[RPO M4] WIP Feature Updates Progress Post (LSS: testing to start within 48hrs)

Hello everyone and thank you for being here and making my work possible,

Just a little info post today about progress, for those who like that kind of thing.

-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-

RPO M4 "Paternity Testing Features" Update in general

I didn't expect to be pushed to go back to this before finishing CPS Overhaul, but with the patch and pack having very direct impact on these features, I had little choice.

This update was started I think about a year ago, so you've heard of it a few times since. The purpose of it was, at the core, to:

1. allow sims to test for any child, not just the most recent (so that if Sim gets pregnant before getting paternity figured for their child-age son, they still can), and

2. allow Sims to reveal having lied in the past (we had the lying but we didn't have the 'reveal it' part).

Some other changes were made as well:

Sims can steal a hair to do secret paternity tests with

consequently, the "psychic" interaction (which was until now the only way for a Sim to figure out the truth about revealing it to the suspected partner) could now be made more realistic, ie, it doesn't always find the answer.

when a child is already born at the time of the test, now their name is on the paternity certificate alongside the parents'

Other, less player visible changes also occurred, such as streamlining of some elements to maintain better consistency

RPO M4 & EP21 "Secret Child" Integration

This has been a bit of a headache:

To solve these matters of integration between EP 21 "secret Child" system and RPO's paternity features, my first approach was the kind of bend my system to the EA one, but that had several problems:

not everyone has EP21

EP21's secret child system is more limited in context and options than RPO M4 (EA's system triggers only in some of the contexts where RPO M4's does)

Instead, I ended up marrying the systems differently: giving priority to RPO M4's logic, while still triggering all the EP21 EA stuff in the contexts in which it would.

EP 21's secret gets revealed if doing a paternity test with a significant other who isn't the biological parent, or admitting truth to them; in either case, scandal ensues

EP21's the at-birth drop-down to 'choose who to claim as father' is blocked off - instead, a sim must discover who is the other parent of their child via testing for it (how would they magically know?!). The official partner is always automatically assumed / declared the parent if not knowing, and when knowing, it still shows them as the parent UNTIL or UNLESS a. the sim gets a paternity test or b. the truth is admitted to them. In other words: gameplay is prioritized and is how you 'declare' a parent, as before, and not a drop down. In the tree, you will see the 'secret child' info as when unmodded.

Similarly, the Sim doesn't get the "Becca is expecting with George! Should she let Marc know" notification right away, but only once she's figured out who's the father by doing the tests (because, once again, how would she magically know).

As before with RPO M4, if a significant other was not woohoo'd with anytime recent, they'll know immediately that a child isn't theirs upon hearing about the pregnancy

ALL IN ALL

There are a LOT of possible scenarios and combos of situations to test for and account for. This update will enter testing today / tomorrow to start taking care of that, meanwhile I still fiddle with finishing elements.

-#-#-#-#-#-#-#-

Happy Sunday, till next time!