a tough decision to make...

[tofsu]

i'll just cut to the chase and say that i've been thinking really hard about restarting my entire island. i'm just really unhappy with my terraforming, and i have a couple spots decently furnished and complete, but they all just seem to be really unorganized and dont fit well together. it's a really REALLY hard decision and i've already made a pros/cons list of my island and it goes as follows

pros
- i have all my dreamies (raymond, rolf, kabuki, kyle, daisy, whitney, teddy, drago, snake and marshal) and it took me an entire organ system to get some of them, HOWEVER i could find a friend to hold the more expensive villagers i.e. raymond, whitney and marshal and just start over fresh on a new island (i could even restart to have snake or teddy as one of my original villagers)
- i already have a few spots in my town completely worked out/furnished i'll leave some pictures of what i've done already below including a picture of what my (chaotic) map looks like
- i own all of the sakura DIYs and most of the ironwood and bamboo series as well as some of the more coveted recipes like cutting board and stone-lion dog
- i can also take all my furniture/storage and store it on a friends island and slowly work on getting back all my belongings

cons
- i feel very unmotivated to continue working on my island as i'm constantly moving houses, building mountains, pathing rivers and putting down paths just for me to hate it when i finish and undo it all.
- my island is very unorganized and i've thought about just moving every building to the beach and getting rid of any and ALL terraforming and starting over from there. this is a most plausible plan, but obviously would be a lot easier for me to just restart
- i have lots of cute areas that are well-developed, but they are in the wrong areas (too far, too close, etc) and i just wish i was smarter and planned ahead more ...
- i was going for a certain aesthetic at the beginning of designing my island, and i've been a little unsuccessful in keeping it consistent, which i wish i had.

so yeah i decided to come here to get you guys' opinions on what i should do. i've been thinking about this for a while now and i haven't gotten a clear yes or no from anyone i've asked about it. if you'd like to come over to my (again, chaotic) island, do let me know. i would love any input you have on what i should do with my island whether it be moving things around, or just to completely start over.

Spoiler: various screenshots of magnolia

Spoiler: current map/terraforming

 

[LuchaSloth]

Kinda in the same boat. But, I honestly don't feel like playing for another month just to get back to where I am currently. I think that even if I restarted, I wouldn't have access to the higher areas, or the other side of the river right away, anyway...so the same reasons why my town is currently a cluttered mess would probably come right back around for a second time. At this point, I'm just going to do what you suggested for your 'plan B'...move things slowly but surely, and try to figure out how to better use my space.

 

[tybalt_cake]

If i was yourself , I wouldn't think about restarting , mainly because of the dreamies.
Yes , you can have a friend to save them up for you , but it's super LOOOONG and TIRING the process to make a villager get away from an island , and then trying to make the villagers move out of your island to another one , then make the other person try to make ALL of those go back into your town , it's really complicated.

As for the aesthetic of the town and they way you made terraforming work in your town , it would be better if you share a screenshot of your current map to see what does it look like.

 

[tofsu]

If i was yourself , I wouldn't think about restarting , mainly because of the dreamies.
Yes , you can have a friend to save them up for you , but it's super LOOOONG and TIRING the process to make a villager get away from an island , and then trying to make the villagers move out of your island to another one , then make the other person try to make ALL of those go back into your town , it's really complicated.

As for the aesthetic of the town and they way you made terraforming work in your town , it would be better if you share a screenshot of your current map to see what does it look like.

woops i forgot to include that in the first post ; ; i updated it including my town map atm!

 

[GameFaceClive]

1) What would you be able to do on a brand new island that you cannot do on your current one?
2) In the time it would take for you to get back to this same point in the game, would it be better spent experimenting and/or reorganizing?

Understand the struggle that comes with the freedom this point of the game affords, but also the grind that comes with moving buildings/terraforming. However, if there isn't a need to achieve your perfect island asap, you might just want to take a little break before coming back to work on it area by area

 

[tybalt_cake]

Also , if you are not sure about the placement of buildings or how to make rivers , why don't you try using this tool? Personally I'm working all over my town to make it look like a map i designed here:

Happy Island Designer

Plan your dream island map. Made for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Draw terrain and paths, place buildings, and trace your in-game map.

eugeneration.github.io

Post automatically merged: Apr 16, 2020

woops i forgot to include that in the first post ; ; i updated it including my town map atm!

Your town is almost complete! There's just a few spots that don't have much but they can be easily solved! Don't give up , just work into filling those spaces you have and plan correctly the way you want to place your buildings

 

[Judith4]

I wouldn't start a new one either

 

[ayeeprill]

I’m feeling similar but I don’t think I would restart at this point - thinking I may just move everything to the beach, fill in all the rivers and destroy all the cliffs, and go from there

 

[tofsu]

taking into consideration what all of you have been saying, i'll just move everything to the beach and just start with some flat land and try to make something i'll be happy with in the island designer and go from there it will take a lot of work, but it will be worth it in the end ... i hope . . .

 

[Mairen]

I went through this difficult decision myself, and in the end I decided to restart. It was the best decision I ever made. I was able to get a map with a much better layout. Plus, I had super wonderful luck and found 3 really nice villagers on my mystery island tours. Your reason for restarting may be a bit different than mine, but I'm still really glad for this chance at a fresh start.

 

[Figment]

Honestly, I think from what you do have furnished looks lovely!

I'm sort of in the same boat of moving around villagers and buildings around. It's expensive and a lot of extra hassle and I'm generally indecisive. I feel like I should have had a better plan going in. But I like many of my villagers and have already put in a ton of time and effort, so I would never restart.

 

[thatveryawkwardmayor]

i wouldnt restart, its gonna be an extremely tiring process to get back on your dreamies and all the hard work get sakura recipes

 

[ayeeprill]

Another thing that is throwing a wrench into my plans is the possibility that they may add more shops to build in the future

 

[mattu]

Maybe you could take some time, to step back and plan out how you want your dream island to be, then you can think about how much work there is to modify what you have or build it from scratch.

Aside from resident services and the river openings you can move everything else so my hunch is by the time you restarted and got back everything you have you could probably have got your current island to a place you really feel happy with.

I was in a similar boat too, felt I overdid it with the Landscaping and lost some of the natural vibe I liked about my island, but I stuck with it and over the last week I've been able to keep what I love and make it feel more natural again. Don't lose hope on what you have, you can do it

 

[mocha.]

I’ve reset 3 times - don’t be discouraged by it. I feel like by completing things too early you lose the sense of wonder you originally had, by resetting and sticking to a TT ban it’s given me more time to appreciate and think about what I want to do with my island. I also had Marina and Marshal so I know how you feel about losing dreamies - but the good thing is you can cycle through and will meet them again eventually

 

[Debs2107]

I have also been thinking about restarting but all the work!
What about flattening everything as much as you can and going from there?

 

[Rosch]

I've been wanting to restart my island for days now but whenever I reflect on it, there's always a huge regret that all my hardwork (and the villagers, DIYs, furniture, miles, bells, rare critters, hybrids, basically everything) will be put to waste.

And yeah, my current layout had already considered the possible future updates for new buildings, expansions to current buildings, and probable increase on villager limits. So I don't wanna plan everything out again because I might completely lose my interest in playing this game.

So, rather than get stressed out, I just thought of ways on how I could improve on what I have already done on my island.

 

[peachycrossing9]

I have been in the same boat as you recently. I have been having trouble figuring out the layout of my island, and I keep terraforming, then deleting it all and starting over.

But, I really don't think it would be worth resetting completely over. Especially if you have villagers that took you forever to get. Even scanning in amiibo cards is a process now, but I guess it's fine if you time travel.
I don't have the heart to reset now. Even though I was seriously considering it a couple of days ago. But I have already got so many villagers that I wanted, and I don't want too lose all my items and DIY's. I'm just trying not to stress to much. I have finally figured out a good way to layout all my villager houses so that makes me happy.

It is just going to take a little bit of hard work to get the island the way you want it