Terraforming help

Bizhiins

smol bean
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Dec 25, 2018
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With all the new options to create cliffs and waterfalls/rivers in this game, it is so fun but at times it feels overwhelming.

I have had the game almost a year and I still feel like I can’t decide on my island layout. I’ve been endlessly terraforming, changing ideas and my island is always a halfway-done mess.

The biggest challenge for me is deciding how to use the different island tiers you have.
When using mainly the bottom tier, you can create really nice looking waterfalls and cliffs that are higher up, and you have more space to work with to set items. However, if you want more “set” paths or separated areas, you have to place items and/or fences to create barriers or separators between those different areas. I also am finding it little harder to make edges at the outside of the town that have a separation from the beach, don’t take a lot of space, and have some sort of high cliff along the outside that doesn’t look completely abnormal.

When creating on tier 2 or 3, you can make cool waterways flowing down and on the sides of your area, which also looks nice. You also have clear separators from one area to another. However, doing so usually gives you a little less area to work with, due to having to create a sort of “ring” of space at the bottom of the cliff that gets an increasingly smaller radius with every tier you go up. This also gets harder to create the exact corners and shapes you want. For example, having a slanted cliff making it nearly impossible to have a same direction slanted waterway directly at the bottom (at least what I’ve been able to try and do) so you have to either decide on a slanted water edge at the bottom with a retreated back cliff one space, a square corner, or change the waterway.

I’ve explored my fair share of islands and YouTube videos and seen so many cool layouts people have come up with. I have some for my own, but every time I see something better I want to start over on my island again and change everything (though I don’t regret seeing it).

Does anyone have any tricks or tips for settling on an island layout - or making transitions easier?
I’m also wondering if there’s any interesting videos or islands you would share to explore that have unique layouts, especially one that explore different types of terraforming and waterways.
All at all once, it feels like I have about ten cool ideas I want to integrate into my island in different areas, but once I open my game I feel lost and don’t know where to start.

Sorry to rant, but I’m hoping to get some good guidance that might push me to work on my island, instead of avoiding the game again, lol.
 
I understand completely. I’ve been in the same situation before too, ended up changing my island so often and doing theme after theme until it got so bad that I ended up just resetting and deciding to do a no terraforming island. Surprisingly, I stuck to that island the longest. Suffice to say it helped me realize that I’m really more into the life sim aspect of the game rather than decorating lol. It even made me wanna pick up my NL town again and play on my 3DS once more. However, I am aware that this isn’t actually a great advice because resetting isn’t such an appealing option and it’s definitely not for everyone. Just sharing my experience and how things turned out for me with regards to terraforming. :) So TLDR, I completely gave up on terraforming. 😅
 
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