Now with hindsight, what are the things to look for in a map?

[coderp]

I didnt even know the resident services could be super close to the airport? Seems like people are super concerned about that, glad mine is more inland.

What I reset for in the beginning was a more appealing mountains, despite knowing I could change it later... I just like keeping my village close-ish to the natural scenery, maybe evening out cliffs and adding some decorative waterfalls. I'm not good at the whole designer aspect so I rely on a good starting map haha...

 

[N a t]

For me Resident services although I don't mind it being a little close to the airport, just not like awkwardly close, and also I like to look for how much of my land is split up by my rivers since my first few days of game play are always limited to a fraction of my island as well as my villagers own activities. I like to look for a significant amount of land available right off the bat.

 

[Saralie]

I hate my RS location. Too close to the airport and not centered. I would love to reset for an RS a good distance away from the airport. Also, since I am terrible at terraforming and find it highly frustrating, I would look for a map that didn't require much change.

 

[Bloobloop]

my resident services is actually pretty far from my airport, so i've never had trouble with that but look!! at!! rivers!! i went "hur hur me pick fun map" and didn't think about what i actually wanted. so now i have 2 rivers in the most inconvenient place possible! one is RIGHT behind resident services, which i hateee

 

[YunaApple]

If only you could move residential services. Its such a thorn in my side when it comes to terraforming sometimes. Mine is close to the airport but not right next to it like other maps I've seen.
The left side of my beach is smaller and more jagged than my right one, both both sides have really small or broken up black rocks which makes it abit tough to design. I've seen people do really cute things with their beaches but I hate the shape of mine lol

 

[senbeiiscool]

Resident services location and river mouths are the most important but otherwise I would say your pier position, peninsula and secret beach is important too. I have a bunch of friends who have their secret beaches in awkward spots behind cliffs that they now need to terraform around just to get to Redd. My peninsula is pretty useless as it's right up beside a cliff so given the opportunity I would change it. Pier size matters to some people so I guess there's that

 

[Cethosia]

I think I would just look at resident service location. Mine is luckily far away, and not even in front of the airport. I just have a path that goes up, and then left. I would hate for it to be in front of the airport, unless it is perfectly centered.

 

[Cadbberry]

I regret having my residence services only 10 tiles from being in line with the airport, I wish I had gone for it somewhere else entirely or had reset for it perfectly in line with the airport.

 

[amylsp]

My first island/map had RS very close to the airport. Ended up hating it and restarted for a central located RS in sector D4. Now have plenty of space in front to landscape and decorate. I was also really picky about getting as many of the really large gray ledges/rocks as possible, especially on the back side of the island. It adds a lot of additional space for decorating and navigating.

 

[Sephiroth]

I went into this game with two things in mind. Either a map similar in setup to my New Leaf map, or a map where there the symmetry was close enough for me to build off of. Everything is not 100% centered, which is ok, and my river outlets were well placed.

I only reset the first time I played because no way in Kappn's great boat would I start an island with two pigs as my starters. I hit home and restarted so fast.

Both times I had peaches, but that's ok because I always get peaches as starters. I ended up with Tank the rhino, one of my first ever villagers and Canberra the koala.

In the end, it isn't perfect, but neither was my New Leaf map. I am satisfied and am always improving.

 

[EtchaSketch]

My beaches are small, my resident services is too close to my airport, and my river mouths are TERRIBLE. i chose the worst map but im too scared to restart

 

[Edge]

The rock formations on the beach, sizes and locations. Also, the bit of island that juts out from the beach can have a variety of thicknesses.

 

[jiojiop]

It's so interesting to me that before the game came out, everyone was saying they want RS as close to the airport as possible, yet now most are saying they want it as far away as possible.

Is this because people have seen the elaborate entranceways on social media, want to do that too, and have no space to make their own?

 

[Splinter]

I already knew when I picked mine. You just have to think about where/how you want the permanent stuff.

 

[Fey]

It's so interesting to me that before the game came out, everyone was saying they want RS as close to the airport as possible, yet now most are saying they want it as far away as possible.

Is this because people have seen the elaborate entranceways on social media, want to do that too, and have no space to make their own?

I think the elaborate entrances are a big part of it. I’m in the minority of people who picked it close to to the Airport intentionally and I’ve never regretted it once.

Not to say that they don’t look nice, but entranceways seem way overrated to me. I don’t even mean they’re boring or overdone—just that people often act like an Island NEEDS one, when that’s just not true imo. Most real towns don’t have entrances, and I much prefer to be “right in the middle of things” when arriving. Stepping out of the airport into my plaza feels great, and I hope other people aren’t discouraged from that option due to this push from social media.