how did you know your map layout was "the one"?

[stargurg]

i'm in the middle of restarting my island, but i really can't decide on a map. i had previously restarted because i THOUGHT i wanted the double south river exits, but i found myself having a tough time terraforming with them. i've been wanting to make a sort of cryptid themed island, but i don't even know what i want in a map. :c
what were you folks looking for in a map & how did y'all know it was the perfect map for you?

 

[moon_child]

Note your negotiables and non-negotiables. Have second and third options per map feature. More than likely, you won’t get all your first choices for all features but you’re gonna get a mix of some first, second and third choices so be ready which map features you’re willing to compromise on. So this will differ for everyone because people prioritizes different things (some people reset for peninsulas and others don’t care about them, some people don’t care about villagers but some people just can’t live a few hours with someone they dislike) so you really have to think about what matters most to you and consider that your priority.

 

[brutalitea]

The way the rivers are. I wanted as little river as possible and no narrow areas created by rivers. I don't like 'Y' type rivers at all.

 

[John Wick]

Morpheus told me.

It had the rivers where I wanted them, a blue airport, and hyacinth flowers.

I wanted peaches but settled for cherries because the map had everything else, and fruit is easy to swap out.

 

[Jinglefruit]

I wanted RS as far north and to one side as possible (which meant no double south rivers). And then Apples/Cherries and a Yellow or Green airport. Then while resetting I saw this layout and knew I was never going to find RS further to one side than it had. So then just reset until it came up with the fruit and airport colour I wanted. (Inital maps only have so many river options, with fixed RS's, so knew I'd get it eventually)

Imo, it's the best map for what I want. Though after playing with it for 7 months, I'd now probably go for RS in a south corner instead, but I'm not sure it can actually be as close to the south beach as I'd want it.

 

[KittenNoir]

When picking my island map as soon as I saw there was a heart lake I was sold haha

 

[Bilaz]

Looking back I wanted:
- double south rivers with ‘island’
- tidepool rocks
- RS in middle
- secret beach in middle
- round peninsula
- blue airport
- native fruit cherries
I got all of this on my map but at the time I was only looking for cherries and double south, was very lucky

 

[Xara]

honestly, i wasn’t super picky about my map layout. other than wanting peaches as my native fruit, i was pretty lenient. however, i did preferably want a layout that had rs and the airport close together + had the peninsula on the left side but other than that, i wasn’t all that picky :’)

 

[dizzy bone]

Now that I’ve played this island for a while, I definitely don’t think it was a good map choice haha. But at the time I decided it was “the one” based on airport colour and RS location. I didn’t have a lot of things I was looking out for because I figured I’d terraform most of the island anyways.

 

[shiniki]

I only reset a few times, and only because I kept getting pears as my fruit. I stuck with peaches again like I had in New Leaf. However, I later found out I was extremely lucky and my airport ended up being blue, my favorite color. I didn't even pay attention to that detail when flying into the island, as I was more concerned about fruit.

 

[Chris]

I literally selected the first map offered (top-left, no resets). Easier to just deal with the hand I'd been dealt than stress over getting things perfect.

 

[azurill]

I wasn’t too picky with my map. I reset for rivers. I knew how I wanted my rivers so I did not have to change them to much with terraforming. I do wish that I had know how airport color would affect items.

 

[Silkfawn]

I really didn't have much preferences when it came to the map, but I made sure to pick a map that had residence services a bit far from the airport.

 

[Plainbluetees]

Yeah, I wasn’t too picky, but when I saw one with two south river exits and an “island” I knew it was the one.

 

[Pintuition]

It had the riverbed locations I wanted, the airport was more or less centered with the plaza, the rock placement left lots of large spaces for decorating, and my peninsula was big enough to use! I don't care about native fruits/flowers, those don't really matter in the end.

 

[Baroque]

I actually didn't really... All the maps I got seemed very bland to me, pretty bland and, since I didn't really understand the limitations and potential of the island customization yet, none of them were particularly appealing. I'm pretty sure I just picked one and figured I'd just restart a new island if I ended up not liking it a few weeks in.

Thankfully though, that hasn't happened and I've grown quite found of my island's layout

 

[EmmaFrost]

I just accepted basically the first one I got. I was too eager to get started lol.

 

[Livia]

For Goose Isle I picked one of the first 4 I was offered. I mainly picked my map because it had a heart pond. I also liked the cliffs and I had a plan of wanting to eventually put my house on the cliff above the heart pond. I hated my starting villagers, but I was too in love with my map to restart. At the time I liked how close RS was to the airport (only 8 spaces), but now I hate it and wish I would’ve picked a different map.

I just started my second island about 2 weeks ago, and I knew exactly what I wanted for a map and was determined to reset until I got it. I wanted double south rivers, a large round peninsula that was in the top part of the island, central secret beach, and RS far from the airport. I also wanted a green airport. It took me 73 resets to get my perfect map. I’m really happy with it though, and it was worth all the resetting.

 

[SirOctopie]

I mainly focused on Residential Services' location. I wanted one that was pretty close to the airport. I also kept resetting until I had cherries as my native fruit. It took a few resets, but I eventually found a map that had what I initially wanted.

Looking back, I wish I had paid more attention to the river mouths. I have east/south mouths, but I wish I had picked a map with double south mouths, especially with the way I have my town laid out. I also wish I had noticed that airport colors were a thing. I would have wanted something like blue or green, but I got stuck with gross yellow.

 

[TheSillyPuppy]

I was so excited to hop into the game that I picked one out of the first four maps that I was offered. The non-changeable elements are not by all means perfect, but thankfully, none are what I would consider showstoppers and worth resetting over. I can appreciate the added layer of challenge when it comes to working around a misaligned Resident Services and Airport and the two thin strips of land that inherently come with having double-south river mouths.