English monarchy story...
I've been going with my idea to create the royal household of the Plantagenet - they're a medieval dynasty who were synonymous with European monarchy during the Middle Ages and especially with the En...
Forum Discussion
That's such a coincidence.
I have just made Geoffrey d'Anjou, Matilda, Henry II, Eleanor of Acquitaine, John (son) and Eleanor (daughter). I'm going to play the monarchy from the Plantagenets to the Windsors. I haven't made all the children because I thought it would become too complicated, so any offspring who have no children or whose families do not play a role later on by marrying back into the family or being a key figure in history (e.g. Margaret Pole/Plantagenet) are excluded from my neighbourhood. I am making generic commoner families to populate my neighbourhood. When I get to the Tudors, I will probably make the Boleyns, Howards, and Seymours. I'm just playing it by ear 🙂
I have the Royalty mod as well, so I can assign titles, name the heirs, decree offspring legitmate or illegitimate, and win or lose favour with townies.
- @lovecat182 That sounds good - I hope you're having fun with the game. What other mods, if any, do you use? I downloaded a couple, but can’t find them in Create-A-SIm as they were mostly medieval clothing mods, but the medieval bed doesn’t work either. I’m not very sure as to how I can create my own mods (and frankly, not really confident of success) either.
I like your ideas about 'townies' as well. I’m going to let the game generate them for me and have them being non-played sims that come and go around the neighbourhoods. As a friendly suggestion to you, perhaps have your townies could have business, private attorney, spy (not the Strangeville military career one), gardener, fisher and academic careers. Maybe there can be the odd writer as well (there was Chaucer, Erasmus, Hobbes, Machiavelli, More, Rousseau and others). Copernicus and Newton were scientists as Holbein and Michelangelo were artists.
‘Commoners' (Thomases Cromwell and Wolsey are good examples) did start to rise on a more regular basis in to becoming the officers of state (both rose to Lord Chancellor). This is mostly due to the situation of most aristocratic families being extinct after the Wars of the Roses. This even happened at the highest levels of society as Richard II became King because Edward, The Black Prince (Edward III's son and heir, Richard II's father), died in battle during The Hundred Years War. I don’t know when this more meritocratic society actually started because Thomas Becket came from ‘commoner’ origins and held the posts of Archdeacon of Canterbury and Lord Chancellor on merit. Like all history, there are continuities and changes (rather than some people claiming that history started for all at (for example) the French Revolution).
All of my royals have officer careers to start with as do the second-born sons of the nobility. In my game, the heir apparent become a Grand Marshall straight away (the other members of royalty start off as brigadiers, any second-born son of nobles start off as Lieutenants and lower if they're born of high 'Newcrest' stock lol).I am having fun and learning a lot - this was my main purpose in starting from Geoffrey and Empress Matilda - I find the period of history from them to the Stuarts fascinating but I learnt it out of order and incompletely. I've had a rethink about the Sims in my game and I added Henry the Young, Richard I, and Geoffrey II. Originally, I was just going to play the lineage but as the Royalty mod allows people to vie for the throne, and I want to learn the history, I have added more of the key players.
Currently in game I have:
Geoffrey Plantagenet (deceased)
Empress Matilda (deceased)
Henry II (King)
Eleanor of Acquitaine (Imprisoned - not living in neighbourhood)
Henry the Young (deceased)
Richard I
Geoffrey II
Constance Duchess of Brittany (Geoffrey's wife)
Eleanor, Fair maid of Brittany (their daughter, just born)
John
Eleanor Queen of Castile
Alfonso VIII of Castile (Eleanor's husband)
Berenguela (aka Berengaria) (their first child)
Richard I and Geoffrey have the officer career as you suggested. Henry II is monarch as his job, due to royalty mod.
I also have a story progression mod, but I installed it years ago so I cannot remember which one. I think I turned it off for this game though, as it allows non-active households to run amok, get married, get pregnant, etc. It has been fun in previous games where I wanted my Sims to have more free will and surprise me.
For Custom Content, I used The Sims Resource (a staple website) and Tumblr blogs (search key words: Sims 4 Medieval). Lots of cool meshes, recolours, conversions from The Sims Medieval, medieval versions of instruments, stoves (pot over fire), fridges (larders), etc. I was at a loss until I found dedicated Tumblr pages 🙂
I like your idea about adding in other notable figures from history! Definitely have Chaucer, Da Vinci, Shakespeare, Jane Austen, the Brontes, Charles Dickens, Newton, Einstein, Michelangelo, etc. when their time comes around. Also love the idea about the careers for people in my neighbourhood. The Pole family will definitely be spies when Henry VII and Henry VIII are on the throne.
How's your game going? 🙂
I think I will set up a blog/Tumblr at some point to document my game. I've been taking lots of screenshots. Makes killing them off easier cuz I grow very attached, especially to the attractive ones haha.
@lovecat182Oh, I wanted to add that I used cheats to:
- Afford fancy castles - I downloaded lots of pre-made medieval houses, castles, and community lots. I also have a cathedral and Westminster Abbey in my game (may not be historically accurate).
- Change Sims' appearances once I had made them - found out they had red hair or grey eyes, etc. or the toddlers born in game looked wrong.
- Change the sex of a toddler cuz Eleanor Queen of Castile would not give birth to a girl so Berenguela was born male but now is a healthy female toddler :laugh:
- Create the Sims I forgot so they were part of the correct family, i.e. all Henry II's children in my game are on his family tree as the offspring of him and Eleanor of Acquitaine, and they are all siblings and in the correct age order, despite me making some of them after their younger siblings.
- Change the age of Sims to make them younger when needed. This was mainly due to me not turning off ageing for non-active households so they grew up while I played other houses. Also, to make Henry II have children that were already young adults, I had to age him up to adult and then back down to adult again when he became an elder.
Come to think of it, I think that may be part of a mod. I think it was a mega mod or something, the same one as the story progression. I can enter CAS using Change Sim on the mirror or dressers. I use the cas.fulleditmode cheat to edit everything including traits.
I use a swimming pool surrounded by a wall to dispose of Sims when their time comes.
