Came across this one today and it looks really interesting.

First look

Early game play

It certainly is Rose. I don't understand how the devs would deliberately choose the way those things work in the first place. Or more accurately, don't work. It's like they don't even bother playing the game they're developing to see how it feels.

Warning! More grumbling ahead. Please skip the post if you're not in the mood, I won't be offended. 

 

OK, so suppose despite all the difficulties in fishing you persevere because you really love fish. You'd love to have an aquarium in your home and watch them frolic, just like it says in the game's description for one of the larger fish tanks:

 

There are several sizes but since we're so enthralled with fish let's choose one of the bigger ones:

Whoa, that's big alright. There is an even bigger version but it wouldn't fit under the ceiling. But for your Zoi with their love of fish, size is not an issue. We could redesign the house to make room this big tank, maybe even two.

Assume that's done and now it's time to add fish to your aquarium(s). How many fish do you think that big tank can hold?

That's right, one single solitary fish. That's it. You can't have a group of fish swimming around. In fact they don't swim or move at all. The fish just sit there with an animated tail fin but not moving an inch. So the game's description of the tank for "watching the fish swim" is pure fantasy.

There are different size aquariums for different size fish. I get that, if you want to display a big fish, you need to make room for a big tank. But only one fish at a time? Dumb. I could describe a simple system that could be coded to control how many fish and how big are allowed but your eyes are probably glazing over already.   By the way, sometimes the shark in the tank appears twice as big, sometimes the smaller size shown. Just a bug of some sort.

 

After playing Cahaya for many hours, the problems I described in the previous post and this one illustrate how I would sum up the Cahaya DLC, it's half-baked.

They have some good stuff, some bad stuff, and a large amount of stuff in the middle that could be good if the devs actually made it work in a useful and enjoyable way. But to fix some things, like the silly fish tank gameplay restrictions, would mean scrapping what they have now and rewriting the system. So I fear we're stuck with half-baked.

OK, I promise not to be as grumpy the next time I post. 

This sort of thing always strikes me as; time verses release date. Like they have to release new features on schedule, no matter what there current state is. 

I agree with Rose, and find this practice unethical and disgraceful. It is disappointing to think that they are in Early Access and they are supposed to be FIXING and finishing stuff. Instead, they get greedy and want more Early Access buyers, so they offer new free DLC that, as you said, Klinn, is not fully tested in game.

By the way, @Klinn by all means, get your grumpying on!!! I know we LOVE a good rant!!!!

 So, would you say then, that playing inZOI is actually no different than playing Sims 4 (other than the graphics?)

I'm only familiar with TS3, just played TS4 briefly when EA had a free weekend or something, but generally I would say playing inZOI in it's current state is worse than The Sims. Sure, it's only early access and thing could change, but some of the problems are so deeply embedded in the game that it would take a huge re-write to fix them and I don't believe the devs will do that.

FzzyDg, I could talk your ear off about the things The Sims does right (at least in TS3) compared to how few inZOI does properly, but I think I've exceeded my daily allowance of grumpiness. 

 

2 hours ago, RedMallie said:

Get your grumpying on!!! I know we LOVE a good rant!!!!

OK, one last observation just to show how ill-conceived the whole fishing / collecting / display system is. My Zoi has been fishing for several in-game months and has collected 19 different types of fish. If he wanted to proudly display his collection he'd have to build a home with 19 aquariums!    What's more, if he stuck with it and collected all 52 fish in the game, then he'd have to create a multi-story building to house all 52 aquariums!  Dumb. dumb, dumb.

That's sooo fishy of Krafton!!!!!! 

While pondering how Cahaya turned out, I thought about how it provided a tropical island where the weather was always warm or hot, and then wondered about another location going the opposite way -- lots of snow and colder temperatures. A mountainous region like the Swiss alps. The most snow in winter but it lingers in spring as wild flowers are popping up in grassy meadows, and it starts returning early in fall as winter approaches.

Switzerland / Germany have some unique architectural styles that would be great for a small village tucked into the mountains. A very different look than the cities already in the game.

Skating, skiing, snowboarding, crafting ice sculptures in public spaces, saunas, outdoor steamy jacuzzis, warming up in cozy cafe with a hot chocolate, snowball fights, etc. Maybe helicopters to get to and from the location from other cities.

Of course, I posted my ideas over in the official inZOI forum and sure enough, others had already thought along the same lines. Unfortunately that forum tends to hide threads if there have been no new posts for a week so I didn't even see the existing thread. Oh well.

But here's the unfortunate thing -- maybe the interest will tempt the devs to work on a new DLC rather fixing up the existing worlds. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have posted it. 

3 hours ago, Klinn said:

But here's the unfortunate thing -- maybe the interest will tempt the devs to work on a new DLC rather fixing up the existing worlds. Oops. Maybe I shouldn't have posted it. 

 Yikes, it's The Sims 4 2.0!

I am really getting tired of the quantity over quality thing.

indeed!!! Creativity and rapid boredom do not match. One must put the time to make the creative idea into the feasible and functional work. 

.

Been working on my new house for Cahaya, the Elevated House.

Wanted to go higher to get some better views of the ocean and the whole back half of the house is glass. The extra height may also may be useful to avoid flooding in deluges. We'll see. Ignore the Zoi, he's my old professor. While building I use a temporary Zoi in a new "Lots" game. When the house is done I save it as a preset, then can use it in a real game.

Still a lot of work to be done. As is my custom, decorations are few, especially wall decorations. My homes are built for game play, not so much for screen shots. But at least some of the concepts I wanted to try out are working OK. Hint -- the house has no exterior doors. 

Wow! Love the view. 

^ This!! 

The view is fantastic!!!!   

 

-uhm, some lyrics come to mind...  

 

2 hours ago, RedMallie said:

-uhm, some lyrics come to mind.  

Good guess Red, but not exactly. 

.

OK it's picture spam time!   Introducing the Elevated House, a home with no exterior doors. Tricky trying to get a decent shot of the front with all the telephone wires and tree branches in the way.

No, that thing behind my Zoi is not a door! The game calls it an elevator but practice it's actually a portal. Zois can go through it and magically end up in the second floor living room. Cool, huh? Here's a shot from above to make the layout a little clearer.

Being ecologically conscious, the house has a grass roof. In the middle I plan to set up a flower garden, hopefully more intricate than that simple square. Beside the camping chair up there you can just barely make out the top of a ladder which connects the roof to the main living area.

As mentioned before the whole point of the Elevated House is to provide higher, better views of the ocean. The elevator / portal business means it's easy to get up to the living room without all that tedious running around and climbing stairs.

And if those views of the ocean put you in the mood, you can dive into the pool right then and there! What? Are you saying you don't have a swimming pool in your living room? How odd.

So this house is "elevated" in two senses -- elevated main living area, and uses elevators to get there. 

Zois can also get a good view of the ocean from the terrace which wraps around the back half of the house. It connects to a walkway above the main pool. That brings you to another elevator in the bottom-left corner which takes you down to pool level.

Looks like a fine morning for a swim, hmm?

The glass thing on the lower level is not a window but a large aquarium. I'll stick a shark or something in there eventually. The brown patch at the bottom of the pic is where my Zoi will be growing crops in the future.

Anyway, it's nice to have a house built expressly for Cahaya instead of reusing that one from Bliss Bay as I was doing before.

It reminds me of a rustic area nearby.

Well done with the elevation of the elevated house!!!! 

 

Bummer about the "...we're all just prisoners here..." 

.

Rob's Journey Act 1:

I started a new game with a Zoi by the name of Rob. The reason for the name will become clear soon.

Rob lives in an inexpensive prebuilt apartment in Bliss Bay. He really isn't the best sort. To put it mildly, Rob is an abrasive jerk.

And that's not to mention all the littering he does and farting in public.

Frankly, Rob is the type of person you might meet and decide you really don't want anything to do with them. It's not just other Zois that suffer his abuse, vending machines are a frequent target too.

 

He's not fond of ATMs either and tries to hack them when he thinks nobody is looking.

 

He picks up enough cash to survive primarily by stealing money from those paper bags you occasionally find around town.

 

Is Rob's unavoidable habit of arguing with everyone and anything going to have unavoidable consequences?

 He is definitely living up to his name. 

Love the house too. Definitely need a pool in the living room. 

.

Rob's Journey Act 2:

Rob was getting a bit of a reputation in Bliss Bay and attracting wrong kind of attention. It seemed like a good idea to skip town and head some place where he could lie low for a while. Some place like the small island of Cahaya.

Rob lucked into living at an amazing house. While exploring the town, he overheard that an absentee land owner was paying a local to take care of his property while he was away. Rob cased the joint, liked what he saw, and told the local to buzz off, loudly insisting that he was the owner's actual choice for house-sitter and the other guy was trespassing.

 

After intimidating his way into a fancy base of operations, Rob started roaming the streets of Cahaya but it wasn't long before he was back to his old tricks and left a trail of broken vending machines in his wake.

 

The laid back nature of the island didn't soften Rob's approach to other Zois either. Yes, he was still a jerk.

 

Fortunately for him, the resort area on the other island had plenty of those bags with cash he could steal.

 

His only redeemable quality, if you could call it that, was that Rob had a weak spot for cats.

 

Like most bullies, Rob tended to pick on Zois he thought were weaker than he was.

 

Sometimes the arguing escalated.

 

Also escalating was the attention he was drawing from the police, just as it had in Bliss Bay.

 

This time Rob paid the price for his outbursts.

 

Imprisonment angered Rob and he seethed at the unjust world. 

 

Late at night while pacing back and forth in his darkened cell, Rob discovered a crack in the wall.

 

All he had was a spoon, but by furiously digging away at the crack, a small opening was created.

 

By squeezing through the gap, Rob escaped jail and made a run for it!

 

Eluding the police, Rob managed to make it back to his house.

 

He was free! But for how long? He needed a plan, but planning was not exactly Rob's forte.

(to be continued)

Rob must have steel toes, to be able to kick vending machines in that footwear.  At least he likes cats.  

It will be interesting to see how long he last, on the run. 

WOW!!! He escaped !!?!!!!??! 

23 minutes ago, Rosewin said:

Rob must have steel toes, to be able to kick vending machines in that footwear. 

Yeah, I wish I had noticed his sandals before grabbing that screenshot. Oh well. 

No sense, no feeling, as my mother used to say. 

.

Rob's Journey Act 2 Continued:
(the second act is always the longest)

Faced with his disreputable nature and how it led to his predicament, Rob did the only reasonable thing possible. He joined the local crime syndicate.

The "Red Bone Tissue" was a pretty dumb name in Rob's opinion but he hoped the syndicate's local influence and connections would shield him from any further incidents with the authorities.

All Rob had to do was some basic extortion, intimidation, and theft under the watchful eye of the syndicate's boss.

Piece of cake. And if he rose in the ranks to Underboss, he could assign jobs to enforcers and run a gambling den. Presumably taking a cut of the action for himself.

Rob was annoyed that he couldn't use the fireworks to commit arson.

One day Rob was sent to pass off some counterfeit goods at the local market but the police were waiting for him. They demanded he hand over the goods so they could be used as evidence against him. 

Rob tried to talk his way out of it but to no avail.

He was back in prison and from the attitude of the authorities, the charges were going to be more serious this time. They didn't take kindly to his previous jail break and kept him under close watch to avoid a repeat of that incident.

Rob resigned himself to sweeping the cell floors until the syndicate intervened on his behalf. Who did they think they were dealing with, huh?

The waiting without any word from his accomplices was annoying but Rob passed the time by carrying out some menial labor on the prison's sewing machines. Any moment now and he'd be freed.

He overheard rumors from the guards that the syndicate had washed their hands of him.

Rob was abandoned.

 

Oh Rob.  

 I think there is a movie playing in TS4 theatres about rotting in jail, Rob might want to request it.

4 hours ago, Klinn said:

Rob did the only reasonable thing possible. He joined the local crime syndicate.

Of course!!! 

4 hours ago, Klinn said:

They demanded he hand over the goods so they could be used as evidence against him. 

I thought you were going to tell us that he swallowed the evidence!!!! 

 

This is a CC career, right?? This is NOT in the game per the developers' will, is it?????? 

42 minutes ago, RedMallie said:

This is a CC career, right? This is NOT in the game per the developers' will, is it? 

Yup, this is part of the standard game. Every city has their own criminal group, each going by a different name but serving the same gameplay purpose.

 

1 hour ago, FzzyDg8 said:

 I think there is a movie playing in TS4 theatres about rotting in jail, Rob might want to request it.

Heh-heh, sounds like it should be required viewing at all inZOI prisons.

@Klinn 

Rob's Journey Act 3:

Feeling betrayed, Rob served his time and was released.

To exactly what he wasn't sure.

 

Rob moped around town a bit before heading to an uninhabited island to ponder his fate.

 

Rob stopped yelling at other Zois and beating up vending machines, but wandered the islands aimlessly.
He took up fishing and didn't yell at the fish either.

 

At the Miatara temple a woman approached Rob to chat. She liked cats too.

 

Her name was Victoria. After a cautious beginning, the two of them ended up spending a lot of time together.
(this is where a story usually features a quick montage of the couple doing cute things, this can be tedious so you can skip it if you like)

Spoiler

 

 

Victoria introduced Rob to some of her friends.

 

Rob had friends!

 

Things were going well but one problem nagged Rob, how to explain the fancy house he lived in?
He had been avoiding the issue but he couldn't do that forever. At some point Victoria would want to come over to his place.

Rob realized he had to come clean about the swindle.

 

Victoria took in the revelation and was quiet for a while. Rob was worried he had blown it and lost the only good thing that had happened to him in a long time.
She broke her silence, explained that she was glad Rob trusted her to understand, and invited him to move in with her. It wasn't as fancy, but it was theirs.

 

Rob bought an easel and started painting. Not very good works at first but he earned a modest amount of money to help out with expenses.

 

With the fragments of a stable life slowly coming together, Rob could relax and enjoy his time with Victoria.

They had been together for a fair while when Victoria realized she still didn't know Rob's full name. When she asked, he looked out across the peaceful ocean stretching out before them, smiled, and told her "Robert Redemption".

 

The moral of the story -- cats solve all problems, sometimes in mysterious ways.

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------

Rob's Journey Epilogue:

• I wanted to see the 'evil' side of Zois, what gameplay options opened up and how other Zois reacted.
• The decent in karma very rapid, it only took from noon to suppertime for Rob to go from the Neutral midpoint to Terrible (the lowest).
• If a Zoi paints while having terrible karma, there's unique set of images I've never seen before. Anguished cries for help. 
• Yes the story is incredibly corny and clichéd, I just wanted a framework on which to hang a bunch of screen shots.

 

Bravo!! Now what? 

Bravissimo!!! I love the effect you gave that last picture of Rob and Victoria.

I also love Rob's painting on the easel!!! That is my kind of painting!!

Good to learn these things from your point of view, dear @Klinn it actually makes me want to play the game in spite of the idiosyncrasies and animations. 

 It was very amusing!  I enjoyed Robs' story from his peak to his decent and back up to his peak again.

Aww, I really enjoyed reading Rob's story; though I must say, if someone loves cats they can't be ALL bad.

mmmm, delicious corn. Loved the cute couples montage too. Rob definitely had no chance at staying evil, with cat intervention. 

Thanks for all the kind words everyone, I'm glad you enjoyed a generous helping of tasty corn. 

 

On 10/9/2025 at 10:33 PM, RedMallie said:

I love the effect you gave that last picture of Rob and Victoria

I guess that was my attempt to turn inZOI into Paralives. 

 

On 10/9/2025 at 10:14 PM, Kimi said:

Bravo!! Now what? 

Now it's time for me to stop monopolizing this thread! 

Noo! Noo! Please, continue!!   As long as you are enjoying exploring the game, it is SUPER enlightening and USEFUL, at least, for me. 

 

I would have to second that motion.  I rather enjoyed your posts since I am not currently playing with inZOI.

One interesting wrinkle to Rob's Journey -- when I was getting a shot of him hacking an ATM way back in Bliss Bay, at first he got electrocuted. Naturally I didn't use that event since it would have cut the story kinda short. "Rob did something stupid and died. The End."  

Anyway, sadly I didn't react in time to get a screenshot of that, but the obituary that popped up was rather odd:

it talks about Rob in a glowing tribute, bringing light to many Zois and he'll be remembered as a beautiful soul etc etc. What? Evil Rob shared love and laughter? Yeah right.

The text is identical to what's used for a normal or good Zoi. The devs didn't bother to change it up depending on the nature and history of the Zoi who died. That's kind of a shame. They could have leaned into the terrible Karma thing and written up something more amusingly disdainful.

I guess sometime I should play a new Zoi and deliberately try to kill them off. Then I can try the "On to the Afterlife" option and see what playing as a ghost is like.