alexmasse
patreon
Togetherness: Make your Parafolks do Anything as a Group in Paralives
🕑 Added 2023-09-22 16:25:34 +0000 UTCHi, Alex here!
One big design goal for us with Paralives is to support many different playstyles. That’s why the game lets you play with a single character, with a big and busy household or anything in-between. When we were thinking of gameplay styles based around multiple characters and making them socialize, one key element was very important to us: We want a feeling of togetherness in the game so it should be very easy for players to make their characters do almost any interaction as a group.
How it Works
At the start of this animated GIF, only Sebastian is selected. Then, I simply click and drag my mouse cursor to create a selection rectangle and select everybody.
In the interface at the bottom, you can also shift+click characters to choose those you want selected. The white circles under each character indicate those who are selected but this might still be changed.
Doing a group interaction is super simple and quick: just select your characters and click on an object to perform any interaction, just like you would with only one character selected.
⚠️ Note: In today’s Patreon post, you might see characters turn around too suddenly and walk through each other. We will be working on making these movements more fluid!
More Examples
Our goal is to make every interaction in the game doable as a solo character or as a group. We might not be able to do it for 100% of the interactions but so far, we haven’t seen many cases where won’t be able to support it.
Walk somewhere as a group.
Do push-ups as a group.
Use the toilet as a group. In that case, as you can see in this GIF where I accelerated the time, they will take turns using the toilet while the rest hangout together while waiting. If there are multiple toilets nearby, they will each use a different one.
Or simply chat as a group.
More examples that are planned:
- 🍝 Making a family eat dinner together at the same time will be very easy with the system.
- 🌱 Selecting multiple characters and asking them to water the plants will make each Para find different plants to water, completing the task faster than doing it solo.
- 🛌 Clicking on a bed and selecting the Sleep interaction while having multiple Paras selected will make each Para go sleep in their own bed so you don’t need to order every Para individually.
- 🎮 Play a game together as a group.
- 💦 Go swim in the pool together as a group.
- ➕ And much much more!
Interacting with Townies
Everything explained in this Patreon post also works to interact with other characters from the town that are not in your household and that you do not control. You can use the selection tool to select them along with your own character and choose an interaction to perform. It’s possible that these characters refuse though because they have their own life and their own autonomy.
On the left are the two characters from my own household and on the right, we have two townie characters that I do not control. Don’t ask a very hungry Townie Parafolk to dance though, they will probably refuse!
Props to Richard for all his work on the features showcased today! We’re really confident this will allow players to easily perform interactions as a group in Paralives, strengthening the feeling of togetherness that is really important in our vision of a life simulation game. 🤼✨
Have a great rest of the day!
Alex
Edit - February 7, 2024: This post is now public, feel free to share it!
Comments
Crystal Derington
Love this! In the sims people would walk in the bathroom while I'm using it!
Marisa (gfvsims)
I love this so much! 👏
Cece
my jaw actually dropped at the toilet thing. such a small detail but i adore it
Hannah Moody-Goo
This is so awesome! It seems like such a simple idea but it changes so much for gameplay. Not having to click each individual person to do the same command is a huge help!
Anna
This is so simple yet genius. I love everything about it!
Yassou 야
I’m so impressed by the intelligence and love you guys put into this game 😍 it’s going to be the dream game ever !!
Alex Massé
Thank you! The white circle is a placeholder marker and will be reworked or changed for something else
Yvette Lopez
ESSENTIAL, thanks for adding this! Although I’m not the biggest fan of the white circles. Maybe just something on their portraits instead?
Backwards_cat
This is absolutely wonderful and essential. I always avoid playing weddings, parties and group events in The Sims 4 due to the all the insanity occuring as soon as you try to control more than 2-3 sims at a time. Wedding ceremonies with guests suddenly getting up to "troll teh forums", movie hang-outs with no sims actually sitting down to watch the film and so on. Thank you for focusing on the AI in general and flow of gameplay, thank you for all your work Para-team, you give us hope.
Leopoldine
That's amazing! I think it would be nice if we could also choose if the interaction has to be executed now or later. For example, I could tell my parafolks to eat together right now, or simply add this action to their list so that everyone would finish what they are doing first. Same thing for solo actions.
Jane
Holy Cow. This is so simple and obvious and perfect.
ZLoves
it's the simplest task on earth to us mere humans, but having Parafolk ✨wait✨ in LINE to use the bathroom?!?!?! And whilst waiting, they were just shootin' the breeze?!?! Take ALL MY MONEY.
