# Are two towns possible with a digital and physical copy on one 3ds?



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Sorry - I posted this question incorrectly to a poll.  Does anyone know if you can have two towns with both a physical and digital copy purchased and played on one 3DS.  I would like to have a town that I can experiment with and not worry too much about destroying and a "real" one.  I was thinking I could send stuff between the two towns.


----------



## Elloriee (Jun 4, 2013)

Yes, you can.


----------



## tigereyes86 (Jun 4, 2013)

I'm wondering this too.  Though the extra data gets overwritten each time you load up the digital and then the physical for example. This includes DLC.  I wondered if it would overwrite from the game with no DLC, meaning you lose it, or overwrite to put the DLC in the game that doesn't currently have it.

So yes, you can play both on the one console (my plan), but I'm not sure how the overwriting of data occurs so I won't download my digital until we know a bit more. Plus I'll get my physical copy first as it's delivered to my office, but my bundle is going to my home wich is a 2 hour drive back a couple of days later.


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

That is great news!  I would like to have one town that I time travel in and try different "tricks" on and then my good town that I can keep pristine!


----------



## erce (Jun 4, 2013)

I emailed Nintendo with this very question and the answer was yes  You can;t have 2 digital versions, but one of each is fine.


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

tigereyes86 - that was what I was worried about.  I wanted to start playing at 11:00 pm CST on June 8th on a digital download and trying different things.  I saw on youtube where you can go to your island and cut down all but two trees opposite each other and one in the middle and then catch like tons and tons or valuable bugs at midnight.  Then I wanted to get all those bells and mail them to myself in my other town on the physical copy that I have to wait until 11:00 am on June 9th to get.  I would be devastated though if I messed things up though.


----------



## erce (Jun 4, 2013)

Thouser8751;  Then I wanted to get all those bells and mail them to myself in my other town on the physical copy that I have to wait until 11:00 am on June 9th to get.  I would be devastated though if I messed things up though.[/QUOTE said:
			
		

> can you do that? mail to another town?


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Erce - I was thinking that I could either mail or gift them to another player (me!).  I have watched Youtube episodes where one player went to another player's town and dropped bells on the ground for the other player.  I also remember back in City Folk you could mail someone in another town a letter and attach fruit or bells.  Maybe I am making this up in my head?  That was the main reason I wanted two towns....to use one to get lots of bells in a way that kind of destroyed the town and then get those bells over to my "nice" town that I could expand my house quickly and get the police station and other expense community projects.


----------



## JKDOS (Jun 4, 2013)

you could have two hard copies aswell


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Does anyone out there know for sure if you can "gift" or "mail" other towns bells, and if so, how?  I am almost positive I remember doing that somehow in City Folk.


----------



## Punchyleaf (Jun 4, 2013)

You can only send a letter to a friend if you're in the same town. And you can't gift yourself or visit yourself if you only have 1 3ds.


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Hmmm - I was hoping that I could go visit my 2nd town and just drop the bells on the ground in that town. Can't you visit other people's towns when they aren't playing and drop stuff off?  I would only need 1 3ds for that, but maybe I am being too hopeful.

- - - Post Merge - - -

Or maybe I could leave it as a gift and go visit that other town in a dream and grab it and bring it back with me?


----------



## Peoki (Jun 4, 2013)

Things that happen in the dream world do not effect the original state of the town in any way.


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Ah - okay.  I was watching the Lin and Ko series on Youtube and they went to Aika's village and Aika had a doll all wrapped up as present when they first got into her town.  I was thinking that was something she left for others who visited her village to pick up and bring back with them to their town.


----------



## Campy (Jun 4, 2013)

Thouser8751 said:


> Ah - okay.  I was watching the Lin and Ko series on Youtube and they went to Aika's village and Aika had a doll all wrapped up as present when they first got into her town.  I was thinking that was something she left for others who visited her village to pick up and bring back with them to their town.


Afraid it doesn't work like that. Whatever happens in the dream, stays in the dream. You also can't visit people's towns who haven't opened their gate, meaning they have to be online and playing. So unless you have a second 3DS you can borrow, you won't be able to gift or mail yourself anything.


----------



## Dizzard (Jun 4, 2013)

I would imagine so...the same way you could have multiple physical copies of the game.

The only thing you probably can't do is have multiple digital copies....can anyone clarify on that?


----------



## Joey (Jun 4, 2013)

No, you can't have 2 digital copies^^


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

But couldn't I open one town's gate (from my digital version of the game) and then stop playing that file and open up my second town (from my physical version of the game) and travel by train to the digital version's town where had I opened my gate and drop off a gift?  Unless visiting another town is dependent upon a friend code (thus limiting me to 1 3ds), I would think that you wouldn't have to be actively playing the game if you left your gates open for someone to be able to enter and leave you a gift.  I might be making this more complicated than necessary - but it would be great to be able to somehow get the bells from one town to another town somehow.


----------



## Peoki (Jun 4, 2013)

Unfortunately you would need another 3DS console to do so. Both games must be actively running at the same time in order to visit another town via the gates. If what you're saying worked, people would be able to wreck havoc in your town while you're offline. I'm sure you wouldn't want this. lol


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Thank you for everyone's replies!  This will save me from buying both the digital and physical version if I can't get bells from one town to the other without buying another 3ds.  I am not that crazy!  I swear that in City Folk, you could send mail with attached fruit, bells, etc. to other towns.  I remember the option as "Send a gift to a friend out of town" The only "rule" was that you had to have been in their town at least one time or vice versa. They must have taken that out in New Leaf.  Too bad!


----------



## RainyInVancouver (Jun 4, 2013)

Thouser8751 said:


> tigereyes86 - that was what I was worried about.  I wanted to start playing at 11:00 pm CST on June 8th on a digital download and trying different things.  I saw on youtube where you can go to your island and cut down all but two trees opposite each other and one in the middle and then catch like tons and tons or valuable bugs at midnight.  Then I wanted to get all those bells and mail them to myself in my other town on the physical copy that I have to wait until 11:00 am on June 9th to get.  I would be devastated though if I messed things up though.



I know the thread has already concluded that you couldn't transfer the bells from one copy to the other, but I thought I'd chip in to say that this chopping down the island trees "trick" does work.  I did that in my Japanese game.  Once I found out about this, I analyzed which of the palm trees were generating the big beetles on a regular basis as I had noticed that some of them never seemed to get any.  I chopped down all the fruit trees and dug up all the bushes and flowers (trees and flowers can be easily obtained again from the mini-games and the bushes are on sale on the island) and kept about 10 of the palm trees well spaced along the beach.  Walk from one end to the other between 7pm and 8am and you will be able to rake in the bugs and sharks and make big bells.  Personally, I found the hours between 3am and 8am to be most productive in beetles and sharks.  I managed to reach 100 million bells in the bank using this method - using all four of my players during the early morning hours.  It was a lot of work, but I don't sleep very well and am often awake at those hours


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 4, 2013)

Thanks for confirming the "trick".  So you don't have to chop down everything but two palm trees?  You can leave a line of them if you dig up everything else?


----------



## XTheLancerX (Jun 4, 2013)

Linandko do this. If you have ever seen any of their livestreams or some other vid that shows their home screen on the 3DS you see a digital and a physical copy. (Kohei has digital Lindsey has physical) I think you even see them switch between the towns because in the livestream lindsey decided she wanted to show her town after kohei was done. I *think* thats what they did but I am not sure. But yes you can have both kinds of copies and 2 towns.


----------



## tigereyes86 (Jun 5, 2013)

erce said:


> I emailed Nintendo with this very question and the answer was yes  You can;t have 2 digital versions, but one of each is fine.



They said this about another game that had overwriting of extra data too.  Technically you can have one of each, but there's still a risk that extra data will keep overwriting and possibly lose some of your stuff if you do it.  You can see why they'd keep it quiet though, more $/?


----------



## RainyInVancouver (Jun 5, 2013)

Thouser8751 said:


> Thanks for confirming the "trick".  So you don't have to chop down everything but two palm trees?  You can leave a line of them if you dig up everything else?



My beach has 11 or 12 palm trees - I'd have to go back and count.  On a walk from one end to the other, I may get beetles on maybe 3 or 4 of them.  Some nights, only certain of them get beetles and it will switch to others on another night.  Might be worth a try to chop down more of them to see if I can do any better.  It is certainly easy enough to just plant more if it doesn't work.  One person whose island I visited had only 5 or 6 palm trees.  If you decide on less, make sure they are spaced far enough apart so that catching a bug on one tree won't scare away the bug on the other.


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 5, 2013)

Thanks for the specifics. I will go ahead and try it on my island.  I will just stick with one town and cut down all but a few palm trees spaced apart.  I am so excited about this game and can't wait.  I am a full on adult and I am taking a vacation day from work on Monday just so I can play all day.


----------



## spamurai (Jun 5, 2013)

I asked a similar question a few days ago here...

Some people gave some good explanations.

The only way it would be possible (if nintendo let us) would be whilst playing the digital version and leaving the gate open, to then leave the game on in the background (by visiting your home screen), then re-open the physical version and travel from there (or vice versa)... 
But I don't think you can have have two games running (one in the background) at the same time, which sucks. 

This is something Nintendo should look into and provide an option for.

Regarding the "2 saves" data from each format (digital and physical), I can not see any reason why one would overwrite the other. Each version would have a different save directory seems one's being read from memory and one from a cart... 
I'd be very surprised if there is a confirmed case of this happening.


----------



## DavidR (Jun 5, 2013)

I've heard you can't send mail to other towns in New Leaf! However in City Folk there was Wii connect 24 that allowed you to send mail to other towns as long as you had them on your friend list and registered their Wii! console! ?


----------



## tigereyes86 (Jun 5, 2013)

spamurai said:


> Regarding the "2 saves" data from each format (digital and physical), I can not see any reason why one would overwrite the other. Each version would have a different save directory seems one's being read from memory and one from a cart...
> I'd be very surprised if there is a confirmed case of this happening.



You're correct in saying that each has it's own distinct save file, but the physical cart copy still saves extra data (DLC) to the SD card, and because the digital one does this also, other games that follow this format have reported that this extra data gets overridden, so DLC has the potential to go missing.  So the save progress is on the cart, but the DLC is on the SD card.

*Note I say the potential to go missing as I don't know if the DLC you download on one gets ported to the other, or if it gets deleted because it doesn't exist in one game.*


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 5, 2013)

DavidR said:


> I've heard you can't send mail to other towns in New Leaf! However in City Folk there was Wii connect 24 that allowed you to send mail to other towns as long as you had them on your friend list and registered their Wii! console! ?



I knew I remembered that from City Folk.  I did a little more "research" online last night and it appears they have definitely taken this out of New Leaf.


----------



## spamurai (Jun 5, 2013)

tigereyes86 said:


> You're correct in saying that each has it's own distinct save file, but the physical cart copy still saves extra data (DLC) to the SD card, and because the digital one does this also, other games that follow this format have reported that this extra data gets overridden, so DLC has the potential to go missing.  So the save progress is on the cart, but the DLC is on the SD card.
> 
> *Note I say the potential to go missing as I don't know if the DLC you download on one gets ported to the other, or if it gets deleted because it doesn't exist in one game.*



I'm too scared to find out if thats the case or not haha. 



Thouser8751 said:


> I knew I remembered that from City Folk.  I did a little more "research" online last night and it appears they have definitely taken this out of New Leaf.



We'll just have to rely on friends from this forum.

One way around it would be to travel to a friends town on the forum, from your Digital Town and drop off some items. Then travel to the friends town on the forum, from your Physical Town and pick up the items...


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 5, 2013)

We'll just have to rely on friends from this forum.

One way around it would be to travel to a friends town on the forum, from your Digital Town and drop off some items. Then travel to the friends town on the forum, from your Physical Town and pick up the items...[/QUOTE]

Very smart!


----------



## spamurai (Jun 5, 2013)

I've had another thought on how Nintendo might solve this problem.

You might be able to sacrifice an item/bells for a DLC code which you give to a friend or your second town; In your second town you could use the code to retrieve the item/bells using a DLC option/function...


----------



## runekey (Jun 6, 2013)

I can't imagine what kind of world-altering stuff you guys are doing that you would need a "test" town to experiment in!


----------



## tigereyes86 (Jun 6, 2013)

spamurai said:


> I'm too scared to find out if thats the case or not haha.
> 
> One way around it would be to travel to a friends town on the forum, from your Digital Town and drop off some items. Then travel to the friends town on the forum, from your Physical Town and pick up the items...



Haha true for me too, not sure I want to try.  Although the DLC is available for a few days/week I think so I can try downloading it on physical and seeing what happens when I play digital and go bacl to physical...  At least then I know I can just download it again if it goes missing.  But good point, I can use my bfs town as a drop off!!



runekey said:


> I can't imagine what kind of world-altering stuff you guys are doing that you would need a "test" town to experiment in!



Haha very true, I'm only getting the digital because I ordered the bundle, but I'm not entirely sold on digital just yet to rely solely on it so I got the physical too.  I may end up not utilising the digital.
Maybe we'll see crazy reports of towns gone wild during the "test phase" haha.  Everyone, lock your gates...

EDIT: I just clicked the reset link in your signature and now I feel guilty even thinking of resetting.  I wasn't going to, but oh the horror.  That's creepy!


----------



## jackieray9 (Jun 7, 2013)

you can do it in city folk i still play it and do it all the time


----------



## Thouser8751 (Jun 7, 2013)

jackieray9 said:


> you can do it in city folk i still play it and do it all the time



I don't think mailing to another town is going to be possible in new leaf. I have read that Nintendo removed that option.  Who knows - maybe it will be there in our NA version.


----------

