Mod: Arranged Marriages (Updated April 7th)

Updates:

• 2022 April 7th - Read the updates here.

It's finally here! I’m so happy to finally have the base version of this mod done, and I can’t wait to hear feedback from you guys as you play with it!

Please note that I am looking for any and all feedback while you play, as long as you post it respectfully. I need to know what you want to see in the future, how you want sims to react, compatibility with other mods, bugs, wording/typos, etc. (does not guarantee it will be added/changed though, just to clarify).

I will also have other posts a little later where I'll be asking specific questions and running polls, so please keep your eye open for them. If you want to know what they may be about, I already have some ideas summarized and listed in the Future Updates section further down that you can look at.

Feedback/suggestions can be posted here or on Discord. If you experience bugs, please try to report them on Discord!

📌 Info & Description

This mod allows sims to marry without any romance being required, and you can do this in 3 different ways, with more options being added at a later date (matchmakers, placing ads, etc)! 

The first and main focus is of course arranging marriages for other members in the active household with a member of another sims family. The second is arranging marriages for the currently selected sim with a member of another household, and the third is a regular Marriage of Convenience option between your sim and another sim of choice, for those who just want to get married without romance. You can see more details about how each one functions under the "Arranging Choices" section.

Sims must have met each other first in order to use the interactions, but you don't need a high friendship to select them. When you ask another sim about an arrangement, the active sim and target sim are scored based on several factors in order to continue, and if the score is too low the interaction will instead fail with some minor relationship loss. Factors include things like moods, traits, skills, careers, reputation, fame, character values, money (Note: removed in current version due to bug), royalty (LlazyNeiph or KiaraSims4Mods optionally required for effects), sentiments and some other minor stuff (more to be added later). If you fail twice, you will be unable to ask that family again for roughly 24 hours, and in the future further consequences and another scoring system will likely be added, so it's suggested that you prepare your sims. This is a big moment after all! For Marriage of Convenience, it has a lower score to pass but may change in the future based on feedback.

Once the arrangement is complete, the paired sims of any gender will receive one of two possible relationships based on age: Engaged or Betrothed. Engaged is for sims Young Adult and older and will allow them to marry or start a wedding event at any point. Betrothed is for Child and Teen sims and will age with the sims, so when they go from Teen to Young Adult the game will auto-update the relationship to Engaged without you needing to do anything. Only once both sims reach Young Adult will they be able to marry. When pairing sims keep in mind that only Child sims can be paired with other Child sims, while Teens (who seem to me to be 17/18) are allowed to be paired with other Teens and older, but will still receive the Betrothed relationship regardless of who they are paired with.

If sims are unhappy with their arrangement they have a chance to break it off, with consequences/reactions coming at a later date. For Child/Teen sims, they have a basic interaction that allows them to tell their parent (or grandparents) that they refuse to marry the other sim. For Young Adult and older they may talk to their partner and choose to call off the arrangement. For sims in a Marriage of Convenience they can change their mind and stop the relationship. All interactions are under the Friendly menu but this may change. (Parents will be able to break off arrangements with the other family in a future update as the system is complicated.)

Child/Teen Sims to Parents/Grandparents

Arranged Partner to Partner

Marriage Of Convenience

If the arrangement is not broken off and once both sims are Young Adult with a romance score lower than 50, they can either get married immediately without an event like normal but using neutral animations, or they can start a social event called a "Neutral Wedding" (may or may not block the EA version later, which then the name will go back to just wedding) which also uses neutral animations. Both options also give you an optional simple kiss during the ceremony, and skipping has no current effect (this may change later for arranged parties). If your sims spent time together before the wedding and happen to be in love, they will instead use EA's regular wedding animations and files.

After they are married, sims have the option to Try For Baby when they are ready, and in the future the wording for the interaction may first appear as consummate to keep track of stuff like annulment (still deciding). Regular Woohoo was not added yet but can be added in a future update. A tiny bit of romance will be added after using the interaction.

There are also a couple of Friendly social interactions that can be used, but have no impact on things right now (other than "Complain about Arrangement" to parents) . Only "Enthuse about Arranged Marriage" and "Complain about Arrangement" have buffs at the moment (major thanks to Pandasama for making these for me while I was busy with the other parts of the mod).

📌 Arranging Choices

There are currently 3 options to choose from, with more being added later. All 3 are under the Friendly > Other Sims pie menu (optional custom pie menu coming soon) and are found on the other sims/households you are arranging with:

Arranging Marriages For Other Sims

This interaction is for arranging for other members of your family and can be done by any adult in the family (looking for feedback on adding a "head of household" trait or something so only certain sims can do this interaction). Selecting it and passing the scoring system will bring up the first picker where you choose the member of your household. After selecting it will take you to a second picker to choose a sim from the other family. Once done the sims will shake hands to complete the contract.

Known Issue: If the other family does not have any suitable candidates the second picker will fail and cancel the entire interaction chain.

Arranging Marriages For The Active Sim

This interaction is for arranging for the active sim with a member of the target's family. Only one picker appears to select the chosen sim.

Known Issue: Similar bug to the above one, if no sims are available the picker fails and the interactions cancel.

Marriage Of Convenience

This interaction is for any two sims who just want to marry without any emotional baggage. Good for peasant sims and sims who just want a married life without romance.

📌 Known Issues

The following are known issues and will be solved in a future update:

• If the other family does not have any suitable candidates the sim pickers will fail and cancel the entire interaction chain.
• Sims who cancel their arrangement are not tracked, so they can be paired over and over again with the same sim.
• Calling off arrangement between parents of both families is proving more difficult than expected and so has not been added yet.
• Money/property wealth not in current version's scoring system because it caused a bug, will be fixed in next update.
• EA interaction "Ask If Single" does not recognize betrothed sims.
• EA interaction "Hook Up With" does not recognize betrothed sims.
• Compatibility not yet added for Language Barriers by Frankk; Try For Baby/Woohoo will be added to the exceptions list so married adult sims can still do that despite not speaking the same language.
• Compatibility not yet added for the Pre-Teen mod by ItsKatato, so they are in the same lists as Teens.
• Royalty Mod by LlazyNeiph class update has not been integrated into the scoring system yet. Peasants should still mostly fail when talking with royalty/nobles though, let me know if they don't.

If you encounter any other bugs, please report them on Discord! 

📌 Future Updates

Check this post here (Patron only atm) for in-depth details about what is coming. For now you can expect:

• Optional romance blocker - Will block all romance gain if you want to keep the relationship neutral.
• More arranging options - Fixing feuds, matchmaker NPCs, ads, monarchy decided marriages and more will come over time to give you additional gameplay options.
• Social updates - Some parts will be optional; Consequences and reactions from those around you and in society based on actions, more socials, more buffs, etc.
• Dowry update - Will be optional; Sims will expect a dowry upon arranging
• Carefully made autonomy updates - Will be optional; Based on traits, etc. sims will be asking you instead to make the game more alive.
• Event updates - Meet potential suitors at an event, bride/groom shows (which is another arranging option), and more as I think of them
• After marriage update - Focuses on interactions and gameplay after being married for additional gameplay options

📌 Installing & Requirements

Conflicts: Does not conflict with anything to my knowledge, as I don't override anything.

Pack Requirements: None, Base Game Compatible (for now)

Other Mod Requirements: None; Optional royalty mods by LlazyNeiph or KiaraSims4Mods will have extra affects

Installing: This is a script mod! When installing please keep the package and ts4script together and make sure they are in your main mods folder or only one sub-folder deep. Make sure to clear your localthumbcache before going in-game! By downloading you are agreeing to my TOU (which is basically don't be a jerk).

📌 Uninstalling

Delete the package and ts4script from your folder. And as always, clear your localthumbcache after doing so.

📌 Credits & Thanks

Thank you to everyone who supported or helped with this project, even indirectly! Especially thepancake1 for constantly supporting me and helping me spot bugs, and Pandasama for supporting me and helping me with the first set of socials! As well as Adeepindigo and Lumpinou for helping find workarounds for some of those tricky situations.

And thank you so much to everyone who helped with the scripting and/or made community tools: Frankk, Lot51, LeRoi, Kuttoe, Scumbumbo.

And lastly, to all of my extremely patient patrons and followers for their support! ❤️ I know this mod has been a long time coming, so thank you for sticking with me.

Translations:

Brazilian Portuguese by Ayrthwil 

Traditional Chinese by GreenOnionC

Italian by Isy, should be on their site soon for downloading.

Spanish by Laura

📌 Modders

If you want to reference my files, and if you aren't in the Creator Musings server (though we'd love to have you there!), please let me know so I can send them your way. If you are in Creator Musings though, check the #modder-references channel as that is where they will be (coming soon).

Feedback/suggestions can be posted here or on Discord. If you experience bugs, please try to report them on Discord!