Is it just me?

[supernerd]

Does everyone come to a point where they’re absolutely unhappy with the way their island is? I’m upset with how I terraformed, and how most of my island is flat. I know I shouldn’t compare my island to others, but seeing the depth and complexity some people have done makes my island just look - small. There’s a lot of land but nothing clicks. And here I am hating it. I don’t want to start over, but I wish I could figure things out. :/

maybe it’s just me that hits this brick wall.

 

[AppleBitterCrumble]

I'm sorta the same way.

Terraformed my island until there were no cliffs/rivers and then I made my house on top of a double waterfall, and a marketplace area for the buildings/campsite. Those two areas are my favorite and most detailed

But literally I have so much more of my island to design and I don't even know what I want to do with the rest of it so I've been putting it off for a little bit xD

Don't worry you are so not alone!!

 

[Antonio]

I'm sorta the same way.

Terraformed my island until there were no cliffs/rivers and then I made my house on top of a double waterfall, and a marketplace area for the buildings/campsite. Those two areas are my favorite and most detailed

But literally I have so much more of my island to design and I don't even know what I want to do with the rest of it so I've been putting it off for a little bit xD

Don't worry you are so not alone!!

This, my friend had waterfall pathway so I'm working on the waterfall pathway in my town to cover the rest of the island.

 

[Nodokana]

I wish I planned things out honestly. Most of my buildings are towards the back on the cliffs and I want to make the area by the rocks to the ground level and it's going to be so much work and bells ack.

 

[Annika.]

I'm constantly changing my map/mind, so I try to keep things as open as possible. I still only have on actual bridge up and only two inclines for a section that's perfectly done. It's easy to get a lot of inspiration from other people, but most of it won't be realistic for your island or your decorative skills. I have a lot of empty space that I have no idea what to do with, right now I'm elevating a neighborhood that doesn't exist yet.

 

[Llunavale]

Mood, I basically have cleaned up my entire island to "start again," just so I can see if I take it a different direction.

 

[Alicia]

I had a point where I didn't like what I was doing. I was trying to keep my villager's houses in pairs of two. At some point, I didn't know where to put the last two houses. I couldn't figure out where to put them that would look nice. This made me change my mind completely about most of my island because all I was really working on at the time was were my villager's houses were and the inclines + bridges to them. Now my villagers live in a residential area. The rest of my island is just slowly being worked on, but I'm happy with it.

 

[Dwayne Johnson]

this is why i'm not terraforming at all... i know i'd never be happy with it so i'll let my island stay natural

 

[visibleghost]

yeah, my island is an ugly mess. i plan on making it cute one day, how i will do that is on the other hand a mystery.

 

[tanisha23]

When I first started my island, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I went with the flow. Now I have more of an idea of what I want to do, and it takes so much will power to get myself to just destruct and redesign an area that I know I can design better.

I will eventually have the will power to redesign areas I know I can do better. I've done it already with some area, and it always comes out better than before, but there's always that little thought that I might be making a mistake, and I might make it worse.

 

[Jhine7]

Always room for improvement! I've just come to accept that my island is the way it is now.

 

[Uffe]

Yes. So far I've moved houses in different locations, made inclines, tore them down and replaced them, and a whole bunch of other things. It's normal to feel like your island isn't as spectacular as someone else's. All I can say is go with a theme that you like. Some people make their stuff natural, meaning that they still have a lot of what looks like foresty stuff, but still have some kind of town. Some people have made urban looking locations or cities. There are a lot of Japanese themes out there. Someone turned their island into a cruise ship, someone made their island themed around Hawaii. I think the moment you come up with a theme, the easier it's going to be for you to recreate your island how you see fit.

 

[Fridaynightcatlady]

Yes! Omg, I had this exact same feeling yesterday. I've had a weird, stressful week and my left joycon is drifting horribly, and I'm not completely happy with my island. Mostly, I feel like I've seen many islands that I really like and really dig their themes (because they're going for a theme I'm also trying to make), but I'm clearly not at the point of what they've done. I also feel like I'm trying too hard to make my island look the way those people made them, so I've opted to delete the pics of reference that I had and looked up new things to get inspiration from (but not AC related). To make matters worse, I've been trying to decide my villagers. I'm having a tough time deciding who I want to keep and who I want to kick.

And to make matters EVEN worse, one of my favorite villagers asked to move out (which I said no, obviously), but it still felt like a punch in the gut, lol.

 

[Aliya]

Yes, I ended up resetting my old island because I couldn't change a majority of the things that bothered me, but sometimes I feel that way about my current island too. I wish I had more of my island on the second level and sometimes I wish my Residential area didn't take up so much room. I usually mess around with my map on an island planner website prior to creating everything in-game to help me visualize the space better. Overall, I'm accepting it and making the best of it now. This island has the main things I was resetting for and I'm going to keep it forever.

 

[supernerd]

Yes, I ended up resetting my old island because I couldn't change a majority of the things that bothered me, but sometimes I feel that way about my current island too. I wish I had more of my island on the second level and sometimes I wish my Residential area didn't take up so much room. I usually mess around with my map on an island planner website prior to creating everything in-game to help me visualize the space better. Overall, I'm accepting it and making the best of it now. This island has the main things I was resetting for and I'm going to keep it forever.

I was just thinking of using one of those island planners because I just tore up the area/river behind my town's plaza and now I'm like ?? what am I even doing. Do you have any in particular that you use? After reading all these replies, it's somewhat comforting to know I'm not the only one in this predicament. I wish we never felt this way in the first place though. I used to be mega accepting of everything I had, but today I woke up and was like "nope this isn't it," and I've felt restless since.

 

[Etown20]

Been feeling the same way lately. I have a lot of empty space that I just don't know how to fill. It can be frustrating to feel stuck, but at the same time, I'm glad the game is giving me a reason to keep playing and figure it out.

 

[natakazam]

yes. i will never be happy

 

[Altarium]

When I first started my island, I had no idea what I wanted to do, so I went with the flow. Now I have more of an idea of what I want to do, and it takes so much will power to get myself to just destruct and redesign an area that I know I can design better.

I will eventually have the will power to redesign areas I know I can do better. I've done it already with some area, and it always comes out better than before, but there's always that little thought that I might be making a mistake, and I might make it worse.

This so much! I'm terrified of redoing areas because I might make them actually worse than they were, and I'd have to fix them back up lol

 

[brockbrock]

I have an idea in mind for about half of what I want, and because I am moving at a snail's pace I hope I will organically decide how to fill in the gaps as I go along.

I totally understand where you're coming from, though. Some people just seem to have an innate eye for design and planning. We have no idea what they went through internally to get to that point, though. It's a bit like social media in the sense that we only see a snapshot that has been carefully constructed to project a subjective sense of perfection. It's easier said than done but in our best interests to not compare our islands to that of others, especially those posted online that clearly have had hundreds of hours painstakingly poured into filling every crevasse.

 

[supernerd]

I have an idea in mind for about half of what I want, and because I am moving at a snail's pace I hope I will organically decide how to fill in the gaps as I go along.

I totally understand where you're coming from, though. Some people just seem to have an innate eye for design and planning. We have no idea what they went through internally to get to that point, though. It's a bit like social media in the sense that we only see a snapshot that has been carefully constructed to project a subjective sense of perfection. It's easier said than done but in our best interests to not compare our islands to that of others, especially those posted online that clearly have had hundreds of hours painstakingly poured into filling every crevasse.

This is super true. Honestly I don't want to be done or my island to be perfect, I just am mega irritated I worked on all that I have and realized it's not going to be what I want! But I guess I gained the experience of that, at least. Thanks everyone, for letting me shout into the void.