# Paralives



## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Making this thread and going to bump it as updates are announced. It's an indie project life simulator similar to The Sims series.































Twitter page:

https://twitter.com/paralivesgame?lang=en

Discord server:

https://discord.gg/3mzkYAr

Article:

https://www.gameinformer.com/2019/08/15/why-paralives-is-looking-to-be-the-sims-new-rival

Fan Site:

https://paraliveshub.com/


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Being a huge fans of the original Sims games growing up and having refrained from playing the later Sims games due to it adopting more and more of a profit/cash grab structure, I am really looking forward to this. I really hope this game happens and succeeds, as it seems more in-depth. I first heard about this game a while back, no clue it's really taking off.
Definitely gonna give this a try if the hardware requirement aren't that high, since I am not going to want to get a better specs computer for a game.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Blue Dino said:


> Being a huge fans of the original Sims games growing up and having refrained from playing the later Sims games due to it adopting more and more of a profit/cash grab structure, I am really looking forward to this. I really hope this game happens and succeeds, as it seems more in-depth. I first heard about this game a while back, no clue it's really taking off.
> Definitely gonna give this a try if the hardware requirement aren't that high, since I am not going to want to get a better specs computer for a game.


Yeah I've played all of them now, though I didn't plan to play 4 but then last May they released the base game for free temporarily I guess to suck people into paying for the packs. It's like a £500 game now I think lol? All the expansion packs for The Sims 4 (the actual expansion packs not game packs or the other packs,) cost more than any previous ones have with considerably less content. I don't like how they've adopted the gambling/social media model. It's not the only game to do that though obviously a lot of the gaming industry has been going that way for a while now with pay to win stuff and microtransactions. Was very stripped back at release though slightly less bad now with various free updates they made.

I think The Sims 2 was probably the best one, huge leap forward innovatively with aging and everything. I remember reading about it in a PC magazine just before it came out and was really excited. The Sims 3 was very buggy and basically unplayable without a third party story progression mod which is pretty **** really since that mod maker gets no money (well maybe from donations.) But the open world neighbourhood was still interesting, and various customisation options. Sims 4 on release was pretty much Sims 1.5 which was not great lol I mean this review sums it up well, but yeah they added back in some things later.

But yeah I'm not happy with various EA decisions, so I'm pretty excited about this as well which is rare for me these days. It's still early in development atm though. So I'm trying not to No Man's Sky it mentally since it is just one guy and a couple of artists he recently hired.

Also the fact that such a popular title had a genre monopoly for such a long amount of time with essentially no competition is insane in itself.


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## Were (Oct 16, 2006)

I liked the first The Sims when it came out, we were playing it with my brother and a family friend who was in his twenties, we each had our character, I think I died in a fire.

Also:


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Persephone The Dread said:


> Yeah I've played all of them now, though I didn't plan to play 4 but then last May they released the base game for free temporarily I guess to suck people into paying for the packs. It's like a £500 game now I think lol? All the expansion packs for The Sims 4 (the actual expansion packs not game packs or the other packs,) cost more than any previous ones have with considerably less content. I don't like how they've adopted the gambling/social media model. It's not the only game to do that though obviously a lot of the gaming industry has been going that way for a while now with pay to win stuff and microtransactions. Was very stripped back at release though slightly less bad now with various free updates they made.
> 
> I think The Sims 2 was probably the best one, huge leap forward innovatively with aging and everything. I remember reading about it in a PC magazine just before it came out and was really excited. The Sims 3 was very buggy and basically unplayable without a third party story progression mod which is pretty **** really since that mod maker gets no money (well maybe from donations.) But the open world neighbourhood was still interesting, and various customisation options. Sims 4 on release was pretty much Sims 1.5 which was not great lol I mean this review sums it up well, but yeah they added back in some things later.
> 
> ...


1 and 2 were what I really played. I played 3 for a bit, but the loading times put me off. Seeing all of the expansion and stuff packs put me off more and I stopped playing. Also it was around then I kind of got more busy with life stuff stopped playing games too in general. I forgot until you mention EA owns that franchise (not maxis), so that might also explain with their later cash grab and excessive stuff packs model.

Yeah the pay-to-win or get ahead model with games is bad. Fortunately that is around the time I stopped playing games. It's nice now also with the huge wave of many indie games now coming out. And also now I'm at an age where I don't really care too much for the excessive smooth graphics. The simple or throwback graphics I actually adore more.


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## Tetragammon (Jun 2, 2015)

Wow, this looks promising. 

I've been waiting for a new life simulation game for years now, ever since Will Wright left Maxis. I've played The Sims series since the first one, and my favorite was 3. I was really disappointed with The Sims 4, especially upon release when it was so bare-bones and missing so many basic features like pools, basements and toddlers. I agree with Persephone; the fact that The Sims has gone virtually unchallenged is ridiculous, especially since 4 came out and disappointed so many gamers. And I absolutely hate the whole DLC thing -- it's gotten WAY out of hand nowadays. I've spent way too much money on both 3 and 4, and I don't even have most of the "stuff packs". 

I wonder what the characters will look like in Paralives, though; one video I watched said they're going to be cartoony, which will probably kill most of my interest. I like realistic characters for life simulators; I was disappointed with the more cartoony style of The Sims 4. Although too much realism is also a problem, I think.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Blue Dino said:


> 1 and 2 were what I really played. I played 3 for a bit, but the loading times put me off. Seeing all of the expansion and stuff packs put me off more and I stopped playing. Also it was around then I kind of got more busy with life stuff stopped playing games too in general. I forgot until you mention EA owns that franchise (not maxis), so that might also explain with their later cash grab and excessive stuff packs model.
> 
> Yeah the pay-to-win or get ahead model with games is bad. Fortunately that is around the time I stopped playing games. It's nice now also with the huge wave of many indie games now coming out. And also now I'm at an age where I don't really care too much for the excessive smooth graphics. The simple or throwback graphics I actually adore more.


The loading times in 3 could get pretty insane. I built a new computer recently and have played 3 on it since and it was a lot faster but still pretty slow compared to Sims 4 which loads in like seconds for me.

I played the first Sims a lot on console (and a few of the other console games - bustin' out and the Urbz game,) but not much on PC. I had the base game for The Sims 1 + makin' magic but it only worked on the family PC we had at the time for a day before it stopped working and since I was a child and my parents didn't know anything about computers and such there wasn't anything I could do to make it work, really that computer probably just didn't meet hardware requirements. Then later when we got a new PC I started playing The Sims 2.

It's a shame though because that expansion seemed really cool, I think if you had Unleashed as well (though I didn't,) you could also get dragons.



Tetragammon said:


> Wow, this looks promising.
> 
> I've been waiting for a new life simulation game for years now, ever since Will Wright left Maxis. I've played The Sims series since the first one, and my favorite was 3. I was really disappointed with The Sims 4, especially upon release when it was so bare-bones and missing so many basic features like pools, basements and toddlers. I agree with Persephone; the fact that The Sims has gone virtually unchallenged is ridiculous, especially since 4 came out and disappointed so many gamers. And I absolutely hate the whole DLC thing -- it's gotten WAY out of hand nowadays. I've spent way too much money on both 3 and 4, and I don't even have most of the "stuff packs".
> 
> I wonder what the characters will look like in Paralives, though; one video I watched said they're going to be cartoony, which will probably kill most of my interest. I like realistic characters for life simulators; I was disappointed with the more cartoony style of The Sims 4. Although too much realism is also a problem, I think.


I'm curious about that too. I was put off by the cartoony style of The Sims 4 at first although it grew on me later, and one upside to The Sims 4 for me was the increased customisation options in CAS so I'm wondering what this will be like. The environment art style has changed a bit a couple of times, so it doesn't seem like they've completely settled on one but I'm going to assume it won't be hyper realistic.

But at the moment I don't think they've worked on character stuff much at all since he only recently hired some artists. I found a video a while back that I don't think has been posted on their official channel where he was modifying a duck but that seemed very preliminary (I mean obviously the duck model won't be playable in game either.) I imagine people will probably create custom content in different styles though anyway.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Persephone The Dread said:


> I played the first Sims a lot on console (and a few of the other console games - bustin' out and the Urbz game,) but not much on PC. I had the base game for The Sims 1 + makin' magic but it only worked on the family PC we had at the time for a day before it stopped working and since I was a child and my parents didn't know anything about computers and such there wasn't anything I could do to make it work, really that computer probably just didn't meet hardware requirements. Then later when we got a new PC I started playing The Sims 2.
> 
> It's a shame though because that expansion seemed really cool, I think if you had Unleashed as well (though I didn't,) you could also get dragons.


I remember I think I only played the base game of Sims 1 and two other expansions. Sims 2 got the complete collection for my birthday from my sister and we played the heck out of it. So I had the most fond memories of playing that the most of the franchise. Sims 3 I also got it from her as a bday gift, but I only played a little before I stopped.

I also remembered playing Sim City 4 a bit and was really disappointed.

The last sims game I really played was the one that was released on mobile devices I think last year, which I think I only played twice and then uninstalled. But it felt like it was a pretty cool game though up to that point.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

I've been waiting for a more significant update before bumping this thread, but that might take a while so will just post the current ones posted on twitter:











__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1214257814048296965





I thought this was interesting:

"If procedural animations end up working well, I think gradual aging might be possible. Experimenting with it at the moment. But don't get your hopes too high on this" - Alex Masse, Paralives Discord, Off-Topic Category

https://paraliveshub.com/paralives-may-have-gradual-aging/

Also lol'd at the quote attribution.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

EA have started whispering unofficially about 'The Sims 5' they're definitely threatened haha. The Sims 4 never really hit a peak and they already seem to be moving on. Think it's going to be multiplayer though, and will likely suck. It seems the Sims 4 started off as an online game (which explains a lot about how empty it kind of feels,) but then they moved away from that at the last minute.






The hype on this is still a bit too much though this comment on that headphone video says it all lol:

Color wheel : exists 
Sims 4: CANCELLED

But based on the No Man's Sky story I have more faith in smaller indie developers to fix their problems eventually even if they **** up initially:






I don't have that faith in EA.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Still no gameplay (or parafolk though a hair video was released recently,) but this is interesting:








> We'd like to introduce you to one of our Para, Maggie. She has an incredibly big passion for astronomy and loves music, reading and roller skating. When she graduated a few years ago, she moved in with her cat in this loft that she decorated herself. Also, Maggie had this huge custom bookcase made to put all of her astronomy books in!


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## El Psy Kongrooo (Dec 26, 2017)

Very interesting indeed


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Apparently they will be revealing the character models soon on the 19th, there's a shadow in this video:


__ https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1261325069168644096


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

lol was posted 10 minutes ago so I remembered at the right time:






&#55357;&#56898; no emojis work on this forum ¬_¬ https://emojipedia.org/slightly-smiling-face/ I did the advanced mode trick not sure if it will stay now it wasn't before it kept resetting to question marks.

I like that the proportions seem fairly realistic, I was most worried about that tbh. Still want to know if you can change facial features. Cel shading might grow on me but can probably be modded anyway. I think some people are unhappy with this but tbh I'm mostly concerned about gameplay because it's an area The Sims 4 was completely lacking in. Would also be curious about procedural ageing.






lol 'reign the autism in.' I had to google if she had autism (she does,) because everyone now is using autism as an adjective lol. It's kind of sad that people can't be excited.






lol top comment on this video:



> Sims 4 has really lowered everyone's expectations


It's true though.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Nobody cares but new video:






I wonder if you can live in the lighthouse or go in it, that would be cool.


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Every time I see this thread bumped, I always thought it's finally getting a release date. 

If this ends up being a monthly subscription paid game, I can't see myself wanting to play it.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

@Blue Dino

I don't think they're close to release yet but it won't be subscription based. They were still looking to expand their team earlier this month.

They said they'd be including free updates after release but might have some DLC (but don't plan on many.)


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## Blue Dino (Aug 17, 2013)

Ok sounds like there's still a long way to go. Single purchase is definitely ideal then, if it ends up being good.


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## Tetragammon (Jun 2, 2015)

I haven't kept up with this game since my last post, but wow, that character looks good! I'm actually a fan of cel shading so that works for me. I'm SO glad they have a height slider and I hope that doesn't go away -- the lack of height customization is one thing I hate about The Sims. I'd love to see what kind of customization options will be available for the face, and I hope they don't cap the proportion sliders too much; I hate that it's basically impossible to create a female with a flat chest in TS4.

This game continues to impress; I really hope it's as good as it looks. And can you imagine gradual aging? That'd be awesome.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

@Tetragammon

yeah the height slider is cool since they didn't have the option to adjust height in previous Sims games and in the sims 4 teens and adults are the same height because they made them last minute. Although I'm not sure how it will work with animations so we'll see.

I notice that some of the clothing in The sims 4 like the tops seem to have chest outlines because they didn't alter the shading or maybe clothing meshes. Like if you make a male sim and add female clothing they will sometimes appear to have breasts despite being flat chested in the body model. Here's a photo someone on reddit took that kind of illustrates that I just found:



















(obviously they unlocked clothing for everyone in a later patch so when they were first making some of these outfits they probably didn't think about it before the patch.)

I can't remember now but maybe if you use male t-shirts on a female Sim they might seem more flat chested. I downloaded a Sim that had a female body and seemed pretty flat because they were wearing male clothes and I did make one once with male clothes and slim and I think they were fairly flat.

I just had a look and you can get them pretty flat like it's very close but to get them super flat I think what you have to do weirdly is give them a feminine frame, but then select the male icon that way they end up with a really small female frame and can't have breasts for some reason. You can then change their voice and all the other settings to female, just weird that they have to have male pronouns to do that (I thought the Sim I downloaded was female but they have male pronouns but other stuff is listed female.) I think it might be that they have to wear a bra if they are listed as female and there's probably shading on the bra. Also actually just found this cheat:



> there is a command for that! traits.equip_trait trait_Breasts_ForceOff will remove breasts from your female sim! theres also traits.equip_trait trait_Breasts_ForceOn for your male sims if you have a need for a sim of yours to have breasts


I can't believe that's a real cheat lmao. So after you type it in if you modify the sim in cas they will have male flat chest options but still have a bra and can be female. So guess you can do that and it removes them from female Sims. I don't really know why the option isn't just there in the first place though. The Sim I tested this with had a male t-shirt on though I imagine the same problem with the female clothing shading will still come up if they wear certain tops like with male Sims. (You might already know about this cheat I dunno.)

Also yeah gradual ageing would be cool.


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## Tetragammon (Jun 2, 2015)

@Persephone The Dread

Wow I didn't know about that cheat either; I should give it a try sometime. I dunno, just the way technically "female" sims look in some of the male clothing is kind of bleh -- even with very small breasts there's still some shading that doesn't make sense.










This is one of my favorite sims, Alex -- she's female but wears male clothes. I always hated the weird shading across the chest area. Though I guess it was unavoidable since they didn't add in the option for females to wear male clothes until well after release.

I just hope the creators of Paralives do better than EA at actually FIXING the bugs in their game. I use very few mods but still get the weirdest bugs all the time, especially concerning toddlers. Which I guess makes sense since they were a patch job post-release, but still frustrating. Still, I'm excited for this.


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## Persephone The Dread (Aug 28, 2010)

Still no gameplay gameplay but this is pretty cool. I like all the sofa options:


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