Map Anxiety?

[primandimproper]

It's totally possible that this might be a me thing because I suffer from severe social and generalised anxiety, but this game totally gives me map anxiety. I feel like no matter what map I pick, I'm not gonna have enough room to put down the PwPs. Or I'll have to compromise on where I want to put them or restart from lack of space.

My anxiety would probably be lessened if I started plot resetting my villagers, but I feel like that takes the challenge out of the game. Plus, I have no idea how to do it and the tutorials make it seem overly complicated, imo.

Does anyone else deal with map anxiety in this game?

 

[Tomoe Hotaru]

I had some anxiety when having to choose my map, but after that I was "stuck" with it. Part of what makes your town so unique is finding solutions to the unique challenges your map presents.
If I don?t know where to place something, I don?t place it. A good layout will take its time and I usually wait until I have a good idea for a PWP before I consider placing it. Sometimes you will run out of space in one area, but that makes you explore other ideas and come up with different ways to use that space. No one says you have to build X amount of PWPs in your town or it won?t be pretty. The key is that you play and have fun. With time, villagers will suggest PWPs you could complete and there will be moments when you have the perfect idea for an area. - Sometimes that idea wont work out, but you will definitely have another one.
While I think it?s important to pick a map that one can imagine playing in for a long time, most maps are fairly equal in terms of available space. Don?t stress over maps too much. Find out what could cause mayor issues for you (e.g. retail and town hall being very close together, very small strip of land between river and traintracks that won?t allow for placement of bigger PWPs or houses) and try to avoid these. Anything else will work out^^
You don?t need to build something in a specific area or immediately when a villager suggests it. There?s always more than one solution, that?s what makes every town spechial and unique!

- - - Post Merge - - -

on a side note....I really recommend you try out plot resetting if you don?t have any "moral" concerns about it.
It?s fairly simple:

1. place down a grid of patterns in your town every 3rd space so you don?t have a free space of 3x3 tiles left
it should look somewhat like this:
x = design o = no design (but plants or items etc.)

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOXOOXOOXOOXOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO
OOXOOXOOXOOXOO
OOOOOOOOOOOOOO​

2. create spaces where you want the villagers to move:

• open up an area of 3x3 tiles and surround that with designs to make it more visible for yourself.
• keep in mind that a villager?s house needs 1-square space all around it with no stones or other fixed structures
• the space cannot overlap with the 1-square space of any other building
• so basically: a villager house needs only one space gap between it and a stone but two spaces between itself and another villager?s house, a PWP or a town building.

3. plot reset

• when a villager could move in (when the 9th one left, or when you still have 9 but did streetpass or any other kind of online-activity), don?t start the game with an already existing character
• create a new character and walk around town to check for a villager plot, basically the trick here is that the game will save if a villager moved in and who moves in if you load with an already existing character (e.g. your mayor). If you start a new character, the game will load a possible scenario but won?t save it. So you can observe something that "could" happen, and just turn off the system/soft reset without saving if you don?t like what you see. If you like what you see, you need to go through with the basic tuturial (about 5 min) and place down a house with Tom Nook. After that you can save with Isabelle and that moment will save who moved in and where they moved.
• So walk around with the new character and check for a house plot.
• what if you see one where you don?t want it? - In that case you probably made a mistake with the pattern grid and left a 3x3 space open OR the space you left for the villager to move wasn?t suitable for a house.
  
  -The first is easy to fix: just set your time back to the day you last saved and place the pattern down so no one will move there anymore. After that you can continue plot resetting.
  -If your villager moves directly on patterns, just ask here and I?m sure people will help you take a look and see if the place you designated for that villager wasn?t suitable. (its just the rule I described above)​
• If the villager is in the right spot but not the villager you like, tap the power button and then the home button to get to the home menu without saving. Start a new character again until the plot belongs to a villager you want. Then finish the tutorial and save - done!

Pro tip: the first day after someone moved, the chance of someone new moving in is very slim. If you plot reset you will often have a scenario where no one moves and it can take a long time to get a villager you want.

• Instead, try time traveling a few days forward (about 4) and plot reset then. The chance for a new villager moving in that day should be much higher.
• If you want to play naturally, just make a new character for the first 3 days when you first play the game. Walk around with the new character and save if you don?t see a house plot. Then by the 4th day you will have a really high chance to see a house and plot restting is most effective.

All that sounds like a lot because I tried to cover different scenarios. But once you understood the rules it becomes very very convenient! If you are still confused or have further questions, just let me know and I try my best to help out^^

 

[Dracule]

I personally don’t deal with it. The only map I’ve had to choose is for my own town Komorebi. I loaded up the game and didn’t realize that there were multiple options besides the choices given to you on the first try. I just picked the one I liked best and worked around it. I’ve read that a lot of people on the forums will spend hours and hours picking perfect maps, but I feel like that’s so stressful and might cause frustration.

Anyways, Nugget and Hayfon (my sister and older brother’s towns) were already set up. Instead of changing anything I went ahead and worked on the current map and didn’t try to worry about what PWP would or wouldn’t go where.

Plot resetting seems like a ton of work, so I do lazy plot resetting. I basically scan in villagers and open up spaces where they could be forced to go. Sometimes it works and sometimes they move to the last spot of my last moved-out villager. XD

I’d say try not to think of all the future aspects of the game. Start with the choices of maps and pick the one that puts an impression on you first time. That may be completely unhelpful, but it worked for me so I thought I’d share.

 

[Khaelis]

-SNIP-

Trust me, primandimproper, I do this and it removes soooo much stress. The only annoying part is placing all the patterns. Afterwards plot resetting is a breeze. Chances are the villager will go in the only 3x3 you have open, 100% of the time. However, create a new character anyways, JUST in case.

Also, you're able to invite villagers from other towns on the same day you have a villager plotted now, so it's even quicker.




As for the topic of the thread? Definitely. I'm pretty anxious myself and I tend to zone in a lot of negatives with my map. Heck, I spent days getting Laelia's town map being near perfect and I'm already fussing over like two imperfections I've seen.. damn rocks. <_<