Upcoming Projects in Progress

Here's a sneak peak at the next two things I'm working on. I have them far enough along that I'm confident that they'll 'work' and be completed.

Enchanted Items

I was looking over the list of old AD&D spells again to see if there were any others that I might adapt to the Sims 4 for Classic RPG Spells. I spotted Enchant Item, and decided to take it on.

The Enchant Item spell will allow your spellcasters to use an Enchanter's Workbench to create magic scrolls and wands.

The basics as far as I have them working right now

To create a magic item, either a scroll or a wand at this point, your spellcaster needs to know the spell that they are enchanting the item with. So in order to create a Wand of Delicioso, your sim needs to know Delicioso.

Scrolls contain the same spells as potions, and are also single use. You can use the to either cast the 'potion/spell' on yourself or another sim, or you can learn the spell from the scroll if your spellcaster doesn't know it yet. In addition to having to know how to make the potion corresponding to the scroll, your sim must also have all the ingredients normally required by the potion, an empty scroll (purchasable in the Magic Realm), and a Mote.

Wands contain regular spells, and contain a number of charges, based on the level of the creator. To enchant a wand, your sim must have the appropriate type of wand for the spell and a Mote.

Spells and scroll potions cast by an enchanted item are cast at the level of the spellcaster who created the item. This allows spellcasters who may not know a spell to use a magic item that casts it.

You can both buy and sell these in the Magic Realm.

Anyway, I have a ways to go on this. I'm about 1/3 of the way through the items I need to create tuning for, but it's a lot of tedious copy/pasting.

Family History Mod

We don't have a great sim family tree system in the Sims 4, and when a new sims enters the world, it kind of appears from nowhere.

I came up with an idea to enable Sims to research their family history and put together their own genealogy. There's a 'Research Genealogy' interaction on the computers, and this mod makes that do something (though most of the tasks in the mod are not on the computer).

I added a Family Lore skill that represents partly what your sims knows about their own family, and partly how well they know how to do genealogical research. In addition, I added a Research Progress mechanic very similar to Scientific Breakthroughs from the Get to Work Scientist career. Your sim can research their genealogy, and once they get to a certain point they'll have a breakthrough and learn something new about their background.

Your sim can research by

• Reading certain historical books in the library
• Searching for Rare Documents in the library
• Analyzing Memorabilia found in the Sim Historical Society Annex cabinets in a region your sim's ancestors came from.
• Using the metal detector to find buried memorabilia and analyzing it.
• Talking to other sims in regions that your sim's ancestors came from.
• Analyzing gravestones
• Visiting Mediums
• Probably some more things as I'm thinking of them

Ancestral Traits

There are a lot of them. There are traits for each region. If you go to a region that some of your ancestors were from, you get a positive buff, as well as extra luck when doing genealogical research there.

There are notable ancestor traits, where your ancestor was a famous professional of some sort, like a doctor or an athlete. These give your sim an interest in that field, as well as a slight aptitude for it.

There are legendary ancestor traits, where your ancestor was a legendary spellcaster, pirate, mermaid, Royalty, etc. These give your sim a variety of bonuses, as well as attitudes in some cases.

To make this all a bit more real, each of the 57 notable and legendary ancestors has a name and a backstory. And a portrait, thanks to Dwayne (see below).

Passing the Knowledge On

Once your sim learns about some of their history, they can teach relatives about it so that they will get the benefits of those traits as well, eg, a grandparent teaching a grandchild their family history will result in the child acquiring all of the ancestral traits that the grandparent has.

Your sim can also create a Family History book that will keep track of their ancestral traits, and allow family members who read it (down through the generations) to also have those traits.

Distant Relatives

There's a chance that you will find distant relatives that have some of the same notable or legendary ancestors as you. I'm keeping track of this, but haven't entirely decided what to do with it yet, other than enable the creation of an extended family reunion event.

The Paintings

I'm adding a ton of paintings in this mod, mostly (fictitious) historical portraits and landscapes that correspond to the ancestors that are discovered during research.

I'm working with an AI (whom I've named Dwayne...) to come up with the paintings, because I'm a lousy artist, and I can't afford to pay a real artist for dozens of paintings for a free mod.

Anyway, with the right art direction, and some custom models, Dwayne does a pretty good job, so there will be a LOT of new paintings in this one.

Hensford-On-Bagley Landscape, by Dwayne

I don't know when I'm going to get either of these done. But they are coming along. The mechanics all seem to work, so I need to finish up the scrolls and wands for Enchanted Items (I'm about 1/4 through) and do a lot of copying and pasting to finish Family History.

I'm also trying to get a lot of small bug fixes out for a number of my other mods, but I can only fix bugs for so long in one sitting, else it starts to feel like work. :D

Anyway, I'd love any feedback or ideas that anyone has about these two new projects or any others.

Thanks for your support!