Does terraforming ruin the natural aesthetic?
- Thread starter BluePing
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I've terraformed areas of my town and am still sticking to a natural aesthetic. As others in the thread have said, the new tools can actually be used to make your town look a lot more natural than it would otherwise -- multi-layered cliffs in natural curved shapes look much more natural than the mostly rectangle-y cliffs you start with in my opinion! Try looking at town tours on Youtube or other sites for inspiration if you feel overwhelmed, but I would say just go for it. You can always hack away at what you've done and bring it back to looking as it was again if you don't like it. And most of my favourite parts of my town I've done just by barrelling in and seeing what happens, so don’t over-think it. :- )
I'm glad I'm not the only one absolutely terrified of ruining things with terraforming. I resetted for weeks to get the map I liked the most, but now that I have completely explored it, there's a lot of things I don't really enjoy, but I absolutely do not want anything to look "inorganic". Unfortunately, I have zero creativity and just planning paths and layouts on an open space was a complete mess in NL for me and in the end, I didn't do much even though I spent hours making really nice paths but I then couldn't find out where to put them and what I wanted. I think some sort of mental envisioning capability is needed to make things look great and I really suck at that.
Honestly I wish there would be a button which could just let me reset to my original layout whenever I wanted. Then I'd try sooo many things! But like that? I don't even have the tool yet, but I'm already 100000% terrified of using it.
Honestly I wish there would be a button which could just let me reset to my original layout whenever I wanted. Then I'd try sooo many things! But like that? I don't even have the tool yet, but I'm already 100000% terrified of using it.
It doesn't have to, you can work with what you have and just add bridges and inclines. But every player prefers something different, so it's fun that we can decide for ourselves what that is. The most important thing to remember is that nature isn't perfect and worrying about something being a space off or something like that is unnecessary. Working with something unperfect will make it look much more natural.
Lady Sugarsaurus
Punchy's Waifu.
I think it really all depends. Like I left a lot of my mountains, but I did take down one and added another lake, so I think that turned out looking natural. But I have seen some people do some crazy things with terraforming and waterfalls. lol
Imbri
Resident Night Mare
I've done very little to my island. I added a couple of waterfalls where they might have logically happened, chipped back some cliffs to make placing houses a bit neater, and cut into cliffs so my staircases are flush, rather than taking up space. I've left my rivers alone and don't plan to any more.
I've seen pictures of islands completely stripped and redone, and while I'm in awe, I know my limits.
I've seen pictures of islands completely stripped and redone, and while I'm in awe, I know my limits.
Okay thank you, I suppose it’ll just be a very long process
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Yeah a lot of people’s ive seen are straight and that’s what kinda concerned me like a canal is cute but like when it conjoined back with the other parts it looked really unnatural. Thanks for the suggestion about ridges, I’ll definitely add them to add natural vibes
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Okays I’ll go check out some terraformed towns on YouTube
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Yeah that’s what I’m scared of, over doing it before realising I’m over doing it lol
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Yeah I think I’m gonna go check a few out
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Trust me I’m the exact same lol
I have ideas what I want to do with the town but I can’t really envision the outcome of what I wanna do. If there was a button that could reset the layout I would LOVE it and I wouldn’t be so reluctant to terraform. I mean I have some ideas with a clear theme and I have all my fencing prepared for the future yet I’m stuck with the idea of terraforming and making this change
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Underneath The Stars
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when you go overboard, it does tbh. it's totally still possible to make it look more natural tho (the trick is to not make it too square, basically soften the edges of cliffs) but when your ideas keep flowing, you'll just realize it's really not that easy to apply it all while keeping it natural especially if you wanna make use of each & every space to be as useful as possible. i'd definitely advise to keeping some rivers and lakes to keep the natural aesthetic.
Yeah I haven’t really looked at many terraformed towns so I think I’m gonna go check some out to her inspiration and maybe look at a guide or something
moonolotl
nice forearms and nicer staff
If anything, I think ive made my island more realistic. I'm in the process of doing a huge, huge terraforming project and I've laid out exactly what im doing and I think it looks a lot more dynamic than my starting island, so honestly depends entirely on you and your abilities
Thanks yeah, I quite like most of the town anyways thankfully like there’s a really cool separate island which I really like the placement of and there’s a waterfall that’s runs centrally to it so I’m hoping if I keep that then it will all seem quite natural. I’m gonna watch a guide and when I start properly I’m gonna soften edges as you said to try and keep the natural aesthetic
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Hopefully when I start properly I’ll get the hang of it but I don’t think my abilities will be too good at first lol. Hopefully if it doesn’t go well I’ll be able to reform it
Underneath The Stars
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sometimes when i watch terraformed island tours, i get overwhelmed because they changed their island DRASTICALLY. and it shows.
if you have time & patience, then do that but it won't look that natural. but like you, i quite like most of my town anyways so i didn't change much. so yes, my advice would be to take it slow & decide if you'd like how it actually looks like (because sometimes imagination wouldn't be the same as reality lol).
what i did for mine is i designed my island in parts. i'm not completely decided that i'll make my island "town-ish" looking, so what i did first is i made an upper land for my new market place, which makes that area look town-ish. then, my villager houses or neighborhood area still looks pretty natural and very much like my earlier island still.
personally, i like the soft edges of the cliffs so i tried to keep them as much as possible. it adds to a more natural looking land.
moonolotl
nice forearms and nicer staff
Do small bits at a time until you undertake a big project! You'll get the hang of it
Oooh that’s a good idea making a town place, I never really thought about that and yeah I’ll use the soft edges then. I like how you separated the neighbourhood and town I suppose that would make it really quite natural
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Thanks! I’ll try lol
I was afraid to terraform as well, but it was because I started terraforming that I decided to go for a natural look. It's still a WIP, but I couldn't be more pleased with how it's shaping up. I put my Nook's Cranny on top of a mountain, and honestly, I'm going to feel very bittersweet when it upgrades because I really love the current aesthetic. I'm doing something similar with the tailors but it's going in a different "neighborhood". Nook's has more of a rustic/wilderness setting on two levels and the Able's are on one level "hill" surrounded by a small outdoor market.
I digress.
I have to say that it really depends on how the area is landscaped if terraforming is going to look natural or not. Keep lots of fruits/eggs and trees in your pockets while your terraforming. That way you can experiment with placement. I'm also putting patterns all over my island to give it more weeds and foliage, and rock-work. And I'm planting lots of weeds I get on island tours.
I digress.
I have to say that it really depends on how the area is landscaped if terraforming is going to look natural or not. Keep lots of fruits/eggs and trees in your pockets while your terraforming. That way you can experiment with placement. I'm also putting patterns all over my island to give it more weeds and foliage, and rock-work. And I'm planting lots of weeds I get on island tours.
Depends on what you do. People who completely flatten all cliffs and make new ones that are perfectly square as well as making their River perfectly straight definitely feels unnatural.
You can definitely make changes and as long as you keep shapes irregular it can still feel natural. I modified the shape of one of my cliffs a bit but made sure to not make it too square. I also changed one of my rivers a bit, but I made it curve in different ways instead of just a straight line.
You can definitely make changes and as long as you keep shapes irregular it can still feel natural. I modified the shape of one of my cliffs a bit but made sure to not make it too square. I also changed one of my rivers a bit, but I made it curve in different ways instead of just a straight line.
I don't think it does. I think what makes island look less natural is all the fences, paths, and the perfect order in which people put flowers, trees and such. Which I tend to do. LOL. But to each their own and how they want it to look.
I just suggest, curving the edges instead of leaving them square.
Make sure you somewhat keep it like the game has it. For example if the river goes onto a second and/or third layer. I would keep a second and third laying somewhere on the island. Keep a pond somewhere on the island as well. Some fish can only be caught in ponds or on the higher levels of rivers. So you need to somewhat maintain that to be able to catch all fish. Or you will have to go to anothers town to get the fish.
Sorry if anyone mentioned this already. I didn't not read all the replies. Haha.
I just suggest, curving the edges instead of leaving them square.
Make sure you somewhat keep it like the game has it. For example if the river goes onto a second and/or third layer. I would keep a second and third laying somewhere on the island. Keep a pond somewhere on the island as well. Some fish can only be caught in ponds or on the higher levels of rivers. So you need to somewhat maintain that to be able to catch all fish. Or you will have to go to anothers town to get the fish.
Sorry if anyone mentioned this already. I didn't not read all the replies. Haha.
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