It's very telling that the speech bubbles in the game/video are popping up and then disappearing quicker than most folks could read all the text. Perhaps something of a playing habit that Rocio has developed over the many months of play testing the game. Pushing a mouse or keyboard button to get rid of the very familiar speech bubble text boxes, no need to read it all again for the thousandth time. That's a big red flag of yawn-fest boring to me, a definite no-no and I imagine Rocio's habit will become almost everyone's habit not too long after game release.

Even worse, not even switching off the all-too-familiar, repeat boring speech bubbles, because without them, conversations without sounds or voices (preferably made up such as Simlish) are even more dull. Watching silent movies from the roaring 1920s would be more fun.

Actually, it's even worse. Unlike LBY silent movies always had live music accompaniment, at least a clunky piano if not an organ or a live band, depending on status of the cinema.

I suppose you could recreate that in game? Get one "sim" to go play a piano each time you intend other sims to start conversing. The theme of the music selected - jolly, romantic, horrific - to match the theme of the conversation topic. Yes? No? Errr... that's a big NO from me.

Too much like a Movie Maker Simulator than an "Organic-As-Can-Be" freerange Life Simulator.

You know, that would be a fun take on a life sim. Very music based somehow. A silent movie like setting, much like Sims 1 took on a sitcom approach to its comedy.

Maybe having to do that after months of playtesting may make them reconsider the whole no-speech/real language textboxes approach. I think in addition to the characters looking like awkward robots, the silence makes them even more awkward. Like a bad chatbot avatar.

ETA: Some commenter brought up a good point I think. Sims live in a sped-up time frame but the player does not. Slowing down the speed of when the text bubbles disappear will take sim hours to finish a conversation. So, we will get annoyed reading the same text over and over AND at the same time take forever to finish a conversation. If they listen to people who complained they can't finish reading, that will actually backfire once people play for a while. The whole timing is off with this approach.

They could at least make it where you have to press something (like in video games to skip to next conversation line) or so. so that players can take the time to read them up who arent fast-readers. Hell, in the Sims quoted messages either didnt disappear so fast or they piled up like in the updated TS3 where you have click X for it disappear.

Btw, does LBY have a discord or smth? I feel like our feedback would benefit if Rod Humble and his team can hear it (if yall are on this forum, please - do give us a sign).

And honestly, I too think they need to do something about deaf mute and robotic paras not feeling life-ful. Paralives seem more promising, because those characters can at least all speak and move/interact realistic with the environment (don’t get me wrong - I’m not albeist, but I prefer variety and realistic approach, since these so called Agent characters aren’t signing if they were deaf. Else, it’s just screams Ea-sque laziness where resources on Sound and Animation Department can’t be devoted for hiring sectors)

I'm not surprised players find LBY boring with a lack of excitement, animations, and drama. The RPG player that took over The Sims forumla years ago, has a lot to do with why Rod Humble doesn't understand those of us who never wanted RPG gameplay in The Sims and or any other life simulator.

Humble, Grant and Ryan were all RPG developers. They couldn't understand in The Sims it was never about goals, achievements, scenarios, badges, but Life. But once he took over The Sims in TS2 we saw Freetime, and Apartment Living, which was nothing but about goals, achievements, badges, rewards for the player. Instead of the Sim experiencing life. However, the rpg player type ate up FT and AL I didn't like either one of them. What was missing was life play. This was the main goal of TS3, with Rod Humble at the head of the company, goals, achievements, badges and lame stuff like how many times your Sim had peed per day and or how many times your Sim had cooked a meal etc.

Wasted money on stuff like telling the player how many times the player had done something rather than animations and simulations. Moodlets, with starburst, annoying music like a child's game every time something happened to give the player a boost of dopamine. I had this argument with TS3 players and was booed for pointing out the differences in life simulators and goal, grind driven games. But they ate up and this went on in TS4,too. The Sims and life simulators haven't been a life simulator since TS1.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1UtdjgkAKgw

Well than. Lol
Name certainly threw me off.

Edit: Speaking of RPG like gameplay, I don't even know if that's what it is. The whole concept of "loot" is more like a looter-shooter game mechanic these days (which is technically an RPG). In Paralives, they've added levels to jobs, skills, and social connections. I think that's a lot more RPG than this constant focus Rod seems to put on collecting stuff.

To be honest, I stopped watching the promotional material because it felt like every time I watched one, Rod was talking about collecting stuff and how much he enjoys it. Not really my kind of gameplay. I was looking forward to testing the game out in March but eh.

I don't mind if a life sim incorporates RPG like elements. After all, Paralives has. But I don't think every implementation is equal. It feels like something is missing, but I can't really pinpoint what. I don't think I'll be able to until I see more with my own eyes/play it myself.

For me, Freetime was about some additional activities that boosted my game and Apartment Living about, well, appartements and (hopefully) interesting neighbors; I noticed that there were achievements, etc., but I never went after them. Similar in TS3: there are shiny rocks lying all over the place but nobody can force me to force my Sim to collect them, and I have yet to encounter one who would burst into tears if I did not let him do it. Rod Humble has problems that he obviously carried over to LBY, but those are not my problems.

Sims games are not RPGs, even when they are trying to emulate them. Rather, it is the other way around - first class RPGs were always trying to simulate life, maybe a very strange life, but still. Also, there is a lot of games between these two poles, mostly survival games; some are city builders but quite a few concentrate on an individual, his family and, sometimes, his "dynasty".

The basic point is valid, though: it is a waste of time putting RPG stuff in a game that does not need it. Still, some people might like it and others can disregard it completely.

How to add and edit events.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rB43QvWTDoc

Very detailed but I don't see myself doing a lot of this stuff. At least not at the beginning. I also didn't actually see the two sims hiking together, so I'm really not sure what that was about. Granted, I skipped a bit, because these seem overall very boring.
I mean, I could just select two sims and Say "Go there" in Sims 3 and make sure they walk.

I think this is the main problem for me at the moment with the updates for this game; the videos are very uninspiring and tedious to watch. The first half of the videos seems to always be either Rod taking ages creating T-Rex sims in CAS, or Rocio waving her cursor around a purple screen of lists. I think it would have been better for her to have edited the video somewhat- I would have started with showing the Youmans doing an event, then cut back to the creation screen to show how you go about making it. And put some nice scenery at the beginning and end of the videos, some clips of the state of the world at the moment, and Youmans interacting and exploring. And stop saying 'let's go ahead and...'

That video was more akin to watching someone playing Crusader Kings than a Life Simulator. Is that what this game is going for? To be a grand strategy life sim hybrid? (Seeing as most Paradox titles are grand strategy.) I'm just confused and those LBY vids just push my interests further and further away each time. So it's correct to say at this time I have zero interest.

Yeah, their videos are boring to watch. But that last video made me realize something though. How often did people ask for mods to create for example a medieval world? And then run into problems because it is not enough to just have medieval looking objects and clothes.

Imagine being able to change events, object behaviour, careers, crafting etc so it fits a specific theme for your world? Could even change conversations completely if you wanted to. And then being able to share that with other players?

I agree with others though that they need a better script for their videos. Like mentioned, start with an example and then show how to do that or something.

Everytime I see another LBY video, I get just little bit more discouraged. I want this game to succeed but right now the body proportions are still off, the characters looks lifeless and stiff, and there is no confirmation about voice acting or lack of it. They also keep showing these modding, creating, etc. videos, instead of just normal gameplay, relationship behaviors, normal life actions. Can we even slow dance in LBY? Can we swim in the ocean or a lake? How does school work? I feel like they are concentrating their focus on the cake toppings, instead of the cake itself.

What I do appreciate is they are not talking to us as if they're trying to be giggly 10 year olds like the sims team did (in the days I bothered to tune in). The sims team always gave me the feeling they didn't think their game was worth taking seriously. I guess some of these LBY videos are to try and keep us onboard while they work through the release delay, but I think they'd be more valuable to watch after we'd got the game installed and started wondering how stuff works.

Yes, I agree. I am very appreciative that they speak to us like we are rational customers, and I am glad that they are keeping us informed and updated. At the moment though I'm not seeing much that I can't do already in Sims 3 with Nraas and other available mods. And I know that I can build completely custom worlds in Sims 3, which hasn't really been covered so far in the update videos from LBY (although world building was mentioned early on, I seem to remember).

The phone functions in LBY.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1FqND2Bfqg

The way the sims look at the phone is quite horrific. But other than that, it's good.

Just Rod, this could be covered in 5 minutes, not 13!

That was 13 minutes including the fast forwarding from the editor where Rod got lost into home redecoration.

Yeah, they look at the phone as if they have myopia.

On the phone :

- I like the balance sheet. It is quite detailed for a sims game. I am curious how much we can change that and what mods will do with this.
- The phone game is a fun idea too. Breaking the 3rd wall, where you as player play it, but it raises the fun for the character. I can see mods adding more games here. I hope we can use python to mod.
- The texting being live seems interesting as well. Wondering how much variety there is in replies and how traits and relationship play into this.
- Using the phone to add your own music is cool too, so you can give your sims music for on the road. A cool thing here would be having the option to add an real internet radio station.

Overall, I think that the phone is quite elaborate. And knowing that we can change all object scripts etc, I wonder how much we can change for the phone.

Sidenote: Pretty sure Tatiania is not pronounced like Rod thinks

Changing UI color and saturation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sf68Nxkuutg

We do not need this even though this is nice. I have so many questions for the developers of LBY. Where is family gameplay? How do the other life stages look like? How do jobs work? How many skills are there? How is fulfilling them different from TS? Are there any special NPCs? Where is weather? Where are pets? What is the progress on those animations? Those are just to name a few. They should invest more into their marketing budget because none of their videos influenced me to want to buy this game.

Is the early access still going to be sometime in June? I haven't been keeping up with this for several months now. I'm no longer even looking at what short videos they have been showing. It's seems to me they are staying in the nitty gritty areas of the game (much like Paralives has stayed in object creation and building for the past four years) and not showing us actual 'gameplay' as others have pointed out. I'm starting to wonder if they have decided that other life states won't be in the game, at early release and what players will be offered is just all the creative tools to add events, or change bhavs for objects, and garden and collect etc.

Casimir pointed out those things not shown yet, and will they even be possible by June? I doubt it. It's starting to feel and resemble Paralives staying in build mode for years.

I think we should be more specific what we want to see instead of throwing the word “actual gameplay” ambigous as if paralives and life by you hadn’t shown them (which they did). I myself too want to see characters with in-depth personality, various age groups, and consequences. Not of the games ofc had shown the extent what it offers beyond “characters can be created and do stuff/interact with environment”. Give credit where its due and in time, maybe we will get to see it.

I’m just happy seeing all three games (paralives, LBY and inZoe) offer actual things to do in game oppose to building stuff and dressing people. Worse case scenario, the older Sims will still be prevelant to keep us entertained. Patience is a virtue, but overall - these games already proved how they ‘ate’ and obligerated TS4 what it doesnt have (extensive worlds? Open venues? Amazing romantic animations and controlled group coversation? Check, check and check!)

I think people have been specific. Any life simulator can show 'sims' eating, cooking, pretending to make a bed, using the bathroom. Gameplay like gardening seems low on the scale of what people actually mean by 'gameplay'. As others said about family play, where are the kids in the game if this is to be released by June? What about the family connections? Uncles, aunts, cousins etc.? Show if the parent can scold or spank the child, or a time out, and or if the kids are mischievous and things happen that causes a little drama. Or if the characters remember when someone was rude and snob them the next time they see them out, or tell them off and or run away from them or whatever. You know, Game Play.

Reminder that it is being released in Early Access in June. It will not be a full and complete game by then. If you buy the game in June, you should not be expecting a full and complete game and should expect the game to be updated with these features over time. Maybe they haven't done a good enough job explaining what "early access" means but it means the game is no where near done usually.

The delays have not been because they're rushing to get new gameplay in. It's clear they're trying to make it look nicer for the general audience as that has been the loudest and longest criticism by far.