The Resetting Thread

[your local goomy]

Well, here’s the deal,
I am happy with my island, and everything is going very well. I have no regrets about resetting, but…

About two days ago I had this idea pop into my head. And now I can’t stop thinking about it. My current theme is Victorian, and Ive decided that I will wait until the winter holidays to come back to that idea. My new idea has a summer tropical theme, and I wanted to do something very different from what you see all over Pinterest and YouTube. How about you? Did you reset?

I was in a similar boat. I was sort of going for the pastel/cottagecore aesthetic that's all over Pinterest, but it just wasn't working for me. I wanted my island to be my own without these stupid restrictions that I had in place for myself. I'll admit that my reset has been rough, with losing some of my favorite villagers and all (I'll never forget you, Megan ), but honestly I can't say I regret it too much. This is gonna sound ultra cheesy, but you should do what you think is best and not focus so much on what you see on the internet. Most of my NL resets were because I felt inferior to those aesthetic towns I saw online, and I never truly enjoyed the game. There's nothing wrong with those towns/islands by any means, but if you want to think outside the box, I say go for it!

 

[Joshua_25]

Well, here’s the deal,
I am happy with my island, and everything is going very well. I have no regrets about resetting, but…

About two days ago I had this idea pop into my head. And now I can’t stop thinking about it. My current theme is Victorian, and Ive decided that I will wait until the winter holidays to come back to that idea. My new idea has a summer tropical theme, and I wanted to do something very different from what you see all over Pinterest and YouTube. How about you? Did you reset?

Yeah, about a week and half ago. Things are going slow though haha. Want to make the most of it this time!

 

[VanitasFan26]

Ok, here’s the thing. I am kinda burnt out with NH and my island is 5 stars and has been for a while now.

As far as terraforming goes I am pretty much done with the island. I got the map with the double south rivers and resident services is completely centered as is the secret beach...which I love. Pretty much my island is completely symmetrical and my OCD would bug me if it wasn’t.

As far as native things go I was lucky to get Peaches. Didn’t care about what flower. And even though it is not blue my airport is green which I like to think of it as my Vulcan Blood(Big Star Trek fan here) so that is fine. The beach is almost perfect so no complaints there.

Now the thing is I want a new start but all the work, not to mention I have all of my dreamies, items catalog, and all my hybrid and perfect flowers.

I’d hate to lose all that work. Please advice. I am really in a slump as far as desire to play.

I will add pics of my map once I figure out how.

Well I restarted my island 4 weeks ago and I will give you some tips of what you need to do if you don't want to lose everything:

• Have a trusted friend hold on to your stuff before restarting. You will need important items like your tools, bells and any item that you worked hard to get carry that over to. I had a 2nd Switch in my situation with a 2nd island so I was able to do most of it myself.
• Use Custom Designs to mark where buildings will go. So you may realize that when you restart you don't have access to the island designer because you have to go through all the tutorial just to unlock it. You can use custom patterns to basically design your island as soon as you get the Custom App for your Nookphone.
• Make sure you pick the right map layout that best benefits you. One of things to keep in mind when restarting is deciding what Map layout you want. That includes the location of Resident Services, Secret Beach, Dock, and what Rocks you want for your island. If you don't like the first 4 selections you can restart and try again. Its RNG so that can be a pain if you want to pick what native fruit you want and Airport Color.
• Make a 2nd character to hold onto more stuff and use the Recycle bin when picking up items. You may not have used this before but basically when you use the "Call Resident" App you can play with the 2nd user (you need another controller to do this) make sure they are the follower and they can pick up whatever is on the ground and it will disappear and go into the recycle bin at Resident Services'.

 

[Bekaa]

Well I restarted my island 4 weeks ago and I will give you some tips of what you need to do if you don't want to lose everything:

• Have a trusted friend hold on to your stuff before restarting. You will need important items like your tools, bells and any item that you worked hard to get carry that over to. I had a 2nd Switch in my situation with a 2nd island so I was able to do most of it myself.
• Use Custom Designs to mark where buildings will go. So you may realize that when you restart you don't have access to the island designer because you have to go through all the tutorial just to unlock it. You can use custom patterns to basically design your island as soon as you get the Custom App for your Nookphone.
• Make sure you pick the right map layout that best benefits you. One of things to keep in mind when restarting is deciding what Map layout you want. That includes the location of Resident Services, Secret Beach, Dock, and what Rocks you want for your island. If you don't like the first 4 selections you can restart and try again. Its RNG so that can be a pain if you want to pick what native fruit you want and Airport Color.
• Make a 2nd character to hold onto more stuff and use the Recycle bin when picking up items. You may not have used this before but basically when you use the "Call Resident" App you can play with the 2nd user (you need another controller to do this) make sure they are the follower and they can pick up whatever is on the ground and it will disappear and go into the recycle bin at Resident Services'.

This is great advice. Thanks!

 

[VanitasFan26]

This is great advice. Thanks!

You're welcome! Good luck!

 

[AlyssaAC]

After a lot of careful thinking I decided to rest for the last time. Something about my last island wasn’t clicking with me. Plus, I didn’t like the fact I didn’t reset for the right island features, like airport color and I did not want to be stuck with the blue airport. So I spent all day today resetting and I did it! I literally found the perfect island that will allow me to do something I really love. I even came up with a good name right as the moment to choose an island name to go with, which is pretty amazing. It’s named Honey Bay and I’m gonna work hard on this one. I love it soo much more than any other of the islands I’ve had since release date of New Horizons.

 

[Bekaa]

I was in a similar boat. I was sort of going for the pastel/cottagecore aesthetic that's all over Pinterest, but it just wasn't working for me. I wanted my island to be my own without these stupid restrictions that I had in place for myself. I'll admit that my reset has been rough, with losing some of my favorite villagers and all (I'll never forget you, Megan ), but honestly I can't say I regret it too much. This is gonna sound ultra cheesy, but you should do what you think is best and not focus so much on what you see on the internet. Most of my NL resets were because I felt inferior to those aesthetic towns I saw online, and I never truly enjoyed the game. There's nothing wrong with those towns/islands by any means, but if you want to think outside the box, I say go for it!

So true. So well said! Thank you!

Post automatically merged: Jun 10, 2021

After a lot of careful thinking I decided to rest for the last time. Something about my last island wasn’t clicking with me. Plus, I didn’t like the fact I didn’t reset for the right island features, like airport color and I did not want to be stuck with the blue airport. So I spent all day today resetting and I did it! I literally found the perfect island that will allow me to do something I really love. I even came up with a good name right as the moment to choose an island name to go with, which is pretty amazing. It’s named Honey Bay and I’m gonna work hard on this one. I love it soo much more than any other of the islands I’ve had since release date of New Horizons.

Good for you! And, I love the name of the new island. I know exactly what you mean about an island just not quite being “right“, and trying to hard to make things perfect that you lose sight of the fun. Good luck with your new island.

 

[SarahsNY]

I lost interest in the game about a year ago and really want to get back into it. Restarting seems like a good option since my old island just feels overwhelming to go back to and I never did much terraforming... but then I’d have to get all the diys again. I wish the island representative could move and start a new island so much.
I got lucky and my fruit and airport color are exactly what I wanted, even if in hindsight resident services is in a bit of a problematic place.

 

[AquaMarie]

I'm thinking about resetting, but only if they bring significant new content into the game. More shop upgrades, missing NPCs (Cafe, etc), and mini games/new places to visit.

I think it would be fun to start from scratch with a complete game. No TTing, just slowly playing through the game and unlocking things bit by bit. But without new content I don't think it's worth the trouble to restart.

 

[WaileaNoRei]

I feel somewhat ridiculous, as I have read this thread and I know my particular situation is exactly like everyone else’s…but:

I am thinking of resetting because I think I need my second island experience to be different than my first (originally, I was thinking I would get bored of my first island, but that didn’t pan out so need to make them more different), and I have a specific weird lore/ idea in my head. I know about losing everything but what I carry over to my main island and am not too upset about that - I don’t dislike my island map or anything but would primarily be resetting for: 1. Island name change; 2. Character change; 3. Language - though I can switch back and forth I would like to primarily play my second island in Japanese and therefore have my island name and character names in Japanese (probably). I would also restart with a secondary account as my main player so I could be ‘friends’ with my island rep on my main island

Considering this, it seems like there is no reason to not restart, right? Except the sunk cost fallacy and losing my beloved villagers (who I know I can get back through amiibo, patience, and trading, but will still be sad to lose, especially paolo, hamlet, and Judy)

So it seems like in this situation, it does make sense, right?

 

[your local goomy]

I'm extremely dissatisfied with my island. The only thing I really like about it are the villagers, which is why I'm debating whether or not I should actually reset. I know that there's people who hold villagers, but, like...I like a ton of my villagers. The villagers I really like are Megan, Sherb, Judy, Reneigh, Audie, Wolfgang, and Marina...7 villagers. Even if someone was willing to hold them for me, I don't want someone to have to go through all of that, and I'm not exactly willing to do all the TT to move people out, either.

All of my issues with my island are pretty minor, such as the fruit (me playing NH and not having peaches as my main fruit seems wrong), the general layout, as I'm not great at terraforming, and, most importantly, the hemisphere. I figured that playing on the Southern Hemisphere would be fun as I've never experienced winter in an AC game, and live in the Northern Hemisphere irl and wanted to be "different," but...now I'm absolutely sick of it. All of the fun stuff happens in summer, and considering that I most likely won't be playing the game in winter, it just feels wrong to miss out on all that stuff. Like, I know that the Bug Off, one of my favorite events in AC, was pretty recent and I missed it. I'm just not enjoying winter anymore. It's all worn off.

Yeah, pretty much the only thing I like about my island is the villagers, whom I'm reluctant to let go of, and I'm just not enjoying myself. I understand there's a way to get the villagers back, albeit a difficult one, such as campsite resetting and NMT grinding, but it just seems way too difficult. I'm really struggling here. About 90% of me wants to reset, but that other 10% of me is saying not to.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I'm extremely dissatisfied with my island. The only thing I really like about it are the villagers, which is why I'm debating whether or not I should actually reset. I know that there's people who hold villagers, but, like...I like a ton of my villagers. The villagers I really like are Megan, Sherb, Judy, Reneigh, Audie, Wolfgang, and Marina...7 villagers. Even if someone was willing to hold them for me, I don't want someone to have to go through all of that, and I'm not exactly willing to do all the TT to move people out, either.

All of my issues with my island are pretty minor, such as the fruit (me playing NH and not having peaches as my main fruit seems wrong), the general layout, as I'm not great at terraforming, and, most importantly, the hemisphere. I figured that playing on the Southern Hemisphere would be fun as I've never experienced winter in an AC game, and live in the Northern Hemisphere irl and wanted to be "different," but...now I'm absolutely sick of it. All of the fun stuff happens in summer, and considering that I most likely won't be playing the game in winter, it just feels wrong to miss out on all that stuff. Like, I know that the Bug Off, one of my favorite events in AC, was pretty recent and I missed it. I'm just not enjoying winter anymore. It's all worn off.

Yeah, pretty much the only thing I like about my island is the villagers, whom I'm reluctant to let go of, and I'm just not enjoying myself. I understand there's a way to get the villagers back, albeit a difficult one, such as campsite resetting and NMT grinding, but it just seems way too difficult. I'm really struggling here. About 90% of me wants to reset, but that other 10% of me is saying not to.

Well if you don't want anyone to help you to hold on to your villagers or your items you might as well get a 2nd Switch just to do this. I know in my case I had to do all of this myself let me say it took me 2 weeks to move everything out from my old island to the 2nd island just to hold on to it so I can restart. So I understand how you feel. So I do have 2 islands Destiny (set in the North) and Twilight (set in the South) so far its been a great experience seeing both at once.

Also you may have to go through the tutorial again if you really want to go through that process of building back up your island again to 3 stars just to get KK slider to unlock the Island Designer App. If you seen everything that the game has to offer its best to time travel just to speed things up, but I understand that if you want to take your time and not rush then you can do that too.

Anyways its up to you to decide what works best for you, but take it from someone who has to go through the same issue too because I had to work so hard carrying everything so it was a real pain, but it was worth it.

 

[your local goomy]

Well if you don't want anyone to help you to hold on to your villagers or your items you might as well get a 2nd Switch just to do this. I know in my case I had to do all of this myself let me say it took me 2 weeks to move everything out from my old island to the 2nd island just to hold on to it so I can restart. So I understand how you feel. So I do have 2 islands Destiny (set in the North) and Twilight (set in the South) so far its been a great experience seeing both at once.

Also you may have to go through the tutorial again if you really want to go through that process of building back up your island again to 3 stars just to get KK slider to unlock the Island Designer App. If you seen everything that the game has to offer its best to time travel just to speed things up, but I understand that if you want to take your time and not rush then you can do that too.

Anyways its up to you to decide what works best for you, but take it from someone who has to go through the same issue too because I had to work so hard carrying everything so it was a real pain, but it was worth it.

I'm willing to have someone hold my items, but it's the villagers that I struggle with. I'm fairly certain that I'm going to reset. I'll just save the ones I really like; I'll have to find NMTs and the like to grind for the others unfortunately.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I'm willing to have someone hold my items, but it's the villagers that I struggle with.

Well yeah that one is more tedious. You see in my case I had to build back up the Campsite during the tutorial. So I have to have all 10 villagers living on the island and then I have to do so much time traveling to kick them out. Here comes the part thats tedious. You have to go on your old island, make a villager you want to leave move out using either amiibo cards or time travel 15 days for the thought bubble to land on the villager you want to leave.

Now you need to bring your other character to the island. Basically use your another switch with a 2nd account with an online membership (this only works if you have digital copy) and travel to your old island where the villager is moving out and then you can invite them on the 2nd island to hold on to them so that way when you restart and get your new island you can go back to your 2nd island and get them again. Of course the bad thing is that the friendship is not there so you may not have the same connection.

I am just telling it like how it was and it is very time consuming and complicated so really think about this if you really want to keep your villagers or if you want to find them again from hunting or waiting for a random visit on the campsite.

 

[your local goomy]

I can't afford a second switch, as my family's struggling financially and we need to focus on getting things like food and other necessities, so doing it this way is all I can do.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I can't afford a second switch, as my family's struggling financially and we need to focus on getting things like food and other necessities, so doing it this way is all I can do.

Like I said you do what you think works for you.

 

[Weebgirlstan]

think through it i restarted my island 3 times and the 2nd time i did i didn't finish it was a fairycore island but my tip for you is to plan or like make a list of what items you want

Post automatically merged: Jun 30, 2021

I can't afford a second switch, as my family's struggling financially and we need to focus on getting things like food and other necessities, so doing it this way is all I can do.

me too thats why its hard to reset because youll have to start all over but you wish to keep all your islands

 

[mangoseason]

I just did a reset. Here are all the reasons I can think of:

1) I can’t stand my native flower ie pansies. I tried to work with it. I just couldn’t. They look too much like faces.

2) I was TT-ing excessively to get villagers to move out. When really they’re all lovely. I just didn’t even give them a chance.

3) I paid off my loans with the help of a lot of people. I still don’t think help is bad. But they helped me to the point I was only playing to make my island look good.

This time. No TT. Time to pay off those loans on my own. And maybe this will prevent the burnout I could feel was coming.

 

[HappyTails]

I restarted again. I lost complete sight of what I wanted to do in this game, which was just have fun and play and not worry about anything.

Well starting in about May, I starting spending more time decorating and started slowly neglected my villagers and started missing events (although this could be more about the fact I work on Saturdays when most events in game are and less to do with my obsession with terraforming) and I can feel my interest in my island waning. I did try to continue playing but it was a lost cause, it was just no fun anymore. Also I bought stuff from people on here because I was too impatient to wait until they showed up naturally. They eventually did a few weeks after I bought them. And if I had just waited, I would have gotten them naturally. Also, another thing I started doing was letting my Nook trips go to waste because I started buying tickets just to go to the island, see a villager and leave, when I could have farmed resources. Also I said as part of my have fun and just play concept, I said I wasn't going to be choosy about the villagers, as any villager was welcome on my island. I became choosy about the villagers.

So I decided to start fresh again with with my goals back in place: pay off my house loans with money I earn myself, let items come naturally and get every villager picture and just have fun and not worry about the small stuff. I lost sight of those goals somewhere along the way but I'm starting over and those goals are firmly set back in place. Let's hope second time's the charm. XD

 

[your local goomy]

As someone who's reset like, 4 or 5 times now, I also want to give some more advice to those considering resetting. I'm for it in certain circumstances, but against it in others. My greatest advice for you that I learned from my latest island, Hurawalhi, is to just give things a chance. I've definitely had my regrets with Hurawalhi and have considered resetting, but this is seriously turning out to be my best island because I AM giving things a chance.

Firstly, give your villagers a chance. One of my biggest regrets on Hurawalhi was letting Jacques go. I would've had three smugs, but that's something that I'm not opposed to anymore. I rushed into things way too much because I thought I knew my exact dreamies, but he really grew on me...and by the time I realized it, it was too late. Now, I've decided that as soon as I get the space, he's coming back. And I'm going to actually cycle out my villagers to keep things fresh! I'm also going to be less anal about having an equal gender ratio or having one of each personality type.

Secondly, give the island itself a chance. Personally, setting long-term goals helps me a lot. My biggest goal for Hurawalhi is to display every fish and bug model in the game with just my island rep and possibly one side character. It'll take a long time, but I'm determined! Something I also suggest is to give your terraforming a chance. Once I flattened my island, I did the terraforming...gosh, like 3 times? I goofed up a lot and thought I destroyed my island, and honestly had to have a friend convince me to not throw it all away. It's definitely worked out for me. Even if it isn't perfect, it's mine. It's not perfect, but it's the happiest I've ever been with an island.

So, that's the advice that this old goom has to give. If you want to reset on a whim, give it a chance. If you still don't like it...then the decision is yours.