TERRAFORMING TIPS THREAD

hey friends! I’ve seen a lot of people overwhelmed with the task of terraforming on my TL so i thought I’d share the tips i use to make it easier and more enjoyable! this thread might end up really long but thats okay! (1/??)

this will be geared more toward people who want to embark on large terraforming projects, but the information could be applied to anything you want to terraform i suppose. i know the big remodels can seen really overwhelming but the whole thing can be broken down step by step!

first things first, you WILL make mistakes, your island probably will look like a hot mess for a while but thats okay! nothing you terraform is permanent you can literally try as many times as you need to. its okay if your island doesn’t look perfect while you’re working on it!

if youre gunna do a dull rebuild and intend on moving buildings without time travel, it will take really long. if you’re fine with that, fucking awesome, I’m just saying u gotta be a lil patient and trust the process

the first thing you should do is consider how you want your island to look overall. think about all the maps you’ve seen that you like! think about what you want yours to look like. you can get rly creative here with cool shaped ponds and mini islands and alleys and shit

once you have a general idea of what you want your map to look like, i highly recommend using this website ( https://eugeneration.github.io/HappyIslandDesigner/) to make a draft map. it doesn’t have to be perfect but it will help you execute your plan in managable chunks

when designing your ideal island its important to note that you can’t change the location of your river mouths or your residence hall. you also can’t terraform on the beaches. so just keep that in mind

once you have your draft map drawn up, compare it to the current terrain on your island. take note of what buildings you’ll need to move, where you’ll have to make changes to terrain and if theres anything you’ll keep in place.

if you want to make massive changes to terrain, or move buildings to higher levels, move them to the the beach so you can work without them interfering with your terraforming space

now, once you start ACTUALLY terraforming it becomes easier to pay attention to the grid thats laid over the map. use it to place your land marks appropriately!! thinking of your workspace as a grid makes placing anything in this game easier

pick a small area of the grid and start there. work in one square at a time. for example, heres what I’m working on right now. the first picture is how i started and the last picture is my template. right now I’m in the middle if you check it out you can see the progress...

is literally coming alone square by square. think about the features you want in one square and start there and then move onto the next!

the large squares you can see on the in game map are each made up of smaller squares. i believe each big square is made up of 16x16 small squares, heres an example of what i mean so you can visualize it. when you create diagonals, you’re filling up half a small square

i find that understanding this makes it easier if you want to create a more complex design. i saw one person who used their cliffs to make a teddy bear on their island and it was sick. literally just take it one square at a time

now when you actually get to work, before u start, clear the entire space you want to work on first. cut down any trees, move flowers and decorations and make it barren and flat (unless there are things that you will be using and want to keep ofc)

if there are buildings in the way and ur not sure where to put them, move them onto the beach since you can’t work there anyway. it costs 50k to move any building except ur house which costs 30k

when moving buildings back to their final location, I’ve noiced its really helpful to use the path tool to mark the ground where you want the building to be. here are the dimensions of all the buildings for reference https://m.imgur.com/t/animal_crossing/s0XWnPz

i’m terraforming all dsy again so ill add to this as things come to mind! iwosh i could share videos in this thread but I’m strugglin