I don't exactly remember how stores worked or if they explained it in detail. I know so far there's a clothing shop, a plant shop, and a furniture store. So yes, I think customizing it to fit the kind of store you want and what items will be a thing. I mentioned a while back I was so happy to see something I'd been wanting in Sims 3 for so long. That something was a clothing store with items on display that you can grab right off the mannequin and the outfit changes day to day. Sims 3 sorta has a mod that lets you do that, but you have to plan the outfit when I'd prefer it to be random or at least cycle through a bunch of presets.

They've definitely made tweaks to routing since the original live stream. It seems they've set predetermined paths to prevent the chaos from the original livestream (walking through every building and getting stuck in spots for seemingly no reason). This definitely made the gameplay look cleaner. Even in the final game, I wouldn't mind the idea of predetermined paths here and there for NPCs around town.

Collision between paras isn't a thing yet. I don't know if they've answered if it will be a thing or not. I hope so.

On the difficulty thing, they're aware. Patrons have commented on things appearing too easy before and they said they'd address it at some point. I can kinda see why during development or even early access why they might make things a little on the easier side. If you need to click and go through every available option to find bugs, it'd take way longer if the game difficulty was boosted.

I've seen a lot of people commenting on the UI. I personally think it looks pretty clean and only what's necessary is visible, but I wonder what feedback they'll take from that.

I asked during the stream about the paras pathing through each other and Rina said it's something they're working on. After the stream I checked their roadmap and they do have "Handle interaction and path conflicts between characters" marked for during early access. So I think there is collision but it's turned off until they get the bugs worked out.

I think the paras on rails effect was just a quick fix to avoid all the stuck townies from the patreon live until they get around to fixing the pathing properly--or at least I hope so! The townies need to actually simulate using the public spaces and shops, imo, not just be traffic. To leave it like it is now is too much corner cutting even for a smallish team I think.

As for the UI I think if they anchored the floating needs/wants/emotions bit to the left or bottom bar it'd look less cluttered. Not sure how that would play though.

I do definitely think all the townies shouldn't be on rails. But I was more thinking a mix of both. Some are free roam, some are railed (no pun intended). No hard rules on who is free and who is on rails, just a mixture of the two.

I think it could do well to keep the town somewhat active and lived in when other townies might be busy or otherwise distracted. If that makes any sense.

Almost like a less annoying randomly generated taxis in Sims 3 bridgeport.

You're right, Kira. I'm not used to an open world (never played 3) and didn't really think about it but you do want both don't you? In Sims 2 terms you'd want the walk bys from the home lot or in this case walk throughs that go through the town and then paras who show up specifically to populate the shops and town center.

I'm excited to see their finished game--I hope it lives up to the potential.

Sims 3 doesn't have rails either, but there were many instances where routing just sucked. Even on singular lots. I remember routing in Sims 1 and Sims 2 being so tight and mostly free of issues. For example, I think about fine dining and in Sims 3, it was just never smooth. I can't even get that kind of stuff to work without mods because everything is so loosey goosey.

If the team decides to tighten things up with some rails from time to time, like strict ares where service paras walk or work and stuff like that, I would not be opposed to it.

Routing in sims 3 drives me nuts at times. I have given up on many very beautiful custom worlds because of it.
Those with water in the centre of the map being the worst from my point of view, and the mods don't always solve the situation.
If the the Paralives team come up with a pragmatic, hybrid solution I would be happy.
Even better, would be having the tools as players to tweak the routing, say some invisible 'don't walk here' props, or a way of calling other Paras over,
so our character doesn't have to go and stand in a walking route to chat.

The building stream was really impressive! If the gameplay is not good, we will at least build nice houses. There are so many options (big and small) that add realism. It is also super easy to build and the tools are not clunky.

Having said that, let's not be too harsh on this small team. I won't call names, but some people call this game a total flop, even though it didn't even come out yet. Paralives has so much potential. You can always choose to buy the full experience later (after the early access).

Well, December 8th came and went without anybody noticing, myself included. My excuse: playing Hotel Architect like a maniac - I accumulated over 125 hours so far.
An interesting fact: its developers obviously know The Sims games. Their little people go to the loo (my conditio sine qua non for life simulators so far - I guess I'll have to change it or add the game to the bunch) and they even have small mosaics (not necessary, strictly speaking, but a fun detail); also, everybody swirls when changing clothes and sporty guests do pushups just about everywhere. All of them are on rails: good in this case since one tile corridors are not a problem. A lot of attention to details. (And I was wrong: the humor is there, but it is rather subdued - because it is a Swedish game?)

I can seriously recommend it by now. You should try the demo (the first episode, taking place in Gothenburg).

Some animations for children in this video!

I am going to be honest by saying that these animations (not all though) need to be improved. The animation for drawing in particular needs to be more... vivid? The animation for kicking down the sandcastle is just unconvincing. Those are my opinions and I know that some of you like more toned down animations.

Does anybody, who doesn't play TS2 anymore, remember the animation for destroying the dollhouse? That is just on a whole different level of craziness! I expect something like that for Paralives, but I can go without it. The animations for this game so far are actually quite nice (minus the unfinished ones).

This whole video felt gentle and relaxing, particularly with the music track. Paralives seem to be going for a different vibe to the sims.

I think they implied in the future there would be more animations to fit personalities and stuff like that.

Would be cool if in the future, a para with more wild traits/personality would have more wild/crazy animation associated with them. Maybe a normal para does some shuffle and kicks, but a wild para would go full Godzilla on it.

I was curious to see what is going on with this game so did skim through the video and my opinion of this game has not changed. It looks like many good things are being done, but as I have said before, many people will not get this simply due to how the characters are being done. The graphics choice. I absolutely will not even consider getting this due to that, and I find that rather sad actually, as much work and dedication is being put into this, but they will lose many potential players because of that choice, a loss that IMO is/was unnecessary.

I will go back to ignoring this thread as this game still holds zero interest for me to get it. For those of you who are favorable about it, I hope it meets your expectations.

I get that some people do not like the graphics of Paralives. All of us get that. I am not the biggest fan either. I will probably get rid of those black outlines with a mod.

However, what I like about parafolk is that they look very expressive and alive. I think that the game will have more charm than inZOI.

The Para make this game a total no go for me, and I think it is a shame to go to the time, expense, and dedication to make a simulation game where many people dislike the characters they are expected to play. IMO they could have chosen differently and made characters more universally appealing.

I was interested in inZOI but have lost track of it and really have no desire to play that now. It seems very cold and impersonal from what I have seen. Sims 2 had the characters with the most charm to me. I have liked playing the Sims in all 4 versions. It is very possible to do many variations of the characters to be played. Good ones. IMO Paralives has missed the target and will pay for it in the loss of a significant amount of sales due to the choice they made. And that is a shame.

Now that we are posting in this thread again, where is the team? Are they on collective vacation (the holidays)? It has been two week since the last patreon post...

They usually go on vacation at the end/beginning of the year yeah. There will probably be some updates at the end of this week if I had to guess.

At long last, the publicly posted the genetics system. I am SO happy there are hair mechanics associated with it. Townies with random hair textures based on hair styles frustrated me in the Sims. I always wished there was a way to tie a trait to hair styles in Sims 3 but I just don't think that'd work.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/135971181

My biggest fear is that all parafolk children will look the same, but I am going to be reasonable. They started working on the genetics system back in 2020, so they had a lot of time to fix everything. TS2 has the first baby syndrom, but it is fixable with mods such as the RPC, which is a life saver.

The team has also updated the development page! They have fixed so many things. Parafolk will have different walkstyles, according to the vibe that you pick. This was done for a bigger feeling of immersion, so that townies don't all walk the same way.

EDIT: I am glad that they care about weird results (TS4 and TS3 have that problem), so that the slider combinations in children aren't extreme. But, sometimes people do have extreme facial features. I wonder how it will actually work when you have two parafolk with extreme slider combinations...

I am also glad that there are recessive and dominant genes.

Pretty much where I'm at on Paralives. Inzoi definitely needs more work, but I'm mostly still enjoying it. Especially with the free expansion that was released. I haven't quite given up on it yet.

I am using my laptop now rather than PC but eventually may try inZoi as curious about it after what you have said. I am glad you still like it generally.