Personal Gameplay Rules

[Honie]

These are guidelines that I follow for my enjoyment and to help out my fellow players! I've started recently really sticking to them to keep my enjoyment fulfilled since I've almost completed my island.

I don't look at other dream address, island, or anything for inspiration. I did before I reset and it was completely demotivating that I couldn't make my island look like theirs and I stopped playing AC:NH for almost a full year.

I save all my fossils and art, even if I already have it donated to share with others. It's not often that I go out of my way to dig up my fossils or buy authentic from Redd, since completing it myself. I just think it might be a kind gesture if someone happens to be looking that I might actually have it in storage.

I trade/buy with other players, but never treasure islands. They look cute and I would like to support them, but I don't feel comfortable paying real money to get in game items.

I don't time travel for bugs/fish, even though I would certainly like too! I just feel that's wrong of me to do for some reason? When I time travel it's usually to move a maxed out villager to make room for a new one for me to love on.

I stopped terraforming after flattening my island and losing all of its original charm, which I regret doing. If I could get it back somehow, or spend the time doing it, I might. But I'm very happy with how my island looks now so I don't think I would change it.

I'm stubborn and I breed all my own flowers. Since I started using the Beautiful Ordinance, the entire top half of my island is a huge flower field that I actually adore. All of my flowers have come from a bag and breeding.

I don't change my island representative appearance (once I unlocked everything.) Since they are an extension of myself, I just use clothes and accessories to keep them fresh so I don't get bored of them.

I complete all villager requests and I often buy them gifts that they would like, and even wrap it in wrapping paper of their favorite color! Sometimes I get upset when they replace a housing item with a clothing item in their home, but I'm not here to control them. I would hope they think they are very appreciated. ;w;

And finally.... if I'm not having fun, I take a break. As important as the daily tasks are, if I'm not having an interest in doing anything specific or working on anything, I just stop playing. I don't wanna play the game so much that I hate it, so I figure this is a way to avoid burnout! ♥

 

[StarlitGlitch]

I don't follow all of them but I like your rules! I get the feeling you're a fan of older games.

Personally:

-No resetting
I've played all of the main AC games in English and have never reset. I was very close to it once as a kid on WW and ever brought all of my things to someone's town but chickened out last minute and I'm very glad for it. I like having t he one town I'm connected to

-Only limited TTing (depending on how long I've played)
Generally the first year I don't TT at all and after that I will do a bit (couple of days or a few hours) if I miss something important like an event. I have more fun trying to force myself to play at certain times

-No more turnips!
At the beginning I used them to pay off my loan right away. There's a lot of pressure now with social media to keep up and having my house expanded with everyone felt nice but I missed the slow grind and working towards things (I've used turnips before but not as many, plus less things to spend money on in NH). Now, I focus on things like selling fruit, fish, and items I don't need anymore

I also don't overly terraform or use NMT for currency. Not really as a rule just feels natural

 

[Rosch]

I think the only self-imposed rule I still abide by is to "always get the villager photo first before letting them move out".

Other things have become more or less part of my daily routine that it's technically not considered a rule anymore. Such as keeping a specific part of my island weed-free, or checking Harv's Island every Monday for new shop inventory, or always my villagers gifts should always be wrapped and should always cost 750+ bells, etc.

 

[deana]

My personal rules are:

-Only very light time travel *when needed*, I will sometimes TT ahead when a villager is moving out so that I can island hop on my day off or something like that but I will not time travel weeks or months out of date. I also won't time travel for bugs or fish. My museum is still not complete (because I am lazy) but I refuse to time travel to complete it, I'll just wait for another chance at those creatures when it becomes time.

-No additional player characters. When I started my island I decided it was going to be for me and only me, no other houses. In New Leaf I made an additional house for my boyfriend (and to give me somewhere else to decorate) and regretted it almost immediately. I just hate the villager dialog that comes out of it so I much prefer being the only island human, even if extra storage space is tempting.

-And for the most part, I try to get all of the major things I need by myself. I do accept gifts from friends and have done a bit of trading for wishlist items but I don't like to just rush out and acquire every new item immediately. I enjoy the surprise of seeing new items at Nooks and Ables, not just having everything already cataloged from a catalog island.

I don't think I'll reset my island either although I don't really know if that's a "rule" for myself.

 

[HappyTails]

I wouldn't say this is a rule as it's more of a gameplay style of mine, but I don't and will never again buy in-game currency from other players. I earn my Bells myself. The one time I bought bells from other people on here, was when I was played New Leaf and it absolutely ruined the game for me because it was too easy to pay everything off right away and I didn't feel like I actually earned anything.

Other than that I just play however I want. I'm not going to impose rules on myself and take away the fun of the game, especially when I know I might not stick to them.

 

[Holla]

Due to my theme I have some interesting rules. Some of these are probably common while others not so much.

First off my island is Sailor Moon themed to the point that even my characters are themed. Most people with themes will only have one character that is their main. Sometimes it will be themselves or one of the characters that they like the best. Their remaining characters (if any) are purely secondary and are mainly used to add to the theme/be another house to decorate. So basically once completed they never really play as them anymore. I really love all my characters and did not want this to happen on my island. So this led to my main rule:

• Play all 5 of my characters as equally as possible.

Now, it’s not perfect of course especially considering the resident rep can do additional things the other villagers can’t but I do my best. I achieve this by playing as a different character each day. For example yesterday I played as Usagi, today Ami, tomorrow will be Rei followed by Makoto, then Minako and back to Usagi again. I do make the odd exception when it’s one of their birthday’s but other wise I stick to this method and it works really well. It’s actually fun to get to be a different character each day.

Other rules I have are:

• No time travelling. I used to do it as a kid back in the old games but it ruins the fun for me so I don’t do it as an adult anymore.
• Have at least one of each personality type. They each give different emotes and DIYs so it’s worth it. Plus more personalities means more diversity.
• Have each villager be a different species. Not really sure why I always follow this guess I just like more variety.
• Each of my characters live in a different area of town that it themed to match them. So no residential area. In this case I let each of them have two animal neighbours that they share their area with.
• I make all my designs myself. I will often use ones I find as inspiration but in the end they are my own. That way I can make them downloadable when people visit my dream address. I often have people asking for the sailor outfits for example.

 

[Ganucci]

My only rule is no time travelling. The part that attracts me most to Animal Crossing as a franchise is the fact that life goes on even when you're not playing. I love the changing of the seasons, the different hourly music, and the routines villagers have. Plus if I were to time travel I think I would get burned out much faster.

One of my old rules used to be no duplicate villager species, but after having Diana, Bruce, AND Bam I've realized how much I love the deer villagers and can't resist having them on my island. Now I'm just waiting for Erik and I will be content.

 

[angelcat621]

I have a few self-imposed rules I follow. One is that even when I terraform, I try to keep the layout as close to original as space will allow. My river was very crooked in the beginning and I straightened it up a bit while following the default layout as much as I could so it still looks natural. Same with cliffs.

I time travel whenever I please. I changed my clock to begin my game on the date I started my first island in June '20 so I have lots of catching up to do. When I start a new game villagers are number one priority. Once I get them I work on my house, then terraforming, then infrastructure, in that order. Tedious to do alone but satisfying. It's my island so I do what I want and what makes me happy.

 

[mermaidshelf]

Not a hard and fast rule but I try not to reuse an item in different rooms or at least the same colorway/version of it. It forces me to try different items and styles and prevent my rooms from looking reductive. Admittedly, it was more difficult to stick to than in previous games because I wasn't satisfied with the sets and series that were available but the 2.0 update really helped. I do this for my villagers homes too.

I try to treat my villagers equally. If I send letters, I'll send one to all 10 of my villagers, unless I'm trying to specifically target 1 for friendship or to change their outfit. I want to create a neighborhood where each villager gets their own yard with equal amount of space for all.

I time travel but I try to stick to 1 day forward at a time only since the last date. For example, if I can't play for 2 weeks, I'll go back to the last day that I played. This way I can still experience the days I missed because of work and life's hurdles. I'm still in October . Eventually I want to catch up to real time.

 

[dizzy bone]

The only rule I gave myself was no time travelling for 300 days in the early days, because I wanted to take it slow. I think I broke just under 300 days though. I'm still proud of myself for that, since I've been an avid time traveller in every other game. I also had no rules to how I would complete the museum, just that I 100% should in this game... and I finally did!! The first AC game where I actually completed the museum.

Oh and not really a rule since I always stick by this anyways, but have every personality type. It just feels like something is lacking if I don't at least have one of each.

 

[michito]

They aren't 100% set in stone, but I prefer to t time-travel as little as possible (if its just hours its ok tho) and to get the villager's pic before they move out, even if I dislike that villager. I play with my sister, so I can't have specific rules of what to do and what not to do in the island (I let her do all the decorating anyways because I'm lazy lol). Oh, and if I see a villager in a shop looking at an item, I like to buy it and gift it to them.
It isn't a gameplay rule per se, but if the stuff in my pockets aren't in a VERY specific order it makes me mad, they must always be arranged like this:

• Fishing rod - Net - Shovel - Watering can - Slingshot - Ladder - That thing to jump over rivers - Wand - Misc. hand items - DIY items ( Soft-Flexible-Hard wood - Stone - Clay- Steel - These metal chip things - Weed) - Fossil - Gyroid - Furniture - Clothing (shirts - dresses - trousers - skirts - accessories - headgear - socks - shoes - backpacks) - Letters - Misc stuff - Fish - Bug

And I have been like that since ACWW (but back then there was way less stuff to carry around)

 

[jvgsjeff]

No time traveling for me. I like to play the game one day at a time, as the developers intended.

No outside help on the museum. I want to complete the museum on my own; it wouldn't feel like an accomplishment otherwise. While I actually have had a person or two send me unsolicited art, I set them aside and later reused them as gifts (or as prizes for races I've held).

No large gifts in general, because I want progress in my town to be my own. I know trading (and sending gifts to friends) is a regular part of the game, but I don't like receiving expensive/rare gifts, like a bag of 99k bells or 30 gold nuggets (or anything that is normally a reward for an accomplishment). When people send me those, I have to set them aside and regift them later.

I also like to earn photos for villagers that I view positively or neutral, before I let them leave. But if it's a villager I strongly dislike, I don't care. They can leave ASAP.

As for villagers, it's too easy to get a town full of good villagers and never let them leave. Aside from my top-3 villagers or so, I'm trying to let them leave after they've been in town about a year. (Neutral/unliked villagers can leave sooner.) It's too easy for towns to become stagnant when you don't let anyone leave. The exception is that I want to keep my remaining starter Louie even though he's not one of my favorites. I like the idea of having someone in town who has been there since the start.

 

[Flicky]

I think the only real rules I ever had from before I even started playing were:

No TTing until the end credits roll, and the house is fully paid off.

No accepting blatantly hacked items (ie. most 'treasure island' items). I don't have an issue with it, it's just that if I do that, I'll end up with everything I need in too short a time. Bells I'm a little less bothered about, since I can use them to pay off the other houses.

No stealing other people's areas. Inspiration? Sure. Copying the whole thing? No. It feels less like it's 'mine' if I do that.

 

[islandprincess]

.

 

[Romaki]

Do whatever the frog I want. I don't live a life where I can get into AC everyday for hours on end, so I rather go through a week or even a month on a weekend where I have time to game.

I only lowkey regret resetting my first island, though I was much more attached to my second or third one. Thing is, it's more about the nostalgia about old ideas at a different time in life. Tbh I think the first two months in the game are the most exciting thing and I'll go through that as often as I like.

 

[Y a h i k o]

- No time travel. I did in the beginning, when I first played two years ago and it was unfun. I can't wait to see new features added (I'm in my second day) but I force myself to wait to discover all of these things.
- Trying to avoid turnips. I mean not buying thousands and thousands of them to get more money easily.
- In the beginning of the game (I'll change that later when I've played more) get money by fishing, catching bugs, seashells and fruits I can find on mystery islands.
- Trying to have the "final" villagers directly, so I'll hunt villagers pretty soon because now we can change their home interior.

 

[Wickel]

I don't know if I really have any "rules", but yeah definitely some guidelines. I've learned from the older AC games that I enjoyed the game much more if I just take it easy. So no time travelling or excessive trading.. because everything will still be there tomorrow.
Yes, I'll trade some DIYs and items and visit some cataloguing islands whenever I feel like the collect-a-thon part of the game is turning into a slog and holding me back. But back when I restarted NL I traded some tbt for millions of bells in-game and immediately upgrade my house and finished every town project I wanted... it turned the game stale very quickly.

As a result though I do feel kinda behind whenever I look at other people's towns, but I'm also old enough to realize it's not a race and to just take it at my own pace.

 

[Sheando]

I don’t time travel except to catch up, because I like taking each day as it comes, but I also don’t want to deal with FOMO. So if I take off for a few weeks, I’ll play some of the in-between days later to make sure I don’t miss birthdays or special events, but I never time travel ahead of the date.

I don’t trade for bells or items. Earning money naturally and looking for new things in the shops is half the fun! I rarely trade for recipes; my partner and I save our duplicates and exchange them periodically, but he doesn’t play as frequently so it’s just a minor supplement. The only exception is seasonal recipes, like fall or Toy Day, that can only be obtained by standing around for hours waiting on balloons. After obsessively trying to find them on my own the first year and playing daily with no luck, I decided THAT wasn’t fun either, and traded.

I let my villagers have lives of their own. That means I fulfill every request (if possible), deliver every package, and don’t try to micromanage how they decorate or what they wear. When I give gifts, I tailor them to their style and preferences, but I’m not going to prohibit them from trading catchphrases or putting weird statues in their living rooms. It’s their island too!

 

[sleepydreepy]

i have no rules i do what i want lol

 

[annex]

Earn my own bells.

Try to get furniture and items on my own, but buy items from the forum that are hard to get and some even impossible.I

Must finish museum and get all the bug and fish models.

Every flower and weed must be perfectly placed and new growth has to be removed imediatly.

Seashells must be cleaned off the beach before I update my dream address. I used to open all my characters mail before updating, but I have 8 characters, and that's a lot of work, so now I let it slide.

Can't have furniture or diys laying around.