Klinn

First Day On The New Job It was time for my main Zoi to get a real job. Cody Coder has maxed-out computer and critical thinking skills, so that means he should obviously become -- a fireman! Got a spiffy new uniform with a disturbing lack of socks. Is the budget really that tight? OK, off to work! You may remember the gameplay trailer that showed firemen wrestling with heavy water hoses as they tried to extinguish a small blaze. Yeah, sounds cool, let's go make a difference in this city. First task is to, umm, fill out some forms on the computer. Well, isn't this thrilling. Maybe my cute coworker over on the other computer would like to chat. It's never too early to start hitting on your fellow employees. We get along reasonably well all things considered. I guess she was bored of the desk work too, so chatting was a nice break. BTW, while chatting I asked her that standard question about her career. She absolutely refused to tell me. Ahh, you do realize we're both in uniform sitting in the fire station, right? Fine, have your little secrets. Ended up having lunch with her. Pizza for me, cake for her. Did you realize that you have to pay for items you eat out the "staff refrigerator"? Just how much of a budgetary shortfall is the Fire Service looking at? After lunch it's time for some real excitement! We have to, umm, attend a meeting. Kinda sparse attendance. Well, I am the new guy. Turns out you have to click on one of the meeting chairs and select the "Give Meeting" action. Yeah, that was obvious. Attendance has picked up. I think the team leader is pointing out just how badly we're doing financially. Maybe we should start charging people per gallon of water we use to extinguish their fires? Speaking of which, bring on the hoses! Yeah, let's show those fires who's boss! Nope, after the meeting is over my Zoi kills time by working out, checking the activity board (which shows no activity) and finally going home. Now granted it's only my first day on the job and I'm at the bottom rank but so far this job seems distressingly un-fireman-like. Ah well, he'll keep at it to see if it gets any more exciting later on.

. My musical Zoi was relieved when the weather gameplay testing was complete and she could change into something more appropriate for the conditions. The bad news is that she was invited to participate in a musical competition and it turned out to be the same old "disappear into a cab for 3 hours" routine. Dowon has an outdoor stage all set up with lighting and all, but so far the game does not actually use it. Maybe someday. Apparently she did win the competition though (from the back seat of the cab ) and collected a prize of 1000 Mews.

Another update / bugfix dropped today. Appears to be mostly concerning pregnancy and babies. Up to version 2.5 now. Details below and source here. I'm not sure if that "Added conditions and emotional rewards to personal interactions" refers to the excessive added number of "Small Talk" bubbles that now appear during a conversation and the way they modify your Zoi's relationship with other Zois without any control on the player's part. If so, I hope they realize it's a dumb idea. Taking away agency from the player is a big no-no in game design.

Fall has come and gone in my current game and winter has arrived. As you can see below there's a fine layer of frost/snow on the grand piano, the loveseats (brrrr!) carpets and other horizontal surfaces. I don't think there will be much lounging in those deck chairs any time soon, and I think that bottle of spirits on the table has become ice wine. Most plants have become a bit grayer, I guess sort of a dormant phase. Your Zoi does need proper winter clothing or they'll start shivering. "Proper" seems to mostly mean a good winter coat. Not all jackets are suitable but the one my other Zoi picked out did the trick. Amusingly, so long as they've got a nice warm coat they can wear their gold lamé bikini with no issues. BTW, this Zoi has been working out a lot and you can see she's become significantly more cut. The exercise equipment is mostly outdoors and Zois can change into their skimpy workout wear with no ill effects from the winter weather. Not just when they're exercising but also for little while after. They change outfits soon enough anyway. Oddly enough I didn't have a single rain storm throughout the fall season so I didn't get to check how Zois would react in this Outdoor Living House. Drat.

The devs have announced that the ModKit update scheduled for September has been pushed back to October. Also, a feature to mod the user interface has been delayed further. Not a bad idea, wait until the game is pretty much feature-complete before tinkering with the UI. I was looking forward to putting all the motive level circles in a single line though, instead of the current two lines of them. Oh well. The official announcement is here.

@Kimi Yes, the interface feels a little disjointed, like they just added bits & pieces as features were developed. That small toolbar normally at the top-middle of the screen? I've accidentally grabbed and moved it so many times when trying to pan the view around. Finally got annoyed enough to move it to the bottom right where it's more out of the way. BTW, remember back a few pages when my musical Zoi entered a "musical competition" which turned out to be 3 hours of staring at the sidewalk? At the time I mentioned that I wish the devs had added a performance space for those sorts of competitions, e.g. a stage set up in one of the plazas. Well, as my current Zoi explored Dowon it turns out there's exactly that kind of arrangement in Nuri Plaza. I have no idea if it actually works that way but it's an encouraging sign. My Zoi is not musically inclined at all so I can't check it out for sure. I didn't see any comparable space in Bliss Bay but maybe they'll add it later. Maybe down on the beach? BEACH PARTY!!! My current Zoi relaxing at the end of the day with a bit of fishing. This is the edge of the playable map but the devs did a good job with all the world background spaces to give you the feel of a big city. My Zoi is thinking of finally getting a job. Hmm, what would be most suitable?

True, but I guess they had to come up with ways to look different from the Sims. They use that circular style for other progress indicators too.

. The update(s) have resulted in some strange changes to Zoi conversations. In between the topics we choose, the game inserts even more of those "Make Small Talk" actions, the ones with the speech bubble and 3 dots. That happens even if you've got a series of topics lined up in their action queue. I can understand adding one, as was done before, but 2 or 3? Even worse, apparently Small Talk can now affect the Zoi's friendship, commerce, and romance levels. In fact they seem to negatively affect them and their score goes down more often than not. Trouble is, you can't tell if they're about to have a negative conversation or not. Very annoying. Also, I wish we had an option to put all the motive indicators in a single line something like this: The current double line of indicators intrudes too much into the playable area of the screen.

. Another tiny hotfix for a couple of bugs -- eyebrow enthusiasts and AMD users rejoice!

I found the most profitable line of work in terms of MPH (Mews Per Hour) was creating large paintings. Far more than the typical careers in the game. Yes, you have to skill up your Zoi to level 10 of painting, but make it one of the Zoi's favorite things (they learn faster) and eat an Art Donut before embarking on a long creative session (extra 30% skill gain) and it doesn't take too long get them up there. Add 3 or 4 easels around the house and they can really crank out the product. One of my Zois made over 25,000 Mews in one day. Yes, I was being a harsh taskmaster and chained them to the easels. It's so profitable that I wouldn't be surprised if the devs nerfed the payout somewhat in a future update.

. This isn't exactly a bug fix but rather a preview the devs released concerning the new 3rd world they're releasing in the August update. Sounds like it will be an interesting change of pace from the first two towns.

. A couple of minor bug fixes have been released in the past two days. We're now up to version 0.2.2 of the game. Followed by:

Well, at least she got some smooches out of the date. Red, maybe you should make a new Asian Zoi and embrace the K-Pop!

Fortunately the new patch is supposed to let us demolish many of the deco buildings and build something in their place. Haven't tried it yet. Naturally you probably don't want to get rid of essential buildings like the school or the game will get seriously confused. About moving NPC families out: On the map screen / manage families tab, you can select a currently occupied home and click the Dismiss button to evict them. Then a Select Family option should be available for that property. Click it to select a predefined family or create new one, then click OK a couple of times and the new family should appear in that property. Hope I got that right!

The May aka June major update has been released. There's tons of stuff as was previously previewed by the devs' last announcement. The page here lists the changes plus has a video and links to other info which I'll break out below for convenience: Cheat Codes ModKit Overview ModKit Documentation They've released 6 tutorial vids for creating mods using the ModKit: Getting Started / Overview Using PlugIns to Transfer Data Between inZOI and Blender or Maya (if you can afford it) Designing and using Custom Outfits Editing Character Data (traits, stats, etc) Creating and Using Build Mode Objects Creating Interaction Effects (in this case, a Zoi gets 50 mews every time they take a leak) <phew> I've got a lot of reading ahead!