How did you go about terraforming your island?

[misstayleigh]

i am currently tearing down my island—i have totally taken out my rivers and am tearing down my level 2 and 3 cliffs. boy is it taking a long time hahah!!! so i’m just curious how others went about this process... i hated my natural map layout so i’m fine starting with a clean slate

 

[Mairen]

Rather than tearing everything down to base 0, I simply edited what was already there. I changed the shape of my river, I added level 2 and 3 cliffs to some areas, removed cliffs from other areas. I couldn't imagine deleting everything to start. It sounds like a lot of extra work!

 

[Sharksheep]

I regret doing the clean slate because I'm much better at revising what is already there. Like it took me so many tries to get my campsite right that it was easier if I just raised some randomly shaped cliffers and just adjust them as I was decorating.

If I could do it again I would just work section by section and terraform as I needed to. Terraforming the rivers is really hard and annoying

 

[Pyoopi]

The blank slate would overwhelm me honestly, haha.

I used the original map as my blueprint. I would take screenshots of my map, take it into Photoshop, mark out what I wanted and worked out shapes in the 3D map planner. Then, when I started to terraform, I'd have my phone on my lap to refer to the screenshots.

Sometimes I can terraform straight out of my brain with no planning but that's if I'm trying to create natural shapes.

I'm sure my work process sounds insane to others.

 

[Jassiii]

I did what you did with my first island, absolutely hated it and then restarted and did what @/mairen did an edited what was already there-- for maybe 50~ of what was there anyway. My island is very cliff-y, so lots of my flat ground was filled in with cliffs and what isn't filled in with cliffs is overrun with rivers, streams, and a lake

 

[awesomeelle2001]

I did the clean slate thing too and BOY do I regret it. I'm a uni student so I never have time to properly sit down and terraform my island and now because my island is just flat ground, I never want to go on to just enjoy the game since my island is so ugly right now lol. I wish I had just done little edits, but now I really want to just restart my island (since i no longer want to play in the southern hemisphere) but I don't want to lose my villagers .
Advice: DON'T flatten your island if you know you don't have time to redo it.

 

[moonbunny]

i also tore everything down and started with a clean slate. i regretted doing this sometimes bc of how much work it was, along with the fact that i didnt think anything i did looked better than the original map of my island.

im happy with it now, but it took me a looong time to finish terraforming. i wouldnt terraform this way again if i ever reset my island [which i highly doubt i'll ever do].

 

[azurill]

I don’t think I could tear everything down and start over, I liked my original map. I started off one section at a time and made small changes. Added a waterfall and changed some parts of my two tier to 3 tier. Also changed parts of my river. Doing too much at once would be overwhelming,

 

[LuchaSloth]

Front part is all lowest level...middle area goes one level up...back part goes two levels up. Kinda like mountains in the distance. That was my idea, anyway. I didn't have to tear everything down to do it...just kinda worked through the process.

 

[Livia]

I liked my island the way it was when I started. The only terraforming I’ve done is remove a section of river, edit some cliffs to make room for inclines, and add some places to jump across rivers.

 

[BalloonFight]

I mostly revised my island from what was already there. I ended up changing the far right side of my island by modifying the cliffs quite a bit, and also to make a neighborhood for my villagers. In general though quite a lot of my island was just modified from my starting layout. Some ponds were removed and customized, and I have some moats by RS building, but for the most part it's a modified starting map.

 

[Katgamer]

I decided to do what you did and I completely regret it I have no idea what to do with all the space and half of it is mostly flowers I don’t know how everybody else does it but I really regret it

 

[Khaelis]

I tend to tear everything down all at once after planning out my design thoroughly. I've done it twice so far.

 

[John Wick]

I worked with what I had.

Everyone feels pressured to terraform, to flatten.

Less, is more.

Don't look at what others are doing as you will end up with a monstrosity you never even wanted.

 

[Jinglefruit]

Before the game released I used the online island designer - https://eugeneration.github.io/HappyIslandDesigner/
Made a rough design of ideas and played around with that, and then when it came to my town I editted a chunk of my town at a time, and found nearly everything took up way more space than I expected initially. Been slowly editting and adjusting from there since.

I tend to focus on one area at a time, which I think comes across on my map because there's clear divisions and segments.

 

[dizzy bone]

I worked on each corner/section of the island bit by bit instead of tearing everything down. I wanted to retain some elements of my original layout at first, but my current version looks nothing like it at all haha! I also worked around my very first 3 villager's houses. They haven't moved since launch, so working around their locations is what shaped the middle section of my island. I've never tried tearing everything down but if I ever wanted to start fresh I think I would try that method.

 

[Jetser_Halo]

I see a lot of Tear down and regret. I have to say I did tear everything down and worked on my main focus which was connecting my rivers in some way. I had to have both of then meet in a certain area and had waterfalls in between. Eventually my island was all 1st cliff and I enjoyed it very much. Then I tore down my entrance and the left of my island and went with it. My island gets minor tweaks here and there as I play be cause I dont quite know yet until I've walked my island how i feel about my new developed sections

 

[Yaelin]

I actually regret tearing down my whole island... cause I don’t know what to do with all that space too. So now, I am trying to terraform at least a little bit of the original layout back while adding a few changes and decorations around. It’s taking me a long time to fix but I reap what I sow I guess. I’ve had moments where I am close to resetting just for the heck, but glad I didn’t and just worked around it the best I can. xD

 

[Nefarious]

My own map is just a modified version of the original. I wanted to keep it as natural as possible.
I have always wondered how those that terraform their islands from scratch go about it though, but from just reading all the replies a lot of them regret doing so. Now I'm wondering if there are any success stories.

Whether you go through with it or not, you should make sure to keep screenshots of the original map and landscape before tearing a section down.

 

[moon_child]

In my first island, I tore everything down and started with a clean slate. I regretted it big time because although I’m decent at cliff making, I’m the worst at waterscaping. So I ended up with completely unnatural-looking straight-ish rivers which went well with a highly urbanized look that I don’t want to go for (I wanted a more natural island). So I reset and vowed to find the most natural looking map with a lot of rivers and cliffs and weird shapes and curves. I ended up with the map I liked and just terraformed small portions one section at a time. I’m happier with this method.