Anyone else find terraforming extremely overwhelming

[helloxcutiee]

Don't get me wrong I absolutely love they added this feature into the game but having this much power is extreme and super overwhelming I don't even know where to begin and every time I have an idea for something and I try it out I always end up hating it I guess you can say I'm kind of stuck on the direction I want my island to go. There's just too many possibilities.

 

[CodyYuki]

I do kinda agree if you get all the tools at once, but so is placing things outside which was new to everyone, it gives alot of options that causes this mentally of overchoice on what to work on. I recomend fixing some parts of your island and not the entire thing, for example I made a small heart shaped pond!

 

[Spooky.]

It is, but thankfully I planned out what I wanted to do before I unlocked it, and took it parts at a time.

I did what I planned for, then when I finished my plans, that's when I started making tweaks and trying new things.

 

[helloxcutiee]

I do kinda agree if you get all the tools at once, but so is placing things outside which was new to everyone, it gives alot of options that causes this mentally of overchoice on what to work on. I recomend fixing some parts of your island and not the entire thing, for example I made a small heart shaped pond!

That's a good idea! In New Leaf I worked on my town in small sections and that definitely seems like the more efficient way to do things. I just have to remember to start slow and work at my own pace.

 

[Shiluc]

That's a good idea! In New Leaf I worked on my town in small sections and that definitely seems like the more efficient way to do things. I just have to remember to start slow and work at my own pace.

This is absolutely my idea right now, I basically reset my whole island by clearing all flowers and most trees, terraforming what I want with my layout, and then gradually adding things to small sections. It's felt a little bit less stressful starting from scratch.

 

[helloxcutiee]

It is, but thankfully I planned out what I wanted to do before I unlocked it, and took it parts at a time.

I did what I planned for, then when I finished my plans, that's when I started making tweaks and trying new things.

That's smart that you planned out what you wanted beforehand! I unfortunately didn't so I'm having a really tough time with my layout.

Post automatically merged: May 2, 2020

This is absolutely my idea right now, I basically reset my whole island by clearing all flowers and most trees, terraforming what I want with my layout, and then gradually adding things to small sections. It's felt a little bit less stressful starting from scratch.

Yes this is what I'm doing right now! I'm currently moving my villager houses to the beach and clearing everything out so I know what I have to work with.

 

[Dim]

Yeah, pretty overwhelming. Worst part is you can't change it because autosave. Biggest pain though is having to clean up the flowers, trees, ect. in one area before building a cliff or destroying one >_>

 

[thatveryawkwardmayor]

100% yes! i always put it off. but i find that once i actually start, i get into a rhythm and could spend hours terraforming.

like today i just worked finishing my paths and it felt so good after i was done. im gonna start a new section of my island tomorrow, but i kinda regret the past actions of my terraforming decisions because now i want to move my museum to a hill but i cant do that without completely destroying what i already did to make my zen garden

 

[Mairen]

I can't say I have ever felt it was overwhelming for myself. Because I don't time travel, terraforming was something I slowly got closer to unlocking day by day, so the excitement to unlock it kept building up more and more. By the time I finally got it, I was ready to turn my whole island upside down.

It could do with the fact I find map building very interesting and relaxing and entertaining. I prepared ahead of time by coming up with a rough sketch of things I wanted to do around my island. Once I actually started terraforming, some of those ideas made it into my town, and others I learned didn't fit as well as I thought.

I've also never felt the need to hurry up and finish to give my town some grand hollywood debut to the world. Even today I'm still tweaking things here and there, always improving and adding new features.

But that's just me! I can entirely understand how some people would find it too overwhelming or just don't want to do it. My husband has no interest in editing his island at all, other than maybe knocking a block or two off of a cliff where he wants to put a set of stairs. Otherwise he is perfectly happy to keep his island as he first got it. So I can relate to both sides of the coin here.

 

[ceribells]

I started with small things before taking on any projects. Like fiddling with a river path that was too jagged, or a cliff that stuck out just a little too far.
Once I got a handle for how the tools worked and how to create the shapes I wanted, I started trying to make a vision come alive. I keep the ideas loose and let myself kind of "carve" as I go. I Itill basically work from existing forms on my island. I think trying to totally level an area and build up from scratch isn't a good idea without some practice.

 

[Tiffany]

I finding designing the whole town overwhelming. I was never good at designing stuff and in nl my town was over run with flowers. which is another issue figuring out what to do with/where to place flowers. as to terra forming itself yes its overwhelming and im always worried im gonna do something, hate it and not be able to fix it. The other night i changed the shape of the pond at the top of the waterfall and i couldn't get both sides to match and it was driving me crazy. i got it pretty close but i had to just walk away. i'm not planning to do a lot with it because i dont really know how. ive seen some amazing stuff and i know i could never do it. but i kinda like the idea of my town being kinda rustic and more island like than city like.

 

[SinnerTheCat]

Honestly, I felt it too, especially since I unlocked it before I even knew where I wanna go with my island. I saw so many videos on it, on some 5 star islands too and I thought I missed so many opportunities, because I have so many options now that it felt like I have to use every single one. But after I gave up on terraforming my entire island, it was quite pleasurable to use. I didn't change much on my island layout since I liked it from the start, I started by adding a few ponds around my island (the water making tool is my fav). And then I added even more ponds and a waterfall and I was done honestly. After all that I made some paths (rough ones bc I like the woodsy feeling) and decorated to filth.
My point is - you don't have to use absolutely everything the game has to offer. Sure, unlocking it is great, but take small steps, figure out which tool is your favourite, plan if that's your thing, if not just play around with some tools! You don't have to be the master of it from the start or have the 5 star full decorated and terraformed island at your first terraforming session!
Just take your time to figure things out and don't stress about it if you like how things are

 

[Xara]

i do! there’s so many cool things i wanna try out with terraforming but i’m so scared of messing up and i have no clue how to even go about it so i’ve kept any terraforming i’ve done simple lol

 

[drchoo]

It was at first. I completely leveled my island on week one, and did not touch terraforming again until two weeks later. After that, I had the landscape fully finished in two days after getting some ideas, and much needed inspiration from Reddit posts.

 

[babi98]

This is how I feel lol; almost as if there's too much freedom involved? It kinda puts an expectation on people. In the previous games a very well developed town was seen as a massive achievement but you could leave the town simple looking and there was nothing wrong with it either. Oh well. My island is a hot mess anyways as my boyfriend decided to place hoards of random furniture around to try and increase the rating

 

[Dormire]

Honestly, yes. I'll be pouring my heart here since I'm putting my journal on maintenance so I can't really write it down there but here goes:

The lack of grid guide is just unbelievable. Terraforming has the most oddest way of telling your direction no matter how you insist you face north, you go northeast and destroy something that isn't your target. It stresses me the hell out. Not to mention how long the animation it takes to finish it. Doing this 1x1 and not having an option to do an eagle's eye view (to get a better look) is so...UGH. The fact people can stand it is mind-boggling to me.

Also, there's no way to just "undo" some mistake. You have to remake the whole thing all over again if you underestimate/overestimate the largeness of the area.

And to top it off, people rushing to finish their islands not knowing THERE WILL BE MORE BUILDINGS TO BE ADDED. I can't fathom the shock and frustration I'd feel if I'm forced to dismantle and deterraform areas to accommodate spaces for NEW. DARN. BUILDINGS. We don't have dimensions given as a hint to reserve a spot. We're left to have this unbelievable anxiety of completing your island vs leaving it ugly so deterraforming won't be such a burden to do once the buildings are released.

I really wish to make my island pretty but if they never release the building dimensions for the new buildings, I'm going to never touch it until they tell us. I am not subjecting myself to hours of slow torture. Doing and redoing again? Hell no.

 

[dawnofvayle]

I'm working on my island slowly. Doing it in small chunks helps, I think. I have a few loose ideas of what I want to do, but I don't stick to it religiously. And I let what's already present on the island lead me to some degree. I think I'm headed towards a somewhat autumn-themed town currently with lots of reds and browns and a fairly natural feel. I have two wolf villagers who live in rustic wooden houses so I'm planning to move both of them up on a cliff so they can be wolves living in the wilderness together, haha.

 

[DJStarstryker]

I don't find it overwhelming, but I'm going slow and only doing 1 section of the island at a time.

I know why they do it, but those people who go completely blank canvas by moving all of the buildings into a tiny area and getting rid of all trees/rivers/cliffs and starting from that... THAT would be overwhelming to me.

 

[Mosshead]

It does, that's why I try to work the development of my island to the original layout as best as I can and only terraform when it's the only available choice. I tried to restructure my river and this is already stressing me out since it's hard to make it look natural so I dare not imagine how I would fare if I terraformed my entire town.

 

[Krissi2197]

Someone just came out with a fairly new program where you can terraform and see how things look before you apply it to your island! It's still in its early stages but it looks REALLY cool so far. Check it out!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1256744907512799235