⚡💧 Bills in Paralives: How they Work
Hi, hope you had a great week!
In today’s post, I (Alex) will share a first look at the in-game billing feature that Alejandro has recently developed. We’re not talking real life money here, just in-game Paradimes! This system will be used by your Parafolks to pay things like lot taxes and electricity bills.
Before we get started, I wanted to show you a picture from a team activity we did recently. It was a lot of fun!
The weather was gray but it didn’t affect our happiness level!
Our Goals with Bills in Paralives
In Paralives, any household who owns a lot will have to pay bills. Why are you adding one of real life’s worst features into a video game you might ask? Well, there’s many reasons!
1️⃣ Adding a bit of challenge to the game by inciting you to find sources of income to cover expenses
2️⃣ Having to manage and think about how the objects you place in your house will impact the costs
3️⃣ Find interesting ways to reduce the bills and cut expenses while playing
Demo
How does billing work exactly? Let’s take a look at it using the lot and house we showcased a couple weeks ago!
As you can see, this place has many items that consume electricity and water. These will need to be paid for on each bill, in addition to the lot taxes.
I hope the bill won’t be too high! Should be good though, the size of this house is nothing compared to the 3 story high mansion I started building the other day…
The bills are coming in once every 7 days. This number and many other parameters such as the price of electricity and water are tweakable using the modding tools of the game.
The bill interface. It shows a breakdown of the cost, the total amount to pay and a button to easily settle the bill. The costs will be tweaked as we test and play with the values of the in-game economy.
Okay, okay, good, not too expensive but I have a feeling my Parafolks would prefer to pay less if there’s any way to reduce the next bills. Investing in objects that generate electricity could be interesting…
That should help! You might remember these objects from our Earth Day 2020 Patreon post. They have been revamped since then.
Great! I went a bit strong with my investment in energy production, I’m now making money out of it by selling the surplus to the city. Maybe there’s an item that could provide water? Spoiler: there isn’t (yet, at least)!
Another idea we are testing is receiving a small amount of money per child who currently lives in your household. This could help players who like to raise big families and need a bit of extra money to buy furniture and various items for the kids.
Sebastian is receiving 100 Paradimes each week which helps him with the many expenses that come with taking care of Eli.
That’s it for today’s demo! Right now, Alejandro is working on service outages. If you don’t pay your electricity bill, the city is going to cut your access to it until you settle the bill.
Going Further
There are various additional features we’d like to explore with the billing system in the future. Some examples:
💰 Receiving a small amount to help when none of your Parafolks have a job, to help you out a little bit while you find other sources of income
🎈 Paying more taxes so the town can organize more festivals and activities.
💧 Adding the ability to live on “off the grid” lots which do not consume any electricity or water
⚡ Having events such as power outages during a big storm
📉 Showing a graph of the cost of the bills overtime
And more ✨
Those are just ideas for now though! Maybe those could be voted in an in-game political system? This will be interesting to explore in updates after the initial release of the game, perhaps!
That’s it for today’s post. Tell us what kind of additional features you would like to see regarding bills, taxes and energy consumption/generation in the comments below 🔽
Have a great rest of the day!
Alex
Edit - August 3, 2023: This post is now public, feel free to share it!
Comments (126)
Adorei sobre as quedas de energia. Em outros jogos de simulação de vida, você não tinha muitas contas pra pagar. Poderiam considerar também os gastos com internet. Se aquele para tem computadores ou querem mais opções no menu do celular eles poderiam pagar pra ter internet
If we can choose to buy appliance that will be more pricey but will consume less electricity than the average one or if we can tinker with appliances to make them take less electricity that would be lovely feature to have or if the personality of the parafolk could be linked to this for example parafolk would be obcessed to save money for the bills so they would want to buy appliances that takes less electricity or for the eco friendly type parafolk they would incline more to recycling and zero waste or buying solar panels and using less water to make the gameplay more unique and interesting. I don't know I'm just thinking out loud it looks amazing already 👌
The planned feature list sounds super exciting!
Homelessness thank yoi
I love this! It’d also be really cool if different zones had different property taxes, maybe you work in the city center but live far away to save more money.
I would also love to see the ability to have a "savings account" where paras coul save for a house or set money aside for when their kids move out, save for a wedding etc!"
the future add ons sound like an amazing idea
Maybe community events that are fundraisers to public service works, park upgrades, school or small business sponsorships?
For base game It would be so fun to really set a system for any allowance, i think it’s important for people to try and file for the allowance if they want it (and they can have a chance to be denied or accepted) much like a scholarship This could even be taken deeper after release like - sorry for the comparison- a whole expansion pack that truly goes in dept into money stuff basically. A lot of people have already put in dept idea so I’ll trust that the team has seen it and kept it in a folder for future in depth game play!
In my town you see a lot of solar panels on the balconies and roofs. I'd like to have them in Paralives, too. :)
Yes yes.. Power outages due to a big storm in Halloween 🎃 would be so cool 🤩😍
I love the idea of having optional additional taxes for more events round town, it’ll be fun to find out what we can discover ourselves :)
I also think it's a great idea, being able to affect the neighborhood with the amount of taxes being paid is such an interesting idea
Love the idea mentioned in this post of power outages to make the game seem more realistic. Sorta unrelated to the post, but I think alternate entertainment methods like board games could be cute to have to bring the parafolks together during a storm with a power outage. I can imagine them gathered around a table with candles and snacks playing their little board game 🍿 I don't think power outages should happen often though, only a slim chance when there is a storm.
Parafolks playing Boardgames is a very good Idea I think. But not only the old classics like UNO or Monopoly but also really complex ones would be good. I'd like to see that at the power outage my Parafolks play with their neighbours and after that they play with them more often. *.*
I love this idea! It's pretty simple but has the ability to be complex. I am curious about the comment Katherine had "signing up for income assistance." I would prefer that we have the option to in game. but also, having the option to get denied from these services like in real life (so sad).
Personally I'd like it if our sim had to sign up for income assistance or maybe if it were opt out somehow, since starting with absolutely nothing is a really common challenge for players.
How do the lot taxes work? I always found it strange that you have to pay taxes for the items you own in the sims. Maybe there could be a system where we pay only for the real estate. E.g. for square meters of the plot and of the house multiplied by some desirability factor depending, for example, on if its downtown or rural. I personally love a challenge (I love to play rags to riches), but I wouldn't want every little thing to be billed. I like to have a simple overview on the bills. To make everything more challenging I would rather have the amount to pay be higher (e.g. 5% Lot Taxes instead of 1%) than there be a lot of different types of bills (like insurance or phone bills). Some options to add that would be interesting to me are a mortgage, rent, house maintanance, city expenses.
I hope that it will be as challenging as possible. We dont want another tooo easy sims 4 if you guys know what i mean. This looks great and i do hope that you will also add a Income Tax! For reasons of realism!
Income Tax would be really nice!
if you get money for kids maybe you have to give money if you make a para pregnant?
Will there be a banking system to go along this? Have the bills be paid automatically through an "Autopay" system? Those would go hand in hand with the bills! Keep up the great work, devs!! I seriously cannot wait for this game! :D
Curious if there will be a way to artificially increase/decrease your bills via cheats. Maybe it's weird but I love playing with families who constantly struggle to make ends meet. Plus being rich gets pretty boring—in Sims 4 it's actually hard NOT to get rich as long as you have a regular source of income.
Just had a few more thoughts: - Would it be possible to adjust frequency of individual bills as well as salary? I know that in the US it's not uncommon to get paid weekly, biweekly or monthly but I believe in most European countries monthly (or biweekly in some cases) is more common. Personally, I find monthly easier to budget as most bills are also monthly (and often due after you get your salary). And some bills are due annually or you can opt to spread it out over x months. - Could paras choose to pay certain bills automatically (online through phone/computer, by going to the bank or calling over the phone maybe) so that the player doesn't have to constantly be on the lookout to pay bills? - Could paras take in "boarders"? A homeless/traveling para who can get a room for x amount of time as well as food in return for doing chores around the house? Would be neat for rags to riches or world travelers. Perhaps paras could advertise online or offer/ask in person if they have a friendly relationship or right personality? And chores could be agreed upon/advertised beforehand, like carpentry, cleaning, babysitting, maintenance around the house, groceries or what have you. - Could electricity have different tariffs based on usage/time of day? I don't know if this is common around the world but in my country electricity is often cheaper from 11 pm to 7 am, on bank holidays and on the weekends than other times, both because demand is less at those times as well as to encourage users to distribute their usage better. Nowadays people with solar panels are encouraged to use their elecricity during daytime more to prevent overloading the power grid, but through some providers it's still cheaper to use electricity at night/during the weekend and 'sell' your solar panels' productivity at day time price. Anyway, it could be a neat way for poorer paras to save money and also could result in power outtages if there are too many solar panels in one neighborhood. - Can we have 'smart' appliances and such? Paras could for example set their thermostat to different temperatures based on when paras will be home (and in need of heat), time their washer/dryer/dishwasher to start at a good time for them, turn off the internet at nighttime so kids/teens cannot use it when they're supposed to be sleeping and so on. - Would be neat if paras could buy a (very expensive) home battery to store the power produced by their solar panels to save money in the long run and/or be able to completely go off-grid.
I like your ideas. And hope they get featured. *.*
Can't wait. Bills suck in real life, but they add an amazing challenge to the actual game. I also can't wait to see what kind of festivities you're hinting at.
This is great! I like to have challenges and figure out how to best maintain my families' budgets. I'm excited that it is tied into the modding system, too. Maybe then we could, for example, get rid of the child allowance if we really wanted a challenge.
I love it! I want the game to be a little challenging ☺️
i am so excited for this game you don't understand.
Everything sounds great, looking forward to investing in solar panels to bring the electricity bill down! However, in the event that objects “break”, like TVS etc. it could be interesting to add optional insurance? So depending on what breaks/is stolen (hoping there will be thieves in the game), you can get a free replacement thanks to your insurance. Just a little thought ;)
I would like teens, for example, to be able to have separate accounts, where their money from part time jobs go. Maybe their parents ask them to pay something into the main household account every month to go towards bills. That way they can save up individually for the new jeans they want to buy, or whatever. Also children could have pocket money go into their own account to save for toys or whatnot. Also maybe a spouse can have a secret "rainy day" account, that their partner doesn't know about...
A lot of these ideas are perfect, may I suggest also some wear and tear on the buildings, such as, paint, floor replacement, broken windows, fixing a roof after a bad storm or just from old age?
I love the rainstorm outage idea, usually when the power goes out we break out the mismatched candles sometimes carry it with us as a little lantern and play board games or even attempt to read by candle light. Although sometimes my sibling and I get anxious and frustrated when we are in the middle of gaming and the power goes out. Other times I get excited at the idea of the power going out because I love storms and the atmosphere feels far more engaging with household members
oooooo Rainstorm power outage would be so cool! I can't remember if you mentioned it before but I HOPE we also get a burglar event!!
Honestly, to have all this stuff in the base game from Day One makes this the best Life Sim game ever. I am absolutely looking forward to playing this game on my computer, even in an alpha or beta form. I’m absolutely bored of that other game out there right now they can add all the stuff they want and it wouldn’t matter to me at all because you have everything in the base game from the beginning, that I could possibly want. And I would be more than happy to help you guys out by purchasing DLC in the future, whenever that is a possibility, if it ever will be.
I love the idea of paying extra taxes into the city, i also have the idea of investment into the city to earn money ?? And have some input into decisions on how the town functions ?
I would imagine there could be a system for them to do some sort of voting for city options are something like that or policies.
This is EXACTLY the kind of thing I need. A life simulation for grown-ups (or at least that can be adapted to their framework). Adjusting the difficulty of bills ? As someone who loves playing life simulations as a "social survival" sim, that's my jam. The idea of a "child allowance" ? Absolutely the kind of thing I hoped to see. Additional (...moddable ?) social benefits ? Give me it. See where taxes go ? Hell yes ! Being able to see the history of your bills, and your finances as a whole ? That's the stuff ! And just when you think that's it, here comes the coup de grâce : an in-game political system ? I have never wanted anything more. My only minor disagreement is that owning a piece of furniture leads to an adjustment of the bill ; that means that if you're having a bad month, you can't just switch off the lights or take only cold showers for a few weeks, you need to sell something... only to buy it back later, evidently. There's gotta be a better way ? Also, I'm about to go post under their comment in a minute, but I just wanted to say that Zedef has some amazing ideas and I want all of them, I have nothing to add. ALL OF THEM. ALL. OF. THEM. Please and thank you ^_^ (Paradimes' symbol is $ ? I didn't remember that)
Would love things to be repo’d! Sounds silly but it makes us feel like there will be more concequences
This is so cool! I think the in-game voting could be really fun and immersive! An idea for that would be to do it less like a "political" thing and more like town hall meetings and community meetings kind of like in Gilmore Girls. The town gets together to discuss and sometimes take a vote on certain town happenings.
That would be so cool to become some kind of mayor of the town and have some influence on festivals, child support etc etc
It's absurd how much I love this concept already and have so many other ideas, although I realize they might be too in-depth (but perhaps still possible to make by modders?). Financial ideas: - Child benefits: x amount per child per month/quarter from infant to adult. These could be lowered/increased through in-game politics. - Child bonus: x amount upon birth of a child. There are some countries, mostly those with low birthrates (and high emigration rates), who have such a thing to encourage people to have kids. So through in-game politics this could be introduced/done away with depending on your town population. - Child alimony: x amount per child from high-earning parent to lower-earning parent in case of divorce. - Spousal alimony: x % of income from high-earning ex-spouse to low-earning spouse to support them until they remarry/die. - Prenups: paras can make up a prenup to determine future alimony in case of divorce and how to divide their income/savings and possessions. Might require a relatively high fee to make one to prevent all paras from making a prenup prior to marriage. - Trustfunds: paras can set up trustfunds for their (minor) relatives that they trustee can receive upon adulthood (or perhaps in stages at certain ages), could also be taxed. - Savings accounts: paras can open a savings account at the bank at x interest rate. - Investments: paras can invest money in stocks (or property), can also be taxed. Either online or through a financial advisor (which could also affect outcomes). - Income taxes: mentioned them in a reply elsewhere in the comments - Separate bank/savings accounts per para per household - Inheritance/wills: paras can inherit money/possessions from other paras who've made a will or (in case of no will) are their relatives (sibling, children, parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents etc.). Paras can accept or refuse inheritances (refusal most likely if deceased para had debts) - Inheritance taxes: up to x amount is tax-free, above x paras have to pay y percentage of taxes - Debts/loans: through a bank at a reasonable interest rates but limited by income, possibly with unreasonable interest rates through loan sharks (criminal career) - Renting vs owning a home/lot - Mortgage: paras can apply for a mortgage at the bank (and/or loan from rich relative) to buy a lot, home or business. Limit is determined by their income and they have to pay interest. - Lotteries - Insurance: car, home owner, storm damage, burglary, funeral, etc. - Unemployment benefits: could be similar to minimum wage, limited for x months, has to be applied for through city hall or something. - Pension: paras could set aside their own money (separate account) for their pension, x percentage of salary could be set aside by employer for pension or could be funded through town funds upon reaching elderly life stage (and amount depending on how well the town funds are managed through in-game politics) Other suggestions inspired by this post: - Old-fashioned windmills to adjust ground water levels for water supply, electrics, prevent flooding from storms and so on - Dykes/levies in case of lots of water bodies near the town and could require maintenance through in-game politics or risk flooding parts of your town in bad storms - Solar panels on roofs - Productivity of solar panels dependent on their location (amount of sun and shade) - Competing power and gas companies/providers to influence the price of kwh and m3 of gas as to influence the choices paras make as to whether to opt for windmills, solar panels and hopefully heat pumps/induction stoves.
This is perfection and I'm behind you on EVERYTHING. This is a very good list. No notes.
Wow I just live this :D. Such nice ideas
I hope there is a feature to take out loans, especially if Paras will have the ability to own businesses.
Omg Paradimes 💚 edit: ahggg I realized it has levels...I love a good pun! 💚💚💚 On a constructive note, what about an item in build mode that it a tap for a well? It gives you a certain percentage chance to find water under the property, like a dice roll. Or if you wanted to get complicated, you could code property types to have underground springs. Not hi on my list of wants or anything, just trying to come up with a feasible mechanic concept.
i love this!
This looks great! I think I would prefer options for child support paid by a divorced parent, rather than a child stipend given by the government. But if these things were toggle-able, then I think they make for great options in a sandbox game like this!
I would also like a toggle for child support or spousal support.
Nicer neighborhoods could have an HOA fee, which could take care of the "extra fee for festivals" and such. On that note. If a neighborhood has an HOA fee maybe they come keep your lawn looking nice or yell at you if you don't keep your lawn nice. Etc. Maybe even if you live in a neighborhood you have a "sewer" bill and if you live more in the country side or just somewhere where houses are more spread out you don't have that bill because you have a septic tank. Internet bill possibly. This can only appear if you purchase a router and you lose computer features if you don't pay it.
What's a HOA?
The bill UI is actually really pleasant to look at, and I really like the idea of being able to pay more taxes to organize city-wide events. It might be a feature that people toggle off and on for their playstyle preference, but it's a challenge that lifesim players add to their games. It would be mice to have an official in-game framework for that instead of having to track it on an excel spreadsheet.
I love the idea of power outtages. The Paras could complain that they dont have wifi 😂
Okay i have to comment yet enother time because i have read all the comments about different ideas and it made me thing, that maybe there could be a building in the town that's a bank/government building where paras could go for financial things? paras could take loans, apply for assistence programs, make trustfunds etc. whatever money management options there are in the end? I think that would be a neat way to incorporate financial gameplay into the open world!
I promise this is my last comment here but also another addition to lot types what about Private lots that are only for specific uses? Like Cheap, small gardening lots where you can't use all the items on, only the ones that relate to gardening? Big spaces filled with small private gardens are something very common in Germany, they're called schrebergarten and they actually have the rule that you have to use them for Gardening for food in real life. Could be really fun for paras that want to be self sustanied? i'm sorry i feel like i'm spamming i swear this post has activated my hyperfixation onsimulation games big time
This is really exciting! I love that you can actually make money by generating enough electricity. I also love the idea of being able to live off the grid, that sounds like it’d be really fun! One thing I’ve noticed though is that the dollar signs are placed after the amount of money, while in real life it comes before, like $1000 instead of 1000$. I’m not sure if this was intentional or not but I just wanted to point it out! Looking forward to what you guys share next, you’re doing a great job as always! (Also the swans look so fun!)
Dollar sign to the right of the amount is the way in French Canada (or so Google tells me)
I love this, especially the power outage during storms idea! I would love to be able to place the solar panels on roofs too, not just on the ground. This might be too advanced, but having weather also affect solar panel/wind turbine output might be fun! Cloudy days generate less solar, but storms create more wind (I'm thinking kind of like how Rimworld does it). Someone else commented on this above, but a water collector that could be used for gardening would be nice! I can't remember if gardening will be introduced later on post-early access, but as a gardener, I'm excited to see the kind of things that may be introduced (maybe a composter?)!
In addition to that composter, the source of it could be food scraps or other "natural" means. Really would be good with someone who wants to live off the grid.
I like how different things can impact your bills. The only idea listed that I have concerns about is the welfare option, unless it's an opt in, as it would impact any type of rags to riches gameplay (which I often do). It could make for some other interesting challenge gameplay, though.
I love it! I'm just getting more and more excited! As for the allowances when Paras are unemployed or the child allowance, I really like the idea. However maybe it can be something the Paras have to apply for? That way you can play without it if it seems too "easy". One thing I have found in other life simulation games is that once you have a more money the game gets too easy and as a result a little less engaging.
Unemployment should definitely be an opt-in situation. I wonder how artists would work with that. I used a taxes system already with my Sims gameplay (player implemented) so this could make it easier. I think as long as we can adjust the amounts you can keep it getting too easy. In my case it keeps the households from getting too much money, and the households who are always low on cash get a small refund
This looks really exciting! And I love the idea of an in-game political system… This isn’t exactly a bill/ tax but I like the idea of separated parents paying ‘child maintenance’ alongside their taxes. Obviously I’m not suggesting anything too in depth but it could be an automatic expense if you have a child para who is not in your household. I think it would add a nice touch of realism with some cool storytelling potential!
I love this! Although I hate it in real life this would be a really fun addition to the game and definitely make us work a bit. What about a gas bill? Gas appliances, fireplaces, and in the winter months it increases if the heat is on? You could have a simple thermostat so the gas consumption is logged through that.
And it'd be great if paras could opt for more eco-friendly alternatives from gas like heat pumps, firewood and induction stoves.
I see that billing would happen every 7 days. At least in the US we are billed every month for utilities, not every 7 days. I worry that it could become an annoyance to pay bills that frequently. Maybe a monthly payment would be more reasonable with some way to see, during the course of the month, how many expenses are accruing towards the next bill. So, for example, if we were to add solar panels or wind turbines, we could quickly see that our billable energy usage has decreased and/or we could be actually making a profit by feeding excess energy back into the grid. Just a thought :-)
Well, in The Sims seasons could change weekly! And for me it was ok, because the pass of time feels different in the game. But if your way of gaming is different, that's the type of thing easy to change in-game, or with a mod.
I LOVE the idea of a power outage during a storm! It was always one of my favorite occurrences growing up - having to use flashlights and candles, and only being able to read or play board games (no mobile phones in the 90s lol). It was so cozy and I would love to be able to simulate that in the game. This has probably come up before, and I'm guessing it's a work in progress, but I'm really curious about the symbol that will be used for Paradimes and if you will be able to use it in text menus like this one! I can't remember if you've created a unique symbol for it yet or not... and if you do, I imagine it would create a challenge to add a text symbol that matches it, and that's available in many font styles! Thank you so much for sharing this <3
Yes! Yes! Yes!! Love all the current features and EVERY single idea in the pipeline, ALL sound incredible!!!!
Loving the details!
You guys don't even know how excited i am for this specific post!!! I love the idea of making my neighborhoods more environtmentally friendly and this is such a cool way of incorporating this. I really hope you add more things in the future, especially for water. There could be water collection bins for paras who have gardens, Wells or waterpumps! That would be especially cool if there's a gardening skill/system so paras could live really self sustained (I am hoping that there's gonna be a gardening skill it's one if my absolute favs). Alot of older folks live almost off the grid besides electricity for stoves/lamps/tv. Also i really like the idea of living off the grid :D Are you guys planning on having different types of lots or a system to give lots specific traits? You mentioned here the off the grids lots but things like internet speed, educational quality, soil quality etc. are also really cool ideas! They would have alot of impact on actual gameplay and also would allow to make "neighborhoods" within the town (Like a more fancy rich people neighborhood, poorer neighborhood etc.) Sorry if this is a really long comment i am just incredibly hyped right now!
Hehe, "water collection bins" are commonly called "tanks" - they generally come in cylinder shaped corrugated and straight sides, plastic coloured, concrete or old-fashioned tin in many sizes. Older country people know them very well. :-)
I am very exited for this idea! I really think the work put into the tax and bills system is great! I would like to suggest, that maybe the child allowance could be turned on/off per family? Instead of necessarily having it applicable to everyone?
I'm with some other comments that suggested making it an opt-in system or something you get below a certain household funds level. They can also maybe limit it to certain ages like younger children. I'm thinking of the WIC vouchers we have in the US.
I really like the addition of receiving extra money for if your paras have kids or don't have a job. That makes it more realistic and offers more story options (stay at home single para or homeless para for ex.) Other games make it almost impossible to gain money without a job so I hope there's alternative ways for paras to make a living without working. Regardless, it looks amazing and well thought out as always, can't wait for the official release ❤️❤️❤️
I really love that! I always like tiny things that add more realism to the game. I really hope the bills and the income are well balanced because I always end up rich not knowing what to do with all that money. Some features might be optional (insurance, other taxes) for people who just want to play without being challenged by high bills. Being able to get a loan to buy a home would be awesome, too. And before you don't have money for that, you can only rent houses or properties. Just like in real life. One idea for an ingame political system: It would be nice to have the opportunity to become the mayor of the city/county that you live in. For being elected you have to host dinners, go to interviews, talk to people to get their votes, maybe bribe someone (haha) or start rumours about your opponent. You also have to have some money for marketing. If you don't have it, you can try to get money from your party or by fundraising. The possibilities are endless :D Once you are the mayor you can influence the city like the funding of the schools, parks (like cleaning them), cleaning the streets, give more money the police which results in less burglary, maybe taking money from the city into your own pockets. I would really love that 😊
Love these ideas! Might be a but much to ask for in the base game but how awesome would an expansion with the focus on in-game politics about how to run your town?
i love this post. i really like the idea of child support. thanks for the great post. :)
I really love how the billing thing is being handled. Would we be able to adjust taxes per world? or have taxes for different things, kind like how there is property taxes and sales taxes.
The bill UI looks so smooth and easy to understand. Really cool I'd also love off the grid gameplay
Sorry if I don't make sense since I'm young and don't pay taxes, but what if paras had income tax for example: any individual/business with income irrespective of the amount earned is liable to file income tax returns. And other stuff like that. Sorry if I didn't make a lot of sense , but I would think it would be cool to have that.
The idea is interesting, but we are also not trying to make a very advanced economics simulator, so having taxes that you need to file is maybe a bit too much! Pretty interesting still, thank you!
I am loving how creatively the mechanics in this game are being designed, can’t wait to play this when it’s ready!!!
I hope there will be a post about town festivals and that festivals could be customizable 👀👀. I’ve got some good ideas for different festivals like a food fest, craft fest, seasonal fest, or an art fest.
This is all amazing and I love the idea of an in-game political system. But I might confess I got stuck in the "mansion" part. PLEASE. I am so looking forward to seeing that! And fair enough that we'd have to pay the bills in Paralives, at least we won't have the guy from Sims 3 coming over to collect our debts through random objects we own (or will we? :))! PS: did you have fun in those swans?
There are going to be consequences to not paying bills, but the repo man is a bit too goofy for my tastes, we'll explore more options when we get there, thank you!
I love the bill UI! It's so simple yet still has character. I like all these ideas
Love all the updates, but I especially love seeing the team building snapshot!!
Omgggggg this is the most exciting post so far to me, I looove being challenged in a life simulation game, I love all your ideas 😍 Can't wait to see what you come up with next !
For an item that could provide water, maybe there could be a small chance of the lot having a river source! Here where I live usually people are compensated for taking care of these precious sources of water. Or maybe more simply, a well!
This serms like a good idea! And if there is a river in the first town we could maybe place lots so that the river runs through a portion of the lot.
I love this! Some other eco friendly and cost effective items could be rain catchers, water pumps, small electrical generators. Also, for the in game political system, paras could vote for eco friendly community resources like hydropower dames to save on energy and costs for water and electricity. Another idea for the gameplay, paras could choose between different building materials that are cost and eco efficient such as reclaimed wood, concrete, bamboo, or shipping containers. In addition paras could have a goal to build earth ships, rammed earth houses, prefabricated, or a complete zero emissions home.
I think it would be interesting if the player could place things like dams and windmills on the map and it would have positive and negative impacts to lots in the local area (and wildlife if applicable) while lowering bills to the whole town. Placing a solar farm takes up space that could have been used for other lots. Maybe Paras would need to vote before the option becomes available and the player would have to buy them using an in-game fund. I don't foresee it for the initial release though.
This is the first feature I feel a bit underwhelmed by but I'm not exactly sure why. It would be nice to see other things contribute to bills like phone bills, car notes and maybe insurance. Failure to pay could result in being repo'd. Home insurance would be another cool feature. Maybe during storms, your home maybe ends up damaged? If you don't get home insurance, you just don't receive a payout when your home or items are damaged. You could have a button to pay for each bill and a pay all for additional convenience.
I see what you mean, but we have to walk before we can run! At the moment, in the game, we have the concept of power and water, we can calculate property values as well, so it made sense for the billing system to have these in the bill system. If/when we add more things like cars, insurance, phone bills and things like that, they're going to be added to the billing system as well. This is not the entirety of what it'll be in the game. Thank you for the suggestions!
I love that we will have an actual invoice in-game 😍 You guys think of everything and make it increasingly difficult to manage my expectations.
Off-the-grid lots and power outages would be awesome! Especially the power outage since (I assume) it would link into weather and weather's effects on paras.
I wonder if paradimes will have a different sign, like $ is dollars, wondering if this will change as well
Yes, we will have a different sign, but it has not been decided yet. Thanks!
I love the thought of power outages and paying more for festivals! Could there ever be extra bills or tax on Parafolks who are rich or earning a certain amount? A problem I get with other games is eventually I get too rich and the taxes/bills don’t really go up so wealth accumulates very quickly.
Yeah, the economy is an important part in life simulation game, we'll have to balance things out and see how it shakes up!
I live off the grid with my sims so living off the grid is a huge plus for me, Having solar and a way to get water is a must. I like the bill structure you have here thus far. How about adding a bank (or do on computer) where you could get loans for money you may need to help with bills or upgrades to homes ect. Power outages in weather conditions is awesome that would work with snow storms as well! As for water perhaps having natural under ground water sources cold be used.
Yes, snow storms outages would be a great addition and an electric home generator could combat that.
Thats cool! I actually like it. A touch of realism without being unreasonable
Oh I love this! Will there also be something like a pension when the elders stop working? Like they have saved up a lot from taxes or something, that would make it even more realistic 😄
That could be fun! We're still at the early stages of the billing system, but that's certainly an idea we could implement down the line!
Annndd this post just reminded me of the real world rent and bills due tomorrow 😭 lol but seriously I love the idea of using solar panels and such to generate electricity and it will be neat to see how the number of objects that use electricity/water in the household will affect the bills! Having a graph to show the changes in the bills over time would be really cool too
Taxes affecting town activities and festivals sounds like it could be a really cool feature and could vary the game throughout gameplay, likewise with power outages during storms.
I love the idea of an in game political system! And the help for kids and unemployed paras is nice as well!
I love the idea that storms could make power cuts
Also, the "off the grid" idea sounds like fun. Something like a rain catcher so you can use those camping shower kits and to wash clothes. Light your home with beautiful oil lamps and candles! This is going to be good.
LOVE THIS!💗💞
I love the name paradimes! Will this currency have its own symbol? Can we vote on a few choices?
There is probably going to be a distinctive Paradime symbol at some point, but I don't know if it'll be something we'll have people vote on, we'll see if we have a few very strong contenders at that point :) Thank you!
I hope that it won’t be too easy to earn money because then it won’t be as challenging. Also I really like playing as a homeless person or playing as a poor family. I hope that things like “child allowance” won’t make this kind of gameplay easier because I like a financial challenge haha
We'll have to see how the overall money flow is balanced, but it's certainly possible that the kind of helps like the child allowance would be opt-in. Thank you!
Awesome! I like the realism here. Seeing those bills also make me wish for a University DLC or update.
I love the idea of power outages during storms! 💗
Amazing! Though my initial reaction to the bill interface is shouldn't the cost be positive numbers, and when you are making money, shouldn't those be negative numbers?
That's a thing we could tweak, but I also feel that having the sign and a color would help to make it clear what you're gaining and losing :)
I love the idea that you can receive a bit of money when you're unemployed. And power outages during storms sounds fun 🤣
I love the child allowence thing so helpful and adds a touch of realism, maybe if a Paras income or household funds is above a certain level they no longer receive those benefits? EDIT: Also idea for a chat option "complain about high bills"
Awesome! I'm glad that there will be off-grid lots, that's how I like to play in TS4
OMG the currency being called Paradimes is great 😂
My number one desire is that all the bills/taxes that all the households pay during gameplay goes to a town fund that you can spend on building publicly owned community lots and renovation! (of course with the ability to disable for those who want sandbox mode)
That's a neat idea, thank you :)