Help with getting new public works projects?

[meteorshots]

Hello everyone! I've been playing New Leaf for ten years and I'm starting to get seriously annoyed with how my villagers NEVER seem to suggest new public works projects. Are there any good tips at all to push them to suggest something? I've tried walking around the map over and over to reignite my villagers' interest in conversation and they never want to talk about new PWPs. I'm wondering if building more PWPs I already have available will get some momentum going?

 

[Doo]

I saw this trick years ago, can’t remember all the details but put on a wetsuit, stuff your pockets with flowers (so villagers can’t ask to buy stuff), then wait in the ocean for maybe 5 minutes? And when you come out they might ‘ping’ you to ask for a PWP. It’s been years since I tried it and I think it worked but I can’t remember

 

[meteorshots]

I saw this trick years ago, can’t remember all the details but put on a wetsuit, stuff your pockets with flowers (so villagers can’t ask to buy stuff), then wait in the ocean for maybe 5 minutes? And when you come out they might ‘ping’ you to ask for a PWP. It’s been years since I tried it and I think it worked but I can’t remember

I might have tried it before (probably a long time ago) but I'll definitely try it again! Here's hoping it works

 

[Halloqueen]

Something to keep in mind is that each villager personality has their own Public Works Project suggestions. If you want a specific Public Works Project that a certain personality suggests, you'll probably want to dig a bunch of holes around the villager who you want to ping you so they don't wander off. Part of this method that Doo mentioned is that you want to avoid any of the other villagers because they might ping you instead. This is fine if you just want PWP suggestions in general, but if you want specific ones, you want to limit the variables to give yourself the best chance. Thus why you'd want to isolate the villager you're targeting.

It's not foolproof, even if you do all of this stuff sometimes they'll still talk about random topics. Just repeat the process of going out into the ocean for 5-10 minutes, out of sight of any villagers, and then come back ashore and try again until it works.

You can see which Public Works Projects are suggested by which personalities here.