You've just arrived on Coral Island, so it's only natural that everyone is more or less a complete stranger to you. Best remedy that. The New Farmer has you introducing yourself to the people of Coral Island, and since there are thirty people to meet this quest can take a while.
You'll trigger The New Farmer by visiting Sam's General Store during Starting Out. Connor, the mayor, will suggest that you go around and introduce yourself to the island's residents. There are sixty-six people to meet on Coral Island, though for the purposes of this quest you only need to meet thirty of them. You've also already interacted with a few of them, cutting down on how many you need to officially meet. Still, this task can take a little while.
Here are some tips for meeting townies:
- Get your work done around the farm before you go searching. Most of the people on Coral Island don't start moving around all that much until after 9 am. (Though you will come across the occasional early riser.)
- Stay close to either the town or the beach, to the south of town. Townies will wander beyond the boundaries of town now and then, but meeting 30 people is most easily accomplished on the streets or on the sand.
- Consult the map. It will show you the locations of people you haven't met, as well as those you have. If the person is inside a building you'll need to go inside and look around. This method works best when you're running low on people to meet.
- Stick around buildings for a while. Sam's General Store, Fishenships Tavern, and the Community Center are all good candidates for meeting people as they go about their days, though just about any indoor public space will do if you wait long enough.
- That said, don't bother looking in people's houses unless it's the evening. Most people don't stay close to home during the day.
- Poke around the benches in several places around town. People like to sit down and have little drink breaks on a fairly regular basis.
Once you've met 30 people The New Farmer will immediately end, punting you into the next quest, Making Friends. Now that you're acquainted with a big chunk of the populace you need to start making friends.
Befriending people is accomplished by giving them gifts. Each townie has lists of things they love, like, dislike, and hate, and if you want to make friends you need to give people presents that they either like or love. Check someone's profile under the People tab in the menu and the game will show you lists of their likes and dislikes. The rub, of course, is that you have to give them things before you find out what they like and dislike, requiring a lot of experimentation.
Fortunately, you don't need to appease anyone to complete Making Friends. Simply give five random items to townies as gifts. Anything, up to and including pieces of Trash, will do for this purpose. Sure, you won't make anyone happy by giving them garbage, but you will complete the quest. (Though if you want to give out something safer so you don't damage any relationships, there are Tulips growing in various places around town.) Giving out five gifts to five people will end the quest.