Rotational Play Aging Settings

MHsimsFan

I've been a legacy player for a longtime now, but just recently I decided to try rotational play with my legacy siblings. The biggest hangup for me has been around the aging process. I currently have set my aging on for 'playable' current family - so I know the other playable families won't age without me, but I still want the townies on the same aging schedule as the family. My plan is to turn townie aging on when playing only one of the rotations and then turn it off the rest of the time. Is that what everyone else does, or is there a better way to manage this?

floridameerkat

I let the townies age as normal, while only letting my sims age when I play them. When my sims make friends or get a significant other, I use MCCC to turn aging off for the friend(s) and partner(s). I wait until the last day of that household's rotation to set the flags, as I don't like messing up age gaps, so that whoever I flag will stay the same age when I leave the family, and then when I return to the household, I remove the flags from their friends and partners.

I hope that makes sense.

I found this works well for me, as I have about 7 or 8 sims that I rotate through on a one week (in-game) basis in my rotational save. If I don't flag certain sims, by the time I get back to the household their friend/partner lives in, they'll be too old hang out with or date or do whatever it is I wanted to do with them. I also flag potential partners to never marry (and sometimes to not have offspring) so that MCCC leaves them alone.

scrutyni

The plan to have aging on for only one household is pretty smart. Simple and effective, as long as you don't forget to toggle it accordingly haha.

It's too bad TS4 doesn't have sliders because in TS3 I'd just turn it off and then adjust by life stage, for example when there are too many children time to age them up in a couple days.

Simpatsyann

MHsimsFan wrote: »

I've been a legacy player for a longtime now, but just recently I decided to try rotational play with my legacy siblings. The biggest hangup for me has been around the aging process. I currently have set my aging on for 'playable' current family - so I know the other playable families won't age without me, but I still want the townies on the same aging schedule as the family. My plan is to turn townie aging on when playing only one of the rotations and then turn it off the rest of the time. Is that what everyone else does, or is there a better way to manage this?

That's what I do and it works well. I added in a "university" rotation before each new rotation officially begins, so that's where I turn townie aging on. I used to just do it during the first household.

ChelleJo

MHsimsFan wrote: »

I've been a legacy player for a longtime now, but just recently I decided to try rotational play with my legacy siblings. The biggest hangup for me has been around the aging process. I currently have set my aging on for 'playable' current family - so I know the other playable families won't age without me, but I still want the townies on the same aging schedule as the family. My plan is to turn townie aging on when playing only one of the rotations and then turn it off the rest of the time. Is that what everyone else does, or is there a better way to manage this?

That's how I do aging. I keep a rotation schedule, and one week during the full rotation, I'll have aging on for townies, too.

MHsimsFan

Thanks for the feedback. I had to wrap my head around how I was going to make it work, mostly because I do like that my townies age the same as my sims. It would be strange if a childhood friend was an elder before the child was a teen. Lol. I did try a shorter rotation, but found that certain sims were always being played during the week and others the weekend. I think the week seems to work best. I change at 2 am on Monday morning.

Mariefoxprice83

Yeah, I turn townie aging on while I'm playing a specific household. If I forget I just do it with the next household.

luthienrising

I have all aging off and do it all manually, whenever I feel like it. I also keep an Excel sheet of who's in what age group - whoever's at the bottom of the list is the youngest in that age group. Helps me keep a sense of the whole world aging in something vaguely like sync.

stilljustme2

floridameerkat wrote: »

I let the townies age as normal, while only letting my sims age when I play them. When my sims make friends or get a significant other, I use MCCC to turn aging off for the friend(s) and partner(s). I wait until the last day of that household's rotation to set the flags, as I don't like messing up age gaps, so that whoever I flag will stay the same age when I leave the family, and then when I return to the household, I remove the flags from their friends and partners.

I hope that makes sense.

I found this works well for me, as I have about 7 or 8 sims that I rotate through on a one week (in-game) basis in my rotational save. If I don't flag certain sims, by the time I get back to the household their friend/partner lives in, they'll be too old hang out with or date or do whatever it is I wanted to do with them. I also flag potential partners to never marry (and sometimes to not have offspring) so that MCCC leaves them alone.

That's pretty much how I do the aging, other than freezing the aging for friends/romantic interests. I'm using littlemissam's Let Friends Age Up mod so when I'm ready to age up a Child/Teen I can age their friends up at the same time; if I have a GT closet on site I can even set their outfits, or I can just go in with UI Cheats and Modify in CAS. I'll also mark some households as "Played" even if I don't play them actively and that keeps them from changing; I'm doing that with my art gallery owner.

MHsimsFan

luthienrising wrote: »

I have all aging off and do it all manually, whenever I feel like it. I also keep an Excel sheet of who's in what age group - whoever's at the bottom of the list is the youngest in that age group. Helps me keep a sense of the whole world aging in something vaguely like sync.

That seems so organized. Lol. I suppose once you get more than a couple families going at once it would be a lot to keep track of without a proper spreadsheet.