This is one of the biggest updates LIVORA has received so far.
Version 4.0 introduces five major new parts of Life, but this update is about much more than simply giving you five more things to do.
LIVORA has always been built around one idea:
One Life. Everything Connected.
That matters more than ever in 4.0.
The people around you can now continue living their own lives. You can learn to drive and own vehicles that genuinely affect your finances and day-to-day plans. Pets can become lasting members of your household. You can build a Business around the Life you already have. And your neighbourhood now has a much deeper sense of community, with events, familiar local people, groups and connections that can grow over many years.
None of these are separate mini-games.
They are new parts of the same Life.
The people who matter to you no longer need to stand still until the player interacts with them.
Important people can now experience changes of their own over the course of their lives.
They may:
change jobs
gain responsibility
lose work
retrain
move somewhere new
form relationships
experience family changes
deal with Health changes
retire
and continue into later Life
This does not mean LIVORA is secretly simulating an entire city full of people.
It focuses on the people who genuinely matter to your Life.
Their circumstances can change what they talk to you about, how available they are, where they live, the support they can offer and what your future relationship with them looks like.
Someone close to you might take a new job and move away.
A family member may enter a completely different stage of their Life.
A friend you have known for years may eventually retire.
Sometimes you will hear about those changes. Sometimes they simply become part of the world happening around you.
The aim is to make people feel less like characters waiting for the player and more like people sharing the same world.
Transport now plays a much bigger role in everyday Life.
Driving is something you actually work towards rather than simply unlocking automatically.
You can:
apply for a provisional licence
take driving lessons
prepare for your theory test
take your practical test
earn your full licence
buy a vehicle
finance one where appropriate
maintain it
insure it
service and repair it
and eventually sell or replace it
Lessons and tests use real money and real Calendar time.
Once you are ready to buy, the Vehicle Marketplace offers a changing selection of vehicles with different:
prices
ages
mileage
condition
powertrains
running costs
practicality
Owning one creates genuine ongoing commitments too.
Insurance, fuel or electricity, servicing, MOTs, repairs and finance all become part of your wider finances.
Vehicles also age.
A well-maintained older car can remain useful for years, while changing family needs, a longer commute or rising repair costs may eventually make replacing it worthwhile.
Most importantly, transport is connected to what you are actually doing.
Journeys take real time.
Where you live matters.
Where you work matters.
Family visits matter.
Weather can matter.
And having a car does not automatically make driving the best choice for every journey.
Pets can now properly become part of your household and your story.
You can adopt different kinds of pets, each with its own persistent identity, appearance and needs.
Pet Life includes:
adoption
individual pet identities
species-appropriate care
personalities
Health and veterinary care
optional insurance
training and behaviour
household integration
holiday arrangements
ageing
later Life
and memories
The important difference is that pets do not become another collection of bars you need to constantly maintain.
Routine care is handled sensibly so you can concentrate on the moments that actually matter.
A pet exists inside your household.
If you move, they move with your Life.
If you go on holiday, their care needs considering.
If your household changes, they remain part of it.
Children and partners can share that Life with them.
Pets also grow older rather than remaining frozen at the age you adopted them.
Their needs can change as they move from younger Life into adulthood and eventually senior Life.
And because LIVORA follows an entire lifetime, Pet Life also handles the end of a pet's Life respectfully.
When that happens, their care responsibilities stop, but the history and meaningful memories you built together do not simply disappear.
Your Career no longer has to mean working for somebody else.
Adults can now start and develop their own Business across areas including:
Professional Services
Creative
Trade & Services
Retail & Online
Food & Hospitality
Digital & Tech
Starting one means making real decisions.
Choose the type of Business, give it an identity, decide how and where you will operate and cover the actual cost of getting started.
You can keep an existing job while building something on the side, or make self-employment your main work.
From there, the Business Hub becomes the centre of that working Life.
You can:
find customers
take on work
set pricing
manage deadlines
earn revenue
deal with costs
build reputation
gain repeat customers
receive recommendations
market the Business
hire staff
buy equipment
move into premises
use commercial vehicles
pursue larger opportunities
But LIVORA does not treat growth as the only definition of success.
A strong one-person Business can remain exactly that.
And Business has been designed to remain connected to everything else.
Work uses real time.
Health affects capacity.
Family commitments matter.
Holidays matter.
Housing can matter.
Transport can matter.
The wider Economy influences demand.
Business cash is also distinct from your personal money, so running a company does not simply become another number added to your current account.
A Business can thrive, struggle, recover, reduce its activity, be sold, close, or remain part of later Life and retirement.
Whatever happens, it becomes part of that person's story.
Your neighbourhood is no longer just somewhere your house happens to be.
LIVORA already allowed areas to change over time. Buildings could open, services could close, transport could improve or deteriorate, and the places around you could evolve.
Version 4.0 goes much further by making the people and community around those places matter too.
You can now discover local things happening through What's On, including:
local markets
community events
volunteering
outdoor activities
family activities
workshops
local groups
community projects
Events happen at real places within the neighbourhood and use real Life time if you decide to attend.
They remain opportunities rather than compulsory interruptions.
But Community Life goes beyond events.
Over time, you can begin recognising the people around you.
A next-door neighbour might become a familiar face.
Someone you regularly see at the community garden may eventually become an acquaintance.
A local business owner may become somebody you recognise whenever you visit.
You can gradually become part of local groups and recurring activities too, from walking groups and community gardening to volunteering and other local interests.
There is no Community XP to grind.
LIVORA looks at what you actually do, where you spend time and the people you genuinely know.
That means a player who has lived somewhere for years without getting involved will feel different from someone who regularly volunteers, knows their neighbours and has become a familiar face around the area.
And moving house now carries more weight.
You may be leaving behind:
neighbours
familiar local people
groups
volunteering
routines
places that became important
years of local history
Real friendships can continue after you move.
The neighbourhood itself does not.
A new area becomes another chapter to gradually discover.
The biggest part of LIVORA 4.0 is how these systems meet each other.
You might run a Business while raising a family and caring for a pet.
The car you bought years earlier may become important when your commute changes or your family grows.
A friend may move away because their own Career has changed.
A neighbour you met through a local group may become part of your wider social Life.
Your Business may need a commercial vehicle.
Retirement can change how much time you have for your Business, your community and the people around you.
A pet might be there through several completely different chapters of your Life.
And the neighbourhood that once felt unfamiliar can become somewhere filled with people, routines and places you have known for decades.
That is what this update is really about.
Not five new menus.
A deeper Life.
You do not need to start again to experience LIVORA 4.0.
Existing Lives are supported across the new systems.
New features are introduced safely into the Life you already have without inventing years of events, relationships or history that never actually happened.
New Lives benefit from the same systems from the beginning, including appropriate integration through Formative Years and into Adult Life.
LIVORA continues to grow because of the feedback, ideas and bug reports people have taken the time to share.
Version 4.0 is a major step towards the kind of Life simulation LIVORA is intended to become — where adding something new does not simply add another screen, but gives the Life itself another layer.
Thank you for playing, and we hope you enjoy LIVORA 4.0.
One Life. Everything Connected.