In TS3 times, I always played with aging on with a normal lifespan, but it changed when I started playing TS4. Now, I rarely let them age at all, and when I have aging on, I have it on long lifespan. I want my sims to achieve certain things in their lifes before they age up. Since the release of the game my current main family only aged up once
I almost always play the normal lifespan with aging on. I've been thinking about altering that though to allow the kids in particular the change to reach the top of their aspiration.
Well since the game came out. I always aged my former sims games at the longest age offered - but in Sims 4 I first shut off all aging the first day the game came out - to start with because I could not tolerate the infant turning to a child and the child popping out of the bassinet - it was hard to explain but akin to a knife stabbing me through the heart when I witnessed that absurdity so I shut off aging and then decided no more kids ( yeah I know - I am a bit over dramatic - but it was the truth) as I could not stand the infant never aging period so decided to stop aging, kids, even marriages eventually and just play YA roommates or singles. I had seriously unloved sims every where -
But now I love marrying sims and having a baby that I eventually let have a birthday to the delightful toddlers we finally got - but now I have a new issue - I don't want children to turn to those oversized teens so I am just keeping the aging off and my sims families with just the delightful toddlers. I may eventually let some have a birthday to child but the teens just keep me from playing Legacies I so loved in past Sims almost as bad as the not having toddlers did - so technically I stopped the aging almost 3 years now.
I so understand... I had just about stopped playing this game before toddlers ... I really only like family play and missing them was too game changing ... I would be sooo happy is they gave us pre teens.. in the Sims 2 and 3 I didn't feel that way because i didn't think there was enough different about pre and full teen .. but with the Sims 4 it's not just the hight and the messing around that makes them feel like they go from 7 to 17 in one bday ...
Personally, I usually play on long and just age sims up when I feel like they have full-filled their role as whatever age they are. When I do challenges, I play on normal so I just let my game age up sims on it's own. When I play on long I usually age up teen > elder sims up pretty quicky, but I don't age up toddlers manually at all (unless there's a baby on the way)
Not too long. Most of the time I play with aging on, Normal lifespan. I will use Potions of Youth to extend their lifespans, especially when I want grandparents to still be around for their grandkids, etc. However, after they've achieved their main aspiration, and had kids, and maybe maxed out one other skill or hobby, I tend to let them go, as described in this thread: http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/916137/how-many-of-your-sims-have-died-lately
The exception recently was when I was trying to make a successful retail store, and I turned aging off for that sim. It ended up taking at least 4 sim weeks to get that store off the ground (with good perks as well as a decent daily profit). However now that she's been successful, I'll probably turn aging back on for her.
I keep aging off and manually age-up my Sims when I think it's time to. I have quite a few households that I rotate between, so there're a lot of storylines to play out, and I like having the time to do it, rather than be rushed as a result of a set lifespan.
As for the longest I've gone without aging up a Sim? Probably about half a year or so.
I usually play challenges that require a normal lifespan, but I like to use the long lifespan in non-challenge games. I do tire of the elderly stage during long lifespans, though.
I have aging on and set to normal lifespan. I like to play challenges such as legacies and I usually don't get attached to my sims so I don't mind them dying.
Do you usually allow the game to age your sims up (short, normal.long)?
Or if you dont, how long do you keeps households the same age?
Im letting my sims age up according to the default life spans because I like rules and structure. But I think it would be cool to have a family that never changes. It's kind of like how the characters are always the same age in your favorite cartoons.
I have a beautiful Sim philosophy that I live by so let me share it with my fellow Simmers...... "If I have to age in my real life then so are my Sims so get over it" lol. But I'm not cruel I keep my aging on long cause well "normal" in The Sims 4 is so short if I even consider blinking five sim days went by! POOF! Those five days hit my face with dust which is terrible cause I just washed my face with Neutrogena! Darn!
I usually have the aging turned off and age my sims up accordingly. If my young adult sim has children I'll let the baby age up to a child before I age up my young adult to an adult. If my sim has another baby, I'll age up the current child to a teenager once the infant becomes a child. Then, after awhile, I'll finally age my adult sim to an elder. It all just depends on how I'm feeling.
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In the current way that I play, I pretty much customize the aging. I'm like the OP in that I like some rules and structure. I do want them to generally age and I don't want children to age near to or beyond the parents. Eventually they die and pass along, then things shift in the direction of their children. The rotation in my game is so full of households and various children that the aging of sims in that place is no longer happening very quickly. It has become as much about horizontal play between the households as it has about vertical play (inheritance and moving towards the next generation).
If I did play with vampires, that would be very different because they traditionally don't age. There would be far fewer children in my game, not none but not many.
Anyway, I start with an average lifespan for any given household but I sometimes turn aging off which does lengthen a life. Some of that may have to do with getting a sim to a certain stage in their career or social development. I might allow a new married couple some relaxed early days before thinking about children. With most single sims, I let aging be off so that they can go about things at their own pace and only marry when it seems like a good time to do so. In that way, I can let them have time to spend that afternoon bowling or I can let them spend the evening at a random bar chatting with random sims.
It just depends though because I do let some sims have more time like that than others. As I've mentioned, when a sim has children then the aging has to go on because the span of childhood is long enough for me on normal in the game. Also, as I've mentioned, I don't want a child to catch up on parents or a child's friends to be older than their friends' parents. Even though aging can be off for a while, eventually it has to go on.
The longest that I've left aging off is probably several weeks or months in the game. I don't think a lot about it. If I want to play a sim for a while without aging then I will. It allows certain plot points to develop. The drama between Bjorn and the sim that is now his second wife took weeks in the game because it was so drawn out. Now, they have a toddler so when I play them again, they will age and die.
I've also left aging off for some sims in the GTW careers so that I don't worry much about time. I let them achieve certain levels and I enjoy them going about their work days without worrying about aging. There's a doctor in my game named Anya who has probably had aging off the longest in the game. I let her completely focus on her career until she became a General Practitioner. Now she's married to Paolo Rocca but they are only starting to think about having kids. As a doctor, having kids is something she'll do when she has reached a certain professional level. All the time spent working has allowed her to accrue some vacation leave and a high enough rank to be established at work before having a family. It's an example of TS being a bit better than what is often reality.
Before too long, the focus of this rotation is going to turn into raising a bunch of the children who have been born in my game and letting the parents age then pass along. Before, I had been playing the parents as they established themselves and started families. I still have some single sims who haven't moved to that next phase, but most of my households have turned into young families. I'm going to have a long time with a bunch of family play in this rotation coming up.
I've got a habit of using MCCC to flag sims as immortal. I let the children grow up, but the first sim/s I create never die. I have a great, great, great (you get the idea) grandma who has descendants all over the world... and she's still a young adult.
OMG! This is exactly what I did to the first couple in my legacy family in TS2, plus around 3 of their best looking descendants are immortal.
Now I am thinking of doing this again in TS4. I created a couple as the head of the legacy family around 2 years ago, but I was waiting for the toddlers so I never age them and they are still childless. I got attached to this family as time passes by.
If Sims gradually grew I could see the point of letting the game gradually age them - but when they jump whole life stages - like they do - with some stages of life ( for me it is the abruptness of the teen not looking like a teen - they need to look different than YA's period - and the AD to elder stage sudden changes that get me - we need a middle age look between AD and elder) not in the game then aging seems rather less important to me. The sims I find most fun to play seem to have less chance of aging than the less fun to play sims - just because I can do it that way - but genuinely annoying or troublesome sims I do sort of hurry them along in their demise - as I do not like to kill sims or remove them from the game - believe me culling sims by the game irks me to no end - so I will not add to that by also culling them - but they may have more birthday parties than others. LOL.
But I do have several sims I favor - and truthfully they still have not had a single birthday yet. Remember - we rule -LOL.
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I have aging off and for my first year of playing the game I didn't age up anyone. Now if I feel like the world needs progression I age my sims up manually.
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I play on normal but with a slightly shortened (via MCCC) teen stage and lengthened young adult stage. For the most part I let them age naturally and only try to catch them with a cake or a party to keep them from being sad about being forgotten (but honestly kid, it's not that everyone forgot, they just don't care). But if I'm particularly attached to a sim I find a way to keep them around - Potion of Youth, playable ghosts and now vampirism makes that pretty easy.
I normally turn aging off and when I think they're ready to age up, I turn it back on and let it progress "naturally." I don't like aging up my sims on my own via birthday cake because it bothers me when my sim child ages up and all her friends are still in the child lifestage, lol. I'm weird, I guess. But yeah, aging is usually half/half for me. I think the longest I've gone without turning on aging is a few weeks (real life time but I guess it would be like a few months in sim time?)
However, when I do have it turned on when no plans of turning it off (like during a challenge or something), it's usually on the normal to long lifespan.
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I play on Normal and usually just let them age up on their own, I have times/ moments I force aging. 99% of the time it's only with the infant & toddler stage sims on the occasions when I do, that is. So about maybe a few weeks, depending on how often I am playing and when I get the urge to force age... Did it just maybe four or so days ago last....
I play on Normal and usually just let them age up on their own, I have times/ moments I force aging. 99% of the time it's only with the infant & toddler stage sims on the occasions when I do, that is. So about maybe a few weeks, depending on how often I am playing and when I get the urge to force age... Did it just maybe four or so days ago last....
Normal is so short! How do you get anything done? My sims would probably die before they fulfill a career or max out a skill.
My simself save (me, my husband, our children, our siblings and parents, aunts, uncles. You get the idea) age as we do URL. The exception is when people pass away. My husband's mom and dad passed IRL and my dad passed IRL, but they live on in my game. We'll all be elders together, because I just can't let anyone die.
Before toddlers I always had aging off. I just played a single female sim and went around discovering the new content. However, after toddlers being released (for free thank god) i'm playing with aging on, not on a normal lifespan because I feel that's too little time though. So now I actually play more towards the family lifestyle, i'm hoping with the Game pack coming out with more generations type gameplay i'll be able to enjoy it even more!
I have aging off for my played households and aging on for everyone else, so my sims never age while everyone else slowly dies around them. I'm trying to start turning aging on at least long lifespan because I could never do everything I want to do in normal lifespan- it's way to short for my play style.
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I so understand... I had just about stopped playing this game before toddlers ... I really only like family play and missing them was too game changing ... I would be sooo happy is they gave us pre teens.. in the Sims 2 and 3 I didn't feel that way because i didn't think there was enough different about pre and full teen .. but with the Sims 4 it's not just the hight and the messing around that makes them feel like they go from 7 to 17 in one bday ...
The exception recently was when I was trying to make a successful retail store, and I turned aging off for that sim. It ended up taking at least 4 sim weeks to get that store off the ground (with good perks as well as a decent daily profit). However now that she's been successful, I'll probably turn aging back on for her.
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As for the longest I've gone without aging up a Sim? Probably about half a year or so.
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I have a beautiful Sim philosophy that I live by so let me share it with my fellow Simmers...... "If I have to age in my real life then so are my Sims so get over it" lol. But I'm not cruel I keep my aging on long cause well "normal" in The Sims 4 is so short if I even consider blinking five sim days went by! POOF! Those five days hit my face with dust which is terrible cause I just washed my face with Neutrogena! Darn!
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If I did play with vampires, that would be very different because they traditionally don't age. There would be far fewer children in my game, not none but not many.
Anyway, I start with an average lifespan for any given household but I sometimes turn aging off which does lengthen a life. Some of that may have to do with getting a sim to a certain stage in their career or social development. I might allow a new married couple some relaxed early days before thinking about children. With most single sims, I let aging be off so that they can go about things at their own pace and only marry when it seems like a good time to do so. In that way, I can let them have time to spend that afternoon bowling or I can let them spend the evening at a random bar chatting with random sims.
It just depends though because I do let some sims have more time like that than others. As I've mentioned, when a sim has children then the aging has to go on because the span of childhood is long enough for me on normal in the game. Also, as I've mentioned, I don't want a child to catch up on parents or a child's friends to be older than their friends' parents. Even though aging can be off for a while, eventually it has to go on.
The longest that I've left aging off is probably several weeks or months in the game. I don't think a lot about it. If I want to play a sim for a while without aging then I will. It allows certain plot points to develop. The drama between Bjorn and the sim that is now his second wife took weeks in the game because it was so drawn out. Now, they have a toddler so when I play them again, they will age and die.
I've also left aging off for some sims in the GTW careers so that I don't worry much about time. I let them achieve certain levels and I enjoy them going about their work days without worrying about aging. There's a doctor in my game named Anya who has probably had aging off the longest in the game. I let her completely focus on her career until she became a General Practitioner. Now she's married to Paolo Rocca but they are only starting to think about having kids. As a doctor, having kids is something she'll do when she has reached a certain professional level. All the time spent working has allowed her to accrue some vacation leave and a high enough rank to be established at work before having a family. It's an example of TS being a bit better than what is often reality.
Before too long, the focus of this rotation is going to turn into raising a bunch of the children who have been born in my game and letting the parents age then pass along. Before, I had been playing the parents as they established themselves and started families. I still have some single sims who haven't moved to that next phase, but most of my households have turned into young families. I'm going to have a long time with a bunch of family play in this rotation coming up.
OMG! This is exactly what I did to the first couple in my legacy family in TS2, plus around 3 of their best looking descendants are immortal.
Now I am thinking of doing this again in TS4. I created a couple as the head of the legacy family around 2 years ago, but I was waiting for the toddlers so I never age them and they are still childless. I got attached to this family as time passes by.
But I do have several sims I favor - and truthfully they still have not had a single birthday yet. Remember - we rule -LOL.
"Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
In dreams - I LIVE!
In REALITY, I simply exist.....
*:.｡."It's great being ((Queen Bee))!".｡.:*
★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★・・・・・・★
✧ :-"As long as I continue to believe then one day my ((dreams)) really will come true."✧ :-
However, when I do have it turned on when no plans of turning it off (like during a challenge or something), it's usually on the normal to long lifespan.
Normal is so short! How do you get anything done? My sims would probably die before they fulfill a career or max out a skill.