This is NOT related to the sims franchise. These won't be ideas to come up with the Sims 5. I'm talking about possibly making our own game from scratch. No EA in mind, no sim in mind...

A little about me: I have played The Sims 1-4, so I know most of what I want by now. I do not have a degree in game development or programming, but bare with me! Just a girl with big ambition.

You guys: I am very curious to see what you want in a Life Sim because not everyone wants the same thing. Also, It would be great for us to come to an agreement on some of the things we want in the game. It would be pretty cool if a group of simmers can create such a game as well!

Why I am doing this?: For a long time now, towards the end of Sims 3 to the Sims 4, I have became more disappointed with how EA is handling OUR franchise. I have grown bored of the excuses and backlash they give to us as a community. They claim they have passion for our beloved sims games, but I don't see it. I can no longer trust EA to provide a game that is worthy of the franchise (no real hate to the Sims 4. It is like an child that didn't ask to be born, but got all of the hate because of it's parents; EA and the Sims team).

I am also a very ambitious person. I'm working hard to becoming a writer (my true passion) and I have a lot of love and respect for the sims games as well video gaming as a whole (I am seriously tearing up right now. Please excuse typos and unclear sentences). I have also grown to love this community and respect it. Almost everyday, I see people like me or people I know and love who are part of the working class, working hard to go through school, taking care of kids, struggling to make ends meet and not all of our voices are being heard by the developers. It is so frustrating to feel like an invisible person and to be seen as nothing but a walking wallet.

I really am determined to make our ideas a reality. I'm not promising to create this game, however. I don't know what the future holds, and I'm not going to falsely promise something that may not even come true. But this is a start. I have ideas to start fundraising so we can get people educated with a game developing degree, ideas to shadow these gaming companies to gain more insight on what were doing, ideas to start out with smaller games to gain more income...of course, I am a big dreamer

But I am so serious and so passionate about this, I even have a notebook dedicated to ideas on a life sim. But I can't do this alone. Who knows? Maybe one day we might actually play our games. I really want to try and give this a shot. It wouldn't hurt to to at least try, right? And I know that some of you are just as passionate as I am. So let's begin our brainstorming!

What would you like to see in a life sim?

Here's a thread from a few years back: http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=490403

Do you have an idea for a name?

Hey, hey, hey! I just got back from seeing "Age of Ultron" (awesome movie, BTW!) and it's entirely too late to start up a video game but way too early to go to bed, so here I am!

I too have played Sims since a while after the original game launched but I've not played Sims 4 and have no interest in it.

I'm not the most creative person on the planet and rarely have a unique idea. Basically my schtick was always to take textures and what-not other people had created and turn them into clothes and object textures and later patterns for TS3.

So! Like I said I really am not good at coming up with original ideas so most of what I'd like to see in a life simulator is based off of things I didn't like in some of The Sims games. For example, every time a new expansion pack came out there would always be some new features or interactions (the good) that would be completely over-advertised to the point Sims where instead of being a new thing to add into their daily lives Sims would become obsessed with them (the bad). I also think when it comes to features players like and dislike in one of these games it's good to look at the types of mods that have been made over the years.

I know one of the hardest things to do as players is to explain exactly why we've loved the franchise. It's hard to put into words because the thoughts are pretty abstract so I've always found it easier to explain by telling a couple of stories about some of my favorite Sims. My favorite Sims of all were in Sims 2 and the reasons are because they always seemed so much more lifelike to me. They did things spontaneously that seemed so apt to the individuals and features like the turn-ons just made it even better in most cases, although honestly I never had as much fun with any other Sims as my first Legacy founder and his wife who were so totally mismatched it was mind-boggling (he was a Family Sim, she a Romance Sim), a true marriage of convenience because he needed an heir so he married the first woman he met, yet completely fell in love with each other and by the time they were elders were nigh on inseparable.

The true essence of a Sims game is to be able to accommodate for as many possible play styles as possible. I'm pretty much a strict stick in the mud and play my Sims how I live my life. I don't cheat on my husband, so my Sims don't cheat on their spouses. I fight my human nature side constantly so I make my Sims behave too. I also like my Sims to have families so many different ages are important to me. However, my play style wouldn't be optimum for everyone else so there need to be a lot of possibilities.

I'm pretty sure most of us can agree, though, that we enjoy havoc and chaos that results from a set of unintentional circumstances like when my Cooking Level 10 Sim was in the middle of cooking lobster thermidor for the head master and Grimmy came to fetch her resulting in the Head Master denying the child entrance into school which led to the mom melting down because her child not getting into private school was one of her worst fears.

One thing I thought of the other day is based on how with practically ever iteration of a Sims game the developers have boasted on how much smarter Sims are in the new generation but to my mind their idea of smarter just ends up making a worse mess of things. I mean, you know how a Sim in TS2 could walk away from their cooking to answer the phone or something? This was a "smarter" feature. Yet the Sim would walk away from their cooking and end up with food burning. Not too smart, huh? A truly smart Sim would've come right back to their cooking, for goodness sake, or not left it in the first place--just like their lesser intelligence TS1 counter-parts did.

Time management has also been poorly handled in Sims games. I used Twallan's relativity mod set to give my Sims twice as much time in the day and it was nearly perfect. It just shouldn't take a Sim two hours to walk across their yard. It shouldn't take an hour to use the toilet and take a shower. I know a lot of players would get Sims up at 4 a.m. so they'd have time to do everything to get ready for work or school. That just shouldn't work that way.

All too often I have to micro-manage my Sims in order to get them through their daily routine. I want my pixelated people to be able to learn by doing. For example, if my pixelated person gets up every morning and uses the toilet, takes a shower then grabs a snack from the fridge before work I don't want to have to tell them to do that every single day of the world. I'd like them to "learn" that's their morning routine. It shouldn't be so strict they turn into automatons (as in give me the option to cancel out those actions if I choose) but optimally it would be like their life guide. I want them to "learn" that we potty BEFORE we shower, not afterward. I want them to "learn" that we don't wait until we're in bladder failure to start looking for a toilet. There is no humor for me in pixelated people wetting themselves.

I loved the open world of TS3 but I also know it's sometimes a pain if a person switches playing households because then you have to track your Sims down and get them back to where you want them (I was a liberal user of "teleport here" via testing cheats). I think there need to be choices involving potential rotational play like the ability to leave a family completely frozen in time just as we left them (ala Sims 2), leave them up to their own devices (ala Sims 3), and leave them to their own devices without their story lines advancing.

Of course the game should take full advantage of 64-bit multi-core processors. If that was the case then most likely truly open worlds like Sims 3 wouldn't be a problem even for people with older fairly mediocre computers.

Oh, and genetics! Yes, I want genetics like TS2 had. Goodness, generations into my original Legacy family I'd occasionally end up with a throw-back to three or four generations back.

I could probably sit here all night and keep typing but I'm going to stop there for now. I've read quite a few ideas from various posters in a couple of different threads and I know many people have fabulous ideas.

P.S. It should also support Linux because there's every possibility I'll move to that when MS stops supporting Windows 7 with security updates.

Thank you for the link, hugbug993. I've come up with one name. It's called, "Peapolz" (basically "peoples" with a z and drop the e)

And yes, Misty_2004, I do agree with everything you have said. It seems like a lot of people look to TS2 for inspiration since it was a near, if not perfect, game. I do remember focusing on family a lot in that game. There does need to be many interactions and many game options, cause like you've stated, each and everyone of us has a different play style. Repeating the same interactions gets boooring over time.

Sometimes, I change up my play style to fit with the story I am telling. The sims in the sims games...let me just say...they were dumb and I always called them dumb. But the way they were programmed made them seem dumb. That is a very interesting point you have made about virtual people learning their morning routine and learning not to walk away from what they're cooking so they won't burn the food. It is tedious retelling a sim what to do every single morning...we'll have to think about that some more.

There definitely needs to be longer time management. In sims games, I would literally rush my sims through their daily routines just to have their meals on time. And when they eat, it takes forever! And with the 64-bit, I don't know about you guys, but the sims games are hard core games. Sure, we're not shootin' up the joint or fighting zombies or whatever, but they are many people who use the games to make miniature movies, there are hundreds, if not thousands of mods, and to get what we want in a game, you're gonna need a gaming computer. Gaming has evolved so much over the years and we should take full advantage of the technology that is out there.

But let's take it super slow (I need more peeps up in here!) What name can you think of for this game?

First and foremost, thanks for the thread, awesomechick979.

Okay, I'm pasting in my reply to the other posts:

"I still believe in the age of technology where we now are, that, with a 64 bit exe, a Sims game could be made with an open world, much like in Skyrim (just not as big), with separate towns that load independently once your Sim arrives there. This would allow them to not lag the game. Then the town would be open for your exploration and visiting/meeting other Sims. While out in the open world, I want hunting, like in Skyrim, and for my Sims to go fishing, camping, exploring. I also, for a very long time have wanted a marriage between The Sims and Harvest Moon, so that my Sims could farm. So I guess, for me, I just want a marriage of the open world in Skyrim, the farming elements from Harvest Moon (along with the farm animals, if not more added) and The Sims. I guess I want too much.

The thing is this, I see endless possibilities with a game like this, because with the hunting, fishing and gathering that could be done in the wild., there could be added in crafting of items that could be sold in an OFB type EP. There could be dangerous animals in the wild that could have the possibility of injuring your Sim or worse, so, like in Harvest Moon, I want an open clinic with at least a doctor and nurse. These could be residents of the town, as they are in Harvest Moon. I know in at least one Harvest Moon game, there were pet type creatures your character could adopt from the wild. I really liked what they did in TS3 with the small animals that your Sims could adopt. There were actually some good stuff put into TS3, just unfortunately without the game being 64 bit executable, it was too stifled for everything to run smoothly. I also think it would add a fix to the game to make the towns load separately from the open world like in Skyrim. Then all those animals wouldn't be having to run through your town and getting stuck in fences, walls, etc. Then as EP's came out, there could be plots, kind of like lot plots, but bigger in the open world to add towns that came with the EP's.

OH MY! I should make a Sim game! I so wish I had the backing to start something like this. Like I said, I can see endless possibilities.

I have no doubt that a complex, decently coded video game does take hard work, seriousness and dedication. Unfortunately, with the trend our society is going with forward, I don't even know if it's possible. I see more and more that most people in the work force today just go to work and do as little as possible they can get away with to take home a paycheck. The words, "hard work", are foreign to them. It makes me sad.

I think also, though, that something like this would take passion for the game. It would take people who absolutely love The Sims type genre and wanting to make it a more full life simulation."

I could probably come up with more ideas, but I've been exhausted, starting a new work schedule this week, so give me more time and I'll try to post more later.

"Peapolz" looks a lot like "peapods" to me. Like Pod People, but with peas. I don't really have an alternate name at the moment, so I'll just call them Peapods.

Anyway...



I really like this idea. This kind of fits with my suggestions for traits in La Vida, before that all fell through.

One thing I don't like in the Sims games is the idea that you're randomly born with traits and can't change them. People go through lots of changes in their lives due to a bunch of reasons, and they can change themselves through hard work.
So basically, instead of traits being randomly assigned and adjusting the sim's actions to fit that, the actions influence the traits. For instance, a Peapod who constantly reads books will become a Bookworm. It's also possible to lose traits through negligence of the actions around it, and to gain them by working at it. A Peapod who fits the Couch Potato trait can eventually work their way to becoming Athletic.
However, their environment can affect how these traits develop. If a Shy Peapod tries to become more social and is met with rudeness or creepiness, it could cause them to lose progress in social skills. A Peapod who has easy access to a ton of books is more likely to read books for fun. A Brooding Peapod could slowly lose their need to brood if an Imposing Peapod decided to slap them every time they start to brood.

And actions can spontaneously arise from these traits, too. Say that a Bookworm Peapod sees a magazine about Angling. They would be likely to pick it up and start reading. If they have other traits that are compatible with Angling, they could very well decide to go fishing. Or a Natural Chef Peapod could read a cookbook that requires fresh herbs and want to start growing some, which could lead to a greater interest in gardening. It could be entirely possible for your Peapod to gain a new hobby and trait without any action on your part. It would require a big network of links between potential traits, but it would certainly be worth it.

So this ties in with your idea. If their behavior is set up so that they can learn what to do based on what you tell them, then teaching them a morning routine, work tasks, how to interact with people, etc. would be pretty easy. At the same time, it would give them a more robust personality.

Oh hugbug, I think that would be awesome! Now granted, there are personality traits we're born with that never change no matter how hard we try but there are so many things that ARE influenced by what we read, what we see others doing, how we are treated, etc. I think my husband is a perfect example. We've been married over thirty years and no matter what, he will never develop the sense of humor my family has. He will never develop the sense of adventure that I have. Those things are simply not in him. I'm not sure about the sense of humor (he has one but it's totally warped and if he allowed it to flourish would be completely inappropriate) but I know based on research I read genetics determine whether or not a person is willing to take on adventures. I, on the other hand, am an adventurous person. Unfortunately I can't travel as I would like but an adventurous sense can manifest itself in many different ways. I'm much more willing to take chances than he is. I like going to different restaurants and trying new foods while he always wants to eat the same thing at the same places. I play video games for adventures. He thinks stuff like that is a waste of time. His sense of humor is another great example. We both live by a code of behavior. He has learned to control his inappropriate sense of humor because of that. I tend to be selfish and self-centered and it's something I struggle with every day of my life. At the same time he did suddenly develop a keen interest in gardening a few years ago and has in some ways surpassed my own knowledge of the subject which is pretty vast. One thing I've noticed throughout my life with social people is that if a person is extremely social to begin with, they will never lose that unless they are broken so badly their life is ruined as a result. If they get negative response they will simply aim it at someone else. Trust me, there is no squelching an extremely social personality. However, I've seen a lot of people start out very shy in their lives and end up being very outgoing. I know parts of this paragraph are a result of my over-thinking but I also know sometimes it helps to over-think things then pare them down rather than try to start with pared-down to begin with. Perhaps a way this kind of thing could be handled would be have a Peapod (Lulz) be born with a couple of traits they inherited from their parents (have the chance of inheriting from one or both because that would be realistic) then as they age they could have other genetic traits appear but also have traits changed or develop based on influences in their lives.

I'd also like to post my thoughts on life stages I'd like to see in a game like this, providing it was ever made. I think overall since adding life stages two very important ones have been missing that I'd love to see added, and those are pre-teens and middle-aged. To my mind it's okay for toddler to go straight to child. After all, they pretty much do that in real life and as fast as they can grow it seems like one day they're short little squirts then the next day they're full-blown little kids. However, a lot of people have always felt like the transition from child to teen is too jarring and I agree. The game should have a pre-/early-teen life stage. You don't suddenly go from being a ten-year-old to going steady. I also think the game should have a middle age, of sorts. I sure don't feel like a spring chicken anymore but I'm also not so old as to be a senior citizen. Frankly, the "middle age" phase of life is one of the longest there is in the human life cycle (a good twenty-five years) so why shouldn't it be handled separately? Not only is it the longest but it's also one of the most transitional age phases because you're suddenly faced with your own mortality and the fact that more than likely you've many more years behind you than you have before you and all manner of sense and nonsense (yes, mid-life crisis IS really a thing) can come out of this suddenly smacking you in the face.

Infant
Toddler
Child
Pre-teen
Teen
Young Adult
Adult
Middle-aged
Senior

Oh, and what about different heights? I know this would require much fiddly work with the animations (otherwise you end up with social interactions looking way funky) and may not be feasible, but a person can dream, right? Optimally there would be height sliders but I think that could make too many problems for the animations for interactions. Perhaps if there were, say, three or four pre-sets for heights in the adult stage. That might could add some variety without getting way too complicated. Shoot, even having short, medium and tall would be better than everyone always being the same height. It would probably be too much to do for all life stages but just having it for the adult life stages would be a boon.

This thread is my new best friend.

Anyways, I've always been fond of the build/buy mode systems within the game. My first foray into the Sims series was actually home building, and I grew to love it. Something that I appreciate is the fact that diversity in object styles benefits the game tremendously. I've been building since the Livin' Large days, and I haven't really stopped. I've always felt that the base game needs to be generic - what does everyone have, what does everyone use, what everyone need & what does everyone want. Then, add on a layer of fun, because you never know when a little fun will come in handy, but the core should be one big, wide brush stroke.

I kind of relate to the game in an interior design and architectural sense - how does the dwelling related to the people who live in side it. All the details of what come with that matter to me when it comes to creating a space. For me, if I were to design the game, how does these furniture selections reflect on the world the "Peapods" would live in. While much of it is usable aesthetic, it needs to gel.

Hm, what if the people in the game were called "peops". It's short for "people" but pronounced like "peeps".

Oh man, it shows how plain I am. I would just call 'em citizens or civilians.

I dunno if someone already said this, but I feel like sexuality should be included as well, because not everybody is straight. That option should be in place while the player creating the character, so then the player can feel more of a connection to the character. And I think that ALL forms of sexuality should be represented, not just straight or gay. Also, more hairstyles and clothing options for all genders. They could add some gender-neutral hairstyles and outfits, and I feel like dresses should be an option for both female AND male characters - if girls can wear shirts and pants and tennis shoes and wear and do what's otherwise viewed as more "masculine" and get away with it, why can't guys do things that are viewed as more "feminine," like wear dresses and makeup and all that?

EVERYTHING IS UNISEX. EVERYONE CAN WEAR EVERYTHING. ALSO, MEN CAN HAVE BOOBS. LET'S LET MEN CHARACTERS HAVE BOOBS! ALSO SOME WOMEN ARE COMPLETELY FLAT CHESTED. LETS ALLOW THEM TO BE ABLE TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO BOOBS IF YOU WANT THEM TO HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO BOOBS.

Boob, butt, and hip sliders for everyone!
(Caps lock for extra emphasis. If I made my own gave this would be part of it)

YOU ARE MY NEW FAVORITE PERSON. I LOVE YOU.

Would it up the rating if you had a bra/no bra and sagginess slider so that your sims with boobs don't always have to have perfect round bouncy balls on their chests? Because not everyone who has boobs always wears bras under their clothes.

A lot of my female friends go braless. It shouldn't be a perverted thing to create realistic art students.

Note: As a fairly open trans guy, I keep my chest contained in a binder, but I can assure you I do not have giant perfectly round bouncy balls on my chest.

There are actually some schools of psychology that say otherwise. There's the Cognitive movement, which suggests that changing your thoughts can change your mindset. For instance, if you hate the idea of reading books, you will naturally have unkind thoughts about it, especially if people keep trying to force you. So, to learn to like books, you need to identify the thoughts that you don't like books and correct them to thoughts about liking books. This obviously takes a lot of self-discipline and willingness, so it doesn't often happen. You can also influence it with Behaviorism (technically the same thing, but it focuses on external stimuli); if you give someone a treat whenever they read, you will influence them to think kindly of reading. Applied Behavior Analysis is one of the most successful ways of changing the way you think.
Biopsychology and neuropsychology also suggest that by altering the brain, you can alter your patterns of thinking.



That also raises questions for me. Traits, to me, are a function of behavior and likes. How does a baby like fishing? How does a baby act evil? How is evil or fishing even genetic in the first place?
From what I've seen, people tend to act more like the people who raised them than the people they were born to, except in cases of mental illness.

Still, what about a system of tendencies? If a Peapod has a lot of friends who like to fish, then they will get a mark in their system that will allow them to pick the skill up easier, possibly stronger according to the other Peapod's skill or knowledge in the area. This would also work with parents; if the parents like sci-fi, the Peapod will get a mark for that and will be more likely to pick it up, so they'll be born with a boost in that area. Of course, this could work the opposite way; if they really dislike the person, then they will get a marker that will make it less likely for them to pick it up.
It could also work with personality traits, too. A Peapod who hangs around perpetually grumpy people is more likely to become grumpy.

Actually, now that I think about it, this could lead to the AI spontaneously forming cults. With a few people with strong traits, it could cause the entire town to pick up the exact same personality and interests.



What about putting markers in the different parts of the body? Say you want an animation of Peapods kissing. You set it up so that one Peapod will try to bring their lips to the other's, using the lips marker as a guide. Of course, this would require seeing the Peapod's body as a whole and instructing it to bend along body lines instead of TS3's method, which is taking a bunch of poses and stringing them together like claymation figures. Or if they want to hold hands, they have markers in the hands and will bring them together. We'd have to check with a programmer beforehand, though, but I think it's possible. In Spore, the creatures somehow find a way to move despite the hundreds of possible configurations you can put them in.



Problem is, that doesn't always overlap. For instance, I don't do architecture or object design that much (and when I do, it looks terrible). I generally play with things inside the home, even in TS3, because I picked up habits from the first two games and I hated the loading screens.

Still, architecture in-game is a must. Then people like you can build all the pretty houses and objects and people like me can sponge off of your lovely designs.

And the mention of aesthetic is bringing up a question. Right now, I'm thinking about the various Sims titles and their general looks. Is this game going to go more for a cartoonish look or for realism? Personally, I prefer something more realistic.

One thing that I have in mind is how skill building works. I would like to see it be changed so that making lower leveled items/crafting/book studying begins to slow down at the higher levels, and then stop almost completely at a certain point. This would mean that you can't become a Level 10 cook by just making Lunch Meat Sandwiches everyday, so your sim would have to start making the higher level items to go on. I think TS3 did this by having 3 different skill books for each skill, where they have to be read in consecutive order to skill up through them, so no starting at the 3rd level book, and no skilling up to level 10 just by reading the first level book.

It would be interesting how the mechanical skill would work this way, maybe split it up into different branches, i.e. plumbing and electronics, because those fields are specialized in real-life.

I would also keep the online shopping the series has, but for certain media like books, you can choose to either have a physical copy delievered to you by a delivery person ala TS2, or have an electronic copy to use on your tablet, smartphone, or computer, which you can use instantly.



Yes! Now females can wear male underwear if they like!

Definitely should have more orientations, but do you think an option to make them straight, gay, bi, pan, objectum, etc. is better than allowing them to fall in love with anyone? I kind of like the way The Sims handled it.



YES! AND NO MORE BOOBSHINE ON CLOTHES!

I really hate the boobshine. Whenever I adjust my sims' breasts, the shine on the clothes makes it look unnatural. I make them bigger, then there's a random white line on the clothes that doesn't match up with the actual breasts. I make them smaller, and the entire area is just shiny for no reason.

I once made a sim who was female-assigned, but I altered the body to look exactly like a man's (partly because I could and because I had vague plans to troll the forum by posting topless pics to make a point about gender). Problem was, even after I adjusted the breasts to look like pecs, there was still boobshine and boobshadows on the clothes, which made it difficult to post pictures of that sim in any shirts because it displayed breasts that weren't there. :/



It probably wouldn't up the rating. According to the ESRB guidelines, it wouldn't fall under any of those categories.

Do Sims even wear underwear under their clothes? I know there are the underwear categories, but there never seems to be a hint of undergarments when they're wearing anything else, unless you count the boobs sticking in place no matter how big you make them, since there are no lines or lumps under the clothes.



I kind of like this idea. What if there was some skill degradation, though, and the lower-leveled stuff kept the skills from degrading, but didn't give any progress?
If the skills did degrade, though, they could be recovered easily with a little practice. The skill bar would fill more quickly than the first time, but not beyond the point where it had stopped.

No, unless the mesh itself has underwear showing, i.e. some of the TS2 clothes. I don't know if that's the case in the console versions of The Sims, where you could layer clothes.

Sounds ambitious and I don't know if it could be implemented but I'd love to be able to change the in-game economy. It would be easier to make themed games, like medieval, dystopia and so on. I might post more ideas later but I just wanted to throw this idea in.

I just played around with an online UI creator...

Well, I think having the option available would make it easier for the player to make the character more like them and also, there wouldn't be any real need for mods like nraas' Woohoer mod or something of the like.

How about calling them the a.I.'s for artificial intelligence? OK reaching here, since Sims is already taken and so is virtual.

How about pixels or pixel dolls or pixelators or pixel people?

I would suggest "Avatar", but that's too mainstream...

Oh! Would "Virtual Avatar" work? Hmm...

@Tontrin: Wilderness and farming has been something that others have wanted int a life sim for YEARS! So, you are not alone. I also would like that and other areas too; suburban, tropical, merto., ghetto area, trailer parks...oh my! I also have seen and want a 64-bit game. And you are right about people not being passionate about their jobs anymore in real life. I see that everyday with people; including, with my own family.

@hugbug993: "pea pods?" The meaning behind the name I can up with was due to calling my previous friends "peeps." Also, there is an online game I used to play called, "Peoples Destination" I think that's what it's called. I really liked that game and the name). But "pea pods" are cute and the name makes me giggle!
Very interesting concept...pea pods learning their traits based on their environments and actions. Never really thought of that...I love it! And then, like you've stated, they can develop interests in fishing or cooking, which can lead to other interests like gardening. So basically aware and intelligent pea pods.

@Misty_2004: Yep, and that's the thing, people may have static or dynamic characteristics. Like, I've always been artistic-my static trait. One of my dynamic traits was shyness. I used to be really shy, but I am learning to be more outgoing. Maybe yours and hugbug993's ideas on traits can mesh together where you'll have some unchanging traits and some you can learn.
Hey, ten year olds go steady too! But yes, there has to all of the life stages you have listed. Every life stage is important and have unique sets of goals.
The heights is something that I have been thinking about for a while now. I've played this game called, "Virtual Villagers" by Last Day of Work. It has some similarities to the sims, but one of the things I've noticed was that the little villagers grew taller every so often(by hours-real time game). I had the idea that the virtual peeps should grow to so extent everyday using their time, and once they've reached the next life stage, it can be their birthday. I wish their was some sort of snapping or magnet tool were if your citizens were different heights, their lips would still meet or whatever the case maybe. I also think, based on genetics, that a peep could stop growing at anytime during teen/young adult years, but the whole heights thing is debatable.

(excuse the typos, I'm tired.)

@Matrix54: Awe, thank you!
Well, going through many forums, some people have requested many ideas for build/buy; according to hugbug's thread, some want no square tiles, but a triangular system for objects, some want vertical half walls, apartments (TS2 style), roman themed, the ability to put objects anywhere without using slots...there's so much! And like you've said, "how does the dwelling relate to the people who live in side it." I'll even go beyond that a say, how does their neighborhood relate to these people? There is sooo much people want in a life sim, and every detail has to be near perfect (or else...)
I see this thread as a foundation to what could lead to an empire. Very good insight.

@Glic2003: Yea! I was gonna call this "peeps" but those darn little marshmallows...anyways, I can write down all suggestions and we could vote on the name later. "peaps" will be written down; all names will be written down...if I remember.

@Salamancer: That's fine too! At least you've tried! I'll write both suggestions you have came up with down. And I have heard your cry for UNISEX! Yes, and boobs. Booooooobs. Should boobs be free? Never heard that idea before, but I'll add it to my list.

@Graveyard Snowflake: I can tell you right now that this will rise some controversy. Not everyone is open to anything involved with the LGBTQ community. But I can agree with everything you've said. I have a sim couple, one gay, one bi, that I have been attached to since TS2, but there is no real way of identifying themselves as such.
Unisex clothing is something that I've wanted for a long time. There are transgender people out here that can't really create themselves with the current life sim (and only life sim franchise) we have. Same with the black hairstyles. Some people of color cannot create themselves to the fullest extent.

@hugbug993: I guess...we have to figure out later on how pea pods will obtain their traits.
Markers on different parts of the bodies??? You can do that??? That's what I was saying with the heights and the animations... yea, we need to talk to a programmer about...everything really.

@TheNest: I was thinking about having pictures of a skill in they're skill journals (or whatever), and having the picture 'fill up' each time a civilian uses equipment to increase the skill. But this is coming from someone who doesn't like skills that much. Plumbing and Electronics are different skills. Water and electronics don't mix.
I thought you was talking about an actual online store similar to that devil (TS3 store). I like the idea of delivery and also, I would like to add, shopping at actual stores, malls, etc.

(excuse the typos, I'm tired.)