Need help with natural dirt paths.

[Haydenv019]

I'm starting to get back into ACNL (Again), and I was wondering how do people make natural dirt paths? I've been searching through the internet lately and some vague results come up,
some even wanting to REPAIR deteriorating grass, which I don't want at the moment.

The twist here is that I want to time travel while making them so I can significantly decrease the time it takes to make those paths (some say a month of daily playing, which I'm a bit too busy/lazy to accommodate for that)

Much help appreciated and thanks in advance!

Stay fresh

 

[honeyaura]

The only method I know is running along the path as much as possible everyday. People even ask others to help out with it too, and to make it easier they'd place paths so they know exactly where the natural path would be. Idk how it all works, but I think is right sorry ;;

 

[John Wick]

I have always had dirt paths. Just walk (run if you want) the same route every day, several times a day. ^_^

 

[katysu]

Grass wear isn't totally the same as it was in accf - wear in accf was researched thoroughly via an editor to look at the underlying programming, but that hasn't been done in acnl, so how it works is partly guess work.

In accf grass grew once a day but could wear on every load of the game - one wiki says this doesn't happen in acnl - I wouldn't be too sure as I do load several times a day & I do have significant grass wear.
Grass only wears on the tiles you actually step on. Walking or running it doesn't matter, both have the same effect.

The following only my gut feel, not confirmed: visitors over to your town can't wear the grass - but you do on every load of the game & when you wifi the game saves & effectively reloads - hence the massive grass wear you can get if you are playing online in your town (with visitors). Logical as the grass wear mechanic is for a player to form natural paths - not for visitors to do so.

My advice is thus to load the game more than once a day (as grass grows once per day, so only one load keeps things in balance).
On the 2nd & further loads of the game run (might as well, it makes it faster) along the paths you are trying to make.
Initially having patterns on the paths makes it easier to see & plant flowers/trees/bushes either side to help prevent them 'bleeding'.

Its hard work and needs daily maintenance, it isn't helped that in acnl the grass seems to grow back in winter (the direct opposite of what happened in accf).

 

[Anactoria]

Hey! I'm just making mine right now, so we're in pretty much the same boat! I asked for help and tips from people on here too I was TTing a fair bit up to a couple weeks ago, but I was aiming to get PWPs and wasn't focused on the paths. But since I'd laid them out before starting, my dirt paths have actually been forming under my nose. (So yay!) They're not quite full-bodied yet, but the main ones are shaping up nicely... Didn't feel like it took much time either, since it wasn't my only goal.

That said, I'd like to switch back to playing in real time soon, but I'm terrified of having to redo all the paths, when I TT from summer to now. I'm actually still not sure how much the grass grows back in the winter - if it's just like ALL grown back. So maybe you could plan that out beforehand? If you TT forwards in time, then it wouldn't be a problem TTing back, since it'd just count for one day. But I made the mistake of TTing to the summer of 2017 ;_; Think I'll just finish up my town for a dream address before I TT out all my path progress...

In any case, I'd suggest laying/planning out your paths. Bushes (even temporary ones) help a lot - they don't have to line your paths, but have one every so often so that you don't trample on flowers or spread your path. I purchased like 150+ clovers on here to use as path markers, since they don't affect grasswear, but you could also use dropped objects (or QR paths with caution - I heard they minimize wear). I'd also suggest being sure where you want them, since otherwise it could take even longer if you changed the routes halfway through.

Good luck with it!!