Question about taking a break

[MayorOrpheus]

It's really hard for me to play New Leaf every day right now. It'll pass, but for a while that's just the way it is. I took a break for about a month and lost Fang. He was an original. I was super upset. When that happened I took a month off, tried to tt back to the date I stopped playing...but obviously messed that up. I've heard you can take a break for as long as you want if you deny a villagers request to move then quit. Is that true? I just denied Anchovy and saved and quit. If it is true, would that apply to moving time forward a couple months? I'm a couple months behind right now. If I can deny a request and take break as long as I want, Id figure I can tt forward as well. Hoping someone with experience with this can help me out. Thanks.

 

[TehyaFaye]

Yep, it works in both cases. If you have a free character slot you can also double check using a new character before going in with your mayor. This would also speed up the process of getting back to the future, because if no one is gone in the present you can remain, and if one villager is missing you just need to track down that one.

 

[Hypno KK]

Yes. You can take a break (or time travel ahead, at least using the 3DS calendar) if you deny a villager's request to move on the last day you play. At the same time, if it's an unexpected break, you can use a new character to check if anyone's missing before starting your game with your mayor.

I wrote a guide about going on hiatus safely (or returning from an unexpected hiatus) here, with more detailed instructions: http://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?209379-How-To-Not-Lose-Villagers-When-You-re-Away

 

[SoSu]

That guide is great! Would you consider a section for those of us with 4 characters? Or for people who don't know the last date they played?

It's not foolproof, but if I return and don't know the last date I played, I turn the DS clock WAY back. Even a year farther than I think possible. A big leap back counts as only one day for ACNL. So while it's possible a villager would be going into boxes the day after you last played, it's no more likely than usual.

Next I play regularly day by day until I get a ping. At this point, I save with beautiful town ordinance and make the jump back to the present. My villagers are a bit annoyed with me for not talking to them for a year, but they are all safe and sound.

 

[Hypno KK]

That guide is great! Would you consider a section for those of us with 4 characters? Or for people who don't know the last date they played?

It's not foolproof, but if I return and don't know the last date I played, I turn the DS clock WAY back. Even a year farther than I think possible. A big leap back counts as only one day for ACNL. So while it's possible a villager would be going into boxes the day after you last played, it's no more likely than usual.

Next I play regularly day by day until I get a ping. At this point, I save with beautiful town ordinance and make the jump back to the present. My villagers are a bit annoyed with me for not talking to them for a year, but they are all safe and sound.

Thank you!

If you have 4 characters, you pretty much have to travel back to your last played date and play day by day until someone asks you to move. Then you can say no and return to the present. It takes a lot longer, but it's really the only thing you can do because when you load the game as an existing character, it saves your town in its current state. This means that if you load the game as one of your characters in the present, if you lost any villagers then your town would stay that way. Having only three characters makes things easier because you can create a new character each time to know exactly who's moving out. I can include this in the guide, certainly!

If you don't know the date you last played, you can check your 3DS activity log. I can talk about it more if you'd find that helpful.

 

[SoSu]

If you don't know the date you last played, you can check your 3DS activity log. I can talk about it more if you'd find that helpful.

Obvious, but very helpful for those of us who don't do obvious!

 

[Hypno KK]

Obvious, but very helpful for those of us who don't do obvious!

Done! I've updated it and included those instructions under "other notes". I'm not sure if I should make that section more organised or not but it was all I could think of, so I'm open to suggestions and questions.

 

[stitchmaker]

I froze my game 3 months ago and it has 4 players. Before freezing the town I got a move out ping.
Save/quit the game and put it in the case. Stuck a label on the case and wrote the time/date last played. Also wrote it in the gaming notes. Added the numbers on the ACNL card to the notes.
If you have more than one copy of ACNL than the Activity Log wouldn't work.

Four day ago I played the game again and it was April 21st. I decided to not go back to the last day played. Just started it up on April 21st.
The villager asked where I was and than they were over it. Got a rumor of a move out ping from Boomer. Save/quit and stopped the moved. The rest of the villagers that I didn't speak to were finally outside.

The next day I gave Boomer perfect fruit and he gave me a picture. So 3 months gone didn't change our friendship.

 

[Hypno KK]

I froze my game 3 months ago and it has 4 players. Before freezing the town I got a move out ping.
Save/quit the game and put it in the case. Stuck a label on the case and wrote the time/date last played. Also wrote it in the gaming notes. Added the numbers on the ACNL card to the notes.
If you have more than one copy of ACNL than the Activity Log wouldn't work.

Four day ago I played the game again and it was April 21st. I decided to not go back to the last day played. Just started it up on April 21st.
The villager asked where I was and than they were over it. Got a rumor of a move out ping from Boomer. Save/quit and stopped the moved. The rest of the villagers that I didn't speak to were finally outside.

The next day I gave Boomer perfect fruit and he gave me a picture. So 3 months gone didn't change our friendship.

This is because when you deny a villager's request to ping on your last day playing (no matter how many playable characters you have) you don't need to start as a new character or time travel. Everyone will still be there.

The advice about starting a new character is usually when people take a break they didn't expect.