Welcome, new players and new members of r/NoFeeAC! We are a giving community dedicated to helping each other without expecting payment, fees, tips, or taxes! We also have a Discord server here!
To help facilitate the integration of new members and players into the community, I would like to provide some tips! I will divide this guide into a few parts: terms, keeping your island safe, and visiting etiquette. In the first section, I will define a few terms to help new players more easily understand what exactly is meant when referring to specific terms. In the second section, I will cover how to protect your island from unfriendly visitors. In the final section, I will cover some basic guidelines in treating others' islands with respect.
Terms:
Catalog an item: When you pick up an item, it will enter your catalog. For items that may be purchased from the Nooks' store, this means you may order the item at any time, even if you do not own the item yourself. Any item in your catalog, even ones you do not own and cannot be ordered, can be placed in the photo studio. To catalog an item, simply pick up the item and drop it again.
Currency: Anything that may be used as an in-game currency. While Bells obviously fall into this category, certain other notable items that may be traded count as well, including Gold, Nook Miles Tickets, Star Fragments, and Rusty Parts.
FCFS: Shorthand for first come, first serve. In other words, earlier replies will be accepted first.
IGN: Shorthand for in-game name.
NMT: Shorthand for Nook Miles Tickets. These are used to visit islands where you can find new villagers or special islands where particular Critters or resources are unusually easy to find.
Leaving silently: Leaving an island via the minus menu rather than the Airport. This can cause problems by moving a visiting NPC, such as Celeste, or ending a villager's crafting. It is not a polite thing to do.
T1L1: Shorthand for take one, leave one. Basically, if you pick something up, leave another of the same thing behind.
Tips: Anything offered or given to a host as a thank you for allowing a visit.
Wand: Any of the "Wand" items. This includes, but is by no means limited to the item simply called "Wand". These items allow you to quickly change into a preset costume of your choice. While wearing a costume put on via wand, you cannot put on clothes from your inventory. Notably, they are helpful when cataloguing clothing items.
Keeping Your Island Safe:
While the Animal Crossing community tends to be a rather kind one, especially communities such as r/NoFeeAC, not everyone has the best of intentions. There are several means of keeping your island safe.
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Keep anything you want safe either in your house, in your Pocket, or in your Storage. Any one of these will prevent visitors from being able to access it.
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Make sure to get every visitor's in-game name and island name. This will help keep tabs on who does what. If someone causes problems, you can report them. Nothing can really be done if you don't know who caused the problems.
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Do not put a Dodo Code in a public place. If too many people try visiting your island at one time, your game may crash, booting everyone and closing your island. Instead, send the code to individuals as space becomes available. 3 or 4 visitors at a time is fairly standard.
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Check the limited items at Nook's shop and at Redd's Treasure Trawler (once he starts appearing) before opening your island. Pick up what you want there before opening your island. Once purchased, these items will be gone until they appear in the corresponding shop again.
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Fence off areas of your island you do not want accessed. If there is something you do not want visitors to access, build a fence around it. Visitors cannot pass through fences, so it should be inaccessible.
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If you have Pipes on your island, use them wisely. Pipes can be used to give visitors a quick jump from the Airport to exactly where you want them to go, but you need to have exactly two on your island or the one they pop out of will be randomly chosen between the other two, even if one is inside a building. If you have exactly two and fence both in, visitors should have a clear cue for where to go, be able to get there faster, and be limited in what is open to them.
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If you leave out DIYs or dropped clothing/Bells/furniture/fossils/tools/etc, a visitor may pick it up. Do not leave anything like this out unless you are comfortable with others taking it. Placed items are safe.
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When posting an event, outline any particular requests you have. If you don't want people to visit shops, for instance, leave a comment stating so to prevent it from happening in advance. Note that in r/NoFeeAC, you may not require or suggest leaving tips.
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Be an active host. Greet your visitors and lead them to where they want to go. This will encourage friendly behavior from good visitors and discourage unfriendly behavior from potentially not-so-good visitors. This will also prevent your game from closing the connection to the internet due to inactivity, which will boot anyone on your island and require you to reestablish the connection and generate a new code.
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If someone has a wetsuit on, they may hop the railing on the Airport dock. Even if you try limiting visitors to a certain area by fencing off an area around the Airport entrance, they may be able to escape it in this way. If you do not want this to happen while hosting, clearly state in your post not to wear a wetsuit. This way, if someone wears one, you will immediately know to pay attention to that user specifically or to close your island.
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Best Friends may use shovels and axes on your island. Do not Best Friend someone unless you are confident they will not abuse the privilege.
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Visitors may run through or pick flowers. Running through flowers will "break" them until the next day. It will take 2 days for them to grow back if someone picks them. In either case, a "broken" flower will not produce new flowers even if it has been watered or been rained on. You may fence flowers off or make flower-lined paths 2 tiles or more wide to make it easier to run without trampling the flowers.
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Similarly, visitors can shake trees. For fruit or money trees this can be a problem, as fruit takes a couple of days to grow back and money does not grow back. As with flowers, you may want to block these trees off if you are concerned about this.
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If you do not have the Switch immediately next to you, you may use the minus button to open a menu that allows you to close your island immediately in the event that you notice someone causing problems.
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