Family History Royalty & Legacy Update

I've added support for Royalty and Legacy features in this update, made changes to how ancestors are found and how some of the effects are applied, added Scandalous Ancestors and refactored the mod into separate .package files so that you can avoid errors due to recipes from packs you don't have.

New Multiple Package File Structure

Download the version 1.1.5 update here on the Family History mod page!

All of the pack-specific Regional recipes, as well as a number of pack-specific objects have been migrated to separate package files found in the PackExtras subfolder. You should remove the files from PackExtras that are for expansion and game packs that you do not have installed. I'm hoping this allows more players to use this mod without running into missing pack errors, especially due to recipes.

There are some features that are pack specific in ways that I can't work around, usually due to animations required (like Summon Ancestral Spirits or Search for Rare Documents). In many of these cases, I have pack tests that hide them if you don't have the packs required. *

It will be harder to play without Get To Work or Get Together, since those are currently where the portraits and record's cabinets are from. All of books are now base game compatible, however, so you can still purchase all of the census books or put them in a library yourself.

There are now some duplicate objects. I rebuilt a number of formerly pack specific objects (like the census books which depended on Vampires) as base game objects, but also included the old pack specific ones in the corresponding PackExtras package, in case you are already using those objects in a save file. If you have the packs needed, it doesn't matter which one you use.

* I have not found all of the cases where pack-specific animations are used, so if you run into a missing animation (they'll get the T-Pose briefly and usually throw an LE), please let me know so that I can either avoid the pack dependency by using a different animation or put a pack test in front of it.

Royalty & Legacy Support

Two new ancestors from Ondarion:

• Legendary Knight, Sir Reggio Sylva

  • Sir Reggio Sylva, the legendary First Sword of Ondarion, is known far and wide as the best swordsman that ever lived. Winner of Waltzing with the Royals for three consecutive seasons, Sylva perfected a school of fencing he called The Dance of Arms. His techniques are still studied in fencing schools today.

• Famous Writer, Lady Calliope Featherdown

  • Lady Calliope Featherdown, once known as the Mistress of Whispers in Ondarion, was a writer and newsletter publisher of the first society gossip publication. Each week, the aristocracy would hold it's collective breath until the next issue arrived and they could search for their own names.

Special Features for sims with Royal and Knightly ancestors

Sims with either Royal or Knightly ancestors can immediately join the Noble career by clicking on the sim and selecting Submit Patents of Nobility under the Family History.

Royal and Knightly descendants will receive bonuses to both dynastic prestige and Noble career performance in the region that their ancestor is from.

For example, in the image at the top, Duchess Lavinia Valerious of Ravenwood (on throne) is a descendant of Queen Rowena Ypolos of Ravenwood (in portrait), so she gets bonuses to her dynasty, as well as her Noble career performance. If Baroness Valerious moved to Windenberg, she would not get the extra bonuses.

(btw, I download a lot of sims and lots from the gallery then customize them, including the ones above. If they were ones you made -- Thanks! However, I'm terrible about remembering where I originally got them from, so sorry I didn't credit you.)

Royal descendants

In addition to the other rewards received when discovering a royal ancestor, your sim will now receive a rare sword. Descendants of Queen Rowena also get a bonus to Medium and Thanatology skills.

Knightly descendants

In addition to the existing gifts and awards, your sim will receive a rare sword. Knights receive a bonus to Swordsmanship. Descendants of Sir Reggio Sylva also get a bonus to learning Dancing skill.

Legendary Spellcaster Descendants

Discovering a Legendary Spellcaster ancestor will also add the spellcaster Ancient Bloodline to your sim, since that is literally what it means.

Also, if you have my Classic RPG Spells installed, as well as Realm of Magic, finding a Legendary Spellcaster ancestor will give your sim the Myrddin's Library bookcase, which includes tomes for all of the spells in that mod.

Other Changes to Ancestor Effects

For all Notable Ancestors, their career-related bonuses will only have an effect in the ancestor's home region. For example, descendants of Victoria Sterling receive a bonus to business careers and entrepreneurial skills, but only if they live in her home region of San Myshuno.

I've also added skill aptitude bonuses provided by notable ancestors to include some skills from my other mods. Descendants of Notable Doctors and Scientists will receive bonuses when learning Pharmacology (from my Apothecary Kit), and Descendants of Notable Scholars will receive aptitude bonuses for the Sim Lore skill (from Archaeology Kit).

Automatic Ancestral Region Discovery

Previously, your sim needed to find a connection to an ancestor's home region before you could find a connection to the ancestor. For example, using Victoria Sterling above, you needed to find ancestors in San Myshuno before you had a chance to find a connection to Victoria Sterling.

That has been changed. In real life genealogy, it's not uncommon to find ancestors by name (or reputation) before you can find where they're from. So now in this mod, you can find a connection to Victoria Sterling first. When you do, your sim will automatically get the San Myshuno ancestral region trait as well. If you already have the San Myshuno ancestors trait, it will still be more likely for you to find a connection to Victoria Sterling, but it's no longer required.

Scandalous Ancestors

I added scandalous ancestors to go with legendary and notable ancestors. Coming across a juicy scandal involving ancestors with ridiculous vintage names like 'Patience Fortitude' is one of the true joys of doing one's genealogy, so I've added that to Family History.

I've added 18 scandalous ancestors from different regions. Almost all are career related, so these can be considered negative notable ancestors. Instead of a bonus, there will be a very small scandal related career penalty in the region that the scandalous ancestor is from.

For example:

"Ephraim Bixby was a Brindleton Bay area Bestselling Author who was discovered outsourcing entire novels to a struggling freelancer while claiming creative genius."

Descendants of Ephraim Bixby will get a 10% penalty to writer career performance and overall reputation if they are living in Brindleton Bay.

I had originally implemented these as Scandal Secrets from Royalty & Legacy and they were working the same way (could buy/sell them to Info Broker, use them for extortion, etc). However, during the last patch I discovered that if you found one of the custom scandals, then uninstalled the mod, you'd end up with an unsolvable error in that save file. The game's Secrets Tracker won't let go of references to scandals even if the tuning for them is no longer present.

So I converted them all into regular (safe) trait-based ancestors. You can't use them for extortion or sell them to the Info Broker. You can find out other sims are also related to the same scandalous ancestors (as with Notable ancestors), but there are no portraits or family reunions available for scandalous ancestors -- everyone is trying to forget about them.

As with Notable and Legendary ancestors, you will also get the ancestral region trait for the scandalous ancestor's home region if you find a connection to them. There is also a new category in the Notebook for Scandalous Ancestors.

So above, if you find a connection to Ephraim Bixby, you will also find that you have ancestors in Brindleton Bay.

Ancestral Favor Effects

Ancestral favor can be earned by following in an ancestor's footsteps (joining the same career, doing the same activities), by honoring them (such as with incense) or providing them with offerings at lakes, campfires, waterfalls, or the Mountain Shrine object (from Snowy Escape).

Previously, ancestral favor just made it more likely that you'd find more ancestors (and more legendary ones). If you have Enchanted by Nature and have Luck features enabled, a high ancestral favor will improve your sim's luck and also their Balance (another Enchanted by Nature feature). This makes honoring your sim's ancestors much more useful and something that makes sense to do even when you're not doing genealogy research.

Your sims can also Honor Ancestors using one of the ancestral portraits, as well as the incense burner from Life & Death.

Download the version 1.1.5 update here on the mod's permanent page!