What makes a map good to you?

[LemonInator]

When you reset your town and you're looking for that 'perfect map'.

What do you consider to be a 'perfect map' in your eyes?

For me, I personally like it if there is one long stretch of beach rather than 2 small ones (unless one of the small ones is the dock only) and I also prefer maps that are wide and don't have lots of narrow paths if that makes sense.

I have a narrow path in my current town and although I can just about fit a house there, it makes it difficult to place paths in a satisfying way.

 

[spunkystella]

I like my layout to be almost cut in half with a horizontal river, with ReTail close to the deck so I can easily farm beetles. I also like the long stretch of beach. I prefer the town hall to not be very close to ReTail, so I have more room for pathing if that makes any sense. It takes me almost forever to find a good map, I reset the game so many times lol I'm so picky

 

[LadyDestani]

I picked one of the first 4 options that were given to me, but I really like a lot of things about my map.

- Long winding river allows me to create different sections or areas of town.
- South facing waterfall.
- Event plaza is out of the way in a northern corner.
- The major buildings are spread out.
- One long beach.

What I don't like about my town:
- The private beach that I never visit.
- Retail is kind of far away from my dock.

If I were looking for a map again, my criteria could change, though. Depending on the theme and vision for my town, I might want something different.

 

[fiirefly-crossing]

When choosing a map, i look out for certain things. Always like retail to be on the lower side of the map, preferably not near a bunch of rocks. I always choose the map with the least rocks too, they just get in the way of my planning. I like to have a big beach with 2 entries, hate beaches with only 1 entry point. I like the river to be wavy and not straight across.

 

[FoxFeathers]

I prefer Retail, Town Hall, etc to be up along the train tracks. I got really lucky with my newer map. I had Town Tree, Town Hall and Retail and the road up to the RV park all in the same corner. It works great because it's like a city area all together there.

Ohter than that, I'm not fond of narrow strips along rivers. I like space to put stuff and a skinny little nothing doesn't appeal to me. And I prefer split beaches, not a fan of a little patch that doesn't have a road down to it. That's just me though.

 

[bidoof]

I prefer two slopes to the beach and ReTail close to the dock. The map has to have *the* perfect spot to set up the house, I like it best when it is next to a waterfall since one too many villagers has moved right in front of my house. A pond cannot be in front of the RV campgrounds; I like starting out with a lot of open space so the fewer ponds the better.

I feel like I am too finicky, it takes me hours of resetting to even pick a map and stick with it. Even spotting those indestructible rocks in the way of what would have made a good path makes me want to start over.

 

[PPUAlchemist]

I tend to be a fan of Re-Tail on the lower half of town due to ease of access from the island.
I used to enjoy the river horizontally cutting the town as with my first two towns, but for Kuro I wanted to be different and purposely reset for a mostly vertical river.

Never really cared too much where everything else fell as I usually don't have a full vision for my town at the beginning and then develop ideas as I go.

In Kuro, for example, I like how my town hall is decently close to one of my beaches as I have it zen themed with a hot spring and a zen bell nearby and it just has a nice feel to it.
But from the beginning I didn't know I'd like this about my town hall.

 

[arturia]

I like a map with minimal river bends, like 3 at most so it’s easy to know where to place bridges. That is my current map’s biggest flaw, with too many bends it’s really hard to decide where the most convenient place to put bridges are.
Retail and Town Hall should be concentrated by the train station. This helps me quickly pinpoint the best place for my home, which I like to be near all of those buildings (convenience is everything for me).
Also I don’t personally like super long beaches but that is only a minor annoyance for me.

 

[Worldsvamp]

Nice wild riversl that spralls out

A nice long beach with a tiny mini beach

Town hall above town square

Retail near the beach dock

 

[Marte]

I want it to look "clean", nothing scattered around, not a messy rivershape (I'm ok with many ponds tho, I love them)
And I also don't like long rivers, I prefer the shorter ones with a south waterfall.


… yeah thats all I want ^^

 

[Snowesque]

Generally, this is what comes to mind for me:

- Everything's one space away from all paths, which I'll typically make two-three spaces.
(Example: Path isn't directly close to pond, so there's space for flowers or something.)
- No rocks in the way of paths.
- Room for bridges to be equally spaced from each other. (If the bridge placement glitch is still a thing.)
- It has the desired fruit.

 

[Sothe]

I, personally, enjoy a map with a long, winding river. I feel like it adds a lot of character to a town even if it can be a bit difficult to decide on bridge placement. I also like to have my plaza in the center of town, since it is basically the heart of the town. Last thing I look for is that the slopes to the beach are in good places. I don?t like them being at the far corners of the beach.

 

[Senni]

I love this thread so much and will be taking notes for when I reset my second town (originally a present for my bf who never plays so now it's mine.. muahaha)!!

I'm not sure what I would consider optimal, but I like a lot of the things others mentioned (retail near beach for bug farming or middle of town, long river that cuts the town in half, etc). I think I might want the town tree near the entrance/train station maybe though! Seems like a nice decorating opportunity! Pathing is so hard and rocks suck so less rocks are better as well I think, hehe.

 

[Mayor Kera]

- One or two ponds.

- A horizontal river.

 

[gothgf]

-I usually prefer retail up near the train station but if it's close enough to the docks I won't mind
-the plaza always has to be somewhere in a corner
-town hall must be in the north side of town, and if it's next to the plaza that's perfect
-only 1 pond bc they're really annoying and take up alot of space
-a straight river, I can't stand wiggly ones
-I prefer the beach to be on the left side
-the beach ramps have to be sideways not straight down
-I hate private beaches but sometimes I can't avoid them
-I prefer the beaches to be about equal in size, not one long stretch
-I always have to check where the rocks are

 

[Candy83]

When you reset your town and you're looking for that 'perfect map'.

What do you consider to be a 'perfect map' in your eyes?

For me, I personally like it if there is one long stretch of beach rather than 2 small ones (unless one of the small ones is the dock only) and I also prefer maps that are wide and don't have lots of narrow paths if that makes sense.

I have a narrow path in my current town and although I can just about fit a house there, it makes it difficult to place paths in a satisfying way.

I have been playing ?Animal Crossing: New Leaf,? here in the United States, since August 2013.

Setting aside my first town, Applewin, the rest of my towns? maps were selected based on what I wanted out of each town and with what I had in mind. It was important to me the Perfect Fruit. But, that wasn?t all there was to it.


I will provide a link to my second town, ACNLpics. If you check it out, I have in the opening post the map and other information. It is a town in which the human houses have villager pictures. I deliberately created the town to have a separate area for the humans, and to have them neighbor each other all in a row, so that one having a Dream can go from one to the next immediately. And this was done before Welcome amiibo. It took me several months. I started on it during the second half of 2014. So, I didn?t have some tricks to manipulate placement of villager homes as one can incorporate from Welcome amiibo.

Updated Link (2017): http://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?409040-Re-Introduction-ACNLpics&highlight=

Original Link (2015): http://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?254000-Introducing%85-ACNLpics-!&highlight=



Here is my third town, Foster. It has a map in which the villager plaza is in the northern half of the town and right in the middle. Looking at the opening post of that thread, I also have in it the town map and other information. One of the things that I did with Foster, which I am so glad I did, was use the northern half of the town for a park-like atmosphere.

Updated Link (2018): http://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?443950-Re-Introduction-Foster&highlight=

Original Link (2015): http://www.belltreeforums.com/showthread.php?299213-New-Town-Foster&highlight=

 

[loglady]

I like maps that have a horizontal river that cuts through the middle of the map. I think it looks neater and is also more convenient when it comes to placing things such as bridges.

Actually, I like my buildings closer together, in a neat row. However, I don?t like it when it feels to cramped, like there?s one on top of the other. There has to be enough space for me to place a path and some sort of decoration. I feel like this way, it feels like an actual town. You have the main part of town in one area, with the town hall, shops etc. and the houses in another, like it?s a neighborhood.