Jeff's New Horizons Blog

Yesterday, Midge asked me to catch a black bass for her. That’s different… a request? I wonder if this is something that was added with the recent update. I caught the fish and gave it to her; she rewarded me with a rainbow sweater.

Here are a few other notes about yesterday (since I didn’t post an entry) before I get into what happened today.

• Shari noticed a dace in my pockets and wanted to buy it. This is something I don’t recall happening before.
• I checked the sign on the empty house plot, and I saw that Apple is moving in.
• I decided to put in a new bridge leading to the Sudden Valley area, although I didn’t have the money to pay it off yet.
• I finished my obstacle course and made preparations for Friday Night Forest. I set up some places to play musical chairs, and I moved my benches to Sudden Valley.

I also put up my new lighthouse, on a small cliff so that it reaches higher. Do you like it?

Today is May 1st, and Tom Nook has a special May Day Tour, which can be accessed now through May 7th. I decided to check it out today, but not before meeting my new villager, Apple the hamster.

I know a lot of people like Apple a lot, but my opinion of her is fairly neutral right now. But I do like how her name matches my town fruit. 😛 🍎 And for the first time, my island now has the maximum of ten animal villagers.

After that, I used my May Day ticket to visit the special island. It turns out that the entire island is a maze! You start out with no tools here, but you can obtain (or craft) tools as you progress through the maze.

The maze isn’t very long, but it is fun. I hope to see more like this in the future. I thought the cat in the above picture was Tom, but it was actually Rover.

I completed the maze, collected my prizes, and returned home.

This evening, I caught my first pondskater. However, my pockets were full and I was standing on a bridge. While it gave me the option to swap it out, it wouldn’t let me drop anything on the bridge…and I didn’t have any fish or bugs to release, so I had to let the pondskater go. Hopefully I’ll remember to donate the next one I catch!

Rizzo taught me the “worry” emotion. Now I can worry when I see him approaching me. 😛

I finished paying off my new bridge today, so it should be done tomorrow.

About 10:05 tonight, I opened my gate for Friday Night Forest. Ben, Ryan, Ros, Alex, Benji, Marlie, and Jesse came to visit. Ben caught an oarfish almost instantly. 😛

We then played some musical chairs.

I had three separate areas set up, one with three seats, one with two, and one with just one. We eliminated one person at a time until Marlie was the only one left standing. Well, sitting, actually. 😛 Congrats, Marlie!

We did have an issue with the music stopping at different times for different players… but I think it’s because the music at that particular location was already turned on when we got there. So the timing wasn’t right for everyone. I just need to remember to leave the music off and only turn it on when we start.

Next up, we headed to the obstacle course. We had a number of problems with my newly-redesigned course, so I noticed several things I’ll have to fix.

One player went the wrong way and tried going down the center lane. While this was probably just a matter of being unfamiliar with the course, I did realize that I had an extra space that may have contributed to the confusion. I added an arrow to the spot in question, but I’ll have to make a more permanent change there. But as a general tip, if you’re not totally sure how a game works, don’t volunteer to go first. 😀 Watch the others play it first.

We also had a problem with people climbing on the course while others were racing. If you’re not racing (or the referee, which is normally me), please stay off the course. You can watch from the outside of the course without interfering.

And there was another problem where a gap in the fencing on the right side caused some players to auto-jump the wrong way. It will be fixed very soon. I especially want to apologize to Marlie, because she had particularly bad luck tonight.

But we played though the problems, and Ryan was the obstacle course winner tonight. Congrats, Ryan!

Ben left, and Alex joined in. Then Ros left and Timo joined. Alex and I raced on the course just for fun, and Timo released a coelacanth into the obstacle course pond! That sure caught me off-guard! As for the race, I beat Alex, but it was close.

Once we were done there, we headed to Sudden Valley for some falling into holes. 😛

Benji left and then Kelly came over. We went to my house for a bit, and then took some group photos by the waterfalls. I started using my watering can on those below, and that evolved into a fight between those of us on the cliff, and those down below. The watering cans turned to nets, and those below started using slingshots to fire back. 😂

We went back to Sudden Valley and fell into holes one more time, but I ended the session around 12:30.

Trivia: There were no disconnections tonight, and no pitfall seeds used. I’m not sure which one is more surprising.

Even though Patrick didn’t show up tonight, he told us last week that today is his birthday. So happy birthday, Patrick! I hope you had a great day!

I’ll be back with another entry tomorrow. See you then! 🙂

The incline leading down to Sudden Valley has been completed. Here’s an updated look at it. I still need to put more Arrested Development themed items down here, so this area will improve over time.

When I checked my mail, I was surprised to see that Keaton sent me a famous painting (the Mona Lisa) in the mail!

Unfortunately, it was too good to be true. Blathers informed me that it was a fake. A Phony Lisa. Well, at least I got 500 Nook Miles for acquiring my first forgery. So… yay?

Cube the penguin was camping at the campsite today. I noticed that his sleeping bag was the same colors as him!

I like Cube, so I asked him to move into town. But he declined. I wondered if it was because I didn’t have an open house plot, so I decided I would install one. More on this later…

I got my first look at Horsby’s house, now that he has unpacked. It’s not exactly the nicest house, but at least he’s trying to keep it clean.

Near the sumo ring, Agent S taught me the sleepy reaction. I think it’s working, because I just yawned. Don’t catch my yawn! 😴

Saharah was in town, so I bought a mysterious wallpaper and a mysterious flooring from her, for 3,000 bells each. I was very happy with my purchases: The dark-chocolates flooring looked awesome and delicious! The laboratory wall was even more impressive, because it was my first animated wallpaper! You can see bubbles rising through the water!

I later purchased a house plot, and Tom Nook confirmed it will be the last one I can install. 👎 I put it north of Nook’s Cranny, just a bit southwest of Shari’s house.

With that done, I returned to Cube at the campsite. He wanted to play a game to see if he would move in. It was a card game, similar to the ones in the GameCube game…except this time, it actually shows the cards.

I lost, but I tried again…several times. I kept losing repeatedly, so I eventually gave up. Even though I like Cube, he’s not quite in my top tier of villagers, so I didn’t want to keep playing all night for him. If it was Puck, I would have kept trying. But it just seemed like Cube wasn’t ready for Forest. Oh well. Perhaps another time.

I used the island designer app to make a small change to my layout. I just carved out a chunk of the back of the mountain, so that you can reach Sudden Valley from my northeast beach. Just follow the path and walk onto the rocks to get there. I only had to cut away four spaces, so it was a quick little “surgery,” but it is a convenient way to get through.

I also prepared a spot for a new lighthouse I just ordered, but I’ll show that next time. I just spent the rest of my time meeting some Nook Miles+ goals for extra miles. I still haven’t finished up my obstacle course, but I will do that soon.

Here is my latest New Horizons video, showing the fishing tournament and Bunny Day festivities from earlier this month.

Late last night, I made some more changes to my Sudden Valley area. I dug down to ground level to make it even more of a valley. I even dug through the back wall of the mountain, so that you can see the ocean from here! I covered the area in sand, I put up a Sudden Valley sign, and I even picked a spot for a ramp going down. The only problem is that I forgot I had to pay the ramp off, so it’s not done yet. But here’s a picture of it so far, taken in the daylight today.

Label sent me a tailors ticket and a Labelle coat in the mail.

I was surprised to find Rizzo in Nook’s Cranny today. I think it’s the first time I’ve seen a villager in there shopping. He was looking at a magazine, and he said it wasn’t grabbing him.

And yet, he still stood there reading it. He even said “this ain’t half bad.”

Kicks had a stand set up at the plaza today, and I bought some power boots from him (mainly just to be nice, and to grow my catalog).

I found Claudia singing….to a tree! She was literally facing a tree and singing! I had to adjust the camera to see her, but the tree was directly in front of her! I guess that’s one way to start a singing career: Start by singing to just a tree, and then branch out later.

Hornsby has officially moved into Forest, so I made sure to say hello to my new friend. He becomes my 2nd favorite villager now, just behind Agent S and ahead of Tia. It’s nice to have one of my old GameCube buddies join me here! 🙂

Right at 7:00 tonight, shooting stars started appearing in the sky. I made sure to stop to wish on a few of them.

A few other notes about today:

• Tia was sick, so I gave her some medicine. She gave me a diner apron in return.
• Sable gave me some more patterns.
• I used my tailors ticket to buy a mohawk wig.
• I paid off my new incline, so it will be completed tomorrow.

Have a great day, and I’ll see you next time. I hope your islands are progressing well! 🙂