I read that a lot (that inZOI is soulless and lacks depth).
For me, that sounds a bit abstrakt and I also feel the developers are working on all odds and ends at the same time and when I read through the endless topics on discord, where everyone wishes for something else, it confuses me and I’m not sure what that actually means.
(Idk if that has sth to do with my autism or adhd or just because I’m a story teller with a wild imagination and if sth is not there, I just make it up?)
I don’t know if you know Adam Savage from Mythbusters?
He was working in all kinds of jobs, also making props for movies.
And one time, his supervisor asked him to make a piece he made ‘more fun’.
Yeah, that’s how it is for me when I hear inZOI ‘lacks depth’ and is ‘soulless’ ^^’
So how would that exactly look like for you? Can you make it more tangable for me?
(and maybe also the Devs ^^’)
Can you describe single future ingame scene with your Zoi that would show to you the game has soul and depth?
I’m already seeing soul and depth in my games. Just yesterday Zayla tried to talk to Bradley about how she has a desperate need to be loved. It seemed that she was trying to explain her repeated cheating. He suddenly got mad, waving his arms, and said he didn’t want to hear it.
At the same time, Bradley absolutely loves their baby, Abraham. He sings to him, changes his nappy, plays peek-a-boo. Zayla isn’t interested in the baby.
There is more depth needed, the game can get repetitive, but I’m happy to wait for the updates to improve gameplay.
@LittleBrownBiscuit Do you have smartzoi enabled or autonomy on or how does this happen?
And what would be a situation in the future that would make you say: ‘Yes, now the game has (enough) depth and soul?’
I disabled smartzoi. It happened during torrential rain in Cahaya. They were both terrified and sat down at the dining table to talk. I can’t remember what the prompt was, but she started talking about her need to be loved and he wasn’t having it. I was surprised by his reaction, I didn’t know that zois could do that, as he was ok with her before that. He was only bothered by the rain and I didn’t make him do it.
For me, depth would come from the relationships between people. It’s nice when your zoi is out and another zoi will wave to them in greeting because they had met before. But friendships are shallow; you can’t have a wider family, grandparents, kids, cousins, etc. Loving relationships seem to need a lot of topping up, and zois aren’t inclined to keep relationships going.
This relationship between Zayla and Bradley is the first that I’ve seen where they are invested in each other. When Bradley cheated, he felt torn between Zayla and Julia. When he broke up with Julia, he was heartbroken, but still wanted to build a better relationship with Zayla.
We also need more in the life of a zoi. The career paths need work, for example, a zoi should get a promotion when they’ve proved themselves. Everyone has been saying it, but the gatherings need to be better, house parties, dinner parties, meeting zois in a busy club with a DJ and zois dancing.
Is this what you’re asking? I want to make sure I’m answering your question.
Yes, your answer made it clearer for me, especially about the waving and the friendships. That would really be nice 
One thing I’ve noticed is that unless you monitor them constantly, Zois who are married / in a serious relationship will often initiate romantic interactions with other random Zois. I know cheating happens IRL but it doesn’t come across like that, it’s more like they don’t realise they’re already in a relationship. Having Zois actually remember the state of their relationships with other Zois would definitely help to make the game feel less shallow. Same thing with e.g. not having them autonomously perform activities they dislike.
Omg true! That wouldn’t be the hardest to implement (I guess?) and would help a lot to add more depth.
My current zoi, Zayla, is terrible for that, but it is one of her traits to seek relationships. With other zois the instinct to chat up other zois isn’t as strong. There is variation there, but it needs to be implemented so that it’s only zois with that trait that behave in that way. Maybe zois who have been cheated on too.
Well, I find this lacking in depth. I play several families, and practically all married Zois tend toward repeated infidelity. Serial cheaters exist in real life, but I don’t think so with the frequency of Zois.
Then, of course, the player is free to indulge these desires or not, but I’d like them to have desires more consistent with their family situation.
My Zois, for example, have no desires regarding their children: like for them to do well in school, be well, behave a certain way, etc. As a parent, I find this unrealistic, and it would be a good thing for parents to feel emotionally about it.
Then I have a story that I think highlights the contradictions of Zois.
For example, two of my Zois divorced, and their children had no reaction, zero, neither good nor bad. It’s unrealistic.
Then there are situations where Zois certainly surprise, but if you play with different families, the behavior is a bit stereotypical.
That’s also something that wouldn’t be that hard to bring in game, to link emotions to encounters like divorce and how the kids react to it, sad or angry, for example.
Zoi already (over) react to lesser severe encounters and we can read about them in their emotion list. Sometimes I don’t even think/remember they had this experience when I read through and it has such a grave impact on them, weird o.o they are super embarrassed all out of sudden and I have no idea why.
Yes, this is pretty much what I was saying - and it would add a lot to the feeling of depth, IMO, while being relatively easy to implement.
Another thing that could help add depth is to spice up the active careers a bit. I recently had a Zoi start a firefighter career and was disappointed to find him being assigned exactly the same tasks each workday, even though there are plenty more of them available. Tasks also don’t seem to vary much across job levels, at least at the lower ranks.
I haven’t tried the other active careers yet, but I suspect they have similar issues. I don’t mind most of the job being admin-based as that’s probably realistic; however it would be great if the daily tasks could be randomised a bit - and also to actually fight fires once in a while. Again, the former at least could be done relatively easily, and would make it feel a lot closer to an actual job.
Ah this is another part of the game I never think of because I my Zois all have imaginary jobs, but it’s so true!
I think Kjun adressed improving the careers somewhere on discord but I can’t find it, but he also answered a question in the AMA Q&A Part 2 on reddit and it sounds promising:
While I was at it, I also found the following about adding more life:
I’m glad I opened this thread because now I begin to see what it means and it reminded me of the messages between my two Zois who have absolutely no interest in fashion.
Seems the two of them are as surprised as me about what they wrote 
So I guess more depth and soul in this case would mean they would text about things they are interested in or experienced together.
Leander and Mr Lunvik go fishing together a lot, so that could be what they’d write about.
These info is already collected under the emotions and their Zoi Card, for example, and could be used for the texts and their conversation promts.
Thanks, that definitely does sound promising! Running our own businesses sounds great as well.
Amanda Hairstyle by CazySims
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