I know I did things backwards. I decorated my town and got my 5 star rating before Terraforming (I have really bad OCD sometimes that I think prevents me from tearing things down when I feel like I've gotten them how I like them, then I go back and BOOM! It's not how I like it.) but now there are things about my island I want to change, landscape wise so I've started doing that. I'm not so much asking for help really, but rather I'd love to hear your terraforming stories/how you started/things you wish you knew/etc.
Just started terraforming
- Thread starter Kristea
- Start date
I haven't started to fully terraform and I have a 5 star island. I'm working on custom designs first, laying down paths, moving buildings and then begin to shred the ground.
I'm pretty slow and laid-back.
I'm pretty slow and laid-back.
AppleBitterCrumble
TBT Hoarder
after 3 months of terraforming and landscaping and not really getting where I want to in the game I made a spontaneous decision to reset tomorrow. Ive been slowly getting rid of a lot of my items and hybrids bc theyd just go to waste and ive found a really lovely player to hold onto my bells/nmt/DIYs. This time I hope to take things slower than before
I'm the same way, I think. I had a lot of fun setting my town up, that I didn't really consider terraforming for a bit. Then I realized I have a few cliffs I just can't stand so I turned one into a waterfall
You know, I considered resetting my town at one point after learning a bunch of new things. But I've put so much time and effort into it that I don't think I have the heart too. Plus I have a handful of villagers I absolutely love (Nana, Poppy, Audie & Wolfgang) that I just don't think I wanna villager-hunt for all over again lol
It's times like this, however, I wish I could have a second town. I really miss that.
When I got the option to terraform my island, I didn't change much of it. I only widened or expanded some areas, but I didn't tear everything down and started from scratch. Now I find myself in a situation where I'd like to build more staircases elsewhere but I can't because I placed them in areas where I could've saved them otherwise. I'd have to move many houses to the beach in order to tear everything down, and I'm too lazy to do that lol.
I find I am in a situation similar to that. I didn't put my villager houses all together and now I wish I did, but in order to fix that I'd have to tear down so much D:
SimplyLuna
Senior Member
Terra-forming can be tough process, especially if you don't know what to do or where to start. I had been avoiding it for 2 months, until I took the plunge 2 weeks ago. I am still in the process, my island is only half done and I am constantly changing things around ever second but one thing I have learned is to just have fun with it and not compare my island to others cause it can get discouraging at times.
I started to terraform the moment I unlocked the ability to do so because I already had an idea in mind for a basic layout and it was completely different from my original map. Literally nothing is the same anymore, I completely changed the river, cliffs and ponds. In my case, decorating first wouldn't have been possible since I wanted to change the entire map but if I was going for a more natural look then I would have probably decorated first and then terraformed around the decorations later.
I drew out my idea on a piece of paper and also used those island planning websites which helped before I started terraforming. I also took a pic of my original map in case I did something wrong with my terraforming or hated it so I can terraform it back to how it used to be but I'm happy with how it turned out.
I drew out my idea on a piece of paper and also used those island planning websites which helped before I started terraforming. I also took a pic of my original map in case I did something wrong with my terraforming or hated it so I can terraform it back to how it used to be but I'm happy with how it turned out.
Bluebellie
Senior Member
I started terraforming from the beginning. I didn’t really have an idea of where I wanted to place the building except the villager houses. I knew the villager houses needed to be next to villager services (it makes sense) and that I wanted them on the flat first tier. Then I sort of experimented second tier / third tier and the houses until I Found what works. I keep tearing down things, and I’m not 100% done, but I’m getting there. So far I have the character houses and shopping buildings in the second tier. Villager houses /Residential services and museum on the first tier, and the third tier is scenic areas.
When I first got the terraforming I did delete all the rivers and cliffs, and started from scratch.
When I first got the terraforming I did delete all the rivers and cliffs, and started from scratch.
if i could go back in time i'd tell myself not to plan it all out all at once. i segment my island so i don't feel overwhelmed and can try out different styles without committing endless hours to terraforming. i started at my airport because i wanna show off and then moved out from there. it gave me a good starting point. (also i get island compliments but they have no idea that 60% of my island is a mess hehehe)
the biggest thing i realized was that the camera doesn't handle the 3rd tier well if you're standing on the 1st tier to the north of it. your character disappears, and if you talk to a villager or catch a bug it'll shift to this wonky 100% top-down angle and it looks awkward. i had a bunch of 3rd tier terraforming in the southern part of my island and nixed all of it.
the biggest thing i realized was that the camera doesn't handle the 3rd tier well if you're standing on the 1st tier to the north of it. your character disappears, and if you talk to a villager or catch a bug it'll shift to this wonky 100% top-down angle and it looks awkward. i had a bunch of 3rd tier terraforming in the southern part of my island and nixed all of it.
neoqueenserenity
The moonlight is a messenger of love.
I've terraformed my island here and there. I wanted to keep my island layout from when I started but enhance it at the same time, versus completely starting out with a blank canvas and wiping out everything. I've been having some trouble with moving around rivers/ponds, but I've made some nice residential areas 
I've also enjoyed looking at some of the cottagecore ideas on Twitter they are cayooooot
I've also enjoyed looking at some of the cottagecore ideas on Twitter they are cayooooot
My biggest regret was removing the whole river around the island. I think it's best to put paths down before decide to build things up, make sure to measure out the sizes of each building so you know how much room you'll need, too.
This is how I felt when I completed wiped everything out. I was worried because rivers and ponds are a bit of a pain to figure out but I think overall I'm happy I did because the rivers were really limiting my ability to plan stuff out.
They still are limiting my plans unfortunately. Because I want to put houses around, but I don't know how much space I'll need for a yard for each house, and then the river cutting through, I just feel overwhelmed. I had something planned out but I tore it all down and started trying to reconstruct things. I like the ability to terra-form, but not knowing how the whole thing will turn out in the long run sucks.
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