Epic / Aging is turned off in my ongoing main saved game.
On occasional saves I go with a shorter span, but usually bail on these saves pretty quick, they don't keep my interest for very long and I go back to my main save.
I play Epic and customize each story with a lifespan that fits the story and adjust ages as needed within the story. I've stopped aging a few times as well because the story needed more time, before the sims aged up. My sims don't die, the go to an elder home or move away.(library).
In the past I didn't understand how some players accomplished some of the challenges. But that was when I assumed everyone played on normal. Now I realize that normal is not so normal after all.
...
As to your question about Sims 2, yes, I played it obsessively, but it's been so long I barely remember anything I did. Only the current household aged there. There are pros and cons to all that, but I like to rotate households, so I think Sims 2 influenced my decision to play with aging off in Sims 3.
That was what I was wondering - if players who played Sims 2 were more likely to turn aging off than those who started with Sims 3, like I did.
It is just after 11:30 Eastern US Time and I'm surprised that the majority play with aging turned off. I've never done that. For those who do, do you age any sims via birthday cakes or cheats? If so do you just age up those in your active household or the whole town? Also for those who turn aging off, did you ever play SIMS 2? I'm having a hard time figuring out how this works in a game.
I think it is a product of the inherent versatility of the Sims 3 game.
You can play the game any way you want ... And tailor it to your desired style.
I usually don't play generational challenges or families.
So there is no need for me to tune up the Sims grinder and rush a bunch of Sims from cradle to grave.
I do play with aging on at Epic.
That basically changes the town over time.
Since ambrosia gives you a honking +80 mood boost for seven days ... It's perfect to chow down on before exploring tombs.
So what if it also resets your age ... I can watch other Sims turn into ghosts ... And even more Sims cry fake tears.
Until last year, I always played on the normal life setting. I don't do babies and toddlers got aged up as soon as they were trained. I always gave the days back to my sims in the child stage so they aged at the same rate as the rest of the town.
Now I play on a slightly modified long setting but I can't remember the numbers but I do know that my redistribution of the days in each stage mean that the overall number of days is pretty much the same as the normal long setting. I still don't do babies and toddlers still get aged up as soon as they are trained and the days are given back to them as children.
I recently started playing with normal aging turned on, but earlier I used to play having it switched off, so I chose the last option. When I need to age up a sim, I just use cheats
The normal setting always seemed too short for me. My life stages are adjusted to mimic real life to some extent, along with the seasons and lunar cycle to give my game a more realistic sort of feel. Babies last for 3 days, toddlers for 12, children for 30, teenagers for 28, young adults for 60, adults for 90, and elders for 72 days I believe. The lunar cycle also lasts 6 days and a full year is 96 days, each season being 24 days. The pets' life stages were adjusted as well. Cats last 8 days for their kitten stage, 32 days for their adult age, and 20 days for elder. Dogs are 4/32/12 days and horses are 20/56/44 days. I haven't got to play with these new changes yet though so they may not even stick.
I customize the lengths of each lifestage:
Pregnancies -30 days
Babies -60 days
Toddlers -120 days
Children -360 days
Teens -180 days
Young Adults -540 days
Adults -ap1080 days(it can vary according to the time period)
Elders -ap 540 days.
I editied these in notepad outside of the game to get those numbers and pregnancies were edited in NRaas Retuner to last 720 hours.
720 hours for a pregnancy and 60 days for a baby?! Just 3 days is long enough for me. I'm too impatient to see what the baby inherited.
I tend to either default to normal or long. But more often then not I would having aging off once sims reach adulthood so that I would have ages to complete all the stories or goals I had lined up for each sim. I somehow never got into challenges or official legacies with the older sims games.
The normal setting always seemed too short for me. My life stages are adjusted to mimic real life to some extent, along with the seasons and lunar cycle to give my game a more realistic sort of feel. Babies last for 3 days, toddlers for 12, children for 30, teenagers for 28, young adults for 60, adults for 90, and elders for 72 days I believe. The lunar cycle also lasts 6 days and a full year is 96 days, each season being 24 days. The pets' life stages were adjusted as well. Cats last 8 days for their kitten stage, 32 days for their adult age, and 20 days for elder. Dogs are 4/32/12 days and horses are 20/56/44 days. I haven't got to play with these new changes yet though so they may not even stick.
These settings seem really reasonable. I'll try them, maybe with shortening the time for sim elders to 50 days and to 70 days for adults.
I customize my life cycle
Baby-3 days
Toddler-8 days
Child-10 days
Teen-17 days
Young adult-about 25 days I believe
Adult-a little longer than YA , but not by much
Elder-I don’t remember since I tend to play legacies and usually move on to the next generation before an elder dies.
I’ve shortened the life stages a little recently since i’m Working on a Perfect Genetics challenge, but otherwise I use the lengths above.
I play long with the default settings but having said that I tweak the baby stage to make it shorter. I just like to relax when playing and not worry about time.
I make the life span epic but totally customize it. I even used the Tagger mod like @Sillyhartluv said, so that their ages are displayed in years.
Baby 0-2.5 ish years, Toddler 2.5-7.5ish years (I know that's long, but it makes sense...), Child til 13th birthday, where they turn to a teen at exactly 13 which I was so excited about XD They're a teen til exactly 18, then YA til 24, then adult til 40, and elder til 53.. Toddler and Child ages are a little wonky but I play mostly with teens and older so that made me happy XD
Almost everyone who chose normal stated they customized the ages. My sims get just one day per every human year, so...
Infants - 2 days means up to 24 months (because it won't go any lower!)
Toddlers - 5 days means 5 years (because I age up infants right away!)
Kids get a full week (7 days is 7 years, plus the earlier 5 equals 12)
Teens are only teens for 7 years, so only 7 days - one full week!
YAs may vary 14 or 21 years, because I like even weeks.
Adults too may vary depending on YA choice, so 21 or 28 days.
Elders for 14 days usually. The game often lets them live well beyond my cut off.
When I first started playing Sims 3, I had aging on, along with story progression. Since I find the whole aging/dying thing depressing, I turned aging off. Then the control freak in me also found it necessary to turn off story progression, and I have been very happy ever since.
I did play Sims 2 (and Sims 1) btw.
When I first started playing TS3, in my main town, I deleted many of the townies and created a town of single young adults with a sprinkling of some families I created, so we have some kids in the hood for trick or treating and stuff. The biggest fun I have is pairing up the single Sims. I actually make charts, (oh, does that sound crazy to you?) to show who is attracted to who. Usually, I allow the top 4 attractions to possibly turn into something serious. That part isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be because the attractions seem to be all over the place.
I never play multi generational families (that dying thing again). But I have created families using, let's say, a young adult and his/her parents and of course, they will never age. I never play challenges. No one ever dies in my game (though a couple of them had gone missing back when I first got the game and I was able to get them back some how).
I have only used the birthday cake to age up townies. I have ongoing soaps in my towns and so far, haven't had the need to age anyone up. If I do need to age anyone up, at some point, I will use cakes, cheats, or mods. I have aged down some of my adults to young adults with the potions, because I realized I accidently made them adults and didn't mean to, lol.
At this time I only have one mod in my game but plan to get about 3 more very soon and see how that works out.
It's so nice this game has something for everyone.
I usually play epic, but frequently age sims up early. I keep aging/story progression on for the households I don't focus on, but I play the town and it just gets too stressful to do that with the shorter lifespans.
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On occasional saves I go with a shorter span, but usually bail on these saves pretty quick, they don't keep my interest for very long and I go back to my main save.
I play Epic and customize each story with a lifespan that fits the story and adjust ages as needed within the story. I've stopped aging a few times as well because the story needed more time, before the sims aged up. My sims don't die, the go to an elder home or move away.(library).
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Thanks for all the responses everyone.
In the past I didn't understand how some players accomplished some of the challenges. But that was when I assumed everyone played on normal. Now I realize that normal is not so normal after all.
That was what I was wondering - if players who played Sims 2 were more likely to turn aging off than those who started with Sims 3, like I did.
I think it is a product of the inherent versatility of the Sims 3 game.
You can play the game any way you want ... And tailor it to your desired style.
I usually don't play generational challenges or families.
So there is no need for me to tune up the Sims grinder and rush a bunch of Sims from cradle to grave.
I do play with aging on at Epic.
That basically changes the town over time.
Since ambrosia gives you a honking +80 mood boost for seven days ... It's perfect to chow down on before exploring tombs.
So what if it also resets your age ... I can watch other Sims turn into ghosts ... And even more Sims cry fake tears.
.
Now I play on a slightly modified long setting but I can't remember the numbers but I do know that my redistribution of the days in each stage mean that the overall number of days is pretty much the same as the normal long setting. I still don't do babies and toddlers still get aged up as soon as they are trained and the days are given back to them as children.
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Baby - 2 Days
Toddler - 2 Days
Child - Max
Teen - Max
Young Adult - Max
Adult - Max
Elder - 150-200 Days, I think
I started with 3, haven’t played 2 that much. I just don’t like death or dying. If I want a sim to age up I use Mastercontroller.
https://youtu.be/X2eiCUQDNvQ
720 hours for a pregnancy and 60 days for a baby?! Just 3 days is long enough for me. I'm too impatient to see what the baby inherited.
Just vibing...
Check out my stories The Diversity Club and Lost Pride here on the forums!
Baby-3 days
Toddler-8 days
Child-10 days
Teen-17 days
Young adult-about 25 days I believe
Adult-a little longer than YA , but not by much
Elder-I don’t remember since I tend to play legacies and usually move on to the next generation before an elder dies.
I’ve shortened the life stages a little recently since i’m Working on a Perfect Genetics challenge, but otherwise I use the lengths above.
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Baby 0-2.5 ish years, Toddler 2.5-7.5ish years (I know that's long, but it makes sense...), Child til 13th birthday, where they turn to a teen at exactly 13 which I was so excited about XD They're a teen til exactly 18, then YA til 24, then adult til 40, and elder til 53.. Toddler and Child ages are a little wonky but I play mostly with teens and older so that made me happy XD
Infants - 2 days means up to 24 months (because it won't go any lower!)
Toddlers - 5 days means 5 years (because I age up infants right away!)
Kids get a full week (7 days is 7 years, plus the earlier 5 equals 12)
Teens are only teens for 7 years, so only 7 days - one full week!
YAs may vary 14 or 21 years, because I like even weeks.
Adults too may vary depending on YA choice, so 21 or 28 days.
Elders for 14 days usually. The game often lets them live well beyond my cut off.
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When I first started playing Sims 3, I had aging on, along with story progression. Since I find the whole aging/dying thing depressing, I turned aging off. Then the control freak in me also found it necessary to turn off story progression, and I have been very happy ever since.
I did play Sims 2 (and Sims 1) btw.
When I first started playing TS3, in my main town, I deleted many of the townies and created a town of single young adults with a sprinkling of some families I created, so we have some kids in the hood for trick or treating and stuff. The biggest fun I have is pairing up the single Sims. I actually make charts, (oh, does that sound crazy to you?) to show who is attracted to who. Usually, I allow the top 4 attractions to possibly turn into something serious. That part isn't as easy as I thought it was going to be because the attractions seem to be all over the place.
I never play multi generational families (that dying thing again). But I have created families using, let's say, a young adult and his/her parents and of course, they will never age. I never play challenges. No one ever dies in my game (though a couple of them had gone missing back when I first got the game and I was able to get them back some how).
I have only used the birthday cake to age up townies. I have ongoing soaps in my towns and so far, haven't had the need to age anyone up. If I do need to age anyone up, at some point, I will use cakes, cheats, or mods. I have aged down some of my adults to young adults with the potions, because I realized I accidently made them adults and didn't mean to, lol.
At this time I only have one mod in my game but plan to get about 3 more very soon and see how that works out.
It's so nice this game has something for everyone.
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