I think this might be odd, but for my legacy save I use the short lifespan. I only turned off aging one time because I had a sim who was about to age that I suddenly wanted to do some stuff that takes a long time.
Hey,
Yet another post from me. So I have been playing around with season length to try get the holidays to fall on different days, bit more realistic than every Thursday. And after reading some posts I saw a lot of people play with really long life spans. Which got me thinking, what do you guys like to play with? I found more than 100 days and by the time someone was an adult they are pretty skilled out and had achieved their lifetime wish with time to spare and so much lifetime happiness points it was insane. I saw someone had their life span set so each sim got to experience all seasons during each life stage, sounded cool and of course realistic but that's just way to long a life span for me.
From a poll I posted in Jan 2018 - What life span do you most often play? - about half responded with normal life span and half with aging off plus some used short, medium, long and epic too.
Like you, @bobv2 my sims are pretty skilled out and have accumulated plenty of lifetime happiness points and money on normal life span, even when I play with no cheats to set up a particular scenario. I've recently tried a customized long life span but the couple of games I've started with that I haven't gotten very far yet. I want to try having my sim(s) explore more hobbies or try different things without them becoming unrealistically over-accomplished, perfect characters. I'm still leaving the length of each season at 7 days.
I usually play a short or normal lifespan as I like pushing my sims through milestones and enjoy a feeling of time passing. However, lately I've been playing a 'founding' sim with aging off for the first full year. Slowing down had been fun as she has more time to clear her land and build her cabin...she also has more time to explore the world, meet more sims and even attend parties.
When I play a generational legacy I tend to go overboard with mine playing it on the maximum lifespan possible. Yes, I get overly attached to my sims. I play my legacies on Epic which is why after nearly 3 years in realtime, my 3rd generation have just reached their teens. That and the fact that my attention span tends to lean towards other sims games just so that I can keep my brain from going stale and running into writer’s block. I do intend on getting to generation 10 but I don’t know when that will be.
River and Haruo’s generation had 200 chapters alone. And it seems Braden and Greta will have at least that many.
Where I last left off was a poignant shot of Colin missing his Grandma and Grandpa.
And a shot of Grandpa Haruo and Grandma River’s final resting place.
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
I can't have my sims die of old age. I just can't. In default settings, my Sims just die way too soon. I have to level them up, skill them up, develop a career path, buy house and land, have kids, etc... Just can't do all of that in the default time and I don't want to pick and choose. When I get them well established and adept at multiple things, they die and the game is over.
Yes, I have had two Sims remain childless and when they both died of old age three days apart, my game just ended. That.... wasn't fun for me. That was my first Sims 3 game.
I don't like a lot of kids. It's not fun for me. One or two every now and again, sure, but all the time? Just to keep the game going? No thanks. So my Sims used to be played with Aging off, but then I discovered Young Again LTW. After a while, I used vampirism to stave off aging and then I got Supernatural. I now keep aging on (because the whole town was filling up with eternal newborns!) and use the occult to manage the ages of my Sims.
.... So my Sims used to be played with Aging off, but then I discovered Young Again LTW. After a while, I used vampirism to stave off aging and then I got Supernatural. I now keep aging on (because the whole town was filling up with eternal newborns!) and use the occult to manage the ages of my Sims.
There are a few other ways to extend the life of a sim:
1. each time they eat a life fruit extends the time before they will age up by a day
I use to play a human sim who paired up with a vampire. She developed her gardening skill to grow life fruit and plasma fruit.
2. the steam-it-up sauna has a mud bath activity that also adds a day before they will age up.
3. I think there is another one but I can't recall it right now.
Outside of Supernatural, there's also the "Young Again" potion you can discover at the chemistry table. Most of my families' children already know how to make these, and the first one is free.
Then there's the "Age Freeze" LTW. If you take that potion directly after the "Young Again" one, your sim is forever stuck at day one of his YA stage. Unless he dies of other causes, of course.
One additional day is also granted by "Leon's Fountain of Youth", some store item.
I totally understand about not wanting sims to age but I just can't bear to play that way. They have to age. But I do play on Epic lifespan. I like them to be young long enough to really accomplish something.
Babies - 3 days
Toddlers - 14 days (long enough to teach them their skills without exploding)
All else normal for epic.
For seasons, I like to shorten the winter by two days. Snow is hard on my gameplay - and I just don't enjoy it much!
I used to not play with the moon cycles on but recently I have found I enjoy the added tension of Zombies!
Reading all the comments here, it appears I am in the minority. I play on "normal" lifespan. Yes, I'm a bit sad when I Sim I particularly liked passes away but I consider that part of it for me. I create a lovely custom cemetery for them with trees, flowers, benches and after a Sim passes, one of their family members will take their stone there. Playing rotationally with six founding families, the cemetery that haven't built for this play though will have areas designated for the families.
I've always played TS that way. I never cheat if someone dies suddenly. An example is when a child got killed by a meteorite. Shocked the heck out of me as I didn't know that could happen. It REALLY shocked the grandma who went insane and that let me see the crazy psychiatrist who stopped by to literally slap her out of it.
@Rhiannon58 - I also create beautiful cemeteries for my Sims. I really dislike how thrown-away looking some of the graveyards are in this game with the dead trees and all. The way I see it, after all the enjoyment these Sims have given me, the very least I can do is make certain they have a peaceful looking resting place when their game play has come to an end.
*edit to correct a word, because apparently I do not know how to structure a sentence correctly !
I play an edited normal length that just borders on short; 80 days. Toddlers took the biggest hit, they only get 3 days. Seasons I left at the default 7 days each, anything shorter doesn't really leave enough gardening time for me.
Interesting you should say that about gardening. I currently have two or three families with gardens and I created a greenhouse for them so they can garden all year. It's a bit of a pain in that you can't plant "inside". So when I need to plant, I knock a piece of wall out, do the planting and put the wall back. I hate it when I forget though and the zombies wipe out the garden. It's happened three times this go round and you would think I'd learn from the first time. Anyway, to stay on topic, I agree that 7 days isn't enough gardening time for the avid gardener.
Reading all the comments here, it appears I am in the minority. I play on "normal" lifespan. Yes, I'm a bit sad when I Sim I particularly liked passes away but I consider that part of it for me. I create a lovely custom cemetery for them with trees, flowers, benches and after a Sim passes, one of their family members will take their stone there. Playing rotationally with six founding families, the cemetery that haven't built for this play though will have areas designated for the families.
I've always played TS that way. I never cheat if someone dies suddenly. An example is when a child got killed by a meteorite. Shocked the heck out of me as I didn't know that could happen. It REALLY shocked the grandma who went insane and that let me see the crazy psychiatrist who stopped by to literally slap her out of it.
This is close to how I play too. I just started experimenting with a longer life span - total of 200 days, with seasons 10 days each. I have found that I do enjoy a slightly slower pace, but I can't do aging off. The progression of the family and their eventual deaths is part of their story and I need it. And I keep in surprise deaths too.
4 days for a year :) pregnancy lasts for three days which is equivalent to 9 month in real life. So i figure 1 day equals three months. It makes it easier to keep traking of sims age.
I use normal. I tried doing custom lengths for a couple of stages (children, I think) but then one of them moved out and their age went completely weird, it was a while ago so I don’t remember what happened exactly. I played a lot of Fairies in the past, which was fun for the skill-boosting aspect (being able to project the auras and so on) but since it was only the YA and A stages that were five times the length of normal, it meant that a Sim could have grandchildren (and potentially great-grandchildren) whilst still a YA and fertile themselves, so it was a little odd to me. I get that that’s the point, obviously, but it started to get a little unrealistic.
I’ve never really experimented with Long, although I have on Sims 4. I think I tried doing it once for one particular save but I found it affected all my saves, or something.
When I first began playing The Sims 3, I played with Aging on, but I love my Sims. So, once I figured out how to turn off Aging, that's what I do. If I must, I'll age them up through either Birthday Cakes or Nraas.
Plus, I play a lot of Sims Challenges (minus having Aging turned on), anyway. I don't use Money Cheats (even though I know what they are) nor Nraas to by pass manual Skill ups. I just don't want things going too fast, which is what I feel like, when Aging is turned on. I like to play slow and steady.
I only turn ageing on when I want the kids/teens to stop going to school (I mean must be miserable to go to school forever) so they can get jobs/careers and start being independent, rest of the time it's off
I used to keep aging off in the overwhelming majority of the saves I had ... until I decided to install Nraas' StoryProgression mod with most of the other StoryProgression modules. Now, I almost always have my sims aging in a custom Long setting with baby stage at 2 days (next to nothing to do with babies in this game without mods and custom content), toddler stage at 14 days, child and teen stages at 30 days, YA and Adult stages at - I believe - 90 days, and the elder stage at about 30 days.
I play a mix of aging off to default age. Only turn it back on when I want to accomplish particular things in my games. Like have all the kids learned to walk, talk, potty training before they age up?, Are the parents where they want before trying for babe numero two? Have I matched up these two sims, that I would want to start dating?
Pretty much stuff like that. But yea, otherwise game play is just too long for me. Which is funny that I say this, cause I love playing the occult sims at times and never change their age settings. Bit of an oxymoron I know.
I love that so many people still play sims 3 and are active on these forums. I had gotten busy and forgotten to check this post and it cool people still check the forums out.
I can't remember all the age stages off the top of my head but I know I have babies on minimum (2 days) because I get bored of them, then toddlers on 4 to give me time to teach all their skills, children I think are on 7 and then teens on 11. I don't know about YA but I think it might be 28? then I think adult is the same, I don't know about elders because I rarely play them
Comments
From a poll I posted in Jan 2018 - What life span do you most often play? - about half responded with normal life span and half with aging off plus some used short, medium, long and epic too.
Like you, @bobv2 my sims are pretty skilled out and have accumulated plenty of lifetime happiness points and money on normal life span, even when I play with no cheats to set up a particular scenario. I've recently tried a customized long life span but the couple of games I've started with that I haven't gotten very far yet. I want to try having my sim(s) explore more hobbies or try different things without them becoming unrealistically over-accomplished, perfect characters. I'm still leaving the length of each season at 7 days.
When I play a generational legacy I tend to go overboard with mine playing it on the maximum lifespan possible. Yes, I get overly attached to my sims. I play my legacies on Epic which is why after nearly 3 years in realtime, my 3rd generation have just reached their teens. That and the fact that my attention span tends to lean towards other sims games just so that I can keep my brain from going stale and running into writer’s block. I do intend on getting to generation 10 but I don’t know when that will be.
River and Haruo’s generation had 200 chapters alone. And it seems Braden and Greta will have at least that many.
Where I last left off was a poignant shot of Colin missing his Grandma and Grandpa.
And a shot of Grandpa Haruo and Grandma River’s final resting place.
Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
Yes, I have had two Sims remain childless and when they both died of old age three days apart, my game just ended. That.... wasn't fun for me. That was my first Sims 3 game.
I don't like a lot of kids. It's not fun for me. One or two every now and again, sure, but all the time? Just to keep the game going? No thanks. So my Sims used to be played with Aging off, but then I discovered Young Again LTW. After a while, I used vampirism to stave off aging and then I got Supernatural. I now keep aging on (because the whole town was filling up with eternal newborns!) and use the occult to manage the ages of my Sims.
There are a few other ways to extend the life of a sim:
1. each time they eat a life fruit extends the time before they will age up by a day
I use to play a human sim who paired up with a vampire. She developed her gardening skill to grow life fruit and plasma fruit.
2. the steam-it-up sauna has a mud bath activity that also adds a day before they will age up.
3. I think there is another one but I can't recall it right now.
Then there's the "Age Freeze" LTW. If you take that potion directly after the "Young Again" one, your sim is forever stuck at day one of his YA stage. Unless he dies of other causes, of course.
One additional day is also granted by "Leon's Fountain of Youth", some store item.
When I start a game, I don't want aging, death of Sims I want in my game, or anything else happening.
Babies - 3 days
Toddlers - 14 days (long enough to teach them their skills without exploding)
All else normal for epic.
For seasons, I like to shorten the winter by two days. Snow is hard on my gameplay - and I just don't enjoy it much!
I used to not play with the moon cycles on but recently I have found I enjoy the added tension of Zombies!
I've always played TS that way. I never cheat if someone dies suddenly. An example is when a child got killed by a meteorite. Shocked the heck out of me as I didn't know that could happen. It REALLY shocked the grandma who went insane and that let me see the crazy psychiatrist who stopped by to literally slap her out of it.
*edit to correct a word, because apparently I do not know how to structure a sentence correctly
Seasons I left at the default 7 days each, anything shorter doesn't really leave enough gardening time for me.
Custom Long Lifespan - 340 Days
Baby-10 days
Toddler-20 days
Child-30 days
Teen-60 days
Young Adult-90 days
Adult-90 days
Elder-40 days
Pets lifespan adjusted to match. Not match exactly, but match.
10 day lunar cycle
80 day seasons, 20 days each
2 holidays per season
Interesting you should say that about gardening. I currently have two or three families with gardens and I created a greenhouse for them so they can garden all year. It's a bit of a pain in that you can't plant "inside". So when I need to plant, I knock a piece of wall out, do the planting and put the wall back. I hate it when I forget though and the zombies wipe out the garden. It's happened three times this go round and you would think I'd learn from the first time. Anyway, to stay on topic, I agree that 7 days isn't enough gardening time for the avid gardener.
This is close to how I play too. I just started experimenting with a longer life span - total of 200 days, with seasons 10 days each. I have found that I do enjoy a slightly slower pace, but I can't do aging off. The progression of the family and their eventual deaths is part of their story and I need it. And I keep in surprise deaths too.
I’ve never really experimented with Long, although I have on Sims 4. I think I tried doing it once for one particular save but I found it affected all my saves, or something.
Plus, I play a lot of Sims Challenges (minus having Aging turned on), anyway. I don't use Money Cheats (even though I know what they are) nor Nraas to by pass manual Skill ups. I just don't want things going too fast, which is what I feel like, when Aging is turned on. I like to play slow and steady.
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Pretty much stuff like that. But yea, otherwise game play is just too long for me. Which is funny that I say this, cause I love playing the occult sims at times and never change their age settings. Bit of an oxymoron I know.