DEAL BREAKER: Inactive Family Playing By Itself?

[Psykai]

When I first started the game, I made my first family and spent a few (real life) days playing them. I really enjoyed it despite the obvious lack of interactions and stuff that comes from the game being early access. It has a long way to go, but I'm enjoying what's there so far.

However, the other day, I thought I'd try to make a new family and actually build a house instead of using the presets like I did the first family, which went fine. I played the new family for a couple of in-game days, and then I decided to go back to my first family. Now, to clarify, I have free will turned off (I hate it, I have to have full control in Sims-like games). I always play a full in-game day, and then save and quit the moment all my Zois are in bed and asleep, so that I can start a fresh day the next time I play. So that family should've been tucked in bed at the time I left them. But to my horror, all the Zois were not only awake, but in the middle of tasks I didn't set them to do (with the kids both in each other's rooms instead of their own), in the middle of the night, and what's worse; their hunger and sleep meters were in the yellow (one was in the red) because they had apparently decided to DO said tasks INSTEAD of sleeping. So not only had the AI apparently taken control in my absence, but they had left all members of the family in crippling condition. I had to take an entire in-game day just to fix the mess, and even then, it felt like an impossible task and my immersion was completely ruined as it felt like the characters were no longer what I had made and were just whatever the AI was doing and I actually quit the game in frustration. I'm lucky it was an in-game Saturday because if it had been a school or work day, they would've been totally f*cked one way or another too.

Is this a bug? Did something go wrong? Or does the game literally take control of your family if you switch to another one and continue playing them in real time? If that's the case then this completely destroys the game for me. The best thing about The Sims was being able to 'pause' playing as one family, play as another family, then switch to the other and continue where you left off. At least right now it seems like inZOI is basically saying "play as ONLY one family, or we'll f*ck over all your other ones".

Some clarification would be appreciated, and I'm sorry if I sound upset/impassioned. I'm someone who cares a lot about the characters they make in games and having their identity robbed from them by the AI just because I'm playing as a different family really got to me. I haven't enjoyed The Sims since The Sims 2 and this has kind of become a bit of a comfort game the last few days and I truly think this game could surpass the Sims franchise entirely one day if the right steps are taken, and it makes me nervous when issues like this arise.

Much love, x

[Paffi]

This is normal, if you play one family world also don't stop. In Sims 4 everything was the same, except you could stop aging non playable families.

[Crustacean]

"At least right now it seems like inZOI is basically saying "play as ONLY one family, or we'll f*ck over all your other ones"."

No, the game isnt saying you have to play only one family, your able to take control of any zoi at any time in the world, they arent going to freeze in place any zoi your not currently using.

meters go down, theres no expectation they should all be filled up all the time, well there shouldnt be one.
The game was always about being able to be able to play every character in game if you want to, not only play as one character which you can if you want to, but it would be goofy to cryofreeze whatever zoi you switched away from playing.

[Psykai]

@Paffi To reiterate, I never played Sims 4, so I can't compare that and I'm not sure what you're saying :(

@Crustacean But surely that's crazy? What if you populate the whole city with custom characters (not that I would)? You're seriously expected to manage all of them, simultaneously, every in-game day, playing as several families per day, and if you play for one family too long, all other families will suffer and possible even die?

That's not remotely fun. And I don't know why it would be goofy to 'freeze them' 'cause previous Sims games did that and it never felt out of whack as long as you played families consistently. It just becomes a player management thing which in this kinda game SHOULD be how it is.

[≪ R u N o ≫]

Originally posted by Psykai:

@Paffi To reiterate, I never played Sims 4, so I can't compare that and I'm not sure what you're saying :(

@Crustacean But surely that's crazy? What if you populate the whole city with custom characters (not that I would)? You're seriously expected to manage all of them, simultaneously, every in-game day, playing as several families per day, and if you play for one family too long, all other families will suffer and possible even die?

That's not remotely fun. And I don't know why it would be goofy to 'freeze them' 'cause previous Sims games did that and it never felt out of whack as long as you played families consistently. It just becomes a player management thing which in this kinda game SHOULD be how it is.

in sims 2 only your family aged, sims 3 every family aged in the world as all the sims in the world where the world population, sims 4 same as 3 in this regard despite them being very different. sims 1 i cant compare as its been so long since i played.

So in inzoi the other families age alongside you, Though they added in simulation options where you can turn aging off for only your family or for other families you aren't playing. Or both, Whatevers your cup of matcha.

Besides all that, no in all sims games families you didnt play, played themselves, went to work, made money, took care of their needs. Same as what happens in inzoi.

[Ratsplat]

While the game IS about InZois themselves, you can also think about the game as city management. You're playing as a city, with everyone within it going through life. But that aspect is currently rough, so who knows where it'll go down the line.

[☆ id/SweetRin ☆ [JP]]

Originally posted by Crustacean:

"At least right now it seems like inZOI is basically saying "play as ONLY one family, or we'll f*ck over all your other ones"."

No, the game isnt saying you have to play only one family, your able to take control of any zoi at any time in the world, they arent going to freeze in place any zoi your not currently using.

meters go down, theres no expectation they should all be filled up all the time, well there shouldnt be one.
The game was always about being able to be able to play every character in game if you want to, not only play as one character which you can if you want to, but it would be goofy to cryofreeze whatever zoi you switched away from playing.

I agree.

But also lets stop trying to make this the next best sims 3, as its not going to be sims and shouldnt be sims. it should be InZOI. It should be proud to be its own thing. Lets not compare it to sims. Its easy to do considering sims is the same genre and the staple for years. But this is inZOI, not sims.

[𝚁𝚘𝚖𝚞𝚕𝚞𝚜]

I disagree. If it where optional yes im fine with it. But it being forced on every player is something I can't get behind and also find it silly you would be walking the city than just see randomly frozen zois.

[ɌȺĐƗᵾS]

Would be very dumb to have other zoi families I made just frozen and not walking about the city when I'm playing another family.

Originally posted by Crustacean:

"At least right now it seems like inZOI is basically saying "play as ONLY one family, or we'll f*ck over all your other ones"."

No, the game isnt saying you have to play only one family, your able to take control of any zoi at any time in the world, they arent going to freeze in place any zoi your not currently using.

meters go down, theres no expectation they should all be filled up all the time, well there shouldnt be one.
The game was always about being able to be able to play every character in game if you want to, not only play as one character which you can if you want to, but it would be goofy to cryofreeze whatever zoi you switched away from playing.

Complete agree with you mate.

[TomokoZerra]

Would end very badly to freeze other zoi families you got in the world as then they cannot fulfill their needs and make money to pay their bills. Plus I think you would like the idea of randomly encountering them in the world with other families you switch too once you get you to it. Sims 3 and 4 the world never stopped and the Sims ended to tend to their needs. They automatically got a job too. In Sims 3 they would even automatically buy a car if they got the parking lot on the property.

If it does help you can disable aging for zoi families you do not play in simulation settings.

But I would have to agree with the other humble individuals who say it would be silly to just have zois randomly be frozen if your not playing them.

[Rob]

sims 4 you can set it to only the family you are controlling ages which is great if you want to play more than one family , they still did their own thing .
I would like to see this option brought in to Inzoi but not over fixing bugs or adding other items to give the game more ways to play

[Shadow]

Originally posted by Paffi:

This is normal, if you play one family world also don't stop. In Sims 4 everything was the same, except you could stop aging non playable families.

you could stop aging in inzoi as well

[Rob]

Originally posted by Shadow:

Originally posted by Paffi:

This is normal, if you play one family world also don't stop. In Sims 4 everything was the same, except you could stop aging non playable families.

you could stop aging in inzoi as well

But in inzoi currently now ageing is either on or off , you are not able to adjust the settings so only the current family you play ages , I dont see anything wrong with swapping back and finding the other family doing something

[SmallArchangel]

I think the main issue is probably that the Zoi's are not that great at looking after themselves. Hopefully that will improve over time. I never do much household switching, but over the past 25 years and 4 Sims titles, exactly the same thing happened in those games, because autonomous characters never make the same choices I do (or even ones that make sense!)

[mirta000]

Originally posted by Rob:

Originally posted by Shadow:

you could stop aging in inzoi as well

But in inzoi currently now ageing is either on or off , you are not able to adjust the settings so only the current family you play ages , I dont see anything wrong with swapping back and finding the other family doing something

There are two settings - aging for your family and aging for other zois. Switch aging for other zois to off and aging for your family to on.

[KrazieFox]

If you leave your family asleep after a full day, and exit back to the Lobby then create a 'New Game', and play as a different family, when you go back to load up the first family's save-game it will be exactly where you leave it - just as in The Sims.

IF, however, you play in the exact same save-game as the first family you have to realise the new day you play with the new family is also happening for your first family - they will be going to work, or basically doing whatever is on their schedule, because you are in the same save-game as your first family.

If you have separate 'Save-Games' per family they won't change when you play a different family.

To Clarify, if your first family are called Smith and you MANUALLY save the game as Smith Family, then create a 'New Game' and create the Jones Family and proceed to play the Jones for a day or two, then MANUALLY save the game as Jones Family.

You can then, under 'CONTINUE' in the Lobby (hit the button under Continue), you can then manually LOAD the Smith family and they will be exactly as you left them, in bed.

So, you play a few more in-game days as the Smith family then manually save the game as Smith Family again.

Next day if you hit the 'Continue' button in the Lobby you will load back into the Smith Family - so if you wish to play the Jones Family you hit the button Under 'Continue', find the save-game called Jones Family and then load that ...

Does that make sense?


But, if you are playing as the Smith Family in your save-game and play through the in-game Wednesday, then put them to bed, load the Jones Family (within the same save-game) it will now be Thursday for the Jones Family, and you play one in-game day - put them to bed, and switch back to the Smith Family. For the Smiths it is now Friday, they autonomously lived through Thursday whilst you played the Jones and when you load in the Smiths they will be doing whatever they were doing whilst you played the Jones through Thursday (like going to work, go to the park, etc).

Does that make sense?