How did you tackle terraforming?

[elo-chan]

Gahh I've been feeling so overwhelmed ever since I unlocked terraforming >< Was wondering what other people's experiences are with terraforming and how did you go about starting it? Like did you start at the back of your island or the front?

When I first started the game, I placed all of my villager houses reaaaallly close together and now I'm wanting to make a neighborhood and give more space to each house ;-; My island map also has two river mouths at the south end, and at first I thought it was a good idea, but tbh the river takes up sooo much space and now I have no idea what to do with it. So I've just ignored terraforming for the past 2 weeks and instead started placing my paths down near airport area...but now I realize that if I want to put my ideas into place, I'm gonna have to get rid of ALL the paths now lol

-dies-

 

[Krissi2197]

I didn't add paths until I had the houses/buildings where I wanted them to be.

Do one little area at a time! For example I did my marketplace area first and then moved to the museum area, town hall area, then resident areas... Stuff like that.

 

[Raz]

I'm having a hard time deciding what goes where and how exactly I want every are to look like.

Also, I just discovered that weeds can grow on top of the dark dirt patch (also, fossils can spawn on this path as well) that I want to use, and for that reason alone I'm already questioning some of my decisions.

I went from wanting to make a deep forest to something more like a national park/preservation area, which means now it makes sense for some areas to look more "man-made" when it comes to landscaping and the inclusion of the cobblestone path.

 

[Stil]

Start from the back.
Starting from the front near the airlines is such a pain.
Its very hard to see where youre building when youre character is behind a cliff.

 

[biksoka]

I've been going one area at a time starting from the back of my map and moving up to the front. Did the same thing where I put my villager houses really close to togther in a line (I've moved every house at least once - thank god for stonks). I've ripped up giant chunks of my town because I decided I hated how it looked a week later.

I totally get what you mean about being overwhelmed about starting but once I get a couple tiles dug out and built into cliffs or even tuck all the furniture in the area in my pockets it's a little easier to get through it.

The good thing about terraforming is that nothing is permanent. If you decide
you hate it you could always go back and undo it

 

[elphieluvr]

I am...more than a little bit of a control freak. I did not touch a thing in the island designer app until after I had created a complete tile by tile map of what I want the finished product to look like, and now I’m going one area at a time through my plan.

It took me nearly ten hours of work to create the plan in Procreate lol. I don’t know if I would advise doing it that way but it makes things easier once you start terraforming. But you might be more creative and spontaneous than me, so you might want to start in one section and see what you come up with. Like has been said above, if you're not happy you can always change things.

 

[Sharpington]

I started around my house first, then made adjustments to rivers and cliffs so I can place bridges/ramps in nicer places.

I would suggest going to a far section of your town with nothing there and just messing around with building cliffs/ponds/waterfalls. It's fun and you can get a good feeling for how the tools work and what the limits are BEFORE you mess with important areas. I spent days just Frankenstein-ing waterfalls and testing how bridges and ramps are placed. (You can return them and get a refund if you don't install them)

I would also suggest taking a screenshot of an area before you change it if you're worried about messing things up. As long as you know how it looked before you can always put it back the way it was.

 

[tajikey]

Head first, I went in head first. The beauty is that I can undo anything I did.

 

[kojuuro]

I added some paths from my home and came up with ideas one at a time. I couldn't plan ahead for my life so doing 1 project at a time is pretty fulfilling! Your island is bigger than you think, so you can do a lot with it!

I think I have a similar map design as yours (mine is sort of an upside down Y shape) and honestly, it does suck. I ended up closing one of my rivers and making it go straight since it was easier to work with and I got more land that wasn't divided up weirdly.

Don't feel the need to make everything perfect on your first go at it. You can always fix it!

 

[Miss Misty]

I agree with the others to start with a section and go from there. If you look at it as terraforming your whole island all at once, it's daunting, but if you break it up into chunks like 'this is where my villagers will live' and 'this is where my house goes' and 'this is my shopping center' it's more manageable.

 

[elo-chan]

Thank you guys for all your responses. I'm definitely gonna try starting from the back and see how it goes. I really wanted to start from the front because that's what people see first when they come to your island, but it's easier said than done.

I added some paths from my home and came up with ideas one at a time. I couldn't plan ahead for my life so doing 1 project at a time is pretty fulfilling! Your island is bigger than you think, so you can do a lot with it!

I think I have a similar map design as yours (mine is sort of an upside down Y shape) and honestly, it does suck. I ended up closing one of my rivers and making it go straight since it was easier to work with and I got more land that wasn't divided up weirdly.

Don't feel the need to make everything perfect on your first go at it. You can always fix it!

Yessss I have an upside down U river and I feel like I just have no space on the sides... =w=

 

[samticore]

i have changed my island's elevation like ten times and i probably won't stop for a long time? i'm very indecisive

 

[Khaelis]

I sketched out rough ideas ahead of time. I basically just pick a spot, then build up what I sketched. Afterwards, I just trial and error it until it looks just right. Afterwards, I move onto the next spot. Repeat.

I've completed about just under half my island so far doing this (terraforming only, not decorations).

 

[dino]

start with https://eugeneration.github.io/HappyIslandDesigner/ ! to get a good handle on your ideas to see what could work. then, gradually change what bothers you most first, and bothers you least, last. having to use the pole or bridges bothered me most so i fixed that first, and then nook's placement, etc and then just expanded.

i think it really helps to check out other people's finished maps in the thread/twitter/etc to get a sense for what is possible with terraforming/what you love in other people's map creations !

that's what i've done :'))

 

[daisyy]

i found the easiest thing for me was to remove everything including bushes, flowers, rivers, etc. until it was just a flat map. i had an idea for my island to be based off of a real world map divided in four, so i have a quadrant for my villagers, for shopping district, for an orchard, and one that i just left alone for now. i split up my map with my rivers. luckily i like the look of a symmetrical island and don't mind too much about making it natural, so i could see how that would be hard. i agree with all the other comments, it's best to start with a little section every day. good luck! i'm sure once you start, you'll get the hang of it. the best thing is that you can always start over and change things if you don't like how they turn out!

 

[Xara]

i already knew that i wasn’t planning to terraform much so it wasn’t all that big of a deal to me. the most i did was expand or shrink rivers and the area around them so that i could put my bridges where i want them lol. i kinda just had a ‘screw it’ attitude and knew i could backtrack if i messed up

 

[chibski]

I basically destroyed my entire island and regretted it. I chopped down all the trees and filled in all the rivers and ponds. I didn't like the hills, so I got rid of the third layer and then the second. My island was completely empty except the buildings. I moved around the villager's homes and my home, and made a grove of fruit trees. I'm not sure what to do now, though. I still don't like hills, but I want to have access to all the fish. I also don't like the river, so the only water my island has right now is the sea. I'm kind of stuck and regret nuking my island.

 

[Lazaros]

i did small terraforming to fit certain things and the only thing i regretted was trying to get to redd's secret beach the way i did. like. immediate regret, brr. i turned it into a stupid cove now, but other than that my terraforming is slow but coming along nicely, even tho i have to rearrange homes and bridges every once in a while.

 

[Hat']

I'm still struggling with it... for some reason I can't get myself to touch the terraforming aspect of the game... I have NO idea about what I want to do with my island.
I've laid down paths, but I can't seem to want to modify the land. It's getting me very overwhelmed too.
But I've decorated a few parts of my island, I'm not very good at it but I'm trying to place one or two items per day or something like that!
I'm also growing hybrids for now so I still need space.

 

[shiggy]

How did I tackle terraforming?
Poorly, I would say.


I have a lot of trouble imagining what layout I want to give my town. So for now, I mostly removed features like cliffs and rivers to make daily tasks faster. I will probably spend a lot of days/bells on relocating the different buildings. So I'm not worrying about it until I repay my home and have extra bells for bridges and inclines.