Info on Villager Movements

[Liquefy]

From DSPet at AXA:

In addition to the regular 8 neighbor slots, there is a hidden "9th neighbor" (frozen in storage).
If an NPC moves out of your town, it actually moves to the hidden "9th neighbor" slot. It stays there in a frozen state until you connect to another town (you visit another town or they visit your town)
If you connect with someone (WiFi or DS-2-DS), they will usually swap their "9th neighbors". If both towns are full (8 regular neighbors), then they both stay in the hidden/frozen state. That's how you can get neighbors from distant town you never visited.

For example: Cyrano leaves TownA, stays in frozen state.
TownB and TownC are full up (8 regular NPCs)
TownD has extra room (7 NPCs)

PlayerB visits Town A, PlayerC visits Town B, Player D visits town C
Player D wakes up the next morning to find Cyrano from "TownA" just moved in [even though they never visited TownA or anywhere close]

If the "9th neighbor" slot is empty, the game will randomly pick a new character when it wants to add a new house. That's the case for the initial neighbors or if you never go on WiFi.

 

[ƒish]

that happened to me, sort of...

my friend had Peanut in his town, and she moved out, then like, a month later, she moved into mine, and said she was from BoomTown (his town)

it was pretty cool, she's still in my town. : D

 

[Micah]

I've never connected. Do I still have a 9th villager?

 

[Tyler]

I would have to disagree with that only becuase some people never connect to wifi and still have people moving in and out. If there was a ninth character space than you would have to connect to wifi to have another peson move out. Here is an example:

Pompom moves out and goes to space 9.
Stitches moves in and becomes space 8.
Pompom is still space 9 becuase you never connected to wifi.
Peewee moves out and tries to go to space 9 but he can't because PomPom is there.

That is impossible for someone who doesn't connect to wifi so there can not be a space 9.

 

[Liquefy]

I would have to disagree with that only becuase some people never connect to wifi and still have people moving in and out. If there was a ninth character space than you would have to connect to wifi to have another peson move out. Here is an example:

Pompom moves out and goes to space 9.
Stitches moves in and becomes space 8.
Pompom is still space 9 becuase you never connected to wifi.
Peewee moves out and tries to go to space 9 but he can't because PomPom is there.

That is impossible for someone who doesn't connect to wifi so there can not be a space 9.

If we accept that the animal in the 9th slot is not permanent, then the methodology, as described, could still work whether or not the player connects to anyone wirelessly. The game could have programming that releases the animal in the 9th slot after a certain period of time if there is no wireless play. The latest villager to move out then enters the 9th slot, ready for exchange should the player connect with another town.