New Town! Need Motivation ~

[Believe]

My new copy of ACNL came in the mail and I was sooo excited leading up to it, but after spending an hour or so resetting for the perfect map I suddenly feel overwhelmed and lost motivation to play haha. This exact thing happened with my 2nd town as well

What do y'all typically start with on a new town? Paths? Planning? Just feeling rather lost! I think I might try to actually play the game again on this file rather than 100% focusing on designing like I did with my 2nd town.

 

[dizzy bone]

I love the beginning stages of the game because a new town just feels so great and refreshing to me. However, all my 2nd/3rd/4th etc. play throughs have all started with a specific theme or idea in mind, so I usually jump right into the landscaping part after a couple days. I survey the town first to see if there's any starters I really like and whether I can visualise landscaping something permanent around their house and possibly naturally branching off from there. Eg. In my 2nd town, a couple villagers had already clumped near town hall, so I decided to make that area a villager community. I also noticed most of my villager starters were birds, so I decided to just go ahead and make a bird-themed town. After I run around town a few times, I axe down all the trees and start laying down paths to lock down areas where I want to keep villagers out. Then I usually time travel or go on the forums to find the landscaping items I need to start filling in the forest again (because by this time I already deforested most of it :'D) When I'm really set on an idea, I tend to steamroll through it until I get to a certain point. After things slow down I begin to burn out a bit. If you find that a certain aspect of your play is burning you out (eg. if you're too focused on landscaping and it's not fun anymore), maybe do the opposite and take it slow. You can always go back to time travelling and hardcore landscaping afterwards (if you aren't set on doing a no-time travel town). Also, I had a 2nd game sitting around for about 2 years until I did anything with it, haha. Sometimes an idea just clicks and you get inspired. Good luck with your new town and have fun :>

 

[LadyDestani]

If you're feeling overwhelmed, I would suggest taking a step back and taking things slowly for a while until the motivation hits you again. Remember that you don't have to do everything in one day. Maybe focus on just playing the game and building up your catalog and landscaping supplies. Or try to limit yourself to working on only a small section at a time, so it doesn't get too overwhelming. Start out with areas you have a strong idea for or around the permanent buildings and work your way through the town from there.

The main thing to keep in mind is that the game is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. If you're finding yourself getting too stressed and overwhelmed, take a serious look at what's causing that stress and try something different to bring the fun back into the game. That's the great thing about Animal Crossing: there are so many different ways to play it. Find the way that works best for you.

 

[aymia]

I'm sure I saw a site where you can create/edit your map then import it into your save. Someone will have to tell me if it works or not but if it does then you no longer have to worry about trying to get lucky with a map and can design it yourself exactly how you like it!

I just sold my old town and started again and I also got a bit flustered on where to start. I decided that before anything I want a few of my dreamies in then get my main street up and running again. I'll then be planning out my town how I want it. I think you can start with building up your bells for your PWPs and whatever you want to buy from the catalog. That way you'll just be playing and not stressing.

 

[Ryumia]

When I had started my town I started with planning first then choosing the paths that I wanted afterwards. I had reset so many times to get the map that I wanted and ended with the map that had mostly what I wanted. I felt that I was taking too long with resetting for a perfect map and made some adjustments when choosing a map. If I took too long then I would have quit the game right then and there. The thing I was worried about the most were the rocks when planning since I had trouble working around those when I was landscaping my town. Placing the villagers and my alts were the easiest part for me when I was planning my town in Animal Crossing New Leaf.

My town is being reworked; however, I haven't gotten back to reworking it. Been busy with other stuff as well been playing other games. I thought it would be better to play something else since I wasn't feeling inspired to rework on my town. Not sure when I'll feel inspire to work on it again, but I hope I would be a little less stress about it when I do come back to it.

 

[Believe]

Thanks for all the advice! I think the best route for me is to just take it slow and build out a path and work around that. I think another thing I should do is go around to dream towns and to get inspired a bit!

 

[Bizhiins]

Definitely visit some dream towns! There’s a thread on here about the best unhacked dream towns that are amazing. I got a lot of ideas from those towns about how to structure my paths and town projects. Look for ones that have a similar town layout to your and the different things they did with them!

 

[ILikeFroakies]

In my recent town it took ages to figure out what I wanted to do (I liked the map but then didn't like my theme so I waited to be inspired for a new one). Now that I have an idea I'm plot resetting and almost finished doing so (I have Amiibo Cards with most of my dreamies). I want to put in my town a sports arena with QR codes so any designs like that I'm going to do next so I can build PWP's and Paths around them since they'll be large. Next I plan on making paths around the houses and try get more PWP suggestions as I don't have many that I want.

 

[2kimi2furious]

I like to do some research beforehand and then decide on a theme. I'll start collecting QR codes in a Google Doc or on Pinterest. I'll then make a list of all the PWPs that will fit in with my town as well as the villagers I'd want. Then I start and just place and replace things until I feel good about them. I usually wait to focus on paths until I find the ways I run around organically so that the pathways make sense to me.

Good luck!