Lifetime Quirks v0.01

After a long period of planning, development, and tweaking, the first phase of my new mod Lifetime Quirks is now ready for beta testing. Thank you so much for your patience.

Beta download here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59551522 

Life is spontaneous, unpredictable, and full of growing pains. This mod makes it so Sims develop new Quirks over time that make their life more complicated. These can be physical maladies, emotional and mental problems, or fixations and obsessions.

How does it work?

Quirks can be added by random chance, or as a result of your Sim’s actions or circumstances. Up to four Quirks can be added to a Sim throughout their lifetime, one per life stage (teen, young adult, etc.). The pool of available Quirks that can be added changes as they get older, too; teenagers and elders won’t have the same kind of problems. Your Sims’ existing traits can have an influence on what Quirks they get, as well - either making them more likely to form or preventing them from forming at all.

How will I know when a Quirk gets added to my Sim?

Quirks are usually added to your Sim silently and without any notification, but when it happens your Sim will begin developing visible symptoms. Physical symptoms will pop up normally or when triggered by stimuli. Emotional and mental symptoms can be triggered by stimuli, but they will be more common or made worse if your Sim has low Emotional Wellness. You can choose to deal with them on your own, or you can take your Sim to a doctor to try to get a diagnosis. To see a doctor, click on a road and use the “See a Doctor” menu. For physical ailments, book a Physical Exam. For emotional and mental problems, book a Therapy appointment. Fixations are also exacerbated by low Emotional Wellness, but they will reveal themselves over time without a doctor.  Once diagnosed or revealed, a Quirk will show up in the Traits section of the Simology tab, and any visible symptoms they get from the Quirk will make themselves more clear.

How do I deal with the symptoms?

Each Quirk will have different symptoms that need to be dealt with in their own way. Some physical and emotional issues can be resolved with medication. For over the counter options, you can visit the Pharmacy by clicking on a road, choosing the “Go Shopping” menu, and then clicking Pharmacy. If Basemental Drugs is installed, self-medicating may be viable, too. For emotional and mental problems, keeping a high Emotional Wellness will reduce the severity of symptoms or prevent them from appearing. Similarly, Sims with fixations will be okay with missing out on their special interest if their Emotional Wellness is high, but allowing them to partake is usually more effective and has the added bonus of raising their Emotional Wellness.

What is Emotional Wellness?

Emotional Wellness is a new hidden need for all Sims Teen and older. Think of it as a long-term mood that affects your Sim regardless of their actual current mood. If life hasn’t been treating your Sim well lately, they will feel the effects of that in their day to day life. They may lose sleep over worry, they may lash out at someone over nothing, or they may just feel off and not fully understand why. These problems affect all Sims regardless of whether they have any Quirk yet, but some of the effects will mimic legitimate symptoms of Quirks. Take care of your Sims to resolve it, but if they don’t go away then it might be time to see a doctor.

Emotional Wellness will decay slowly over time, just like other needs. Here’s a short list of things that will lower it even faster:

• Catching your house on fire
• Death of a loved one
• Getting demoted
• Losing a fight
• Breaks up or divorce
• Getting abducted by aliens
• Being in an Angry, Sad, or Tense mood
• Dealing with addiction (if Basemental Drugs is installed)

Finding good ways to cope will be very important. Here’s a short list of things that will improve Emotional Wellness:

• Seeing a therapist
• Getting a promotion
• Winning a fight
• Having Woohoo
• Having Woohoo with or kissing a new Sim for the first time
• Making new friends
• Pretty much any spa interaction (massage, sauna, bath bomb, etc.)
• Getting adequate sleep
• Eating snacks or desserts
• Being friendly with a pet
• Drinking or using drugs (if Basemental Drugs is installed)
• Scream into the Void (Yes, that’s real. It’s a new interaction Sims can do outside if they have the Erratic trait or they have very low Emotional Wellness.)

Additionally, some Quirks will introduce new ways for Emotional Wellness to increase or decrease.

What Quirks can my Sims get?

While Sims are Teens, they can develop these Quirks:

Physical Quirks:

• Cat Allergy
• Dog Allergy
• Insomnia

Emotional Quirks:

• Body Image Issues (focused on weight loss)
• Body Image Issues (focused on weight gain)
• Body Image Issues (focused on muscle gain)
• Distrustful

Fixations:

• MMO Fan
• Sports Fan

More information about these Quirks will be available in a separate post.

While Sims are Young Adults, they can develop all the Teen Quirks and these new ones:

TBA

While Sims are Adults, they can no longer develop any Teen Quirks, but can still develop the Young Adult Quirks and these new ones:

TBA

While Sims are Elders, they can no longer develop any Young Adult Quirks, but can still develop the Adult Quirks and these new ones:

TBA

Okay, that’s great, but how I can just skip to the traits?

If you don’t want to wait or if you want to use the traits for challenge or story-telling purposes, there is a shift-click interaction on Sims for different Lifetime Quirks cheats. You can add Quirks directly through this menu, instantly and fully diagnosed.

Where do we go from here?

Gold Level patrons will have access to this beta testing period to start with. I want to get feedback to make sure everything is working as expected and the different Quirks are not too punishing. If things are working as expected, I hope to have this publicly released before Christmas. 

This first release is only Phase 1. I’m still adding Quirks to all the other age groups after Teen, but for now the underlying infrastructure of the mod is working and this first part is feature complete. The current plan is to develop Quirks for each age group in order, but I may end up jumping around. I also plan on revisiting the completed Quirks to add little details later. 

Beta download here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/59551522