Well... I would not go so far as saying that graphics are completely unimportant.

I don't care about any photo realism or HD textures or anything like that, but...I'd still want the Sims to be "charming" and expressive.

That doesn't have to be super detailed, I think in the version of this thread on the Sims 4 forum somebody cited the human characters in Planet Coaster as an example. They are very simple and stylized but still very expressive. I would be happy with something like that.
So I'd rather have a simple, cartoony character and be able to tell that he/she is sad or happy than have a HD 3D render who looks like a zombie.

I hope they are good AND look realistic. I do not like cartoony at all. Shouldn't be difficult in 2019, almost 2020.

For me, graphics are certainly somewhat important. I can't understand how my kids can stand to play some of the games they play because the graphics are just so ugly. But I'm on of those who plays TS2 with "Maxis Match" so clearly I'm fine with a certain level of cartoon quality. In fact, I can find that sort of thing charming and appealing. Outside of just looking awful (example: Roblox, which my kids play sometimes, or at least they used to), I'm also not a fan of when a character's "portrait" doesn't match the actual walking around avatar (example: Pillars of Eternity, which my husband plays). If I equip a hat/headband/etc, I want it to actually show up. A lot of customization options are usually a good thing, especially a wide range of skin, hair, and eye colours, but also things like hair style/length (and not just for girls either!!) and mix and match clothing/accessory items. It bothers me when characters all look alike or when it's difficult to make multiple characters who all look unique. And "realism" be damned: I want to see the character I'm controlling, so 3rd person better be an option. I know a lot of people like first person, but for me even in games like Skyrim that's just a helpful tool I can switch to momentarily to see something better and then switch back. For me, how the characters look is probably far more important than how the backgrounds look, but I do like to have options when building and decorating my own house; it just gets tiresome to use the same items all the time and a person's home should at least to some extent express their personality/likes/dislikes, so it should be relatively easy to differentiate it from the neighbors.

I only ever had 2. 1 was too early, didn't like looks of 3 or 4 and I am NOT putting Origin on my computer under any circumstances. It is malware/spyware/a trojan. I have as many mods and use the face editor thing to make them as non-cartoon like as possible. Best would be if they looked fully realistic. That's at least a few years away though. I can imagine (if EAxis doesn't ruin the franchise) a fully immersive VR Sims 12 what it would be like.

Rosawyn, maybe because maxis match does not mean floodfill (MM is items in a stylistic choice or colors that blend in with colors and items from the original game). This new game looks to (for now anyway) have predominantly floodfill colors (which is essentially using a bucket tool, picking a color or in some cases a pattern, and filling the entire object or part of an object with it, using no texture, shadows, bump/spec or material settings for detailing), slightly hidden by the lighting engine. The creator did say at some point they are looking into patterns and such, but until I see patterns on anything that isn't flat (floor and a tablecloth), I'm not that impressed. It would be easier to do all of this build stuff if you didn't have texture or patterns to worry about, and adding patterns later may be a problem. There are other ways to map an object for texture than UVmapping, but the results may vary.

I am perfectly happy with mixing a bit of semi realistic with maxis match in my game. As long as nothing looks out of place, it's fine. TS2 textures and meshes are mostly okay, except for some color choices (but EA has always struggled with color choices, so it isn't something new). I also prefer to use skin replacements. But I don't mind using those skin replacements with maxis hair or clothes. TS4 is a big nope in regards to stylistic choice to me (way more cartoony than its predecessors, and converted CC often looks out of place) but I do play it occasionally just to have something to do. TS3 is okay to play, and has a few features I occasionally miss in TS2, but I haven't played it in quite a while. Unmodded, the TS3 characters don't have a very appealing look. The game I miss when not playing it and the game my brain goes "I need that thing for my game" for is TS2. Stylistic choice is important, and how the characters look is the most important thing to me in a life simulation game. I don't need ultra detailed "sims" and some degree of simplification is fine, but their looks need to be appealing and human-like. I don't want big heads or floodfill clothes, or TS4 type hair. I want smooth animations that look close enough to realistic, and I want face expressions that don't look like the "sim" is currently wearing 'the mask' but are still expressive.

If this game is meant to be some sort of alternative to Sims (the creator seems to think so), then it may need to have some more going for it than build tools and floodfill textures, though some people would probably be into that.

I don't mind various other stylistic choices for other types of games or animated movies, though.

I'd like to have a create-a-pet for not only cats, dogs, and horses, but also for birds and other pets, and possibly farm and zoo animals. I also want to be able to compose the music that the para is playing, and make the pattern that the para is knitting or crocheting.

Given that it's a small indie developer, I can forgive the graphics being more simplified. When you don't have a large team to delegate tasks to you have to make tough decisions on what development time gets spent on. At the moment, they seem to focusing on the building and environmental aspects, at least from the videos I've seen. They might be planning to tweak the graphics later but it also might be they just don't have the resources for something more 'realistic'. Sure, they could focus on that, but then they wouldn't be making any headway on actual gameplay or building controls. Personally, I'd take a game with simple graphics and great gameplay over one that looks pretty but basically does nothing interesting or is lacking or broken.

A must, of course, is being at least relatively easy to mod.

Also, how about: impossible to corrupt?

Hmm, might be a pipe dream there.

Paralives - Choose your side. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3GSFqkiKjgM

Yes, finally getting down to the important things in life!

Imma wait until the Paralives 5 Ultimate Collection is free, ask me what I think in 2060.

Sims 4 actually has this too. I noticed it when going thru the swatches - at first I thought they had for some reason duplicated the swatches, but the toilet paper direction is different for each

EDIT: reminds me of this:


One thing about Paralives I've been curious about - is the guy working on it going to expand his team and get other people to help him make it?

Yes and he is currently searching for 3D artists and Animators that are in his locations.

My grandma seems to be a lot smarter than people who heat up over the toilet paper side debate. When she has to go and use it, she just takes the paper from the holder and puts it on the ground to use.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YfMe8CklCbQ Write on the tombstones

"Please wishlist Paralives on steam, KK? Thx XXXXX"

-Alex Massé's last words before dying from a Murphy Bed, 1996-2019-

Let's hope not. I thought it was cool you can write your own things on the tombstones, I can see a lot of fun to be had with that.

New video. Colour Wheel! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JEraDHYtnDA

Seems like there's attention to detali in this game (like the steam coming from turkey). That's something that can hook up TS2 players.

As I wrote in the other thread, the colour wheel looks a lot more functional than the one Sims 3 had that caused almost everything to look completely over-saturated. It looks a lot better.

The only thing I personally still need to make up my mind about this game is a picture of one of the characters. I know it might still be quite a while before that's possible, but the way the human characters look will determine whether I'm interested in the game.

Character creation is coming last. I guess because they wanted the world in place for them to interact in.

Hope we can make and add our own custom contents...

Then I won't be able to make my mind up for a long time.

Though hearing it like that makes me worried. The "Sims" come last in a Sims-style game?

I don't think last means not important, but if everything isn't in place how would they show them in the game?

People are more complicated than furniture. They'll require complex AI to handle social interactions, behaviors, etc., so it makes sense that they'd take longer to finish and be added into the program last.