I know, I know... I know a lot of topics have been popping up about what new futures an whatnot we want for future games. However, I want to focus this thread on a specific aspect: Villagers. Deeper friendships, more interactions, dialogue variety, etc. I want to try to make this thread as in-depth as my mental capacity will let me, so please bear with me. In my opinion, this is the most important aspect of the series.
Dialogue
I think we can all agree that villagers need a wider variety of dialogue. Dialogue can depend on weather, seasons, upcoming holidays/events (including more minor ones like Valentine's Day). I also think it would be awesome if we got dialogue that was exclusive to villagers of a certain species. Or with certain hobbies (which I also think hobbies should come back, but I probably won't make a section for it). I know you can occasionally get dialog like this in Wild World. For example, Aurora will get sad over the fact that penguins cannot fly. This is something that is exclusive to normal penguins (and since Aurora is the only normal penguin, this dialogue is exclusive to her). This is an example of a piece of dialogue that only belongs to a villager with not only a certain personality, but also a certain species.
Same can go for hobbies. Maybe a cranky villager with the fitness hobby can say something like "I may be old, but I still want to stay in shape. Gotta protect the few people I care about.", while a a snooty villager can say something like "I need to stay fabulous, and a part of that is staying fit."
I will get into this more in my next section, but I think villager dialogue (as well as how they greet you and what the write back in their letters) should also depend on how well (or poorly) you treat a villager.
- If you have a neutral friendship with a normal villager, for example, maybe their dialogue can start off as being really shy. Cranky villagers with a neutral friendship can act cold and slightly rude.
- Negative friendships can cause normal villagers to be scared of you, and negative friendships with cranky villagers can cause them to greet you angrily/rudely and cause rude dialogue.
- But as you build a positive friendship with them over time...normal villagers will begin to get more comfortable around you, and get over their shyness. They will begin to be very sweet. Cranky villagers will reveal their fatherly side and their hidden heart of gold more and more the higher your friendship is with them. Crank villagers can grow to care about you more than you can imagine and see you as a very special person.
Another example is peppy villagers. Perhaps their greetings, dialogue, and written back letters can start off as a bit hyper and maybe even a tad obnoxious, then as you befriend them, they start to mellow out and learn to be more kind and gentle.
Of course, there should also be regular dialogue that you can get regardless of friendship, villager species, villager hobbies, etc. (and only depends on the personality of the villager), but I think having dialogue that can also depend on the villagers species, hobby, etc. can open up many possibilities.
Rudeness
This is something that the community has been talking about for years. There are different takes on the issue. Some people miss the rudeness from the Game Cube games, whereas some people glad it is gone. Some people think they are too rude in the Game Cube version, but too nice in New Leaf and New Horizons.
As you may have figured out from the section above, this is my take: I think it should depend on how you treat a villager.
Villagers with a neutral friendship can act slightly shy, cold, obnoxious, etc. to you at first, depending on what is more suitable for their personality. Villagers with a negative friendship can be angry, rude, scared, obnoxious, etc. depending on their personality. This is something that I feel like should be should shown, not only in conversations, but also in how they greet you and in the letters the write back (spontaneous letters should only be for high friendships, like in New Leaf and New Horizons). My favorite personality is cranky. It would be extremely rewarding to see them go from being cold and perhaps even a bit rude...to extremely loving, caring, and fatherly overtime. Hell, if you go out of your way to bully your cranky villagers, let them unleash hell! If you bully a normal villager, have them cry and tell the player to go away! Should we end up with a villager we dislike, we can use that opportunity to discover what negative friendships are like. Maybe there can be certain disadvantages to negative friendships, just like their are advantages to high positive ones. I think it would be entertaining. I know it is a family-friendly same, so only so much can be done, but it would still be amusing to find out how far it can go.
This way, there is a fair balance between niceness and rudeness that I feel like should be a good compromise for everyone.
Interactions
I think more and more interactions should be unlocked as you build friendship. I honestly think this would be more fun and realistic than just having all of them available from the get-go, aside from certain ones like "Give me work" and "Let's chat" - THESE should be available regardless of friendship level.
I would love to see more interactions like being able to hug your villagers. Maybe even different dialogue-related interactions like "How is your day?", "Who is your best friend" (which CAN be the player if the friendship is high enough), etc. The hug one, however, I feel like should require a high enough friendship. In fact, I think it would be interesting if the level requirement was different, depending on the personality. Normal villagers for example, seem like they would warm up to getting hugged at an earlier rate than cranky villagers. Maybe hugs can also be a way to increase friendship.
Another idea for higher friendships: You can invite them to go do something like go to the museum, cafe, Able Sisters, etc. which are interactions that can give a friendship boost. See the lovely cycle? As you raise friendship, you can unlock more interactions that can also raise friendship.
Honestly, I am still really happy they in-person gift-giving and cheering villagers up were in New Horizons, as I can recall wanting those things to be in Animal Crossing games.
Sickness
I know this is a bittersweet feature, but I consider it an important part of Animal Crossing. I would honestly love to see a more in-depth variant of this future. For example, maybe you can also give them soup, a cold rug, some ice cream, and/or even just some comforting words, to also help them to feel better. Giving them medicine and these other aforementioned things can all be friendship boosts.
Villagers Pictures
I feel like Wild World handled villager pictures the best. Villagers give it to you as a special gift as a thank you for being their closest friend, whereas villagers just treat it as an ordinary "thanks for the favor" item in New Leaf and New Horizons. One thing New Leaf (I am not sure if this is also the case for New Horizons) does get right, however (that isn't in Wild World), is have the villager give it to you as a farewell gift upon moving out, if you have a high friendship level with them. THIS should come back. But in terms of giving it to you in person, I would love for it to revert back to the Wild World way. It was much more heartwarming and rewarding that way than the way NL and NH does it.
Deeper Friendship/Friendship Gauge
I would love to see a bigger variety of friendship tiers. And as previously stated, I think there should also be negative ones (if you go out of your way to mistreat a villager by pushing them, hitting them, etc.)
Maybe there can be, I don't know, let's say 15 different variety of levels (maybe more, who knows?) - The default and neutral one that you start off with every villager. Then 7+ negative tiers, and 7+ positive tiers. The further you are on the negative side of the meter/gauge, the worse the villager will treat you. The further you are on the positive side of the gauge, the BETTER they treat you. Examples of this include dialogue, how they greet you, the letters they send (including random ones if you have a positive friendship), the interactions you can do, etc.
I think it would also be nice if we had a visible friendship gage/meter, something similar to Sims games. I think these friendship gauges would be a godsend for letting us know how good (or bad) our friendship is with the villagers.
Letters
One thing I love about newer games is that villagers can send you letters out-of-the-blue once you have a high enough friendship with them. And I know that these letters can be very uplifting when we get them at our lowest times. I think it would be wonderful if the ones you got depended on your friendship with the villager. For example, each positive friendship tier could have up to 5-10+ potential letters you can receive. They are more open and heartwarming, if you are at a higher positive tier.
Even regular letters. I talked about how they should depend on friendship level. I would love to get cold letters from my favorite cranky villagers at first, and watch them gradually become more and more heartwarming as I build my friendship with them. The similar goes for other personalities, but I use cranky villagers as my main example because they are my favorite and because of the opportunities of showing off how three-dimensional they can be.
I also miss how you could get multiple letters (if you send multiple letters) from the same villager in WW and CF. I want this back.
I also want them to actually help towards friendship again, as they do not in NH (for some reason).
it would also be nice if they can send you letters on certain holidays if you have a high enough friendship with them. For example, they can send you New Year’s letters in WW and CF. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is thing in their successors (NL and NH).
Tracking Villagers Down
This section may be more of a rant, so just bear with me.
Tracking down villagers can be absolutely atrocious in New Leaf and in New Horizons. Yes, in New Leaf, we have a megaphone, which can do wonders, do not get me wrong. But do you know what the problem is? It only works when they are wandering around outside. And a lot of the times, the villager could be at any other place besides outside or there house. And there are several examples of this in New Leaf. I am actually waiting to donate ANYTHING to my museum for the foreseeable future, because that place is a freaking nightmare for tracking villagers down! My villagers were missing ALL THE TIME in my previous New Leaf town, probably because of the museum. Also, I SWEAR there is some glitch in New Leaf that literally causes villagers to LITERALLY go missing. It's rare, but I recall it happening to me and @/LadyDestinti (I've read some of her posts on the NL accomplishment topic) a couple times each. I recently read a post where she spent an hour looking for Grizzly...to no avail.
It happened to me back in September or October when I was looking for Rooney in my previous town. I LITERALLY looked ANYWHERE he could be. Outside (I called him through the megaphone). House. Re-Tail. All Museum Rooms. Cafe. Club LOL. Other villagers houses. Nada. He was NO where to be found. I got to the point where I saved and re-logged onto my game out of frustration. It may not seem like a big deal, but I hate having to save and quit, only to log right back on, since my villagers literally disappeared. Then I still think to myself "WHERE WERE THEY BEFORE I QUIT?!"
THIS, kids, is why I am waiting to contribute to the museum in my New Leaf town. I feel like it is the main villain in terms of tracking down villagers because it has a million rooms, with the fossil section being a maze from Satan himself. I feel like it could be the cause of the supposed missing villager glitch that happens occasionally.
Then there's New Horizons. Villagers do not have as many places they can hide off at, but there is still the MAZEum. It would have also been nice if there was something like the megaphone, for if they are outside. I remember @/VanitasFan26 spent 20 minutes tracking down, I think he said Mac, only to find him in the bug exhibit of the museum.
Honestly, this is one of my biggest disappointments in terms of features that never made it into New Horizons. Sure, Tortimer's Island and bulk crafting would have been nice, and I mean very NICE! But there being no tracking system is something that can cause frustration...
If the villagers are outside, something similar to the megaphone, or seeing their faces on the map.
If they are in a building:
- They can let us know where on the "I am not here" sign on their house
- Calling them up
etc.
Villager + Villager Conversations
I love listening in on other villagers' conversations. It is extremely entertaining. I miss how often it happened in WW and in CF. This seemed to have been nerfed a lot in NL and in NH. I miss the rate of these in WW and in CF. I would also love for each personality + personality combination to have a bigger variety. Maybe 20 is a good amount if the personalities are different, and 10 for if the personalities are the same. Take cranky + snooty ones for example. The villager who starts the conversation, depends on who you talk to. Talking to a snooty villager first, will give you 10 possible conversations, and talking to a cranky villager where give another 10. Of course there are several other combinations, this is just one example.
More ways to increase and decrease friendship
I would love more wants to increase (and decrease for that matter) friendship. This ties into my last section, but I think an interesting way can be by joining in the villager conversation. Sometimes you will be asked to take a side. Or both. Or neither. Maybe depending on your answer, you would increase your friendship with one of the villagers, while decreasing it with the other. Or increase both. Or decreasing both.
Stronger Emotions from Villagers
Since New Leaf, villagers seem a lot more stale than in previous games. I would love to see more strong emotions from them. A example of this, can be again, villager conversations. I love how pissed, sad, happy they can get in WW and CF, depending on if you support them or go against them. This also goes for how you treat them in general.
More personalities/no more gender locking
I would love to see more personalities. Heck, it would be interesting if there was no more gender locking, since females can be lazy (can confirm), males can be peppy, etc. Maybe female lazies can have different dialogue from the male counterpart to make things more diverse?
New personalities would also be awesome, like, maybe 2-6? ^^ This would also give more possibilities for villager conversations.
Different ways to obtain dreamies
New Leaf and New Horizons have given us different ways to obtain dream villagers, which I am grateful for. This should continue being a thing in future installments. Adoption, Amiibo-ing, and something equivalent to the mysterious island tours. I doubt mystery island tours will come back, but maybe something more streamlined, like similar to the city in City Folk, where there are a variety of villagers with of each personality, except there are no limits to who can appear and you can actually invite someone to live in your town.
"Need a favor?" option
This was such a brilliant add in the Game Cube version of Animal Crossing. I do not understand why this never returned to its successors. It can be a great way to actively do favors without relying on randomness. My only critique from the Game Cube version is that a lot of the times, they would say they do not have anything. I think this should be done away with, or at least nerfed in future games.
A variety of favors
As you may have noticed, while some favors remained throughout all versions of Animal Crossing, some have also come and go. I would love for future games to have a mix of favors from each of its preceding games. The only favors I would get rid of are the ones that require going to other towns...and one that would ask for a specific clothing/piece of furniture/piece of furniture from a specific set. The former being in NL, and the latter being in WW and CF. These ones are very in(s)ane. However, I am opened to making deliveries, getting fruit, catching a certain critter, etc. and pretty much anything that doesn't require relying on another person and their town, or an insane amount of luck.
Move out system
So far, New Horizons has had the best move-out system. Villagers cannot move out, unless they talk to you, and this game actually takes friendship levels into consideration. I know some people hate how villagers stay until they talk to you, and I get how this can get annoying in some cases, but please take this into consideration: A lot of people have dream villagers they do not want to lose. Some people may want to go on hiatus, and I am sure they do not want to have to worry about losing their dream villagers.
Rather than it just being completely random, the villagers you ignore and treat poorly should be the ones to want to move out, while villagers you have a high friendship with and are actively interacting with should the LAST to want to move out.
Wild World's move out system is absolutely atrocious. Villagers move out very other day, and it is COMPLETELY random. It doesn't take friendships into consideration. They do not talk to you beforehand. AND you only have ONE day to convince them, which could take many tries.
With that being said, I heard about a trick to preventing villagers from trying to move out in Wild World: You have to half-complete a favor. You do this by delivering a letter or a package to a villager, but you do not go back to the villager who gave you the letter/package to deliver. I also recommend using an alternate character for this, so you are not locked out of doing other favors for your villager and don't accidentally complete the on-going favor. For example, I want Apollo to stay in my Wild World town, yes?
So, what I did was create an alt character and used it to get a favor from Apollo. He had it deliver something to Kody. So I did. I DID make the delivery to Kody. However, I did NOT go back to Apollo. This should prevent both Apollo and Kody from trying to move out (I do not care for Kody, but I do not dislike him either, and I didn't want to be picky about who my other permanent villager is). I have only had a few villagers move out since I half-made that delivery, so I do not want to jump into any conclusions about whether or not this trick works, but as more and more time passes without Apollo (or Kody for that matter) trying to move out, I will feel more and more certain of this being a foolproof tip. If this doesn't work, I wouldn't mind letting Kody go, but at this point, I also want Kody as a permanent resident as well, so it tell me that the trick works.
Still, I think future games should stick with New Horizon's system, and/or something similar to the idea I have.
DND system to suppress barge-Ins
And last, but not least, I will talk about something that I have a long history of going off on tangents about: Barge-ins. You know how in NL and NH, villagers can barge in on you for no reason whatsoever. Yeah, I am talking about THAT!
I don't think this feature should be done away with entirely, but GOD, can we PLEASE have a DND system or something?! This feature is making me more and more and more and more insane the more capable I find out my villagers are of barging in, regardless of the circumstances.
You have NO idea the atrocious circumstances that I had to deal with these in.
- There have been a few times in previous towns where Rooney would barge in on me, despite him already being over earlier that day (those are planned visits, but still)
- The kangaroo also barged in on me in New Leaf at midnight a time or two in my previous town.
- Then I recently find out that middle of the night visits can also be a thing in New Horizons. A few days ago Apollo barged in on me and it was almost 2. 2!!! Not 2 in the afternoon. Nah, that’s apparently too normal for ol’ Apollo. It was 2 in the middle of the night. Yep. You read that correctly.
- And of course this rigmarole has to happen when I’m not thinking about it and when I’m just trying to rearrange my rooms or managing my storage.
I may have figured out a trick to avoiding them in New Leaf that doesn't require going through the rigmarole of opening your gate (which will be terminated on April 8th anyway). I think you have to actually talk to a villager on any given day before they can barge in on that day. I am gonna try to experiment with this when I am due for another barge in, which should be Tuesday, as they tend to be a weekly occurrence for me.
I hope it works. The fact that villagers can just barge in at 2AM is beyond my comprehension.
END MY SUFFERING!
And I think I will end it there. I do not want this post to get overwhelmingly long. I actually took breaks from making this (thank god for drafts), because OMG, this is something I could write a goddamn novel about, which this could be considered a novella or a novelette at this point.
I will make another post on here if I can think of more stuff. The bottom line: I think these will make villagers feel more realistic, alive, 3D, etc. Plus, give some QOL to future games. What are some things you hope for in future games in terms of the villager/friendship-aspects of the games?
Dialogue
I think we can all agree that villagers need a wider variety of dialogue. Dialogue can depend on weather, seasons, upcoming holidays/events (including more minor ones like Valentine's Day). I also think it would be awesome if we got dialogue that was exclusive to villagers of a certain species. Or with certain hobbies (which I also think hobbies should come back, but I probably won't make a section for it). I know you can occasionally get dialog like this in Wild World. For example, Aurora will get sad over the fact that penguins cannot fly. This is something that is exclusive to normal penguins (and since Aurora is the only normal penguin, this dialogue is exclusive to her). This is an example of a piece of dialogue that only belongs to a villager with not only a certain personality, but also a certain species.
Same can go for hobbies. Maybe a cranky villager with the fitness hobby can say something like "I may be old, but I still want to stay in shape. Gotta protect the few people I care about.", while a a snooty villager can say something like "I need to stay fabulous, and a part of that is staying fit."
I will get into this more in my next section, but I think villager dialogue (as well as how they greet you and what the write back in their letters) should also depend on how well (or poorly) you treat a villager.
- If you have a neutral friendship with a normal villager, for example, maybe their dialogue can start off as being really shy. Cranky villagers with a neutral friendship can act cold and slightly rude.
- Negative friendships can cause normal villagers to be scared of you, and negative friendships with cranky villagers can cause them to greet you angrily/rudely and cause rude dialogue.
- But as you build a positive friendship with them over time...normal villagers will begin to get more comfortable around you, and get over their shyness. They will begin to be very sweet. Cranky villagers will reveal their fatherly side and their hidden heart of gold more and more the higher your friendship is with them. Crank villagers can grow to care about you more than you can imagine and see you as a very special person.
Another example is peppy villagers. Perhaps their greetings, dialogue, and written back letters can start off as a bit hyper and maybe even a tad obnoxious, then as you befriend them, they start to mellow out and learn to be more kind and gentle.
Of course, there should also be regular dialogue that you can get regardless of friendship, villager species, villager hobbies, etc. (and only depends on the personality of the villager), but I think having dialogue that can also depend on the villagers species, hobby, etc. can open up many possibilities.
Rudeness
This is something that the community has been talking about for years. There are different takes on the issue. Some people miss the rudeness from the Game Cube games, whereas some people glad it is gone. Some people think they are too rude in the Game Cube version, but too nice in New Leaf and New Horizons.
As you may have figured out from the section above, this is my take: I think it should depend on how you treat a villager.
Villagers with a neutral friendship can act slightly shy, cold, obnoxious, etc. to you at first, depending on what is more suitable for their personality. Villagers with a negative friendship can be angry, rude, scared, obnoxious, etc. depending on their personality. This is something that I feel like should be should shown, not only in conversations, but also in how they greet you and in the letters the write back (spontaneous letters should only be for high friendships, like in New Leaf and New Horizons). My favorite personality is cranky. It would be extremely rewarding to see them go from being cold and perhaps even a bit rude...to extremely loving, caring, and fatherly overtime. Hell, if you go out of your way to bully your cranky villagers, let them unleash hell! If you bully a normal villager, have them cry and tell the player to go away! Should we end up with a villager we dislike, we can use that opportunity to discover what negative friendships are like. Maybe there can be certain disadvantages to negative friendships, just like their are advantages to high positive ones. I think it would be entertaining. I know it is a family-friendly same, so only so much can be done, but it would still be amusing to find out how far it can go.
This way, there is a fair balance between niceness and rudeness that I feel like should be a good compromise for everyone.
Interactions
I think more and more interactions should be unlocked as you build friendship. I honestly think this would be more fun and realistic than just having all of them available from the get-go, aside from certain ones like "Give me work" and "Let's chat" - THESE should be available regardless of friendship level.
I would love to see more interactions like being able to hug your villagers. Maybe even different dialogue-related interactions like "How is your day?", "Who is your best friend" (which CAN be the player if the friendship is high enough), etc. The hug one, however, I feel like should require a high enough friendship. In fact, I think it would be interesting if the level requirement was different, depending on the personality. Normal villagers for example, seem like they would warm up to getting hugged at an earlier rate than cranky villagers. Maybe hugs can also be a way to increase friendship.
Another idea for higher friendships: You can invite them to go do something like go to the museum, cafe, Able Sisters, etc. which are interactions that can give a friendship boost. See the lovely cycle? As you raise friendship, you can unlock more interactions that can also raise friendship.
Honestly, I am still really happy they in-person gift-giving and cheering villagers up were in New Horizons, as I can recall wanting those things to be in Animal Crossing games.
Sickness
I know this is a bittersweet feature, but I consider it an important part of Animal Crossing. I would honestly love to see a more in-depth variant of this future. For example, maybe you can also give them soup, a cold rug, some ice cream, and/or even just some comforting words, to also help them to feel better. Giving them medicine and these other aforementioned things can all be friendship boosts.
Villagers Pictures
I feel like Wild World handled villager pictures the best. Villagers give it to you as a special gift as a thank you for being their closest friend, whereas villagers just treat it as an ordinary "thanks for the favor" item in New Leaf and New Horizons. One thing New Leaf (I am not sure if this is also the case for New Horizons) does get right, however (that isn't in Wild World), is have the villager give it to you as a farewell gift upon moving out, if you have a high friendship level with them. THIS should come back. But in terms of giving it to you in person, I would love for it to revert back to the Wild World way. It was much more heartwarming and rewarding that way than the way NL and NH does it.
Deeper Friendship/Friendship Gauge
I would love to see a bigger variety of friendship tiers. And as previously stated, I think there should also be negative ones (if you go out of your way to mistreat a villager by pushing them, hitting them, etc.)
Maybe there can be, I don't know, let's say 15 different variety of levels (maybe more, who knows?) - The default and neutral one that you start off with every villager. Then 7+ negative tiers, and 7+ positive tiers. The further you are on the negative side of the meter/gauge, the worse the villager will treat you. The further you are on the positive side of the gauge, the BETTER they treat you. Examples of this include dialogue, how they greet you, the letters they send (including random ones if you have a positive friendship), the interactions you can do, etc.
I think it would also be nice if we had a visible friendship gage/meter, something similar to Sims games. I think these friendship gauges would be a godsend for letting us know how good (or bad) our friendship is with the villagers.
Letters
One thing I love about newer games is that villagers can send you letters out-of-the-blue once you have a high enough friendship with them. And I know that these letters can be very uplifting when we get them at our lowest times. I think it would be wonderful if the ones you got depended on your friendship with the villager. For example, each positive friendship tier could have up to 5-10+ potential letters you can receive. They are more open and heartwarming, if you are at a higher positive tier.
Even regular letters. I talked about how they should depend on friendship level. I would love to get cold letters from my favorite cranky villagers at first, and watch them gradually become more and more heartwarming as I build my friendship with them. The similar goes for other personalities, but I use cranky villagers as my main example because they are my favorite and because of the opportunities of showing off how three-dimensional they can be.
I also miss how you could get multiple letters (if you send multiple letters) from the same villager in WW and CF. I want this back.
I also want them to actually help towards friendship again, as they do not in NH (for some reason).
it would also be nice if they can send you letters on certain holidays if you have a high enough friendship with them. For example, they can send you New Year’s letters in WW and CF. Unfortunately, I don’t think this is thing in their successors (NL and NH).
Tracking Villagers Down
This section may be more of a rant, so just bear with me.
Tracking down villagers can be absolutely atrocious in New Leaf and in New Horizons. Yes, in New Leaf, we have a megaphone, which can do wonders, do not get me wrong. But do you know what the problem is? It only works when they are wandering around outside. And a lot of the times, the villager could be at any other place besides outside or there house. And there are several examples of this in New Leaf. I am actually waiting to donate ANYTHING to my museum for the foreseeable future, because that place is a freaking nightmare for tracking villagers down! My villagers were missing ALL THE TIME in my previous New Leaf town, probably because of the museum. Also, I SWEAR there is some glitch in New Leaf that literally causes villagers to LITERALLY go missing. It's rare, but I recall it happening to me and @/LadyDestinti (I've read some of her posts on the NL accomplishment topic) a couple times each. I recently read a post where she spent an hour looking for Grizzly...to no avail.
It happened to me back in September or October when I was looking for Rooney in my previous town. I LITERALLY looked ANYWHERE he could be. Outside (I called him through the megaphone). House. Re-Tail. All Museum Rooms. Cafe. Club LOL. Other villagers houses. Nada. He was NO where to be found. I got to the point where I saved and re-logged onto my game out of frustration. It may not seem like a big deal, but I hate having to save and quit, only to log right back on, since my villagers literally disappeared. Then I still think to myself "WHERE WERE THEY BEFORE I QUIT?!"
THIS, kids, is why I am waiting to contribute to the museum in my New Leaf town. I feel like it is the main villain in terms of tracking down villagers because it has a million rooms, with the fossil section being a maze from Satan himself. I feel like it could be the cause of the supposed missing villager glitch that happens occasionally.
Then there's New Horizons. Villagers do not have as many places they can hide off at, but there is still the MAZEum. It would have also been nice if there was something like the megaphone, for if they are outside. I remember @/VanitasFan26 spent 20 minutes tracking down, I think he said Mac, only to find him in the bug exhibit of the museum.
Honestly, this is one of my biggest disappointments in terms of features that never made it into New Horizons. Sure, Tortimer's Island and bulk crafting would have been nice, and I mean very NICE! But there being no tracking system is something that can cause frustration...
If the villagers are outside, something similar to the megaphone, or seeing their faces on the map.
If they are in a building:
- They can let us know where on the "I am not here" sign on their house
- Calling them up
etc.
Villager + Villager Conversations
I love listening in on other villagers' conversations. It is extremely entertaining. I miss how often it happened in WW and in CF. This seemed to have been nerfed a lot in NL and in NH. I miss the rate of these in WW and in CF. I would also love for each personality + personality combination to have a bigger variety. Maybe 20 is a good amount if the personalities are different, and 10 for if the personalities are the same. Take cranky + snooty ones for example. The villager who starts the conversation, depends on who you talk to. Talking to a snooty villager first, will give you 10 possible conversations, and talking to a cranky villager where give another 10. Of course there are several other combinations, this is just one example.
More ways to increase and decrease friendship
I would love more wants to increase (and decrease for that matter) friendship. This ties into my last section, but I think an interesting way can be by joining in the villager conversation. Sometimes you will be asked to take a side. Or both. Or neither. Maybe depending on your answer, you would increase your friendship with one of the villagers, while decreasing it with the other. Or increase both. Or decreasing both.
Stronger Emotions from Villagers
Since New Leaf, villagers seem a lot more stale than in previous games. I would love to see more strong emotions from them. A example of this, can be again, villager conversations. I love how pissed, sad, happy they can get in WW and CF, depending on if you support them or go against them. This also goes for how you treat them in general.
More personalities/no more gender locking
I would love to see more personalities. Heck, it would be interesting if there was no more gender locking, since females can be lazy (can confirm), males can be peppy, etc. Maybe female lazies can have different dialogue from the male counterpart to make things more diverse?
New personalities would also be awesome, like, maybe 2-6? ^^ This would also give more possibilities for villager conversations.
Different ways to obtain dreamies
New Leaf and New Horizons have given us different ways to obtain dream villagers, which I am grateful for. This should continue being a thing in future installments. Adoption, Amiibo-ing, and something equivalent to the mysterious island tours. I doubt mystery island tours will come back, but maybe something more streamlined, like similar to the city in City Folk, where there are a variety of villagers with of each personality, except there are no limits to who can appear and you can actually invite someone to live in your town.
"Need a favor?" option
This was such a brilliant add in the Game Cube version of Animal Crossing. I do not understand why this never returned to its successors. It can be a great way to actively do favors without relying on randomness. My only critique from the Game Cube version is that a lot of the times, they would say they do not have anything. I think this should be done away with, or at least nerfed in future games.
A variety of favors
As you may have noticed, while some favors remained throughout all versions of Animal Crossing, some have also come and go. I would love for future games to have a mix of favors from each of its preceding games. The only favors I would get rid of are the ones that require going to other towns...and one that would ask for a specific clothing/piece of furniture/piece of furniture from a specific set. The former being in NL, and the latter being in WW and CF. These ones are very in(s)ane. However, I am opened to making deliveries, getting fruit, catching a certain critter, etc. and pretty much anything that doesn't require relying on another person and their town, or an insane amount of luck.
Move out system
So far, New Horizons has had the best move-out system. Villagers cannot move out, unless they talk to you, and this game actually takes friendship levels into consideration. I know some people hate how villagers stay until they talk to you, and I get how this can get annoying in some cases, but please take this into consideration: A lot of people have dream villagers they do not want to lose. Some people may want to go on hiatus, and I am sure they do not want to have to worry about losing their dream villagers.
Rather than it just being completely random, the villagers you ignore and treat poorly should be the ones to want to move out, while villagers you have a high friendship with and are actively interacting with should the LAST to want to move out.
Wild World's move out system is absolutely atrocious. Villagers move out very other day, and it is COMPLETELY random. It doesn't take friendships into consideration. They do not talk to you beforehand. AND you only have ONE day to convince them, which could take many tries.
With that being said, I heard about a trick to preventing villagers from trying to move out in Wild World: You have to half-complete a favor. You do this by delivering a letter or a package to a villager, but you do not go back to the villager who gave you the letter/package to deliver. I also recommend using an alternate character for this, so you are not locked out of doing other favors for your villager and don't accidentally complete the on-going favor. For example, I want Apollo to stay in my Wild World town, yes?
So, what I did was create an alt character and used it to get a favor from Apollo. He had it deliver something to Kody. So I did. I DID make the delivery to Kody. However, I did NOT go back to Apollo. This should prevent both Apollo and Kody from trying to move out (I do not care for Kody, but I do not dislike him either, and I didn't want to be picky about who my other permanent villager is). I have only had a few villagers move out since I half-made that delivery, so I do not want to jump into any conclusions about whether or not this trick works, but as more and more time passes without Apollo (or Kody for that matter) trying to move out, I will feel more and more certain of this being a foolproof tip. If this doesn't work, I wouldn't mind letting Kody go, but at this point, I also want Kody as a permanent resident as well, so it tell me that the trick works.
Still, I think future games should stick with New Horizon's system, and/or something similar to the idea I have.
DND system to suppress barge-Ins
And last, but not least, I will talk about something that I have a long history of going off on tangents about: Barge-ins. You know how in NL and NH, villagers can barge in on you for no reason whatsoever. Yeah, I am talking about THAT!
I don't think this feature should be done away with entirely, but GOD, can we PLEASE have a DND system or something?! This feature is making me more and more and more and more insane the more capable I find out my villagers are of barging in, regardless of the circumstances.
You have NO idea the atrocious circumstances that I had to deal with these in.
- There have been a few times in previous towns where Rooney would barge in on me, despite him already being over earlier that day (those are planned visits, but still)
- The kangaroo also barged in on me in New Leaf at midnight a time or two in my previous town.
- Then I recently find out that middle of the night visits can also be a thing in New Horizons. A few days ago Apollo barged in on me and it was almost 2. 2!!! Not 2 in the afternoon. Nah, that’s apparently too normal for ol’ Apollo. It was 2 in the middle of the night. Yep. You read that correctly.
- And of course this rigmarole has to happen when I’m not thinking about it and when I’m just trying to rearrange my rooms or managing my storage.
I may have figured out a trick to avoiding them in New Leaf that doesn't require going through the rigmarole of opening your gate (which will be terminated on April 8th anyway). I think you have to actually talk to a villager on any given day before they can barge in on that day. I am gonna try to experiment with this when I am due for another barge in, which should be Tuesday, as they tend to be a weekly occurrence for me.
I hope it works. The fact that villagers can just barge in at 2AM is beyond my comprehension.
END MY SUFFERING!
And I think I will end it there. I do not want this post to get overwhelmingly long. I actually took breaks from making this (thank god for drafts), because OMG, this is something I could write a goddamn novel about, which this could be considered a novella or a novelette at this point.
I will make another post on here if I can think of more stuff. The bottom line: I think these will make villagers feel more realistic, alive, 3D, etc. Plus, give some QOL to future games. What are some things you hope for in future games in terms of the villager/friendship-aspects of the games?
