Restarting Hopes and Stress

[lenoreluna]

So I have about 650 hours logged (though I think most of that was island hopping for villagers which friends are holding) and my vision for my island has completely changed in the last few months and I feel like starting over (and having my friends hold villagers and items) would be easier/less expensive than bulldozing my town and moving all the buildings/villagers again. I also don't like a lot of things about my island: I hate the location of my secret beach (right in the middle), my airport and town hall are ONE space off from being centered with each other (makes me CRAZY), my beaches are thin, and my peninsula at the top right with the rocks makes that area feel so cramped. My achievement dates are also all wonky which bugs me. I feel like the diys I can get back with TT (Bamboo and cherry blossom season), fish, bugs, fossils, etc, and things will be faster this time around. I just need to watch achievement dates. I am terrified of trying to get my dream combo of apples and a blue airport again, but I did it the first time and it didn't take long at all (maybe 2 hours). I am just a nervous wreck about the whole thing. But I don't want to continue building an island that I am not completely happy with because that also is super stressful. I made a list of "Must Haves" for my new island:

Blue Airport
Native Apples
Long dock
Decently sized peninsula (preferably in the middle somewhere)
Central located town hall (doesn't have to be right center but close enough)
I am actually open to river mouth layouts - what do you all like the best and why?

 

[Hobowire]

this is so scary to me. to lose 650 hrs of progress. I hope you find the island layout design you want

 

[Romaki]

Do what you have to do. I restarted multiple times and I'm now happy with my options. It may take a day or two, but it will be worth it in the long run. When I was resetting for my current map, I found the perfect imperfect layout with the wrong airport color. I spawned with two dreamies and never had a villager I disliked. I think resetting feels great because you're refreshing every little thing you did. It will be a long process (if you go the time travel forward to today route, which I did), but if you want to keep the island for yours now's the perfect time for it.

I resetted for the same things you did (except color/fruit), and it was pretty easy to find one like that. Fruit and airport color were a gamble, but as someone who even cared about the pixels on my map along with the giant rocks I never took more than two days to reset.

Two south river outlets make for a great parallel map, but they're also limited on both sides. But a center-ish town hall with two south exits can be really good, and you don't have to worry about the airport position then. Different exits give you more options and wider space.

 

[Sharksheep]

Do what you have to do. I restarted multiple times and I'm now happy with my options. It may take a day or two, but it will be worth it in the long run. When I was resetting for my current map, I found the perfect imperfect layout with the wrong airport color. I spawned with two dreamies and never had a villager I disliked. I think resetting feels great because you're refreshing every little thing you did. It will be a long process (if you go the time travel forward to today route, which I did), but if you want to keep the island for yours now's the perfect time for it.

I resetted for the same things you did (except color/fruit), and it was pretty easy to find one like that. Fruit and airport color were a gamble, but as someone who even cared about the pixels on my map along with the giant rocks I never took more than two days to reset.

Two south river outlets make for a great parallel map, but they're also limited on both sides. But a center-ish town hall with two south exits can be really good, and you don't have to worry about the airport position then. Different exits give you more options and wider space.

The double south end rivers are also difficult to work with. I have this island layout and if you are not good at shaping rivers, you'll have a hard time unless you plan on having everything symmetrical.

 

[lenoreluna]

Do what you have to do. I restarted multiple times and I'm now happy with my options. It may take a day or two, but it will be worth it in the long run. When I was resetting for my current map, I found the perfect imperfect layout with the wrong airport color. I spawned with two dreamies and never had a villager I disliked. I think resetting feels great because you're refreshing every little thing you did. It will be a long process (if you go the time travel forward to today route, which I did), but if you want to keep the island for yours now's the perfect time for it.

I resetted for the same things you did (except color/fruit), and it was pretty easy to find one like that. Fruit and airport color were a gamble, but as someone who even cared about the pixels on my map along with the giant rocks I never took more than two days to reset.

Two south river outlets make for a great parallel map, but they're also limited on both sides. But a center-ish town hall with two south exits can be really good, and you don't have to worry about the airport position then. Different exits give you more options and wider space.

You are right that if I want to keep my island for years, I should be completely happy with it. The game is still very new! Yeah, I will be doing the time travel forward to today route, so it may take awhile but hopefully not too long. I probably won't TT too much once I get caught up. Did you have trouble getting fish, bugs, fossils, diys, etc back or is it pretty easy?

Post automatically merged: Jun 16, 2020

The double south end rivers are also difficult to work with. I have this island layout and if you are not good at shaping rivers, you'll have a hard time unless you plan on having everything symmetrical.

That is good to know that the two south facing rivers are difficult to work with. I could see doing something creative though, like making one of them a waterfall, putting the museum on the top of the cliff, and then water terraforming around it. Maybe I should consider the east/west south river mouth option though.

 

[Romaki]

Yes! I will be doing the time travel forward to today route, so it may take awhile but hopefully not too long. I won't TT once I get caught up. Did you have trouble getting fish, bugs, fossils, diys, etc back or is it pretty easy?

Honestly, my biggest trouble was putting enough effort into 80+ days again and again. Each new season I tried to fish for the new ones, most effort was put into dock fish, big fish and river fish during the rain. But even with occasionally fishing just to keep the achievement from being too crazy (like 10 fish after 2 months) I think I got most of them. Most bugs are obvious, just look up the specific ones like the ants that come for spoiled turnip. Fossils are pretty easy with the 4 a day, they'll also make you the most money on the day-to-day grind alongside money trees. Getting seasonal DIYs can be tricky, but I would suggest saving terraforming for a cherry blossom + bunny day to get the most out of it.

Thing is it'll take you a while even if you try to be quick. You want to check every night for Celeste or that ghost thing. You want to make enough bells to upgrade your house otherwise your storage will be filled pretty quickly. You can make a lot of bells from island hopping, but it takes a lot of time as well. And once you're back to a normal schedule, it'll take some time to get used to the slowness again. But it'll allow you to decorate your island in peace and worry about that stuff when you have time for it. You'll probably play for many months to come.

 

[lenoreluna]

Honestly, my biggest trouble was putting enough effort into 80+ days again and again. Each new season I tried to fish for the new ones, most effort was put into dock fish, big fish and river fish during the rain. But even with occasionally fishing just to keep the achievement from being too crazy (like 10 fish after 2 months) I think I got most of them. Most bugs are obvious, just look up the specific ones like the ants that come for spoiled turnip. Fossils are pretty easy with the 4 a day, they'll also make you the most money on the day-to-day grind alongside money trees. Getting seasonal DIYs can be tricky, but I would suggest saving terraforming for a cherry blossom + bunny day to get the most out of it.

Thing is it'll take you a while even if you try to be quick. You want to check every night for Celeste or that ghost thing. You want to make enough bells to upgrade your house otherwise your storage will be filled pretty quickly. You can make a lot of bells from island hopping, but it takes a lot of time as well. And once you're back to a normal schedule, it'll take some time to get used to the slowness again. But it'll allow you to decorate your island in peace and worry about that stuff when you have time for it. You'll probably play for many months to come.

Well, I guess with a lot of things being shut down due to COVID-19 this summer, it will be ok if it takes awhile since there isn't much else to do That is a really good idea to terraform during the cherry-blossom/bunny day events! I have about 25 million bells from my current town that are being held in a friend's town, so my house upgrade shouldn't take too long (I'll have to space it so the achievement isn't ridiculous though). Will definitely get back in the turnip market on Turnip Exchange though and probably get the Celeste DIYS on there as well. I have all of my dreamie villagers either on amiibos or being held in a friend's town so I probably won't do too much island hopping so that will cut down on time. Thanks for giving me perspective on this! It's very hard but I feel it is the right choice! I'll likely be playing for years! And it is also good to know that other people do it too!