Feeling lost.

[PoppyPumpkin]

Hey everyone.

I haven't been on the forums in awhile. I haven't played AC in awhile. I open the game, check some stuff, turn it off. I really miss Animal Crossing, but I'm finding myself not really knowing what to do.

I've been debating poking at my New Leaf town again, but I really love New Horizons. I put so much effort into my town and now I don't really know what to do.

I'm not happy with my town anymore, but I put so much work into it the idea of flattening or resetting kind of gives me anxiety.
I want new villagers, but I don't know who to let go.

Like I just dunno what to do anymore in the game, either.

Anyone else get like this?

I don't want to quit playing and I really want to get back into the game. I just don't know -where- to start getting back into it or how to make it fun again for me.

Any advice?

 

[Firesquids]

Hey there I know the feeling, maybe try visiting some dream addresses or watch town tours on youtube. It helps me get inspired when I see other people's islands with items set up in a way I haven't thought of.

 

[PoppyPumpkin]

Hey there I know the feeling, maybe try visiting some dream addresses or watch town tours on youtube. It helps me get inspired when I see other people's islands with items set up in a way I haven't thought of.

Sadly, I feel like that makes things worse for me. I always end up with ideas after seeing these things, then have no idea how to implement them since my town is pretty much done and I have no idea how or where I'd start taking things down to redo anything >.<

 

[kayleee]

I 100% know how you’re feeling! I’ve felt similarly in the past. I think my best advice is to slowly re-do parts of your island - I find flattening stress-inducing and makes me have NO idea what my direction should be, whereas when I work on just one area at a time, I feel less like I’ve “ruined” my island by tearing a spot down and more excited to work on improving the small area. Also, do you have the DLC? I know paying $25 for more content might be a bit steep but that’s really how I got back into playing the game. I just “finished” the DLC and now I’m excited to incorporate all the new items into areas of my island!

 

[Croconaw]

I understand the feeling, but the game has been out for two years. People have likely put thousands of hours into the game. It’s only natural that you’d get burned out eventually, and there’s no shame in that. It’s okay to take a break and just come back when you’re ready. You shouldn’t force yourself to play when you’re not up for it. That will only make things worse.

 

[QueenCobra]

I’ve been mixing things up lately. Like I really enjoy Animal Crossing but more recently I’ve gravitated towards my other games like Miitopia, Pokémon, Kirby, etc. I still need to finish BOTW (it’s hard, don’t judge me lol) and Luigi’s Mansion 3 is waaaay harder than expected (or maybe I just suck) but I enjoy revisiting older games.

 

[PoppyPumpkin]

I 100% know how you’re feeling! I’ve felt similarly in the past. I think my best advice is to slowly re-do parts of your island - I find flattening stress-inducing and makes me have NO idea what my direction should be, whereas when I work on just one area at a time, I feel less like I’ve “ruined” my island by tearing a spot down and more excited to work on improving the small area. Also, do you have the DLC? I know paying $25 for more content might be a bit steep but that’s really how I got back into playing the game. I just “finished” the DLC and now I’m excited to incorporate all the new items into areas of my island!

Yeah, I have the DLC! Bought it when it came out, but it doesn't really hold my attention. I like it, just it feels repetitive.

My biggest issue is basically that I will feel like I wreck stuff if I try to take things down/do over certain spots. Lack of space, not knowing what to change. It drives me nuts, because I end up sitting there not knowing what to do and eventually end up doing nothing

I really miss stuff in NL sometimes, like the mini games on the Island. I could play those forever, which is why I think I'm debating starting it up again x.x but I always end up missing NH and stuff, too.

I understand the feeling, but the game has been out for two years. People have likely put thousands of hours into the game. It’s only natural that you’d get burned out eventually, and there’s no shame in that. It’s okay to take a break and just come back when you’re ready. You shouldn’t force yourself to play when you’re not up for it. That will only make things worse.

To be fair, I never felt burned out in a 'what do i do now' way with New Leaf, or even with City Folk and Wild World. I hit lulls, sure. But I never had that brain-dead moment of utter uncertainty about what to do, where to go, etc. I wouldn't call it burned out so much as just an overwhelming feeling almost? There's so much I want to do, but with everything in my town established, I don't know where to basically re-start. If that makes sense.

I’ve been mixing things up lately. Like I really enjoy Animal Crossing but more recently I’ve gravitated towards my other games like Miitopia, Pokémon, Kirby, etc. I still need to finish BOTW (it’s hard, don’t judge me lol) and Luigi’s Mansion 3 is waaaay harder than expected (or maybe I just suck) but I enjoy revisiting older games.

I do play other games, yeah. It's what I've mostly been doing while in the rough spot.

I play a lot of WoW with a lil FFXIV thrown in, but then I play more casual games like Spiritfarer and Pokemon, etc. Mario games, Phasmophobia. I've been putting time into all of those games instead of AC, but I -really- miss AC. Just everytime I start to try and play, I'm hit with the say 'what now' feeling and never know what to do >.<

Also don't feel bad. I have no idea what I'm doing in BOTW and I actually gave up early on XD I keep saying eventually I'll try it again, but I don't really understand the game.

 

[Pyoopi]

Could you share more about your island? What it's like, if you have a theme/story and is there specific areas that you dislike or is it more general? Also do you have a dream address?

If you have a problem area, just focus on that space only. Then by doing some creative problem solving could tickle your brain and not completely overwhelm you especially if you flattened.

Have you used like outside programs, like happy island designer? This helped me a lot to design my map.

Or if you played HHP enough, you'll unlock that Room Sketch app and I used it to design both interior and exterior decorations. You could do the same just for the regular HHP homes too. There's limitations of course like no terraforming. But it's nice to have an area to test and move objects than your character shoving items around.

 

[azurill]

I still need to finish BOTW (it’s hard, don’t judge me lol)

I still need to finish that too. It is hard I got stuck on one of the bosses and gave up. I will go back to it eventually.

My biggest issue is basically that I will feel like I wreck stuff if I try to take things down/do over certain spots. Lack of space, not knowing what to change. It drives me nuts, because I end up sitting there not knowing what to do and eventually end up doing nothing

This is how I felt before I took a 3 month break from the game. I was so focused on decorating and not knowing what to do that I wasn’t enjoying the game anymore. I would sit in an area trying so hard to figure out how to decorate. I would get frustrated and just turn it off. I feel much better after taking a break and looking at the game differently now. I focus more on nook mile achievements and villagers and only decorate when an item gives me an idea.

 

[DarkSlayer1331]

I get into these ruts too. Just had one actually that lasted a couple of months. I stopped playing in April and just started playing again last week. I think spring is my least favorite season for some reason. Not entirely sure why. But starting this week I'm going to go about redoing things on my island bit by bit. Just a small section at a time. Like I definitely need to redo the outside area of my house, get new flowers for the pathway leading up to it, get some outdoor furniture to the side, maybe think about doing something on the other side of the small pond I've got. Then I'll go from there, just choosing different pieces and updating them to different looks.

 

[Imbri]

My island and villagers are pretty much set, so there isn't a lot for me to do on a day-to-day basis. I've pretty much narrowed it down to checking in, doing a run to clean things up, hit the shops, and that's about it. If there's an event, I'll play a little longer, but most days are 30-45 minutes.

To keep it somewhat fresh, I change decorations outside at the beginning of each season. Sometimes it's changing colors on an existing item (silo, display stalls, permanent seating, etc.), other times I swap things out - mainly holiday stuff. I change the exterior of my house and redecorate a couple of rooms - bathroom, living room (main), and upstairs bedroom/loft. The other rooms are set, although my kitchen does get color tweaks to keep it seasonal and fresh.

Those are little things, but they do make a difference in how I view my island and want to play.

I'm actually considering tweaking a couple of villager homes, since I've unlocked more items since first doing them.

Maybe making little changes can give you the boost you're looking for, too.

 

[Flicky]

I kinda understand this. Just recently, I find myself logging on, speaking to whatever villagers are nearby, crafting a home in HHP, then switching the game off and returning to Legends Arceus for some more shiny hunting.

I definitely get wanting more villagers - I have Shino's amiibo card, but I don't want to lose any of my other villagers. It's made worse by the awful 'last villager to move in will never ask to leave' setup, because it means a lot of hassle if I want to have her on my island for a short while unless I get the amiibo card of my other villagers.

The only thing that's still working for me is to redo a few parts of my island that still don't feel truly finished. I have a few areas with furniture from the 1.0 update which feels very outdated.

 

[meggyweggy]

what about flattening gives you anxiety? just wondering, because personally flattening was THE choice for my burnout. i got to use all of my new knowledge, interests, and 2.0 items in a whole "new" island! i also find creating mental stories for my island when i decorate makes me love it that much more. (plus i love to think im making a lavish land for my villagers to enjoy)

i felt the same way about flattening and was scared to because i loved my island so much but i trusted i had the gut feeling to flatten for a reason and listened to it. now i love the game again :]

and if you're stuck creatively, dont feel afraid to take inspiration from others and piece it all together into your own island! hope you figure things out :]

 

[moon_child]

Same boat. I just deleted my island now and will try to restart again. Maybe I’ll find some joy. But I’ve been resetting on and off for days trying to land a forever island with everything I want in it (I only settled for some aspects of my previous islands because I didn’t wanna reset too much) but I’m still playing my NL town tho so I have some sort of another source to get my Animal Crossing fix until I find a new island.

 

[kayleee]

Yeah, I have the DLC! Bought it when it came out, but it doesn't really hold my attention. I like it, just it feels repetitive.

My biggest issue is basically that I will feel like I wreck stuff if I try to take things down/do over certain spots. Lack of space, not knowing what to change. It drives me nuts, because I end up sitting there not knowing what to do and eventually end up doing nothing

I really miss stuff in NL sometimes, like the mini games on the Island. I could play those forever, which is why I think I'm debating starting it up again x.x but I always end up missing NH and stuff, too.

I feel that! I also get the feeling I'm "wrecking" decorated areas of my island when I take them down. However, I also feel like just going for it and tearing down an area I don't really like anymore opens up inspiration for what the newly blank space can become - once the area is clear, I'm not stuck on how it used to look and can instead mess around with completely different ideas. I've also felt nostalgic for New Leaf and tried to start it up again, but it's difficult for me to go back to the graphics of that game after experiencing New Horizons sadly

 

[PoppyPumpkin]

I do have my NL game charging, so I'm gonna play that for a bit. I'm also gonna try and play NH with some friends to see if that helps rejuvenate anything for me.

I do have a second switch and I haven't finished THAT village yet. You'd think that would solve my problem but I'm super attached, obviously, to my original town.

I have like 4 NL games so I think maybe not having a bunch of different towns to bounce around in is part of my problem, since obviously I can't buy five switches just to play AC haha. I wish tho. :3

Those are little things, but they do make a difference in how I view my island and want to play.

Yeah, I've been heavily considering stuff like this. Like in my head, I want to set up a farm/garden area. As of right now, I just kind of have a patch of it thrown together behind my Museum.

There are def parts of my Island that I really want to change, but some of them like my museum specifically I want to -move- but I'm afraid I won't be able to properly recreate what I had before. Ideally just SHIFTing it back would be perfect but I can't do that with everything around it. =(

I kinda understand this. Just recently, I find myself logging on, speaking to whatever villagers are nearby, crafting a home in HHP, then switching the game off and returning to Legends Arceus for some more shiny hunting.

Honestly pretty much same. I love Arceus and I've been playing that a lot, too. But I keep missing AC.

what about flattening gives you anxiety?

The idea of tearing something down, not being able to recreate or create better than what I had and the regret that follows for tearing it down to begin with in order to flatten x.x

Same boat. I just deleted my island now and will try to restart again. Maybe I’ll find some joy.

I applaud people who can delete x.x I have so many DIY's and stuff that if I deleted and lost all of those, I think I'd lose motivation to play sadly =/ so deleting/restarting def isn't an option for me. I know the way my brain works and in the past whenever i've lost save files, it just tanks motivation for me x.x

 

[JKDOS]

I haven't been on the forums in awhile. I haven't played AC in awhile. I open the game, check some stuff, turn it off. I really miss Animal Crossing, but I'm finding myself not really knowing what to do.

It may not be what you want to hear, but when it comes to AC games, restarting can be the best way to remedy this problem, if you're serious about wanting to play again.

 

[FoxFeathers]

I was in a similar spot and I'm preparing to reset my island and getting cards to bring in my fav villagers. If you got a friend that plays or someone you trust on the forums, you could ask them to hold anything super important while you get settled with a new town.
Clean slate and all.

 

[ladyphantomofmusic]

Hey, I know I’m late. But I’ll let you know what I’ve done. Twice now I have stopped playing as I could feel it, but picked up again, this last time it was after 4 months. I crammed all 4 months into about a week give to take doing minimal until I got caught up. I am happy with my island, but have tweaked a couple of things. I have a second villager I use as well, did the cramming with them too, and I’m trying to max out their storage, so they act like a second storage. I also have a self made town square extension I decorate per season, and outside my home. I also gift my villagers every day, save for when I’m cramming. Also, often, so the game’s music isn’t white noise, I’ll listen to my iPad with youtube. Also, have you considered redoing villager houses? I did Muffy’s as she was one of my starters and I don’t like her default home. You can do that if you progresses in the dlc. Also, if you have villager cards of either dreamies or of villagers you have, if you do start over you can use your cards to bring them back.

If your interested, dm me, and I can arrange to show you my island so you can see what I have done. I haven’t changed much for most of the time I’ve had the game, and I don’t plan to.