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Chalet Update + April Fool's (Patreon)

Published:
2021-04-02 18:35:50
Imported:
2021-08

Content

Hi there,

Thanks to everyone on Patreon who shared their ideas regarding the identity and personality systems in Paralives! The brainstorming session is still going strong on Discord and Reddit so feel free to join everyone there to bounce some ideas you might have.

In other news, this week, Gamasutra published an article about how Paralives and other game developers use Patreon to support their projects. It's a really interesting read and I recommend it. I'm taking this opportunity to thank each and every Patron for making Paralives a reality! The game just couldn't exist without you ❤️


April Fool's Day

Yesterday, we shared a little something on our social media: an exclusive look at the live mode gameplay in Paralives.

⚠️Warning: Not actual gameplay. Jérémie made this for April Fool's Day!


All jokes aside, as you know it, we have been working on the build mode, the Paramaker and the animation system recently (check out the development page of our website to follow what we're up to). We're also designing a first version of our interactions and action queue system. That will lead us to a base version of the live mode where Paras will be able to do basic actions around the house. That will be pretty exciting and we're looking forward to showing some of that!


Chalet Update  (For Patron only. Please don't share)

We're getting closer to building the Canadian Chalet, a house that we'll build from scratch in an upcoming build mode video. The features and build tools are almost ready and now we'll be working on the furniture and deco needed for this build. We'll share some of our sketches and progress in the following weeks.

The chalet video was supposed to be ready in early 2021 but we postponed it. We preferred to focus on developing core features instead of spending a lot of time creating new objects needed for the chalet. Now that we made good progress on the important build mode features, we have established a date for the public reveal of the chalet. We can't announce that date yet but we can say that you Patrons will get an exclusive look at the build before the full video will be released for everyone to enjoy. 🏡

We're spending some time finding the perfect mood and style for the chalet. Reference pictures help us visualize what it could be.


Our current to-do list for the Chalet:

  • Finalize the design of the floor plan
  • Make general UI and user experience tweaks
  • Establish the style and color palette for each room
  • Create missing objects and textures for each room
  • Make it easier to align and snap objects together
  • Add more sound effects and visual effects while building walls and placing objects
  • Add more features to the furniture catalog menu and improve its look and feel

The furniture catalog menu that you'll use to purchase and place objects in Paralives will be showcased in that upcoming video. We're still working on this menu so tell us in the comments: what makes a great catalog menu? Would you prefer to browse objects by room, by product type, or another way? Do you need to filter by tags, styles and colors? What about a search bar? Are object descriptions important to you? Besides that, what are some features you would want us to have for our furniture catalog? Thank you!

Have a great weekend and happy Easter to those who celebrate it!

Alex

Comments

Anonymous

So excited

1luckydandelion

I prefer by product type personally. I also love a search bar. And I enjoy descriptions a lot!

Anonymous

For the catalogue menu, I think a search bar makes it so much easier to use and less frustration when I can't find the object I want.

Lenny

We definitely need a search bar! ❤️ and descriptions for items can we also have so run down furniture I love starting from scratch and think it would look so cool if we had worn furniture ❤️

Anonymous

i prefer having it sorted by either room type or product type. but a search bar is incredibly handy too! personally i'd rly like it if we can custom sort the products too, so you can easily find items you use a lot

Anouk Geelen

A search bar is for sure easy, I like by room but maybe also per category (beds, lights, counters etc)

Christine Harvey

I think that a search bar would be good, if you know you want to see all lights for example. I think having the option to switch between looking at items by type or room could be useful so you can get a sense of what is usually included in a room, in case you forgot something.

Daniel Asraf

I'm so excited for that vid!! Good luck!

Anonymous

i think something like in the sims 2 build mode where there is collections of objects like sets would be cool

Tee W

I absolutely can't wait

Anonymous

I think by room would be nice as well as a search bar to look for specific things

Anonymous

Search bar pls yes. I like searching by room personally but also product type 😅 personally I never read descriptions except it tells me what skills I can do with it etc 😅

Anonymous

not to draw unecessary comparisons, but i like the way the sims does it, except their UI is WAY TOO SMALL. if i could actually see the objects i’m about to place that would be great. also maybe we could filter them by type? like grouping together modern/vintage/mid-century furniture types? or by different furniture collections?

Draconicrose

Please please please make the catalog expandable. Also a big, medium, small feature for the item previews. Search is a must, especially if items can be tagged so if I search for wood it returns all items tagged wood, regardless of whether they have wood in the title. Object descriptions are only important to me in regards to functionality, like skill or speed increases.

Anonymous

It would be great to make us able to browse furniture by collections. I want to be able to decorate a room within the same set of furniture without having to explore all over the entire furniture catalog...

It'sMike64

I personally love how in The Sims 3 (And the other one that I will not name) the catalog is divided into rooms and what you can find in the rooms - Like a picture of a bedroom with a bed and side tables and a dresser that's all clickable, and that's what gets you to those items in the catalog. It's great for fast furnishing. In addition - a SEARCH function would be amazing. I also think overall a clean sleek modern UI that's not overly stylized is ideal. It would also be SUPER cool if you could eventually (Maybe after the release of the game) offer an option for a light and dark mode.

Anonymous

I think a variety of object menus is best, allowing the player to browse by many different groupings. As a long-time life simmer, I know that my brain works in mysterious ways and I associate certain objects with different menus than others (ex: I might remember something because it's in the kitchen menu, but another related object as being on the second page of misc decorations... that sort of thing). A search bar is also a must have!! And the more filters, the better. As for object descriptions, they can be fun and whimsical but they aren't strictly "necessary" to me.

Zahlea

Wow, amazing as always! ❤️ I especially really appreciate that you let us know what your TODO list is. It really isn't a given that we get so much insight into your work. Thank you! As for what I'd like to see from the furniture catalog menu, I'd like to be able to sort _both_ by room and by type, if possible, but I'd be fine if both of those were tags. That might be even better: e.g. filter on all lamps for living room. I don't think object descriptions are important. At least not in The Sims style with funny blurbs, only if a certain object requires an explanation for some reason. Something I really want though, is to filter on_sets_. I really like matching stuff so I really hope there are different furniture created to match. Like a kitchen table and kitchen chairs, or all the different kitchen counters and cabinets, etc. I really want there to be sets, maybe even matching all of the common furniture for a room (bed, wardrobe, dresser, lamp, end tables, etc) and to be able to filter on those sets.

Aleksandra

I'd rather sort by product type than room type & a search bar would definitely be a great feature. I don't care about item description or filtering by colours too much tbh.

I JONES

Please make the catalogs resizable, both to get more objects in one view, and/or to increase the size of the thumbnails. I have a dreadful struggle seeing the objects in a.n.other life simulation game.

Anonymous

Search bar is a must in my opinion :) and product by type is what i prefer use as well. Product description can be fun but is really not a necessity. What i do think could be useful are style tags, i.e. chalet/modern/traditional etc - it could help pre-sorting the items by what we’re trying to build so we don’t have to go through the whole catalogue for all the “basic” items :) And as always, thank you and keep up the amazing work 💙 can’t wait to see what you’ll have in store for the chalet

Sophie Goodman-Merel

I would like to search by styles and collections. Since we have the color wheel, searching by color is not as important as sims 4. Having categories by room or by function are both helpful so having both would be helpful.

Anonymous

I personally don't care for objects descriptions. I think the time could be spent with most useful features :/

Anonymous

Showing by room would be great with an added search bar for when you cba looking around and know which specific item you're looking for.

Aaron J Levesque

I would love having a search bar and being able to search objects by room! I also wouldn’t mind objects to be catergorized in different categories such as “couches” “beds” “Wall Deco” which could also be able to be searched in case you don’t want to click around thru UI!

Zedef

Excited about the chalet! For the furniture catalog, my preference would be product type and a search bar. Descriptions are not important to me, unless there's something special about the item. For example, different ovens or furnaces where the cheapest one is very basic and the fanciest is self-cleaning. In that case, I'd like to know it's basic or has special features. But it doesn't necessarily require a description, I suppose icons could be used just like in RL (recycling, dishwasher, laundry temp, yes/no to dryer, ironing temp etc.).

Domon0310

I think object descriptions can add (or hide) lore and be funny, but aren't crucial. The must haves for furniture catalogue imo are: search bar, style and maybe functionality tags (like "off the grid" or requires "electricity" tag) and I'd like to have different options to sort furniture: sort by price low to high, by price high to low, sort by stats (to see what bed will give you best sleep for example). I personally use furniture by room browsing most often, but sometimes product type is better if you're looking for something specific

Anonymous

Being able to have tags for like themes (nature, child, rustic etc.) And a search bar is great! Tags could be like the type too (chair, stool, etc.)

Elizabeth Gonzales

I think it would be great to have the search bar, but also options to how you search, whether by room or objects. It can get hard to find things, so I guess this one is tricky, but having a search option for certain items, like specific, like bed or couch and so on, could make it easier.

Anonymous

A search bar pleaseee! And I prefer objects be sorted by room and/or product type. Descriptions adds more personality/story to the objects which is fun while building:)

AmorFati

Tags, and the ability to add your own tags, also favorites, and definitely a search bar.

Ryn

I prefer by product type, but if it's by room that would work just as well for me as long as we can search by tags. I don't care about descriptions! I just want titles and descriptions if they're included to use clear language so searching will function.

Katie Bellissimo

I prefer searching by function! But also use room search sometimes too, so it might be nice to have both. I really think a search bar is a good idea, but with a search bar I think it's important to have things cataloged correctly so the search is useful? I hate to always bring up the Sims, but one of my pet peeves with their build UI is the search function because they give fun and silly yet UNHELPFUL names to the objects that make them hard to search. If I'm looking for say the toilet paper roll, I want to be able to search "toilet paper" and not have to remember that it's called "rollomatic 3000" or somesuch nonsense. The fun names are still fun if you are going to do that, but make sure there are searchable tags too!

Anonymous

DEFINITELY a search bar. But also, what I really really REALLY wish sims had, is some way to ad ad a folder (or folders) within the catalog, where I’m able ro place my most used or favorite objects. I don’t know if it possible, but god I wish this could be done. I am a massive user of custom content (like a true hoarder, it’s unhealthy) wich makes it impossible to find certain items in the “decor” or “misc” categories, unless I know the precise name of the item, and can search for it. Most of the time I don’t know the name, and therefore can’t find the item I’m looking for. I love a catalogue that organized by function, but If we also could categorize our own favorite items in own folders, it would be amazing! 😍😍

Anonymous

Object type and color. :)

Anonymous

For me styletags are really important, as I know nothing of furniture and their styles. So it would be nice to be able to choose a style for my paras and knowing that I'm not straying too much from that. Object descriptions are fun, but not a need for me.

Ayla Gwizdak

either by type/function or by room. I would definitely enjoy a search bar, but one that's better than the sims 4 one - if I search "sofa" I want to see all sofas, not just the sofas that have "sofa" in their name (not the best example). I don't care about detailed descriptions, but I would like descriptions of functionalities if its not like... a chair or countertop

Mari R.

for me the most important one would be a search bar!

Anonymous

What if the community here on Patreon could create descriptions for objects in the game? It'd be less work for you and more interactions for people that support the game. 🥰

Anonymous

I think having a sort of tagging function could be SO helpful. For example, if you have a favorite bed but the word “bed” isn’t in the title and you can’t find it anywhere, using the word “bed” in a searchbar would bring up all items tagged bed, regardless of their name. This could be really helpful for finding custom content as well! Tags could include color, style, and functionality.

Anonymous

You should add a feature much like The Sims 4’s pre built room tool, but with clusters of items instead. A new player could easily build a nice looking home by finding already decorated bookshelves, a collection of potted plants or an entire living room set. Also being able to save your own clusters of items would mean you could create your own library of items you often pair together without having to look through the entire catalog each time. Then you could also have the option of an empty book shelf for example, something great for storytelling and different builds. It’s also really irritating every time The Sims comes out with new items that are already clustered together, like a self with a decorative item, and you really just want that one decorative item. Or a cluster of potted plants where you just want one of them. Maybe a feature like this could let players that don’t care to much about building, decorate a home easily. While also giving players that want a lot of customization, a way to go nuts 🙂

Anonymous

I wish for an option to mark objects as "favourites", so I can find all my regularly used items in one place which is quickly accesable.

Anonymous

I think object descriptions are really fun, but they aren’t totally necessary. Also, I love having the ability to search by room! But having options is most important to me. Being able to search by type, room, and searchbar would be a dream *^*

Anonymous

Search bar for sure, but I also love the option to sort by room and function. Detailed descriptions arent super important (even tho they can be fun), but it would be nice to know how an item would affect the gameplay (like the reliability, skill gains etc in the sims catalogue). Oh and if the catalogue like expands so I can see more than 2 rows of furniture, that'd be pretty dope too

Anonymous

Search bars are a really nice feature to quickly find items you need. Also, I'm all for browsing objects by room. Also, a style tag would be cool too! (for example by style: gothic tag, modern tag, retro tag etc)

Anonymous

I would love a search bar to find objects in the catalogue. I would also love a tool that can filter furniture by colour, comfort or price.

Laura Burchart

Search bar for sure!! But I love the idea of tags for grouping objects by types, room and aesthetic!

Anonymous

Thanks for the update guys ! A catalog by room and by function would be great ! Also the ability to create our own collection of objects would be super useful. Keep it up team you are awsome !

Christophe Zajac

Can’t imagine not having a search bar anymore. Also I usually like to sort by room. Something that would be nice would be to be able to star favorite items so that we can then find them easily in a “Favorite” category. Another possibility would be to be able to assign tags to objects so that we could search and find them using custom names. Just some thoughts 😀

Anonymous

Actually... in UI matters the sims team perfected good UX design through interface. A search tool and smart categorisation are key

Anonymous

Product type and color sorting would be helpful, unless there's the ability to change the color of it

sour_reads

It would be so convenient. If every item had a unique name but also a unique numerical/alphabetical code attached to it. Would make following tutorials and even locating custom furniture easier. Also I prefer function over room if we can’t have both. “Seating” should show sofas to dining sets to stools, “Tables” coffee tables to computer desks, “Lounge” should show beds hammocks and bean bags.

alexmasse

Thanks everyone for the great suggestions! I'm making a recap of your ideas to share with the team!

Auntyleti

Oh, I thought you would do a survey for the personality traits! Well, I was just gonna suggest to put an option to create traits. For example, I can create a trait that would make my para have more fun while being with other paras, but also make them more tired. Either way, about your questions: I want objects to have names that describe what they are, that's what's most helpful to me combined with a search bar. Descriptions are not important to me at all. I also prefer things to be organized by function or other major characteristic, like electronic vs wood. Apart from that, I want the UI to be intuitive, that's it. I want people of all types to be able to understand it. FInally, let us choose the size of the miniatures and letters, please! Thank you for everything, you are doing a great work!

hjs_wells

Thanks for sharing the article. I agree that there should be a mode in the furniture catalog that allows furniture customization where the player can reshape, retexture, and recolor certain furniture and save for later use.

Anonymous

I think it could be nice to have a way to save in a separate folder, common favorite items/building/furniture pieces -- I often find that I go for specifics furniture pieces (i.e. lamps, fixtures, wall wallpapers etc...) and it would be nice if I could sort them myself.

Anonymous

Definitely prefer functionality over descriptions! I never read the descriptions, or even the names really for that matter, so having a product code like they would have irl online or in a catalog would be best. Also I like search bar and categorized by type...but in sims I mostly use search by room so...maybe both?

Kayne

I'd like to see two kinds of search functions: - search by function (saniary, lounges, tables etc) - search by rooms (living room, bathrooms, bedrooms etc.) also what I think is a must is to tag and be able to add, edit and remove tags to every object. For us to be able to categorize them. Maybe create custom folders within the games. Sorting and tagging items by ourselves would be such a convenient feature if we want to find something quick Also great to hear about the Chalet

Melissa Toothman

I love 1luckydandelion's idea of searching by product type, but using search functions also. I like how TS4 has a search by room type also, so you can filter in options you'd use in particular spaces, but it’s very rigid and residence focused. I'd love that concept to expand into more specific hobby rooms, like art studio, home gym, etc., but to include business types as well...i.e. if I am on a certain lot type, that room by room category can be based on that perhaps. All I really ask is to be able to search objects by their names and descriptions/object type, because sims item names make things nearly impossible to find sometimes.

Sara Rocha

Personally I feel like item descriptions are a bit pointless. I literally never read them when I play the Sims. Maybe the info on the quality of objects sure, but other than that is kinda meh. A search bar is definitely useful if the names of the objects make sense. In the Sims I feel like sometimes I can't find what I want cause the object has a weird name not related to the object. In terms of sorting, you could organize items by room.

Sara Rocha

Also I'm so thankful for everything that you guys are doing. Keep up the awesome work 💕

Sean McDorman

Hi team, happy Friday! Re: furniture catalog, I think it’s useful to have it sorted by rooms for casual players, but it’s also important to allow the player to sort by type so as not to inhibit creativity. A table that Alex decides is for the living room when he makes it may look better to the player in the breakfast nook next to the kitchen, but it might not occur to them unless it was presented in a different way.

Anonymous

To be able to favourite an item would be neat! Editing / Adding tags could be interesting as well. Or maybe you can add and sort things in new folders instead of the ''favourite section'' getting clogged?

Anonymous

Sounds great :) By room is helpful and as long as there is a search bar to help find specific items

Krissy

Thank you! I really like the option to sort by rooms for when I want specific categories together, and then by function so if I want ALL options of a particular chair to show. A search bar would also be great to find items of the same brand. Filtering by color as well, but I’ve found that I would like the filter by style. I spent a lot of time building the other day trying to find items of the same style for my bathrooms and kitchen (in a game). Filtering by cost, material, and type. So if I’m in lights and only want to see lights that go on the wall. I love quirky item descriptions and also find it helpful to mention was functions or behaviors it has. It would be nice to create my own “style” group to save items to. A favorites and/or frequently or last used section would be great! Ohh even a “suggested” item selection based on the last few items I chose.

Andrea Digney

I prefer to have several options for sorting items, I always found that some objects were easier to find quickly in one sort versus the other in Sims. Object descriptions are fun, but can be added later once the function is in place.

Anna Wendel

Sorting furniture by rooms and also by function would be very cool. And the tags would help a lot, especially if you could choose what tags, like color for example. That would be really great!

Anonymous

So thankful for another update❤! I really like the idea of being able to favorite items and have a search bar! Happy Friday, stay healthy :)

Silivreniel

That all sounds amazing! Thank you for your amazing work! I know that not everything can be included, but personally I really love well done discriptions. I love to read the ones in sims 2 or Sims 3 because they are so funny sometimes and give a story to an object and an ideas when or where to use an object. I would love if it would be possible if a para could favor an object or give an object it's own story (like a childhood stuff animal, or a decorarion/furniture which was a present from a loved one). I also would love to be able if a para could write books with a personal description and title of the written book. But that's another story. As for sorting objects in a menu, I think it would be great if it can be sorted by room, by type, by style (maybe), by function, maybe by age (if its for children or adult, etc. ) or even by name. It would also be amazing if you can favour an item to find it more easily.

Annamaris

The catalogue of my dream consists of the following: ▪preference: categorize by function/product type ▪filters (by default/CC, style, tags...) (Style filter and an ability to add custom style filters would be so cool and handy feature...) ▪search (by name, creator) ▪organize (A-Z, cheapest-most expensive and vice versa) ▪blacklist: hide anything unwanted and unnecessary. Would it be even possible prevent the meshes to be loaded to the game itself, too? Just thinking of this possibility becauseI suppose mere hiding doesn't prevent it. Please correct me if I'm wrong. ▪delete the unwanted CC directly in-game. If it was not possible, just seeing the object's name given by the creator would be fine. ▪the ability to create your own categories. May be handy for all those anonymous CC holics who have tendency to hoard stuff which doesn't have direct categories by default in the game. (Saying this as the player whose misc. decoration category in TS3 is about to explode.) ▪Please, just one preset per object. Seeing every default colour variation causes too much lag. ▪Object descriptions have their own nostalgic value in TS. However, they may not be prioritised very high in my list because to be honest, they don't have any gameplay value. ▪All these suggestions are valid for build and Paramaker catalogues, too! :D

Anonymous

Search functionality, colour filters and items organised by object/room are most useful but I'm assuming colour won't be as important with a colour wheel. I don't really read descriptions, except for working out which are skill building items, off the grid etc. The 'other game' is pretty decent at most of these things but decor/clutter is an absolute nightmare and naming is awful for search (some sort of tagging could help with this). Also why are the hutches/China cabinets decor and not storage and why are shelf type objects split across so many categories?

Leo Munck

I usually prefer to find objects by room. It would be nice to have a system for sorting clutter/decorative objects because in other games there are usually a whole bunch of items I never use since I can't find them in the catalogue.

Anonymous

I'd LOVE to be able to make collections, maybe by tags or something. I hate that I need to sort through hundreds of clutter things in Sims to find the one thing I always use (for example), so I'd love to make my own collection by theme or favorites or whatever.

Trinity Smith

Definitely a search bar!!

Trinity Smith

And hopefully we can create our own tags for furniture the same way we can for clothing. I also like browsing by room type

Dana Darling

I want to be able to search for objects both by room AND function. Like there should be a way to toggle different search features on. Being able to make personalize collections would be awesome too. I would also LOVE to be able to organize and delete custom content directly in-game (for both build/buy and paramaker) .

Kiiiwiii

Definetly a search bar! But I love to be able to switch between room AND function! And to (heart) stuff or put it in my own catalogs would be epic as well. To save the things you use the most.

Kiiiwiii
>>56945433

Yes! To be able to delete custom content in-game would be amazing!

Adina

For the catalog: * maybe a "sort by"-feature? That way you can sort either by prize, name etc. * I would much prefer it to be automatically sorted by function rather than room * a search function would be amazing and, if one could dream, an item would be found searching for either the name of the item (for example: "Thomas" for the chair named Thomas), but ALSO by searching for the function (for example: the chair named Thomas would also appear if you only searched "chair") * The option to filter by colors would be amazing * I personally do not read a single item description, so they don't matter to me. Maybe it could say from which store it's from? And some stores are more prestige, while second hand furniture could be perceived differently depending on the para? Maybe frugal or environment-concerned paras LOVE second hand furniture, while snobby and snooty paras think less of the para owning second hand furniture?

Bleeb90

what makes a great catalog menu?

Stewby

So many good ideas!! I would love the option to favourite items that I would use a lot. Also love the idea of suggested items. Suggested items would be awesome if your para is moving to bigger and better houses and taking their stuff with them. (stupid example: bigger kitchen = more kitchen units, you click into build/buy mode and into kitchen and the unit in your colours is the top option). Hope that makes sense.

Bleeb90

What I missed most in the catalogue menu of TS3 compared with TS2, was the amazing set of collection files of all the sets of either bits and bobs or matching furniture that belonged together. And how easy it was for modders to add that collection file to the entire room set you could download. I could simply click for everything I had on iconic 1920 or 1960 furniture. I don't know whether I could add things to collections myself, but that would have been awesome. If I could make collections myself, I'd appreciate having the choice of which furniture piece I could choose to represent the collection. TS4 is awesome for its search bar, which I sorely missed in TS3, even after just a week of playing TS4, and going back to 3. That said being able to give every single thing a #[name] by yourself and being able to search on #[name] and only get that stuff would be a dream come true. Mostly I search for my furniture by category, rather than room. So chairs and beds under comfort, and kitchen counters and side tables under tables, electronics under electronics, toilets, sinks and showers under sanitary, etc.

Sarah

Search bar is almost mandatory for me. I'd also love ability to organize the objects in game with different folders and/or add tags that can be searchable. I always view function rather than room in Sims games. I'd also love the option to hide objects within the menu; some things I'll just never use, ever! Since this is through Steam, custom content is easier to remove and install so I'm not as worried at being able to remove cc easily--I just lived with broken cc in Sims, but in Cities Skylines I can quickly search and remove it. Ultimately though, a search bar is my number one request, followed closely by a tagging feature.

Anonymous

I often find myself switching a lot between filtering by room or item type, so it would be great to have both options. Having a lot of options for filtering by tags (color, item type, style etc.) is crucial, and what I would really love is not just "show me items of this color" but also "show me items of all colors EXCEPT this one" – it rarely exists in any catalogues (games or otherwise) and it's absolutely infuriating. A search bar is also great to have, as long as the items are tagged properly so it actually brings up relevant results. Descriptions are fun to have but not essential. Apart from functional and textual features, having the ability to toggle between a concise and expanded view, and a variety of ways to list the items e.g. big thumbnails, small thumbnails, list (kinda like you would view files in Explorer). Being able to pin/favorite items would also be helpful. There are always those items you use in every. single. build. ever. and having easy access to them would be more precious than gold.

Annamaris
>>56944342

Oh, I forgot this... The ability to recategorize: to move any piece of furniture freely from category A to B.

Annamaris
>>56948645

Thank you for the information! Didn't know about Steam's CC capabilities earlier...

Anonymous

I like it how they do it sims but I personally believe that it could be improved. Especially when you take in account possible custom content additions! I'd like to be able to TAG my objects in special categories. So custom Tag is a must for me. Also, I have over 50k mods in sims, your build mode will most likely help me get rid of 20k of them just because of how easy it is to customize windows, walls, etc... That being said, my game can be very laggy because of it. Basically what I'm asking is how optimized the game will be regarding content creator, etc... :)

alexmasse
>>56949805

Thanks for the feedback! We understand that mods and custom content will be a big part of the game so we'll do our best to make it so the game can handle a lot of them without lagging and that it's easy to manage your content

Anonymous

Collections/tags would be great!

Anonymous

I have complete faith in the team to create a wonderful system! I would like someplace to put my favorite items, perhaps? A "favorite" tag, or tab, maybe? That way you can use it to store the items you use a lot or items you need for that particular build a lot without having to look them up every time.

Jojo6716

I personally NEED a search bar... sub-tags like beds, tubs, shelves, etc. would be nice too if I'm feeling lazy and just can't remember the name of the item. I personally use it by room type, I can't stand category type (Surfaces, electronics, etc. and every room is lumped together)... An advanced search feature and an "only CC" toggle button would be great too.

Anonymous

Aside from sorting and searching, I'd LOVE to have a slider to change thumbnail sizes, like that one in Unity's asset window - I'm currently playing TS3 on a resolution bigger than FullHD and everything becomes sooo tiny! It's hard to see what I want to choose without clicking sometimes.

NHFoodie

Yes, please to the search bar! Search by name, tag, etc!

LightDeficient

I think it would be great to have a filter by room and object type, and a search function is a must-have! Also, I think it would be really awesome if we could make our own custom catalogs for easy sorting like we could in TS3! I used it way too much. Filtering objects by price low->high and high->low would be very nice as well for when you are on a budget!

Anonymous

I would like to have the categories of objects all together, for example in Ts4 there is a filter that shows all objects together, but there isn't a filter that shows all categories together, for example the category of decorations and surfaces are always separate and I still have to filter by categories to find those things, they should be all together. because often I would like to have everything at hand, but still by categories. I would like the object catalog to be expandable to better see the object lists and I am not very interested in object descriptions because I have never read them. I would definitely like a search bar and would like to search objects for #, for example #modern and then It shows me all modern objects.

LightDeficient

Also it would be really cool to have matching sets of furniture in the game all with the same name, kind of like furnitures do sometimes. Maybe you call one set ”Sarah” and when you search for it you get the whole Sarah collection!

Emma

I would love a search feature and object names that are actually helpfully descriptive. For example mid-century modern chair or bubble lamp. I personally prefer objects sorted by type, but I'm sure I can learn whatever you decide works best for the game. In the past I really haven't enjoyed build objects sorted by styles as it is frequently subjective and even if I am designing a room using one style I still end up going through the whole item catalog to find accents anyway.

Anonymous

I am also riding the search bar train. A checkbox filtering system would be great--possible filters being functionality, room, style, CC/in-game, and maybe price bracket? My more novel suggestion is that if there is a checkbox filtering system, for those checked boxes to stay checked as long as the family is being played; in the other game, whenever I'd play-test a room to make sure it worked and then got back into build mode, I'd have to re-choose the filters and often forget/miss the filters I'd used for the room. If this were implemented, a "clear all categories" button would be a must.

Anonymous

what I find really frustrating in Ts4 is that when I copy an object it takes me to the category of that object, while maybe I would like to stay in the "kitchen" section without finding myself in the paintings section and then I have to go back to "sorting by room". And when you copy the object it removes all the tags you put (by color, by pack). So I would like to just copy the object.

Fran Smith
>>56937582

Perhaps a kind of mouseover pop-up, similar to the windows taskbar? Another idea, since Alex is making the items themselves editable, perhaps in that mouseover window some kind of shorthand (icons or something) indicating exactly what can be edited, eg on a kitchen bench, width, draws, handles, bench top. I'm not sure if this is possible, but if it is, I'm sure the Paralives team could think up a clever way.

IdrilPuck

I always get items by category, pluming, electronics, comfort, storage, decor, that kind of thing

Anonymous

I like having a both by room option and by category option, if I had to pick definitely by category. A search bar with easy tagging is a must. Honestly, I would really love the ability to create my own "folder" of objects if possible. If there are objects that I have a hard time finding or certain things I want to group together by style, especially if they were CC it would be nice to do that on my own. The Sims 3 had a similar system that was incredibly helpful. Also, the option to see more objects at once is nice so that if I have a computer that operates and can load objects quickly I can look at more at once. Things ideally being named what they are or at least tagged as so for ease of use. Premade swatches that make things easy to see in-game without having to click through each option.

Anonymous

I tend to filter by room, but any can work well as long as it's set up in a sensible way!

Anonymous

I like finding items by usage eg electrical, decorative, etc. Would also be good if we can find items by style. And example would be if I wanted to build a Victorian Style house, i just could search that up and give me items that would work in that style.

BreakingGaia

The search function is an absolute must and to take it a step further, I'd like to be able to query something like bathroom and have all bathroom related content show up, including decorations (toothbrushes, soap dispenser, toilet paper) and blinds. Anything you'd put in a bathroom should show up. I would also like a way to expand and contract the catalog. That's one feature I miss from previous sims games. There is a lot of stuff and CC added will clutter it even more. I need a way to look at all of it without giving myself eye strain. Another important catalog feature is the ability to find broken CC and delete it from in game. Or maybe a cheat to find the file name so I can delete it myself. I prefer to use the sort by room feature, but I jump back and forth. When I'm looking for lamps and hanging lights, I go to the lighting sections and sort that way. When I am decorating a living room with the basics, I sort by room. If I'm cluttering, I either search for clutter or I go to the small deco section. Someone above mentioned being able to search by style and I'm all for that. Let me type in modern and have only modern stuff show in the catalog. That would be awesome if you can get CC to behave the same way.

Lane Brettschneider

If I have to choose one or the other, I prefer sorting by function/type rather than by room, especially given that some cultures might have laundry in the kitchen but others don't! I can't always find the thing that I'm looking for in the room that I'm building. I second what others have said - having custom folders or tags would be amazing. That way we can organize things however we like, and more easily find exactly what we're looking for. This especially helps if we have our own idea of what "style" something is, or have favorite (or least favorite) objects. I don't feel like being able to filter by color would be that helpful if there is going to be a color wheel option, but I could be wrong :) I also don't use that feature much in current games I play - it doesn't usually give me what I'm really looking for. I use the search bar all the time, and don't usually read descriptions. I think the idea of named sets of furniture is a really cool idea, but I also like the idea of the names being functional and descriptive. Though I know some patrons will be naming objects so that probably goes out the window :D What would be fantastic is if the object has a formal name, and then maybe just a very brief, functional description with it. So the "Sarah Chair" is a "Minimalist Bar Stool" or something, then to find it I could search "Sarah" or "minimalist" or "bar stool" or some combination of those things! I don't have to remember that it's called "Sarah" to find it. :)

Michael
>>56941818

In TS1 the buy and build object descriptions were 🔥 though. TS2 was pretty decent, then it fell WAY down from there. Now they’re not even worth reading

Michael

If you want examples of really well done buy and build mode object descriptions, go back to the classic TS1. They did it best. But frankly, if you don’t think you can keep up with descriptions to add charm to Paralives, it may not be worth it. Lazily made descriptions would be subtractive, not additive. Is anyone on your team a great humor writer? If the answer isn’t obvious to you, then maybe consider not doing that feature.

Natalie Schaleben

the ability to search is very important imo

Maiden Minnesota

Search is a fine functionality, however, the problem is if you don't know the exact name of an item it doesn't come up. I find that's the biggest drawback of the search bar in The Sims 4. I can't just search for "Sunflower Painting" because they gave it a stupid name (I don't know what it is, but it would be something like "Emily's Anguish" so the word "Sunflower" wouldn't find it), and if I don't know what it is, searching for it is pointless. So, I waste time scrolling through everything in the Paintings category until I find it. Room categories are fine, but objects can have a functionality beyond one room. End tables aren't just for living rooms, but bedrooms, hallways...anywhere you want a little table. What I miss the most is the capability of creating a folder, then saving the items I wanted to it in a collection, then naming the folder myself so I can find the items for a specific use again, like "Winter Holidays".

Anonymous

Filtering by color is extremely useful. If you make a search bar, please give the items relevant tags! They don’t need to be visible to us. This way we can search for exactly what we want without you needing to name every item with searching in mind. (Like, if I’m trying to find a painting of a cat but the title of the painting understandably doesn’t have the word “cat” in it, it should still come up when I search “cat”). Also, I find browsing items by room can be convenient sometimes, but ultimately I only do it in the sims 4 because I find their categorizations by item types clunky and strange. So I think being able to browse by product type is absolutely necessary. Browsing by room is a nice add-on but only necessary if other ways of browsing aren’t well done.

Anonymous

Ability to choose how many rows of furniture you have would be nice. Comparing to sims as always, all the games have mods that increase the size of the columns, so why not have that in a game as well?

Anonymous

Filtering system could be nice. Take a look how irl online shops filter their stuff

kesionna

I think there should be a search box for everyone who wants to search for specific item in the build/buy. Also I like a variety of choices, like I like both by rooms and by functions, it makes finding certain items easier and faster.

Aaron

The search bar in the sims 4 build mode is literally a godsend and idk if I could rly go back to building in any life sim game without one lol. Personally I love reading object descriptions, especially funny ones, but if adding them would be more pressure than fun for the dev team they’re not *super* needed. If you do end up writing descriptions for build mode items though, I will thoroughly enjoy reading them xD

Anonymous

Loads of houseplants would be a dream!! My main decoration style is houseplants and loads of beautiful terracotta☺️❤️ Hanging plants, plant stands, just terracotta pots laying around, big plants, small cacti, stuff like that. And those tiny terrariums/greenhouses made out of glass that have that victorian style to them! They would also be nice in big but I guess you could build those yourself. I would also love loads of natural elements for decor so wicker, rattan, wood and everything. Natural materials all the way. Some brown glass candles for example would feel extremely cozy. Suncatchers!! Some really nice ones with some golden elements that could reflect the light (or not, would still look nice). Loads of Baskets, dried flowers for vases, crystals!! Thank you for your hard work☺️❤️

S&M Gonzalez

Search bar that allows you type words and list of items containing those words will pop up is definitely something I feel is needed especially if I can’t remember the whole name of something. I’d like to be able to view items by the other thing you mentioned as well such as room, tags etc. Another thing I think would be cool is sorting furniture by moods and effects like: calm, fun, relaxing, warming, cools off paras,eco friendly,etc. so each object that is tied to a mood(s) could be sorted in the catalog too. Also another thing I think is needed is to be able to view objects in either bigger or smaller thumbnail tiles. In sims the objects were really small for me to see so it’d be nice to have the option for thumbnails to be bigger. Or have the ability to make the window float on top of the main menu when you click on a object, for easier viewing and also to change the color of these objects. Having a light or dark mode we could set to change within different times of day for ease on the eye strain. Being able to sort by recently used items, sort by custom content only and/or in-game items only, being able to sort items by their prices, design styles and time period including if an item is thrifted or not. If we buy items in stores I think it’d be cool if we could sort those items by star rated reviews from other paras who bought the same objects. As for items descriptions I don’t really mind if they’re not included or not, I don’t really see a need for it to be honest, but if an object has a special feature you want us to know about I think that’s when they’re most helpful in informing players about what it does.

S&M Gonzalez

Also if we could have the ability to favorite items too that’d be cool, and maybe we could make and set custom lists of furniture we want to use later. Maybe it could be a max of 15 lists then we would have to delete some.

Anja Hoffmann

I would like different sort categories (by room and by function for instance). Sometimes, I just want furniture for a living room, for instance, but then I want comfortable furniture in general or furniture for entertainment purposes or suchlike. I think being able to make your own collection or being able to set a certain number of favouries would be good - there are things I might use often when I furnish new places and having them all in one list would be nice.

Anonymous

As the others mentioned a search bar would be awesome and helps to look for a specific item. I would love to see two catalogues, one where the objects are sorted by room and one where the objects are sorted by function. Having tags (like color, style, specific pack etc.) would also be really helpful.

hjs_wells
>>56941118

In addition, I would also like this customization mode allow you to export your creations as "mods" that can be shared natively via the game itself (similar to how The Sims allows users to share and download content online through the game) or via Steam Workshop.

Anonymous

I don’t really care about descriptions unless they offer important information about the object that isn’t immediately obvious by looking it, or lore.

Devyn Coleman

Maybe adding a favorites button if possible? I know a lot of builders just have some go to objects. Would be interesting too to be able to categorize by what's already placed in the house? So you can find an object again to use in another room?

Bianca J

Hello Devs, thank you for the lovely update. Everything is shaping up and looking very promising....As for how I visualise Build Mode, I really liked how in Sims 3 there was both the function of sorting by room or you had the choice of choosing by appliance, furniture etc..

Anonymous

Hey devs, thanks for the update! For cataloging the furniture I've always used by furniture type since there are a lot of things that are classified for 1 room that you can actually use on another room, so I didn't ever bother with the room types. That being said, the search bar from a lot of games is a godsend.

Anonymous

I would love the option of browsing by room type and by furniture type. Filters like color, style, ... would be nice too. But one thing I want SO much is the possibility to make custom collection folders like in Sims 2, where you can put any object you want. For example I would love to make a folder with all the clutter items I regularly use, but that take ages to find between all the miscellaneous deco items. Or I would make a folder for castle builds, japanese builds, folders with matching doors, windows, columns, ...

Luther Duncan

Thank you for the update Dev Team ! exciting times ahead !, I think there should possibly be a few options of how to select objects. One variation I like is by function its classical and straight forward, I feel a great additional feature to this would be tree branch options or categories within each function for example: Toilet - (Clutter items), (Wall mounted items), Floor items ( Rugs), (Plants associated with or suitable for this area). A similar makeup would be great for build mode, it just makes for great inspiration and quick and easy selection. Not sure if objects would have an environmental effect ? like pictures on the wall uplifting a room ? providing paras have feelings or moods ? I Love this because it gives us as para- gamers the initiative to actually select the right amount of deco or furniture for particular rooms ? if that makes sense. I think object descriptions are fun and show the thought and humour from the creators however not necessary, environmental effects and perks would be a fantastic addition. For the catalogue it self, I would love to see each object have a 3D preview that rotates the object before selecting it and placing it ? you get a better idea for the object and it also allows for pre customisation before placing the object. Cant wait to see the build mode video !!!!! super exited

Anonymous

May I suggest building the chalet surrounded by lots of wooded land and near a shore? Or is it too late for this? hahaha

Anonymous

Also, for the buildbuy mode: I would prefer to have items categorised by room, by name and by type of item (shelves, bookcases, stairs, etc) Being able to make your own categories like clutter items or pink flowers for example would be fun as well!! A search bar for an item name and for tags would be handy as well

Anonymous

Random idea: Sun catchers/Rainbow catchers - place them anywhere on a window to make a rainbow when its sunny 😆💕

Anonymous
>>56947845

yess i was thinking this. i would love tags especially. i felt like sometimes in ts2 i would forget which collection was which so also just some way to dumb it down for myself would be nice :)

MelodyLove

The search bar idea is really handy!! Helps us cut down on time furnishing and more time in Live mode

Anonymous

I'd like the have a search bar. It's just a comfortable thing to have. Also I like it when I can sort objects by type and/or room. Tags are handy too, but I could do without them. You're doing a great job! I can't wait for the game. :)

ponyfhtagn

Expandable catalogue to view more items at once. Ability to search for items, therefore needing a lot of hidden tags per item to help find them all based on "I vaguely remember it was something like this...". (ie. if a fridge is titled 'Snack Box' or something it should also be tagged as 'fridge' so we can find it by searching 'fridge'. This is particularly important with decorative items that may not have a function and are more likely to have a funny name that's not descriptive of how it looks.) Find items by categories, like room, style, set, price range, age group, type, colour, etc. An ability to 'favourite' items. An ability to create our own 'collections' of items which we can organise, sort, add / remove items later. Maybe some kind of 'frequently used' category (could be interesting for build challenges, but also helpful to find items). Ability to 'hide' certain items, maybe? Ability to save customised versions of the items (where the user has changed the colours / textures / size). And perhaps an ability to change the 'default' of any item to a different option, ie. "the default of this chair is blue but I find I use the pink version more often, I would like the pink to be the default now." Dunno how much of this is possible but it's some ideas I had, anyway.

ponyfhtagn
>>57085679

Maybe an ability to add our own tags to items? Also, if it's possible, some kind of way to link 'associated clutter' to various items. Often decorative clutter is just categories as 'decorative' and or maybe more specifically as statues or something, but when decorating a room we all know / want certain items that are associated with certain rooms and even certain objects. A vanity generally gets decorated with make up kits, a tissue box, maybe a small lap, some jewellery stands, etc. A toilet = toilet paper roll, scented candles, magazine rack, floor mat. A kitchen counter = bowl of fruit, paper towel roll, knife block, etc. But more than just a way to find associated clutter in the catalogue, I think it'd be really cool to have a kind of 'eye dropper tool' where you can click on an item and have it show you options for associated clutter, so you can decorate on the fly, kinda.

Anonymous

Hey, thank you for the update :D I am no that interested in building, I am more of a relationships and drama gameplay fan. But when an inspiration hits me, I usually use sort by object type, never room (I find it quite restrictive, if I want to put a stove in my bedroom why should the game tell me it is "wrong"? It is a real game saver to be able to search for objects and sort them by colour. But that is pretty much it, I do not think I would ever add my own tags or use tags. It feels less as a game and more SketchUp features. Descriptions are very fun to glance at from time to time, so if you add some jokes in there, it would be appreciated ;D

Anonymous

Filters and a search bar are super important! When the game has a lot of official or modded furniture, it will be a lot easier to just type out what you want than seach lots of miniaitures by eye.

Anonymous

I would love to be able to expand the menu so I can look at several rows of furniture/objects at once rather than just two. This is something small that's bothered me about... Other games... For years

Alexi

Search bar is super important. Be nice to search based on style, color, price, and room.

Kaitlyn Metro

I would enjoy being able to see the objects in a room and browse the catalogue that way. However, it is essential to my build style that I can also browse the catalogue by object type, style, and color. I like to start with searching by room and choosing a piece to design around and then I search by object or using the other tags I described. A search function is also something I would like to see implemented with the ability to manually tag items to make searching easier.

Anonymous

Can we at least have more than two rows of objects that we are able to see at a time? It would be nice to see many rows/columns of objects, especially when there is bound to be a lot of community made items

Bethany

I would love to have the ability to favorite items that could be curated to a favorites tab/section. I think that would be a perfect shortcut to get to your must-have/go-to items.

Anonymous

Id like to have the objects ordered by room because to me that makes the most sense and I can find things easier. A search bar is also a really good idea

Anonymous

I wish more than 2 rows of objects (and outfits) please, I need to see my options, instead of memorizing

KittyPara

In the catalog, I would like to be able to permanently remove some furniture that I don't like and that I know I will never use in my construction. It stresses me out when I see things and furniture that I hate to see in shopping mode.

Anonymous

A search bar please

S&M Gonzalez
>>57395013

This! Making some items disappear from view I’d love that and it’d make sifling through the catalog more catered to interior decor you like to use

Kayne

I'd love if paras with a high enough scientific/knowledge level or paranoid conspiracy theorists could see themself without any textures etc., just the base of their model, thus implying they know they are just beings inside a simulation. I'd find that to be a nice easter egg, but it should also be occasional and not happen to frequently, to let it be special (and surprising)

Anonymous

Honestly, the way the sims does the catalogue is perfect (both by room and by object, search bar and filters), just in my opinion, object descriptions are very unneeded especially when the resources can go elsewhere. Of course, exceptions for specific (functional) objects would be in place, but have a description for every bed, plant, shower, painting, etc is extremely redundant.

Anonymous

Tags and styles would be wonderful. I think the main drawback of the Sims system was that, at least in TS4, it was so laggy. I'd love to be able to just have a field where I could type 'chair' and get all the chairs, or 'stone' and get any furniture or objects made of or to look like stone.

Anonymous

I agree that object descriptions are really pointless.

Anonymous

Please make it possible to sort by both category and room. Also subsections/categories/filters for decor items. In the sims, the decor section is a jumbled mess and you just have to scroll endlessly because not everything is actually decor. Many things in decor are just unusable versions of items that would be functional, so its a free for all of objects and hard to find what you need.

Julia Moreau

For the items descriptions I would say to add just a simple name and maybe letting the description Box editable by player, so if we want to add it ourselves for pleasure we can ^^

Lucas

We also need a CC filter

Anonymous

Adding new tags would be wonderfull as well as being able to re-categorize objects, whether it is a menu by room or by type! Also absolutely useful to be able to create customized "folders/groups" in which to insert objects that we think fit together as well as the old system of the sims 2

Annamaris
>>58897352

Editable descriptions sound very awesome idea! O.O If we wrote down some text, let's say notes and keywords, which the search bar recognised, we might find the objects we desire easier.