What makes a perfect town layout?

[Lemons]

I've seen a lot of people worried about their town layout, resetting because they didn't like it anymore and so on.
I admit I didn't think much about it.

What do you think makes a good town layout? Re-Tail close to the beach? Nicely positioned town hall and tree? A long river, ou just interesting design?
Would you rather have easy access to everything or a nice spot for your house and PWPs?

I'm just curious about it.

 

[Wish]

whatever looks nice because sorry if you have time to play animal crossing then you can walk a few extra seconds to retail

 

[Isabella]

It's all personal preference. I like having re-tail near the island, I used to have it all the way near the train station and I found it annoying to keep going back and forth. I also only have one pond now which makes more space to build public works projects as opposed to having like 4-5 ponds. Some people like ponds though~ and the river shape and town hall placement I don't really care for but I'm happy with mine.
&this topic has been brought up sooo many times..

 

[pocky]

When I first got the game, I wanted something with the plaza in the center of the map, and town hall near it, I wanted Re-Tail by the beach and I also wanted an interesting town map. I got all of those things in 20 minutes, but then I sort of realized that the interesting river layout didn't really give me much room for projects. I still kept my town, but I bought a second copy of the game recently.

I spent maybe a whole day resetting for that one because I wanted a map with lots of space and with apples >__< This time around I didn't care too much about where Re-Tail was, I make most off my money off trades so I'm not concerned about running from the docks to Re-Tail... and even if it's not super close to the docks, it's not like running around will make selling beetles any more difficult. I also didn't care too much for an interesting river, instead I went for a boring horizontal one with few turns because those seem to give the most space ; O ; I still got my plaza and town hall close to each other, but that was unintentional -all of my main buildings were grouped together, which makes me happy but I wouldnt really care otherwise.

 

[duosion]

I like things to be spread out. ^^
I like my retail on the opposite side of my gate and my town tree beside my town hall and not infront of it.

 

[Lin]

I like my retail and town hall close to main street. I was looking for a specific river layout, not too many ponds, and any fruits except for pears and oranges. x.x

I like retail close to train station because it's easier for my visitors to sell stuff~

 

[Jinglefruit]

I wanted my plaza to be out of the way in a corner. (I feel like it's a huge empty waste of space 95% of the year.) And then I wanted my river to be hugging either the cliff, or the top of town so that there was a large empty expanse for the rest of my town, with re-tail separate from everything so that you actually see some of the town when making the rounds.
On top of that I wasn't accepting anything other than apples and either triangle or circle grass.

I also wanted both my ledges to the beach on the same segment of beach so I could have my house near the side entrance and walk via my beach to the dock. - but I didn't do this in the end.

 

[Attribule]

For me it's having enough space for villagers and projects, as well as ponds that aren't as in the way. Anything else I'm not too picky about. Land is most important.

 

[Sholee]

My Criterias

Re-Tail in the middle or close to the Docks
Not Pear or Peach Trees as town fruit
Small Private Beach
Long continuous beach for fishing
South/Vertical Waterfall
Town Hall below the Town Tree or beside it. (so there's room for a small park using PWP)
Vertical Path to the beach (not sideways/zigzag)
1-2 Ponds
Circle Grass
Private Island to myself (no starting villagers on it)

*Bonus: A straight path from the train station to the docks

I got everything on my list, the only thing I would want to change to my town fruit. I'm okay with cherries but the perfect apples look sooo nice. It's minor, so i'm okay with it. However, I spent 2/3 weeks resetting... I was super picky with the maps. I have more than enough room for the PWP, I'm most likely not going to use many of the PWP just because they wouldn't fit with my town theme.

 

[Gizmodo]

I like having my town tree by its self, and then Town hall and Retail near eachother, which is what my map is like :3 also like having an open space, and a few ponds (i have 4)

And Apples or Peaches or Cherries (i got Apples, LOVE the perfect ones)

 

[Rachy]

My town




I like the plaza having its own corner,
My own house having its seperate bit to everyone else
4 ponds dont bother me as they are around my buildings
A nice wide open space on the bottom left (going to build a bridge to connect) which is plenty of room for work projects, and i like on the bottom island how all my residents houses are in a row, makes it easier to build paths etc..
Finally i like the big space under the station, as thats the first thing visitors see when they arrive so glad i can fit projects

 

[Mia]

I like having my house built close to the river with no space for villagers to plop their houses in front or to the side of me.

For the museum to be on the right hand side instead of the left hand side.

And to have full access to the beaches with no small piece cut off by the waterfall.

Not bothered by where Town Hall, the Plaza, or Re-Tail are located.

 

[Caucas]

A perfect town layout to me is everything being equal. I.e river and bridge in the middle, same distance roughly from each side. Trees at the side and not in front etc. Making sure its equal and neat Also I like the plaza to be at the top of my town but in the middle. 'Centre of attention' as they say!

 

[Pachirisu]

I have a question for every body, Do you think 4 ponds is too many? I almost my perfect town lay-out but the map had 4 freaking ponds! 2 of them are place at an okay area but the other two are in not so great areas.

Spoiler

 

[Twisk]

For my town, I actually wanted Re-Tail to be by the train tracks. This is because I wanted Re-Tail and the Town Hall to be on the side of the river with the Train Station, kind of forming a city area near Main Street. The other side of my river has the Town Tree, so I'm making this side of the river really lush, full of trees and flowers with an emphasis on nature. I guess I'm describing this to make the point that not everyone will have the same building placement preferences, and it's not like having Re-Tail or the town tree in a certain location is objectively the best location. It's all personal preferences, depending on one's plans and priorities. I don't care that it takes me a little longer to get to Re-Tail with my island hauls. I have a path set up, so I can run there in a short amount of time.

Things to consider when choosing a town:
- Train station and town hall designs. The original design is unchangeable, so if you don't plan on using the modern, fairy-tale, or Japanese designs, then you might want to make sure you get a color you like.
- Grass shape and fruit, if you care.
- River shape: I think the simple, straight rivers that just go horizontally across town are the most favored because they give lots of space for community projects. But of course, there are other river shapes one might like better, and it's possible to work with a curvy river. In fact, curves in the river can be great places to make a cozy spot for a garden, community project, player's house, or other building.
- Building placement: A lot of people like for the town tree to be in the center of town and the Re-Tail shop to be near the beach, but like I mentioned before, the best locations for these buildings is subjective.
- Ponds: Some people might like having lots of ponds, but in New Leaf having too many of them is often seen as an inconvenience, since they take up space that could be used for community projects.
- Rocks: I think probably every town will have a few annoying rocks, but it might be a good idea to overview the layout of rocks before you pick a town to see if there are any in glaringly bad places, like where you might want to put a community project or building.
- Beach: having "coves" to plant palm trees; certain ramps; a private beach vs. two beaches with a ramp going to each
- Waterfall: Some of the side-view waterfalls aren't easily visible because the cliff is in the way. Other side-view waterfalls are visible, and front-facing waterfalls (when the river meets the south border) are of course always visible.

 

[Lemons]

I have a question for every body, Do you think 4 ponds is too many? I almost my perfect town lay-out but the map had 4 freaking ponds! 2 of them are place at an okay area but the other two are in not so great areas.

Spoiler

View attachment 7874

Well, mine has 4 pounds and it doesn't bother me! The only trouble I can think of is having to go around it with paths, so I think you need to see if that would be too bad for you. But the position of the event plaza there looks really nice!

My layout is pretty simple, mostly horizontal river, event plaza and town hall next to eachother in a corner, Retail in the middle and 4 ponds. Nothing special but there's a lot of free space. As I said though, I didn't really choose it, just got the first random map.
Now that I see many people choosing even the fruit I wish I had thought about it a little more! I don't really like peaches, but that's what I got

 

[princelio]

I picked the first map I got because I thought it looked pretty. I'm happy with it although I kind of wish I'd gotten one long stretch of beach instead, but I don't feel like resetting after like a month of playing hahah.