I think the occasional non-destructive behavior when their moods are on the extreme sides of the spectrum wouldn't be bad. I didn't think kicking the trashcan was such a big deal, though I guess it can be when sickness comes into play. Paralives doesn't have to do that though. I enjoyed the flaming bag of poop, sending angry text messages, prank calls, trolling forums, etc etc. Deciding to pig out on food because you're in a bad mood is a good one.

Rimworld kinda does something like this. If a colonist is in a bad mood for too long, they'll have a mental break and do something passive or destructive. Passive things are like wander around aimlessly, hide in their room, pig out on food, drink all alcohol or smoke all the drugs. They can even fall into a coma, try to leave the colony or even "run wild" and go frolic in the wildness for the rest of their lives if their mood is bad enough. They can also be destructive, like beat up the furniture in their room or around the colony, destroy something valuable in the camp (one of the worst ones imo), slaughter the farm animals, murder someone, set something on fire, attack anyone they see and maybe other things I haven't run into.

I love for my characters to have very high autonomy so I wouldn't mind if a para took control for a few in game hours to have a mental break to go cry in the bathroom or pig out on food for a little bit before they get better. BUT... I can imagine this would become extremely annoying for people who want more control.

On the other end of things in Rimworld, when a colonist has been in a good mood for a while, they get inspired about various things. Some examples are "go frenzy" which means they'll work faster and more successfully. There's inspired recruitment so the next time they convince someone to join it'll work automatically. Inspired taming for animals. Inspired trading so next time they buy something they'll get a really good deal. Etc etc.

I could see something like that working in Paralives easily if it isn't already in there. Been a while since I reviewed all the features. But it definitely gamifies things a little which could be good or bad. Keep your para in a good mood and you get bonuses. A para in a bad mood will be a nightmare to manage.

Yeah, Ribaorld mental break counterplay generally involves preventing it from happening in the first place, and, of course, installing a brain implant that causes them to immediately go down when you throw an EMP grenade at them. So that you can then immediately put them down by tossing an EMP grenade at them when they act out. Also, put all your valuables behind locked walls so they can't access them.

Ooo that's a good idea. I didn't know EMP affects implants.

I hope there's fun and surprising autonomous behaviors (outside of taking care of needs and idle animations) but I wouldn't count on it. It's possible the fun and surprise element is going to rely on the cards you get? And you'll be controlling events by picking "go cry" or "pig out".

"Discover unique personality traits, skills, wants, needs and emotions"

Or maybe it's a given that traits and emotions will have autonomous behaviors associated with them and I'm being overly cautious/pessimistic.

The paralives' team has just updated the development page and I need to talk about it! It was a very busy month for the team.

First off, they have done a number of fixes, such as fixing bugs around pathfinding and townie autonomy. Townie-given quests were also improved and fixed.

Clothing items for jobs (uniforms) have also been created by the team. I cannot wait to see how those look like!

They also coded townies to work in shops! This is great for improving immersion!

New town activities were also added as well as newspaper articles to announce them.

There are more new things, but I won't go much into detail because those don't excite me as much.

EDIT: We will aparently be able to move whole rooms! The feature will come during early access!

Not wanting to wish my life away, but I am so looking forward to this game being released.
@Casimir those fixes and additions sound spot on.
So long as everything works, my only worry now is that the graphics seem a bit 'brown' colour wise. Maybe that's just the vibe they've gone for in this first world?

Recording parli voices!

We can see some mean interactions in the video as well as rejections which is good for chaos and drama. The team did improve autonomy, so maybe some of the mean interactions will be autonomous. This goes well with my previous posts; parafolk dissapointed with their life should reject interactions more often (especially romantic ones).

There is also death from smoke which makes the game a bit more difficult, in my opinion. You can't just buy a smoke alarm and then think your parafolk are safe. Honestly, I did not expect such realism because, in house fires, people mostly die due to smoke inhalation.

While those cases might be rare, some people suffer long-term consequences from smoke inhalation; maybe that could be added in a DLC? I honestly never thought of that until now. Madison form FTWD has some sort of tool that helps her breathe (she suffered from smoke inhalation). The device is on her back so it is more practical.

There is sickness in the game, but only small ones like a cold. There is a sneeze animation, but it could be just an idle animation.

I believe I heard from somewhere the smoke poisoning think was part due to how fans would find characters burning alive traumatizing. Reminds me of the absent burglars things in TS4, but I think I could take this trade-off as it doesn’t take away the danger completely from the game.

I think characters can still be burned alive, though I guess the official cause could be smoke inhalation.

I could imagine that in this less jokey game that a 'sim's style' fire death might hit too hard.
It makes me think, this really is a new game and we don't yet know how seemingly familiar elements might sit in this changed environment.

A critique of the lightning system by Simmer Erin.

The developers are still not sure about the future of the lightning system in Paralives. Honestly, I don't think that the current lightning system fits with the vibe (artstyle) of the game. There needs to be more drama in every way possible.

TS2 has a very flat lightning system, in my opinion, but mods make it perfect and dramatic. Those mods also fit with the vibe of the game without overwhelming the performance by adding realism.

I think I remember them saying you'd be able to tweak lighting with their modding tools on release, which is cool. It came up when people were comparing the Maggie reveal vs what we have now. I remember one of the developers saying they had to redo quite a bit after one of the older devs was let-go/fired. A lot of uncertainty at the time that's for sure.

anyway, I think it would be better if they went with the lighting they had in the Maggie reveal. It needs more shadow and saturation maybe?

For FFXIV, I use reshade to make the ambiance a little less puke green and more violet compared to the default, so if there's built in tools to achieve what I want, that's good. But the default still needs work.

Maybe the lighting debate relates to what I was thinking about things being too brown? I probably meant 'flat and brown'!

I don't know, but maybe colours have a brown tint because Paralives is supposed to have a cozy and warm atmosphere. It could be that, but, now that I think about it, the forest part of the town has a really cool atmosphere because of the green dominance. Maybe indoor colours have a brown tint because of the current artsyle (unrealistic lightning system).

Honestly, I don't like how flat the lights and shadows look like, but I am giving this game a try. The team is really putting in effort which is always a green flag. The developers did say that the lightning system will be looked into during early access.

I have watched the new stream and I must say that I am pleasantly surprised! I won't go into much detail, but just know that many things were improved, such as shops, and many things were fixed! There is more stuff to do in town, which is always a plus. The ambience is also quite immersive. But, the animations still need work (improvement)...

That's good to hear Casimir! The likes on the newer Patreon posts are on the light side compared to older posts and I was afraid people weren't happy with what was being shared.

I personally didn't feel like logging into patreon right now to like new posts but I've definitely been reading them all.

I'm hoping a public stream is announced soon after the private one like last time. I'm keen to see for myself a status update now that we're roughly at the midpoint of their delay window. The first stream showed a lot of promise but was much buggier and slightly more crude than I expected personally.

(Still I would have bought and got many hours of enjoyment from it on day 1)