# Villager Housing Placement: Scattered or Neighbourhoods?



## Sloom (Apr 28, 2020)

what's the placement like for your villager (and possibly player character) houses on your island? which do you prefer in general?

I'm debating between the two and can't really decide.
definitely leaning towards neighbourhood tho but would like to see scattered crew's input

I mean what I really would like is some kind of creative idea for how to make a neighbourhood look pretty/unique so if you have any of those please do comment them lol


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## moon_child (Apr 28, 2020)

I have been delaying terraforming cause I’ve been feeling really lazy so I haven’t moved them all yet but they will be moved around the map in mini neighborhoods of 2/3/4 depending on the area.


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## Dormire (Apr 28, 2020)

Most will be in neighborhoods bc I need island space... : (
Though I'll try as much as I can to scatter some.


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## Sloom (Apr 28, 2020)

moon_child said:


> I have been delaying terraforming cause I’ve been feeling really lazy so I haven’t moved them all yet but they will be moved around the map in mini neighborhoods of 2/3/4 depending on the area.



lmao I'm in the exact same boat. every building and house is on the beach right now (which was painful to do without tting) and I recently had to remove something I spent about 1-2 hours terraforming because I ended up not liking it so I'm being particularly cautious now.

definitely into the 2/3/4 idea tho because I have a lot of villagers that go really well together and I'd like them to be next to each other


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## moon_child (Apr 28, 2020)

Sloom said:


> lmao I'm in the exact same boat. every building and house is on the beach right now (which was painful to do without tting) and I recently had to remove something I spent about 1-2 hours terraforming because I ended up not liking it so I'm being particularly cautious now.
> 
> definitely into the 2/3/4 idea tho because I have a lot of villagers that go really well together and I'd like them to be next to each other



Lol yeah mine are clumped together now in the bottom corner of my map since I haven’t moved them yet. So what’s gonna happen essentially is for every area in my island, I’ll put some of them there. Like a foresty area with maybe 2 of them. I have a little East Asia part with my house in it with 2-3 of them because I don’t enjoy an isolated house (my favorites and those whose house fit the aesthetic maybe) and I like living amongst my villagers. Then in the downtown part where the plaza and shops are, I’ll probably put 3-4 of them there somewhere.


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## ali.di.magix (Apr 28, 2020)

I've got two columns of 5 villagers, on opposite sites of the island with a river bordering both of them. Unfortunately I don't have an up to date screenshot of my map, but here is my original, un-terraformed island versus my draft plan of my island:






 ---- to this ----> 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	



Since I have 2 southern outlets, this was the best way I could think of to maximise the island space haha ^^"


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## Shyria (Apr 28, 2020)

I like scattered but I would have been complicated for me to have everything where I wanted to be if I did this. So I have three dedicated neighborhoods (will try to give them different feels later on) and that leaves me plenty of room for shops, flower fields, themed area & what may be to come!


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## R. Planet (Apr 28, 2020)

Currently only my two first villagers live on the main southwest quadrant with me. Along with all stores and the museum and campground.

The southeast quadrant has a pond with four villager houses stationed all around it.

Towards the center of the island, just to the right of the central waterfall are my two lazies. Just to the right of them is the southernmost tip of the 2nd tier with a natural incline and that's where numbers 9 and 10 went. They sit adjacent to my other pond which is surrounded by a fruit orchard.

So essentially they sit 2 - 4 and 4.

I'll post a pic in a bit.


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## Raz (Apr 28, 2020)

Scattered, and there's not a single house sharing an acre with another one (but a few may share an acre with another building, like NC/AS), with my house being an exception for now.


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## starlightsong (Apr 28, 2020)

I definitely understand why people do the neighborhood thing because it helps you have more space for other things. But personally, I don't like having the villagers all crammed together in one area because they're an important part of my island and I want to show that and let them have nice, personalized yards. In the past I sometimes did use plot resetting to cram them into one neighborhood in certain towns (I have multiple NL ones still and at least one of them is like that lol) but now, with such extensive outdoor decorating being possible? Nope--though I guess what I do would be classified as a mix of both!

What I do is I have 2 neighborhood areas: four villagers with decently sized yards on one side of my island, and then four others symmetrically placed in the same way on the other side. And then I have the final two villagers near each other, but still with a good bit of yard space, on one of my beaches!


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## Chris (Apr 28, 2020)

I'm going for a port town aesthetic to support my pirate theme. They will all be kept together in the town area so I can give the rest of the map a more untamed desert island feel.


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## Hsn97 (Apr 28, 2020)

I have pairs of house scattered around the map. I wanted more of a wild island type of feel and I felt this looked more natural.


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## AutumnWolf (Apr 28, 2020)

I Haven’t completely settled on anything yet, I’m playing very slowly because I have a new baby, but I’ve got some of my villagers grouped together. I plan on having them surrounding a little outdoor lounge/picnic area Possibly, if I like the design. The others are a little more scattered at the moment and I’m OK with it. Eventually I’ll know more of what I’m doing. Ha ha!


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## moonolotl (Apr 28, 2020)

I've just finished making my neighbourhood and i personally really love it!! it feels like a little community

Below is a picture of my map, however i took this picture a while ago so its not 100% updated. On the left is my residential area half completed, along with my orchard. Currently i have one more house on the top right and ive managed to move the campsite and fit 4 more house gardens at the southern point! i may send some in-game pictures or videos if anyone wants me to


Spoiler: MAP IMAGE


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## An0nn (Apr 28, 2020)

I'm doing a mix. I try to customize the area around each house based on what looks good with the exterior, but sometimes I'll find that two houses match the same aesthetic well and I'll place them together. 

My houses are scattered all over the map for the most part. I have a beach cottage section with tons of rocks and scattered white flowers, a rustic river house isolated in the woods, a fancy mini-neighborhood of two houses in the town center... So far I'm having a lot of fun with it


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## Katy88 (Apr 28, 2020)

I have a city area with a street layout, then 4 villagers spread out in the rural areas. I like the mix!



Spoiler: Map!


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## niko2 (Apr 28, 2020)

Scattered around the map with at most 2 really close to each others, but also leaving some island areas completely without buildings.


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## FlimsyAxe (Apr 28, 2020)

I want them all close cause it's easier to hunt for DIYs


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## shayminskyforme88 (Apr 28, 2020)

Mine is a mix, I have two residential districts on my island.


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## ThomasNLD (Apr 28, 2020)

6 live in a neigbourhood, south of the river. The other 4 live scattered around, mostly because of a lack of space.


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## Figment (Apr 28, 2020)

I bit of both for me. They're in thematic neighborhoods, but some are scattered.

Butch is towards the left of my entrance by the beach in a woodland area. It made since for the cranky old dog to be off by himself. Really, my villagers can be put into two categories. Those who live in more wooded areas, decorated with country fencing and dark and orange wood furniture and those who live in areas mostly decorated with white birch.

They aren't in a grid system by any means (natural island), but a few villagers do live side by side, between 5-8 squares from each other. For the most part, houses are mixed throughout the map, except for the top right area of the map. When I had villagers who lived there, they rarely came out of their houses even though there were paths, bridges, and inclines.


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## Clock (Apr 28, 2020)

Neighborhood then the rest of two houses are away in one place.


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## Lady Timpani (Apr 28, 2020)

Mine are scattered, but I do try to have it so that there’s at least two in one general area of the map (except for Clyde, who wound up by his lonesome behind Nook’s Cranny). It’s just the look I prefer from the older games, and since I don’t really terraform or anything having them all concentrated would leave me with a whole bunch of empty.


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## Blueskyy (Apr 28, 2020)

my houses are lines up along the beaches, but spread out.


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## JKDOS (Apr 28, 2020)

I set mine up like this (1x space apart horizontally, and 2x space apart vertically)





I am kind of regretting having them so close. I let my New Leaf greed for space influence me in this decision.

I able going to build a new neighborhood and give them all a little more space, and will also be separating them. I plan to have 6 on one side of the map, 3 in another area on the opposite side of the map, and the last house I plan to place in a secluded area, with a big yard somewhere else.


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## absol (Apr 28, 2020)

right now I put most of them very close to the airport bc I don't know want them to be in my way when I do terraforming


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## Altarium (Apr 28, 2020)

I have the same dilemma so I'm here lurking for inspiration :3

But I definitely plan on having them scattered, a grid-like neighborhood wouldn't work in my island. Even if I were to do a neighborhood I wouldn't place any fences and I would scatter them across three levels.


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## bam94- (Apr 28, 2020)

It took me a while to decide what to do too. I started terraforming a few days ago and decided to do a mix of both - I've spread my villagers out over two tiers, I've got a row of 4 on the second level, a row of 2 above them, and then on the ground level I have two sets of 2!


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## Cory (Apr 28, 2020)

I have all 3 of my frogs on frog island. 5 others are in the same vicinity, and 2 are separate from others


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## Lavulin98 (Apr 28, 2020)

Here is my current map if it helps anyone. I terraformed very little and still have upper part of the island kind of bare. Who knows what it would look like in the future. tho I really like how I placed my villager houses. so might try to keep that.


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## edsett (Apr 28, 2020)

I went with scattered as I like the natural look. I split my island into theme sections and put villagers in matching ones. I’m still working on it though lol.


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## Eirrinn (Apr 28, 2020)

I had them all focused in one place, two rows side by side
i hate it now and spent all day teraforming to change it
I STILL HATE IT LOL so im going back to the 2/2 format but placed around different places of my island and see if that helps


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## Rosch (Apr 28, 2020)

It really depends on the aesthetic/theme you're going for. I prefer a neighborhood style since my island is going for a modern feel.


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## spaceapple (Apr 28, 2020)

My neighborhood is almost finished and I am in love. I just got a bunch of streetlamps from someone here yesterday, and last night I kept walking through the neighborhood admiring its beauty. <3


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## Edge (Apr 28, 2020)

I went with clusters. I have a main cluster with the shops and three houses, a big cluster with three houses and then two small clusters with two houses each. I spread these clusters around the island and have plans to theme them(downtown, ski/ mountain town, fairy village, and beach town. I don’t time travel and some of the furniture I want to decorate with is seasonal so it will probably be at least a year for everything to shape up. Lol.


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## Krissi2197 (Apr 28, 2020)

I have one set of 4 houses and then 2 sets of 3 around my island! So they're each in their own little neighborhoods if you want to call it that.


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## axo (Apr 28, 2020)

I have four "neighborhoods," 3 live around my plaza area where my shops are, 2 live north of the river near my museum, 2 live near my campsite, and 3 more live up in the cliffs. It makes my map look very messy, with all the paths going everywhere, but I really like not having my villagers all in one spot, but still not having them in random places either.


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## Orieii (Apr 28, 2020)

I try to do a mix of both because I don’t want my island to feel too desolate. Plus I think applying both ways helps clear up unused space


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## Mewyn (Apr 28, 2020)

At first I planned to have most of them scattered or by groups of 2-4, but I actually ended up grouping most of them as I terraformed the whole thing because I wanted more space (and also needed space to breed hybrids), so now I have about 6 of them together and the 4 others scattered around, mostly on the beaches.


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## TerrapinTrip (Apr 28, 2020)

I definitely fall in the mix of both camp. I don't really want specific neighborhoods with roads/sidewalks and whatnot but I did want my villagers mostly together. I decided to just keep most villagers to my southern central starting island where my resident services is, and then keep then northern portion of my island as a state park kind of thing


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## Alicia (Apr 28, 2020)

I was originally going to have villagers near each other in sets of 2, but then I couldn't figure out where to place the last two in a place I actually liked. Since I decided I didn't really like what I was doing on my island, I switched to a neighborhood area. I've got two villagers on my highest level, four on the middle and four on the ground level. They each have a small fenced in area! I'm still slowly moving the houses into the right spots though, still have four to go and since I don't time travel, I have to wait for each house to be moved each day!


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## daisyy (Apr 28, 2020)

I love the look of a scattered map. I had grand ideas about landscaping. For example, having Drago live in a mountainous region with bamboo and a hot springs nearby and koi pond LOL! but I find practically, its much easier to have them in neighborhood and I’m not sacrificing much by having them that way. It would drive me crazy to run around the entire map every time I wanted to find a villager. I may change my mind later though, but I find it a lot easier to have big ideas than to execute them lol.


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## DaviddivaD (Apr 28, 2020)

Mine are in their own residential area. Each have a fenced in yard.


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## SheepMareep (Apr 28, 2020)

I have them in a neighborhood but am thinking of scattering 1-3 of them


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## N a t (Apr 28, 2020)

I voted for scattered but probably should have done a mix of both. I like both but I personally wouldn't want all of my villagers in one neighborhood. So I have most houses set up to be close enough to have at least one neighbor or even two but I have houses on just about every corner of my map. If that makes sense. I felt the need to fill every bit of my island with something, be it a house or just some plants.


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## DaviddivaD (Apr 28, 2020)

moonrose said:


> I've just finished making my neighbourhood and i personally really love it!! it feels like a little community
> 
> Below is a picture of my map, however i took this picture a while ago so its not 100% updated. On the left is my residential area half completed, along with my orchard. Currently i have one more house on the top right and ive managed to move the campsite and fit 4 more house gardens at the southern point! i may send some in-game pictures or videos if anyone wants me to
> 
> ...



How cool!  Looks like a dragon! That must have taken a lot of work.


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## udinafrog (Apr 28, 2020)

A mix of both. At the beginning I just wanted them at a distance, to feel more like a wild island without too many willagers being constantly around. Finally they have ended around the map, in groups of two houses, and everyone has a little garden area.


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## LillyKay (Apr 28, 2020)

Neighborhoods: I have placed them at the Northern part of the island but they wander everywhere on the island which is good. They each have a nice big garden which is personalised. If I get bored of the set up I will move them around.


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## Arckaniel (Apr 28, 2020)

At first I really wanted to do a scattered one since I want to do an overgrown rustic themed island but now I'm leaning more towards the all in one place one after I see some of those beautiful neighborhoods people of ACNH do and it's just so inspiring and beautiful to look at... I'd probably end up doing a mixture of both though


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## Megina (Apr 28, 2020)

I have a Residents District, with them all together with a fountain in the middle, and a little cafe + garden area on the side.
But then I have 1 house (which is my special baby, Maddie) who is separate and by MY house, that has her own little bit of decoration.


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## Heartcore (Apr 28, 2020)

I created a neighborhood on one side of my map, including my house. So clusters of 2-4 villagers with paths, some backyards, fencing, etc. There is also a playground I created that blends into the neighborhood. I really like it and feel like it makes everything seem more organized and easier to navigate. It also leaves me with a ton of extra room on my island for other projects and future buildings if needed.


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## eat (Apr 28, 2020)

I have scattered neighbourhoods. I have 3 neighbourhoods with the largest one with 4 villagers while the other two neighbourhoods have 3 villagers each. I'm considering merging the two smaller ones into one big one though due to their proximity with each other.


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## Campy (Apr 28, 2020)

I've been so back and forth about this, moving the same houses multiple times until I settled on a... semi-neighbourhood? I've got two clusters of four houses, and then an elevated area between those parts where I'll place the last two. I think it looks cute. I'll be placing my own home close to one of the clusters of four.

I was so anal about the house placement at first and it cost me a lot of energy and bells. I feel much happier now that I don't have to try to get them in perfect rows on the perfect spot on the map.   Which doesn't mean I don't love the look of it on other people's islands!


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## katielizzabeth (Apr 28, 2020)

I definitely have mine in a neighborhood. I prefer it because I was never so dedicated to NL that I wanted to plot reset to get the neighborhood look, now I can have it! Each of my villagers have a tiny fenced in yard with a space on either side of the house for flowers/ a piece of furniture or two, and the back two rows have a front yard across the sidewalk for more furniture if necessary.


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