Keeping your dream neighbors forever: is it feasible?

[Twisk]

When I get my dream neighbors, I'm hoping to keep them forever. I love the idea of having a stable town, and being able to use all four of my characters for room/house decorating, storage, and patterns (instead of always having to use one as a permanent house-scout for the reset trick).

For those of you who have had all your dream neighbors for a while, what has been your experience in trying to keep them in town? Specifically, has there ever been an instance when you tried to convince a neighbor to stay, but they left anyway? Because I've heard of this happening and it worries me! (My theory is that having high friendship with a villager is important if you want to convince them to either stay or leave, but I want to hear others' thoughts and experiences!)

 

[Hyoon]

In my experience, if you ask someone to stay, 100% of the time they will agree. I guess in the super rare chance that they'll move anyways, you should just exit the game without saving and try again. I do think friendship does play a role (to a certain degree) in them wanting to leave though. But then again, some people vouch that ignoring works for them. I still mainly think that the chance of any villager leaving on any certain day is completely random. Just don't TT too many days and you should be fine~ c:

 

[Itachi]

In my experience, if you ask someone to stay, 100% of the time they will agree. I guess in the super rare chance that they'll move anyways, you should just exit the game without saving and try again. I do think friendship does play a role (to a certain degree) in them wanting to leave though. But then again, some people vouch that ignoring works for them. I still mainly think that the chance of any villager leaving on any certain day is completely random. Just don't TT too many days and you should be fine~ c:

Exactly this. I have all my dreamies and most them have told me they're moving. Like mochichou said, they always agree to stay 100% of the time. Regardless of friendship, villagers will always be convinced to stay. Also in my experience, villagers who tell you they want to leave is completely random (doesn't matter if your friendship with them is completely maxed) Your future dreamies will be completely safe don't worry!

 

[Hype]

Like the others have said if they tell you they are moving and you ask them to stay they will stay no matter what.

 

[Miss Renee]

I haven't had any trouble keeping my villagers so far.
Sometimes I wonder what will happen if I stop playing for a while? Will I come back to ruins?
The day before yesterday I restarted my cycling town and I might make it my main town because
I don't like worrying about someone moving or feeling like I HAVE to play the game.

The other night I really looked at my town and all of my villagers.
I have decided that I absolutely have to have Jambette and Tex.
So...yeah. I'm not sure what to do just yet.

I think that maybe having more dream villagers than those two isn't for me after all. ;c

 

[Static Spark]

I'm gonna repeat this here: It took me forever to get Goose out of my town too

I think the best method of getting villagers out (and saving the ones you want) is: first, make sure no one wants to move. How you do this is: set the 3DS date 5 days ahead, and START UP A NEW FILE. Not your mayor. Once you can see the map, if someone moved, you'll know who to try and get to ping you. It's very important to make sure to set the day back to where you originally were, then load your mayor and get that villager to ping you if it's one you want to keep. If it isn't you can just skip 6 days to get them the heck out of your town!

If someone tries to move or has just moved out/in, it's safe to skip 3-4 days, and then save and quit. Then, skip ahead 5 days and check again with a new file character. If no one moved, you'll need to go back to the original date and skip another 3, then check again (someone should definitely have moved this time). This method is a LOT faster than any other TTing method (relentlessly trying to get ALL your villagers to ping is horrible), and generally safer too, since you can reliably catch your dreamies trying to move out and stop them, instead of missing their pings randomly.

If you want to make sure that your dreamies never leave, this method of checking is much more reliable than hoping to catch their random pings. And also...

Your dreamies CAN sometimes decide to move even if you tell them to stay, so make sure that you don't save after they do that, and reload and get them to ping you again if you mess up (same as if an undesirable villager stays even though you told them to leave)

 

[Zanessa]

Once I get another copy of Peanut's picture, she'll be leaving.

The only dreamies I plan to keep are Coco, Truffles, and Phoebe. Maple and Eugene are possibilities in the "keeping forever" place. Everyone else will go and change up.

 

[Arrei]

I think the best method of getting villagers out (and saving the ones you want) is: first, make sure no one wants to move. How you do this is: set the 3DS date 5 days ahead, and START UP A NEW FILE. Not your mayor. Once you can see the map, if someone moved, you'll know who to try and get to ping you. It's very important to make sure to set the day back to where you originally were, then load your mayor and get that villager to ping you if it's one you want to keep. If it isn't you can just skip 6 days to get them the heck out of your town!

If someone tries to move or has just moved out/in, it's safe to skip 3-4 days, and then save and quit. Then, skip ahead 5 days and check again with a new file character. If no one moved, you'll need to go back to the original date and skip another 3, then check again (someone should definitely have moved this time). This method is a LOT faster than any other TTing method (relentlessly trying to get ALL your villagers to ping is horrible), and generally safer too, since you can reliably catch your dreamies trying to move out and stop them, instead of missing their pings randomly.

If you want to make sure that your dreamies never leave, this method of checking is much more reliable than hoping to catch their random pings. And also...

Your dreamies CAN sometimes decide to move even if you tell them to stay, so make sure that you don't save after they do that, and reload and get them to ping you again if you mess up (same as if an undesirable villager stays even though you told them to leave)

Two things: first, why 5 days ahead? Wouldn't five days ahead be the day they're in boxes, and thus cause them to still be on the map when you use the new character?

Second, are you sure about that sometimes moving even when you ask them to stay? I've had that happen literally zero times.

 

[Static Spark]

Two things: first, why 5 days ahead? Wouldn't five days ahead be the day they're in boxes, and thus cause them to still be on the map when you use the new character?

Second, are you sure about that sometimes moving even when you ask them to stay? I've had that happen literally zero times.

You skip 5 days because if they don't ping, they usually just leave without even being in boxes. If you want to avoid wasting a day of having them be in boxes you can just skip 6, I do that sometimes lol.

I'm not sure... I was going by what I heard from other people. I do know for sure that villagers might stay even if you tell them to go, lol

 

[Sleepy]

Honestly, I've never had a problem with a villager moving out that I didn't want to go. At least in New Leaf, anyway.

 

[Twisk]

Thanks everyone for the reassurance, tips, and information!
To be honest, this thread might have been created because one of my dream neighbors just asked to move, and I convinced them to stay, but I'm still a bit worried they might choose to move anyway. This has never happened to me before personally, though; all the neighbors I've convinced to stay in the past have stayed. I guess I should just try to keep my neighbors happy and satisfied in my town, and always be checking up on ones thinking about moving!