Language Barriers v2.0 alpha 3

Alphas are incomplete snapshots of my mods while they're in development, and are only available to Goth and Landgraab patrons. The 2.0 update will be released to Pancake patrons when it's feature-complete, and to the public 2-3 weeks afterwards. I do not have an estimated date at this time, but it should not take longer than a couple weeks.

About this alpha

This is the third alpha of Language Barriers v2.0 (you can read about the first here, and the second here). It mainly focuses on adding language contexts (i.e. the language that two sims are speaking in at any given moment), which includes some light modifications to miscommunication and interaction locking, and some other changes as well.

Language preferences and contexts

Language preferences

• The language that a sim prefers using, which influences the default language context between your sim and others. This can be set to any language, no matter which they speak - you can use this to make sim immerse themselves in another language.
• Can be chosen by clicking on your sim and going to the "Languages > Set Language Preference" pie menu option. Can be removed by going to the same menu and clicking "Remove Language Preference".

Language contexts

• The language that two sims use when they speak to each other.
• You can check the context between two sims by going to the "Actions > View Sim Profile" option. Language contexts show up with the relationships.
• If either sim has a preference for a particular language, that will be used to determine their default context. If not, then the languages they have in common and the languages of the region they met in will be considered.
• You can ask to change the language you use with another sim by clicking on them and going to "Actions > Switch Languages". You can only switch to languages that at least one of the sims speaks at or above level 4.
• Sims may deny switching languages, depending on both their own and your level in the chosen language. If you want to guarantee that the context always changes when you ask, there's an add-on for that.
• You can cheat to change the language context of any two sims by enabling testing cheats ("testingcheats on"), shift-clicking the other sim, and going to "Languages > Set Language Context".

Miscommunication

• The chance of miscommunication now depends on the language currently being spoken, rather than the highest language that two sims have in common.

Interaction locking

• The level that interactions unlock at now also depends on the language context, rather than the highest shared language.

Other small changes

Icons

• Updated the Language Barriers logo to disambiguate it from Simlish (previously, the LB logo was the same as Simlish, which may have confused users into thinking that generic language interactions were related to Simlish).
• Updated the Sixami logo to disambiguate it from vanilla alien interactions (these interactions use the alien head, and Sixami previously used the alien head with a speech bubble – it has been replaced with a galaxy and speech bubble).

Social Interactions

• Added a new "Ask About Languages" interaction that will tell you the languages another sim speaks, and how well they speak them. This can be found in "Actions > Ask About Languages"
• "Try Speaking..." can now only be used for the language currently being spoken, if and only if the speaker is at or below level 3 in the language, and the one being spoken to knows the language better than the speaker.
• "Give a Fake Translation..." can now only be used when the speaker knows the language better than the other sim. They do not have to be speaking the language at that moment to use this interaction. If more than one language is eligible for this, they will condense into one pie menu category.
• "Mock Accent..." can now be used by any sims that speak the language of the current context better than the other sim, as long as they speak it at or above level 4 themselves.

Add Ons

• Hide Sixami from all Simlingo menus, for people who don't like to play with occults.
• Mark language cheat interactions as actual cheats, so that you have to enable testingcheats and then shift-click your sim to see them, for people who want their pie menus decluttered.
• Disable language context notifications, for anyone who finds them annoying.
• Always succeed when asking to change languages, for anyone who wants to be more in control.

Cheats

• Native speaker cheats are now separated into two picker interactions to add/remove languages instead of separate interactions all in one category.
• There is now a "Switch Native Language" cheat which will remove all of the native languages from the sim, and instead give them the chosen one.
• You can enable testingcheats and shift-click another sim to instantly change your language context with them.

Conclusion

The biggest feature in this version by far is the introduction of language contexts, which completely changes the core of how the mod works. Since this is a new mechanic that only I have been playing with so far, please be sure to give me any feedback you have so I can improve it. Finally, keep in mind that this is a development version of Language Barriers, and it is possible that there are some bugs. If you notice any, or have any feedback on the changes I'm making, please bring them to my attention immediately.

PLEASE NOTE: The old miscommunication and interaction locking systems do not make much sense with language contexts - for example, a Simlish native using Simlish with a Windenburgish speaker might be told they're not using their own language properly. This will be fixed next - the focus of alpha 4 will be redoing miscommunication and interaction locking from scratch.

Thanks, and have fun!

Goth and Landgraab patrons can download the alpha here.