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How Needs and Wants Work in Paralives
🕑 Added 2023-05-12 16:16:26 +0000 UTCHi, Alex here!
Today’s post is all about the needs and wants in Paralives which I’m pretty glad to finally give you more details about. But first, congratulations to Alejandro who has completed his internship and will keep working on the project as a game programmer and game designer! You might have already seen some of his work on Paralives in past Patreon posts and he is currently working on important live mode features. Exciting!
Parafolks Expressing their Thoughts
In other life simulation games, you might be used to seeing bars indicating the status of a character’s needs like hunger, sleep and hygiene. In Paralives, we wanted to do something more dynamic. Instead of showing a list of need bars for your characters in addition to a list of wants and emotions, we thought it would be great to show a single list of the current thoughts of your Parafolks.
The thoughts of the selected Parafolk are displayed on the left of the screen. The style of the interface and icons is not final.
This list of thoughts is dynamic so it only shows the current wants and the needs that, well, *need* to be addressed. The needs that are fully met and that are currently not a problem will not be shown in the interface.
What we like about this concept is:
- 💗 Flexibility: We could have more than just the 5 or 6 traditional needs. A character with some specific personality traits, for instance, could have whole new needs tailored for them.
- 💗 Simplicity of the interface: Instead of having a complicated and cluttered interface with a section for needs, another for wants, another for emotions and so on, we display everything as thoughts and it’s in the same section of the interface.
- 💗 More personal: You get a more personal connection with your own characters, like you could read their thoughts and then it’s up to you to decide how you can react to them.
Needs Criticality Levels
With needs being shown as thoughts instead of bars, it could be difficult for the player to evaluate if a need has to be addressed now or if they could still wait for a bit. That’s why we display needs differently depending on the urgency.
Various needs at different criticality levels. The more space they take, the more critical they are.
For instance, the bathroom need is displayed as such in the thought list:
- For large chunks of time, when the character doesn’t need to use the bathroom: the need is not displayed at all in the thought list.
- When it’s moderately critical: 💭 “I’ll need to use the bathroom soon”
- When it’s somewhat more critical: 💭 “I need to use the bathroom”
- When it’s critical: 💭 “Bathroom, NOW”
Needs on a Schedule
In real life, some needs like hunger and sleep manifest themselves on a schedule. People are hungry when getting close to typical meal times.
The hunger need has 3 periods in a day and the sleep need has one.
With this system, a need manifests itself at specific times each day. For instance, here’s what will happen around dinner time:
- 🕔 At 5pm, this thought would appear: 💭”I’m starting to get a bit hungry”
- 🕖 At 7pm, it would turn into: 💭”I’m hungry”
- 🕘 At 9pm, it would become: 💭”I’m STARVING!”
- 💀 Sadly, if the player still doesn’t let their character eat, the thought will eventually turn into: 💭”I don’t have much time left. I need food…”
Interesting notes:
- 📝 In the future, we will make it so various elements like personality traits or the current life stage can affect the schedule. A night owl would go to bed later and babies would need to sleep more often, for instance.
- 📝 Because days quickly go by and we don’t want needs to feel like a constant chore in Paralives, we made it so characters can skip a meal before getting hungry. So if you ate breakfast, your characters won’t be hungry until dinner, for instance.
- 📝 Everything shared in this post is easily customizable using the modding tools of the game.
What we like about the concept of needs on a schedule:
- 💗 Clear expectations: Easier for the player to know when to expect their characters to be hungry or sleepy.
- 💗 Group communion: The different characters of your households are more likely to get hungry at the same time which is very convenient when you want them to have a group meal.
Wants
Wants are things that your character wishes for. In Paralives, we dynamically give different wants to your characters. They serve as small objectives that you can fulfill and they are displayed in the thought list, just like needs.
This Parafolks currently has a few wants alongside a need that has to be addressed. The consequences of not taking care of a want are less dramatic though!
An idea that we are testing is making it so if a character really wants something and is obsessed with it, their needs might be put on hold for a while. Anyone else here has been so in love that they forget to eat?
We hope you liked this first look at the needs and wants in Paralives and we’re looking forward to sharing more about this and other live mode features that we are currently working on! ✨
Cheers,
Alex
Edit - February 7, 2024: This post is now public, feel free to share it!
Comments
Mia
Lol
Светлана Корзинкина
wow it's great! I hope in this way parafolks don't start doing push-ups after funerals.
Ali S.
i know this is probably still in development, but will the wants expire after a certain amount of time? will there be any consequences for a want expiring or being deleted by the player (if that becomes an option)?
Lealovescats
I love this way of displaying the needs. I never actually thought about it before but now I'm thinking yeah, why do I need to see that my simulated person doesn't need to go to the bathroom at all times. This way makes more sense to me. I love that you guys think out of the box on these things!
Laura Abraldes Tallón
I really LOVE this system because in that way it is easier to have a schedule and we can focus in the gameplay and not in the needs.
PnuPnu
Would you be able to delay/pause aging in the game?
Kamilizmas
I agree. I think a better approach is giving cooldowns. For example, my para went home from work, took a nap while watching TV, now they won’t fall asleep untill 3AM. Or different foods give different energy levels - a sandwitch will last for 2 hours before the hunger creeps back again, but a full meal will make para satisfied for 4 hours
Natan Peixoto
The only part is don’t like is the hunger and sleep needs being programmed. Different people eat or sleep at different times and not necessarily because of their personalities. Not everyone functions on a schedule, so to me it feels very limiting.
j'adore le concept
Cinderelabaiana
OMG this game can´t stop getting better i´m loving it :D
This is awesome
Danielle Ellis
I like that this system is individual to this game and will provide a unique experience. I don't know it I'll love it. But I don't have to. So I hope you guys don't change it because some people are on the fence.
Danielle Ellis
Sex isn't a biological imperative. So sexual it would be a sexual want, not a need
Please also include sexual needs...don't cater to kids only...it's a game about LIFE! go for 18+ rating if you have to but let us play with life as it is.
boredewil
For me this would be very much inconvenient, I’d like an optional menu to see needs!! A detail like this would turn me off from the game sadly.
tahirah
I love this! It's such a different and thoughtful approach. I don't like that in other simulation games I have to manage needs at weird times such as multiple naps throughout the day and eating at 4am. The integration of the schedule to influence needs is a great thought that I think will help focus on gameplay rather than micromanaging needs at all times. I think adding functionality for routines would be a neat idea to compliment this set up. So that for those that do like to plan their Paras day in advanced it can also relieve a level of micromanagement for those that want it by setting a morning and evening routine such as eating, showering, reading, etc.
Kayleigh
I really love this idea! In TS2 I find I can get a little too absorbed in fulfilling needs before they’re really “needed” and it can become monotonous, but if I wasn’t even seeing those until they actually became important that would really be great!
Katie Evans
Not including indicators for full needs is SO nice. Like, as a person, I don't really think about all of my met needs at the moment. I love the idea of paras getting hungry around the same time as household members. Additionally if you implemented the feature that clicking some needs or wants would automatically cue the action to solve them (especially with bathroom) it would make the game all the more engaging and less tedious!
Bellamii
This is such a cool idea!
Kvisten
This sounds great and dynamic! I want to add a thought that came to mind after reading it though :) It could be nice if the "entries" were collapsible depending on how many wants/needs are displayed at a time and if the player is focusing on something unrelated to the list. I feel like it could become a lot of text fast, and after playing for a while, an icon and colour may be enough to determine what to do. For instance, a red hunger icon may be enough for me to understand the Para needs to eat, but if am uncertain I could always hover over it and read.
Kat
This is so so incredible and intuitive! I love how detail oriented everything is and how thought out the different circumstances could be for players to apply these guidelines for us- but yet still very open and free! Amazing innovation
Megaira
Would babies and toddlers have messages like that too even though they can't talk, or would your adult sims be the ones with messages wanting to take care of the babies and toddlers?
