Have you ever flattened your island before? Are you thinking about it?

[mundanea1]

I'm currently in the process of flattening.
I just finished selling all the items:

Do you guys sell your trees? I just cut all mine down.

 

[Clock]

I did, but not the whole island (I'm only redoing certain areas) and I moved a lot of houses to the beach.

 

[Halloqueen]

I've never flattened my island before and don't know that I ever will. I've never really been too into terraforming, but I do sort of have a plan to rearrange the residential area to make more compact, neater and more organized. That won't involve flattening the island though.

Last year, I bought myself a second Switch and a second copy of the game since I came up with another island concept that I want to make and have more villagers that I want to experience. I might flatten that island because I plan to more heavily terraform, but I need to actually start the game first before I know for sure. Haven't created the island yet since I've been struggling to come up with a name for the island.

 

[Dunquixote]

Nope. I never considered the idea tbh. I just made due with the areas as they were.

 

[Cakecrazy909]

Years ago I flattened my whole island except for some cliffs in the north and north-east for a little decoration and height-based fish catches; I made it a project that took a while following a map I'd made in an online map planner. I knew where I wanted my river and streets and buildings as I moved tile by tile, it was really useful to have that blueprint. Now I have a little residential complex, a shopping street, campsite, orchard, farm; rock garden; all of it placed exactly where I wanted it to be. Honestly, I'm perfectly happy with how it looks even now, so I feel like it would be a waste to flatten it all again? Kind of like a diet reset since I put so much work into that, but it was definitely work it the first time around. If anything I need to work on the overgrown mixed colour flowers right now, haha, so flower breeding is my next project to really make things finished.

 

[azurill]

I have never flattened the whole island as that would be too overwhelming for me. I have flattened sections of it. Sometimes I sell the trees if I have too many. Most of the time I replant them in another section so I can use them later after I finish terraforming. If I do sell them I gather wood from them first .

 

[:::Navi:::]

Nah, never really crossed my mind. I'm more of a one-area-at-a-time decorator

 

[JemAC]

I restarted my island at the beginning of the year but didn't really get very far before I took a break again but got back to it the other week and actually just finished flattening my island today! It was a really tedious job and it's quite overwhelming looking at an empty, flat island but I find I'm better at decorating when dealing with a blank slate.
For the trees I crafted a few axes and also chopped them all down as it saved me constant trips to sell them and I got to build up a large storage of wood - once I have a complete plan with how I want my island to look I'll begin planting new trees.

 

[Doo]

I’ve kind of got bored of my island layout - I felt very limited by my original river and cliff placement. So I designed a map on Happy Island Designer, and I’m in the process of sort of flattening by section to create that map. I’m hoping I don’t regret it, and wondering if I’ll ever actually get it done, because it’s taking me forever so far

 

[Sharksheep]

I did on my first island and I regretted. Terraforming from scratch is awful

 

[himekirako]

i've flattened it a total of 2 times before and i really want to do it again
i might take a break before i decide to flatten it again but i do enjoy doing it heh

 

[Snek]

Nope, I am more likely to forest my island to the point that I lose a 5 star rating. Isabelle still tells me that she misses her favourite TV program because she gets lost in the forest that is my island. I can't imagine the paim to flatten the whole island, much less terraform it. Terraforming can be a pain too so I usually just leave most parts alone.

 

[BobRocks20]

I once thought about flattening my island to see what would happen, but then I decided it wasn't worth it for me and left it as it is.

When I manage to make a second island, I might do some flattening. And when the opportunity comes I may need to chop down some trees; I don't think too much about digging them up and selling them to the Nooklings.

 

[KittenNoir]

I have thought of flattering my island to change it up a bit. I have seen so many nice islands that are fully flatten out and seeing how people have designed it and decorated it looks so nice.

 

[Late Night Thoughts]

I have, and I kind of regret it because it was so difficult terraforming after. But, I persevered.

 

[LambdaDelta]

yeah, I smashed the whole thing flat as paper as my first real terraforming action, and kept as such for a little while, while I worked on my rock placements

I actually remember having various tbters running around the whole thing freely too, during the time. wonder if anyone else remembers my all flat nearly all terracotta tile island look

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I haven’t on my main island. I tried it on my second island, briefly, and it was a mistake. I think sometimes people feel pressured to flatten their island, and like me, they shouldn’t.

In my case it just took forever, sapped all my excitement for terraforming, and made my whole island an overwhelming ‘project’ instead of letting me build/decorate as I played. (That island ended up being abandoned/ reset)

I think some people are the opposite of me though and find it freeing and inspiring.

 

[deana]

I've never flattened my island before and honestly the idea seems really overwhelming. I had some ideas before I started the game but I also used my default layout as the basis for what I've built. I just don't have the visualization skills or creativity to build a whole island from a totally flat starting point.

 

[Xara]

I flattened my island early last year. I’d been struggling to plan out, decorate and terraform my island with how overwhelming stuff like that is for me and how indecisive I am, and I was hoping that flattening my island would give me the push I needed to finally start.

… It did not LOL. I forced myself to flatten my entire island all in one day, and it burnt me out a lot. The repetitiveness of digging up flowers and trees (and having to buy so many shovels and axes), relocating buildings, tearing down cliffs and filling in ponds and rivers drove me insane. I have never wished for the ability to get rid of flowers in bulk more than when I was flattening my island. Having to dig each one up one by one sucked.

It’s been over a year, and the most I’ve done is re-terraform my bottom river and make a little campsite area. And by “make a little campsite area”, I mean I terraformed a little plot of land and put my campsite there. I did decorate it for a TBT event, but that’s it. I’ve drawn island layout ideas, looked at inspiration online, and it’s still just as overwhelming as it was prior to flattening my island. If anything, it’s more overwhelming now. Most of my buildings are still on the beach, and I’m not 100% sure I’m even happy with my bottom river, but the idea of having to redo it makes me want to never play again.

I’d like to decorate and complete my island one day, but I think my time with New Horizons is pretty much over. I don’t have the desire to play anymore, and the fact that the only things really left for me to do in-game are completing my catalog and Nook Mile achievements, decorating and occasionally going island hopping isn’t super enticing.

 

[SilverPiper]

I did last year. It was time-consuming, but I'm happy with it.