Vampire Age Traits Mod

December 31, 2023: added the Russian translation for the "Assign Your Sire". Nothing else was changed, so if you don't play in Russian, there's no need to re-download the mod. Happy New Year!
С Новым годом!
По какой-то загадочной причине русская версия игры, как и английская, использует универсальный термин для Повелителя, вне зависимости от гендера; при переводе мода из практических соображений это решение было сохранено (так как "Меню Повелителя" работает в обе стороны и может быть использовано как, собственно, Повелителем, так и Отпрыском, чтобы изменить роли или удалить отношения, невозможно "привязать" окончания к гендеру так, чтобы это подходило для всех случаев).

December 13, 2023: a minor update to fix the reported typo in one of the Elder's moodlets descriptions and blacklist the missing ghost types, plantsims and werewolves for the proximity-related thirst moodlets for Neonates and Ancillae. In case you were wary to try out or continue using this mod, given its lack of updates, happy to report that it seems to have successfully survived the arrival of infatns and horses without requiring any changes. As of now, the mod appears to work as was intended (the same goes for the "Assign Your Sire").

February 23, 2023: fixed a minor bug/overlook with cheating the traits. Finally moved the cheats category itself to where it belongs - to cheats (they now require "testingcheats on" and Shift + click to access).
I accidentally uploaded the wrong archive for the "normal lifespan", it is now fixed.

February 12, 2023: fixed a spelling mistake in the Neonate trait description.

February 11, 2023: fixed the cheats menu — self-interaction cheats no longer appear as social interactions (it wasn't intended for them to end up there, so they weren't actually functional and still added the traits to the active sim instead of the one that was interacted with). Added the new menu category — "Vampire Age Traits Cheats (NPC)" with the interactions for non-selectable sims, — which can be found under "Vampire" menu (the new interactions have "Add the Neonate/Ancilla/Elder Trait to another Sim" in the names to distinguish them from the existing ones). Unfortunately, the new category does show up as self-interactions for the active sim, but it felt a little less confusing to do it as a separate menu compared to adding the new interactions to the old one.
Added tooltips for the new interactions to help navigate the difference between the menus (just in case).
Updated the Russian translation. Добавлен перевод для нового меню.

Reporting on one of the features, introduced earlier: further testing revealed that, for some reason, "Elders always win" thing is only true if an Elder is a part of the active household — or selectable by other means (for example, with "Control Any Sim" mod). There's nothing I can do to fix this at the moment, so, please, keep that in mind when fleshing out your stories!

October 17, 2022: updated the files to include new "Vampire Age Traits Cheats" menu (can be found in self-interactions under "Vampire" menu); now it's possible to switch to any vampire age trait at any time. Please, note: if you switch between the traits while a vampire already has any of them, the trait will change instantly, but it might take a bit for the corresponding moodlets to disappear (although reloading the lot or the save should remove them); this is normal, it's not a bug. Other than that, please, feel free to let me know if there are any issues with the new feature!
Updated the Russian translation. Добавлен перевод для нового меню.

October 13, 2022: added a new optional archive "Assign Your Sire", which allows to assign and remove Sire status for any existing vampire (can be found in social interactions menu under "Vampire" > "Sire Menu"; works pretty much as any other social interaction, so it has a bit of animation). Please, note: for now it allows to simultaneously have multiple Sires, so the previous/existing ones will have to be removed manually.

October 12, 2022: duels/sparrings update (thank you, Akifami, for the idea!): Neonates shouldn't be able to win against Elders, and it's very unlikely for them to win against Ancillae; Ancillae are very unlikely to win against Elders (but the chances are a bit higher than they are for Neonates and Ancillae). From my testing, it still works as intended even if both vampires have the perk to enhance their strength, but, please, don't hesitate to let me know if you find any issues! The update is more of a workaround rather than tweak of the actual interactions/outcomes, so it shoudn't conflict with anything.
Another small update: if a Neonate is near their Sire-friend, they gain their vampiric experience faster (x1.4 multiplier) now.

October 11, 2022: for anyone unsure, this mod wasn't affected by any patches and, due to the nature of the mod, it is very unlikely that it will be, so normally it doesn't require updating (unless I add a new feature)!

July 11, 2022: added another version for the players with disabled lifespans (or any custom extra long lifespan):
Neonate — 14 days, Ancilla — 140 days.

Update 3 - July 09, 2022: fixed a tiny inconsistency in the "reason" string for Elders with the ocassional buffs, updated the Russian translation. Теперь перевод встроенный и точно должен работать в любой версии продолжительности жизни. Проблема с "Древними" исправлена.

Update 2 - July 09, 2022: added Russian translation file (translated by me).

Update 1 - July 09, 2022: added versions for playing on short and long lifespans.
Short lifespan:
Neonate — 2 days, Ancilla — 20.
Long lifespan:
Neonate — 7 days, Ancilla — 70.

ORIGINAL DESCRIPTION:
Here goes my first mod!
I made sure to test it the best I could, but if you catch any bugs, please, let me know!

What is this mod for?
It's an attempt to make playing vampires a tiny bit more immersive, to try and give you some new ideas for your own vampires related stories.
The mod adds three sub "life stages" (or should I say "unlife stages"?): "Neonate", "Ancilla" and "Elder" — for vampires, in the form of personality traits. Each of them indicates for how long a vampire has been around from a storytelling perspective through the moodlets and social interactions (both mostly specific for each trait), as well as minor gameplay changes (e.g. young vampires will be hungrier, especially when there's a living person* in the room, or it'll be much harder for an older vampire to connect and build friendships, etc).
* i.e. any Sim that isn't: a pet (yes, that was a thing), a ghost, a vampire (manifested) or the Grim Reaper.

What does this mod add to the game?
3 personality traits that you can get through the gameplay, 9 social interactions and 48 moodlets, including some occasional and proximity buffs.

How do I activate the mod in the game?
For the existing vampires and vampires made in CAS you'll need to use "Show the dark form" interaction on them to receive the "Neonate" trait. Because of that, the Sims turned into vampires "naturally", through the gameplay, will receive the trait automatically. One trait will be replaced with another overtime, you don't need to do anything special to get it.
"Neonate" trait will last for four days, "Ancilla" — for forty, "Elder" stage is infinite.
Curing vampirism will remove any of the three traits, as well as the moodlets that go with them (the latter might take a bit for the game to process, so, unlike the traits, they'll not disappear instantly, but they will go away).

What kind of moodlets will I see?


Main gameplay changes for each trait:


Just a little note: personally, I like to use the mod alongside "MC Command Center" (so my vampires' needs decay faster in general), and the mod is set up with that in mind. Because of that, in the unmodded game some of the tweaks might not be as noticeable. Please, let me know if you'd like to see a different version of the mod!

Although I can't promise to add anything, if you have any suggestions, please, feel free to submit them!
And if you happen to want to help me improve the writing of this mod, especially in English, I highly encourage you to contact me! I don't bite, so, please, don't be shy!

Credits:
to Zebru for their wonderful "Mod Constructor v4" and "Mod Constructor v5"!