Do you stress about terraforming?

[Kumori]

So with my original save, I initially flattened a LOT of my island, if not all of it. I did have a plan but it was just so overwhelming and daunting that I ended up resetting my file and starting fresh.

Now that I'm to the terraforming stage again, I'm a little apprehensive going about it. I've been watching more youtube videos of islands and tutorials, and trying to take it slower. I'm taking smaller bites and working on little parts of my island instead of going full-hog and clearing everything out. But I'd like to hear what advice and pointers you guys might have! Do you get nervous about terraforming? What are some ways that you like to fill empty spaces? Do you come up with a theme beforehand, or do you just sort of do whatever feels right in the moment?

 

[HappyTails]

Not anymore I don't. I reset last night with the idea in my head to not make landscaping and terraforming a priority. But when I was terraforming, I did find it to be very overwhelming, but focusing on one area at a time and talking it slow, does help, because it doesn't feel like you are doing too much. Take it slow, take your time. There is no rush and you should be fine. Also I don't recommend tearing down all the cliffs because from what I've read from people before, that can actually make things worse.

 

[Bluebellie]

Right now I’m not too stressed since most of my terraforming is done. I just have to tackle the beaches and house interiors now.


I remember when I first started I kept tearing down giant parts of the island because they didn’t transition well to the others, or they looked out of place on the maps. Once I had the map figured out, I started doing section by section, and right now, I love all the parts in my island that I have finished.

It also helps a lot if you have a theme. I have a theme, so I try all my areas to match.

 

[The Loyal Rat]

I stress over everything, and also terraforming.
It would be less stressful if there wasn’t an autosave function, and if there was a way to terraform like how houses can be designed in third person.

 

[JemAC]

I avoided doing any terraforming on my island for a long time as I wasn’t really sure what I wanted to do and thought I’d be unhappy with the outcome but after visiting many dream addresses and looking at photos others had posted I picked up some inspiration to give it a go.

It can be stressful, I was trying to do a section earlier today and had to redo it a few times before it started to get to a place I was happy with. As others have said taking it one area at a time can make it easier and if you’ve looked at photos or visited other people’s islands then it may give you a good idea or a theme that you could go with to make it a bit less overwhelming. Hopefully if you take it at your own pace and don’t rush it you’ll be able to get the island terraformed in a way your happy with and still enjoy it

 

[Baroque]

Actually, it’s the total opposite for me: I find terraforming very relaxing, almost therapeutic. It’s one of the reasons why I was so happy when they announced the Sanrio Villagers were coming back, it was like ‘Neat! Time to rearrange half the island!’

I just put some nice Youtube videos I like on my ipad and start going with whatever aspect of the island I feel like changing. I can always change it back to how it was if I don’t like the end result anyway, it’s fine

 

[nightglow]

I do bits at a time. Never again will I flatten my island. I think that was my biggest mistake on my first island.. Especially when it came to the rivers.
I don't stress about it so much anymore. I am currently doing a remodel again on my second island. (I don't have two islands, I just deleted my first one). I'm jus taking my sweet time with it. I started with the entrance and branched out to the main part of my town. where my shops will be. After I get that how I like it, I will work my way to the area where I want villager's houses to be on my island.

 

[Manah]

I don't do a lot of tetraforming. I usually hae some general idea of what I want and try to only adjust existing cliffs and rivers when necessary. The biggest things I've done so far are removing one part of the river on the second layer to make room for the town I wanted near Redd's beach, and a small mountain for a spring. I'm really more likely to put extra cliffs instead of removing anything. (And I can't for the life of me figure out how to make natural looking riverbanks, so I'm mot going to touch that ground laver river if I can help it.)

Autosave can go trash itself.

 

[Jam86]

i hate terraforming so much, i've been decorating my 2nd island for 2 months now and i have made pretty much 0 progress because terraforming is soooo boring
my island plan involves a LOT of the 2nd level so i have to build cliffs on pretty much the entire island and it's taking forever

 

[5pmtheme]

i definitely do! terraforming is really frustrating for me - i think i struggle with the amount of freedom, lol. i also flattened my island and i'm in the middle of reshaping cliffs and the upper rivers now. i've tried organising it into small sections, but i don't think that works for me for some reason. i've found it's best for me to not limit myself and to heavily reference from other islands or inspiration if i need to, because then i can figure out the exact things i like and change what i don't.

i also mostly enjoy filling space with flowers, weeds, fences, and patterns. i add everything 'natural' that i want first (trees, weeds, flowers, etc) and then i go back and add furniture or drop items like mushrooms or stars until i like the way everything has been placed. i'll also say that using a fully transparent pattern to stop flower/weed growth from going crazy has been a lifesaver for me!

 

[-Blue-]

I don't stress about it and I haven't done it much, but it would be nice to not have auto-save forced on us in the off-chance that we don't like what we ended up doing. Which has happened at least three times or more when I first terraformed. That alone made me not want to bother as I spent hours doing it and hours undoing it. Not fun.

 

[Moritz]

I've done some major terraforming in the form of land mass shifts. Not so much in the way of scenic waterfalls. In fact I only have 2 water falls and they're not for being scenic, they're so the river goes to the mouth.

I dont mind terraforming but I would advise to not expect your island to look amazing and pretty straight away.
Think of it as a load of mini projects instead of one big one.

If an idea doesn't work out its okay, take the lessons from why you decided to go another direction and try again next time.

Also, sometimes terraforming isn't the answer, try to be mindful of if land really does need to move or if an item can improve things.

Lastly and most importantly, make your island how you like it, don't worry what others think look good, if you're happy thats all that matters.

 

[pinkfawn]

Stress? No. I do use terraforming though, but only as much as I can handle at the moment without being stressed. I wanted to race through everything to have a perfect looking island by the game's first year anniversary but in all honesty my town is constantly changing and growing. I don't think I will ever be done terraforming but I definitely do not stress over it.

 

[Foreverfox]

I hate terraforming. I'm always so scared I won't be able to fix it if I mess it up lol. I have a moderate amount of terraforming done on my main island though, even though I don't like doing it. I probably won't do any for my second island.

 

[Lord Citron]

playing through my original save I was super stressed out about terraforming. watching other people getting the hang of it and making some really stunning stuff inspired me but also paralyzed me because of all the options. every time I tried to brainstorm terraforming ideas I would get frustrated and give up.

eventually I did as many others did and I flattened everything, thinking that the blank slate would help my creativity, but it ended up making everything worse. I was so overwhelmed and had no direction and ended up not playing the game for around 6 months. When I returned I reset and it changed everything.

because of my previous experience I went into the terraforming process totally differently. using a map designer was CRUCIAL for making the terraforming process stress free and enjoyable. I uploaded my untouched island map into the map editor and started brainstorming. something that made the whole process a lot easier was using the already formed cliffs and rivers to guide my design. Instead of taking away, I tried to add and shift to what was already there. I took a couple weeks to go through my options, figure out what I wanted, and tried many combinations of terraforming on the map editor before I finalized the map design that I would build in game.

once I had a blueprint, it was a breeze to terraform. I would go chunk by chunk, without any stress because I already figured out where everything was going to go .

I ended up doing this again later because I wanted to do some major renovations and add some new stuff. I went back to the map editor, uploaded my most current map at the time, and went with the same general strategy as before. using what was already there to inform what was going to be added or taken away. even though I ended up making a lot of changes, the general flow and height distribution of the island is the same give or take a few places.

Spoiler: a progression of my island maps

this is the raw untouched island base that I started with. I don't have a screenshot of my map at that point, but I used the map editor to grab a basic version of what I started with.

this is my map on January 16, 2021, after my first set of renovations and terraforming using the map editor as a blueprint

this is my map on February 10, 2021, after my second set of renovations and terraforming using the map editor as a blueprint

overall terraforming and I have a complicated history but in the end I found a way to make it less stressful and more enjoyable for myself. but it took a lot of effort and brainstorming, lots of sitting and thinking and creative blocks.

I wish everyone good luck on their terraforming journey!!

 

[sleepydreepy]

No I don't stress about it. I like to take my time and work on small areas at a time rather than doing half my island or more at once. I just go with the flow. Usually I have an idea in mind or rough plan drawn on paper, but I really just do whatever feels right. Sometimes I have to redo the same section like 20 times but I'm fine with that since the end result is well worth it.

 

[FantasticHaxorus]

I haven’t unlocked terraforming yet (still on a 2-star island) but I’m planning on doing only a little bit: flattening out some higher stuff, making room for some bridges and inclines, smoothing out my rivers. My main concern is just moving buildings around honestly.

 

[heaven.]

i don't find it stressful but i never flattened my island. i just worked around and tweaked small parts of my island at a time to fit whatever i wanted to build. my map is a lot different now than it was at the start but it never felt overwhelming since it was done slowly.

 

[a potato]

Not really. I typically work on very small chunks of my island at a time, and I'm not really dead-set on having a certain look. I want to make sure everything looks organic, but I also like everything to be very purposeful, so I spend a lot of time trying to blend furniture/flowers in with cliffs, too. I find that going in with a somewhat vague plan often helps, though.

 

[Rika092]

For me it's fun and stressing at the same time. I love how terraforming allows me to basically shape the island in any way I want, but yes, i have to agree that it's stressing the heck out of me at times especially when I run out of creative juices. However, stressing out is not what I want do when playing a game like animal crossing, so when that happens, I just stop doing it; and focus on other aspects of the game, such as trying to find villagers, or spend time trading with people on this forum. I feel like for me the key is to not rush into things, because that could make things worse and results in me losing interest in the game altogether.

I do think it's helpful if you know what general them you are going for, but I like to go with the flow rather than plan out every inch of the map. For small areas, I like to turn them into nature walks or transition areas with some furnitures. Since i'm going with the cottagecore and nature/rustic themes, my go-to furnitures are usually log stakes, log stools, mushroom furnitures, flowers, and weeds lol If I don't know what to do with the space, I just come back to it later when I have the inspirations. That, combined with browsing through pics on Pinterest or watching youtube videos on island tours, usually gives me enough ideas to come back to it later with a decent idea.