# How do you arrange your villager's houses?



## bam94- (Apr 24, 2020)

I'm curious as to what you guys decided to do with your villager houses. I can't decide whether to have mine all together in a sort of neighbourhood, or to spread them out around my island. I think like the idea of having them in a row, and then having another row of them one level higher.

I also think I'd like to have my house close by to other villagers as opposed to out on it's own somewhere!

What about you?


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## kirbbys (Apr 24, 2020)

I had them scattered before terraforming because I thought I wanted it to be more natural...but just as I did in City Folk, I became too annoyed with running halfway across my island to find a villager to speak with.

I'm making flower shaped islands one tier up, and splitting my villagers across those 5 and 5. All my fav villagers will be on the island closer to me. :-] The 'shopping district' island will be between them!


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## dino (Apr 24, 2020)

cute ! i think the nh neighborhoods are really sweet. so many people have wanted that for so long in this series. 

i have mine situated around the map in different biomes (beach front, mountain valley, grasslands, etc) in sets of two - with a joining plaza for each :")) it satisfies both my need for variety and my need for order


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## Jam86 (Apr 24, 2020)

i spread out my villager houses on my island because i wanted room for each villager to have their own garden but then i also wanted some to be close so i got 3 houses in one corner of my island, 3 more in another corner and then 4 more in a different corner
then because i'm extra i put my house all the way at the back on the highest cliff i could get lol


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## CrankyPirate (Apr 24, 2020)

I do a seaside little town with streets and the villagers living close together. Looks like this. I have point of interests around the town, but they live close to each other otherwise.


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## Imbri (Apr 24, 2020)

I have 2 neighborhoods set up - 4 and 6. Each one has 2 lines of houses, set up in front of each other.

X---X---X

X---X---X

There's a single tile path in front of each house and it connects to the door. It makes for a nice, neat setup, but also gives a bit of room around each house to plant trees, shrubs, or flowers.


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## Mairen (Apr 24, 2020)

As of now, I'm planning to have mine spread out throughout the island. The neighborhoods are cute that everyone is doing, but I don't think it's personally my style. I dont' like the idea of having all of the buildings and people crammed into one corner because it makes the rest of the island feel so lonely. I'll have to see where everything ends up though!


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## bam94- (Apr 24, 2020)

kirbbys said:


> I had them scattered before terraforming because I thought I wanted it to be more natural...but just as I did in City Folk, I became too annoyed with running halfway across my island to find a villager to speak with.
> 
> I'm making flower shaped islands one tier up, and splitting my villagers across those 5 and 5. All my fav villagers will be on the island closer to me. :-] The 'shopping district' island will be between them!



That's exactly why I'm leaning more towards a neighbourhood sort of layout, I don't want to run all across my island to speak to villagers either! I love the idea of splitting villagers across tiers 5 by 5!


dino said:


> cute ! i think the nh neighborhoods are really sweet. so many people have wanted that for so long in this series.
> 
> i have mine situated around the map in different biomes (beach front, mountain valley, grasslands, etc) in sets of two - with a joining plaza for each :")) it satisfies both my need for variety and my need for order



I love that, biomes like Minecraft? Such a nice balance between variety and having that structure still.


Opal♡ said:


> i spread out my villager houses on my island because i wanted room for each villager to have their own garden but then i also wanted some to be close so i got 3 houses in one corner of my island, 3 more in another corner and then 4 more in a different corner
> then because i'm extra i put my house all the way at the back on the highest cliff i could get lol



I like that, they're like different clusters of houses, that was another thing I was considering!


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## Feraligator (Apr 24, 2020)

In NL, my villagers were all in a row and personally I didn't like it too much, I didn't hate it either but it felt too 'confined'.

At the start of my island for NH, I made it all scattered about like in other AC games but it got difficult running to villager's houses across the map, and poor Audie was all alone in the corner

So now, it looks like this:





Still random sort of, but all on the 2nd and 3rd tier so I've still formed a neighbourhood. Also the map is a huge WIP so its unfinished, but I'm really happy with my layout so far


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## Mairmalade (Apr 24, 2020)

I've scattered them into groups of 2-3 to make mini neighborhoods. 

I have Able's/Nook's Cranny on a lower-level with two houses on the second level overlooking them (the idea was a traditional downtown setting where a shop is on the main floor and apartments are on the upper levels). 

Some houses I have nestled near cliffs and others are scattered around a pond or open space that I'll eventually turn into a park/community space.


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## Loriii (Apr 24, 2020)

In New leaf, I used to prefer lining them all up. I like how it's neat and the challenge that comes from doing it,  but right now, I prefer them spread out a little bit in every corner. Almost everyone is trying to lined up the houses since it's easier now. I don't feel like it's a challenge anymore. I have nothing against people doing that. I mean, they look perfect, but yeah, I just feel like it's not for me anymore haha


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## ForbiddenSecrets (Apr 24, 2020)

I have my villagers grouped in mini neighborhoods. 4 near resident center, 3 on a T1 cliff and 3 more on a T2 cliff.


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## bam94- (Apr 24, 2020)

Loriii said:


> In New leaf, I used to prefer lining them all up. I like how it's neat and the challenge that comes from doing it,  but right now, I prefer them spread out a little bit in every corner. Almost everyone is trying to lined up the houses since it's easier now. I don't feel like it's a challenge anymore. I have nothing against people doing that. I mean, they look perfect, but yeah, I just feel like it's not for me anymore haha


Mine were the same in New Leaf, I loved the challenge, but man I got tired of plot resetting!

I know what you mean. I'm thinking maybe spread my villager houses across two tiers, either 5 and 5 split or 3, 3 and 4!


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## JKDOS (Apr 24, 2020)

I did this, but I am kind of regretting it. The general idea may be good, but I think my execution was poor.


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## Altarium (Apr 24, 2020)

I tried going for a neighborhood but I didn't like having them all cramped up in a small space, so I'm going to spread them out and give each of them plenty of space to carry out the jobs I've planned for them :3


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## meggiewes (Apr 24, 2020)

I'm going to have two little neighborhoods. One with me in it and one with just villagers in it. I never bothered plot resetting in NL and I love how the little neighborhoods look, so it is a design challenge for me.


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## bam94- (Apr 24, 2020)

meggiewes said:


> I'm going to have two little neighborhoods. One with me in it and one with just villagers in it. I never bothered plot resetting in NL and I love how the little neighborhoods look, so it is a design challenge for me.


I like the idea of having my house in one of the little neighbourhoods too, rather than out on my own.  Maybe that way I could do three neighbourhoods with 3, 3 and 5 houses.


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## Moon Cake (Apr 24, 2020)

Here's my current layout if you're interested! I have three mini neighborhoods. I really like things to be neat and orderly and I almost entertained the thought of having all ten houses in a row but I like this layout a lot better!


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## Figment (Apr 24, 2020)

I started out trying to spread my villager's houses apart. Then, I decided to move my villagers into rows. After moving about five houses, I decided I wanted my island to have a natural theme so I'm moving them again. Lots of wasted bells, but I like how it's shaping up.

There are two houses in a row that I decided to leave as they are and terraform around them. This marks what I like to call the market district where the tailors and a small outdoor market is located. It's very cozy.


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## JKDOS (Apr 24, 2020)

Moon Cake said:


> Here's my current layout if you're interested! I have three mini neighborhoods. I really like things to be neat and orderly and I almost entertained the thought of having all ten houses in a row but I like this layout a lot better!



How much space is in between the houses?


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## cornimer (Apr 24, 2020)

I spread them out. They're scattered around the island wherever it looked natural/there was room for a house  the only one that has a really specific placement is Tad's house. It's up on the top cliff near mine


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## LuchaSloth (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine were all spread out to begin with. But I've been consolidating them into one small area. Now I have most of them jammed into one corner of my island, with only a few spaces in between. The remaining couple I might leave where they are, as they don't really bother me.


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## stiney (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine are in a little neighborhood, but they're not all neatly lined up. (The empty plot is going to be Carmen--she was in my campsite yesterday and rather than kick one of the THREE JOCKS in my town, she chose to kick poor little Filbert.) I like how it looks, and that everyone kind of hangs around "town" for the most part (easy to find, feels more neighborly, I get to witness Axel trying to out-tongue-twist Snooty and hold his breath longer than Muffy etc) but I don't really have space to give them the yards I wanted to, so it's a trade off. I am debating moving the river north to get more space down there but I dunno. We'll see.

I'm northeast of the downtown area where the museum, resident services, Nook's Cranny, and the Able Sisters are (I also built an outdoor market below the shopping section to make it more outdoorsy though that's still in progress). I've got a playground in front of the campsite and I'm going to build an open park area on the lower center island. The upper center island is my creepy, no one may access it area and I'll probably keep the upper left clifftop inaccessible to villagers as well.


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## Moon Cake (Apr 24, 2020)

JKDOS said:


> How much space is in between the houses?


Three spaces!


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## meggiewes (Apr 24, 2020)

bam94- said:


> I like the idea of having my house in one of the little neighbourhoods too, rather than out on my own. ☺ Maybe that way I could do three neighbourhoods with 3, 3 and 5 houses.



Yeah! I lived apart in NL and never really felt like part of the "community" like I do in this game so far. It's a nice feeling.


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## ChocolateShiba (Apr 24, 2020)

This is mine, I worked a couple of days on it and now I'm not sure if I like it, but my island still needs to be decorated so maybe that'll change. I was trying to give everyone their own yard and give it a rural Japanese farm town vibe? 

The lower portion of the island by the airport and such is more like an urban district, where as the second level is a mix between urban and rural and the third level is rural (which the exception of the two houses near the campsite).


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## Zura (Apr 24, 2020)

Ok so I have around 3 different spots as of now.

City neighborhood 3x villagers
Desert castle 2x Villagers
Desert prison 5x Villagers

Ik it sounds weird that there's a city and a dessert but trust me, it's pretty cool haha although neither are closed to finished


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## Ace Marvel (Apr 24, 2020)

Sorry for the bad quality of the picture, but I made a multi layered neighborhood of 3 levels.


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## birdsquad (Apr 24, 2020)

I like to spread mine out over my whole map because I generally landscape around villagers houses first and then kind of play connect the dots with putting the rest of my island together. I find having a big empty stretch of land intimidates me too much so I'm taking it slow and building around villagers themes. 

For example I moved o'hare by the beach and made his area really tropical, but I made a little high steppe mountain range around avery's place.


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## Dewasa (Apr 24, 2020)

I definitely like the neighborhood aspect. I have not unlock terraforming yet and my villagers are all clumped up, which is also annoying since houses that I built in front of another is blocking the full view of the house. At least I know that once I can start moving them around, I want to keep a neighborhood aspect but with breathing room. Breathing room by either spacing houses in front of one another or simply a tiered side by side (with spacious side yards).


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## ChocolateShiba (Apr 24, 2020)

Teddy345 said:


> Sorry for the bad quality of the picture, but I made a multi layered neighborhood of 3 levels.



That's actually really cute


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## SheepMareep (Apr 24, 2020)

I didn't like the idea of having them in a straight line but wanted a neighborhood since i never managed to finish mine in NL (too much plot resetting uggg)
So I did them in a kind of circle-y shape?


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## Bugs (Apr 24, 2020)

dino said:


> cute ! i think the nh neighborhoods are really sweet. so many people have wanted that for so long in this series.
> 
> i have mine situated around the map in different biomes (beach front, mountain valley, grasslands, etc) in sets of two - with a joining plaza for each :")) it satisfies both my need for variety and my need for order



This is what I've done too, separated them into little "counties" with different themes  some of them are isolated too


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## Mosshead (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine is spread out since I like to give the villagers I favor a bigger yard +cliffside houses so I can go ham on beautifying the outside of their homes lol which leads to some villagers living around the main area and the rest scattered about depending on how much I like them. It's hard not to play favoritism.


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## Fizzii (Apr 24, 2020)

A range! I have 5 in a neighbourhood setting on one side of my island, and on the other side, 2 farm themed ones vertically to the left of resident services, then to the right i have 1 sat in the cliffs kinda sunken in, and then the other two are at the bottom and themed as beach houses


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## Kurashiki (Apr 24, 2020)

i like having them all in one place, they're arranged like this

-----X---X
X---X---X---X
X---X---X---X


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## lunatepic (Apr 24, 2020)

I'll probably spread mine out a bit more, going for a super pastoral feel! But i also like seeing all the cute neat streets and neighborhoods in other people's towns too


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## Shyria (Apr 24, 2020)

I have neighborhoods too!
At first, and when I played WW, I just put them apart from each other so I'd have villager houses all over the map, but I actually love the idea of neighborhoods. It makes for little clusters of villagers all over my town (although it's all on the east side) and cute residential areas.
I have the seaside area, downtown one, and countryside area. 


Spoiler: Here's my current map:








Although I'm currently reworking the northern one so my villagers can have nice gardens.


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## Aleigh (Apr 24, 2020)

I personally have always preferred spreading them out across my towns. It feels more natural and less claustrophobic to me


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## MyLifeIsCake (Apr 24, 2020)

My houses are more speread out reminiscent of Wild World or City Folk... but I have each one with a little garden. I'd also like to place the villagers where I'd think they'd like to be (O'Hare and Marina were on the beach, Apollo on the second tier, ect.)


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## Shyria (Apr 24, 2020)

MyLifeIsCake said:


> I'd also like to place the villagers where I'd think they'd like to be (O'Hare and Marina were on the beach, Apollo on the second tier, ect.)


That's awfully cute I love it!


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## PajamaCat (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine are spread out across the island. I'm going for a more natural, wild looking island so I think it fits better. However, I've seen some youtube town tours where everyone is in a little neighborhood and I think that's super cute too!


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## Nefarious (Apr 24, 2020)

​I spread them around in pairs. I might move Diva's and Bettina's house (the ones to the left of residence services) below Flip's and Kabuki's (the ones to the right of residence services. I don't really like stacking the houses on top of each other like that, but there's not much room. Might have to knock down the waterfall above the shops and relocate them there, near Ed's house.


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## Khaelis (Apr 24, 2020)

I personally like to keep mine spaced out, and I don't mean like 4 tiles or anything. I mean like a 'decent' walk to the next house. Like 30-40 tiles. However, villagers that hold a lot of meaning to me tend to be fairly close to me! Sometimes they're like 4 tiles away, sometimes around 10. 

It really just depends on my mood and what type of landscaping I'm doing! In my current case, Skye is about 15 tiles away from my player's house.


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## Saga (Apr 24, 2020)

I wanted enough room to give all of my villagers yards, so they're spread out, but also in clusters so they all have neighbors across 2-3 "neighborhoods".

I have three in a line right in front of my airport, then another two across the river (still roughly along the same line, but I need to move  one of the houses back to put them in an exact line). Then I have a cluster of five houses on three layers: one house at ground level, then two on the middle cliff, and two on the top cliff.


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## Nooblord (Apr 24, 2020)

I have a 3 villagers in a little suburb area north of downtown; 3 in a rural area to the north; 2 have beachfront properties with a park right behind them; and 2 are nestled between the park and downtown, but sacrificed decent yard space for a sweet location, lol.

The groupings are pretty scattered, but I like  having different “neighborhoods” around the island.


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## thegunpowderincident (Apr 24, 2020)

I have them spread out because I like the classic Animal Crossing town feel. I usually keep at least two next to each other so they have neighbors. Except poor Marina, who's isolated on her own section of the island. Not out of any dislike for her, it just worked out that way. I'm planning on moving a house closer to hers, so I'll basically have sets of two houses in different areas throughout my island.


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## Rori (Apr 24, 2020)

I might rearrange mine a bit, but mine are a bit random. I like having to walk a bit between some of them.


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## bam94- (Apr 24, 2020)

Moon Cake said:


> Here's my current layout if you're interested! I have three mini neighborhoods. I really like things to be neat and orderly and I almost entertained the thought of having all ten houses in a row but I like this layout a lot better!
> 
> View attachment 247390


I love this! The houses are so nicely arranged but still spread out! I have the same sort of river layout as you with both of my river mouths towards the south end of my island so it's great to see how you've laid it all out.


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## Moon Cake (Apr 24, 2020)

bam94- said:


> I love this! The houses are so nicely arranged but still spread out! I have the same sort of river layout as you with both of my river mouths towards the south end of my island so it's great to see how you've laid it all out.


Thank you so much! The south river mouths are definitely a little tricky to work with, especially if you have two thinner strips of land on either side. I'm glad I could help


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## Mezzanine (Apr 24, 2020)

deleted


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## Venn (Apr 24, 2020)

My layout is all spread out. I do like the neighborhood idea but I would have no idea what to do with the rest of the island. I also like the idea of everyone having their own areas that I can cater to their personality. I do have a big section of the island with no houses though but I feel like it is evenly balanced.


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## Shinjukuwu (Apr 24, 2020)

Mine are spread out generally in pairs, but some distances between villager houses are closer than others.


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## Jas (Apr 24, 2020)

i don't have a photo of my map, but i have my villagers in little clumps of 2-3 around my island on the first level, and i live in the middle-ish! i like having them all near each other, but not so near that the rest of the map feels a lil empty. i think i might move them a little further apart though, so they can have their own individual yards instead of little shared community gardens.


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## mizzsnow (Apr 24, 2020)

by the time I finished placing most of the houses I saw some people make cute little backyards for their villagers and I kinda wish I had done that! But I put them in little neighborhoods close together because I liked the idea of them living in a commune


Spoiler: excuse the ugly map


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## Rosewater (Apr 24, 2020)

I have mine in 3 different neighborhoods right now. 3 buildings under my house by the beachside stores, 5 by the beach on the other side of the map, and 2 living near the tier'd terrain. I haven't unlocked terraforming yet so this is just what I've done so far.


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## marea (Apr 24, 2020)

I might spread them around in pairs as i did something like that in NL, or i might do a mix and put 6 of them in a neighborhood and spread the others around.


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## maple22 (Apr 24, 2020)

I’m putting them in one little “neighborhood” area. For now, they’ll be sorted in alphabetical order.


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## xara (Apr 24, 2020)

i have mine spread out! i did entertain the idea of creating mini neighbourhoods but i think i like the look of them being spread out more aha.


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## minimoon (Apr 24, 2020)

*Mine are in a three tiered neighborhood by the East beach. There's four houses on the lowest level with a kind of suburban feeling - terracotta tile street, a park and orange trees.*





*Then a row of three on the next level with a more natural feel - dirt paths and shrubs with a little wooden fence along the cliff. Then two houses on the top level with a really woodland vibe. You can access both levels from either the beach or the town side. *





*There's a pool behind the top two houses and I'm planning to move the final house into the square of path you can see behind that. *


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## tajikey (Apr 24, 2020)

Here's mine. The 4 houses not lined up will be in a 2x2 square. Mott, Jeremiah, and Merengue to the left, and Stitches, Molly, and Rodney to the right. In the square will be Rizzo, Cyrano, Tutu, and Tammi. My brain needs order, and this works for me.


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## KitchenWhisk (Apr 24, 2020)

I have them in a neighborhood, but I went for a natural-looking neighborhood that spans several bridges and tiers.
I like having a lot of decorating space around each house, but still have them near enough that they interact with each other a lot


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## AquaMarie (Apr 25, 2020)

Right now my plans are to put my two starters up on the second tier as neighbors (I live on second tier too). 
My cranky is by himself,  first tier near a waterfall. (Secluded in nature)

Then I have two separate small neighborhoods set up in this pattern.


...... ...X..........

X ............ .. X


And Audie will get a beach house.


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## fallenchaoskitten (Apr 25, 2020)

Currently I have a residential area where they each have their own fenced in yard.
It takes up a fair amount of space, but I have been enjoying decorating their yards, that's for sure. 

I did have them a bit more scattered. All but 3 or 4 of them in the residential area... but once I started developing around those houses I grew to really dislike it because I was limited. 

I may tweak the placements a little more. Not really sure... but I do like how the setup is now. =3


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## Spooky. (Apr 25, 2020)

I have mine somewhat spread out, but in rows. I didn't want to clump them into one tiny area because I wanted to see them more spread out on my island. They're still technically kind of in a neighborhood and they are all in the front portion of my island, but they're still kind of spread out too?

The photo is mildly outdated (only because Paula moved out and Deirdre is now in her spot) but I have them laid out like this. 






And yes, some of them are 1-2 tiles out of place AND IT'S MAKING ME NUTS but I can't afford the 100k each to move them x-x

Also since that photo, my shops are in the smaller square where my house used to be (and my house is up on a cliff)


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