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I've never been a creative person, I can barely draw anything, other than basic stick-figures and not much else, so I've been pretty insistant since the start that I wasn't going to attempt any Terraforming or major changes to my Island. I'm sticking to that with the Terraforming, only if there's a river blocking off a bridge or something and I have to account for that will I adjust it, but seeing all of the posts online with the amazing paths and the way people's towns are layed out to a perfect standard made me think my Island was seriously inferior as a result. Then Tom Nook shoved the Island Designer app in my face. Anyway, I ended up spending 2 hours or so getting some Pathing done around the main parts of the island... and that probably could have been an hour if it wasn't for the awful UI which constantly messes up your path/erases something you just placed down. Anyway, that's beside the point. Now that I have finished with it, I just feel like it looks a mess - and I want to get rid of it, because I can't see how to fix it. But I know that it will take hours to undo, and then I have to place back all of the trees/flowers to where they used to be.. so I'm just left in this huge dilemma right now where my Island looks a mess and I don't really know what to do with it.
I just wish I was creative enough to make something awesome. This is my favourite game, there's no doubt about that, but I think that the way everything is geared towards those who are the most-creative and artsy does have an impact on people like me and I'm sure many others who are not talented in Creative design. To be honest, I wish someone could come and do the pathing for me and just get me out of this mess. I have a headache right now and the thought of going back to it to erase everything is really annoying.. I just want to chill on my island.
TL;DR - Don't feel pressured to go all Creative if you're not confident in your artistic abilities. If you're happy with your island, stick with it, because you might end up regretting it like me.
Sorry to hear it. I agree it is tedious to fix if you mess up, especially on a grand scale/when you get too far into it. While all the mapped out pathed strategically placed islands are gorgeous, there's absolutely nothing wrong with natural islands, old school AC style! You can even still add flair here and there to make things pop without going overboard.
Yes, do what you want to do. Don't let others influence you in a negative way.
In NL, I wanted to make a town with a lot of Asian inspired feeling to it. But around that same time, a lot of people were making Asian towns and people on here complained about how there were too many Asian towns, and that anyone who did it was "unoriginal". (Minor rant: Meanwhile at the same time, others started making flower-heavy and pastel towns, and I don't recall the same amount of complaining for that. That felt more unoriginal to me...) It made me feel bad and I changed my ideas. I was never completely happy with my town because I didn't do what I actually wanted to do with it.
I've learned to ignore what others say and are doing with their game. You can take inspiration, in a good way. But if you don't want to do something, or you really want to do something even if others hate on it, ignore them!
Hey! Don't get discouraged! I'm honestly trash when it comes to designing pretty much anything- but I get inspired a lot by looking at other people's islands. I know you said it makes you feel like your island is a total 1 star compared to other people's 5 stars, but for me, I always ask myself, 'what would I put on my island and make it look like...well...me?' Currently it's quite early in the games release so please don't feel pressured about making your island look amazing right away! The whole point of this game is to pace yourself and take things one step at a time. I'm waiting to personalize my island (and my house) until I get tons of diy's and furniture, though.
That whole "you copied me because we have vaguely similar ideas" trend is so sad and very immature. This game has a lot of asian inspired items, and as a result you get a lot of people with ideas like that. With new horizons especially. Yet every single town I have seen thus far, even with the same items repeated, looks entirely unique in it's own way. That's awesome.
Time to retire the copying people and accusing people of copying people argument. The key word is inspired, lol.
I felt really creative in New Leaf, but in New Horizons I feel very overwhelmed and pressured.
So many people time travel and have beautiful 'complete' islands and mine feels so inferior and I feel left behind and honestly, crappy about the whole thing. I almost felt like disconnecting from the AC community online for a while until I had some satisfaction with my own island because I feel pretty bad about my island, and I feel like the fun is almost sucked out of it with the pressure to seem perfect.
It's hard but try to not feel compelled to make a 'super perfect town' based on what other people do. While I think some of those towns are neat with a lot of effort put in they just wouldn't be what I wanted personally (which is something much more relaxed) and I'm not going to shame myself into trying to 'keep up' (which isn't even a thing) and you shouldn't either
Just take your town a little at a time. If you find an area a path would look nice great! If not and you want a free forest forever also great!
So sorry to hear that. I myself am not the best at creative design, and do struggle with the new terraforming tool; it's very challenging, even now that I've gotten used to it. I've spent 10+ hours (probably closer to 15 at this point) redesigning my entire island from scratch and let me tell you, it is a pain when you mess up. It's frustrating when you don't know what you want to do and where you want to put things, and then you have to go back and redo it all. The game has given me a headache multiple times during the course of just a few hours into terraforming. At one point I just went to sleep because my head hurt so bad and I just needed a break and time to consider my next step, and I couldn't look at it anymore.
I do agree though that it does seem a little more geared toward creatively-inclined people (nothing wrong with that of course!) but it does make it hard for individuals like you and I and others! I really hope you can get out of this rut you're in. I'd love for you to be able to enjoy your island once more!
I was sure i wasnt going to touch terraforming because i felt it was for creative people only and i am not one, but seeing all the amazing things others have created makes me want to give it a shot. I think we are being unfair to our selves by assuming that we shouldnt even try it, or that we cant make great things with it, too. I saw a lot of people say it takes some effort so if you are tired take a break from it and you can always come back and try to finish it later little by little. People here are so helpfull and can provide you with tips.
I appreciate the responses guys. I just don't have the energy to erase all of the Pathing that has been done right now... mainly because of how bad the UI is. Guess I'll just have to suck it up, and not attempt pathing again.
Yes don't feel bad if you're not into pathing, I'm not either! I didn't make paths in New Leaf and I don't plan on doing it (or terraforming) in this game either. While I do feel like my town is inferior to others' at times, I just don't find it fun. I'm not good at design and I don't have very specific ideas about how I want my town to look; thinking about pathing and terraforming just stresses me out. At the end of the day what is most important is that you enjoy the game!
Even though a lot of people like to micromanage every aspect of their town, that's not necessarily the purpose of Animal Crossing - thankfully it's a game meant to be enjoyed however you want!
I'm not even sure if I'm going to do paths or not in my town this time. I went back and forth with them in New Leaf. I only really did it because I started getting the dirt paths that I didn't want. Then when I wanted a natural dirt path, I couldn't make them appear!
It is your island. Do what makes you happy.
I'm about 115 hours in and I only have a 2 star town and 7 villagers. I don't feel behind at all because I'm having fun playing it my way which is totally different than how my husband is playing it and totally different than how my brother is playing it. Every time I have a friend visit they always gush about how it is "so much like you" and that they "can totally tell it is your town because it has your style". I honestly just have a cherry blossom forest and bunny day items everywhere with little yards for my villagers. Nothing fancy, but it makes me happy.
Aww that sucks. Maybe if you undo/edit it sections at a time over a few days it will be less overwhelming?
I myself have been a little nervous about using paths. I haven't gotten that far into the game yet,
but I know what is going to happen if I try to use them. I am gonna get frustrated if something isn't perfectly centered or whatever.
I have been thinking I may only have a couple of areas with some paths (like a main area/street or something) and the rest with none. I think it would feel weird if I had paths everywhere on my Island with the way I am trying to do mine.
I may even do a stepping stone design in some places so it doesn't feel too confining or boxy to me or if something isn't completely centered because of grid count or whatever, it won't be that noticeable.
Always do what's right for you, but there's also nothing wrong with trying something out. You don't have to "be creative" to get creative. You can also get creative in a functional way. And if you end up disliking it, you can always undo what you've done. But everything bad can be made good, even if it's in a different way than expected. You just gotta keep on pushing.
I totally get what the OP means. I've decided to leave the island 90% alone, and build bridges and paths where they would naturally go - does that make sense? I let the procedural generation do most of the work. But I'll be honest, I think if it didn't take forever to take it all down, I would absolutely try doing something huge and crazy like what I've seen on this forum and Reddit. But just... hours, and hours, and hours of work to erase it...
I agree with the others here: Do what you have fun doing and don't worry about what others are doing. The game is meant to be a laid-back mostly personal experience, so stressing over others is silly, but brains are great at stuff like that without ignoring those thoughts
I relate a lot to that. I’ve never been a very creative person with my towns. I tried to fit in with the others with dreamies/paths/hybrids all that jazz but it just ruined my true enjoyment from my town.
now I just play at my own pace and not caring about what tier villagers are or anything and it’s much more enjoyable to relax and play!
If you don’t really enjoy the creative aspect of the game, why not just ignore it? Since you’re presumably still into the game for other reasons, I don’t see why you’d even need to bother with “competing creatively”. There’s so much more to playing AC, and I doubt anybody would judge your Island for keeping it simple with the design.
That said, I’m sure you could find some people willing to help you out. If I wasn’t so busy with my own plans, I’d love to come over and take a look! I think it could be really fun and rewarding to collaborate on a concept ^ｪ^
Honestly I felt a lot more negativity and pressure during the heyday of New Leaf because that's when the whole "dreamies" obsession became rampabt. All of a sudden, AC was full of TT'd cookie-cutter "kawaii" towns inhabited by the same cast of (usually auctioned) uber popular villagers picked from a tier list. I eventually just stopped playing because the whole culture of New Leaf felt stiflingly conformist, not creative, to me. Happily, I got over it and now I'm back to enjoying the series again.
Practice two things: trusting and valuing your own taste, and avoiding comparing your game to other players' games. It is hard, because we are social creatures, but it is possible and worth doing!
