Right, so Nintendo just dropped an explosion on us with tons of updates, and while I don't have the same mind-blowing hurricane that keeps on giving like Nintendo, I too have quite a few updates since my last post:
So, I think you could say that the entrance of the island, the very first thing you'd see as you step off the island, is now completed. What's changed here since the last picture is the addition of those lampposts and the replacements of roses with leaf piles beneath the trees. Initially, I felt that lampposts in addition to the pumpkin towers (which already illuminate the area) might be too much, but I think it fits well with the rest of the posh décor I have on the island.
The aforementioned leaf piles.
The left-side courtyard is also completed, with the Beautiful Statue centered in it all. I still need to put another Beautiful Statue for my right-side courtyard, but I haven't gotten round to it. lol You know me, classic procrastinator.
The museum is finally positioned in an ideal location rather than getting stuck in some backwoods at the back of the island. Right now, it's to the side of the Resident Services Building, just in front of the right-side courtyard, with a fountain decoration on each side.
The thing about these courtyards is that, there's a lot of roses needed, and I haven't gotten around to getting enough yet. lol The way the roses breeds and spreads different colored roses certainly didn't help with my decoration plan. Had to keep digging out pink and purple roses when all I need are red and whites.
And while I didn't plan it that way, the red and white roses go well with my island flag, the red and white Singaporean flag.
Finally had Merry, my favorite villager of all time, become my neighbor.
Initially, I had this over-compensating design where each house has a 10-square front yard, and that just didn't leave enough space to have houses positioned right next to each other, especially when there's a river cutting us off on each side of the island.
So I had to compensate and reduced the size of the yard to great effect. Now, not only are Merry and I neighbors, but Kid Cat and Agent S too! Initially, they were literally positioned on each side of the island, separated by an entire airport. lol So glad I could bring them together.
These two houses positioned on the right side of the beach are my two "Hotel Houses" that store the giveaway villagers I would host for forum members. There's a third Hotel house on the left side, just standing alone by itself, which is why I'm not too happy with the positioning. The positions of these houses were determined by having the quickest way to lead visitors to their requested villagers ASAP. The layout is made for practicality, not aesthetics. But I might consider changing that third lonely house to the right side instead in the future, joining the others.
I added a little play area to the left side of my house, sort of like a toddler kindergarten area where villagers could drop off their kids. lol
Agent S wrote this heartfelt letter when I was feeling down one day. She really made me feel special.
I think it's around this time that I started to really like her much more than I initially did, taking a special interest to her. I found her cute before, but this letter showed her charismatic way with kind words.
And finally, we have bridges! Yes, more than one bridge. Because of the way the rivers are positioned on my island, it makes terraforming them away challenging. You see the edge of the river there on the bottom? I can't change that. I can't add land to that, so it leaves this little ugly stream of riverbed without a connecting river. Looks awkward, like some kindergartener just suddenly erased part of a river and left it unfinished.
So, I had no choice but to succumb to the island layout and just did the best I could, using the one surrounding river around the island as part of the island's aesthetic. It's not the worst design choice I was forced to make, and even the bridges have added a homey kind of charm. But still, I kinda wish I had picked a better island layout at the beginning of the game.
Three of the villagers you see in the picture are no longer with us - Clay, Hamlet and Frita. Most of my villagers will now consist of different species and personality... or at least, that was the initial plan. However, I missed Agent S, one of my first Mysterious Island villagers, so I brought her back in spite of having another squirrel I adore (good ol' Marshal). I also miss Frita. In spite of her weird fashion choice, she's such a sweet fellow with her letters, possibly far more than Agent S, always so caring and sisterly, so I plan to invite her back someday soon.
So, what's next for me? Well, the next step of the plan still involves layout rearrangement and villager homes being moved to ideal places, but I think we've made a lot of progress since we've started. That's just me though, always leaving my work to the last minute. Could never rid myself of that habit since Primary School. lol
With the new Nintendo update coming, I'm afraid that a lot more villager home repositioning is going to be necessary too since we need a mini-farm for each villager! Potatoes and carrots! I guess I could always just have one big farm that the villagers could pick from, but we'll just have to see what's to come.
Starting from November 5th, I'll also stop my time-traveling temporarily as I enjoy the daily island life the new update brings me. It's a great time to be an Animal Crossing fan again, and it's an even better time for a new beginner like myself since I arrived at a time when so many wonderful gifts are being showered by Nintendo. It's like buying Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire and then finding out that they're releasing Pokémon Emerald next month. lmao I suppose it's fate that I got to buy the Switch and AC last September, bringing me in just when things are about to get wild and crazy.
Look forward to the next update, as I'm sure all of you have a lot of crazy fun updates in the coming month as well.
