How do you plan your towns? PWP's and paths and all that?

[Red Cat]

Spoiler

First, I made a tile by tile map of my town, marking only the permanent parts: the rocks, Train Station, Town Hall, Plaza, Retail, river, ponds, my three player houses, and the Caf? + Police Station, which I had already built.

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Then, I marked my villager houses, but only the one's I know I'll be keeping, and started drawing my paths and bridges on that map, while marking them out on the game by surrounding the path with flowers, since I want a natural dirt/grass deterioration path, the flowers help it stay where I want it). This is when I started cutting down the trees that were in the way, little by little until I got the golden axe. I tried to stay consistent: 1-wide paths only were it lead to a house, 2-paths for the most part, and 3-wide only where I wanted to align it with something (the town tree/main street entrance).

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Then, finally, I started planning my trees, shrubs and PWPs. You'll find this guide very useful for figuring out where PWPs will or will not fit: https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/6c/4f/32/6c4f322011cc08b71dee833148a23330.jpg
The red tiles are the project's actual size, the yellow is the free space that needs to be around it (where only flowers and items can be placed, no threes, shrubs, other PWPs, not even the PWP's yellow areas can overlap). The blue tile is the one you need to be standing on when talking to Isabelle.

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I still don't have all my dreamies, but I think I still have a lot of free space to move them in. I'm not crazy enough to plot reset for a "perfect" location, I just try to place them out of the path I already planned.

How long did it take you to make those drawings of your town?

 

[X2k5a7y]

You really shouldn't feel bad (if you are) for not planning your town. The majority certainly doesn't plan their town actually, most of them aren't on forums like these though. I'm not sure what kind of planning you precisely mean here, but most people don't plan out every bit of their town, and really there is nothing wrong with that.

I don't feel bad. What I meant is that most go in with some idea or theme in mind. Dreamies they want and whatnot, and I don't. I go with the flow, and as I said, I like being surprised ^-^

 

[Lumira]

for the first two years i played acnl, i did no planning. i didn't have paths or landscaped bushes, nor did i plot reset. after my sistr moved out of my town last november (and became mayor of her own town), i finally made my town look the way i wanted it to be, since my sister wasn't a fan of paths so i didn't put any down. after i set up my paths, i started plot resetting as well in order to maintain the layout i worked hard on my pwps are put in good spots, and i already have a whole setup designated for the flower clock once i reach perfect town status.

as for getting your villagers to suggest more pwps, while there isn't a surefire way that always guarantees a pwp suggestion, try doing the diving trick. here's a really helpful of how to do it: http://mischacrossing.com/post/84546606330/diving-trick-to-get-pwp-suggestions
i hope this helps!

 

[HungryForCereal]

like the majority, i go with the flow. but ive been having troubles thinking of where i should place the stop stop..

 

[Glitterizer]

How long did it take you to make those drawings of your town?

First I divided my town into 16x16 acres using a pattern, to help me not get lost while drawing it. That took the most time. But you don't need to do that if you don't want to (this took about 4 hours).
After that was done and I just walking around the town and filling in the little squares with colors (green for grass, etc) took me about 2 or 3 hours.

 

[Glitterizer]

How long did it take you to make those drawings of your town?

First I divided my town into 16x16 acres using a pattern, to help me not get lost while drawing it. That took the most time. But you don't need to do that if you don't want to (this took about 4 hours).
After that was done and I just walking around the town and filling in the little squares with colors (green for grass, etc) took me about 2 or 3 hours.

 

[MillySoSilly]

The first thing I do is find a path I like. After I find a path I like, I start to walk around my town, look at everything, I imagine what would go where and decide where to put my paths. It's usually a pretty long process and takes about 4-5 days of constant fiddling around and trying to figure out all the possibilities. I also try to figure out where I want my villagers to move into. When I have all my paths where I want them and everything seems perfect to me, I start to landscape. That's usually the fun part to me. The beginning process is quite frustrating but overall, it's fun to imagine your town and start trying to make your town how you depict it in your head. That's how I did my first town. But with my second town, I'm thinking about just winging it and let things fall where they fall. I'm not sure about it though. I'm kind of a perfectionist so that may bother me. Hopefully, this helps in some way.

 

[radioloves]

I started out just looking at QR codes and browsing through pictures for ideas and followed with what I liked; then decided on public work projects, flowers, trees and bushes. I also tried to think of a way to place flowers so they don't get swished by new villager move-ins. I reallly just mashed up all the things I liked and it turned out kind of okay

 

[MyLifeIsCake]

Honestly I just started going with it. First and most importantly, I picked out a map that I liked this time around, because that was my bane last time. I'm mostly satisfied with map, there are a few areas I'm not fond of, but for the most part I like it. Then I started to plan out where I wanted my main PWPs. I had specific areas in mind where I wanted the bigger PWPS (campsite, lighthouse, cafe, ect) and pretty much placed everything else wherever I pleased. I also placed paths along the areas I wanted to urbanize and went with it. Not 100% done with my town yet, but I like the progress I've made so far and its coming together nicely.

 

[helloxcutiee]

I use "markers" to plan my town.
http://acnlpaths.tumblr.com/post/136803709319/eleven-the-bun-so-i-made-a-set-of-markers-for

 

[smileorange]

I recently reset my second cartridge, and this time am planning things out, but m probably not botheing with paths. I've built some pwps and set up a second player just to reserve some spots I definitely know I want to place pwps. Despite this, two villagers managed to move in and nab some spaces. One was before I got my permit, and so sure was quick about it.

I like the spontaneity of my main town, but thought I'd try something different this time around. My second town's going to have a lot of the pwps I don't have in my main town that I wanted to build but don't look that great.

 

[FaebelleDoll]

I leveled my entire town (removing all trees) and then laid out paths to connect permanent objects, and just kinda... eyeballed where other things (like my extra character houses) should go.

I'm mostly playing it by ear and just going with whatever seems like it'll work as it happens. I really envy people with super detailed and intricate town plans and layouts, but I guess it just depends on what suits you personally!

- - - Post Merge - - -

First I divided my town into 16x16 acres using a pattern, to help me not get lost while drawing it. That took the most time. But you don't need to do that if you don't want to (this took about 4 hours).
After that was done and I just walking around the town and filling in the little squares with colors (green for grass, etc) took me about 2 or 3 hours.

That's amazingly dedicated! It looked like a useful plan though. I do wish I had the patience to do that, I'd go back and re-do my entire town if I could be bothered.

It reminds me of the town layout docs you can find for Harvest Moon: A New Beginning to help with town layouts too. Obviously, that's a bit easier to use because every town there looks exactly the same to begin with, unlike Animal Crossing's hundred thousand different map options.