Does anyone else NOT terraform?

[Kars]

I made the conscious decision not to terraform in NH because I wanted my experience to be as vanilla as possible, and to have the challenge of working with my island's natural layout. I only terraform areas where I want to put a bridge or incline, if it won't fit.
I always see other people's islands though, which have amazing terraforming, and almost regret committing to decorating my natural island. There are many things I really hate about my layout that could be fixed entirely but I choose not to.
What about you all? Does anyone else not terraform and still have a nice island? What's the worst naturally occurring part of your island?

 

[Roxxy]

I didn’t make a decision not to terraform. I just haven’t done much as I am hopeless at it I do like the waterfalls though and have made a few extra water features.

 

[WalceDony]

Well I wanted my island to still feel like animal crossing so I have kept the terraforming to a minimum, only changing a few areas. At first I did just want to not terraform but I felt like I was missing out on having fun with decorating because of it.
There is however one area which was obviously terraformed. My younger brother wanted his house to be on a cliff, but not at the back of the island, so his house is now on a random tiny cliff with a cheap incline going up to it

 

[Insulaire]

The only terraforming I’ve done outside of different ground types is adjusting by a square or two cliffs or streams to better fit my island. But I’ve done no major rebuilds and never will. I like my island and work around how it started

 

[FinalArcadia]

I always liked making do with the town layout I was given in the old games, so I don't really mess with terraforming in New Horizons. My sister has made some makeshift "bridges" in a few areas over the lake for convenience's sake, but that's about it on our island. I dunno, I feel like I'd never be satisfied if I started making major changes, and I prefer having things be the way they started water/cliff-wise and just decorating around that layout. There are some very cool islands I've seen that make extensive use of terraforming, though it's almost... too much a lot of the time? I dunno, it's cool that it's a feature for people who like to customize everything to have, but I personally like to keep things more like they were in the past games in this regard.

 

[CitrusCakes]

My island layout stays pretty faithful to my original map at the beginning, due to both laziness and wanting to play in a more vanilla way. The only things I really altered were getting rid of second-tier cliffs and scooting rivers over to be more optimal. I think I'm just wayyy too used to getting a certain map at the beginning of CF and NL and not being able to change anything about it lol, I feel like I get more creative when I'm given certain limits.

 

[Khaelis]

I mean, wouldn't terraforming be considered 'vanilla'? It isn't like its a hacked mod or anything, or done via external tools.

 

[toxapex]

I terraform but try to keep things looking/feeling natural. I’m not a big fan of the angular look the cliffs and rivers have in this game so I try to avoid completely squared-off cliffs as much as I can.

Post automatically merged: Sep 8, 2020

I mean, wouldn't terraforming be considered 'vanilla'? It isn't like its a hacked mod or anything, or done via external tools.

I think they just mean “vanilla” as in “similar to past animal crossing games” where u just got ur one map and were stuck with it

Though that’s a bit difficult in this game from the get-go since it requires u to place bridges and inclines urself

 

[hakutaku]

I only unlocked terraforming yesterday haha. I've been doing it pretty minimally, I really didn't want to tear down the entire island or anything. But I have made a few waterfalls and created some new spaces for villager houses. Currently trying to carve out a path to the secret beach, which is getting really frustrating since I decided to built my house on the cliff right near it >.< It's definitely putting me off doing anything too complicated with the feature

 

[CitrusCakes]

I mean, wouldn't terraforming be considered 'vanilla'? It isn't like its a hacked mod or anything, or done via external tools.

I mean yeah, I can see why it would still be considered vanilla since terraforming is an integral part of the game! I think what makes people consider it not vanilla (including me) is that it entails redesigning/altering the map you chose at the start, as opposed to trying to work with whatever you're given like you would have had to in past games. In NL and before, you couldn't even move rocks LOL if one was in a terrible spot, you just had to deal with it.
TL;DR: There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to start fresh and terraform everything, it's just that it's less essentialist I suppose.

I think they just mean “vanilla” as in “similar to past animal crossing games” where u just got ur one map and were stuck with it

Though that’s a bit difficult in this game from the get-go since it requires u to place bridges and inclines urself

Yes, this ^

 

[Imbri]

I didn't do much. Neatened up some cliffs so houses would fit snugly, added a few waterfalls to the existing one by my house, and nested my inclines. I didn't mess with the riverbanks, mainly because I don't know that I'd be able to put them back to a natural look if I didn't like what I'd changed.

My island is pretty natural, which has been my preferred style throughout the series. There are some very talented people, in terms of terraforming, but I am not one of them.

 

[Islander]

I'd like to, my problem is I don't have the creative vision to really do something creative and therefore haven't really done anything.

 

[Serabee]

I do minimal terraforming. I deliberately picked an island I liked the layout of and have mostly done things like smooth or extend cliffs/rivers. I've also cut a few areas out of cliffs (so, for instance, I have a path going to my secret beach without needing a ladder). I wanted my island to look more natural. Don't get me wrong- I like the look of a lot of super terraformed islands... but they're just not the kind I want to live on. My "theme" (if you can call it that) is a retro Animal Crossing look, so I keep things simple. Even the terraforming I've done I've worked to make sure it looks pretty natural.

 

[Jade_Amell]

Only terraforming I've done was add a heart pond in front of my house. Everything else I left alone.

 

[Livia]

I’ve only done minor terraforming. I removed one section of river and a waterfall so I would have more space for an orchard. My original island was split into 5 parts because of all the rivers and it felt so much smaller than all the other islands I’ve visited. I also changed some cliffs slightly to make room to put inclines. I liked my original layout though so I never wanted to change it much.

 

[eggie_]

i honestly hardly terraform. the only time i will is if i want space for a building somewhere like a house or bridge or smth. the only time ive terraformed outside of that is when i really really really want do it, and when i think i have a really good idea. for example i terraformed an area by my entrance with a little pond, a waterfall, and a little like almost cove w/ a bench. but besides that i generally like to work with the rng haha

 

[Mayor Todd]

I wanted my island to have a simple and natural feel, so I kept terrain alteration to a minimum.

I have one area where I added a waterfall, but otherwise I liked the challenge of working around the original environment. I didn't make any changes to my island's river course, ponds, or highland areas, aside from what was needed to place bridges and ramps. I did move and replace lots of trees, and I made lots of dirt paths.

I've dreamhopped to some amazing terraformed islands, but while they're fun to visit, they're not my kind of thing. So while my simple island suits me, it isn't a good tourist destination.

I didn't think that my island residents would want me modifying their home so much if it were real life. I like Animal Crossing because it gives me a calm, peaceful place to visit when real life bothers me.

 

[daringred_]

i've only done minimal terraforming for the most part; adjusted + added some waterfalls, rounded off/evened out some cliffs, nested my inclines and reshaped my ponds. the only "major" thing i've done was add a little cliff/waterfall feature on the north west of my island because the entire west side of my island is flat. otherwise, i have essentially the same map i started out with.

 

[g u a v a]

i liked my starting terrain so i didn’t terraform for the longest time. now that the game has been out for a while and it’s become a little stale for me, ive done some more terraforming. but it’s still a good 80-90% the original terrain.

 

[HappyTails]

I personally terraform my island. Nintendo gave us the option to do so, so by golly I will take advantage of it. But I understand people's need to not want to. Makes sense to want to leave your island natural and I've seen people with amazing layouts with minimum terraforming. I'm just a naturally creative and artistic person so give me option to show my creativity I will definitely take it. XD