What do you look for in a town map?

[Barbara]

When choosing a map, one of the first things I look at is where the Re-Tail is located. If not near the beach, I skip immediately. If it is in a convenient place to easily access from the dock, I look if there is one long beach or not. I don't like having two accessible beaches. I also prefer the beach on the west-side. The plaza shouldn't be too much at the top of the map, rather somewhere in the middle - bottom. I also prefer the town hall near the plaza, preferably next to or above it. I also quickly look at if there is any convenient place for my house and eventual other projects, and if so I go and look at the town. I'm fine with any fruit but apples and oranges, with cherries as my favourite. I also prefer triangle grass, but don't mind square grass. Circle grass is a no to me. And I also look at the town hall/station colour, I don't want any particular for those but there are some I certainly don't want, like the red station. There are also some other things I take into consideration, like the river shape, but if there is one large beach and a nice place for my house, then the river is fine. I would prefer as little as possible rocks, though I actually like ponds, as long as they aren't completely in the middle of something.
I thought I was pretty easygoing with maps, but I may be more picky than I thought. Oh well, I found a map yesterday that suits all those needs and I'm really happy with it. Cherries, triangle grass, only 5 rocks, 4 ponds (one by Re-Tail, one by the station, one by town hall and another one next to the one by the town hall where the police station would perfectly fit) and a cool place for my house.

 

[SeraphicOrder]

In choosing a map I choose a map in this order:

1. 1 pond. I hate ponds so 1 pond is my very first requirement. those things are pretty much useless in game. I also dont like the pond to be very near the train station.

2. almost straight river. I hate super curvy rivers that take up most of the town. there must be ample space for PWP.

3. Villager houses needs to be in one place or two places only. I hate it when they are all over the place.

4. one long beach. It is weird that you have one long beach and one small one.

5. Villagers that greet me should be cute. Jambette, Diva or Vic greeting me? RESET!

6. NO to pears and oranges.... they look so simple and uh... simple.

that is all..

 

[louise23]

I like the shop to be near the beach so when I go to the island I don't have far to sell

 

[BitterCoffee]

Got the perfect map but not my beautiful apples.. Got peaches instead ahh.
Imma take it, I no longer want to reset for another day, which would make it 4 days

 

[Mizuriri]

I look for a southern waterfall and the beach facing west, that's the most important thing for me. The retail would have to be near the train station, or close to the tracks/top part of the map in general. Ah.. and also some decent animals as a starter, I lose immediate motivation if they're ugly lol.. !!! oh and cherries/apples, those are a must for me. The plaza and town hall should always be next to, or vertical from each other. Though Town hall should be on top. I extremely dislike when plaza is on top.

 

[Locket]

I don't care most of the time, I found a map and I like it.

 

[PaperCat]

Not a lot of ponds and no overly narrow pieces of land.

 

[natalie]

bump )

 

[Chere.]

Hmm well I guess I like it when the big tree is close to town hall, re tail near the train station (or at least to the top/north of the map) and if I did reset my town I'd like a beach that connects. XD

 

[Astro Cake]

If I was being picky about maps, I'd think I'd want a waterfall that flows south and for town hall and the plaza to be next to each other.

 

[natalie]

bump!

 

[Chicha]

I try to do something different with each town I have.

For my main town the river layout, placement of retail, and location of permanent rocks was extremely important to me. If the rocks were at super annoying places or too many for my liking, it was a deal breaker to me. I had a pretty good idea of where I wanted to put my mayor's house and side character's homes ahead of time so layout hunting wasn't as bad.

This was the final result below. There's a few quirks with it but made it work.

As for my second town, I recently restarted because I wasn't crazy about my town map. I had a decent map and initially had a few doubts but I thought I'd be okay with it. Eventually, the placement of town hall annoyed me for being in a really tough location where landscaping would be almost impossible. Retail's location was meh to me so after I got almost all my dreamies, I reset. Welp.

After looking for maps, I decided to go for a river layout going south since I've never had that yet. I'm very happy with the layout, especially with town hall and the plaza. I plan on having my villager's homes be at the right side, kinda like a little community for them. It's far from finished but I'm happy with the progress so far.

 

[Hurplepippo]

I need cherries as my native fruit, a town hall near the train station, a river that flows south and not north, and no slim pieces of land. No dead space. I chose my map with retail practically in line with the ramp, but just my luck, my island is glitched and won't spawn bugs. I also like symmetry when it comes to the rocks, and enough room for two wide paths.

 

[Crescental]

I look for a river that provides lots of space whilst still being visually appealing, nothing in the centre of the map, anything except pears as my town fruit, the train station without the pond due to the rock in the direct front, only one pond (the Re-Tail pond), and a top corner free so I can put my house in a corner. The last one's very personal. I'm very picky, I know.

 

[vel]

i don't like all the houses bunched up and blocking places, or a lot of space on the second part of the town. i also don't like when there's a tiny part of land on the corner of the map with nothing there, and a crazy river pattern. and the retail being in the second island.

 

[xInfiniteStars]

I want a lot of space near the train station (usually for fruit trees and villagers houses), the plaza either being on a separate island of some sort or the plaza being in front of the bridge. I don't really mind where the Re-tail or town hall are.

 

[tolisamarie]

Things I love about my map:

Mostly horizontal river - it makes river fishing easy and doesn't take up a lot of space like winding rivers do.

All my main buildings - town hall, caf?, police station, and Retail all line up to make a convenient "Main Street" in the south half of town.

All my character houses line up to make a nice residential street in the north half of town.

The top left corner has just enough room for my campsite - it's a perfect secluded spot.

My beach is continuous, not broken in half like so many maps I see. It's great for ocean fishing and I still have a little private beach you can only reach by swimming to it.

I don't care about train station/town hall colors. I remodeled both to fairy tale so long ago I don't even remember the original colors! Brown maybe???

There are only two ponds, one right behind my mayor's house, which is cool (lake front property!!) and one to the right of retail. Ponds take up too much space so I wouldn't want more than two.

There are no rocks in the way of any of my paths. I was so lucky about this and my paths are set up so that my town is so easy to navigate.

Honestly, I've seen literally thousands of maps on here and I've never seen a town layout I like more than mine.

 

[Leedle-lee]

^^That's a tough act to follow LOL

I enjoy layouts where the town hall and retail are near each other, and an isolated area for one of my houses to be.

Edit: Oops that's a big picture >.<

 

[Svive]

I like my retail, plaza, and town hall to all be clustered in one place to make pathways easier.
I like the shortest possible river, horizontal only. I look for a very long beach maybe even a private beach!
I look for the placement of the original villagers houses because this dictates where villagers will be plotting later on...

Last thing I look for is Where I am going to put my unmovable landmarks. If there is space for all that and then some then I'm happy!

 

[thatawkwardkid]

It mostly depends on my mood. With my current town, I tried to not be as picky compared to my previous towns.

Spoiler: I started blabbing while writing this, so I'm putting it in spoilers

-I prefer to have the Plaza near the middle, away from the rock walls at the edge of town. I don't mind if it's at the top by the train tracks, but I don't want it near the town edges. I like to decorate the area around the Plaza and it's really awkward when I can't put any trees or bushes on the sides because it's too close to the town edges.

-The only fruit I refuse to have in my town is cherries. I don't like the way perfect cherries look.

-I'm fine with any grass pattern, but I prefer to have square grass if possible.

-The exterior of the Town Hall and Train Station: Since I prefer the look of the original Town Hall/Train Station exteriors over the ones you unlock, I'm a little picky with these. I try to avoid the brown, yellow, and red train station exteriors. I don't like the look of them. And I like it when the Town Hall exterior color is near the darker side.

-River/waterfall: This isn't really an issue for me, I can work with anything. But I prefer it if the waterfall is either facing south, or if it looks like this:

View attachment 176758
My town has neither of these, but I really liked my town layout so I stuck with what I got.

-Rocks: They don't bother me too much, I usually find a way around them. The only time I get really frustrated with rocks is when I can't find a way around them, they're in really awkward places, or if there's too many in one area (once I had 3 by the Train Station, none were ore rocks.)

Ponds: I don't like it when there are too many ponds in one area, especially if it's all by the Train Station. I'm a little picky with ponds.

Beach: I'm not to picky with the beach. I'm fine with it facing both left or right, I'm also fine with having the beach that can only be accessed with a swim suit.

It's funny how I said I tried not to be as picky with my current town, but judging from what I wrote, I probably seem picky.