ACNH is stressful

[Ley]

To all of you stressing out about how your island should look: it's nothing to stress about. This is your game, your island, you do what you want. If someone else has more progress than you, it doesn't matter because it doesn't relate to you at all. If you find you want to copy other people, then do it in baby steps, take your time with it. It's not a race.

I had a similar issue where I saw all these beautiful islands and I felt overwhelmed for a bit and wanted to move everything then second guessed it. I just did what felt right to me, which was leaving everything where it was except for Nook's Cranny (I moved it beside where I wanted my Able Sister's shop to go). I just designed around what I had with paths and if I needed more room somewhere because of water, I'd fill it in a bit then widen it on the other side to make it even again, so it still looks a bit natural.

My point is, I stressed about it for a bit too then just decided to have fun with it and design it how it felt right to me, totally disregarding what I had seen other people doing. I think it resulted in something really beautiful because it's something that I designed for myself and my animal friends.

(btw OP, if you ever need help with bells or anything, feel free to send me a PM. I have a few mil left over from when I was selling IGB before and I'm making more on turnips, so I can definitely work something out with you if you need some more IGB)

You're right, thank you a lot for this message . I really don't want to be overwhelmed with all the things I can and want to do, I just want to enjoy the game. I've been waiting for NH for months, it would be sad if I abandoned everything just because I can't accomplish something right away.

I really appreciate it, thank you so much. It would really help but I don't want to make it look like I created this post just for IGB begging.

i completely understand u dude. its like in the sims i tell myself "start out with a basic plan so u dont overwhelm urself" but then i cant help myself and i plan out my sims family tree to their great grandparents and plan all their life events and then i just dont feel like playing anymore because what if i cant execute the story correctly??

i also felt like u do but with acnl. things were way more limited in that game; multiple buildings had a permanent placement so it felt like u had to start laying paths and house tiles out day one (and i did, i'd do it every time after the welcome amiibo update). it got to the point where it felt like i wasnt playing the game i was just obsessing and stressing over it.

with acnh i definitely feel the pressure. just the other day i was getting so stressed over my villager's house placements, and i cant lie and say im still not feeling a bit of that stress. but many of the "mistakes" i may make can be redone this time around so im not too worried. if i take a screenshot of my land/map before i start terraforming i'll always know what it looked like in case i want to start over again. and im also more confident in my island's plan and aesthetic this time around. i was always trying to force myself to go after a specific theme (i need food villagers for a food themed town! i needed regular looking villagers for a forest town! etc.) that i didnt even know if i liked, so instead of having a cohesive aesthetic im trying to make my island match-y through the use of flowers and colors.

idk if any of this helped u, i guess i was kinda ranting in the end. its okay to feel upset at how ur island is now. no one's island is gonna look beautiful to them bc we can all see our own creation's strengths and weaknesses and we tend to focus on the negative. that pretty screenshot u saw on twitter of someone's lil fountain area? they probably have something they dont like about it!! and thats okay!! nothing we do in this game is permanent, it can always be changed again. and many of us arent gonna make good decisions with the terraforming tool when we first get it lol. its completely new to the series and ive never rly messed around with a feature like that!!

This reply made me smile, thank you! That helped for sure. I'm glad someone else understands my frustration. I like the villagers I have on my island (maybe Frita should go...), and fortunately my favourite one (Fauna) is here already, so my only issue now is the landscape and decorating/terraforming the island.
I really like my house and how I decorated it though, so that's good

i feel you! im not the best at structuring my island and often get disappointed at my decisions. i always calm myself by thinking i just started this game like 10 days ago.. everything cant be done perfectly straight away. Considering now that we have the option for layout changes, you should'nt feel bad for messing up!

You're completely right, maybe I should just learn how to play at my own pace and not always aim for perfection.

 

[Chachamaru]

How do you know that others are having no problems though? You can't really but my point still stands to do it in baby steps. doing it all at once and trying to get your vision a reality could end up with it being messy. if you take it little bits at a time and do things here and there it's a lot better. if you just make something and then feel you hate it and immediately want to redo it, yeah, it will be expensive for you. I feel like people rush this game too much which makes it more stressful than it needs to be.

EDIT: by the way, copying people is definitely involved for some people. maybe not for you, but there are people who view other islands and want to copy their ideas. just saying.
What I said definitely applies to the original post. If it doesn't apply to you, that's unfortunate. I was just trying to give some advice based on what I was reading.

I wasn't going to reply to you, but I think you got a little too upset in regards to my response. If you feel somehow offended by what I said, I apologize. I just think copying people is something not a lot of people do at all, and to make such a bold assumption was a bit out of left field. Kind of narcissistic to assume. The vast majority of people are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves.

 

[Ley]

i feel you - the thought of terraforming stresses me out, too, to the point where i might not even do it beside from a few things - i’m just so scared i’ll mess up lmao

I know right? It's a great feature don't get me wrong, but a bit too overwhelming

the bright side with terraforming is that if you make something you don't like, it doesn't cost anything to undo it

You're very right!

"Comparison is the death of joy."

I think that a lot of the stress or feelings of inadequacy come from comparing to others. Try to enjoy the game at your own pace - take inspiration from others, but if you feel social media is getting you down, spend more time in your own world. We often don't give ourselves enough credit.

Very well said!
I don't really like comparing myself to others though, and I haven't seen many builds from others. Some of them are impressive, but I'm just trying to do something that I will myself enjoy.

Oh, man. That article is depressing. I've playing AC since the Gamecube and I'm now seeing the advantage of taking my time and enjoying the journey. I understand want everything now, now, now... but then you burn out on the game way too quickly.

If anybody is finding the game stressful, I want to encourage them to stop looking at what other people are doing/have and just enjoy what can be a very laid back, quiet game.

Great advice there. That article is indeed very depressing lol

 

[thelonewanderer]

I know this is probably the less stressful game ever, but not for me.
I love the game, don't get me wrong, been waiting for it and started day one, and I still play it every single day for countless hours and never got bored of it.

The main reason why the game's stressful for me, it's because I'm very bad at building, decorating, terraforming and such. I've never been good at this, and when I play a game that has these features, I feel like I have to plan everything, and every time I build something I feel disappointed, like I could do better, so I demolish everything and start over, endlessly.

I want to move some houses and buildings, because I really don't like where I placed them on my first week of playing, but I don't have enough IGB to do so. That's my problem #2. I know that if I moved some buildings, I could create something I really like. But at the same time, I have to wait until I unlock terra forming and paths, but to do so, I have to reach 3 stars rating, so we're back at problem #1.

I've tried selling stuff on here for IGB but that's not enough, and I can't find a proper way to earn a constant amount of IGB to properly build something I would be proud of and satisfied with.

Just needed to vent, sorry.

What I did was I didn't put any house or any other buildings outside of the main island that you first got
access to (where Town Hall is). That way terraforming won't be a pain.

 

[Kristen]

I wasn't going to reply to you, but I think you got a little too upset in regards to my response. If you feel somehow offended by what I said, I apologize. I just think copying people is something not a lot of people do at all, and to make such a bold assumption was a bit out of left field. Kind of narcissistic to assume. The vast majority of people are perfectly capable of thinking for themselves.

I wasn't implying that people weren't capable of thinking for themselves. I suppose I didn't word it well enough for you to understand. Please don't insult me, thanks.

 

[Romaki]

Same, but also like don't be too hard on yourself. Decorating should be fun, don't overthink it! You can always turn a random island into a tarantula island and grind like two inventories one evening, or maybe collect peacock butterflies until Flick shows up again? Sometimes the top offer at Nook's Cranny is very profitable as well.

But just enjoy your island life with your villagers. They'll give you lots of recipes and items and you'll only struggle with bells if you spend a bunch. I saved up 500k without spending for two nights and then paid off my house for like 398k, the rest is still in the bank for when I need to finish my current bridge and build something else. But for now my goal is terraforming, if I unlock that I'll do paths first and then slowly do the rest with a pace I enjoy for myself.

- - - Post Merge - - -

I read an article kind of relating to this last night. How some people are stressing out in this game, because so many people are sharing their villages on social media (and it's easier to do than ever on the switch). And when people see all of these incredible put together towns where people have time travelled and got everything unlocked early, and have all of these amazing decorations, people can't help but compare their own towns and feel lackluster in return, and wonder if they are doing something wrong. I found it quite an interesting read! Am I allowed to link to the article? I put it below!

Link to the Article

Well, that's just like real life, isn't it. I was definitely happiest with Wild World, before the forums for me.

 

[0orchid]

I definitely see where you're coming from. With that being said, I really love New Horizons and feel more motivated than I did in any of the previous main 4 games. I think a big part of the reason I feel that way is because I'm trying not to be a perfectionist with anything and just going with the flow and enjoying the process. I've been trying to have ideas of what I want with my island as I go and not any huge plans I feel stressed out about finishing. It's really relaxing and fun when I'm not taking it too seriously like this.

 

[Underneath The Stars]

it actually kinda is, i get what you're saying... it wasn't used to be like this and now it's stressful and often times exhausting that i'm losing sleep in some days

 

[Noctis]

What I'm stressing is how in the world I'm going to terraform. I have changed my plan twice. First to have my villagers on the second level then I decided I'm going to move them all to the first level to the left. Now I don't wanna do that and I just wanna place some houses here and there. For example I saw a short video of someone who had a zen feeling section in their town with a villager home being zen and I liked that it matched. And I already had that in my mind with Lobo's home. His home gave me some type of halloween type vibe and I wanted a location like that and a home to match it. I'm trying to take it slow atm until I can get the villagers I still need and continue from there. For now I've just been looking at maps and how others been decorating to give some inspo and try to put everything together for later.

 

[Meowzers123]

I read an article kind of relating to this last night. How some people are stressing out in this game, because so many people are sharing their villages on social media (and it's easier to do than ever on the switch). And when people see all of these incredible put together towns where people have time travelled and got everything unlocked early, and have all of these amazing decorations, people can't help but compare their own towns and feel lackluster in return, and wonder if they are doing something wrong. I found it quite an interesting read! Am I allowed to link to the article? I put it below!

Link to the Article

This is also a real issue in general. People see others flexing on social media and question their own self worth. People who have this issue need to refrain from social media in order to get better.

 

[Quagsire.]

OH MY GOD I thought I was the only one stressing about this. Like I want to let my friends over to my island but everything's a mess right now and I'm moving everything and they always enjoyed coming over for the first week before I started moving everything and would be like "WOA you decorated everywhere" and it made me feel great now everything is a mess. It's so annoying having to wait a day for each and every house to move and spending money on it, it's so annoying because I don't know what I want to do with the game. I want to move all my houses but I also don't want to time skip and it's been stressing me out way more than it should be.

 

[Odette]

The only thing I'm getting stressed with is constantly crafting tools! I may be in calm and tranquil mood watering my flowers, for example... Then my watering can breaks!! So annoying...

 

[Quagsire.]

Going back reading the replies on this thread has made me feel a lot better so thank you guys now I'm going to get back to playing Animal Crossing New Horizons on my Nintendo Switch!

 

[Hopeless Opus]

i feel exactly the same way and everyone made fun of me for it lol, but it's just genuinely stressful when i want to do things but can't because 1) no resources 2) having to wait for 'story progression' and 3) just getting frustrated with the mechanics and the pacing in general.

 

[Lellyna]

for me i get sressful when i start a new day re arrange any flowers that bloomed via watering, look how many flowers need watering tools breaking while trying to water or hit rocks with shovel finding 4 fossils,shaking trees to find the 5 wasps,finding 2 furniture in trees, hitting every tree for wood materials, the day when fruit re grows is even more stressful. so much to do why i keep playing and love the game it does keep you busy everyday.

 

[moon_child]

Hey, it’s okay. Rome wasn’t built in a day. Don’t try to design your entire island all at once. How I do mine is purely coincidental with just playing the game and immersing myself in the experience. What I mean is, my play style isn’t exactly mainly for landscaping and decorating purposes but I play more for the experience of actually living in the island and design just happens to come along with it. Given this is how I play, I don’t have any grand master plan nor design theme in mind. I just go along with what I have at the moment and develop section by section as I progress in the game. You’ll surprise yourself after sometime. You’ll see.

Most importantly, don’t compare your island to other people’s. Seriously, stop that. You can visit theirs as much as you want but at the end of the day, it’s YOUR island. Play it your way. Do whatever makes sense for you and what will make you play more comfortably. For example, as much as I love the look of some intricately terraformed islands in pictures, I wouldn’t turn my own island into that because I don’t think I can “live” comfortably with so many cliffs and waterworks it’ll just get in the way of my daily routines. Also, we have different tastes. While most people have cute mini neighborhoods I prefer my villagers scattered throughout my island because I want all parts of my island to be bustling with life and all corners to be “used”. Given this, my island will probably end up being way too different than that of others. I don’t care. It’s MY game. It’s MY island. I’ll do it however I want to.

I hope you’ll realize soon the main title Animal Crossing is really more about living and loving that life you live in the islands rather than a design game. There’s Happy Home Designer for that, if design is more your thing and matters most to you. However, this game should focus more on the experience. Relationships you build. Memories you share. With your cute animal friends who like you so much. That’s the essence of the game. As cliche as it sounds, it shouldn’t matter if you’re all in tents or whatever. Your island is your home. And you shouldn’t trade it for anyone else’s.

 

[duckyducky]

I relate to this so much, which is why I haven't been playing as much as I anticipated. I've restarted my island so many times, knowing you can change things later. I think that having too much freedom makes it harder for me.

 

[Ley]

thank you so much for all these messages. I got some very good news!
I finally made it, I finally made something I really like! it turned out pretty well, I'm proud of myself