Animal Crossing New Horizons Diving

The first of Nintendo's promised summer updates for Animal Crossing: New Horizons has now arrived, bringing the ability to swim, dive, catch sea creatures and more along for the ride. The arrival of the update has gone down well with its most dedicated fans, who've been itching for new things to do for a while now, but not everyone's happy with it.

You see, now that players can dive off of the pier at the airport when arriving at someone else's island, all sorts of progress-destroying shenanigans can take place. The situation has sparked a bit of a heated debate over on Resetera, where one player has detailed the "severe consequences" of the update for those who like to trade with others online.

Essentially, as you may know if you regularly visit others' islands, plenty of players have opted to fence off their most precious island hotspots to ensure that visitors can't steal or damage anything of any value. A visitor could, for example, trample all of your flowers or shake down any Bells from your money trees, and anyone you trust with a 'Best Friends' status can do much more.

Thanks to the new update, visitors can now simply jump in the sea and circumnavigate all of the fencing a player might have built over the past few months, reaching areas that the host never wanted them to see.

"Since the update, some people have found a loop hole," says Resetera user, Arthands. "They can just change to the swimwear, jump off the pier, and swim up the shore to get around the fences. After stealing or causing whatever mischief, the stranger can press the - button to 'leave quietly' from the island." They go on to suggest that Nintendo such issue a patch to prevent players from jumping off of the airport pier.

Animal Crossing New Horizons Swimming

Some Resetera users have replied to say that this might be a bit of an overreaction, accusing the original poster of 'taking things too seriously' and noting that any damage can always be restored. Others agree, however, arguing that players put in a lot of time and care putting their islands together and that it's understandable they wouldn't want that to be destroyed.

Have you noticed any shady behaviour from visitors since the update? Does it bother you that a visitor can swim around your island, or are you not fussed either way? Let us know in the comments.

[source resetera.com, via vg247.com]