Animal Crossing: New Horizons (Switch) - 20/03/2020

Fade wrote:Those things are literally quality of life changes though. They don't alter the gameplay loop in any way, just gives you more gooseberry fool to collect and more places to put it.

None of the furniture nor the structures have any gameplay relevance. Animal crossing is like if in monster Hunter every piece of armour your grinded for just looked different and didn't have any bonuses.

Animal crossing could do things like have "sporty" items give your house more "sporty points" so if you invite a sporty villager over it makes them more impressed by your house and more likely to befriend you, unlocking more dialogue options.

Stuff like that would give you a reason to go after certain items, every time a new villager moved in it would give you a reason to change up your house.

But no, let's not actually add any substance to the game, let's just make the exact same game we've been making for 20 years with the most barebones of improvements people expect.

Animal Crossing is just a cash cow for them, just like Pokémon, they really don't give two gooseberry fools about actually improving the game.

i take it you dont get life sim games? ive played most of these games and they have been improved, the things you can do and the ways you do them have changed a lot over the years if you cant find the "substance" or what you do find isnt good enough then thats your problem not theres. also why in the world would you get given bonuses for wearing certain items when that would serve no purpose? in monster hunter you need bonuses and things to take on the monsters but use would they be in a life sim game. no life sim game does that not just AC, certainly dont recall any stat boosts in the sims or tomodaci life.

funnily both new horizons and happy home designer had a set of monster hunter furniture and a villager to go with it

To be fair, wearing certain clothing is useful when Label gives you a fashion challenge!

You also have to wear a wetsuit to go swimming, dressing up as Jack has an effect on Halloween, and dressing up as Santa gives different dialogue on Toy Day. Villagers will also occasionally gift you clothing to match the clothes you are currently wearing.

Furniture placement contributes towards both your happy home academy score each week and your island rating. Improving your island rating to get KK and roll the credits is probably the biggest "objective" in the game! The home rating even takes account of feng shui so the colour and placement of furniture inside your home can matter.

There's more, but I'm obviously being pedantic in pointing out the minor effects clothing and furniture do have. They are there though

For someone who hasn’t turned this on since that awful Easter event, how much has changed? There’s diving and Dreams now (like NL I assume, which is cool). Anything else? Any significant QoL changes I may have missed (I have not been following anything at all on this game except the above additions).

Oh and there was some wedding stuff. I don’t think that’s for me though so no need to elaborate on that.

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:For someone who hasn’t turned this on since that awful Easter event, how much has changed? There’s diving and Dreams now (like NL I assume, which is cool). Anything else? Any significant QoL changes I may have missed (I have not been following anything at all on this game except the above additions).

You can keep talking to Sahara now to make multiple purchases, this is a huge QoL change (and I'm only half joking!)

Most of the updates have been event specific; diving for sea creatures, dream addresses and the art gallery/redd visits are the big persistent ones. Gullivarr also now visits as a pirate version of gulliver, he got added with the diving.

There have been some balance changes at various points like the bank interest rate reduction and tarantula/scorpion spawn rate reduction, I think a couple of mystery island designs got removed or changed. Nothing too major.

Leif is still selling pumpkin seeds, so you can grow pumpkins now even though fall is over (they were used for the halloween and turkey day events).

Nothing has been as bad as the Easter event but that was because of the intrusive eggs getting in the way of fishing and the like! The events since have varied in quality, for me Halloween has been the best so far.

OrangeXMS wrote:

kazanova_Frankenstein wrote:For someone who hasn’t turned this on since that awful Easter event, how much has changed? There’s diving and Dreams now (like NL I assume, which is cool). Anything else? Any significant QoL changes I may have missed (I have not been following anything at all on this game except the above additions).

You can keep talking to Sahara now to make multiple purchases, this is a huge QoL change (and I'm only half joking!)

Most of the updates have been event specific; diving for sea creatures, dream addresses and the art gallery/redd visits are the big persistent ones. Gullivarr also now visits as a pirate version of gulliver, he got added with the diving.

There have been some balance changes at various points like the bank interest rate reduction and tarantula/scorpion spawn rate reduction, I think a couple of mystery island designs got removed or changed. Nothing too major.

Leif is still selling pumpkin seeds, so you can grow pumpkins now even though fall is over (they were used for the halloween and turkey day events).

Nothing has been as bad as the Easter event but that was because of the intrusive eggs getting in the way of fishing and the like! The events since have varied in quality, for me Halloween has been the best so far.

Thanks for the detailed reply. I suppose there is nothing stopping me from checking in and seeing if all the villagers have eaten each other.

Do we know if Y2 events are going to be different in their format etc, or no clues yet?

There should still be one more "year one" event with Festivale in February (the final fishing tournament of the year is also this Saturday). No indication on year two changes although I suspect the major events will remain the same.

Anyone who is collecting art I have another dupe from an otherwise wasted Redd visit yesterday - this time a genuine Scary Painting. Who wants it?

(And thanks shy guy for the offer of art, I already had those pieces though!)

EDIT: @kaz I suppose online save backups is a big new feature too although not actually gameplay affecting!

I’d be pleasantly amazed if any of the second year events differ from the first, they’ve not done it in the past at all and with how much play time probably dips after the first full year they might not see the point.

My gameplay dips literally because of the repeat events. I'm hoping they switch it up a bit... and add Brewster.

OrangeXMS wrote:To be fair, wearing certain clothing is useful when Label gives you a fashion challenge!

You also have to wear a wetsuit to go swimming, dressing up as Jack has an effect on Halloween, and dressing up as Santa gives different dialogue on Toy Day. Villagers will also occasionally gift you clothing to match the clothes you are currently wearing.

Furniture placement contributes towards both your happy home academy score each week and your island rating. Improving your island rating to get KK and roll the credits is probably the biggest "objective" in the game! The home rating even takes account of feng shui so the colour and placement of furniture inside your home can matter.

There's more, but I'm obviously being pedantic in pointing out the minor effects clothing and furniture do have. They are there though

yeah but they were complaining about a lack of "bonuses" when they had them in monster hunter. which is a bit like complaining about the lack of mario style power ups in a zelda game

I think the big holiday events will stay the same (Easter, Halloween and the like) but we'll have new and different events like the wedding event or hopefully Rover with May Day being different. Hopefully some big non-event updates like Brewster too. Perhaps Gyroids will be the big returning feature for year 2, but I don't know much about them!

OrangeXMS wrote:I think the big holiday events will stay the same (Easter, Halloween and the like) but we'll have new and different events like the wedding event or hopefully Rover with May Day being different. Hopefully some big non-event updates like Brewster too. Perhaps Gyroids will be the big returning feature for year 2, but I don't know much about them!

From what I remember, gyroids are kinda like fossils in the way that you have to dig them up, but only after it's been raining. They all make different noises too! I had a big collection of them in the museum spare room in new leaf. I hope they bring them back!

snow guy 64 wrote:

Fade wrote:Those things are literally quality of life changes though. They don't alter the gameplay loop in any way, just gives you more gooseberry fool to collect and more places to put it.

None of the furniture nor the structures have any gameplay relevance. Animal crossing is like if in monster Hunter every piece of armour your grinded for just looked different and didn't have any bonuses.

Animal crossing could do things like have "sporty" items give your house more "sporty points" so if you invite a sporty villager over it makes them more impressed by your house and more likely to befriend you, unlocking more dialogue options.

Stuff like that would give you a reason to go after certain items, every time a new villager moved in it would give you a reason to change up your house.

But no, let's not actually add any substance to the game, let's just make the exact same game we've been making for 20 years with the most barebones of improvements people expect.

Animal Crossing is just a cash cow for them, just like Pokémon, they really don't give two gooseberry fools about actually improving the game.

i take it you dont get life sim games? ive played most of these games and they have been improved, the things you can do and the ways you do them have changed a lot over the years if you cant find the "substance" or what you do find isnt good enough then thats your problem not theres. also why in the world would you get given bonuses for wearing certain items when that would serve no purpose? in monster hunter you need bonuses and things to take on the monsters but use would they be in a life sim game. no life sim game does that not just AC, certainly dont recall any stat boosts in the sims or tomodaci life.

funnily both new horizons and happy home designer had a set of monster hunter furniture and a villager to go with it

I actually do. Animal crossing is just a bad one. It's carried by it's charm and that drive to 'show off' to other people.

I think you missed my point, the monster Hunter line was pointing how how boring MH would be if the items didn't do anything.

I gave an example of how the items could have actual uses and make the game more enjoyable

The items in the Sims literally make your character better at certain things! :Lol: every item in the Sims serves a purpose, there's a reason why we items are more expensive, because they usually benefit your character more.

In animal crossing none of the furniture has any purpose and the pricing often seems incredibly random as a result. Actually I lie, you can poop out fruit on the toilet

Not only that but none of the items are even interactive outside of a little animation. You can buy a bunch of instruments and table top games but can you use them? Nope. There's literally no way to directly interact with your visitors other than giving them items and wacking them on the head.

When you compare the effort they put into evolving the Mario and Zelda series in comparison to animal crossing it's actually laughable.

The counter-argument to making furniture have different uses is that it could compel you to use certain things or decorate in certain ways. Like the sport-theming idea you give which would force the player into redesigning their house even if they didn't want to. It would add direction but reduce freedom.

There are two main aspects to the game that I enjoy. One is the daily busywork, the explicit collecting things and ticking off lists. It's therapeutic because of the laid back, idyllic style of the game (the "charm" of it really) and the slow drip of content across the months. The other is as a creative sandbox, being able to design my island as I like.

The creative sandbox aspect gives purpose to a lot of the busy work in slowly collecting more items to use so the two compliment each other well providing you are happy with the time investment and slow pace.

It sounds to me like the creative sandbox aspect is just not to your taste. You wouldn't do as I do when playing sims and immediately use motherlode so you are free to build as you like, or spend time in Minecraft's creative mode, or spend most of your time in Fallout 4 and 76 base building.

From what I can tell it's the sandbox nature that has been expanded for New Horizons over the previous games, which is maybe why you don't see it as having changed much if that part doesn't interest you. I don't think you can call that aspect pointless though.

Fade wrote:

snow guy 64 wrote:

Fade wrote:Those things are literally quality of life changes though. They don't alter the gameplay loop in any way, just gives you more gooseberry fool to collect and more places to put it.

None of the furniture nor the structures have any gameplay relevance. Animal crossing is like if in monster Hunter every piece of armour your grinded for just looked different and didn't have any bonuses.

Animal crossing could do things like have "sporty" items give your house more "sporty points" so if you invite a sporty villager over it makes them more impressed by your house and more likely to befriend you, unlocking more dialogue options.

Stuff like that would give you a reason to go after certain items, every time a new villager moved in it would give you a reason to change up your house.

But no, let's not actually add any substance to the game, let's just make the exact same game we've been making for 20 years with the most barebones of improvements people expect.

Animal Crossing is just a cash cow for them, just like Pokémon, they really don't give two gooseberry fools about actually improving the game.

i take it you dont get life sim games? ive played most of these games and they have been improved, the things you can do and the ways you do them have changed a lot over the years if you cant find the "substance" or what you do find isnt good enough then thats your problem not theres. also why in the world would you get given bonuses for wearing certain items when that would serve no purpose? in monster hunter you need bonuses and things to take on the monsters but use would they be in a life sim game. no life sim game does that not just AC, certainly dont recall any stat boosts in the sims or tomodaci life.

funnily both new horizons and happy home designer had a set of monster hunter furniture and a villager to go with it

I actually do. Animal crossing is just a bad one. It's carried by it's charm and that drive to 'show off' to other people.

I think you missed my point, the monster Hunter line was pointing how how boring MH would be if the items didn't do anything.

I gave an example of how the items could have actual uses and make the game more enjoyable

The items in the Sims literally make your character better at certain things! :Lol: every item in the Sims serves a purpose, there's a reason why we items are more expensive, because they usually benefit your character more.

In animal crossing none of the furniture has any purpose and the pricing often seems incredibly random as a result. Actually I lie, you can poop out fruit on the toilet

Not only that but none of the items are even interactive outside of a little animation. You can buy a bunch of instruments and table top games but can you use them? Nope. There's literally no way to directly interact with your visitors other than giving them items and wacking them on the head.

When you compare the effort they put into evolving the Mario and Zelda series in comparison to animal crossing it's actually laughable.

alright fair enough then.

though in my defence its been years since i played the sims i do not remember much

OrangeRKN wrote:The counter-argument to making furniture have different uses is that it could compel you to use certain things or decorate in certain ways. Like the sport-theming idea you give which would force the player into redesigning their house even if they didn't want to. It would add direction but reduce freedom.

There are two main aspects to the game that I enjoy. One is the daily busywork, the explicit collecting things and ticking off lists. It's therapeutic because of the laid back, idyllic style of the game (the "charm" of it really) and the slow drip of content across the months. The other is as a creative sandbox, being able to design my island as I like.

The creative sandbox aspect gives purpose to a lot of the busy work in slowly collecting more items to use so the two compliment each other well providing you are happy with the time investment and slow pace.

It sounds to me like the creative sandbox aspect is just not to your taste. You wouldn't do as I do when playing sims and immediately use motherlode so you are free to build as you like, or spend time in Minecraft's creative mode, or spend most of your time in Fallout 4 and 76 base building.

From what I can tell it's the sandbox nature that has been expanded for New Horizons over the previous games, which is maybe why you don't see it as having changed much if that part doesn't interest you. I don't think you can call that aspect pointless though.

It wouldn't force players to do anything, it would just give them an incentive to experiment. How many people do you know who give a gooseberry fool about getting villagers pictures for example? Also if you're going to use that argument the happy home academy and Isabelle's rating already make you do that kind of thing, just with basically.no reward. What i suggested would help tie the two most prominent aspects of AC together.

I don't mind sandbox games, but sandbox modes in other games serve a purpose. In no man's sky you can build new technology that directly helps you, in Minecraft the gear you make has an impact on combat and structures and traps defend you against enemies.

I'm not saying animal crossing should have enemies, but the game has never moved beyond being Habbo Hotel with NPCs.

It's just a lazily designed game, if they gave it the development budget of Mario/Zelda and actually gave a gooseberry fool it could be something special.

Imagine if the developer of Stardew Valley had the budget and staffing Nintendo has, he'd blow Animal Crossing out of the strawberry floating water

Completely forgot it was the 4th fishing tourney today

Edit, shamefully time travelled a couple of hours into the past just so I can get the Nook Miles

I hope they bring back the coffee shop

I got shooting stars again

Fade wrote:

OrangeRKN wrote:The counter-argument to making furniture have different uses is that it could compel you to use certain things or decorate in certain ways. Like the sport-theming idea you give which would force the player into redesigning their house even if they didn't want to. It would add direction but reduce freedom.

There are two main aspects to the game that I enjoy. One is the daily busywork, the explicit collecting things and ticking off lists. It's therapeutic because of the laid back, idyllic style of the game (the "charm" of it really) and the slow drip of content across the months. The other is as a creative sandbox, being able to design my island as I like.

The creative sandbox aspect gives purpose to a lot of the busy work in slowly collecting more items to use so the two compliment each other well providing you are happy with the time investment and slow pace.

It sounds to me like the creative sandbox aspect is just not to your taste. You wouldn't do as I do when playing sims and immediately use motherlode so you are free to build as you like, or spend time in Minecraft's creative mode, or spend most of your time in Fallout 4 and 76 base building.

From what I can tell it's the sandbox nature that has been expanded for New Horizons over the previous games, which is maybe why you don't see it as having changed much if that part doesn't interest you. I don't think you can call that aspect pointless though.

It wouldn't force players to do anything, it would just give them an incentive to experiment. How many people do you know who give a gooseberry fool about getting villagers pictures for example? Also if you're going to use that argument the happy home academy and Isabelle's rating already make you do that kind of thing, just with basically.no reward. What i suggested would help tie the two most prominent aspects of AC together.

I don't mind sandbox games, but sandbox modes in other games serve a purpose. In no man's sky you can build new technology that directly helps you, in Minecraft the gear you make has an impact on combat and structures and traps defend you against enemies.

I'm not saying animal crossing should have enemies, but the game has never moved beyond being Habbo Hotel with NPCs.

It's just a lazily designed game, if they gave it the development budget of Mario/Zelda and actually gave a gooseberry fool it could be something special.

Imagine if the developer of Stardew Valley had the budget and staffing Nintendo has, he'd blow Animal Crossing out of the strawberry floating water

I've made my position on ACNH clear in the past but I have never been a fan of the island terraforming. New Leaf may have had a randomly generated village but it had character, with the campsite and small precinct. It was well designed. New Horizons has a lot of options but it loses some of the charm in the process.

I also miss the Nintendo fan service. There is none on the Switch version, not even a Mario hat. I recently started again on New Leaf and I have Epona, Ganon, Medlii and Wolf Link all living in my village. I have a natty Link costume and a Metroid in a tank as soon as you walk through my front door. I miss that.

Carlos wrote:I also miss the Nintendo fan service. There is none on the Switch version, not even a Mario hat. I recently started again on New Leaf and I have Epona, Ganon, Medlii and Wolf Link all living in my village. I have a natty Link costume and a Metroid in a tank as soon as you walk through my front door. I miss that.

Mario furniture is being added in March. I imagine other Nintendo themed furniture/costumes are being held back for updates too.