Villagers may have "preferred" place to plot onto?

[ALLCAPS]

Spoiler: Map Reference

The other day I spent over 4 hours trying to get O'Hare to plot on the spot I planned him to be. But he keeps trying to move near one of the two lakes in my town (the other one is in between Diana and the Re-Tail). Every time I try to get him to move some place else though, he would also be moving as close as possible to a body of water, like next to the river, or by the edge of a cliff close to the beach. He did come close to where I wanted him to be (right next to Mira) but he moved to as close to the river as possible.

Then I thought about how he moved in my old game the first time, and he also moved right next to a lake.

In the same vein, I recalled that when trying to plot Bill, he kept wanting to move where there are the most villagers, instead of the huge empty spot below Bruce that I planned for him to be in (Skye used to live there in perfect alignment to Bruce, so it's not an "impossible" spot).

I also recalled how easy it was to move certain villagers in certain spots--Willow in my last town easily moved where there are more villagers. Diana moved where there are less villagers (in both towns I've had her).

This is just a theory, but what if certain villagers have a "preferred" spot when moving in? Like, O'Hare likes to be near water so he plots himself closest to any body of water he can. Bill maybe likes to be where the people are, so he plots himself close to where most villagers are.

I know it's common knowledge that villagers plot randomly, but what if they don't? Not always? Maybe it's just me, or maybe it could be something. If it's possible I'd like more data on this, so if anyone has a similar or contradicting story to tell, I'd like to hear it. O:

 

[Punchyleaf]

My villagers try to move onto either an area populated with many flowers, trees and overall a lovely place, or right along the coastline where everyone else is.

So they either choose scenery, or neighbors in my town when I plot reset

 

[ALLCAPS]

My villagers try to move onto either an area populated with many flowers, trees and overall a lovely place, or right along the coastline where everyone else is.

So they either choose scenery, or neighbors in my town when I plot reset

Does your scenery include PWPs? o: Like those pretty PWPs like the flower clock or something?

I forgot to mention that my town almost virtually void of trees and flowers (since I'm cycling). The only place that has trees and flowers are the lower island, and hardly anyone plots near the trees. But they try on the hybrids. > w>; I had to put a temp PWP there just so they don't plot there.

 

[sn0wxyuki]

THEY DO!! I remember how Paula die to be near river! and my Walker want to be near Roald or kill my stumps so badly! But I never give up resetting so I think he give up for me and go to my perfect spot for him =x

 

[ALLCAPS]

THEY DO!! I remember how Paula die to be near river! and my Walker want to be near Roald or kill my stumps so badly! But I never give up resetting so I think he give up for me and go to my perfect spot for him =x

Yeah, it's usually really rare for them to go to a place outside of their "preference". In those 4 hours, O'Hare only moved far away from a body of water once (right in front of the Town Hall) and then never again. All the other times he would stick himself near the beach or the river or right there next to that one lake, so when he aligned himself with Tangy, I said "FINE" and let him plot there. xD

I wonder if there's someway for us to know which villagers prefer which place. It would be so much easier to plot them that way, I think.

 

[Darumy]

They seem to gravitate towards other houses a lot for me. Which is useful, until I was resetting for Cube and he kept slapping his house right where I wanted to exit my third bridge (like, at least 7 times in a row minus 1-2 block shifts). Until Lolly came in camp and then he put his house literally 3 blocks away from mine but it was lined up at least so I took it. 8'D

 

[dreamysnowx]

my villagers love putting their houses at the bottom corner of my town, ugh ;_;

 

[sn0wxyuki]

I think they best way to prevent it is having lots of PWPs to block anywhere is forbidden. Still they manage to slot in the small squeeze-in area but at least this lessen their possibility to plot anywhere out of your preferences =x I use rack of rices cheapest pwps only 17k! xD

 

[ALLCAPS]

They seem to gravitate towards other houses a lot for me. Which is useful, until I was resetting for Cube and he kept slapping his house right where I wanted to exit my third bridge (like, at least 7 times in a row minus 1-2 block shifts). Until Lolly came in camp and then he put his house literally 3 blocks away from mine but it was lined up at least so I took it. 8'D

Gah, those block shifts, seriously. xD Sometimes it makes you think they're just trolling you by doing that. But wow, I love it when you get a great camper and a house aligned at the same time. ; w; Happened to me once... then never again...

my villagers love putting their houses at the bottom corner of my town, ugh ;_;

Same! Bottom corner of the second island. ; w; I put a lighthouse there now, so none of them try to plot there anymore. xDD

I think they best way to prevent it is having lots of PWPs to block anywhere is forbidden. Still they manage to slot in the small squeeze-in area but at least this lessen their possibility to plot anywhere out of your preferences =x I use rack of rices cheapest pwps only 17k! xD

I am doing this now because my villagers are almost complete. xD Unfortunately I don't have any cheap PWPs. Which villager type suggests rack of rice? ; w; I'd love to get one so I don't go broke.

 

[sn0wxyuki]

Rack of rice suggested by Cranky =x but someone told me that flower bed can be cheap too plus it take up 4 space~ Luckily my lovely neighbor cranky Rizzo suggested me all his pwps and I found this xD

Ahem *cough* actually house align at 1 space only make villagers wander around there =x my town have a pretty scattered house and they wander all over except that HUGE EMPTY spot I have xD and is cute to see them walk all around your map! xD

 

[HoennMaster]

I think it has more to do with your town layout than a preference by the villager. In my town new villagers ALWAYS go for this exact same spot right next to the train station, regardless of personality.

 

[sn0wxyuki]

They deserved punishment upon moving in.

 

[theroscoeshow]

I have a ridiculous amount of experience in resetting. This is my 2 cents.

Cherry moved out of her plot, which was above my house. Then I had Baabara move in and resetted about 300 times (no I'm not joking...literally 12 hours straight, made myself sick).

She would only move into about 11 different spots (plus outliers), NONE OF WHICH were Cherrys old plot area. She ended up being moved to the sea, which I will get to in a minute.

Today I had to reset only 80 times for Pekoe to move into a good spot, but once again, it wasn't cheryrys old plot, it was the same 11 plots as before. I thought it was a personality clash, seeing as Naomi lived right below (so Baabara wouldn't move next to her) so I thought I'd try a villager with a personailty type I didn't have yet. It was the same 11 spot + outliers as before.

So today I've ruled out personailty makes a difference.

On a very very important note:

So when I was resetting for Baabara, in the start up screen I noticed a good plot placement. Good, I thought, I will just make the save file and continue as normal.

But the plot had moved by loading the new save file.

So I reset as normal. This time when I saw a good plot on the start up screen, I thought 'nope, not this time. I'm going to start as my Mayor and hopefully that will work'

It didn't. The plot moved again, and now Baabara was locked in to a bad spot near the Ocean.

Point of the story: Don't take anything you see in the start up screen as fact.

 

[Leskly]

I wonder if the plots are somewhat pre-determined? Yesterday I was resetting for anyone decent (I was getting a variety of personalities) and every time they went to the same three plots (bar a couple of outliers). I'm just glad that I'm not overly fussed about plot placement unless it's somewhere really ridiculous.

 

[Yugi Moto]

I know it's not "confirmed" or anything but I'm truly convinced that each (or at the very least, some) villagers plot locations aren't truly random. They will stick to a couple of "hotspots" or areas they like to set their plot in and once in a while it will be in a actual random spot.

 

[BellManAC]

I think this is true. And very annoying! I think it has something to do with where you place your PWP's. For some reason my villagers LOVE to place there houses infront and behind my Retail. Which is super annoying.

I have never done any plot resetting and don't even know how to....so I just live with it

 

[KermitTea]

I've never done any plot resetting, because a) I'm a lazy butt b) it's interesting to see where villagers would "naturally" move in.
From my experience, villagers usually move
-next to a building
-next to another house
-near a lake
-in isolation

 

[Silverwind]

Based from plot resetting experiences, I am starting to think that personality plays a large part in house placement. E.g. I got Colton in Ed's old spot quite easily (~5 resets) but before this I could never ever get Poppy into that same spot.

There are exceptions though. E.g. spent hours resetting for Fang just to get his house in Apollo's old spot but many times it landed out of alignment (not forgetting the crappy spots like smack in between major paths). Initially I thought this would be easier since a cranky villager will more easily move into an ex-cranky villager house plot. I ended up having to settle for Eunice's old spot considering it was close to Whitney's house.

 

[Lurrdoc]

I've never done any plot resetting, because a) I'm a lazy butt b) it's interesting to see where villagers would "naturally" move in.
From my experience, villagers usually move
-next to a building
-next to another house
-near a lake
-in isolation

basically everywhere, lol. outside of pwp's that is.

 

[Sholee]

my villagers usually prefer the company of other villagers and usually moved to a space thats near one. However, when i was moving in Elvis, he kept trying to move into this one spot thats in the middle of nowhere with no other villagers.