use it just because Nintendo's Animal Crossing developers were ignorant enough to put a heavily disliked feature back into the game.
 
Part of playing Animal Crossing naturally (not TTing, etc) like I do requires you to accept that you are NOT in control of everything. I'm an extreme perfectionist and it was starting to ruin my enjoyment of the game so I took a break for a week and rethought a few things. I realized that whether I think grasswear a horrid feature or that it's unfair is actually irrelevant at this point because it's there and it will continue to be there. Now you can let that ruin the game for you or you can do your best to focus on the aspects of the game you do enjoy.

Another note I have is that I did natural paths in CF and while they were developing it looked AWFUL. However once you've got the paths fully entrenched it looks much better and other grasswear is much easier to manage. The silver watering can and gold watering really help in reducing watering time but even covering dirt patches with a neat flowerbed design (I'm designing a coffee cup near the cafe) disguises them.

In the end it's up to you. You can't play naturally and have full control over everything, it's just not possible. I went through the same struggle as you did and came to the conclusion that I'd rather play this way and accept that my town will NOT be perfect rather than TT and reset until it is. Part of the game, in my opinion, is about letting go. Let go.
 
Fine. I'll make a path and only walk on it or something. Too bad the villagers won't walk on paths though. I'll still have to worry about them.

Hopefully the next time a hand-held AC comes along Nintendo will not put that 'feature' in. Or at least make it so if someone wants a natural dirt path they'll be able to use a tool to make it.

It's just disappointing that I have to give up such a big aspect of what I wanted to do with the game now to even enjoy playing it. I really just wanted to have nice trees planted around and a few small flower gardens arranged in patterns. I guess if the grass deterioration gets too bad around certain areas of town I'll just have to quit playing for a few months again.
 
After reading this thread I think I will have to resign myself to facing grass wear! It's not the end of the world, but it would have been good if there was some way to actively reverse it (as opposed to TTing / avoiding the areas / etc).

It's also really disappointing to hear that walking on watered flowers negates their repairing effect!
 
You'll wear a natural path down easier with patterns on it. Once you've worn the grass into paths you can pick up the patterns. If you make little gardens around villagers houses I find that also helps cut down on the grass wear. I like the natural look so I tend to plant lilies and cosmos because they look more like wild flowers than roses and tulips. Violets make cute and natural looking meadows and look great mixed with bamboo.

When you have paths down you get a better sense of the spaces you have in your town and it helps you plan better. When you have a better idea of what you want to do with different spaces grass wear is MUCH more manageable. Before I put my paths down my grass wear was starting to get out of hand, but now I can manage it easier. I plan on removing the patterns once my natural paths have been worn in because I like the natural foresty look as well.
 
In just 3 months of playing, my town is bald. :(
 
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