My problem with how ACNH deals with villagers moving out.

[Mr_Keroppi]

I'm sure you're tired of hearing this by now but I'm on the opposite end, I am VERY happy that villagers don't move out without your permission anymore mainly because of the fact that I don't have the time nor the energy to play Animal Crossing every single day, so not having to stress out about a villager moving randomly without warning is helpful. At the same time however, I wouldn't mind for the farewell letters to come back, I'm not quite sure why those were axed

(I like to think the reason everyone wants them to stay with only their permission and no one elses is because everyone loves their villagers which is good!)I miss the letters alot too! I think its because NH was clearly rushed and almost every ounce of charm was forgotten but some was added back in updates but goodbye letters were just PERF. Thanks for sharing!

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2022

I've played WW and NL. I didn't like that villagers would move out on their own, the same way I didn't like that they could permanently place their homes wherever they wanted when they moved in. So for me, NH is an improved game by giving me the power to move their homes and to ask them to stay when I'm not ready to say goodbye yet.

As for goodbye letters, I don't miss them. It could be that I don't have a single sentimental bone in my body.

I feel that the game already gives me plenty of opportunities to make happy memories with the villagers when they still live in my town or on my island. All those times when we talked and exchanged gifts, celebrated birthdays and festivals and visited one another's homes because someone was ill and needed medicine or because we just wanted to visit and spend time together, were good times. I take a lot of screenshots for that purpose. To remember every single villager by. A single letter written to say goodbye... is just a single letter written to say goodbye.

Awww well atleast you hopefully like your villagers! The goodbye letters to me were so sweet and made me happy and those were the letters I would save at the post office in the older games! I do not like how you get to choose their house and if they leave because we have all the power and I liked it when it was more equal. ALSO can we just talk about how a mayor gets some power but this ISLAND REP LEGIT CAN CHANGE THE EARTH AND CHOOSE EXACTLY THE LIFE OF THE VILLAGERS LIKE EXCUSE ME. lol anyway Thanks for sharing! (But, its kinda weird how we can choose who we want, how long they stay, where they live, what clothes they where, with hhp you get to choose their interior and exterior, and the villagers are bland in NH to begin with soooo does that mean we make the villagers???????????????????????????????) Thanks for sharing!

Post automatically merged: Jan 2, 2022

I hope they give us options of like what our playstyle should be like in the next AC game. Since this one has created some division in the community it seems that people in general do play differently and there things that they like and dislike. I don't know how they are going to do that but it would be kinda like Breath of the Wild where the game doesn't restrict you, but you can do whatever you want as long as its not restrictive. I don't know if that makes any sense, but the point is that they should give us options on what we want our game to be like that differs from experience.

I think a simple menu in a settings type thing would be PERFECT like you could change settings like, random move ins and outs, choose house plots, last villager cannot leave, mean villagers 1-10, and so on and so forth. Then we can all enjoy what we want and no one is angry! I think this also solves most of the problem with NL VS NH. I prefer NL because its more of a life sim and not a decorating sim. I feel like its bad when people compare the two because they are very different games with two very obvious different goals. (I still think NH could have been better but.... ) we should enjoy both of them for what they are. SETTINGS NEED TO HAPPEN NINTENDO PLSSSSS

 

[Manah]

The letters would definitely give them a little more personality, but I hated the random moving so much. I generally hate feeling forced to play a game every day, that's the fastest way to make me not bother with it at all. I played NL for two years and loved everything else about the game, but ultimately being unable to play every single day and either having to TT to play multiple ingame days at once to make sure I don't miss someone's moving plans or keeping up with the ingame dates and TT to the right days to catch them was enough to make me stop playing.

 

[McRibbie]

As I've said before (https://www.belltreeforums.com/thre...ermission-to-move.595753/page-2#post-10053615), I'm not 100% convinced that giving you complete control over villagers moving out is a good idea.

Mainly because it just smacks of avoidance... it makes AC into something that you can just abandon for months on end, and when you come back nothing's happened, it's the exact same perfect thing you've crafted. Which just rubs me the wrong way! You should at least have some form of motivation to play the damn thing everyday, that's the entire point of Animal Crossing!

Not to mention it just makes AC into something that’s simply just a game instead of something that (seems) like it’s a living, breathing world. It robs them of any form of agency, makes them into bland little dolls (or whatever AC fandom describes villagers as if they don’t verbally abuse you every 5 second) that exist primarily under your own megalomaniacal whims.

(although I also think it’s full of factual inaccuracies and downright stupid opinions that made me keep pausing it and telling my laptop “nope, wrong” when I watched it, Tama Hero has a reasonably good video about this. Just, y’know, ignore the “NORMIES REEEE” about a game series that’s been in the Top 10 of every console it’s been on aside from the Wii, the idea that NH invented the tree limit, or the weirdly homophobic ending. But it’s better than Protendo anyday.)

I don’t think giving you a menu that allows you to customise what you want’s a good solution, either?

Again, it just makes AC feel like A Game. If it’s a slider to do with villager dialogue being mean again (because, once again, this is The Only Thing AC fandom ever mentions with regards to dialogue), it’s just going to end up with less dialogue altogether. If it’s to do with villagers not moving away or controlling where they live, it’s even worse if there’s an option for it, because it ends up feeling vaguely fascistic. Even more than it usually does!

No idea what the next game in the series is going to look like, especially if a change in directors happens again, but I don’t think that this is the way forward going forward. Even if it’s handy, it’s ultimately just something that takes the life away from this… communication game.

 

[mollyduck]

Having gone through my NL screenshots I now see why I quit back in 2015 - I’d lost a *fourth* villager (Lily) and this time before even getting her photo. To be fair this was prior to the Welcome Amiibo update which I understand extended the move out date. Hopefully that helps and worse case at least Amiibos exist now! (Would have to get a reader for my older 3DS but may be worth it…)

But you definitely have to login multiple times each day to catch all villagers outside and/or endure lots of repeated dialogue with villagers hoping for a clue (I think there’s been some rose-coloured glasses with respect to NL dialogue but that’s another subject lol). Again just glad not to have to worry about that in NH.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

The letters would definitely give them a little more personality, but I hated the random moving so much. I generally hate feeling forced to play a game every day, that's the fastest way to make me not bother with it at all. I played NL for two years and loved everything else about the game, but ultimately being unable to play every single day and either having to TT to play multiple ingame days at once to make sure I don't miss someone's moving plans or keeping up with the ingame dates and TT to the right days to catch them was enough to make me stop playing.

I understand how it can be hard to keep up with! I can see why now its easier to understand!

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2022

As I've said before (https://www.belltreeforums.com/thre...ermission-to-move.595753/page-2#post-10053615), I'm not 100% convinced that giving you complete control over villagers moving out is a good idea.

Mainly because it just smacks of avoidance... it makes AC into something that you can just abandon for months on end, and when you come back nothing's happened, it's the exact same perfect thing you've crafted. Which just rubs me the wrong way! You should at least have some form of motivation to play the damn thing everyday, that's the entire point of Animal Crossing!

Not to mention it just makes AC into something that’s simply just a game instead of something that (seems) like it’s a living, breathing world. It robs them of any form of agency, makes them into bland little dolls (or whatever AC fandom describes villagers as if they don’t verbally abuse you every 5 second) that exist primarily under your own megalomaniacal whims.

(although I also think it’s full of factual inaccuracies and downright stupid opinions that made me keep pausing it and telling my laptop “nope, wrong” when I watched it, Tama Hero has a reasonably good video about this. Just, y’know, ignore the “NORMIES REEEE” about a game series that’s been in the Top 10 of every console it’s been on aside from the Wii, the idea that NH invented the tree limit, or the weirdly homophobic ending. But it’s better than Protendo anyday.)

I don’t think giving you a menu that allows you to customise what you want’s a good solution, either?

Again, it just makes AC feel like A Game. If it’s a slider to do with villager dialogue being mean again (because, once again, this is The Only Thing AC fandom ever mentions with regards to dialogue), it’s just going to end up with less dialogue altogether. If it’s to do with villagers not moving away or controlling where they live, it’s even worse if there’s an option for it, because it ends up feeling vaguely fascistic. Even more than it usually does!

No idea what the next game in the series is going to look like, especially if a change in directors happens again, but I don’t think that this is the way forward going forward. Even if it’s handy, it’s ultimately just something that takes the life away from this… communication game.

Interesting! I feel like the slider would help alot with making everyone happy with some sort of menu but at the same time its not a perfect solution, thanks for sharing!

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2022

Having gone through my NL screenshots I now see why I quit back in 2015 - I’d lost a *fourth* villager (Lily) and this time before even getting her photo. To be fair this was prior to the Welcome Amiibo update which I understand extended the move out date. Hopefully that helps and worse case at least Amiibos exist now! (Would have to get a reader for my older 3DS but may be worth it…)

But you definitely have to login multiple times each day to catch all villagers outside and/or endure lots of repeated dialogue with villagers hoping for a clue (I think there’s been some rose-coloured glasses with respect to NL dialogue but that’s another subject lol). Again just glad not to have to worry about that in NH.

I understand how its confusing or too hard to deal with or even annoying! Thanks for sharing

 

[Marshmallows]

I have mixed feelings about the move-out thing. I understand people that like the randomness because it forces you to talk to your villagers and adds that little bit of extra uncertainty to the game, but on the other, losing one of your long time favorites due to random bad luck because you're busy in real life really stinks and can ruin your game. I'm actually scared to play my New Leaf town sometimes and time travel way back because I don't want to lose anyone.

I think the only way I would be okay with villagers moving out on their own is if only the villager with the lowest friendship score would decide to leave (and someway to check that score with Isabelle, Katrina, or the villager themselves.) Sometimes you want a specific villager to leave, or don't care either way, but don't want to kick them out. It also bothers me when my favorite villagers whom I've had since the beginning say they want to leave.

Another solution would be to let villagers leave when they want, but have a way to call and invite them back without losing their memory of you and the island. I'm actually surprised the villager memories are wiped so easily. I think New Leaf had a nice idea with old villagers sometimes roaming around main street and the goodbye letters were nice. Felt like they didn't totally forget. It would be nice if past villagers would send a letter once in a while for holidays or say what they're up to.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

I have mixed feelings about the move-out thing. I understand people that like the randomness because it forces you to talk to your villagers and adds that little bit of extra uncertainty to the game, but on the other, losing one of your long time favorites due to random bad luck because you're busy in real life really stinks and can ruin your game. I'm actually scared to play my New Leaf town sometimes and time travel way back because I don't want to lose anyone.

I think the only way I would be okay with villagers moving out on their own is if only the villager with the lowest friendship score would decide to leave (and someway to check that score with Isabelle, Katrina, or the villager themselves.) Sometimes you want a specific villager to leave, or don't care either way, but don't want to kick them out. It also bothers me when my favorite villagers whom I've had since the beginning say they want to leave.

Another solution would be to let villagers leave when they want, but have a way to call and invite them back without losing their memory of you and the island. I'm actually surprised the villager memories are wiped so easily. I think New Leaf had a nice idea with old villagers sometimes roaming around main street and the goodbye letters were nice. Felt like they didn't totally forget. It would be nice if past villagers would send a letter once in a while for holidays or say what they're up to.

The letters I PERSONALLY would not like if Isabelle or Katrina could tell you because I hate thinking of friendship as a status and I persnally hate how NH allows you to give gifts to villagers and I think its really cliche. I also wish letters still gave you friendship points because now they dont and its like whats the point of writing letters if they dont make someone happy. I miss doing TONS of tasks in past games to get friend points and now they ask you for something every 1.5 billion years. Sorry for ranting and thanks for sharing!

 

[Tobiume]

Aww, I didn't know that goodbye letters weren't a thing anymore but I guess it makes sense since you'll absolutely know if someone is moving. I can see this problem from both sides but for me, I'm way too afraid to open my New Leaf game to see that my favourite villager as gone. It's sort of like it wasn't 'allowable' to fall off the wagon for a extended period of time or you'd risk losing villagers that you really cherished.

It does feel a little artificial that we can pretty much control every aspect of our villagers, but it's worth it not to feel heartbroken about losing your favourite villager and to consequently drop the game for who knows how long after.

 

[VanitasFan26]

One thing I forgot to mention is that there was another issue with villagers and that was the whole "move in by random". This was in issue especially in New Leaf, because there was no way to tell weather if you have a new villager or if you find their plot only to see them placed over something random. Now I heard many people really not liking this because suppose if you had grown flowers there and a villager randomly puts their plot down on them the flowers are gone. Thank goodness in ACNH you are in control of where the home plots go and the plot stays there in place after a villager moves out instead of how new leaf the plot is gone and then a new one shows up on any random place in your town.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

Aww, I didn't know that goodbye letters weren't a thing anymore but I guess it makes sense since you'll absolutely know if someone is moving. I can see this problem from both sides but for me, I'm way too afraid to open my New Leaf game to see that my favourite villager as gone. It's sort of like it wasn't 'allowable' to fall off the wagon for a extended period of time or you'd risk losing villagers that you really cherished.

It does feel a little artificial that we can pretty much control every aspect of our villagers, but it's worth it not to feel heartbroken about losing your favourite villager and to consequently drop the game for who knows how long after.

I understand that alot of people care about their villagers which is good but I think its more realistic when small sad things like avillager moving out happens! It can change the game! But thanks for your opinion and sharing!

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2022

One thing I forgot to mention is that there was another issue with villagers and that was the whole "move in by random". This was in issue especially in New Leaf, because there was no way to tell weather if you have a new villager or if you find their plot only to see them placed over something random. Now I heard many people really not liking this because suppose if you had grown flowers there and a villager randomly puts their plot down on them the flowers are gone. Thank goodness in ACNH you are in control of where the home plots go and the plot stays there in place after a villager moves out instead of how new leaf the plot is gone and then a new one shows up on any random place in your town.

I understand about that but thats another point for another thread lol! I had marty kill my perfect cherry orchard and then I moved him out and the next villager said "I live by the roost forever hahah now my plot." So that is not very good but I did not care much as in NL WA update it made them not be able to place houses over paths which helped but before WA it was PAIN

 

[VanitasFan26]

I understand that alot of people care about their villagers which is good but I think its more realistic when small sad things like avillager moving out happens! It can change the game! But thanks for your opinion and sharing!

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2022

I understand about that but thats another point for another thread lol! I had marty kill my perfect cherry orchard and then I moved him out and the next villager said "I live by the roost forever hahah now my plot." So that is not very good but I did not care much as in NL WA update it made them not be able to place houses over paths which helped but before WA it was PAIN

It still relates to the whole moving process and also I am bummed that once you place down a home plot you can never pick it up back up. Which is one of the reasons people restart their island just so they can have open plots for their favorite villagers when Tom Nook allows them to place them down after building the Campsite. I restarted several times because I wanted to find my favorite villagers and then I would be ready to put down a open plot if I found them on a trading site so it saves me time from even trying to kick the villager out.

That was never a thing in New Leaf because once you get a villager you have no choice but to have them in your Town and there was no such thing as "Villager Hunting" back in the day so ACNH does deserve some credit for making it easy to find villagers you want, but then again it can be tiring trying to find who you are looking for. The moving process has changed a lot in this game compare to others and I do understand how sometimes it can feel "too controlling" to allow villagers to not move. I used to be like that back in 2020 but then I remember that if I just let them go I will get new villagers that make the game more refreshing.

 

[Mr_Keroppi]

It still relates to the whole moving process and also I am bummed that once you place down a home plot you can never pick it up back up. Which is one of the reasons people restart their island just so they can have open plots for their favorite villagers when Tom Nook allows them to place them down after building the Campsite. I restarted several times because I wanted to find my favorite villagers and then I would be ready to put down a open plot if I found them on a trading site so it saves me time from even trying to kick the villager out.

That was never a thing in New Leaf because once you get a villager you have no choice but to have them in your Town and there was no such thing as "Villager Hunting" back in the day so ACNH does deserve some credit for making it easy to find villagers you want, but then again it can be tiring trying to find who you are looking for. The moving process has changed a lot in this game compare to others and I do understand how sometimes it can feel "too controlling" to allow villagers to not move. I used to be like that back in 2020 but then I remember that if I just let them go I will get new villagers that make the game more refreshing.

Omg I am deleting just this reply but I wish I could delete most of my replies on this thread lol WHY WAS I SO MEAN
Edit 2: Looking back on these posts like wow, I WAS UNHINGED WITHPASSIVE AGGRESSIVE RUDENESS