Did the 2.0 update change how five star rating/island evaluation works?

[kiwikenobi]

I briefly made my island be a five-star island last year so I could get the gold watering can recipe. I had to plant more than fifty flowers to do it, and also a bunch of trees, and I didn't really want any of them. So, once I got the recipe, I got rid of them, and my rating went back down.

Fast forward to today, when I found a brand new lily of the valley growing on my cliff. Then I checked with Isabelle, and, sure enough, I have a five-star island, but I planted exactly zero flowers and maybe one tree since the update came out. I did change around a lot of furniture outside on my island, since there's so much new stuff, but it was the flowers and trees that had held me back before. My understanding was that there was no way around having a certain minimum number of flowers and trees for an island to count as five-star.

So, unless I misunderstood something along the way, I conclude that the way the star rankings are determined was changed in the update. Does anyone know exactly in what way it was changed? Or could someone explain what I'm misunderstanding, if that's the case?

 

[kiwikenobi]

Going to give this a bump because the board is so fast, and I'm still curious.

 

[kiwikenobi]

I'd look for a guide that lists every change the update added, but I'm trying to mostly avoid spoilers. ^o^;>

 

[Khaelis]

Far as I know, patch notes for 2.0.0 didn't hint at any changes to the island rating and how it works. If it has changed, its likely an unlisted change. I will be honest, though... I attempted to get my 3-star rating back trying to figure out how to unlock fence customizations since someone suggested it was 3-stars and I did find it a little easier than before to get 3 stars.

 

[Dantia]

Far as I know, patch notes for 2.0.0 didn't hint at any changes to the island rating and how it works. If it has changed, its likely an unlisted change. I will be honest, though... I attempted to get my 3-star rating back trying to figure out how to unlock fence customizations since someone suggested it was 3-stars and I did find it a little easier than before to get 3 stars.

To be fair, Nintendo has been notorious for throwing in shadow changes without listing them. I still remember one of the patches changed it so suddenly every single villager of mine started placing down clothing/hats/shoes,etc inside their houses, replacing most of their counter items with their ugly ass hats. Bleh.

 

[Mick]

The star rating is actually just a point based ranking system. When you don't have enough points for achieving 5 stars, Isabelle will give you advice on how to improve your score, like placing fences, flowers, furniture, and so on.

However, her advice doesn't have to be followed exactly. While she might suggest planting flowers when you don't have a lot of those yet, simply putting down more furniture can and will raise your point total just the same. As far as I'm aware, there is no point penalty for not having enough flowers.

So I think that's what happened here: you mentioned redecorating and you may simply have placed down enough items to raise your score over the 5 star mark.

 

[kiwikenobi]

Interesting. I recall reading a guide that said a certain minimum number of flowers, trees, fences, etc. were required for five stars, but maybe the guide was just wrong. It was over a year ago that I did it, so more may have been learned about the game since then.