My project of building a royal estate is more or less completed. I think this will be the final update.
At this point all household members have reached their current age (Year 229). And for the first time you will meet the crown Princess and the 3 princes - oh, and the adopted half sister of the King, how could I forget about her! She is angry every day, I think she feels very much like an outsider.
This update covers the left side of the estate's 3rd floor. While 1st floor was tagged ROYAL, and 2nd floor NOBLE, 3d floor is the family's private domain.
I actually fund it a bit challenging making the rooms way less glamorous but still a tad better than my other average households. Just because they go private they don't need to be slobs. I need to limit the decor anyway, due to lag, so most rooms are rather sparsely decorated:
A. TV Lounge
B. Photo studio
C. Gaming room
D. Woodworking room
E. Gym/Sauna
F. Library Gallery
G. Reading nook
H. Art atelier
I. Children's Wing
X. Stair tower & Eastern Main Stairs
Again: What you will see is temporary.
A. TV Lounge
Most of the left half of this story is for entertainment and skill building. The TV Lounge also is used for playing console games, and is of course popular with the youngsters. Going through this room is the quickest route from their bedroom section to the private dining room.
There is plenty of room to add or rearrange seating, but basically this will do. With many fun activities near by, the children normally spread.
In a corner there s a knitting and cross stitching nook. Not used by anyone yet, but might function as a hobby spot.
C. Gaming Room
Next door is the Gaming Room, or Fun Room. It's a bit of a mix to please various ages, including a children's viola. Not much besides the dolls house for toddlers, though. They mostly play and build skills in the Children's Wing.
I think the game table on the podium provides both cards and the llama game. There is a dolls house (castle of course), the blip-blop(?) machine, and a couple fussball tables.
In this room there are a few old child portraits on the wall. There exists no tradition of portraying anyone until they take their official teen portrait, though, perhaps the main heir is the only exception.
Because there is already a piano in 3 or 4 rooms, I did not provide them with a dedicated music room, but this might change in the future if any of the kids choose to focus on music.
D. Woodworking Room
Now - this is a very precious rom to the royal family. You might find it strange that King Tarriot and Queen Venezia spend time creating wooden sculptures and furniture, but fact is that Handiness was the skill focus of the House of Luxe-Hamper ever since their founding 225 years ago. It means members of this House are expected to contribute by reaching minimum level 5 of the Handiness skill. Both TRH the King and Queen did reach level 5 long ago, so especially Queen Venezia is no longer frequenting this room very often.
Now - this is a very precious rom to the royal family. You might find it strange that King Tarriot and Queen Venezia spend time creating wooden sculptures and furniture, but fact is that Handiness was the skill focus of the House of Luxe-Hamper ever since their founding 225 years ago. It means members of this House are expected to contribute by reaching minimum level 5 of the Handiness skill. Both TRH the King and Queen did reach level 5 long ago, so especially Queen Venezia is no longer frequenting this room very often.
In this room they spend time during their House gatherings (club system), and children will of course practice their Handiness once reaching teenagers.
They could of course have read skill books on the subject, but practice is more fun :)
E. Gym and Sauna
Near by is the gym section. Really sparsely equipped, but it has the needed functionality - gym equipment, showers and of course the sauna room. Depending on aspirations and hobbies, this section might get developed over time.
Near by is the gym section. Really sparsely equipped, but it has the needed functionality - gym equipment, showers and of course the sauna room. Depending on aspirations and hobbies, this section might get developed over time.
The Crown Princess is a teenager, so is one of the princes, while the twin princes are still kids. The adopted Amalia Ellice is a teenager, too, turning YA in just a couple years.
HRH Crown Princess Emireza Maria Belle (17) is already a skilled and intellectual young woman. She likes to dance, but Writing is her favorite.
Her oldest brother, Prince Bazillimus Ferdinand (15) just started secondary school. Amalia Ellice Luxe-Hamper (27) will soon grow up, and I'm a bit curious to see what path her life will take. She is furious most of the time, and had a rather tense relation to Prince Bazillimus even during childhood. Amalia is neither a member of House of Luxe-Hamper nor is styled a Princess (only descendants of current or former Monarch gets that title, and Amaila is just daughter of a previous Prince Consort). Neither is she descending from a former Head of this House, which is required to be Member of the House, so aside of the servants she is actually the only commoner of this royal household. I wonder if the King might create a peerage for her when she grows up - he is her half-brother who adopted her when both her parents died).
Above Prince Bazillimus and Amalia studying in the library.
The twins, Prince Cecil Sophus and Prince Marcuz Horus (13) I don't know very well yet. Prince Marcuz seems to prefer doing his homework in the Orangery, on ground floor. This is the 3rd time I find him there reading. Perhaps he will focus on gardening later in life?
F. Library Gallery
There is a lineup of 4 small desks, with the perfect view down to the library's first level. Up on the gallery there are also several bookcases and a Research machine for preparing for University. While the children are at school, Servants will route from the eastern stairs tower, through the gallery to get to the Children's Wing.
G. Reading Nook
This is just the passage between the Eastern Main Stairs and the children's bed wing, the Library, the Gaming Room and the Art Atelier. But it was spacious enough to add a sitting group and a fire place, and I imagine that this spot is used to wind down the children before bed time, by reading or talking. A few old family portraits on the wall and the place can get quite cozy.
This is just the passage between the Eastern Main Stairs and the children's bed wing, the Library, the Gaming Room and the Art Atelier. But it was spacious enough to add a sitting group and a fire place, and I imagine that this spot is used to wind down the children before bed time, by reading or talking. A few old family portraits on the wall and the place can get quite cozy.
It's also a good location for the Queen and King to motivate or instruct the children, as this can easily be seen as the youngsters' base ground.
H. Art Atelier
Next door is the creative room, currently with easels and activity tables.
Next door is the creative room, currently with easels and activity tables.
There are several creative members of the Luxe-Hamper dynasty, and despite being encouraged to aim for careers in Business or Politics, creativity is totally accepted.
Through those windows you see the top of the tallest window of the Chapel. I'm looking forward to exploring how the sun might reach this room.
Prince Bazillimus tries to paint the oversized swimming gnome, but will need some more practice. Crown Princess Emireza is busy with her sad painting. The angry Amalia was there a minute ago, but suddenly left the atelier in an angry mood.
There are 4 activity tables available to the younger children. Only Prince Cecil (the twin with curls and no bow tie) seems to aspire towards creative activities.
I. Children's Bedroom Wing
Finally, we're at the wing where the royal offspring sleep. The bedrooms are probably less spacious than you might expect, but they mostly sleep there. Most of the day they spend elsewhere.
Finally, we're at the wing where the royal offspring sleep. The bedrooms are probably less spacious than you might expect, but they mostly sleep there. Most of the day they spend elsewhere.
I'll not show off each and every room, but the above floor plan might give you an idea. The main rom (A) is their dressing room, connected to one bathroom for girls (B) and one for boys (C). Rooms D, E, F and G are similarly sized, with a double bed and room for a couple toys or hobby items. The main heir's bedroom (H) is slightly bigger and with its own bathroom. The Crown Princess or Prince moves in as soon as they start school, in order to get familiar having most things better and bigger than the siblings. This also prepares the siblings on the huge class difference between a Monarch and siblings.
D functions as a Nursery, and E is today Amalia's bedroom. When the household counts less than 5 children, also distant family members might stay here temporarily. If I could build bigger without the lag, I would provide a couple guest rooms in their own wing elsewhere in the estate. This section is reserved close family though, non family/stately guests will be offered the huge Oxana suite on 2nd floor.
Crown Princess Emireze often sits in her room writing. She is the only one with her own desk. There is also a small sitting group here.
Well, this concludes my building project. I'll post a bit more when the outdoors is done, and I also have some new pictures of a few redecorated rooms especially on 1st floor, they now look even more royal than before.
Because of lag, I will be forced to skip equipping the basement, but rather saving the last fps for the garden. I will need to pretend that the basement has a large kitchen, servants section, vault, linen and laundry room. Not to forget all the tunnels and corridors used by Servants to move to the better stair case for their destination. I can't add any live-in servants to this large household anyway, so I would hardly ever play the basements facilities.
I do regret that I did combine the official functions with the private - all on the same lot. I should rather have built Throne room, offices, meeting rooms, ball room etc on a generic community lot, and then their private estate on another - to reduce size and lag. This lot is not playable once I enter the lot, but after a while it gets a bit better (probably when every thing is loaded, and if kids are off to school). I think one way around this problem will be to send off kids to a private boarding school.
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