Town Completion Motivation

[Shimmer]

I see so many finished towns. How do you guys stay motivated to complete your towns?
I still haven't gotten all the PWP I need for my town yet and whenever I think about that, the urge to turn on my 3DS dies. ;w;

 

[HopeForHyrule]

It's difficult sometimes. The only reason Bunifrey is complete is because I made it in honor of my bunny, so I had that desire fueling me.

Balamb is an absolute mess. It helps that I have all the PWPs I need/want to complete it.

So instead of focusing on trying to finish your town, maybe just start by trying to get all of the PWPs, flowers and trees/shrubs you'll need to landscape.

It really just has to go one step at a time. Keep at it; you'll get there!

I've had Bunifrey for almost a year and I've had Balamb for over two years, so it can take a long time. But keep in mind I'm also pretty lazy when it comes to AC, lol. ^_^

 

[Demeter_Deme]

When I get discouraged, or stalled, or bored, I go looking for Animal Crossing videos. LPs or Streams or whatever: somehow, watching people getting fired up about the game or their towns makes me more fired up about mine.

That said, if the task is overwhelming, my first piece of advice is always: break it down into littler, more accomplish-able pieces.

 

[fenris]

I'm taking things one step at a time with Matcha.

Right now, I'm working on getting all my dreamies (made more complicated by the fact that I can't quit adjusting the list). In the meantime, I'm building up a hoard of the flowers and bush starts I'll need (roses and lilies in yellow, white and pink + blue hydrangeas), as well as accumulating a stockpile of saplings. I'm thinking I may also start harvesting my fruit trees to see if I can get some perfect apples to spawn.

Once all my dreamies are present and accounted for, I'll start working on unlocking PWPs and plotting out my paths. It'll take some work to get all my paths into place, since I want to use dirt/natural paths rather than tiles, but I'm hoping the results will be worth it.

The thing to remember is that building a "perfect" town takes time and patience, but it can also be broken down into manageable steps. That's the key to any big task - don't look at it as a single undertaking. Break it down into the smallest possible steps. You can do this.

 

[ShenkuuBlossoms]

I give myself a break for a couple days to look at what I've done. I keep a list of what needs to be completed and I alter and add as I go along.

 

[smileorange]

Try use the fact that you haven't gotten all the pwps to your advantage. I know how you feel because I still haven't got the ones I really, really want. But you can't get them if you don't load up your game!

Set small goals like which areas you want to complete and what you are able to right at this moment e.g. I want that windmill pwp but don't have it yet. I'll have to figure out where I want to place it and whether or not I want some trees or bushes around it, or mabe some qr codes. What would look nice with the windmill?

Then suddenly you have all these little tasks that you need to do like buying starts and fruits.

Visiting dream towns for ideas is also fun.

 

[fenris]

Try use the fact that you haven't gotten all the pwps to your advantage. I know how you feel because I still haven't got the ones I really, really want. But you can't get them if you don't load up your game!

Set small goals like which areas you want to complete and what you are able to right at this moment e.g. I want that windmill pwp but don't have it yet. I'll have to figure out where I want to place it and whether or not I want some trees or bushes around it, or mabe some qr codes. What would look nice with the windmill?

Then suddenly you have all these little tasks that you need to do like buying starts and fruits.

Visiting dream towns for ideas is also fun.

Visiting dream towns is great. I've visited a couple that have given me some absolutely wonderful ideas.

acnl-inspire on Tumblr has shared a ton of dream addresses. Maybe check them out? (And if anyone else knows of other blogs that share a lot of nice DAs, let me know?)

 

[smileorange]

Oooh! Thank you for the tumblr rec. The designs on the first page already are inspiring!

I haven't checked it in a while, but the HHD tumblr tag can be filled with amazing designs for both interior and exterior. But most of the exteriors aren't available in acnl, but it's still pretty to look at!

I also sometimes visit the dream address thread on this forum.

 

[mayortash]

Animal Crossing is never meant to be a game where you "finish" so I would suggest not focusing on having a "finished" town but rather a town that you deem as perfect. I've been playing Laputa for 3 years and it's definitely not "finished" but I love it as it's, in my eyes, perfect. It's ever evolving and changing and I take inspiration from here and from tumblr.

 

[Barbara]

A town is never really complete. There is no need to decorate every single bit of it, as some people think. Neither is there a need to have the same town as everyone.. I see a lot of towns with cherry blossom, pink, zen pwps and it's all so fake. You should make something you like, not what other people will like. I personally tend to like 'casual' and 'real' towns better than those of which the players have spent days and months planning their town to make everything 'perfect', because it's something different and just doesn't feel fake, you know?
I've never had a finished town and I've been playing for about 6 years now; you will never really finish your town, believe me. Imagine if you did, wouldn't that be boring? What would there be to the game anymore if you have done everything you want?

 

[Barbara]

A town is never really complete. There is no need to decorate every single bit of it, as some people think. Neither is there a need to have the same town as everyone.. I see a lot of towns with cherry blossom, pink, zen pwps and it's all so fake. You should make something you like, not what other people will like. I personally tend to like 'casual' and 'real' towns better than those of which the players have spent days and months planning their town to make everything 'perfect', because it's something different and just doesn't feel fake, you know?
I've never had a finished town and I've been playing for about 6 years now; you will never really finish your town, believe me. Imagine if you did, wouldn't that be boring? What would there be to the game anymore if you have done everything you want?

 

[MrGameAndScotch]

Visiting a lot of dream addresses helped me get a lot of ideas together.

 

[maarowak]

Always have a town that you are happy with. That's my main "tip"!

You might not have the perfect pwp or the perfect items for a certain area (also, break landscaping in small parts! it makes it much more manageable), but if you are not happy with an area, try to decorate it a little, even if it's not "perfect" like you wanted it. You can always change everything later. But don't play in a town that you dread being in.

Having inspiration is also really good. I love checking images and going to DAs!

 

[Belle of Pripyat]

Animal Crossing is never meant to be a game where you "finish" so I would suggest not focusing on having a "finished" town but rather a town that you deem as perfect. I've been playing Laputa for 3 years and it's definitely not "finished" but I love it as it's, in my eyes, perfect.

That's how I feel about my town. It's not as polished as other towns. I don't have paths and I don't have a large amount of PWPs. However, I've fixed it up in a way that pleases me and I enjoy spending time there. That's all that matters.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

I think getting the PWP is the most discouraging part. After doing a lot of research about unlocking PWP and adding my own findings to it, I made a guide for myself that got me most of the PWP I needed within a few days.

Spoiler: PWP Guide

Step 1. Is your villager a morning or night animal? Check the Wiki of their personality to see what time they to go to bed. For example, Apollo is a night animal and goes to bed at 4 AM. I could fast forward until 2 AM where hardly any villagers are outside. This is important because you want as little villagers out as possible if you want to trigger the event for a specific animal.

Step 2. Surround your specified villager with holes to trap them so you know where they are. It's also a good idea to trap the other villagers away from your specified villager so they don't get in the way.

Step 3. Empty your bells on hand! This is very important as villagers will ask you to buy something. Dump all your bells into the ABD, on the floor, wherever. Next, fill your inventory with flowers. Villagers will not buy your flowers from you or ask you to bring an item to another villager.

Step 4. Once you have done steps 1-3, you can move on to the most important phase for this to work. Put on a wetsuit and swim to the bottom corner of your map. I swim to the bottom left for my map, but others may vary. You must wait here 4-5 minutes and then swim back to the shore and find your villager. Sometimes it will not always ping for your specified villager so see if someone else has the event triggered.

Step 5. Your villager will trigger an event when you go up to him. Knocking out the other events, the main ones left are usually asking you for a nickname, catchphrase, random question, or PWP idea. If they ask you for a catchphrase or nickname, say yes! Even if you aren't going to actually change it, make sure to say yes. I haven't 100% proved if it helps, but I've noticed they don't ask again if you say yes, but will ask again if you say no. I read you can only earn one PWP a day, but you can actually earn multiple PWPs a day. It's just rare and better to fast forward a day and start again. Just make sure no one moves out doing so.

Step 6. Just additional information to keep aware. If villagers aren't pinging with an event, you've probably been playing too long and they'll want to tell you to take a break. Just go and talk to one of them and after they've said that you can go back in the water and wait.

In fact, I'm just going to make a new thread with this to help others out too.

 

[Belle of Pripyat]

I think getting the PWP is the most discouraging part. After doing a lot of research about unlocking PWP and adding my own findings to it, I made a guide for myself that got me most of the PWP I needed within a few days.

I've only ever gotten one PWP request per day. I don't do any "tricks," though; I just play naturally and talk to anyone who happens to ping me. Is it even possible to get more than one request per day?

 

[DarkDesertFox]

I've only ever gotten one PWP request per day. I don't do any "tricks," though; I just play naturally and talk to anyone who happens to ping me. Is it even possible to get more than one request per day?

Yes, I know from experience. However, it is not very common. After unlocking all the PWPs I wanted it was seriously so much easier to complete my town.

 

[Miii]

When I get tired of working on the appearance of my town (like right now for instance), I just stick to keeping it clean, digging up fossils, etc. and focus on getting badges or filling out my museum some more (only a few things left!) until I get the sudden urge to rearrange things again :3 If you make it a chore, you'll hate it, so do whatever you'll have the most fun doing, and work on your town when you feel like it.