Relationships Gameplay Design + Resize to Accommodate + Painting Walls Fast
Added 2023-02-17 15:05:48 +0000 UTCHi, Alex here!
We have various interesting live mode and build mode development updates to share with you today. This post is for Patrons only so please don’t share it!
Relationships Gameplay Design
We’re currently working on everything related to relationships in Paralives. This includes interactions between multiple Parafolks like you have seen in last week’s post. Also, we are designing how the gameplay mechanics will allow players to develop relationships between characters.
Questions like:
- How will relationships progress?
- How will discussions between characters work and how can the player drive them?
- How will relationships impact your characters every day?
- How can building relationships in Paralives be really fun for the player?
We are analyzing all this and our plans for the relationships module of the game are getting more and more solid. We are designing many features and innovations that we are pretty excited about! We’re looking forward to sharing more about that later when we start to test these ideas in the game directly.
Resize and Accommodate!
Howdy everyone! Jérémie here for this part of the post! I’ve recently worked on allowing characters to use items - like chairs, beds and sofas - without getting on top of each other, and for these items to have the concept of “available spaces”. A single chair might have one space for a Parafolk to sit down, while a sofa might have two, or three. This is all well and good, but Paralives has resizable items, so we needed for the game to allow as many characters to sit down as it would make sense, considering the size of the item. Consider the following scenario;
The “Nowhere to sit down :(“ error text is temporary, but Mr Mustache really feels that way.
What do you do in this case? Well, if you are using a resizable item, like this bench here, you can just stretch it out and make more space! We’ve shown this functionality a while back, and we’re pretty happy to finally connect it to our interaction systems!
Resizing an item is still just as easy! Now this bench can accommodate nine people easily!
Everyone gets to a different spot on the bench. I can see plenty of future improvements to this system, but so far so good!
Everyone is waiting so patiently! Are they in line for something, or is it just a day that feels like hanging out on a bench?
There are a ton of small moving pieces that must be taken into account while making a game and this is one of these! I’m glad we got that working :) Have a great weekend everybody! Jérémie out!
Paint Walls Really Fast
Painting walls one by one can be relaxing.
In this GIF, I’m clicking on each individual wall to paint my room green.
However, when you have a huge house to paint and you want to be fast, you need more efficient tools! That’s why Alejandro added the ability to hold the shift key while painting a wall to affect an entire room with a single click. Here’s a demo:
Builders will save a lot of time using that shift-click feature!
That's it for today, take care!
Alex
Comments
Am i the only one who notice that an animation is missing? It's when the paras are going to sitt down they don't turn around before they're sitting down. I hope you understand what i mean.
Sara Fluttershylover
2023-04-22 22:01:20 +0000 UTCIt could be useful in build mode when resizing an object to show some form of visualisation to indicate how many Paras can interact with the object, or ‘sit down’ in this instance, not sure if that’s something in the works yet?
Danielle Kappen
2023-03-06 14:29:04 +0000 UTCOh that's a good idea, there is a mod for the Sims that adds an influenceable preference to either exclusivity in romantic relationships, non-exclusivity, or indifference to it. I think that seems like a good route, if polyamory is an option.
samber
2023-02-26 23:03:52 +0000 UTCYeah, I think having a max amount of progress you can make in a day and banks to a longer-term relationship meter. It can't be too easy. Also, more casual relationships are fine but maybe they don't have the same buffers. I definitely want personalities to matter in compatibility. I also thing relationships should degrade when you don't work on them
lis1273
2023-02-25 01:47:31 +0000 UTCThere's pros and cons to both, n land having those present could create variation within paras as opposed to exclusion from either
Elizabeth
2023-02-24 05:02:02 +0000 UTCI love this idea, and I wanna add that it would be interesting if there were a sort of relationship conversation section that would include "Ask sexual orientation" or "Ask to join relationship". And that conversation could go over any number of ways... A Para could express willingness, feel meh about it, or became angry depending on their selected traits/preferences.
Grouch
2023-02-21 15:50:41 +0000 UTCFirst of all, the resizable bench got me excited and hype up for this game. Second, I wonder how the paras chooses where to sit: is it because its closest to them and no one have chosen to sit on that part of the bench, does it factor if their partner/family/friends have an available seat next to them etc
Maine Asprey
2023-02-21 02:00:10 +0000 UTCI like how relationship system works in Sims 2 so it could work similarly in Paralives. And so wide benches Parafolks could sit on without caring about social distancing at all. 😄
Stermatical
2023-02-20 20:06:16 +0000 UTCI just have to say how in love I am with the diversity of seated Paras in that bench example. Styles, textures, heights, sizes... it's really incredible what the team has been able to accomplish. The still makes me think of average people just sitting in the waiting room of a doctor's office. That one picture gives a sense that the game's world is fully fleshed out and real, it's awesome. I'm an author and my fingers are itching so badly to get my hands on this game just for the Parabuilding alone - I'm going to create every one of my major characters in this game!
PinkLyon
2023-02-20 02:30:04 +0000 UTCI can see events/ festivals/ classes/ clubs/ bars or cafes to be a good way to expand social circles. In special events that you are invited or attending, it could be easier to develop relationships since you are gathered by either a mutual or common interest and if you see (and interact with them) on a regular basis you would become either a strong acquaintance or friend. Also I can see some in some house parties the character with an introvert trait become friends with the house pet (if the house pet has a friendly personality, they might be a little unsure of you since you have entered their territory or ignore you completely)
Sarah
2023-02-20 01:51:18 +0000 UTCHow will relationships impact your characters every day? well, this should really depend on the type of character we created in my opinion! Not all characters should react the same way, this is very important imho. It also depends on how important a certain person is to us. Example: If my character has a crush on someone and tries to relate to them unsuccessfully he will become sad! Or it will be less impactful if he is a loner.
Giaduzza
2023-02-19 22:36:43 +0000 UTCRealistically speaking I think relationships aren't always reciprocal. The most striking example is love, but that's how it works in friendships too. This I think would make the game much more interesting in my opinion with all that goes with it: having reactions like "oh not you again please!" and the other who instead (in case you have an aware character) who suffers from it or who insists on wanting to fraternize with the person who does not correspond to him wondering why this rejects our interactions. Obviously everything should be based on COMPATIBILITY between characters. (keyword!)
Giaduzza
2023-02-19 22:33:33 +0000 UTCI like the quests/favors, but as an introvert I'm not keen on being rewarded for the number of friends since this would excluding certain Paras from taking part in that part of gameplay. It would be better to be rewarded for the quality of friendship or to have a mechanic that grants you better gifts based on relationship level. Having a few close friends gives a few valuable things, a lot of casual friends gives a number of less valuable things and putting in the work to maintain several close friendships gives lots of valuable things. Of course, that work could include doing favors like baking a 2-tier cake.
BonaparteBardithion .
2023-02-19 21:06:23 +0000 UTCProbably a certain amount per segment + maybe a base price.
BonaparteBardithion .
2023-02-19 20:59:25 +0000 UTCWill there be an option to have polyamorous Paras and relationships?
samber
2023-02-19 18:08:49 +0000 UTCI think there should be relationship perks rewarded from having multiple friends as well as town rewards for having and maintaining those friendships. Friends could ask favours “quests” like based on your baking or cooking skill “can you make a 2 tier birthday cake for my sons birthday” and you would complete this quest by going over delivering it and enjoying the birthday event as well as building on that relationship.
Luther Duncan
2023-02-19 09:35:28 +0000 UTCAwesome work everyone. I love seeing more diverse Paras popping up, like on that bench. :)
Hannah Moody-Goo
2023-02-18 17:01:01 +0000 UTCIs resizing going to cost money? I think it should
GhostR s
2023-02-18 16:54:52 +0000 UTCIt would be great if, in build mode, when resizing an object there is some way of gauging how many Paras can sit, I.e. an invisible outline of dots to represent the places that they are able to sit. Keep up the great work! Also, in the gif, it looks like pulling in one direction also automatically pulls in the other. Is this the standard way of resizing or is a key being held i.e. shift at the same time as dragging?
Timothy
2023-02-18 11:54:58 +0000 UTCWhat is the max length of the seat?
Jordyou23
2023-02-18 10:08:57 +0000 UTCjust because i've now watched the Taking-A-Seat gif a hundred times: at the very end, Sebastian twitches a little, like he's sliding back on his seat. do you know what happened there? it looks really interesting honestly
Sehrys
2023-02-18 06:59:36 +0000 UTCI wonder if it'd be possible if there's no room or seats available for paras to sit down somewhere, if a para with a certain trait can get up and offer their seat to them out of kindness?
S&M Gonzalez
2023-02-18 05:07:13 +0000 UTCand question about resizing: will there be any hotkeys to toggle where the central point is? If you press alt + the right sphere you could pull just that side. Like in photoshop/illustrator resizing tools!
Luna
2023-02-18 04:38:57 +0000 UTCi loved the sims 2's week summary each sim would give i still don't understand the parameters but i still love to hear my sims' thoughts haha
Luna
2023-02-18 04:37:19 +0000 UTCyou know, I actually really like the Para's thought being visible... Makes the personality pop! I can see different flavour texts like: "chicken again? I miss mom's cooking..." "I should call Lexa" Or stuff like "I can't reach that floor :("
Luna
2023-02-18 04:36:30 +0000 UTCbut i suppose this is one of those easily moddable things :)
Luna
2023-02-18 04:33:45 +0000 UTCalternatively, an icon of a heart, star or whatever else could also represent gain or loss
Luna
2023-02-18 04:33:12 +0000 UTCThe basics of it is that the object has a size and each seat also has a size. As such, if we set the object to be three times the size of one seat, then that'll make 3 seats to be able to sit on!
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 22:04:39 +0000 UTCThank you so much for the nice words! We really appreciate your support❤️
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 22:01:17 +0000 UTCHehe thanks Stewby! Sorry about Moustache man ;)
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 21:59:04 +0000 UTCThat's a really good point!
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 21:57:33 +0000 UTCThank you so much for your support, Terry! 🥰
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 21:57:18 +0000 UTCThat would be a great feature! Splitting a wall and customizing it is not planned at this time but we hope to include other kinds of options to make unique walls without the technical challenges of subdividing them!
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 21:56:50 +0000 UTCI like the idea of numerical values especially if there are goals/wants/whatever related to relationships. I am impatient and it bugs me when I'm playing TS4 for example and can't tell exactly how many relationship points there are to go before my Sims become friends!
Megan Santucci
2023-02-17 21:20:37 +0000 UTC😂
Megan Santucci
2023-02-17 21:18:07 +0000 UTCI am imagining for example an open-concept floor plan where the kitchen has a different color from the dining/living room. But maybe we want to paint striped walls! 😂
Megan Santucci
2023-02-17 21:12:41 +0000 UTCRandom suggestion: can we maybe get "invisible walls" or a wall border item that we can use if we only want to paint part of a straight stretch of wall?
Megan Santucci
2023-02-17 21:07:19 +0000 UTCOops that would be unfortunate 😅
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 20:58:42 +0000 UTCHi Jenni! Thank you so much for sharing your suggestions! At this time, we aren't planning on creating a wallpaper/wood slider on walls but it could be a great feature to think of in the future :)
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 20:56:12 +0000 UTCBeing a builder in games at heart I will always be impressed with the effortless sizing and resizing of objects which I first witnessed in an early concept video of Paralives when it was Alex alone. I was immediately sold!! I had not seen this build feature in any other games at that time and even now when other games are adding this build feature as coming, I'll always remember that Alex was the first. I also loved the way the Paras moved so smoothly among themselves without interrupting each other's paths without jerks and stops. Wow!! Seeing this I'm convinced they will make it to the 'kitchen' sink to was dishes! 🤭 And lastly, I'm encouraged to see the wall painting possibilities and confident there are more build features yet to come with wall heights, diagonal walls and half tiles, wall patterns, and walks fitting attaching well to other walls, roofs, (etc.), to name just a few. As a player, I want to thank the awesome Paralives team for always keeping us in mind and in the know!!
tey711
2023-02-17 20:12:05 +0000 UTCGoing off your idea I wonder if paras will have the ability to have group arguments or argue with more than one para. Like two parents arguing with their child for example, or a couple arguing with a neighbor at the same time.
S&M Gonzalez
2023-02-17 19:16:17 +0000 UTCI wish there will be more topics to talk about, I want parafolks randomly kiss or hug each other when they are couple. Also want them to have fears. fears about reject for example
potatobuttcheek
2023-02-17 18:39:35 +0000 UTCOk I'm sorry but why is it so satisfying to watch everyone go to their seat ? Add some music from Andrei and this is my new nighttime ASMR ! All jokes aside (sure, "jokes"), I'm really curious about the innovations you're hinting at. Personally in That Other Game™ 4, the relationships are really the thing I'm interested in the least. It could sound counterintuitive but it's in huge part (though not entirely) because you end up being able to game the system more than enjoy the interactions that make the relationships. Relationships would be interesting if they had an emotional impact on the player, but it's not the case in that game, it's purely mechanic imho. But that doesn't mean it can't be done ! So I'm looking forward to seeing what happens with Paralives. And I'm hoping against all hope that Paras will also have a relationship... with themselves ^_^; https://www.patreon.com/posts/71923475
ladyteruki
2023-02-17 18:00:53 +0000 UTCPainting whole rooms, wall sections (and hopefully single wall segments) looks great. Highlight for me, has to be the pathfinding... so much better a demonstration of this than the maze to be honest. All the paras finding their own seat was just phenomenal. Low point... moustache man in clothes. Boohiss. Thanks for the post as always. :)
Stewby
2023-02-17 17:35:00 +0000 UTCPerhaps something more generic like having an icon represent money, relationship, kids, etc that you can select in the dialogue menu. Then maybe for players who would like a little more control/detail, make it so they can have an advanced menu to type it in exactly.
BreakingGaia
2023-02-17 17:19:56 +0000 UTCi was commenting about this on the discord... i am threatening a protest. :D
Stewby
2023-02-17 17:12:14 +0000 UTCNice pathfinding in the bench gif! Although I assume the turning animation is still work in progress. Question: How exactly are seats for resizable objects determined by the game? Do you assign a seat interaction point to the "base section" that gets duplicated during resizing or does the game somehow calculates available seats by itself based on the size of the object. (Asking because of future modding)
Magda Wieke
2023-02-17 17:11:39 +0000 UTCI would love if poly relationships was an option. Also if inheritance can be adjusted and extended family lined tracked with labels. The cool great aunt giving her fortune to her neices and nephews.
Adelia Creates
2023-02-17 17:07:39 +0000 UTCIt will now be more fun to fill in a room in one time! thank you !
Lucie Baha
2023-02-17 17:02:49 +0000 UTCaww Mr Moustache lost his trademark look! i vote for giving him back his classic boxers¬hing style ✨ (the pathfinding looks fantastic by the way, as does everything else. excited for the next update!)
Sehrys
2023-02-17 16:56:53 +0000 UTCThis bench would work great for the guests of a wedding
AyLaHa
2023-02-17 16:44:12 +0000 UTCWe're glad you liked this post, thank you for your support!
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 16:39:22 +0000 UTCThank you Sarah! 😊
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 16:27:56 +0000 UTCThank you so much Becky🥰
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 16:26:30 +0000 UTCI love this idea, great suggestion! :)
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 16:24:52 +0000 UTCI was a little afraid the bench would break without an additional middle piece to support it in the centre xD
chantal99
2023-02-17 16:24:32 +0000 UTCWow I never thought about this, but great idea.
TnT_Terry
2023-02-17 16:20:03 +0000 UTCgreat job guys! I'm looking forward to seeing the development of relationships!
Sarah Rodrigues
2023-02-17 16:18:57 +0000 UTCNow this is an excellent idea ;)
TnT_Terry
2023-02-17 16:17:30 +0000 UTCIf possible half walls would be good... so you can customise bottom half as wood for example and top half as wallpaper or paint I know in theory there may be a "wallpaper/paint" option which does that as an effect but to fully mash things around if possible that'd be amazing. It'd also be a step for like split level rooms where the "wallpaper" changes between wall height levels so not even necessarily half and half but having a slider half way up the wall height (or option to click to add a wallpaper height slider for multiple levels such as in a multifloor stairwell) and then you click between them to change each height section and can slide the height sectio sliders to change how much of the overall wall height is covered by each type of "wallpaper"
ZombieZmaj (Jenni)
2023-02-17 16:16:23 +0000 UTCWow you are all coming along with all different areas rather quickly now. Just be sure to give yourselves a well deserved break now and again, to keep those creative juices flowing as well as a fresh outlook ;) You are all truly rocking this game, I can't wait for future updates, but I am patient for release because I'd rather you all take your time to get things right, unlike a certain company we all know ;) I thank the stars above for Alex taking the reins all those years ago to begin the process of finally giving this genre some solid competition! It may not replace the good times we all had and some still do in that certain franchise, but I sure can see this becoming bigger and better down the road of success! Keep up the amazing work team Para <3 Hugs to all <3
TnT_Terry
2023-02-17 16:13:55 +0000 UTCIm glad everyone had somewhere to sit in the end 🥰😂 amazing work as always team! 👏🏻✨
Becky
2023-02-17 15:49:52 +0000 UTCLove how all the Paras moved as a jumble of people from all directions seamlessly to their seats without problem. Can't wait to see how the relationships work!
Fran Smith
2023-02-17 15:49:10 +0000 UTCare there options to paint just a part of a wall, or is it only possible to paint the whole wall at once, I think instead of us drawing many separate wall parts so we can paint the different parts individually the game should have logic to split a wall when the wall is over a "tile" wide, so for example, you have a wall that is "4,5 tiles" wide in the grid, each tile would separate so placing individual wallpaper in tiles would be possible much like in The Sims, and for the half tile left for example, make it so if it doesn't reach a full tile of space, it merges with the full tile next to it, making one of the wall parts 1,5 tiles wide, or if that is too complicated to do, consider a wall splitting tool, which you could use the scroll wheel on the mouse to chose how many parts you want a wall to be split, for example 5 parts, and then hovering over a wall and clicking on it it would divide the wall in 5 parts for individual wallpaper placement, think of it as the "Loop Cut" tool in Blender, for example.
Pvydrow
2023-02-17 15:48:49 +0000 UTCI love this idea! That's definitely a feature that I miss in TS4, having to queue social interactions back to back to keep the conversion going can feel very tedious. We'll be keeping this in mind :)
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 15:45:39 +0000 UTCThat's a good point, definitely something to keep in mind!
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 15:43:12 +0000 UTCIkr??? Not a single one stopped to stomp their feet and complain about a blocked path. Stellar pathfinding!
Gaby Fraga
2023-02-17 15:42:50 +0000 UTCThank you so much for the kind words!
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 15:42:28 +0000 UTCAww that's a really cute observation🥰
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 15:42:03 +0000 UTCWith resizing furniture that you already bought, I think this should incur a fee of paradimes. Otherwise, you could technically add additional seating in your house free of charge!
Michael
2023-02-17 15:41:05 +0000 UTCI think relationships should have a numerical value in the UI so you can easily keep track of how it changes or decays over time. Perhaps when a successful/unsuccessful social is performed, you could see a floating +N or -N above the paras' heads indicating the relationship increased or decreased by N value. This communicates useful information to the player
Michael
2023-02-17 15:39:44 +0000 UTCThank you! 😊
Gab (Paralives)
2023-02-17 15:34:48 +0000 UTCOk, the whole resizing thing is stellar, but I'm more impressed with how the paras all walked around each other.
BreakingGaia
2023-02-17 15:26:10 +0000 UTCThis is a neat idea! We're always thinking about how to take things to new interesting places! I could see this being a bit overwhelming if you have multiple Paras in different arguments all at once and you have a bunch of text boxes to decide things about, but it's pretty fun to think about!
Jérémie Tessier
2023-02-17 15:25:07 +0000 UTCSpeaking of conversation between Paras, could we have some option to just socialise without having to choose each interaction. An option for : "have a (friendly, mean, fun, etc) discussion" that cue interaction for us ? Like in TS3 and I think TS2. I would make socialising less tedious. Thanks for the update! Can't wait to learn more about your designs choices.
Yunahara
2023-02-17 15:23:49 +0000 UTCI like how Maggie, Marvin, and Sebastian just happened to sit together. It's like they've gotten close from all this testing.
Seltzer Bot
2023-02-17 15:18:35 +0000 UTCI think it would be pretty good to have a way to decide how you want some interactions to happen. For example, when having an argument a text box would appear to let you decide what's the fighting about and it would affect the moodlets or something like that. It would let players build better and a little more precise stories
Una_simple_ kpoper
2023-02-17 15:17:40 +0000 UTCLove the updates 😃
I kinda forGoT
2023-02-17 15:09:24 +0000 UTC
