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
@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 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.
- @lovecat182 Most builds aren't going to be historically accurate nor are they to scale. Windsor Castle can only really be put on the Twin Oracle Point lot and needs a square keep at one end with an octagonal (it should be round, but octagonal is the closest I'll get) keep in the middle and houses/offices in the walls at the opposite end to the square keep.
Twin Oracle Point is where my Palace of Westminster is. Any of England's great halls or minor castles that came with a particular Earldom can be created on pretty much any 30x20 lot as a two story homestead (I'm trying to keep the 40x30 lots for royalty) - the square 64x64 lots are too big for me and I just get carried away, so I'm going to leave those as they are. Perhaps they can be bought and changed as money trickles down the generations. I'm fine with that choice, but its a shame I can't create other royal castles/palaces and have them owned by the monarch for his/her children. Never mind - the children can always be moved out to make these other places.
Turning Westminster Abbey in to a restaurant feels wrong to me.
I'll be creating castles and such nearby for royalty (I think Newcrest will be the royal district with lot size being determined on closeness to the crown). Then I'll have the Great Officers of State and (possibly) the other barons being in the other districts depending on how much space is left.
The game keeping my brain active (having something to focus on and gets me to think about things). I’m finding it relaxing as the game is distracting me from the present local/national/global situation - nothing about it is good. I like having something to do as well when I’m listening to audiobooks, podcasts and stream programmes or watch debates/interviews.
I find this era fascinating too. The nation-state of England (Britain and the UK too) really starts to develop in the Norman/Plantagenet eras and when it comes to history, I’m interested in state formation. However, I started with the Plantagenets because its pretty immediate in terms of house creation to monarch of England. I created the House of Wessex (Cedric of Wessex to Harold Godwinson) and tried to get the dynasty going from Cedric to Alfred the Great to Edward the Confessor, but that got too long and tedious (although, in a sense, this might work in favour of The Sims as Windenburg could be the Saxon kingdom of Wessex and Willow Creek could be the Kingdom of Mercia). This is similar to the House of Normandy - it was several generations from the house being founded to William I coming to the English throne in 1066. The Plantagenets were house founder to legitimate monarch in one generation, so I could have them rule straight away (I’ve not bothered with Stephen of Blois) and get in to developing the network of administration/officers of state.
I’m adding sims on different turns, so Henry II (the officers of state and their first child) on turn one then Geoffrey FitzEmpress etc on turn two (until I've got the sixth child fathered by the Earl of Oxford). This brings age gaps as well as (more importantly for me) ensuring the order is correct. To make things a little less predictable, William FitzHenry survives. From then on, allow each sim couple to have a maximum of three children (this allows them to complete the family aspirations). There aren’t virulent diseases, sims dying in tournament accidents, being poisoned by devious cooks or spies etc in the game. There are other ways, like not using the fertile trait, potions and only have them try for a baby once every turn and that's only when they've been out to socialise - this way even having three children is not guaranteed.
Still, if you want to do this, then you would also have to include the Holy Roman Emperor and the King of France (House of Capet). Furthermore, dukes paying homage to the French crown (Henry II does this as Duke of Aquitaine and Duke of Normandy) as the Scottish king (as Earl of Huntingdon) and Welsh princes pay homage to Henry II. Something like this isn’t possible in the game, unless you have them meet up and just say that is one king paying homage to another. The Pope invites Henry II to invade Ireland and start a reformation of the church in Ireland. At the time of King John, the Pope declares Magna Carta void. I’m not really interested in putting other countries on the map as I regard SimLand to be the same country already. Willow Creek, Oasis Springs, Windenburg, Stangeville etc are parts of that same country. There’s no right or wrong way to play The Sims - I’ve heard it being referred to a ‘sandbox’ game (there is a limit to the game, but within that you can do as pleases you). This idea of The Sims being a sandbox game reminds me when I played in the garden with my digger toys as a kid. I would pretend they were operated by people inside who were actually doing things (like clearing an area of the garden to build something).
I’ll have a look at your Westminster Abbey, but Westminster Abbey is only relevant to monarchy for coronations, deaths and marriages. There is Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Perhaps if/when you get to Henry VI, build Eton College and Kings and Queens colleges at the University of Cambridge (there are a couple of other colleges at Oxbridge founded by royals and those around the crown).
When I get around to imprisoning Eleanor of Aquitaine I’m going to be building a dungeon for her… That way Henry FitzEmpress can go downstairs to be mean to her lol. I've not decided what William FitzHenry will do, but the decision might have been made for him...
The royalty mod isn’t working all that well for me (or it could be working and I've got things wrong). I can give them the general titles, but apart from that its not really doing anything. I was under the impression that I could actually give sims the title of Earl (I know not Earl of Leicester, or even Earl of Newcrest etc), but the option to invest them as Earl doesn’t seem to be available… Although, I have just noticed that as one of my noble’s reputation has increased and one of the mood squares says “You can ‘count’ on me”.
I really should look for more medieval things - thanks for the tip. I’m currently using the standard clothes in Create-A-Sim (made in to the colours of the coat of arms of the individual) and the Tudor filter in build and buy mode. I don’t have the story progression mod, but I’ll have a look in to it and see if its any good/useful…
All that said, I hope you're well...
