I've been wanting to do a playthrough of one of the Maxis packaged Hoods for sometime, and Belladonna Cove has always been my favourite. But, I'm a very big fan of shaking things up and putting my own story spin on things. Having done previous playthroughs of the Medieval Charter Challenge and others such as the Legacy Challenge, I really wanted to create a sort of progression challenge for myself. I also get absurdly detailed (don't we all?) with my Sims, doing a full psych break down based on their interests, aspirations, and personalities to help guide my play with each household, and ultimately, determine what actions that Sim would make.
This lead to me creating a full political and religious system, mostly for story telling purposes, and truthfully, I was kind of curious to see how a Hood would develop if you created a system for the Sims to vote/elect what developments occur over time; and I have an impressive collection of dice.
I'm an egregious mod hoarder, so the downloads folder is absolutely bloated to allow me to play the way I want.
Playstyle:
1 season rotation, modded to 7 days per season (I also play with a slowed aging mod, all sims age once per week on Sunday).
All Community lots - with the exception of the starting ones and civic buldings - must be Sim owned, with Sim driven economy (mods for Sim produced goods largely from Sun&Moon).
Careers are only made available based on existing lots and how many 'jobs' would be available - for example, City Hall allows for 3 politics Careers and 1 Architect Career slot. In order for more careers to open up, a Sim-created business that is a Commercial Lot (home businesses do not count) must be built.
I keep a separate ledger for the towns financials and each family has their own ledger as well. Monique's Hacked Computer is used to physically store the town treasury and is controlled by whoever is Mayor/their family. Should a Mayor die, be stripped from their duties, step down or simply retire - this account is transferred to the next Sim that becomes Mayor (Yes, I'm weird and like to keep a physical in-game representation). Using Monique's computer allows for regular interest on the stored money which I felt was realistic given this scenario. I also have PC Sims Bank expansion that will make an appearance later on.
I also play, eventually, with functional prisons and full legal system.
Political System and Religion
There's 3 religions and 3 political parties - and that's no coincidence. Each political party has a direct religious counterpart.
These alignments guide decisions and actions with the households and each individual Sims. I determine these alignments mostly through focusing on sim Interests and have a little self calculation that I do for every Sim aged teen and older, that determines what their alignment is. I have some Sims who have a close balance between two and therefore could easily flip-flop on issues or convert entirely.
I use this alignment also to determine which direction the political parties would prefer to go in and their priorities.
At the end of each season, after playing all households, there will be a 'vote' to determine what should be built next. Each political party will put forth their choice and each vote will have a main issue interest (such as food security); therefore each option put forth by the parties is their way of solving the problem. I've created a voting system to account for Townies so they have their voices represented as well. There's also a process for dealing with political corruption, should it occur (and it will!). The seasonal vote is due primarily to the post-war setting and need for the town to rebuild quickly - pace of votes will slow down probably after the first full year rotation.
Themes and Content Warning
This progression story will deal with difficult themes such as homelessness, drugs/substance issues, war, death, abuse etc. No pictures will be explicit. The intent of this story is to be grounded in a realistic sense of a society rebuilding after a war and the trials, and drama, that inevitably come with the territory. If that's not your cup of tea, that's perfectly fine.
Basic Background
Post-War Blues: Belladonna Cove Revival takes place about 1 year after a sudden invasion by Maxillia, ruled by Landgraab. Belladonna Cove is no longer recognisable (complete re-design of the Hood) and has been divided into 6 neighborhoods based on socioeconomics. There's a Feudal-style class system in place still but servitude has been abolished (peasantry through to nobility, possibility for royalty to emerge depending on how gameplay flows). There is a possibility for any class to climb the social ladder and obtain a higher social status; it is also possible to be knocked down the social ladder under certain circumstances.
**ai notification**
I used ai to help create the newspaper/article backgrounds/typset as I'm not a graphics designer. The writing is my own as are the in-game screenshots.
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