Pet Lifespan

floridameerkat

Does anyone else think that pet's lifespans seem a little short? One of the gurus said in the livestream that pets will only live 3-4 weeks (5-6 if they start as a puppy). I thought they lived longer in previous pet expansions, but maybe it just sounds shorter. What do you guys think? Is this length normal for pets or has it been shortened?

samlyt22

Sounds about right to me, a sim from birth to elder lives 12 weeks so I think it would be too long if pets lived longer. Not saying I'll be emotionally ready to say goodbye at that point though.

Katlyn2525

It sounds about right to me also. A old age dog in real life can be 6 to 8 years old if they are a Great Dane or a Irish Wolfhound. A small dog will live around 12-15 years.

floridameerkat

Katlyn2525 wrote: »

It sounds about right to me also. A old age dog in real life can be 6 to 8 years old if they are a Great Dane or a Irish Wolfhound. A small dog will live around 12-15 years.

How does this translate into Sim time?

floridameerkat

samlyt22 wrote: »

Sounds about right to me, a sim from birth to elder lives 12 weeks so I think it would be too long if pets lived longer. Not saying I'll be emotionally ready to say goodbye at that point though.

I guess I never realized it was that short. It seems like they live forever, at least in my games. So, that would mean that pets would live about half as long as a sim born in-game. I guess that is about right; I was just hoping they'd stick around longer. I might have to change my aging setting to long once the pack comes out.

Thanks for the info guys.

Katlyn2525

Well, think about it. How long does it take for a sims to die as a elder? The pets are only going to be a low percentage of that. Granted, the pets will all have the same life span.

ashleyl2203

Just turn off aging.

Simfan923

It's surprising at first but looking back that sounds pretty accurate especially with past games. In TS3, dogs lived for roughly 45/46 days on the normal setting. Think cats lived longer by a few days. So from a pup/kitten to elder 5-6 weeks sounds about right.

Katlyn2525

I can't really give you a correct answer without seeing the gameplay. They did say a puppy or kitten stage was two days in the broadcast. It was also the shortest stage because they wanted the longer stages to be for the adults and elders.

kati77

But is the lifespan related to the one you use with your sims? I mean, if my sims have the long lifespan, then shouldn't pets live longer, too?

Simfan923

kati77 wrote: »

But is the lifespan related to the one you use with your sims? I mean, if my sims have the long lifespan, then shouldn't pets live longer, too?

Yes that appears to be the case. Basically pets don't have their own lifespan setting (i.e. they share the sims' lifespan settings). So whatever lifespan you have for your current save, your pets will follow suit. How much long they'll live is unknown atm.

kati77

Simfan923 wrote: »

kati77 wrote: »

But is the lifespan related to the one you use with your sims? I mean, if my sims have the long lifespan, then shouldn't pets live longer, too?

Yes that appears to be the case. Basically pets don't have their own lifespan setting (i.e. they share the sims' lifespan settings). So whatever lifespan you have for your current save, your pets will follow suit. How much long they'll live is unknown atm.

Sounds good. I mean, a pet with always the same very short lifespan with humans living on long lifespans wouldn't really make sense

Rae357

Does anyone know what the lifespan would be if set to long? I assume the 5-6 weeks pets & 12 weeks for sims is the normal setting?

Katlyn2525

No, it is still not known. They did say 2 days for the puppy or kitten on the broadcast. Hopefully a Guru will answer this.

EgonVM

Ok. Let's do a little math.
1 week is seven days.
So, the life of the pets lasts about 21-28 days when created as an adult and about 35-42 days if created/born as a kitten/puppy.
And they said that puppy stage is 2 days, so the other life stages should last for 33-40 days... Wait a minute. This doesn't make any sense.
21-28 days when created as an adult and 35-42 days when as kitten/puppy. This should mean that kitten and puppy stage lasts for 14 days.
Is this 2 days for the short lifespan? No, it can't be. Short lifespan is two times shorter than normal, and 14/2=7. Ok, let's do some more math.
Long lifespan is 4 times longer than normal. So, 14/4=3.5~4. And 4/2=2. So I think normal should be 4 days (I think).
Ok. Now I'm confused. SimGuru, please help!

Rae357

If we go by the above 6 weeks for pets and 12 weeks for sims on normal setting then I think long would be about 23 weeks(162+ days) for pets(according to sims wiki the long lifespan for sims is 324+ days so about 46 weeks). No idea about individual life stages. Maybe that is half of sims as well? 12 days long setting as baby, 6 days as puppy or kitten on long setting?
Though you could turn off aging until you want the puppy/kitten to age up?

JimG72

samlyt22 wrote: »

Sounds about right to me, a sim from birth to elder lives 12 weeks so I think it would be too long if pets lived longer. Not saying I'll be emotionally ready to say goodbye at that point though.

Agreed. The average worldwide life expectancy is around 70 years....as high as low 80s in several parts of the world. The average life expectancy for most dog breeds is 10-13 years....with a few breeds being 6-9 years. So a dog’s life expectancy is around 14-16% of a human’s life expectancy. Comparing that to 12 sim weeks is about 12-14 days for dogs. Cat’s have a 12-15 year average age life expectancy. Even taking the high end of 15 years would be 16-18 days compared to the 12 sim weeks of our sims. So if they went be real-life comparisons, our sim pets would live less than 3 weeks. If they are giving us 5-6 weeks for pets, then the lifespan is almost double what it would realistically be....which I’m completely fine with as it gives us more time with our pets.

raybaggins

all this maths, omg.

DeKay

raybaggins wrote: »

all this maths, omg.

I agree. LOL.

I don't even know I clicked on this thread. I play with aging off. XD

EmmaVane

Rae357 wrote: »

Does anyone know what the lifespan would be if set to long? I assume the 5-6 weeks pets & 12 weeks for sims is the normal setting?

Long is 4x Normal.

HimRumi

I hope MCC updates the custom age duration for dogs and cats.

That's like one of the best mods ever. I truly believe mods and creators will come up with something.

floridameerkat

ZhaguiSimmer wrote: »

I hope MCC updates the custom age duration for dogs and cats.

That's like one of the best mods ever. I truly believe mods and creators will come up with something.

I'm sure the creator will include a section of MCCC that's entirely for pets. I can't wait to see what they come up with.

gothprincess4ever

Well, it sounds pretty normal to me. For the last couple of days I've been playing TS3, because I wanted to remind myself how dogs and cats look and behave there. I must admit that the lifespan there seems short, but also acceptable, if you know what I mean. Also, kind of irrelevant, but how can I go back to TS3 CAP when I've seen the TS4 one? I mean, the feelings...

ChaosMasterRose

The lifespan is like this in my Bowie family:
David Bowie becomes an Elder in 5 days, Bowie Stardust(their cat) is already an elder, the cat's been old for 3-5 game days max...Lifespan is on Normal, so David Bowie will die of Old Age 10 days after becoming Elderly, Bowie Stardust...I'll be shocked if he dies when I load the family today.
His wife, Destiny Bowie, Freddie Mercury, Thomas Jerome Newton and Ziggy Stardust all have the Immortal CC trait, so none of them will die or age, I prepared for their cat's death by adoping a female cocker spaniel puppy I named Brandy Bowie, for the cat, I wanted Bowie to die in peace, so I disabled Witnessing Death for their cat using MC Command Center, but I'll reset Witnessing Death to Enabled once David Bowie gets old, as he'll most likely want his wife by his side.
More to the point, seeing my cat die in the game will devastate me, as I live with two 15 year old cats irl, one is deaf, his name is Digit, his brother is named Ezra(I nicknamed Ezra "Bowie Z," though), we're all saying Digit will go first because he's already lost his hearing...Our Youngest cat, Sammy, is only 3 years old, so he has a long way to go before he gets old.
Whenever my Sims/Pets get old, my game likes to jumpscare me into thinking that they're dying, why is the game such a jerk to me?!

queenvortex808

It seems a bit like real life as dogs can't become 100 years old and age with you..... sadly. It depends on what lifespan length setting you are playing on. I think the lifespan is okay.