Is this actually true?

[-Apples-]

The question is asking about this algorithm where some items are being sold more frequently than the others. I'm talking the group mechanic (the algorithm that annoyed me in the past two towns).

The question is, does the grass pattern tell what item group you have? In Westport and Belcroft, I had square grass. The items sold were primarily lovely furniture, modern wood furniture, polka dot furniture, minimalist furniture, and alpine furniture. Furniture like the cabin series and robo series were never sold, not infrequently sold, but never sold. In StarFall, I had circle grass instead, and the cabin series and robo series, along with the stripe series, dominated the furniture sold at the Nooklings stores.

So does the grass pattern really influence what item group you get in the stores?

 

[Amissapanda]

I never noticed any such thing with before, but that's interesting. As far as I knew, it was all random, but now I'm curious.

I guess I'll lurk for awhile and see what other people's verdicts are.

 

[Ichigo.]

that's interesting. my town's grass pattern is circle, and i've noticed that villagers will often give me robo-furniture. I notice a lot of striped furniture in nooklings as well (in additional to the minimalist set).

 

[-Apples-]

Before I started joining online AC communities, the whole group mechanic thing was very annoying. I hated that some items were sold more frequently than the others. 3 months ago, I was suggesting on GameFAQs that they take out the group mechanic, but that's not going to happen since they want to encourage trading. The reason: to make the game more interactive. So basically, they're making some items never sold at stores while other items always sold at stores to get more people to play online. I even listed the group mechanic as one of the problems that needed to be solved next game on one of my blog entries.

Nevertheless, I'll look for some answers to see if the grass patterns and item groups are related to each other.

 

[DoctorGallifrey]

I never thought about that, nor have I ever noticed it.

I didn't even know about the feng shui guide until recently.

 

[-Apples-]

According to the guides, I think the group mechanic was one of the game's secrets, or maybe because guide writers don't know about how the items are sold.

 

[effluo]

I've heard this theory before. I don't remember if it was said that it was the grass or the train station color or town fruit that was thought to affect the items you may come across in your town.

I have noticed this myself. I have things showing up in my second town that I never saw playing a year in my first.

Like you said it must be to encourage people to interact with others.

 

[Cuppycakez]

Oh wow! This is really interesting.


In one of my towns I have NEVER seen a piece of cabin furniture. Even in retail!! So not sure why... it's in one of my villagers houses but they aren't selling anything to me because I blocked off that whole side of retail.

Posting to follow, as I had no idea of this amazing guide/way this worked! But I've never had start grass in winter/whatever season it is.

 

[Envelin]

that's interesting. my town's grass pattern is circle, and i've noticed that villagers will often give me robo-furniture. I notice a lot of striped furniture in nooklings as well (in additional to the minimalist set).

I get the same thing and I have circle grass too. ;-;

 

[Noctis]

You know I never thought of that, but in my main town I have square grass as well. The robo series and cabin were rarely sold. I probably only seen one items sold for each set. I also have circle grass in my second town but I can't say much for now since I have the T&T Mart.

 

[snowblizzard24]

I never knew this mechanism, I always thought it was random. When I first started the game, I constantly had the lovely and modern set show up in stores and villagers sending them to me. I have the circle grass though but I never saw the robo set and very rarely the stripe set which some others have seen, so maybe the grass isn't the main factor?

 

[Mega_Cabbage]

I have the circle grass and the robo set is pretty common and I rarely ever see the stripe set and lovely set. The polka dot set and the alpine is common too though. I still think it's random.

 

[Chibi.Hoshi]

Interesting! I've never thought it like that.
I have circle grass as well. The Minimalist Series I see very rarely. I know because I am still trying to collect the full series by myself alone for over a year.

 

[-Apples-]

I've heard this theory before. I don't remember if it was said that it was the grass or the train station color or town fruit that was thought to affect the items you may come across in your town.

I have noticed this myself. I have things showing up in my second town that I never saw playing a year in my first.

Like you said it must be to encourage people to interact with others.

I'm not so sure about how town fruit and train station color can influence what items you get in stores. There are three item groups and five fruits. 5 isn't divisible by 3. As for train station colors, I can prove you wrong on that. In my town of Westport, I have a red roof on my train station. In Belcroft, it had a blue. Both towns sold the same items over and over again. In StarFall, it had a red roof like Westport's, but sold different items.

I never knew this mechanism, I always thought it was random. When I first started the game, I constantly had the lovely and modern set show up in stores and villagers sending them to me. I have the circle grass though but I never saw the robo set and very rarely the stripe set which some others have seen, so maybe the grass isn't the main factor?

That's pretty interesting. Have you been checking the store everyday? If you have, then maybe the item groups are just random variables sitting alone like the train station colors and town fruit. I would prefer that biomes would determine what items will be commonly sold and rarely sold in your town in the next game. Grass patterns, town fruit, and train station color wouldn't be the factors if biomes are.

I have the circle grass and the robo set is pretty common and I rarely ever see the stripe set and lovely set. The polka dot set and the alpine is common too though. I still think it's random.

Then maybe groups don't exist in ACNL like it did in the past. Or maybe, they randomly select certain furniture series and put them together like how you would make a sandwich at Subway.

According to one of Liquefy's posts on GameFAQs, Group A items are rarely sold if Group B is the dominant group. Group B items are rarely sold if Group C is the dominant group. Group C items are rarely sold of Group A was the dominant group. In addition, he said that good Feng Shui would increase the chances of items in rare groups in the stores. Oh, and in past games, not all of one furniture series is part of one item group like it is in New Leaf.

There isn't really any evidence that item groups exist, but I'm sure that there is such algorithm that makes it exist. I know the item groups influence what the Nookling's sell, what the Ables sell, what other stores sell, and what items are more frequently found in furniture trees and the Re-Tail.

 

[kasane]

Wow. That's kinda creepy
I never realised this, but I guess we can't say for sure??

 

[snowblizzard24]

For a whole 5 months (by myself without the help of any sites since I didn't know about tbt and such beforehand) I checked it on a daily basis for furniture I wanted. Since I'm a completionist too, I wanted every single piece of each furniture set and checked with a site called http://animalcrossingnl.mooo.com to see what I had left to collect. I always had lots of gaps with almost every furniture set except for lovely which by the end o aboutf 3 months I already completed it without the lovely phone of course and with the modern I had to just find the sofa. by then I also had a piece of the stripe series which was the sink that kept appearing way too often and no robo furniture which I thought was really weird and so that's when I started joining sites like gamefaqs to trade/catalog. They still don't appear often even now, so it could be a random thing in the algorithms like with fruit, idk. It's interesting to think about it though.

 

[Serine_Sapphire88]

Huh. That's really interesting. I never really noticed before. I just went with the flow of things and I used to regularly shake trees for furniture. And if there were pieces of a series I liked but could never find I asked some people I knew if I could catalog certain things they had displayed in their house.

So yeah, I guess because of this, the interactivity was further encouraged. But it was already if you wanted to plant normal non-native fruit in your town right away.

 

[Pirate]

I had a thought about this once before, but not related to grass shapes. One of my previous towns was named Harajuku, a Japanese word and location in Japan and I noticed that I was getting a LOT of the asian-themed items, more than I'd ever had them in any other town. I started to wonder if it was because of the town name, but it might have just been pure coincidence, or perhaps related to grass shapes, but I've never really bothered to pay attention to the shape of my grass in my towns (mainly because I never noticed there were any differences until I joined TBT) so I don't know.

 

[FireNinja1]

This is certainly interesting, but I already have all 20 of the sets, and I really don't check my shops anymore. Probably why I don't notice stuff like that. It could be a mix of other factors, not just grass too.

 

[Christopaz]

This... calls for a survey! For the sake of science that is.

Apple, Square Grass, Lovely set keeps popping up on me.