IT DIDNT WORK!!!!

[Christy.lee1989]

omg im so upset! i did the whole putting a path everywhere excep where u want the new villager to move, i even left a bigger space than 3x3 just in case i messed up. no i did not make a new save file because the new villager was suposed to move RIGHT where i want it to, and does it mvoe there? NO! It moves in the middle on my freakin orchard where there is a path behind EVERY tree. no empty space for someone to move and it moved on top of my paths. didnt think it was like that!!!

the bad thing, i have always wanted this villager. TIffany. how did this happen? i did everything right!

now need to find out how to do my orchard in a different place or re arange it,

 

[orchidflesh]

Sometimes the system glitches if you have too many paths. I learned this the hard way with Kiki.
I leave at least 5 or 6 open spaces around my town now when I’m moving someone in, to prevent this. The “leaving one spot open” usually never works, even if it seems like it should. Always always always have backup open spaces available. Leave at least 5 or 6 spots that you wouldn’t mind someone moving into, because only leaving one is a disaster. Unless you want to plot reset, but even that is too scary for me to ever want to try.

 

[Christy.lee1989]

will have to remember that next time. jeez being mad at the placement and happy about tiffany, confusing. hah. i mean she was around the spot i wanted her to move into just not exactly right. i guess i will have to take out the orchard and let the villagers move in that spot. that way they will be around the same spot and just put the fruit trees in groups around my town.

 

[Creamcookies]

I did the plot reset too yesterday and this morning I decided to be safe than sorry and did make a new safe file. Low and behold my DREAMIE Beardo had move in right infront of the Re-tail. I was so mad but just exit and did it 3 more times before I got Savannah (thats the one I got eventually, she is cute though it's fine. Not like I really wanted Beardo.... *cries*) in the right spot. Now I walked through my town 10 times yesterday and no of the spots they placed their houses at where wrongly made except 1 (which I fixed). So I recommend to always do a new safe file to be sure. It only takes so little time. I only had 1 space open and this time I have 2 that are available for movers so hopefully it doesn't glitch again... (will however make a few more after reading this one.)

 

[-Blue-]

Sometimes paths don't work and sometimes plot resetting doesn't work right away. I know for a fact that I gave three home spots for a villager to plot into. And they just kept plotting on pathed areas. Eventually they plotted in the spots I wanted, but it took over a steady hour or maybe even two of trying to get their stupid butt in the desired location.

There's a lot to take into consideration also, because if the plot is near a mountain/river/body of water they need more opened space on each side to plot. There's really no reason other then it's a stubborn in game mechanic. And also only three things can be on one grid spot of the map. So if you have three villagers in one grid spot already, a fourth can't plot in there. It's a bit frustrating.

I managed to get all but one villager plotted where I wanted them and I kind of had to settle for one or two villagers being plotted in less desirable places. It takes a lot of time.

 

[Christy.lee1989]

so if i have a clear spot for about 5-6 villagers to fit in that one spot, only 3 will be there and i have to find a new spot? how do people get all their villagers to move in a row or in one space

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

It?s essential to start with a new character to prevent scenarios like that. Even with experience some things can go wrong and the villager can move into the wrong area/on paths. They usually ignore the path-rule if the space you selected for them does not fit. However, I have seen rare cases where the space was fine but a villager refused to move there. I can?t explain why that happens, my guess is that maybe there are certain spots where a villager will never move, just like there are spots where a tree can?t grow. But I have no evidence for that theory, nor have I heared a better one yet.
When I moved everyone in, I had the usual pattern grid-layout and only prepared the ONE space where I wanted that specific villager to move. I never had them ignore the patterns if I just prepared one space so I wouldn?t say that was the cause for your problem.

Try to always start with an new character if you suspect that someone could plot, it will save you so much trouble. Right now, I would try to find out why the villager ignored the rule and ploted on designs instead. Maybe you could post a picture so we can tell you if the space was suitable or not?

If you really dislike the space where the new villager moved, you CAN do a long process of moving their plot. That will take at least two days of work (and more if you want to keep any of your villagers you curently have). If you ever decide to go that route, let me know and i will look for the link to my tutorial. Just be warned that it will require a lot of work.

Otherwise you could try to get the villager to move quickly (I recommend not talking to them besides the introduction in that case), and hope that you pass the 16-villager cycle naturally within a few months.

 

[-Blue-]

Christy if you mean a straight line of five homes that are truly bunched together, then that person (who I assume you found their town on DA) were hacking in some way.

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

There's a lot to take into consideration also, because if the plot is near a mountain/river/body of water they need more opened space on each side to plot. There's really no reason other then it's a stubborn in game mechanic. And also only three things can be on one grid spot of the map. So if you have three villagers in one grid spot already, a fourth can't plot in there. It's a bit frustrating.

I managed to get all but one villager plotted where I wanted them and I kind of had to settle for one or two villagers being plotted in less desirable places. It takes a lot of time.

What exactly do you mean with "grid spot" ?
I was able to arrange all my villager houses the exact way I wanted:


If that still fits within your rule we might be onto something. That could explain why I sometimes see people who prepare the right plots but still face issues....*thinking*

 

[-Blue-]

It's tricky to figure out where one grid ends and one begins because the map of your NL town isn't sectioned in the true grids. They have spots like 1A 2A 3A 1B 2B 3B so on and so on until they get to the bottom of the map. And so one of those spots can only house three things. Like if your mayor home is there, only two more things can go there.

 

[Christy.lee1989]

i have already erased much of the paths but i redid this spot where i had to her to move. i was told leave a 3x3 spot open but this is a 4x4 spot. everywhere else had paths. u can clearly see where she decided to plot, irght above the intended spot.

 

[-Blue-]

How much space is there between this home and the plotted villager at the uppermost part of the picture? I think you need two spaces at the very least. Also I'm not sure, but I think the rock might interfere with the plot?

 

[Christy.lee1989]

the one that has not moved in is the one that was ment for that empty space. there is one to the left u can barely see the white fence, but there is two spaces in between

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

It's tricky to figure out where one grid ends and one begins because the map of your NL town isn't sectioned in the true grids. They have spots like 1A 2A 3A 1B 2B 3B so on and so on until they get to the bottom of the map. And so one of those spots can only house three things. Like if your mayor home is there, only two more things can go there.

Thats super interesting! Where did you first hear that theory or is it your own observation?
I think I know what you are talking about. I don?t have the requirements to edit my town map but I have seen people use the safe editor before and the town there is divided into a random combination of a group of preset acres. I don?t remember if they are large enough to fit 4 houses though.
update: I didn?t find much but this example. I think you mean the acres that are divided by the thin grey lines in that map right?

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i have already erased much of the paths but i redid this spot where i had to her to move. i was told leave a 3x3 spot open but this is a 4x4 spot. everywhere else had paths. u can clearly see where she decided to plot, irght above the intended spot.


View attachment 218949

The space seems indeed fine, thank you for posting the picture but I can?t seem to find an error in your plot. Maybe the explanations could be TheDuke55?s theory. At least this proves once again that it?s important to always go for 200% safety and create a new character, just in case something weird like this happens...

 

[Christy.lee1989]

yeah will be making a new character from now on. dont want this happening again.

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

yeah will be making a new character from now on. dont want this happening again.

I have observed the following:

• When a villager decides to move, that is saved by the game. So when checking if someone wants to leave, its an option to skip forward more than 10 days and check with a new character if a house is missing. Whatever you see is most likely what will always happen, so you can turn off the game and just play with your mayor and get the same result when loading.
• When a new villager moves in, the fact that they move in, where their plot will be and who they are will be decided when loading the game but only saved when loading with an already existing character. In this case you have to make a new character AND set up a house for them + save with Isabelle and exit in order to save the state of the game.

It?s the only reason why plot resetting works but it would still be more convenient if you didn?t have to create a house. However, the whole process should be only about 5 min so it?s worth it.

 

[Christy.lee1989]

not a perfectly clear picture, but this is my map, where im standing is where i wanted her to plot. i have 3 close to each other, but like the map posted on the first page had way more in one spot and it was fine.



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btw, stll wishing elmer the horse would move, first day after i made my town, didnt know about plot resetting and all that stuff, (played a while back, forgot and have nto played since amiibo update) and he moves RIGHT in front ofmy house. 3 spaces down. yeah cant wait for him to move!

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

not a perfectly clear picture, but this is my map, where im standing is where i wanted her to plot. i have 3 close to each other, but like the map posted on the first page had way more in one spot and it was fine.

View attachment 218951

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btw, stll wishing elmer the horse would move, first day after i made my town, didnt know about plot resetting and all that stuff, (played a while back, forgot and have nto played since amiibo update) and he moves RIGHT in front ofmy house. 3 spaces down. yeah cant wait for him to move!

Well if TheDuke55?s theory is correct (and I understood it correctly...) you could try looking at this map and try to project the grey lines on yours. I think they meant that you can only have 3 houses in each of these areas.
I wish I knew how to get a villager to move out faster. When I cycled I found that they tended to move much quicker if the game thought I never tried to be friends with them. So i only innitiated one dialogue to introduce myself and then left them alone (sometimes not even that). However, i doubt that it will have an effect if you have already spoken to a villager a couple of times, even if it wasn?t often.

 

[Christy.lee1989]

yeah i have spoken to him a lot because i read on here someone say that they move out quicker if u become good friends with them. so far thats not working out well

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are there grey lines on the map itself? cause i dont see any

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

Sorry for the late reply...^^ll

well the map is divided by a grid of thin grey lines. Those are the predesigned-acres a town is made up of. They made a bunch of these and the game arranges them randomly according to certain rules but they should always have the same size. I just assumed that TheDuke55 meant this when they talked about squares in the map. If you still cant see them I can try to mark them for you.^^

Also about talking to villagers: I think the opinions are quite diverse. Some people say it works better if you talk to them. I have heared the theory before that the game puts villagers on some "friendship-level" and once they are on there, they will move less likely. Supposedly the game does that if you talk to them any more than the basic introduction. I recently cycled about 20+ villagers out of my town while keeping two. I sometimes introduced myself to the new villagers and sometimes didnt. In both cases they seemed a LOT more likely to leave compared to the two dreamies I had had in my town for a while and spoken to often. Even the villager I hadn?t had in my town for long would take a long time to leave, even though I hadn?t spoken to him nearly as much as to the other two...
That is just my personal experience. But I believe now that the best thing is to avoid befriending the villagers entirely.
The person with the original theory suggested to make a new character and introduce yourself to everyone but the unwanted villagers because that would make them non-friends of at least one player. Maybe you could try that?