Info on Mod Developments :) + End of Month Warning (Patreon)

Hello everyone!

WARNING: UNSUBSCRIBE NOW IF YOU intend to or NEED TO, Subscriptions will Renew on March 1st!!!

February is too short, and recent days have been filled with concern over our world's state - the last thing anyone needs anywhere is more strife, and yet trouble keeps piling these past few years - but we must all keep going, do our best, and so here we are once more. 

I wanted to share some thoughts, but feel free to skip ahead past the indented paragraph until the next headline.

I believe the Sims is a game that can help people explore themselves and exercise their empathy. I think that for peace in the world, we must learn to be open about each other, try to understand and love each other - and storytelling has always been a tool for relating and empathizing. This is part of why, now still, I persist in this mod-making. 

No matter how small and irrelevant modding this game or playing it can be, representation of different realities is what my modding has always been about, and the best I can do. I make my mods trying to keep in mind and explore the concepts of Understanding and Acceptance - of the self, of others-, and of multiple perspectives. I know many of us in this community try to abide by these concepts in our lives. There is hope if we keep learning these things. In these crazy times, filled with violence and hate, we can only try to learn about each other, understand each other, love each other.

1. First, info on the upcoming miscarriage add-on.

I must say right away:

Good news; the miscarriage add-on also comes with additions to other related systems. Bad news: Time-wise, I am too short to finish this by tomorrow. I need more days, probably a week.

I apologize for this. The month has been strange from beginning to end, from the death of our dog first, to all the madness now happening, which is needless to say endlessly worse. We're all doing our best. 

Here's what's being cooked up at the moment:

* Miscarriages:

    - If a Sim suspects a miscarriage, they'll be sent to the hospital. If their SO, if any, is on lot, they'll be sent too. If not, if a family member is there, they'll be sent. Sims who weren't there will be able to be told about it later and react differently based on relationship and pregnancy wish (for the SO).

    - There are different reactions to losing a baby depending on pregnancy wish, although the tone is very much overall bleak (don't expect anyone to rejoice for such a health issue). Sims will also have some follow-up reaction over the next few days.

    - 'False alerts' can occur, as in, the trip to the hospital saves the situation. One can tell family, friends, etc, about this.

    - A sim who miscarried will be scared of it happening again if they get pregnant again. And fact is, they WILL have slightly increased risk, as research says that's a thing.

    - Chances of miscarriage depend partly on chance and partly on criteria. They get run partly at 'random' (very low chance) and partly directly following a circumstance that could cause it (reasonable chances). 

    - There is a chance of death, but you can remove it.

    - The risk of a miscarriage happening depends on: Age, trimester, the risk level of the pregnancy (see below).

    - Miscarriages can be triggered by: statistical chance applied to all pregnancies, pre-existing conditions (here manifested as the 'riskiness of pregnancy' as I have not at this moment coded in all sorts of diseases and conditions and don't know that I will put a thousand of those even when I do, so this encompasses every possible thing, from diabetes to bicornuate uteruses and etc etc), powerful negative emotions (stress, anger and fear), exertion from too much physical activity, lack of sleep or food, etc etc.

    - Note: Per my research, Permanent infertility or lowered fertility from miscarriages are NOT really a thing and do not happen (weird exceptional cases aren't to be impossible ofc). It CAN be that treatment for a miscarriage involve surgical procedures and cause complications impacting fertility - I WILL make this a very very very small possibility - but other than that, since fertility impacts from miscarriage are officially 'not a thing', I won't add them in more than that. (There CAN be correlations between fertility and health problems causing miscarriages, but the miscarriages do not cause the fertility problems, is the point the doctors seem to make.)

Because of how miscarriages work and how a pregnancy can be more or less risky (pre existing health conditions, etc), and how fertility issues can link to miscarriage (as in, the underlying condition causing fertility issues is also reinforcing miscarriage chances), I wanted to add a chance to at least have some riskiness levels added in, and varied fertility rates automatically, already in this module instead of delaying it for v3. So this is also been made:

* Adjustments and additions to fertility and riskiness of carrying a baby:

- auto assignment of various fertility levels and infertility (optional)

- ability to discover about fertility

- and to discover about how risky a pregnancy will be or not based on individual characteristics (which of course influences miscarriage chances). NOTE: At the moment this takes ONLY CHANCE into account, but LATER (I'm too short on time for it all right now) it will take into account various factors, even things from other mods if the modders agree. I may add specific physical conditions that impact pregnancy, fertility etc.

- auto decrease of fertility with age (optional)

- some sims being more fertile than others or less so just naturally

2. A change of Plans regarding two add-ons

Because of my belief in learning how to accept each other through exercising our empathy and learning, and especially in light of the recent visibility of queerphobia, I have thought back on a recent conversation on my discord server, and also decided that what I intended to be simply a sex drive and asexuality / aromanticism add-on for RPO / WHW would become two pieces: a sex-drive add-on and an LGBTQIA+ add-on, thus including the whole of the acronym and not just the A. If this is to be a Relationship and Pregnancy Mod, it will not keep out so many realities. I was not initially going to add this, because there are other mods out there and trying not to step on others' lawns is also a constant concern - but in truth it would be a strange omission, and the more I thought about it, and discussed it recently with others, the more I saw that there was room for my mod to tackle this a bit too without stealing other mod's spotlight and the more I simply developed the need to do it.

    More on these two add-ons: I have started working on the 'woohoo drive' add on, and also on the newly planned LGBTQIA+ add-on as well and will show you some of it soon. I do not aim to replace pre-existing mods at all - but to bring one more perspectives to the lot.  The initial goal is to give existing statuses for a broader variety of possible situations, and make those statuses impact romantic and woohoo life. This add-on fully separates romantic and sexual attraction (dubbed 'woohoo attraction' in the mod) and allows for a variety of combinations why can be assigned to Sims automatically or through a series of screen prompts addressing each aspect of orientation and identity (which of course you can also modify at will later). And all of this will have game-play effect in a palpable way in terms of romantic interactions and how they happen, don't, etc. 

Basically, an example: if your sim is non-binary, panromantic and sex-neutral asexual, they'll be able to be represented as such, and reactions to romance and interactions will reflect that. Any other combination of orientations and identities should be equally representable and impactful through this system. 

When I mean 'impactful', some examples: Don't expect an Aromantic sim to ever gain romance points, and do expect to see some new relationship types. A sex-averse asexual won't be jumping on every chance to woohoo, quite the contrary, and will react accordingly. A Sim strictly attracted to women will stick to that attraction and not see it change randomly, unless that's what you set. Etc etc.

I am still calling it an 'add-on' at this time because at the moment I am not trying to make 'coming out' aspects and etc, once again, I'm not here to re-make existing works etc etc. If you all express a need for more gameplay of this type, it can also be considered for later, provided that nobody else is doing it. But some aspects of this, I would only accept to do with participation from the community, because I am just one person, and although research is greatly helpful, I would rather involve people concerned if we were to go more in depth than the aforementioned plan.

    Feedback is more than welcome as always. I listen to good and bad criticism both.

3. To Conclude

The Miscarriage add on + Fertility and pregnancy riskiness mentioned above, I will release as soon as I can possibly. Very early March.

The two other add-ons, I will release very very likely in March as well. I hope to do much more than that in March, but we'll see how it goes... 

Sorry for the extreme wordiness today. Will be happy to read your thoughts on any or all of this and adjust my path if needed.

Stay strong if you can,
Much love,
Lumpinou