New Horizons needs more events

[tolisamarie]

I used to play Sims Freeplay, and it seemed there was a new event almost every week. I wish New Horizons was like that.

I've mostly run out of things to do.

I have my permanent villagers.
I'm at best friend status with all my villagers.
My island is terra-formed the way I want it.
I finished decorating all my houses.
My museum is 100% complete.
I have all the gold tool recipes.
I've received all the Gulliver, Gullivarrr, Pascal & Redd items.
I've unlocked all of Label's clothes.
I have more bells than I could ever spend.

If there were new things to do each week, like quests to collect more furniture sets, I would be motivated to play more often. There have been weeks when I haven't bothered to play at all.

I know that after Halloween there are a few more events this year (Harvest Festival, Toy Day & New Year's Eve) but there's a lot of time in between that could be filled with mini-quests, or things like the wedding event, where you do something to earn materials that you can trade for items.

What do you think?

 

[meggiewes]

I think it is fine right now and I have accepted that I don't know how they are handling this installment, so I'm not hoping for anything. I also love that this isn't a mobile game and that I don't feel stressed to keep up with it. Then again, I don't time travel and my village is in constant flux at the moment, so I haven't run out of things to do. In fact, I was going to lament in the rant thread about how easy it is to get sucked into the game instead of spending 15-30 minutes on it like my original plan was today. It was easier to pop in and pop out with New Leaf.

I did miss Columbus Day. And we did have a small museum event that EVERYONE complained about, so that is probably why they have been focusing on bigger and beefier events at the moment.

 

[QueenOpossum]

Mobile games have frequent events because they get "whales" to pay up.

Whales are what supports free to play games - they are the players who spend thousands of dollars on items or in game currency.

Very few console games do that sort of thing. Not to mention, as someone who works full time+, I gave up on Pocket Camp because they abandoned adding regular content in favor of content that was limited to, again, compel people to spend money because of Fear Of Missing Out.

Small more frequent events would be lovely, but you aren't going to get the same level of content as a mobile game without someone paying for it. And in a $60 game, they don't have the whales to depend on.

 

[Marshmallows]

I kind of like the slow paced month-long events because I don't feel pressured or rushed. It can get stressful if there's a new event every week.
I can't wait to see what's planned for next month.

I do agree that there could be more to do than just decorate, though.. some other activity other than diving, bug catching, or fishing maybe? But honestly I have plenty to do and nowhere near finished with anything.

 

[EmmaFrost]

Wow, congrats on accomplishing all of that in your game. At that stage I can see why you'd feel a bit bored, for sure. It would be great if there were more frequent events. Like how each Sunday night in August had fireworks, it would be cool if there was a different monthly festival that happened on Sunday evenings.

 

[Livia]

I wouldn’t like it if there were too many events. I play pocket camp and township and I’m getting exhausted by the constant events that are always going on. I feel like I can never relax and just enjoy the games because I’m always grinding to finish an event and get all the prizes. I still like pocket camp, but I really want a break from doing event tasks all the time.

edit: I used to play sims freeplay too, and one of the reasons I stopped was because I didn’t like the constant events in that game either. I could never finish them and then I was disappointed about missing out on new furniture.

 

[maria110]

I agree with you. I wish there was more to do. My museum is not complete but I don't feel like fishing and bug catching very often so I'll play the long game for all that. But diversions would be nice. If the game devs had known there was going to be a pandemic, they might've included more frequent diversions. But they probably figured people would be out doing normal stuff instead of playing ACNH for so many hours from the get-go.

 

[John Wick]

I would rather have items added, than events.

 

[Blood Eclipse]

I agree that NH could use more events. Maybe not once a week, since that would be overwhelming, but maybe twice a month? Or maybe add a little more item variety. For Halloween I got most DIYs in 3 days by shooting down balloons and talking to my villagers when they were crafting. It does feel nice taking things slower and not having an overwhelming amount of events, but I still wish they added more furniture and DIY recipes.

 

[niko@kamogawa]

I don't think we need events on a weekly basis. Please take note that this isn't a mobile game. The frequency of updates are longer. (We have Pocket Camp for that.)

However, this discussion simply proves that player habits are evolving as compared to before. We want new content every now and then. (Some prefer to have it weekly.)

It's all about properly pacing yourself. I know that some are impatient enough to do time travel. For my case, I can't even complete my museum because of some bugs and fishes are only available in December. Not that I mind. I have other games to play with anyway.

 

[Dunquixote]

I’d like more events but not as much as my gacha games have. Gacha games are nonstop events; I’ve been burnt out a few times because at least one of them never gives me time to farm old stuff or just to chill. It is constantly coming out with new raids to farm, new coliseums.

I really just want new furniture and diys. I really like @Kuriboh’s suggestion; I think that would be acceptable and not too much. I would like some more orderable furniture; I love nonorderable stuff but there needs to be more of a variety and “better” stuff in the orderable catalogue badly. I really don’t like any of the orderable sets. Less knick knack items and more beds and counters and so forth.

I will say that I was expecting every so often to get prompts at harv’s studio like the wedding thing was introduced and have been a little disappointed that that was the only one they gave us so far .

 

[niko@kamogawa]

I’d like more events but not as much as my gacha games have. Gacha games are nonstop events; I’ve been burnt out a few times because at least one of them never gives me time to farm old stuff or just to chill. It is constantly coming out with new raids to farm, new coliseums.

I totally agree with you on this!

In fact, I am currently happy with the frequency of updates Nintendo gave. I don't mind if it's monthly or longer. But considering that this never happened in New Leaf before, this is certainly a step in the right direction. Furthermore, it's free!

 

[QueenOpossum]

I will say that I was expecting every so often to get prompts at harv’s studio like the wedding thing was introduced and have been a little disappointed that that was the only one they gave us so far .

Based on how many we got in March/April/May, I think those were prepped pre-pandemic. And now the workflow got hit hard, and they had to focus on the major updates.

 

[Mr.Fox]

I'm fine with the way things are, but...

As I've said in multiple posts, hopefully they add the Puzzle League/Desert Island Escape mini games that NL had (or maybe add a couple more). I had a blast with those, and it was something different to do apart from my daily routine.

 

[Jinglefruit]

I absolutely agree. What I wanted for NH pre-release was something akin - but not as intense as pocket camp has.

Ideally I'd have 4-5 week long events each season that everyones town has in a different order (encourage visiting people!), and they repeat each year (maybe with 1-3 new furniture bits if Ninty want to encourage people to replay for the 2nd/3rd year).
So for Autumn events could run any week in sept, and then only the first 3 of October, or first 2 or last week of November to avoid the big holidays. So around 9-10 possible weeks for that season.
Then each season has a migrational fish / bug / hidden gyroidite event, and then maybe diving, gardening and crafting events, each with a visiting host (return of Chip / Nat and maybe repurpose some jobless NPCs like Shrunk and Harriet who were replaced by new features.)

Now you might be like, "Jingle, hold up, we have that with the cherry blossoms, and the spring bamboo and the acorns, pine cones and mushrooms", And I agree, they're good nature-y fixed events. But these will be more for day to day variety giving better furniture sets and things.
So Chip comes for the migrational fish and you trade with him for a Jellyfish series for the Winter glowing jellies, or the autumn crab migration or whatever, and you get a furniture series more akin to Pocket Camps wildly inventive sets. Like some floating jellyfish lights, or a larger villager interactive end goal item like the large ice skating rink which you might see your villagers actually use. But the key here being your town has it's own unique order, and you can wait until the jellies migrate to your island (in Janurary, Isabelle tells me), or you can visit a friend and experience it earlier because their island has jellies mid-December, and you can't visit them enough to get everything, but you got a cool chair for 5 blue jellies after visiting them for 20 minutes.

You could also do it akin to that May Day island maze we had literally once and never again, and make it so these things aren't affecting the ocean fishing in your town, just on a nearby island. Seeing as that was a big complaint with the Easter event (imo, blown out of proportion cause the game was new, I'd love a 12 day halloween event now it's been 7 months!)

 

[Xara]

i feel you. i still have quite a bit to do in terms of decorating, villager obtaining, catalog expanding, etc but i definitely feel a bit burnt out at times. like others have said, i don’t think that i would like events on a weekly basis as that could easily become overwhelming but maybe 2-4 smaller events (similar to the ones from wild world) per month could be nice!

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

I just try to find the little things to keep me busy. Now granted, I didn't do much island decorating, until I finally stopped being overwhelmed by the idea. And that was back in August really. So I'm just doing things slowly, and I switch between working on a room in my house to working on an area on my island.

One thing that I have been doing since last month, and I will continue to do, is decorate my island according to the season. When September hit with all the fall DIY stuff, I just went crazy with it. Not the little areas, but the main swath across my island, with the paths going through everyone's houses and the RS building and such. Piles of leaves were by some trees, I had regular scarecrows, hay beds, barrels. Then once October came and I had the pumpkins, I started putting Spooky DIY stuff everywhere. It's honestly so much fun, and it gives me something to do and keep up on! November will come, and with that comes the mushroom stuff. So the Spooky items will start coming down, and different items will go up once again. December will be all about the Christmas vibe! I'm already thinking of how I'm going to get a bunch of Cedar trees down onto my lower level, for the evergreen sort of vibe. After Christmas, I'll just focus on the Frozen series for January and February. Plus I'm sure there will be stuff for Valentine's Day, and although I'm not fond of it IRL, I'll definitely continue it on. And so it goes month by month or whatever. And to make sure I always have stuff to do, instead of keeping everything and putting it in storage, I'm thinking of just selling the stuff when I take it down so I have to make it all over again when the season comes back around. I don't want to be bored after all!

Even once I get little areas completed, there's always the possibility of changing them up ever now and again, to keep it fresh and give me something to do. I have a shell beach area with a bunch of the shell DIY furniture, and I could easily change up the surroundings of it. Add some sand castles, or a big bon fire area next to it... switch all that stuff out and make it more of a surfer's hang out. Just little things so it's constantly changing. I just did a little picnic rock park type thing up on one of my cliffs which is really cute, and I can always change it up so that instead of rocks, it's tree stumps and hardwood furniture.

I would love to see DIFFERENT events happening in the coming years, and not the same stuff over and over and over again. Don't get me wrong, I love traditions, and obviously we're going to have the annual things like Halloween and Toy Day. But what if we had something different thrown in at times? Maybe one year they decide to have a spring festival of some kind in March, but then the next year rolls around and instead they have a rain thing with new DIY stuff in April, because Easter happens to be early, and in March. I know I'm really reaching for hoping that they would consider this, but it really would bring so much more to the game and players.

 

[J087]

In response to the thread title: no. Just, no.

ACNH offers more then any of the other games in the series. But it's still a game. And all games are finite. At some point you're just done.

The game shouldn't be expanded because we get bored. And even if they did expand and add weekly events, most players would complete them within 2 days and start the "I'm bored" cycle all over again. Nothing personal though.

 

[Wickel]

I mostly agree with the nay-sayers. I don't want New Horizons to turn into a mobile game in terms of events.
May I ask though, how many hours do you have in the game? I think it's only natural to kinda feel down with a game for a while if you put hundreds of hours into it in the first six months. I barely played for any of september and now I'm back into it due to the Halloween stuff. I don't need weekly events. Especially TTers seem to have this complaint often, but that only makes sense if you try to cram as much into a short time as possible (not saying there's anything wrong with TT, but don't complain the game is boring if you just played through 6 months worth of content in one week, you know haha - this mostly happened when the game just came out though, haven't seen a lot of it lately). AC is a game meant to be taking it easy. No need to rush things. If you miss out on something during one day, it doesn't matter because you can always get it later. I don't want tons of items locked behind new events. I'm already pissed I didn't buy some more wedding chairs because I want them now lol.

That being said, I do think the game can be expanded in terms of gameplay that ISN'T about decorating the island. New Leaf had a ton of mini games that were fun, like the barista game or Tortimer's Island. That was always fun, stressfree and meant there was always something to do.

Anyways, the point is I guess that if you're bored or fed up with the game, you can always just take a break and play something else. Your island will still be there when you get back. Weekly events would only make the game more stressful because it forces people to log in.

 

[Pintuition]

I was beginning to feel that way until I started my second island. I'm mostly done with everything as well, and it only took a couple of months to get there. Still, unless you play for a really long time each day, I feel as though the events/updates they do come out with are sufficient. I think if there were any more components to the events that most people who are casual players or only have time to play after work wouldn't really be able to finish them. I think more in game content, better dialog options, new buildings, bringing back other NPC, etc may work better than more specific timed events being added.