Help me decide on this map?

[AquaMarie]

I was hoping you guys could help me decide if I should keep this map. I've been resetting all day and I could use some fresh eyes (and brains, lol).

My main criteria were a blue airport, peaches, east/south river outlets, and a peninsula in the back right corner on the smallest section of beach. This map has all of these things.

Some other things I was kind of hoping for were a long dock and this one looks short on the map, but dock length was probably the least important factor.

I guess the main concern I have is the RS placement. It's a little close to the airport, but I'm hoping I can make it work. Hopefully I'll do an ok job describing this...

I'm thinking of having the second level of land sort of surround RS with cliffs on the sides and back of the building. Leaving room for trees and whatnot of course. The shops will probably be up on the second level where the black dots are on my horrible little doodle. The brown shows the general area the pathing will go, and I'll probably be using The Path (the famous one), so it won't need to be a perfectly straight path.



I'm sure I'll be reshaping the river and cliffs...and the second level I'm making around RS will be larger than what is shown on the doodle, but hopefully this gives a general idea of what I'm thinking.

Based on my criteria, do you think I should keep this map? I feel like I 100% need a blue airport, peaches, and a peninsula in the northern corner and this map has all of that. I definitely prefer the east/south river outlets that I got on this map, but west/south would have been acceptable. I feel like my chances of getting my "must haves" as well as a perfect RS placement and long dock are pretty low and this map seems to be checking the most important boxes.

Am I missing anything potentially "bad" on this map that may be a challenge? Am I tired and just settling or are my reasons for wanting to keep this map pretty valid?

 

[Shyria]

I feel like my chances of getting my "must haves" as well as a perfect RS placement and long dock are pretty low and this map seems to be checking the most important boxes.
[...]
Am I tired and just settling or are my reasons for wanting to keep this map pretty valid?

I started NL recently and it took me like 5 days of several hours a resetting a day to find a map I liked, and by the end I was asking myself the exact same questions haha.

I think this map looks great, and it does check a lot of boxes!

To me the main question would be: Are you really happy with the RS placement?
Almost all of the people I see resetting after a lot of time invested of the game are people who couldn't deal with the RS placement.
So just make extra sure you're OK with it, as getting a better RS placement and ALL of the other requirements might take forever that's for sure, but realizing you're still not happy after a few weeks is not great either...

It seems like you already have ideas of what to do with it though, and it looks really good on the map!

I'd say go for it, and show us the progress!!

 

[BalloonFight]

Honestly I think this map works quite well for your criteria. As long as you don't think the Resident Services is too close to the airport, that would be my only concern. If you have an idea already of how you'd have the exit of the airport go into the 2nd level for your shopping area, and it doesn't clash with the close RS location, it seems like a *really* good layout. The river obviously can be taken care of with terraforming so that's not a problem. The short dock is only a small concern in my opinion.

Also I wish I had a blue airport, I know that desire haha

 

[seularin]

any island has potential and no island is better than the other, so everything is just up to you to make it / your / island; i feel like you could do a lot with that layout with or without terraforming, and the island seems to fit in into your criteria aside from rs.

that being said, i’ve seen a lot of great entrances with close rs’s, and you already seem to have an idea for decorating around it. so just as long as you keep experimenting i think it’ll turn out great

 

[AquaMarie]

I started NL recently and it took me like 5 days of several hours a resetting a day to find a map I liked, and by the end I was asking myself the exact same questions haha.

I think this map looks great, and it does check a lot of boxes!

To me the main question would be: Are you really happy with the RS placement?
Almost all of the people I see resetting after a lot of time invested of the game are people who couldn't deal with the RS placement.
So just make extra sure you're OK with it, as getting a better RS placement and ALL of the other requirements might take forever that's for sure, but realizing you're still not happy after a few weeks is not great either...

It seems like you already have ideas of what to do with it though, and it looks really good on the map!

I'd say go for it, and show us the progress!!

Thank you, it helps to know I'm not alone in the way I'm feeling, lol. I think I am going to go for it. I feel like it's not the best RS placement, but not the worst either. I have a feeling I can make it work. It's going to be a forest-y island, so maybe having RS not line up perfectly will look more natural. Also, if I keep all the buildings close to the airport it should open up the rest of the island for a really forest-y feel. I'll definitely add some screenshots if it ends up working out for me!

Honestly I think this map works quite well for your criteria. As long as you don't think the Resident Services is too close to the airport, that would be my only concern. If you have an idea already of how you'd have the exit of the airport go into the 2nd level for your shopping area, and it doesn't clash with the close RS location, it seems like a *really* good layout. The river obviously can be taken care of with terraforming so that's not a problem. The short dock is only a small concern in my opinion.

Also I wish I had a blue airport, I know that desire haha

Thanks! RS isn't 100% ideal, but it doesn't seem horrible to me either. I also should have mentioned that this will be my second island, so it won't be as painful to reset after a couple of weeks if I can't terraform it the way I'm imagining.

Post automatically merged: Jun 26, 2020

any island has potential and no island is better than the other, so everything is just up to you to make it / your / island; i feel like you could do a lot with that layout with or without terraforming, and the island seems to fit in into your criteria aside from rs.

that being said, i’ve seen a lot of great entrances with close rs’s, and you already seem to have an idea for decorating around it. so just as long as you keep experimenting i think it’ll turn out great

Thanks for your input. I remember seeing some threads about decorating when RS is close to the airport... I'll try to find those and see if I can mix some of those ideas with my own.

 

[Shyria]

Yeah, when restarting I kept waiting for the map that would wow me and make me say "ok yeah, this is the one" (yes it's cliché and yes I'm still talking about island maps haha) but in the end all I ever got was "I can work with that"s. Which is good!
Because you don't want it to be perfect right at the beginning, after all, or there wouldn't be much to do on it...

And btw, I've seen lots of great entrances with RS like this, about 5/7 tiles from the airport, I think there's a lot you can do.
As you said, it will leave you plenty of space to work with.

Just out of curiosity, why do you want the peninsula to be so close to the rocks?

 

[AquaMarie]

Yeah, when restarting I kept waiting for the map that would wow me and make me say "ok yeah, this is the one" (yes it's cliché and yes I'm still talking about island maps haha) but in the end all I ever got was "I can work with that"s. Which is good!
Because you don't want it to be perfect right at the beginning, after all, or there wouldn't be much to do on it...

And btw, I've seen lots of great entrances with RS like this, about 5/7 tiles from the airport, I think there's a lot you can do.
As you said, it will leave you plenty of space to work with.

Just out of curiosity, why do you want the peninsula to be so close to the rocks?

Yeah, the challenge of figuring out how to work with something can definitely be rewarding!

I'm not the hugest fan of the peninsulas for some reason, so I just kind of wanted it out of the way. That way I can have long, uninterrupted beaches. I don't really know what to do with the peninsula besides dropping a lighthouse on it, so getting it out of the way relieves a little stress I guess.

 

[Fey]

First off, I see you have Katt—which already makes your Island perfect imo

That said...I’m not sure you’ll be happy with it. The map features all fit your requirements, but it’s your hesitation that makes me think it might not be right for you. Maybe it’s just me, but I typically know when I’ve found the map. Do you tend to overthink things? Because if so, ignore what I just said lol The map is objectively a good pick for your plans, and I actually recommend a RS placement like that. Not too far, not too close—even slightly off center from the airport can be perfect for some layouts.

Out of curiosity: are you resetting your original game, or starting/resetting a second or even third one? I thought you got a second Switch quite a while back, but I haven’t been here and don’t know what happened in the meantime!

 

[lenoreluna]

I have a map very similar to this and I love it! I made the entrance go right by RS and put some greenery in front of town hall. My previous map had RS further away and center and it was super annoying because I had a useless space right in the middle of my map that I couldn't terraform and it got in the way of all of the cool stuff I wanted to do. With RS close to the airport, you get a "town" feel right away and it opens up the rest of the island for fantastic terraforming (valleys, farms, orchards, restaurants, plazas, market areas)! And with the potential of updates adding new buildings (there have been rumors of a cafe and a museum shop), space is going to be a big concern for a lot of people. You also said you wanted to do cliffs around RS, so I would definitely recommend it be closer to the airport than further away since cliffs take up space and if your RS is too far away, it really cuts into your space (again, another problem with my central RS in my last map).

I also had similar requirements when I was resetting - Blue airport, apples, east/south river, long dock, biggest sized peninsula on left. I was a little hesitant with RS close as well, but I loved it once I got terraforming!

 

[AquaMarie]

First off, I see you have Katt—which already makes your Island perfect imo

That said...I’m not sure you’ll be happy with it. The map features all fit your requirements, but it’s your hesitation that makes me think it might not be right for you. Maybe it’s just me, but I typically know when I’ve found the map. Do you tend to overthink things? Because if so, ignore what I just said lol The map is objectively a good pick for your plans, and I actually recommend a RS placement like that. Not too far, not too close—even slightly off center from the airport can be perfect for some layouts.

Out of curiosity: are you resetting your original game, or starting/resetting a second or even third one? I thought you got a second Switch quite a while back, but I haven’t been here and don’t know what happened in the meantime!

Katt was one of the things that excited me about this map! I don't know if she's going to be with me forever (just because there are so many villagers I love), but I was really wanting to have her at some point.

I'm definitely guilty of overthinking things to the extreme, so that's why I was doubting my own judgement. I was prepared to spend weeks resetting if necessary, so finding a map on the first day made me question myself.

I'm not resetting my main island, just finally getting my second one started up. That's why I didn't really mind resetting for a long time, if necessary, because I still have my main island to play. I think I need to start looking at it as a gift that I found my main criteria so quickly instead of being suspicious of it.

The more I think about it, the more I can see benefits of having a close, off-center RS, especially since I want to make a very natural forest island. Having the developed areas so close to the airport is really going to save a lot of space for the more wild areas

Post automatically merged: Jun 26, 2020

I have a map very similar to this and I love it! I made the entrance go right by RS and put some greenery in front of town hall. My previous map had RS further away and center and it was super annoying because I had a useless space right in the middle of my map that I couldn't terraform and it got in the way of all of the cool stuff I wanted to do. With RS close to the airport, you get a "town" feel right away and it opens up the rest of the island for fantastic terraforming (valleys, farms, orchards, restaurants, plazas, market areas)! And with the potential of updates adding new buildings (there have been rumors of a cafe and a museum shop), space is going to be a big concern for a lot of people. You also said you wanted to do cliffs around RS, so I would definitely recommend it be closer to the airport than further away since cliffs take up space and if your RS is too far away, it really cuts into your space (again, another problem with my central RS in my last map).

I also had similar requirements when I was resetting - Blue airport, apples, east/south river, long dock, biggest sized peninsula on left. I was a little hesitant with RS close as well, but I loved it once I got terraforming!

Thank you, that was all really helpful. You're definitely helping me to see the positives of having that RS position. And now that you mention it, on my main island my RS is farther away from the airport and I really did waste a lot of space in front of it. A huge section of my main island is basically just paths leading to RS and the shops. This will open up so many more possibilities.