How did you deal with your river exits?

[Sheba]

Hello guys,

I will get my island designer in probably 3-4 days and am already despairing when trying online planning my island. I have this island:

(old image, there's more villagers and I moved my house and the museum away by now)

Basically, I find myself having not enough space in the middle for my plans and the land between beach and river on the sides is so narrow that I'm not doing anything with it. Which means that despite me resetting for 40 hours to get exactly that map, I'll need to cover up the river.

But what do I do with the river exits? I've visited a few islands by now and found that just letting the river exits "sit" there without a river looks just as bad to me as making a small pond to "feed" them does. So I would love to hear how you guys dealt with your (south-)river exits if you don't have a huge, connecting river anymore. Images would also be appreciated. Of couse I thought about cliffs/waterfalls but got worried that I wouldn't be able to see what's behind the cliffs if I just put some directly in front of the beach.

 

[LuchaSloth]

I kept the river, but I built land bridges across both of exits. I need my beaches to have a good flow so I can run across the whole island. I'm not too happy with the way that land bridges look...but they get the job done. If you want to have no river, but have the exits/mouths look natural/decent...maybe put down patterns that look like a pipe/cave going into the ground? I dunno.

 

[Sheba]

I kept the river, but I built land bridges across both of exits. I need my beaches to have a good flow so I can run across the whole island. I'm not too happy with the way that land bridges look...but they get the job done. If you want to have no river, but have the exits/mouths look natural/decent...maybe put down patterns that look like a pipe/cave going into the ground? I dunno.

That's a really interesting idea! I wonder if such patterns exist as I am shoddy at making any! I'll have a look around, thank you for the tip!

 

[Khaelis]

This is sort of a teaser that I planned on adding to my island journal page this weekend, but this type of thread always makes me wanna comment, sooooo....

Basically, I wanted a long curved river coming from the west river mouth, that curved south into branches that curved in various directions. I then connected the southern river mouth to one of those branches to give it a twisted look, which helps the natural look. Rivers in real life are very all over the place!

Excuse the serious WIP island map, it's all I have to show at the moment.

 

[Sheba]

This is sort of a teaser that I planned on adding to my island journal page this weekend, but this type of thread always makes me wanna comment, sooooo....

Basically, I wanted a long curved river coming from the west river mouth, that curved south into branches that curved in various directions. I then connected the southern river mouth to one of those branches to give it a twisted look, which helps the natural look. Rivers in real life are very all over the place!

Thank you so much for showing your map! Wow, that is some awesome and extensive terraforming! I wish at this point I had a side river exit, siiigh... I know rivers can be all over the place, I just don't know how to handle my two south exits, to be honest.
Also weren't you scared to terraform your original island so much?

 

[Khaelis]

Thank you so much for showing your map! Wow, that is some awesome and extensive terraforming! I wish at this point I had a side river exit, siiigh... I know rivers can be all over the place, I just don't know how to handle my two south exits, to be honest.
Also weren't you scared to terraform your original island so much?

Main reason why I didn't go with two southern river mouths... I knew they'd be an absolute nightmare to work with.

As for being scared to terraform...? I suppose not really? I did a lot of pre-planning with sketches of stuff I'd like a month ahead of release so it kind of prepared me a little since I had references. My current ideas are basically several sketches mashed into one idea, and it'll probably still change here and there over time.

I'm just really good at turning off my brain and just doing something for hours on end. Literally spent 4 hours levelling my entire island and removing the river. What I've currently got finished is about a week and a half worth of work, and I'm no where close to being done.

 

[Lilyacre]

deleted

 

[kiyyie]

I may have gone a little manic with the terraforming one night/day, but I love the look of my river mouths meeting directly at one waterfall. The second pic is what it was like with just a little terraforming. Walking along the river is really nice without all the different edges.

 

[Sheba]

Main reason why I didn't go with two southern river mouths... I knew they'd be an absolute nightmare to work with.

As for being scared to terraform...? I suppose not really? I did a lot of pre-planning with sketches of stuff I'd like a month ahead of release so it kind of prepared me a little since I had references. My current ideas are basically several sketches mashed into one idea, and it'll probably still change here and there over time.

I'm just really good at turning off my brain and just doing something for hours on end. Literally spent 4 hours levelling my entire island and removing the river. What I've currently got finished is about a week and a half worth of work, and I'm no where close to being done.

Yeah, I soooo regret the two south river mouths...I just loved the look of the little island on my map as well as the central airport... Any idea what could be done with them? I got so many nice DIYs over the last few days that I don't really want to reset my island, but I feel I almost have to (my peninsula is also giving me fits).

And wow, I still have issues envisioning anything even now that I have the game; there would have been no way for me to do this before starting! :O I am impressed! And that's some seriously awesome work you put into your map! I really think I lack that talent you have, it's more that I am overthinking everything and am scared to just do anything at all and the more "blank slate", the less I know what to do, which is why I am frightened to level anything.

I think I'm one of the few people who loves two south-facing river exits!

I decided to keep the long river to create an island in the middle but make the river smaller at the top to make much more space on each side. If you want to visit and have a look round to see how it 'feels' then you're welcome to, but it's still needs some work. Here's my map at the moment:

Thank you so much for your reply! Unfortunately just from looking at your map I already know it wouldn't work for me as I need huge parts of non-river-divided land to make what I want to make (namely that stupid rock garden where all six daily rocks are lined up neatly and with the grid spawn restriction on rocks, the place needs to be chosen very wisely)! But I am impressed by that neat-looking town, everything seems so natural despite being so structured!

I may have gone a little manic with the terraforming one night/day, but I love the look of my river mouths meeting directly at one waterfall. The second pic is what it was like with just a little terraforming. Walking along the river is really nice without all the different edges.

This also looks super-nice! :O I'm seriously impressed and jealous of everyone's pretty maps omg. Seems like the two south exits are serious dealbreakers for me because I also like how you basically only did a little thing for your west exit! And the two maps look so different just with the river shapes!

 

[Romaki]

I resetted my map with two south river outlets because they honestly suck. You can really only push it to perfect symmetry, so it's good that your residential services is perfectly in the middle. Lilyacre's map is a perfect example of how to use this map, but there are more possibilites!

This map was recently posted to Reddit and I think it looks amazing! You can really work well with such a map if you have a design in mind.

 

[stiney]

I kept the river, but I built land bridges across both of exits. I need my beaches to have a good flow so I can run across the whole island. I'm not too happy with the way that land bridges look...but they get the job done. If you want to have no river, but have the exits/mouths look natural/decent...maybe put down patterns that look like a pipe/cave going into the ground? I dunno.

I've seen people mention land bridges before but I couldn't find any when I went looking for pictures. What exactly does that mean/what does it look like?

 

[Sheba]

I resetted my map with two south river outlets because they honestly suck. You can really only push it to perfect symmetry, so it's good that your residential services is perfectly in the middle. Lilyacre's map is a perfect example of how to use this map, but there are more possibilites!

This map was recently posted to Reddit and I think it looks amazing! You can really work well with such a map if you have a design in mind.

Wow, that map looks seriously cool, but it's not what I am going for.
Basically, my plan is that I kind of want to keep my distribution of upper and lower levels on the map and on the cliffs is supposed to be a very "natural" area while there's supposed to be a town on the bottom. And towns need space since I wanna make a second plaza, the rock garden, a zen garden and all that stuff... and I can't have rivers dividing the map vertically because of that. But connecting the two river mouths very low looks super-dumb, I'm sure of that. But ugggh I got so many dreamies already and DIY recipes (traded for them, too...)...This is honestly painful.

Post automatically merged: Apr 24, 2020

I've seen people mention land bridges before but I couldn't find any when I went looking for pictures. What exactly does that mean/what does it look like?

I think a land bridge is just when you use the designer tool to make a bridge (or stepping stones) out of "ground" but I might be wrong.

 

[bobthecat]

I would say if you're really struggling just go with the flow and don't think too much.
Something might look really nice in your head then you place things down and it just doesn't look right, if you spend 50 percent planning and 50 percent actually terraforming/ making ur island, thats half ur time lost. I would keep it just very minimal planning and just start improvising then you will find your island has a natural flow to it if that makes sense?

I found I did the island planner and got so stressed because when I came to terraforming it just doesn't look right. Now i'm just focusing on section by section moving buildings here and there. I've had to move things 2/3 times a couple of times with is a waste of 50,000 bells and annoying but I'm taking the slow trial and error approach.

I also have two south river exits btw, and I'm making it work! I'm using the small side sections as relaxing beach bar on one side and the other side as a little relaxing area with a band/musical instrument set up on the rocks

 

[Barnabus_i_am]

So funny thing, my town is nearly the same as yours in the beginning! I put a picture of my original island and then what I did with it. I put the two shops in each river outlet area, and it fits pretty well, as they're about the perfect sizes to fit. I especially like my path at the bottom of the map that goes from the airport in each direction to the shops.

 

[bobthecat]

Also this might help! On chase crossing he toured this beautiful island that might give you some inspo, having the villagers houses placed on the narrow side parts is a good idea I'm also looking into

 

[Jhine7]

I connected my two south river exits, first space in. This creates a "sandbar" look. Then have a bridge coming directly out of the airport dock. In the space between the river and beach, I put down a "boardwalk".

 

[kjetta]

I've elected to not have a continuous river flowing through my island, rather I have a lake that acts like a basin for the water atop the hill to the south, and also feeds out to the river mouth in the south. It's a similar feature on the eastern side of the island though that is a lot less dramatic. I felt a river running through my island was too limiting for what I had planned.

 

[Sheba]

I would say if you're really struggling just go with the flow and don't think too much.
Something might look really nice in your head then you place things down and it just doesn't look right, if you spend 50 percent planning and 50 percent actually terraforming/ making ur island, thats half ur time lost. I would keep it just very minimal planning and just start improvising then you will find your island has a natural flow to it if that makes sense?

I found I did the island planner and got so stressed because when I came to terraforming it just doesn't look right. Now i'm just focusing on section by section moving buildings here and there. I've had to move things 2/3 times a couple of times with is a waste of 50,000 bells and annoying but I'm taking the slow trial and error approach.

I also have two south river exits btw, and I'm making it work! I'm using the small side sections as relaxing beach bar on one side and the other side as a little relaxing area with a band/musical instrument set up on the rocks

Oooh more people with south exits! But yeah I think I just am so scared of "just doing" something because I'm too scared to mess up and then being unable to get it back like it was before, basically. And I guess because I resetted so long for this map that I feel I shouldn't change much even though I really can't work with what I have, river-wise. Which sucks because I do love the look of the cliffs and all. They're great! And the little island is lovely! But the vertical rivers? Not so much. I want to build fences around my whole island, so my side sections are even smaller than they already are and that's really hurting me.

So funny thing, my town is nearly the same as yours in the beginning! I put a picture of my original island and then what I did with it. I put the two shops in each river outlet area, and it fits pretty well, as they're about the perfect sizes to fit. I especially like my path at the bottom of the map that goes from the airport in each direction to the shops.
View attachment 247605View attachment 247604

Oh wow, map-buddy! And you got the peninsula in such a nice spot, I am jealous lol. I like my shops near the cliff (I am generally a fan of houses-against-cliff-backsides) so I don't really wanna do them at the bottom, but it's also very true that I have no idea what to put there at all. Do you have any screenshots from your island proper? I'd love to see how it looks/feels!

Also this might help! On chase crossing he toured this beautiful island that might give you some inspo, having the villagers houses placed on the narrow side parts is a good idea I'm also looking into

Oh hey, thanks for that! That's sadly a lot less garden space than I want my villagers to have and I also am not a fan of "straightened" rivers, as in that I want things to look natural, so I doubt I can get enough space on the sides. But it's definitely nice to see other islands with south exits!

Post automatically merged: Apr 24, 2020

I connected my two south river exits, first space in. This creates a "sandbar" look. Then have a bridge coming directly out of the airport dock. In the space between the river and beach, I put down a "boardwalk".

That's what I wanted to try but I figured it would look stupid! But I'll definitely give it a go if it worked for you! Not gonna reset before at least trying a few things once I have the designer unlocked!

Post automatically merged: Apr 24, 2020

I've elected to not have a continuous river flowing through my island, rather I have a lake that acts like a basin for the water atop the hill to the south, and also feeds out to the river mouth in the south. It's a similar feature on the eastern side of the island though that is a lot less dramatic. I felt a river running through my island was too limiting for what I had planned.

Oh wow, this also looks so cool! All these maps make me so jealous because I could never think of stuff like that! :O I love the fact that you have your lower space in the middle of the map and cliffs in front and back. Are the front-cliffs not obstructing the view, though? That's what I had been worried about when planning cliffs - that they need to be in the back, else they would block view.

 

[Arithmophobia17]

i really like my double souths but i'm honestly not sure where i'm gonna go with the river layout. like, i have a plan with the exits - i've been toying with the idea of having a boardwalk type shopping / entertainment district, which would likely include 1 or 2 wooden bridges per outlet depending on how close together i can place them. I've also been thinking of having the different beaches be named differently, which is perfect with the double souths imo because there are two main beaches and the bottom beach (chopped in half by the airport), plus the secret beach that i probably wouldn't deal with in that way. honestly i have a lot of ideas, but i kind of really like the beach town aesthetic that i have subconsciously been planning. i feel like most of the ideas i have for my island have stemmed from places i remember well and have good memories with

 

[Moon Cake]

Having two south-facing river exits is a little tricky to work with for sure! I do wish that both areas on the left and right weren't so narrow but I think it's a nice challenge to see what I can do with a more limited space.

I would definitely have more space if I disconnected the rivers but I also enjoy having bridges aha!