All the pretty places

[Sayomi-san]

So after playing animal crossing since it was released in the UK (apart from my little 5 month break), I got the qr reader soon into the game so I could wear other peoples fancy dresses, but I discovered that people were making paths and I thought "Oh that's cool, I'm going to make my town look like a town" . Shortly after my little break I realized, "Well would you look at this, these people have amazing towns". I found out 'landscaping' was a thing, and at the start I was happy to see such beautiful towns but now it's just starting to urk me, I have tried with my town but my attempt is laughable, it looks like I haven't tried at all, like why can't I do this? why isn't my town as pretty! I'm trying but, it's just starting to occur to me that it isn't what I'm good at, I got upset because I am extremely creative yet can't make a good town, I'm not good at where to put trees and bushes because they always die, I need direction I wish my town was pretty </3 hopefully one day I can gather together wise people with the right paths patterns and mindsets to know where to put and place everything and help a fellow member from having a really dull looking town ^^;;

 

[RayOfHope]

Same here. Sometimes I feel a little like the opposite, where I have a lot of ideas but no idea how to fit them all in one town. But usually I'm just wondering how people make pretty towns when mine looks so ugh. (It's still a WIP, of course...*sigh*)

Just start with basic ideas. You don't have to pick your path patterns yet to start planning it, so just make plans connecting all your major landmarks. Town Hall, Plaza, Retail, etc. I use little dirt path patterns to connect my villager houses to the main road. It's a lot easier when you have all your dreamies, though, so that you know where their houses are.

Another thing, pick up all your items and flowers, and cut down all the trees, bamboo and bushes. It'll make your town totally blank, which is good, like an empty canvas. Unless you don't feel comfortable emptying your town of all of its vegetation, that's understandable. But it really helped me figure things out. You can always re-plant everything, obviously.

And it kinda depends on what you want in it. Like, a windmill, fountains, maybe a little playground area. Orchards. Acres full of flowers. Whatever. Two methods: Get an idea and find a place in town to put it, or see an empty spot in town and think of something to fill it.

It takes a lot of time, effort, and bells. Good luck.

 

[The Pennifer]

One thing that helped me was Dreaming a lot of towns ... I got a lot of inspiration that way and also played with a lot of QR codes until I found the ones I liked best ... I also play three other peeps in my town, and each one has different QR codes ... Made it easier for me with laying and planning. I also discovered that I could have doubles of my fave town projects, like lighted arch and trellis, etc (I thought you could only have one until I saw other town in my dreams ... Lol) if you want to dream my town or visit, I would be happy to share ideas, not that my town is so great, but I am pretty happy with it ... I especially like it at night

 

[Teru]

http://www.wikihow.com/Write-a-Paragraph

Making the amazing, well-landscaped towns you want is something that takes time and patience.

1. Those people probably did a lot of planning and preparation before they started their town or before they started decorating. That can include getting a detailed, gridded map of your whole town so that things can be plotted accurately.

2. A ton of those town probably took patterns via QR from talented pattern-makers who share their resources. Someone who is great at planning paths might not be equally impressive at making patterns, and vice versa.

3. They probably dedicated a lot of time into landscaping their town, and what you see is the results of months or a year of playing.

My own advice is to plan a "system" of PWPs (and trees/bushes) before building any, so they work together in improving an area. Randomly placed and randomly selected PWPs don't necessarily do much in making a town look nicer.

 

[Liquid Ocelot]

REAL TALK : Your town is probably beautiful, but you spend so much time worrying about how it looks that you don't realize how great it is. I can almost promise you that that's the case.

 

[Yukari Yakumo]

They probably dedicated a lot of time into landscaping their town, and what you see is the results of months or a year of playing.

This.

Towns are work. Lots of work to get pretty. They're also constantly evolving, so don't shoehorn yourself into anything. You can always demolish and chop down mostly anything you create.
Here's my suggestions.
1) make a list of PWP's you want for your town.
2) look for geological freaks or oddities of your town; oddly shaped cliffs, peninsulas, pond and building locations etc.
3) think of where to put your PWPs. either individually or as a town.
4) as you build your PWPs, start making paths between them and villager and player homes.
5) place flowers, bushes, and trees around paths, homes, and PWPs, or in areas you decided to designate as gardens.
6) unless you really get your heart set on the perfect spot for them, hold off on the police station, campsite, and caf?.

 

[LinDUNguin]

Awh, Sayomi ;_; I'd be more than glad to come over and help brainstorm ideas for points of interest in your town! Pretty much all the advice people have given above is solid. You should also visit a ton of different dream towns and try and take inspiration from the cool and unique things they have to offer c: If you want I can give you a list of ones I thought were particularly cool so you can try and draw inspiration from them!

 

[Sayomi-san]

All you people are pretty wonderful ^^ I think I'm going to stick at it for a while and see where I get with it, just I guess I need to put a lot more effort and time into it xD and not worry about other people and just be happy with my town and how I want it :3 Thanks guys <3 I still would love a hand though someday if I need to chop down a bunch or trees and other stuff that would more people could help get the job down 10x faster, this little community is so nice and kind :'3 I love playing with such amazing people

 

[MightyMunchlax]

It's a lot of trial and error tbh. I tried so many different paths and patterns in my town before I found ones that I truly like. Even today I was changing paths in certain areas. It takes a lot of tweaking and experimentation. First things first I'd say figure out how you want your paths to be laid out, where you want them to go. After that you can focus on what you want them to look like, finding the right one that you like. Once you have your paths and villagers situated that's when you focus on trees and flowers and bushes and other stuff. Trust me. Even with planning I've wasted a lot of bush starts. Word of advice, bushes can't be planted right up against a house/building. They also can't be planted too close to rocks. You can however plant them right against concrete like in the tree plaza. Trees are a bit trickier but so long as there is one space between two trees or they aren't shoved up against a wall or building or something they shouldn't die. My DA hasn't been updated since I've done a lot of the work I was planning on updating it this week once the new bushes and trees have grown. But if you want I can go update it really quickly. Mine is still a WIP, but I've made some nice areas. All in all don't let it frustrate you. It takes a lot of time. Laying paths down in and of itself can take a whole day to figure out. And be prepared to change things. A lot.

Edit: I updated my DA. If you go all the dirt path places are what I updated today. And of course all the new bush/tree starts.

 

[Halation]

It takes hours and hours and hours to landscape and complete a town. Weeks to months of work depending how much time you have to play. I found what worked for me is pick just a small area you like, and then pick a PW you like for the spot and just slowly build around that. Then it's not so overwhelming.

 

[LyraVale]

I agree with everyone that says it takes a lot of time and planning. I've been playing for almost a year, and also playing an EMBARRASSING amount of hours each day. I don't really care actually, because this game makes me happy and it's fun for me. SO it's time well spent.

I'm pretty close to having my town "finished"---meaning the way I planned it in my head. It's taken a year to get here! Seriously, if I had to start over again...I wouldn't. XD I mean, I couldn't. If I'd known it would take so much time, I think I would have been overwhelmed. But it happened little by little, from sections of town that I wanted a certain way, etc.

I agree with others also that you should dream of a lot of towns. You'll not only see what you like, but what you DON'T like. Which can be useful info too. Also, there are a lot of sites with qr codes, so maybe don't worry so much about making your own. You can try out lots of other people's paths and idea...they've been nice enough to make them available to you online. If you see something that inspires you, but want it a little different, maybe you can make your own version of it too.

I'm the opposite of you, because I LOVE my town and I think it's beautiful, but I don't think other people love it that much. XD Lol, I'm ok with that though, because it's MY town, where I hang out and worked so hard, so in the end, I'm the only one who has to love it. Just make your town a place you'd want to hang out in, and don't worry if others find it beautiful or not. They MIGHT end up loving it too, but your happiness and satisfaction is much more important.