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

[Sharksheep]

I didn't. I just picked one and I haven't restarted my island. I kinda claim close to resetting it but decided against it. If you have ideas on what areas you want to make or how buildings should be laid out, you can try drawing it out on paper or use happy island designer.

 

[FriendsWithFauna]

Ah man I'm another person who just went with the first one i got. It was day 1 and I was so excited to play. What sold me on mine was how close the airport was to the town hall. I probably have no more than 10 spaces between them which I love to use my island's space more. Since we can change everything else thats what mattered to me.
ALSO I got my dreamie Bill on my island and it was game set since then !

 

[Briar]

I just looked at the four options I had and went with the one that felt right. I tried to imagine which one I would enjoy exploring and walking around the most. I'm still happy with the island I picked, so I guess trusting my instincts was the right thing to do~

 

[RETSAMDET]

Like a lot of people, I cane up with a list of priorities before starting, and then tried to pick a map that met as many of them as possible. I set a limit of how many times I was willing to reset before starting to try to limit how much time I wasted. I ended up getting a map that I liked well enough on reset #4 (so 16 map previews and four actual town visits), and that’s my current island.

I knew I wanted a blue airport, as that didn’t appear to be changeable. I didn’t have a strong preference for river exits, but didn’t want two south exits. Most of my potential maps were either E/S or W/S exits, though, so that didn’t end up factoring into my decision very much.

I wanted apples, but later decided to settle for my second choice, cherries. At this point, I have apples, cherries, and pears (still no peaches or oranges), but I realized that cherries actually suit my island better than apples, so I’m happy with them.

I wanted a somewhat central residential services that wasn’t right in front of the airport. Aside from that, I figured most of the layout could be changed, so I didn’t worry too much about it. And then I got attached to my layout and only made minor changes via terraforming anyway.

I told myself not to worry about animals, as those could change. However, the town I picked ended up having two starters I liked, and they’re both still on my island today.

 

[Maiana]

Hello!!
I recently restarted my island a few days ago and I didn't really look for anything specific. I originally had double south rivers, so I wanted to try and have a right or left river instead. I also wanted my town hall a good distance away from my port. I didn't really care too much for my starting villagers as I plan on rotating my whole town, I got orange as my airport (my favorite color), and any of the fruit would've been fine to me! I think I knew it was the perfect map for me after I continuously reset for an hour looking for a perfect map, and just decided to go with a map with very little priorities in mind. Looking at my map now, I actually really like it and I plan on doing minimal terraforming to it just to preserve one of the rivers ;m;

 

[amylsp]

I reset after a few weeks to get a centered RS, plenty of large 'real estate' rocks and ledges on the back and side of the island and only one south river outlet. Getting Blue airport and Apples was just a bonus (that I was lucky to find). If you only have two or three things you're not willing to compromise on, it shouldn't take too long to find the 'almost perfect' island.

 

[eseamir]

I honestly wasn't too picky! I had a rough idea of knowing I wanted RS somewhat close to the airport and that was basically it, I wasn't too fussed with where the rivers/cliffs were because I was planning on terraforming a lot anyways and I really just wanted to get started on playing

 

[rezberri]

ive map reset so many times and im kind of convinced that my ideal map would be one that had a movable Resident Services. i feel like if we could move that building, most of us map resetters would finally be able to sleep peacefully at night.

for my current map, i figured out that it was the one simply bc it had Dom as a starter. im joking but also not really. it had apples and an orange airport like i wanted, but resident services is rly close to the airport and it had double south river exits. both of those negatives r quite honestly rly bad lol if this map didnt have Dom i would have left. but along with the map having Dom, my irl friends were about to start playing the game soon and i didnt want to burden them with my indecisive nature, and i thought itd be better to have a disaster map and make something work then become hopeful then hopeless on a map that i thought was perfect.

i can see myself sticking with this map for longer than the previous ones ive had simply bc for some reason i dont rly feel stressed about it, which is weird bc this rly is a disaster map imo. ig maybe its bc i was all about terraforming and making my island pretty asap with the other maps, but rn im just chilling and trying to gift my villagers every day and decorate my house and make bells. all ur basic animal crossing stuff i think. i imagine when i get closer to having all the DIY recipes, i'll become more interested in terraforming my island. but im content with looking at ppl's dream addresses for inspiration and making sure my villagers r fed their daily wrapped coconuts.

 

[visibleghost]

honestly i was sort of stupid when choosing my map, i looked at the river mouths mostly and then the general shape of the river (which can be changed later on so it’s not necessary to care about) and saw that my plaza wasn’t in a terrible spot.

if i were to reset i would be more picky, especially about the uhh little land area sticking out (idk what tf it’s called, it’s a long word ok don’t kill me), mine is way too skinny to do something nice with, and in an awkward spot. with the addition of the secret beach having functionality i would also factor in the location of it on my new island, mine is in the middle and while it works for me, it could still be in a better spot. i like where my dock is though, so that’s something.

when i started my island i was eager to get started and getting to actually experience the game so i reset less than 5 times before choosing a map. in the new leaf towns i had before i could use hacking on my 3ds i reset probably over fifty times to find something i really liked, that being said, the map in new leaf was way more important than in new horizons since everything was so permanent.

 

[~Kilza~]

I didn't really know what I wanted my map to be going into New Horizons, so I just picked the one I was most drawn to and left it at that, lol.

 

[Tiffkaboo]

I honestly was too excited to actually have the game that I didn't really think about what kind of island I wanted. After I started I kind of hated how many rivers there were because it limited the amount of space I had for my villagers homes. When I finally got the terraforming tools, I finally appreciated my rivers (even though I got rid of most of them) and started designing around them.

Either way, I probably won't ever restart because I love what I have and haven't done with my island. I'm just having a blast playing! ❤

 

[Coolio15]

I wasn't super picky about my layout going into the game, but looking back I definitely wish I had been. I really wish I could change my airport color to blue or green instead of red, just because it would fit my theme SO much more. (Plus it would mean I would have easier access to different colored nook miles items as well)

I was more focused on my starting villagers than my starting layout, but what got me on my initial layout was the immediate inclusion of a little island in my lower river. I knew immediately that's where my museum would go and I don't regret that one bit. It's would've been SO much more work to try and terraform out a whole island for the museum rather than working around a pre-established island.

 

[MelodyRivers]

I didn’t know any better when I picked my island. I have an orange airport, two southern river mouths and an off center plaza. Oh well. I’ve had my island for so long that there’s no point starting over. I make it work. My rivers join together at the top of my island with a waterfall.

 

[Garrett]

Someone on this forum posted pictures of the general map options available just before the game released so I looked at those and figured out which one I thought I'd like.

I started playing as soon as the game unlocked at midnight and wasn't in the mood for resetting at all so was very happy to see the map I wanted among the first options so picked it.

Flying over my island and seeing cherries and a yellow airport were pleasant extras!

 

[Mairen]

For map layout, I was looking for resident services that was far from the airport, and a river that had west/south outlets, but that's pretty much it. I had other smaller preferences but they werent as key as those two main things.

 

[returnofsaturn]

I was just excited to play! I remember not wanting my town hall too close to the airport and that's what I picked.

 

[Tinkeringbell]

I didn't know much about non-changeable and changeable elements back when I chose my island map. So I didn't pay much attention to native fruit, resident services location, airport location, peninsula, river exits or beach rocks...

In the end, I ended up picking my map because of the way the cliffs and river were: I wanted to be able to have an easy-access-everywhere kind of island, where I wouldn't have to use a lot of vaulting poles or ladders to be able to run everywhere. These days, I have 4 bridges and 6 inclines, and I can get everywhere I want without having to take any detours.

 

[Aurita]

I just wanted a map that didn’t have oranges as the fruit, no south/south river mouths, and no green airport! Other than that I was pretty flexible. I didn’t really think about resident area location at the time but if I knew back then I would have reset a bit more for one that was further away from my airport

 

[Holla]

I went with the one I liked the best of the initial 4 options. I wasn't too fussed on layout as you can change just about everything aside from Airport, Resident Services and River Mouths. I knew I'd be able to work with any river mouth layout so I didn't really worry about it. Only super close Airport/RS layouts I didn't like and most were far enough apart for me.

Another thing I really wanted was peaches. I would have taken apples as well as I've never had those as a native fruit in any of my games before, but during the fly in I noticed it was peaches. I was instantly sold on my island choice. It was like it was meant to be.

 

[oranje]

Honestly, I just kept it simple and just wanted a color that I liked for my airport. I was pretty lucky that I got an orange airport (my favorite color!) on the first try.