I like his way of creating lots. It reminds me of British suburbia. One day we'll be getting border and driveway disputes to make it even more realistic, I hope. Why didn't Maxis think of something like this?

A concept/idea isn't something you can copyright or claim you have ownership of. Impossible, if not very difficult to do it. It would be like copyrighting a message or genre for music. Yeah, how will a wall that's curve within a game will invoke copyright strike? Not a brand, and the fact they can't when even The Sims don't have said type of walls.

However, you can run into a lawsuit of losing, If you plaigiarized pretty much the whole game's API that makes it run the game's specific terminology (Sim, simlish, plumbob and for second measurements, things like mentioning the exact names of the modes)

From what we heard of Paralives, pretty certain developer is smart one to not run into said risk, which its certain from the fact the name of the character and game is given that's entirely different.

Sims is a trademark (hence the "tm"), and I'm guessing that goes for several of the sim-spesific words, logos etc.. There's probably some copyright on the creative works inside the game, too. Not sure if you can put a patent on a particular type of game, but I wouldn't think so unless it's somehow a completely new concept.

The word "sim" is often used in regards to simulators, sometimes they're even called "sim" for short. I was looking for something related to sims and hospitals a while back, and Google's algorithm couldn't put the search words together into something Sims related so I found mostly pictures of simulator patients (which are actually pretty cool - we had a couple we could practice on when I was a student), so I'm not sure if the word "sim" is the trademark, but rather "The Sims #".

Sims always stuck with its awkward rules and system. Wanna place a fridge on a commercial property? Nope, can't do that.
It's nice that Paralives has a freeform and seemingly intuiative approach.

That, but I would like to mention how differently, yet powerful the construction mode seems to be in comparison. I mean it would kinda be dumb to challenge the developer to court, because the house construction system isn't identical to how The Sims went about with how its building tool behaved:
- You'll need to be blind to think lot creation process is any way bootleg from any sims game, as shown from the recent video
- The control for building a wall appears to work by click-and-click method, to that of TS4's wall custom tool, by clicking from point A to point B with the mouse key, oppose to the standard hold and release LMB.
- The fact that there's much flexibility in Paralives build mode justifies and saves it from the accusation of it being a rip-off. It's apparent indeed after you seen the snippet, where walls can be pull from their flat sides into complex corner structure shapes and you can make 0.5 or less lengths of a wall section thanks to the Optional Grid feature

Of course, that doesn't mean EA won't bribe out to win their case :D


When you mention, I observed that in the picture lots are not adjacent to the sidewalk. Hopefully that gap won't be confided and you could modify that off-boundry on a fly, or else cars will end up working like in TS3

What will be more noticeable to me is will the characters behave appropriately and not cut through other people's lots on their way downtown? It's all very well having these adjoining lots but the reason EA avoided that was so that Sims could route around the neighborhood even if all the lots were fenced. That and something to do with terrain levels...

Preferably it adjointed lots are optional, where you can make one anywhere. Though I think this could really be cool if say you can build a huge mall or an apartment across the adjoined lots, sims can route and go across them just fine. Then you can manage each thing since each lot would have its own set gameplay rules/conditions.

See...

Reading this thread and keeping up with the project, I can’t honestly understand why some people in here are being so overwhelmingly pessimistic and ridiculous towards this undertaking, which is already (pre alpha, one man band no less) doing some things The Sims fan base has been dreaming of for over a decade.

I don’t even care about the art style at this point and I am usually all about visuals. I want game play, options and immersion. This looks amazing so far.

The simulation is going to be their biggest hurdle I suspect. Give the guy some time before shutting it down. (edit: You guys know this is an expression, right? I honestly can't tell)

I don't think our pessimism is going to have the authority to shut anything down. If you are worried that might be the case, do a bit of squeeing to ensure the game is completed to everyone's satisfaction.

i do not think anyone wants to shut this down. I think we all wish this person well and commend him on what he has done. I also think though that many of us want to keep our expectations in line as there are many challenges to be overcome, and as said, the competition for our time and money is brutal. I wish him well. All we can do is wait and see what happens.

Actually... having watched that video that was based on his AMA, I am not as pessimistic as I was. He seems to have his thoughts in order a lot more than the guy who has still not got anywhere with Citybound after all these years. I am beginning to think we will at least get world and lot-building tools and *something* will be released - ie not actual vaporware. Until I see some Paras in existence though I have reservations about actual play value. Not that gameplay matters as much to me as design and build mode. I have always been mainly a builder at heart.

As long as the British Army Parachute regiment don't dispute the term "Paras"

I have read this thread from time to time, (possibly missing some posts on the way) and find it very nice that someone, somewhere is brave enough to create, or at least try to create, a competitor to the Sims. I do not claim that the Sims is a bad game, no way, I did not say that! But it's always good whit a bit of competition. There's a risk that this project will be terminated due to lack of money or whatever reason but I hope that it will end up in some sort of game. The things I have seen so far looks very interesting. Very interesting indeed. But a fact that we may not forgett is that the creator does not try do invate the wheel, sorry, the Sims, new. It's not going to be a new the Sims game, just an other game in the same style. So it's not really fair to try to compere it to the Sims. And as I understand it this man does the work himself, not whit the help of a bigger staff and the resurses that EA/Maxis have. And it's far to early to talk about details like graphics and such as the main focus surely is to get the job done and get a playable game. I will be very interested in seeing a early acces on this. Even better will be if he brought out a very early acces and added things as time goes by (everyone who have seen "squirrel" playing MSC knows what I'm talking about).

Is there a way to support Paralives?

Yes, Patreon. Look for Alex Masse

I'm still waiting for character creator video. I'm p sure the building in this 'game' is all I've ever dreamed of in a sims game, but I also want characters that I make to populate the city. Simulation does not have to be complex, I just want full and diverse cast of characters to populate the city, live, do interesting shit based on their personality, work, create offsprings with passed genes and eventually die. Plus because life stages similar to sims have already been confirmed, I'm p sure this game might fulfill my wish. I just still can't decide because I need footage of character creator.

Considering the loooooong list of bugs and non-working features I've been reading about in the "General TS4 News" thread, I'm not so sure about the decades of experience. The game feels like amateur hour from all I read around here. Maybe competing with TS4 might not be so hard in the end. Personally, my problem will be that I might compare to TS3 and TS2. And that's a much higher bar IMO.
Or maybe I will simply look at it based on its own merits. It might just make me a builder. That's something that neither TS3 nor TS2 have managed.

Talking of art styles, the most immersive game I am playing right now is Project Hospital. The art style there is like line drawings coloured in with coloring pencils. But everything is to lifelike proportion, and everything is treated to an identical depth. The faces are passive. Nothing is drawn to amuse or to draw special attention to itself. My imagination can superimpose any emotional overtone it wants. The problem with "cartoon" style is that in a cartoon the graphics are intended to do a lot of the storytelling, so that faces are exaggerated to convey character and emotion. You are not intended to do any thinking with a cartoon. If I want to tell a particular story in my head, I can't be fighting against comedic facial and gesture graphics that are insisting on telling the story the developer wanted to tell.

Gargoyle Cat, I haven't seen anyone assuming anything. Did you mean "speculated" rather than "assumed"?

Some people already formed opinions on their speculation so I would call that assumption. But I'm also p sure it's just because nothing has been shown yet and people are still allowed to be suspicious and untrusting. Nobody really hinders this project so if it shows to be good, that's great, if it shows to be nothing more than a great bulding game with some people to inhabit the worlds you create, that's great too.

The only problem I have is with people who:
- Hype it as sims competitor that will blow sims 4 out of the water (mostly discord server of this project)
- Write it off as a complete failure from the start

Having high expectations from this can only end the same way it ended for sims 4 when it did not meet that expectations.
Having no faith in project is ok, but it would be nice if you would let yourself be pleasantly surprised by something occasionally :D

There is a 3rd option also like me I will form no opinion until I see something. I think alot of people just want to hope this will be better then Sims4 that there hope are really high, but you have temper those hope because this is a indie work and don't see it being ready for a long time, I hope I am wrong.

This looks a lot like an upgraded Kudos :-/ But a to say TS has an equal is a but much, that is like saying Pokemon it Animal Crossing had one. But I:ll be happy to see it with open arms.

I think the dev has some fun little ideas with the game. The in-game measurement options have imperial, metric, bananas, and Texas. Not exactly game changing but it’s quirkiness that’s not present in Sims 4. Made me giggle seeing Texas as a measurement

Speaking of measurements, do Sims count Plumbob spinning speed miles per hours or galloping leaps per llamas?

Well DM, I don't want to see the word "quirkiness" ever again. It was attempts to make The Sims 4 quirky that wrecked it imho. Talking toilets. I'd prefer to see it as allowing personalisation where there is no reason to prevent it. Given that there is likely to be a game currency that is peculiar to the game there is no reason there can't be other peculiar units. So please don't put me off the game before it's even written