I may be making the wrong assumption here, but it seems like the undirected household would act the same way as the general population in the town. If the only person who can eat is the one you are controlling, then the whole town would starve quite quickly. Surely that can't be how it works?

I don't mean to interrupt, If I am please ignore and carry on.

the official Life By You Chanel posted a new video a few minutes ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NszxBy-77IE


Based on the video, I am calling it: this is how Life by You graphically will look on June 4th upon early access release. Early Access is only 3 weeks away!
Thoughts? How are we feeling?

If anyone is wondering here are the minimum and recommended requirements for Life by You Early Access:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2358660/Life_by_You/

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

MINIMUM:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-8600K or AMD® Ryzen™ 5 2600X
Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 970 (4GB) or Nvidia® GeForce™ GTX 1650 (4GB) or AMD® Radeon™ RX 470 (4GB)
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 25 GB available space
Additional Notes: Optimized for 30 FPS

RECOMMENDED:
Requires a 64-bit processor and operating system
OS: Windows 10/11
Processor: Intel Core i5-10400F / AMD Ryzen 5 5600
Memory: 32 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB/AMD Radeon RX 5700 XT
DirectX: Version 11
Storage: 25 GB available space
Additional Notes: Optimized for 30 FPS


Update on my Questions: so my question in my previous comments was not answered in the discord yet. There was this massive post on Reddit with many upvotes and comments where an artist changed anatomy and specifically pointed out what needed changes. They were not the first to do so but certainly the most clear, it was refreshing to see it so visually presented. The post became so popular on LBY official subreddit, that last night Rocio from the LBY team responded with their typical generic response. I replied and asked and just now I finally received an answer!

Here is the Reddit thread/post in question: https://www.reddit.com/r/LifeByYou/..._anatomy_study/

I asked:


Answer:


So I stand corrected this is not the final look of the characters according to the LBY Team.

I will follow up upon the final release to see how much the base mesh changed.

I feel that the animations will be more-or-less what we see today on Early Access launch, but I'm not that worried long-term. There's enough time to sort it, although obviously having fluid animations from the start would be the optimum route. They're keen for feedback, and animations will be a large chunk of that and hard to ignore.
I'm quite confident that we will have a significantly better product a year from now.

So, about this part :

The team has made several changes to the base model. However, we have an added layer of changes that we can do on the fly in-game through the DNA of characters, such things as arm proportions and shoulder variations are tied to that DNA. We will continue to fine tune this to improve character proportions to ensure that existing and new clothing assets remain functional.

Does this mean, that their future changes to the base model are limited by the already created clothes? And if so, could it be so limited that they will never get the upper body proportions right?

That is true. Though I can also a imagine a situation where everyone's needs who aren't being controlled becomes static until you control them again. Or they just fill up at certain intervals when you aren't controlling them to keep them alive. This is unlikely of course. I just wonder how their ai (not generative ai) works and will perform.

I see that the character model has definitely improved, but the arms are still positioned behind the back. It is not that bad, but it is noticeable. The arms look kind of small as well. I can see why this is causing problems regarding animations.

This bothers me a lot because everything else about the models is being improved. I can kind of see emotion in their eyes. That might be my first impression though.

The customization options are great and there is a lot of room for creating diverse characters. But, the arm proportions need to change.

Someone actually wrote a comment in this thread telling us that the team is calling us ableist for complaining about arm proportions. But, this game will have zero types of disabilities. There is no visual impairment, colour blindness, walking disabilities, blindness, mental illnesses and so on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNA7IpYhuZE
I guess they had a look at inZOI and decided to go for it as well.

Clothes and Styling:

I can't tell if it's the model or the people who are making these but I find them ugly and scary looking.

Well the game sliders do go to more extremes than the sims ones so I guess with the outer limits there is a possibility for the characters to get scary!

I first thought the same thing about the arms being too short, as probably most folks do. But I've come to see what it is actually due to, and may not look as bad (maybe?) when you have the game and can really swing the camera around the sprite in every 3d angle. It's because they have chosen to model their sprites with a bend in the arm at the elbow, more so than what we are used to with our very familiar Maxis sims default models. And when seeing this from a front facing 2d perspective, it does make their arms seem short, fast approaching a T-Rex's mini arms. But when seeing their vids where they offer more tuning 3d angles on their sprites, I do see the bend in the arm as causing the optical illusion of T-Rex arms.

But I also think in a default stance the arms should not be as bent. It makes them look less relaxed, less casual, even a bit tense. Not what you want to see in their version of Create a Sim. Fine for when the sprites are walking about here, there and everywhere, but a little odd when standing casually.

Drill sergeant approaches boot camp rookies and yells "At Ease!"
The soldiers adopt the LBY tight elbow default stance.
Drill sergeant notices this then hollers, "I said AT EASE, you maggots!!!"

Yep, loosen up those tight elbows.

IMO shoulders are the main problem. They are very oddly shaped. I made this quick edit in Gimp (on the right):



And while it's still not perfect it already looks a thousand times better. I made her arms only a tiny bit longer but completely reshaped her shoulders and moved the arms further away from the body.

Possible. It's not just the posture but things in the face are exaggerated, which works ok with a cartoon style, I think, but with this, it's just too much of everything for me. Mouth too big and too shiny, eyes too big, lashes too long, nose too much for the size of the face and head, it's all too much.

There is a short clip of them walking in a store at the beginning and they all walk like they either really need to go to the washroom, or have some serious anger issues. Or feel very uncomfortable being out in public. Just tense and awkward.

I'm quite disappointed in how unappealing they look and move. And it appears that is not something I could get used to. And I'm one of the few who never had a problem with the sims in TS3. I actually preferred them over the ones in TS2 because their movements are less exaggerated on average.

This is not something where I can imagine being immersed if the game tells me the sim is in a good mood and then they move and look like that.

I'll keep watching and I'm looking forward to seeing some play-throughs from actual players, but I don't think I'll be buying this in Early Release. At this point, it's not worth it for me.

They look like adult plastic dolls, enough said.
I can't get past their appearance nor their posture, nor their arms or how they stand or whatever, just repulsive in so many ways.

And to think that we were complaining about TS3 Sims - they look like angels compared to this. Maybe they are supposed to be zombies, all of them, and we just don't know it yet.

When I play a Sims game I am mostly looking at Sims, and there is no way I would be looking at THIS.

It's interesting to think about what I value in my sims games considering I find these character models so abhorrent. I never quite liked the TS2 sims, I adore the TS3 and TS1 sims, and I hated the TS4 sims.

None of that prevented me from playing the games, well, except for TS4 but there were numerous other things I hated about that game.

It's never just one thing but TS2 did so many new things that I really liked and there was no other game around. Now, with all these new games, they need to appeal to me in a way that TS1 and TS2 never had to.
I never moved on from TS3 and I still play TS2 as well. So, if there is too much or just one thing that is a deal breaker, I don't need to play another game. Or just play more than two life simulation games.

I think for me it's mostly that there is no simlish, which is more of a deal breaker for me. But considering that these models are so weird, tense, and robotic, making them not speak makes them even less life-like. How am I supposed to get attached to individual characters like this?

I cannot bear with the fact that the characters cannot speak. As I said before, this game is just not for me. I know what the LBY developers have said; them not speaking is part of the aesthetics. In my opinion, that is just an excuse for a low budget. I would not say anything if those animations are nice and if those characters are lifelike. But, all of this combined? It is so obvious that the bugdet is the problem.

Animations are so important. There are rumours that TS5 or Project Rene is using motion capture technology. EA gets that and EA has a much bigger budget.

What if characters not speaking was an option? I may sound rude, but that decision was so weird for a life simulator. This game is still in early access, but people are going to buy the game thinking that something will change when it will not. This might be my dramatic side showing, but I am just so pessimistic about this game.

Greetings everyone, we have a statement from our Deputy CEO about "Life By You":


"Hello everyone,

After much consideration, we regret to announce that we have decided to retract Life by You’s Early Access release date, previously set for June 4th. This was not an easy decision, especially since we understand the anticipation and excitement that many players have for the game. However, we believe that additional development time is needed.

While we would have preferred to commit to a new release window, we believe it is more prudent to hold off while we plan ahead, rather than committing to a new date that we cannot be certain to meet.

We will provide more information as soon as possible, until then we want to sincerely thank you for your continued support and patience.

Mattias Lilja, Deputy CEO of Paradox Interactive "

From the paradox forum;
https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/foru...e-date.1680458/

Honestly, good. I'm so glad Paradox seems to be stepping in like I hoped they would and get their acts together. Releasing another shaky game (even though again, it's early access) would look really bad for Paradox overall.

I hope with this, they can hire a few more people to fix up those characters and the overall art direction and then I think this game is actually on it's way to being well received.

I am getting the opposite vibe from the announcement. I'd not be surprised if it's debudgeted in favour of another game thats coming along nicely. There have been too many delays in LBY and very little in the way of positive feedback. The community manager has told the LBY yibs that she will not be talking about it at all until they have worked out what to do. So the studio are in some disarray right now

I'm agreeing with Inge here. It all feels a little off, like the relationship between Tectonic and parent company Paradox is beginning to fray. I wouldn't be surprised to learn Paradox is beginning to lose faith in the project as well, but that would be unfortunate. The blurb to me reads like the game is in trouble and in danger of being delayed indefinitely, i.e cancelled. And I want LBY to be a comeback story, I want to be proven wrong about it.

Maybe, but LBY isn't the only game struggling under Paradox right now. They've had multiple releases rushed out and broken and gamers are starting to notice a trend. Either Paradox has decided to start steering the ship for a while to get LBY on the right track, or all the discourse and uncertainty among the community (which is probably not what they were expecting) has caused Paradox to lose faith in the project overall. Or both.

I'm probably out of the loop but I can't think of another Paradox game out right now that isn't in disarray and in need to more time, budget, and people on it. I've heard CS2 is only recently starting to get on the right track.

Like I said, I'm hoping it's a "Oh, this project needs help we should hunker down and do this right" rather than a "this project is completely cancelled". The life simulation genre is popping right now, I can't imagine Paradox would want to completely shut it down.