Help with layout ideas?

[ClaireSprinkleSwirl]

Hello,
I'm new to this forum and not so sure if this is the right place to post about this, so, if not, I apologize.

I used to play back in 2015 but never did much back then (at least, talking about the possibilities of "goals" in this game).
I reset and started over back in August this year after a friend told me she started over too not so long ago and we decided to play together a bit. I played for a month, eventually left because I was busy, and came back a few days ago. I have definitely done more stuff than I've ever done in my last "game" (I can't think of the English word?), though I don't think this really matters so I won't go into details.

So I just wanted your layout ideas for a town, aka trees, flowers or anything else. As I said, I didn't do much in my last game, and layout wasn't a part of it at all, so I know like nothing. For this current game I thought about it a lot but for some reason can't bring myself to make anything work. So I thought I'd ask here!

As of right now, I have fruit trees placed everywhere kinda randomly, I kept telling myself I'll "sort them out" so it doesn't matter where I place them for now, but I never redid the layout sooo, yeah, haha. I also have some flowers placed in patterns (to make hybrids mostly), but as you can guess, nothing really "settled" for a nice layout.

Here is my map*
I clearly don't think I have the best one, I chose it randomly because at the time I didn't really care, but I guess it's still possible to make something good out of it, right?

Thanks!

(*it says I need 2 Bells to attach a picture, I'm guessing that has to do with activity/days since I signed up? So I'll be posting a link instead? I don't know if I'm really allowed to though? I'm not sure how this works, sorry!
https://imgur.com/24N4iGZ)

 

[Cheryll]

Hello! I'm not an [expert] on landscaping but I can tell some stuff.
If you want paths
Try to place paths around to see where some PWP and trees would go. :] That's all for me. Also, a theme you want?

No paths
Well, I don't know about no path towns but you can try experimenting. Maybe some nature?

Also about the bells. Yep, activity by posting counts for bells except some forums. Not sure all but I do know The Basement and Introduction Board doesn't count. You can see the bells in the side bar. :3

 

[Darby]

I don?t know if you?ve looked for inspiration on the internet yet but that is a really good place to start... There are tons of pictures of everything all over, like tumblr or just do a google search for something specific. And if you?ve got the dream suite then I?d highly recommend visiting some dream towns too. Just remember that it comes down to personal choices and what you feel comfortable with and it?s a game that forgives, like for instance, I spent an entire year with flowers arranged a certain way then one day just up and changed everything so nothing but permanent PWPs is set in stone.

 

[Mayor Monday]

Oh my gosh, I was hoping someone would ask something like this, lol. I love designing the layouts of towns.

First off, your town layout looks great! No matter the layout or how it was chosen, any town can be worked on and look good with enough time and effort. Second, organizing a town is actually quite easy once you get the practice in. Here are some tips for putting together your town:

1. Whether you don't want paths or you do, making a 'walking area' is a good idea. Instead of having random things in the way, paths are a great way to keep your town organized and looking polished. If you chose to use qr code paths (easily scanned and obtained at the Able Sister's after speaking with Sable enough times) they can pull together any layout. An added bonus is that in the Welcome Amiibo update, villagers don't move on top of them! This means you can also place patterns in spots you don't want villagers to move (such as your orchards, flower gardens, etc). Without qr code paths, you can line the walking areas with flowers, trees, bushes and whatnot. Removing some out-of-place trees and flowers help make a town look nice anyway.

2. Don't underestimate the power of PWPs. Once you place one down, it's a hassle to move it, and some cannot be removed (campsite, Brewster's, police station) Just analyze your town. Walk around and visualize beforehand what you want your town to look like.

3. Make sure when you use plants as decoration (as all of us are bound to do, lol) you pick a color scheme you think looks good together. Pick one or two colored/types of flowers that compliment each other. Even if you scatter your whole town with them, make sure they look good together. This applies to bushes, too, as many of them grow flowers. I chose blue pansies and white roses. They compliment each other. I picked blue hydrangea bushes to line important buildings. Putting all the flowers you don't need yet on the beach is a good place to keep them, or you can breed flowers down there, too (villagers don't squash them or put other flowers next to them. And besides, I see that your house isn't too far from a beach entrance.)

4. Trees, like flowers, have a huge impact on the layout of any town, too. Collecting foreign fruits and scattering them is a great idea, unless you want to keep them in one out-of-the-way spot. I personally like doing this, and replacing all the native fruit trees in my town with the perfect variant. Regular trees and evergreens should stick around too, as they arrant certain bugs. But you can put these in their own spot, like the foreign fruits, if you like.

5. Always remember you can follow a theme. Color themed, story themed... one that resembles a time period or movie/game/book/etc.

6. And finally, I've used Pinterest to help design my towns for years. You can create a board and plop anything that inspires you! (Not sponsored, lol)

I hope this isn't too long, and that it was of some use. Good luck!

 

[AlyssaAC]

I think your town map is great! The way the river is shaped is actually one of my favorite maps due to there being lots of room to decorate. I'm no expert myself, but when I had one of my old towns, what I did first was cut everything down and removed all the flowers and Public Works Projects (if you have any) first. (I place my flowers on the beach by the way.) After I did that, I placed my paths down where I wanted them connecting all the villager houses, my house and other spare characters houses, the Town Hall, Retail, Train Station and any other building that I had in my town. Once the paths are down, I then start planning out where Public Works Projects go and where I want them.

Once all my Public Works Projects are in, then I start planting trees in rows and in areas I want them. Once the trees are in, then the flowers will be last and I arrange them in certain colors together. Once all that was done, my town was complete. That's about the best advice I can give at the moment, so hopefully it helps. Of course, you don't necessarily have to do it my way. Though, I personally believe it's the easiest way for anyone.

 

[LadyDestani]

I actually think your map is quite nice. You've got a lot of potential, nice open spaces, and everything lines up nicely if you decide you want to do paths.

So, my advice for laying out a town:
- Get some inspiration. There are lots of different types of towns, from themes to color schemes to how meticulously or casually they are landscaped. I suggest looking around on the internet for pictures or videos of towns and see what appeals to you. Also, use the dream suite to visit towns that you think you might like so you can take your time looking around and seeing how they laid things out.

- Decide on whether or not you want paths. You don't need them, but a lot of the more manicured towns do have them. Paths can be natural or QR patterns, so if you want to go with paths you'll need to decide which option is right for you.

- If you want to create paths, figure out the best ways to maneuver around your town. With your map, you're lucky because it seems like you can have straight paths that go straight from one major building to another if you want.

- Once you've got your paths figured out, you can start working off of them. You'll probably find that you've created natural spaces off to the sides of your paths where you can place PWPs.

- Plant trees and bushes along your paths and around buildings and PWPs, but keep in mind that they must be at least 1 space away from structures and you can't plant more than 12 bushes in a row.

- The last thing I do is fill in some of the empty spaces with flowers, usually around all houses, buildings, and PWPs and in any open spaces between trees and bushes.

- Try playing with color and flower combinations until you find something interesting. I think combinations of 2-3 flowers look best, but occasionally I go with as many as 4-5 depending on the look I'm going for. The more types/colors and the more random the pattern, the more natural it will look. Fewer flower types/colors or placing them in a clearly defined pattern usually looks more like a garden that has been planned out.

Good luck with your town!

 

[ClaireSprinkleSwirl]

Hello! I'm not an [expert] on landscaping but I can tell some stuff.
If you want paths
Try to place paths around to see where some PWP and trees would go. :] That's all for me. Also, a theme you want?

No paths
Well, I don't know about no path towns but you can try experimenting. Maybe some nature?

I did think about paths, no specific theme (for now?) though.
I tried to place some but it just didn't feel right (+ the fact that you can't exactly place them next to "water spots" or the square in front of your house door or such, which makes the pattern really look fake/weird, so that makes me "uncomfortable",
(I mean, I also tried to plan a tree alley from the train station to one of my bridges but realized both weren't aligned so it wouldn't work and that made me upset so I gave up it all. I just have a hard time altogether on that :') (literally why I asked on here though. lol.)
I know I could destroy it and replace it though, probably will)
so I removed it all and, as for the trees placement, gave up "we'll see when I really get to it" but I never got to it.
I might try again though, see if I can make something look fine enough so I don't want to remove it all the second I finish haha.

I don?t know if you?ve looked for inspiration on the internet yet but that is a really good place to start... There are tons of pictures of everything all over, like tumblr or just do a google search for something specific. And if you?ve got the dream suite then I?d highly recommend visiting some dream towns too. Just remember that it comes down to personal choices and what you feel comfortable with and it?s a game that forgives, like for instance, I spent an entire year with flowers arranged a certain way then one day just up and changed everything so nothing but permanent PWPs is set in stone.

Yeah I did search a bit but nothing really caught my eye? I mean, I saw some cool stuff but my brain is always stuck on the thing as a whole and not "how it was built steps froms steps" and I give up because it looks to hard to do. I really have a hard time giving up that mindset though :') I might look into visiting dream towns though, I never did but that might help

Oh my gosh, I was hoping someone would ask something like this, lol. I love designing the layouts of towns.

1. Whether you don't want paths or you do(...)

2. Don't underestimate the power of PWPs. Once you place one down, it's a hassle to move it, and some cannot be removed (campsite, Brewster's, police station) Just analyze your town. Walk around and visualize beforehand what you want your town to look like.

3. Make sure when you use plants as decoration(...)

4. Trees, like flowers, have a huge impact on the layout of any town, too. Collecting foreign fruits and scattering them is a great idea, unless you want to keep them in one out-of-the-way spot. I personally like doing this, and replacing all the native fruit trees in my town with the perfect variant. Regular trees and evergreens should stick around too, as they arrant certain bugs. But you can put these in their own spot, like the foreign fruits, if you like.

Your 2) is actually why haven't done a lot of PWPs yet, I'm always afraid of regretting it, I placed the Roost Caf? kind of randomly and although it's not completely in the middle of something, I'm afraid it'll really bother me at some point. :')

3) for the color scheme of flowers, yes this is something I've seen a lot and will consider (I already kind of have them in patterns but it was/is mostly to make hybrids. My beach is full of roses atm (also put them there for hybrids) and I'm thinking of 1-2 other types I might keep as I don't like the others. Though for bushes I have to say I kinda forgot them, but that's a good idea!

4) I'm not sure I really understood the trees part, do you mean making specific delimited areas for X type of trees, or having specific areas BUT also randomly placed trees, or something else?
I'm guessing it's not the first option since it wouldn't look natural at all though.

I thought about doing some orchards of 2 different types of fruits (let's say, full first line of apples, then second of pears etc), but that would get pretty repetitive I guess and therefore wouldn't look that great, I feel like there's houses and buildings all over the map so it's hard to find an actual large enough spot, but again I'm pretty sure that's my "overwhelmed by all the steps even though I know it can't be all done in one day" brain talking haha.

(at some point you say replace them with the perfect variants; I thought perfect fruits other than our native wouldn't grow in our town? I'm actually wondering now because yesterday someone gave me a perfect apple and I planted it, then later told myself "aw, I forgot they don't actually grow so I wasted it :/" but I saw it started to grow?? and now I'm really wondering what is true and/or false about this :'))

what I did first was cut everything down and removed all the flowers and Public Works Projects(...)
(...) then I start planting trees in rows and in areas I want them. Once the trees are in, then the flowers will be last and I arrange them in certain colors together. Once all that was done, my town was complete. That's about the best advice I can give at the moment, so hopefully it helps. Of course, you don't necessarily have to do it my way. Though, I personally believe it's the easiest way for anyone.

That's actually a good thing, I mean, somehow reading all the steps one by one make me realize that it's not impossible, so thanks! :')

With your map, you're lucky because it seems like you can have straight paths that go straight from one major building to another if you want.

(...)and you can't plant more than 12 bushes in a row.

Good luck with your town!

The rest joins pretty much what everyone else said;
but I have to say, even with the fact that it seems like I can have straight paths, it still feels impossible to get something correct, even though I know it's because of weird squares on "not totally square surfaces" and that it can't be changed so I have to deal with it, and that it's just my stubborn brain that wants everything to be smooth and nice and perfect x)

And 12 bushes in a row? What do you mean?
In a day? In one straight line? There's a magical fairy appearing once you planted 12 that comes with a cooldown? hmm xD

anyway, thanks everyone!
This reply is so long but I didn't want to make multiple posts for each reply so I hope that's fine!

 

[ClaireSprinkleSwirl]

I replied to all of you yesterday and it said the post needed to be reviewed before posting or something, though I don't know when or if it will ever be; I'm not used to a lot of forums but I don't think I've ever seen one where the post in itself had to be reviewed, so, I guess it's perfectly normal and you just have to wait eventually yet I can't help but be confused, sorry :')

edit: wait this reply posted itself right away

what

feels bad ;-;
I don't know if it's gone forever then, but if so I'll try to remember mainly what I wrote,
I had replied with quoting everyone, but that's gonna take forever ^^'

I did look up on pinterest and tumblr a bit, though nothing really caught my eye.
For PWPs, that's why I haven't done a lot yet, I'm always afraid of regretting (unremovable ones mostly), though it'll have to be done someday. For example, the caf? isn't really in the middle of something but I always dread the day where I'll notice/make my mind up "that it is" and it'll actually bother me a lot haha.
About paths, I had tried but it just didn't look right, mostly the fact that they're complete squares everywhere, even at the edges of water spots or the fact that you can't place one right in front of your house door, which makes me "upset" because I like things being perfect way too much :')
I might look into different types though and see if I can make something work (and as for themes, I don't have any specific idea right now).
I knew pretty much all of the "tips" you've given, except

you can't plant more than 12 bushes in a row.

which made me confused :')
And I liked idea of surrounding buildings with bushes (or trees/flowers as well but I didn't think of the bushes haha)

Also the fact that some of you "explained" what you did in what order made me feel a bit better because it made me realize it "wasn't built all in one day" and was done steps by steps (which I already knew, but my stubborn brain had/has a hard time believing it :'))

So thanks everyone! I'm still trying to figure out what I can do with all of these "tips"

 

[Kristen]

Your town's layout is beautiful! I often look through dream towns to get inspiration if you need a little extra aside from the tips.

Otherwise, I just wanted to let you know that you can get everything done pretty fast if you're willing to time travel. I don't necessarily mean time travel like a month in advance, but if you go forward then back one day after getting things done/build requests in, it should be built when you change the time again. That's what I did, anyway. I have natural paths for the most part right now, lined with flowers and clovers. I'm redesigning, aiming to have patterned paths (like QR code paths) lined with bushes and such.

If you do put down public works projects and you want to change it later on, you can create a new character, choose to put your house on top of the public works project, save and quit the game, then delete the brand new character. It will leave a big dirt spot where the house was, but the PWP would have done the same. I did that to take out 3 flower arches in a row without having to pay to take them down or wait 3-4 days. One house took out all 3.

That's all I can think of for now, but if you need any help like getting fruits, needing bells, putting stuff down, etc. feel free to let me know and I'll be happy to help out!