[OLD] Language Barriers v2.0 beta 1

Betas are completed versions of my mods, and are only available to my patrons and translators for 2-3 weeks before the public release, depending on whether or not anything needs to be fixed. The soonest it will be publicly available is August 23rd, and the latest is August 30th. Please note that the $1 tier does not have early access benefits, and will not unlock the download post.

THIS POST IS OLD. Language Barriers does NOT have a Patron-only version at this time. You do not need to be a patron to download v2.0, it is available for free on my website.

TL;DR available at bottom of post

About Language Barriers v2.0

Language Barriers v2.0 is a major update in which I completely remade a significant portion of the mod to improve its core mechanics. These changes include how languages are assigned to sims, having each pair of sims speak only one language at a time, and completely changing what happens when two sims do not share a language.

While I was not able to deliver on everything in this original post (find an explanation here), I am proud of the progress that I was able to make. I am also not scrapping the things that didn't make it into this update - they will come later, in small, free updates of their own.

In this post, you can find a detailed overview of the most significant changes and improvements I've made in this update, and there is a link to the download at the bottom.

Language assignment

Native languages (traits)

• The languages that a sim's parents speak is now the primary way to determine which native languages a sim will have. If a sim does not have parents (or if they are the parents), the old system of using their home world, traits, and occult type is used.
• Sims can now have multiple native languages by default, if the circumstances are just right.
• Toddlers that acquire more than one native language will receive the Native Multilingual reward trait, which will allow them to learn foreign languages faster than other sims.

Second languages (skills)

• Sims are guaranteed to have at least one fluent language in common with their parents, partner, and home world. If their native languages do not match, then they will have some language skills set to 8 by default. Children may also learn their parents' native languages at level 4, if already share another language fluently.
• Sims may have random language skills by default. The languages they may speak depends on their home world and native language(s), and their proficiency in each one depends on its genetic closeness to languages they speak fluently, their traits, their age, and some other factors.

Regional languages

• Individual worlds now support multiple languages, and even have a difference between official and minority languages. You can customize these to your heart's content with the lb_settings.cfg file (more info linked at the end of this post).

Communication

Language preferences and contexts

• Sims will now speak just one language at a time with each other (this is called their language context). Which language they use is determined when they first meet, but can be changed at any time. The language context between two sims can be seen in the sim's profile, and can be changed by simply asking to change languages (under the "Actions" menu). The context determines how often communication events occurs, what happens when they do, and which language skills are increased while speaking.
• Sims can declare a language preference, and will always use that language with other sims when they meet for the first time (i.e. it will be chosen as the default context). This is useful if you are roleplaying a sim trying to immerse themself in another culture.

Communication events

• This replaces the old "miscommunication" system. If two sims are speaking in a language which at least one of them does not speak fluently, there is a chance for a communication event to occur (i.e. accidentally saying something inappropriate or offensive, not being able to understand another sim, speaking too fast, talking down to someone, etc.).
• Communication events can result in either positive or negative buffs, depending on the sim's current mood, traits, and chance. There are over 150+ buffs, but once a sim reacts in a particular mood, they will stick with that mood for a while, and it will gradually get more intense. Moodlets are different for speakers and listeners.
• Communication buffs will never exceed +4, meaning that you no longer have to worry about sims dying from extreme emotions, at least not from LB alone. These moodlets mixed with other ones may still produce an overall +8 mood.

Interaction locking

• I've completely redone the locking of interactions, and have manually selected when which social interactions should unlock (at which shared language level).
• Non-verbal interactions, as well as interactions required for story progression (such as those in the home designer career), should never be locked. 

Other changes

Language families

• The languages in LB are now organized in a family tree, loosely based off of their real-world counterparts, with some creative liberty taken. Language genetics affect how difficult it is for a sim to learn another language, and how likely they are to make mistakes while speaking it.
• Simlish and Windenburgish are very closely related to one another, and are somewhat related to Selvadoradian. Komorebigo and Toki Sulani are somewhat related to one another, and are distantly related to Simlish, Windenburgish, and Selvadoradian. Sixami is not related to the other languages at all.

New interactions

• Simlingo is now available as an interaction on the phone, so you do not need access to a computer or tablet to study a language.
• You can now ask other sims which languages they speak, and they will respond telling you which they know, and how well they speak them. You can find this under the "Actions" pie menu option.

Cheats

• There are new console cheats, as well as new interaction cheats under the "Languages" pie menu option when you click on your sim. A notable new addition is the ability to "swap" a language, which lets you add a new language to a sim and remove all others at the same time.
• If you enable testing cheats with "testingcheats on", you can shift-click another sim to immediately change a pair of sim's language context.

Customization

• There is an all-new lb_settings.cfg file, which allows a lot more customization than previously available. If you do not want to change any values in this file, you can remove it from the mod (this will make it load slightly faster).
• In addition to the lb_settings.cfg file, there are 5 optional add-on packages that you can include in the mod. These are described later in this post.
• LB now uses tuning modules, which allow more tech-savvy users to customize LB in infinitely many ways (these are located in the frankk_LanguageBarriers_Data.package file; feel free to edit values in here, but do not distribute these edited versions).
• If you are editing the tuning modules, you should remove the lb_settings.cfg file from the mod, or else it will override your changes to the modules.

Mod integrations

• It is now easier than ever for other mods to integrate themselves with Language Barriers (i.e. lock/unlock their interactions for particular language levels). Modders just have to read my integration tutorial, and they can distribute their LB integrations on their own (or, in some circumstances, I can include it in the download).
• I am also willing to create integrations with other mods myself, if the other modder gives me permission and does not want to make it themself.

Add-ons

• These are completely optional packages that you might want to include, but don't have to. There are five available.
• Ask to change language always succeeds: Will make the chance that a sim agrees to speak another language 100%, meaning that you can always guarantee a change in language context without cheating.
• Hide all cheats: Will mark all of the interactions in the "Languages" menu as actual cheats, so that you have to shift-click sims to see them. This is helpful for decluttering your pie menus, if it bothers you.
• Hide communication notifications: Will prevent communication notifications (e.g. "Accidentally Said Something Inappropriate") from being shown, if they annoy you. These appear every time a communication event occurs, which can be very frequent if two sims do not share a language.
• Hide language context notifications: Will prevent language context notifications (e.g. "Language Context Determined") from being shown, if they annoy you. These generally appear whenever you meet a sim for the first time.
• Hide Sixami from Simlingo: Will turn the Simlingo interactions for Sixami into cheats, so you will not see them while playing the game normally. This is useful if you do not wish to play with the occult language, or find it unrealistic that such a language would be available to study online.

A note on translations

All of the text from LB v1.1.9 is still available in all of the languages listed on my website, plus Norwegian (thanks to Susanne!). The new text from v2.0 is NOT yet translated, and will appear in English for everyone. Translators have early access alongside patrons, so translations will be added to v2.0 as they come in. I cannot guarantee that every language that has been translated in v1.1.9 will have its translation updated for v2.0 -- that depends on the translators.

Conclusion

As you can see from this post, Language Barriers v2.0 was a substantial update, and it was much needed. I am very glad for this update to be complete, and for it to be available to everyone soon. This post does not discuss every single detail that was added or changed in LB v2.0, but once public release happens, I will update the description on my website to detail everything. LB v2.0 will be made public between August 23rd and 30th.

TL;DR

• Native languages and default skills have been overhauled to make sense within families, and there is now a higher degree of multilingualism where appropriate.
• A pair of sims will now speak to each other in one language at a time, rather than all of the languages they know at once.
• There are 150 new buffs that can result from communication across languages, and they now affect both speakers and listeners. These buffs can be either positive or negative depending on the sim, and they will never exceed +4 (so that sims can no longer die from extreme emotions).
• Locking of interactions has been overhauled, so that non-verbal interactions as well as those required for story progression are always available.
• Languages now exist in a family tree, which affects how difficult it will be for a sim to learn another language.
• There are 5 add-ons available, and a whole new settings file. These help you customize LB even more than before.

THIS POST IS OLD. Language Barriers does NOT have a Patron-only version at this time. You do not need to be a patron to download v2.0, it is available for free on my website.

Patrons ($2 USD tier and higher) can download the beta here [removed beta download link to reduce confusion -- please download the mod from my website, it is not on Patreon], and translators must meet the requirements in this post and DM me on Discord for their copy (if you are a translator that has already reached out to me, I will DM you myself).