(Relationship & Pregnancy Overhaul, mod #1)
Pregnancy / Family Preferences and Pregnancy Interactions
Preferences for: wanting children or not, wanting to be pregnant or not, wanting siblings or not, grandchildren or not, baby name preferences, baby expressed gender preference (OPTIONAL), etc
MARCH 2024: NEW FEATURES to RPO M1
*** 1.**** STYLE OF ‘NOT WANTING TO HAVE CHILDREN’ ****
NOTES: You do not have to specify this; if you do not, it defaults to “does not want a child right now”. Some NPC’s get specific polarities assigned and some don’t, so your game stays flexible.
Sims who don’t want children ever are immune to prompts that might change this preference. Sims who simply think it is a bad time to have children will have some facilities in making peace with a pregnancy, and often by trimester two will get a prompt about it.
*** 2.**** NUMBER OF CHILDREN WANTED ****
NOTES: You do not have to specify this for every Sim, use it only when you want.
Some NPC’s get a specific number wish assigned and some don’t, so your game stays flexible.
Every time a Sim gets a new child, the number of wanted children is adjusted down. Once a Sim has reached their desired number of children, their preferences automatically adjusted to “does not want children – has already had enough”, and they get a special moodlet.
*** 3.**** FAMILY PREFERENCE CHANGES VIA LIFE EVENTS****
OPTIONS
This system is optional and you can turn it on or off in global settings.
When it is on, you can also just disable it for particular sims by adding a trait to them.
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WHAT AND WHEN
NOTE: There are cooldowns in place so that your Sim does not get several prompts in a row or close together in time.
Prompts have chances to happen:
– for preferences regarding having children: when talking to someone of different preferences about such topics, when engaging alone in interactions related to such topics directly, after positive or negative events related to raising and taking care of a child, (tantrums, dirty diapers, sweet moments, etc) when building good relationships with nieces and nephews (or bad ones); when starting of ending committed relationships, when aging to Adult if having had no children before
Sims can announce having changed their mind on this, and their partners reactive according to that brings their wishes closer together or further apart.
NOTE: Sims who are set to Never Ever want children are immune to those prompts. So are Sims who have decided they’ve had enough children already.
– For preferences regarding willingness to be pregnant: after having had several children, after having lost a pregnancy, after interactions about such topics
– For preferences regarding baby gender (REMINDER that baby gender prefs is an OPTIONAL system that is off by default, and that it does take into account gender identity from my lgbtqia mod): when a sim has no preference yet but is expecting a child, when a Sim has had several children all of the same gender
Incidentally, there are also new moodlets as part of the gender system, which have to do with if a sim has had only children of the same gender so far or not.
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KEEPING INFORMED OF CHOICES MADE
Even if using the ‘fate’ option, you can always know what choices were made as notifications are shown.
*** 4. **** BABY NAME PREFERENCES ****
- During a pregnancy, each parent can choose names for the baby and discuss them.
- The choice can be done via a list of names and / or via custom writing of the names and / or via random.
- Discussing is also possible with family and friends, who can make suggestions. Sims can react positively or negatively to other’s name ideas.
- When comes the time of labor, the Sim gets reminded of their and their partner’s preferred names and can name their offspring accordingly!
- The birth pop up to name the child is pre-filled with the birthing Sim’s preferred name.
- If a Sim is expecting twins or triplets, they can also pick extra names for these. At birth, the field for the name of each child will be prefilled with the Sim’s selection. NOTE: to be able to pick extra names for multiple offspring, the sim needs to be aware that there expecting multiple offspring and of what birth gender – meaning that they must have had an ultrasound. Those are as always under RPO -> family and pregnancy.
(VIDEO example) – Picking preferred baby names:
*** 5.**** OTHER STUFF ****
- “Ask if Pregnant“. Especially useful to get NPC’s to announce their pregnancy if they don’t autonomously 🙂
- Moodlets of reaction to having multiple offspring
- If options for baby gender preferences are ON, Sim will also get reactions to if their next offspring is the same or a different birth gender than previous ones.
——- Family Preferences: wants children, doesn’t, or neutral ——
Assignment of Family Preferences
- All Sims age young adult – adult are automatically given pregnancy preferences (wants children, neutral, does not want children). Sims who hate children always auto-get ‘dosn’t want children’ – and the opposite is true for Sims who are family-oriented.
- Preferences can be changed at any time, for the played Sim in the Pregnancy & Family menu, for any other Sim, by clicking on them and going to “Actions” then “RPO Special Actions”.
- Preferences can be given manually to teens. If the teen module is installed and a teen who has no assigned preference gets pregnant they are automatically given the ‘Doesn’t Want Children” preference.
Effect of Family Preferences
- Preferences affect reaction to pregnancy (one’s own or a partner’s)
- Preferences affect all trimester moodlets
- Preferences determine which of the new interactions of this mod are available or not during pregnancy
- Preferences determine reactions to the new interactions of this mod
- Preferences control whether or not certain moodlets should appear during pregnancy and around partners.
- Preferences affect reactions to paternity test results
- Preferences affect the relationship with the child.
- Clashing preferences in a couple will cause serious tensions when a pregnancy happens.
- Matching preferences in a couple will make for a harmonious situation.
Interactions
Pregnancy Interactions for All Sims, Regardless of Preference
- Go to Birth Class
- (Ask to) go to Early Parenthood Class
- Worry about Providing for the Baby
- Worry about putting on Pregnancy Weight
- Organise to provide for the baby
- Go Buy Something for Upcoming Baby
- Ask about Pregnancy:
- Go to the Doctor for Pregnancy Test:
Additional Interactions for Sim Who Don’t Want Children
- Announce Unwanted Pregnancy
- Bemoan not having used protection
- Discuss hopelessness about future with baby
- (Ask to) go to counselling for unwnated pregnancy
- Discuss terminating the Pregnancy
Additional Interactions for Sims who want children
- Share Big News
- Talk about baby room decration
- Enthuse about pregnancy
Sims who are neutral have only the interactions available to all.
Moodlets
Moodlets that can be obtained from using during-pregnancy interactions, being in proximity to a partner or just because of being pregnant vary upon pregnancy preferences. See image gallery for examples.
OTHER PREFERENCES: being pregnant, having siblings, having grandchildren, etc
Preference about Physically Being Pregnant
Info to be written.
Preference about having siblings
Preference about having grandchildren
Info to be written.
Preference about Offspring Expressed Gender
Disclaimers
Requests for Features for Baby Birth Gender Preferences came steadily and persistently, and after refusing many times, eventually I decided ‘someone will make it be it me or not, might as well do it and try to be sensitive about it’.
So, let’s talk about preferences for ‘baby gender’. A historically charged topic that has caused oppression of women and that to some communities can be offensive.
So, my attempt here is to create a bridge, incorporating an idea of personality and an idea of gender, formulating these features around expressed ‘gender’ and not exclusively ‘biological sex’ (what the child might be like gender-wise and what that could mean for their personality).
A baby is a baby. A parent doesn’t care about what genitals a baby has, they care about what they assume about the child based on their biological sex – ie, they care about personality. It is always at least a bit misguided to try to deduce a future personality from a biological sex, BUT it’s a thing people naturally do regardless.
SO. This is NOT about the baby’s gender identity as of that life stage (a baby can’t even recognize its own reflection, after all), it’s about what a parent thinks a child will be like in the future, based on what the parent assumes from the link they might make, warranted or not, between bio sex and stereotypical personality associated with gender.
———– Effects After Birth + Acceptance System —————-
Unwanted Child Acceptance or Rejection
Pregnancy Acceptance
This is a tough topic, and although I tried my best to remain sensitive about it, I am aware it may be of an upsetting nature to some people. If it is upsetting for you, and you believe I handled the topic poorly, please contact me as I would like to hear you out.
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This plays out in two ways.First, there is a process during pregnancy, which can lead to acceptance. Then, if no acceptance happens during pregnancy, the baby is born as unwanted, but another process can then take place to grow to love the baby.
1. During pregnancy acceptance possibilities
Interactions such as counseling, birth classes, etc, as well as discussing pregnancy with partners who see it in a more happy way, all have the ability to make a Sim closer to be able to be at peace with the pregnancy in question. There are a few new interactions as well, which I won’t list for now so I’m not spoiling everything.
Sims will NOT autonomously accept a pregnancy; once they are ready to do so, it still comes to the player to decide. Because I don’t want to take the storytelling power out of your hands.
(text will be improved; this Sim was engaged in various activities that helped them make the baby more real and pre-bond with it and therefore can try to make peace with their unwanted pregnancy).
If peace is made during the pregnancy, things will change. Pregnancy moodlets will show that this is an accepted pregnancy STARTING AT THE NEXT TRIMESTER (I don’t think I can safely change them in the middle of a trimester, I will try once everything else is fully finished, but I’d rather tell you it will be at the next trimester so that if I find out I can’t, you won’t be disappointed).
The Sim will not anymore get pangs of sadness about being pregnant. They will also gain the ability to do some interactions that were reserved to neutral and happy pregnancies. If pregnancy is accepted pre-birth, a sentiment is gained towards the baby at birth:
2. Post pregnancy acceptance possibilities
Could be that your Sim didn’t manage to make peace with the pregnancy. What then? The baby gets born with a negative sentiment… This sentiment will not budge until it is replaced with a happy sentiment or until acceptance has happened – happier sentiments won’t be able to be added until the child is at least of toddler age.
The Sim will struggle to interact with the baby. Doing so will give moodlets always during and after sometimes after the interaction.
This moodlet is also the one that will appear from time to time near a toddler or child with the “Unwanted Child” sentiment.
Sometimes, for an hour or two after having interacted with the baby, the Sim will not be able to be directed to do so again, except to feed the baby and change diaper, which are necessary things to do.
(I use a cheat included in the mod to trigger giving birth and my Sim happened to be in the bathroom, which is why the bassinet is in this awkward place; sorry!)At this point, there still remains a path to acceptance.
“Attempt to Bond” will have the Sim interact with the baby. There is a chance that this interaction may create acceptance, in which case the negative sentiment will leave. This interaction is NOT autonomous, as once again, I wish to leave storytelling power in your hands. So, yes, a Sim still can never grow to accept a pregnancy / birth if that’s what the story is. Such things happen in life…
Toddler age and beyondIf the negative sentiment is still there by toddler age, it will have impact there too. If no peace is made and the toddler grows to be a child, there too should be an impact. This is the part that I am yet to do – toddler age and beyond. ___________
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