I think there will be cussings at the Paralives studio when work on the roof tool that will work with all those possible angles

I don't think it will be quite as bad as you do. I'm pretty sure this is a case of working smart, not hard. Which is something the Paralives team have shown great proficiency for so far. The fact we are getting all these new features kinda proves it.

That said, the Sims games are intensely technologically stagnated compared to the rest of the industry anyways. And not due to bad dev tools or engines. The programmers are just not very good... Or if they are, the conditions of their job have just zapped all their passion to actually use their skills. What Paralives has been doing is honestly not all that impressive. It's really good mind you! But not super impressive.It's using well troden technical methods (if in kinda creative ways) to achieve all of this. They aren't reinventing the wheel. They are just bringing the formula up to spec.

The fact a small team is doing all of this should show just how much The Sims games have become an exercise in giving the players just enough to say there is something new, and limit complaints, without having to actually put the effort in to make it the best game it can be. The fact The Sims 2 doesn't feel all that mechanically dated compared to 3 and 4 really says it all. A game from 2004...

And that's why I think we won't need all that many objects in the base-game. If the objects stay this customizable, we'll basically need just a couple of windows, since they can be stretched and squeezed into any size and (almost any) shape we need.

Wow, that Build Mode puts The Sims 4 to complete and utter shame. It just really shows where The Sims series should be, if EA actually cared about advancing it, which they didn't care about at all with The Sims 4.

EA has different priorities and goals. As I have said many times I think 4 was designed mostly to appeal to the 12s and teens, and to be a dress up, party, what I want my life to be, whatever we call it game. It was designed for low end computers, and how shall I say, in some cases, less experienced and capable players. Some things are considered to be perhaps dumbed down from prior versions. I do not think the average 4 player that EA targets really cares that much about adjusting the width of a counter, for example.

I think Paralives is going after a very different audience/player.

I saw some people concerned that "The Sims is going to steal all of Paralives ideas before it can come out!"

For one, I don't think people need to be concerned about that really. Even if they DO steal the ideas, that's good for people who are still invested in new Sims products right? The Sims team would be smart to implement some of these techniques instead of the boxed in stuff they're doing right now.

Technology has advanced so far since The Sims 4 came out. An optimized game should be able to create a Sims 3 like open world and all that with ease imo (hence, Paralives). Not saying it'd be super easy, but I think even potato computers of this day and age could handle it if done well.

But, for a company like EA, I don't know if it's in their best interest to change their priorities right now. The Sims 4 is making them money as it is. I bet they're hoping to make bank on this multiplayer thing for Sims 5 (honestly, I don't think all this stuff Paralives has could work in an MMO like setting). They have a formula that works for them and many MANY people still enjoy that formula. I don't, but based on the drama I caught up on earlier in this thread, plenty still do.

I'm sure The Sims 5 will still have tons of new features and a new art style to fit the times, but some of this new tech, imo, probably won't work for what they want out of this series. They could always surprise everyone and bust out some innovation, but the past few years shows otherwise.

For me, even if The Sims team were to copy these features, I would not invest. Great, they copied the features of pre-alpha Paralives, but where will they go from there? Can they innovate on these initial ideas, or will they just go back to the same old song and dance? I don't really trust them to do better right now.

I sure hope so. Because whoever EA is going after with Sims4 and the hypothetical Sims5, I'm probably not it.

Me either. LOL

It looks like the disagree fairy is back.

I personally think it's the aftermath of Maxis not giving shit about player's experience as to why it feels watered down. Not a deliberate choice to make a dressing game and partying, but yeah it's about CAS and BUILD MODE as there really a lot going on in the game.

ea is just listening too share holders too push games out as fast as possible.

I think it was a deliberate choice to gear the game to the 12s, etc. Rachel even admitted it at one point. That was/is their target audience. And that is an audience that will be most interested in OOH let me make me. Let me make my friends. What shall I wear? Let me make that cute boy I wish would pay attention to me. OOH I want to marry so and so and live in a house with a white picket fence. That is not an audience that generally is looking for much depth in the game.

They do not have the same experiences/expectations of those of us who have played the prior versions. EA is not trying to hook us.

The rumours have been saying for a while now that Sims 5 will be online in some form, and even if it isn't, personally I'm so sick of EA by now that I don't want to buy their games in general.



Ah yes, Rachel, the dancing clown. Wasn't she also the one who came up with that "Yibs" nonsense (or whatever that was they called their favourite "influencers" for a while?) and who said she needed to "explore" why people wanted Toddlers in the game?

She was really something! Then she left, and ........ I can't remember, did she come back?

EA took the decision not to use procedural animation - ie if you raise or lower a bathtub a sim can't get into it while a para will be able to. Procedural animations are probably more prone to looking deformed than fixed movements and object sizes, but imho more fun for the player who would rather have the flexibility than the polish. Not that EA ever did manage to get their preset animations polished! The number of sims who have simply walked into the middle of kitchen counters...

Personal opinion: I rather want to have sims glitching into objects or each other (Like in Sims 4) then having them standing around, stomping their feets screaming out that they have routing failures. Sims 2 was OK, not always logical but OK. Sims 3 was horrible. I hope Paralives handles that better.

Sims in 3 would throw hissy fits if blocked, but that school bus just had no problem plowing through that car. (!!!!)

The funny thing for TS3 in particular is that the "route stomping" thing was totally unnecessary. If you use mods (I use two, one to remove the stomping animation and another to tweak the distance at which they can route around each other) then they route perfectly fine still and much more quickly as well. The whole clipping through objects thing in TS4 was just a lazy workaround to actually fixing routing issues.

Maybe with their procedural animation they can do a thing where the Paras rotate their body to push past each other and or through small places.
But I agree, I prefer clipping to endless route blocking and complaining, to some extend.

...and to not being able to put furniture where we want and where it looks like anyone's normal home layout.

You can also edit the Sims3.ini file and change the "DynamicAvoidance" values to something really small such as 0.1.

Clipping through objects is such a cheap solution for routing issues. It breaks immersion.

I rather not looking at that in4 DJ booth thing. The problem with routing in previous games is that it isn't improved to full realism. In TS3, they made it better but allowing sims to squeeze through more tight spots, while with TS4 they overdone where Sims literally phase one another and can't get a room. I feel like developers should look how in traffic rules, vehicles and cars prioritize to whom they give a way or take lead and use that as a blueprint to design a similar smart AI to get Paras moving when one another is in the way in tight spots/areas.



And yeah, I never understood where certain objects, like especially ones that are wall-hung but small, don't have a accurate collision system. Some objects that physically small enough to fit or allow Sims to walk past shouldn't block one another or cause routing problem for Sim.

I know they don't. Tell me something new, lol.

Imagining paras literally squeezing past each other through a tight door is hilarious and now I want that to be a thing.

Btw...

This ^^.... Like I was quite surprized when for a long time I installed and open TS2, I couldn't believe how very fewer objects there were in the BG than I remember, but hey - at least developers prioritize details and replayability over quantity and fancy artstyle over magority of important mechanics. It goes to show that quatity isn't (most of the time/always) everything, as in meaning the gameplay will be best


I don't think it's something ppl should worry too much, because the only thing (though I swear it's one of the two, not one of one) devs have picked up and "stole" is the remove shoe feature right after gameplay glimse paralive release with first Snowy Escape, amongst many other brilliant details Paralives has realized in the game from the footage alone.

I love this!! They could do the same with the heights, for kisses and hugs, use key points and animate the feet and so on. I expect people walking holding hands and many group animations, I want to see everything they should have given us in 2021. Simulation of life is what will make the game good or not.