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Idea: Holiday Season
May 17, 2020 at 8:19 pmFor this post, I will preface by stating that I am NOT suggesting this as a feature for the initial base game release. It is clearly a lot and even I don’t see it as a priority. But it would be great to have as a later addition down the line.
So, I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind for a while, and thought why not post it and see what others think. We already know that we’re getting seasons in the BG and that Alex plans to incorporate holidays in some fashion as we’ve seen from some already released media. And I had a thought to myself. What if, in addition to having holidays, we could have the option to create a holiday season? What I mean by that is in addition to creating Christmas Day, we could create a Christmas season that lasts many days before the holiday itself? Of course, irl some holidays are one and done. You celebrate them on the day they happen, and move on. But others are prepared for weeks in advance and have a lot of celebration behind them, like Christmas.
My idea is that, if they wanted to, the player could create a time period where Parafolk begin to prepare for a holiday in the days leading up to it. If we were to have some sort of calendar feature to designate time, we could choose when the holiday season for a particular holiday starts.
Example: Let’s say hypothetically in this game we’ll have 20 day long blocks for ‘months’. The player could assign the 19th day of a month as a holiday. But they could also assign a holiday season which begins on the 10th of the month and lasts until the big day.
Once the holiday season beings, you’d see Parafolk out and about doing holiday shopping, putting up decorations, and maybe buying specific clothes. It all depends on how the holidays function (which would be another whole discussion in itself). Slowly more and more Parafolk in town would have decorated homes and be ready for the event. You could get dialogue specific to the holiday season, asking others if they’re excited or how they’re getting ready and whatnot. Parafolk would be happier (unless they had a personality where they didn’t like holidays).
Why do I think this would be an interesting feature? I think it would add more to the experience and to the mood. Of course, it would be great to have one and done holidays where there’s not much prep and you celebrate, and it’s over. But if a holiday is built up over several days of prep, I think the payoff is so much nicer. I think it especially would be nicer if the whole town is participating, and not just your own played house.
And like I said, this would be completely optional. If you didn’t want a long holiday season, you wouldn’t have to have it and npc Parafolk would probably just be programmed to only celebrate on the holiday in question.
What do you all think of this idea? Would you like a holiday season, or no? If so, how would you want it to function?
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18 Replies
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@bigkitty I feel like I explained it in a way that’s way more detailed than it would actually be.
But yeah it is still a big idea, that’s why I said it definitely wouldn’t be something in the initial release.I’m glad you like the idea though.
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@Amazing_Star I don’t know that much about programming either, but the reason I consider this to be so big is because it would affect the AI of all Parafolk in the world. I’m guessing that if this were an actual feature, they’d need to program it so that all Parafolk in the world would perform these specific sets of actions within this hypothetical set timeframe.
Once ‘holiday season’ starts, all Parafolk are now going shopping, going to events, putting up decorations, celebrating, etc. So that’s why I think it’s a bit much for the initial release.
But like I said, I’m no programmer either, so maybe it isn’t so hard 😛
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I like it. I was a bit unsure going in, but reading through I like it. This can lead to related events along the way, like carols nights where children’s choirs sing. Children could visit Santa at shopping centres. Adult parafolk get increasingly anxious if they haven’t done their shopping yet as the day gets closer. Families put up lights and are affected emotionally depending on the quality of the display and whether their neighbours’ is better. Trees are decorated beforehand and stocked up with presents, and naughty para children can peek. I don’t think all of that can be included, but those are some ideas I had for the pre-Christmas events that could happen in the holiday season.
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@MagaCarter Same. That was my main reason for thinking a feature like this would be helpful. It would give players time to do things like buy gifts/supplies, and decorate in advance.
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this would be really cool to have! I really like the calendar system idea as well to be able to set our own pre-holidays week to prepare for and ring in the Christmas spirit! Or any holiday cheer Im wondering would it only work for all pre-programmed holidays or could we select which ones players would like to celebrate in their own Paralives worlds? that are available for Paras and then it would generate events accordingly.
It’d be soo cute to see the holiday season for Halloween like people setting up their yards with decor, paras throwing parties, paras out shopping for costumes and candy, then groups of trick or treaters with parents knocking on doors, and teen adult paras dressed up walking around town coming knocking on neighbors doors,paras playing pranks, etc.
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@cakeefeatured You bring up great points. I would hope we could get the option to set a holiday season for any holiday. But also if we can create a setting so that not everyone celebrates every holiday, it would make sense that only those who celebrate would start prepping for it. Like I mentioned in the OP, it all depends on how customizable holidays will be. I’m hoping we’ll have lots of creative opportunities for what we can do with them.
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I love this idea because it would make the bigger annual holidays seem more impactful. It could also be extended to holidays not based on Christmas, since lots of cultures have events that last longer than a day – think carnivals, festivals, periods of fasting…
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@VelutLuna Yes, the idea is that it would be an option for any holiday the player wants within their game. It would make it seem like a much bigger event. Extra activities like festivals would be amazing too!
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Just a random thought: Paralives anniversary would be a great holiday season, celebrating a year of success for a wonderful game. We get shop Paralives themed clothing or furniture, limited edition items, or maybe discount on all existing items for sale. And then the day itself will be a grand celebration! We get to end the day with fireworks! We can even have Mr. and Ms. Parafolk! People get to vote throughout the holiday season. We can also use this web platform to feature players around the world (singing their composed song about the game, dance cover, etc).
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I would LOVE this idea. So that a Para who isn’t vain or a snob but is artistic shouldn’t be getting perfume or make-up but should be getting art supplies, or a coupon to an art museum. Only a vain or snob para should be giving or getting make-up/perfume. Bookworms should be getting books. Chocoholic should get some chocolate for Christmas
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