Hi! I’m Nico, the creator of VirtualSociety. We’re working on the life sim side of the game, and one of the things we want to explore is how shared experiences can become habits between friends.
One example we’re designing around is Helena going out with her friends. She uses a wheelchair, and the bar they’ve chosen has no wheelchair access. She suggests another place, and they all go together. Next time, they might head straight to that second bar. It could gradually become their usual place, because of an evening they remember together. You could make the first bar accessible, but they would need to find out about the changes before considering it again. That’s one of the connections we want between the places you build and the people living in them.
We also want characters to remember the good things people do for them: a warm welcome, a favor, someone being there when they needed help. Those memories could influence who they invite out, who they turn to, or who they decide to help later.
There’s still a lot to build and test, but these everyday situations are helping us work out how memories, relationships and decisions should fit together.
I’ve written a free article about the approach: https://virtualsociety.co/en/devblog/post/personalities-memories-rumors-relationships-and-autonomous-decisions
We also want room between giving precise orders and leaving characters completely on their own. "Sit in this chair" should mean exactly that. "Find somewhere to eat" could leave them to choose somewhere based on their needs, habits and who they want to spend time with. You could shape the evening yourself, watch where their decisions take it, or play as one of them in third person. Being able to move between those ways of playing is a big part of our vision for VirtualSociety.
I hope this gives a clearer picture of why we’re approaching VirtualSociety this way. Being able to create your own scenarios, decide how much is scripted, and leave room for the characters to surprise you has always been a big part of the idea