Best approach to moving trees and houses and terraforming?

[Alaina]

I haven’t gotten terraforming yet, but K.K. comes tomorrow. I finally gave in and placed more items around town. (If I clean them up after he comes, will my rating go back down? Will I lose him?)

I’ve been holding off on moving trees and redecorating my town since it costs so much to move houses and you probably have to terraform before moving a house, right? Can you only terraform where there are no trees?

I’m curious what order others have found best for cleaning up your town and customizing some of the layout. I don’t want mine too crazy, more natural than city like, but I do want to make fenced-in garden space for my hybrids, move trees, houses and change some of the cliffs for a climbing area. No crazy waterfalls surrounding anything, but I do have an annoying island inside of my island, so I do want to eventually customize some of the streams to flow better.

Anyone wish they went about it differently looking back? Is a certain order easier, or best to do a little at a time?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts/discuss. Thanks!

 

[StarParty8]

You can in fact terraform when trees are around. There's a cleanup service for that reason. Dunno if it picks up trees (haven't used it yet) But if it doesn't you can always eat fruit you find around the island and shovel up trees yourself. I haven't gone too ham on terraforming yet (i also got it last week oof)

 

[happyabg]

I haven’t gotten terraforming yet, but K.K. comes tomorrow. I finally gave in and placed more items around town. (If I clean them up after he comes, will my rating go back down? Will I lose him?)

I’ve been holding off on moving trees and redecorating my town since it costs so much to move houses and you probably have to terraform before moving a house, right? Can you only terraform where there are no trees?

I’m curious what order others have found best for cleaning up your town and customizing some of the layout. I don’t want mine too crazy, more natural than city like, but I do want to make fenced-in garden space for my hybrids, move trees, houses and change some of the cliffs for a climbing area. No crazy waterfalls surrounding anything, but I do have an annoying island inside of my island, so I do want to eventually customize some of the streams to flow better.

Anyone wish they went about it differently looking back? Is a certain order easier, or best to do a little at a time?

Can’t wait to hear your thoughts/discuss. Thanks!

I guarantee that if you put down items to get your 3 star rating, removing them will NOT stop KK slider from coming. I did the exact same thing. I just placed random fossils and items all over my island until Isabelle said it was 3 stars then after Tom Nook confirmed KK was coming the next day I went and picked everything up.

 

[pochacco]

i had to move all the houses and buildings to the beaches as well as levelling out the island by destroying the cliffs and rivers. if you are able to, i would recommend moving buildings first, though it is time consuming and expensive (some buildings i moved more than once). then i would just start decorating and terraforming on one part of the island where a river mouth is and go from there until you figure something out ^^

 

[tajikey]

Dropping items everywhere for three stars is one thing, wait until you're chasing five stars.

 

[Farfle_Productions]

Honestly the thought of terraforming really scared me so I built a lot around the basic structure that was already there. I’ve gotten a bit more confident as time has gone on and changed shape of rivers, built more cliff spits but I haven’t ventured out too much from my initial town structure. I see some people who flatten everything and get rid of all the rivers that they can and literally start terraforming from the ground up. It’s not for me!

 

[moon_child]

I worked on one section at a time when I redecorated because I’ve tried the leveling the entire island approach previously and it didn’t really work for me (it’s jarring to see a completely barren land). I just move them to somewhere I’m not currently working on and then move them back to where they belong slowly. Here are more detailed steps I took:

- When I started the island, I clumped all the villagers together in one tiny section of the map at the bottom right. This is to keep all the rest of the map empty so I can terraform in peace and no one will be in the way when I start my projects.
- When I got the terraforming tools, I started to work on one section of the island at a time. I started from the left top corner of the island going down to the bottom right so I won’t have to move any houses or buildings more than once.
- Basically, the order of finishing a project/section went like this for me: Cliffs>Water(if any)>Infra(bridges or inclines if needed>Buildings>Trees(if any)>Flowers(if any)>Objects/Furniture>Paths
- For trees or flowers in the way, I just moved them to a section I wasn’t currently working on and moved them back when I’m done with the section.

 

[Hobowire]

i do it sundays... eat a turnip and it fills up the bar all the way then move trees.

 

[Clock]

I use custom designs to mark where I will relocate or place a building, it’s easier if you want to plan it. I start small when terraforming, if you start big, you‘re going to regret it. For trees, I eat turnips sometimes so I can uproot a lot of trees without eating fruit repeatedly. Before terraforming, I did use a plan before doing the whole thing.

 

[John Wick]

I don't destroy too much of the natural look with too much terraforming, and if I want to move something, I'll pick it up/dig it up, and keep it on me.

 

[sunset_succulent]

i based my island and built my whole island around one house that i moved on impulse. i think you need to be okay to make mistakes, and not live with the same mindset that was in new leaf where everything is permanent and every mistake that you make will show up... forever. you just need to embrace your island!

 

[Aliya]

My first time around, I moved villagers to the beach before moving them to their final spot since it wasn't possible to move them directly to their new spot with where I had terraformed which ended up taking a lot of time and costing a lot of bells since everyone had to move twice. It was really annoying planning around buildings that were in the way, but trees weren't an issue.

My current island was different since I learned from my mistakes. I put everyone on the beach to begin with and completely terraformed and planned out where I wanted everyone to go so they only moved once. This included Nooks and Ables too. I didn't completely flatten the island like some people do though since I liked a majority of my initial island.

Don't worry about making mistakes! It's all about trial and error. Patience is really important too since terraforming can be extremely tedious.

 

[nageki]

doing little areas at a time is what works for me, your island will feel ugly for the duration of time you spend working on it but it's much less overwhelming that way imo. just do one 'street' or one square of the map grid at a time. plus once it starts coming together the payoff is so rewarding

also +1 to eating turnips to clear trees on sundays

 

[dizzy bone]

i based my island and built my whole island around one house that i moved on impulse. i think you need to be okay to make mistakes, and not live with the same mindset that was in new leaf where everything is permanent and every mistake that you make will show up... forever. you just need to embrace your island!

I also pretty much based my entire island off my starter's first two tents which I haven't moved since launch. That and my museum!

I wanted to keep at least a few things about my island constant, but that's the way I personally play. I did not want to level my entire island by removing all cliffs and rivers. I slowly built things around my original river/cliffs and their basic structure, then slowly removed them if I wanted to change something. I usually worked section by section and naturally went onto the next area and figured it out from there. If there are certain things I like about my initial terraforming, even if my theme changes or my landscaping changes, I try really really hard to work that area into my new landscaping. But that's like own little challenge, same with my challenge of never moving my starter's 2 houses. For moving my villagers, there were a couple where I just moved them directly from their old spot to their new spot. Some I had to move them to the beach first. I suggest keeping your beaches clear while you're terraforming because beach real estate is really useful for moving things temporarily. Use patterns and dig holes to mark areas. Take screenshots of your terraforming process because you might like something you did before but accidentally destroyed it. I suggest you stock up on lots and lots of coconuts for energy for moving trees, or use turnips. Make sure you have a lot of shovels for moving flowers.

 

[DeltaLoraine]

I'd suggest finding a general idea of what you want on your island, and then working on it piece by piece. I have several "sections" or "attractions" on my island, such as the beachside tourist area (villager campsite), hybrid garden, town square, downtown neighborhood, mountain camping site, and secret star gazing/art creation area. i worked on each of these separately, sometimes spending hours or a whole day on one alone. Then when I felt good with it I would move onto the next one. The best part is that by moving on and working on something else, it's easier to gain more inspiration to make the previous area even better.

So in all, it's definitely a long creative process if you have a certain idea of what you want (especially with limited furniture available in the beginning), but it's really fun to mess around and try things! Especially when you get a random DIY from a villager that ends up working perfectly with the theme you're going for. I love this about AC! It feels like a lively on-going art project

As for terraforming, I didn't do anything crazy. However, since I'm kinda a perfectionist, I used it mainly to make my island symmetrical (since it was already so close to being so) and used it to fill in space with cliffs to give certain furniture a good backdrop. It's really anything you want it to be! You don't have to make crazy three-tiered waterfalls to be a good terraformer. People love islands with a natural flourish!

 

[Uffe]

I'm going to say before you bother terraforming, really plan where you want specific ideas to be placed throughout the island. In the meantime, I'd use the Happy Island Designer and/or Island Planner. These may help you save a lot of time and Bells. You can save your work you done on the Happy Island Designer, but the Island Planner doesn't allow you to save your progress, unfortunately. I think you have to pay for the actual program in order to do so.