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What life stage do you "skip", if you skip it one at all?

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YuriTheCreatorYuriTheCreator Posts: 60 Member
Edit: I originally wrote this a few months ago while I was minutes from falling asleep. I no longer skip any life stages, as my overall playing style has changed to something more grounded in reality and less on skipping a life stage if it is frustrating and/or boring.

I still have the mindset that the adult and elder life stages should've been fleshed out more, giving them differences from young adults.... but evidently I didn't convey my thoughts properly. Things get lost in translation, as my first language is not English. Apologizes if I offended or confused anyone with any bizzare phrases or choice of words at the time. :disappointed:

I've removed my former post but left the poll up because of all the humorous and quite interesting responses. :smile:


April 8, 2015 is when I came out of that smelly old closet... 🚶‍♂️🚪
Post edited by YuriTheCreator on

What life stage do you "skip", if you skip it one at all? 61 votes

Baby
63%
Emily4331bklienhartAmphoraAnmirlaMikezumiemorrillTheGreatGorloncwaddellJennyggjillbgSimplyJenGabbyGirlJMeela_PashtSimoleon13NBalchemistIreneSwiftSindocatthuggishsplicerking_of_simcity7Breazona 39 votes
Toddler
8%
HejixSarahTheRedPenguinColadaLuk3P05Stormi_Ames 5 votes
Child
3%
AlexaKrysaarlandbabe2 2 votes
Teen
3%
budewarminYuriTheCreator 2 votes
Young Adult
0%
Adult
1%
smoesie 1 vote
Elder
19%
elanorbretondreamerz13ApparentlyAwesomexoSnowyOwlxoLunBeautyannaliese39TadOlsonTreyNutztretheralazyjuniperGamingTweetyLizaTehPancakeGirl 12 votes

Comments

  • dreamerz13dreamerz13 Posts: 9,927 Member
    Elder
    Baby and elder. But if I skip one more it would definitely be elder. I feel like I have pretty much every piece of CC for babies but they're still boring, in looks and what they do. I might use the baby stage for a sim day or two if I'm in a just for fun save. If it's for a story though, I just use resized toddlers for screenshots and pretend the rest of the time they're not actually toddlers. Still more useful than the baby stage IMO, lol.

    Elder though... I don't even know the last time I played one. Not a clue, it's probably been years. They're more useful at least but eh... I prefer to imagine my sims aging more gracefully. I feel like sims really don't age gracefully at all once they hit elder stage. Bam you're 60 and hunched over. Nah. I know/have known people who are 90+ and have more spring in their step than a TS3 elder. I just don't really like it. Plus I just am vain in sims (real life no, but sims yes), I like my sims looking youthful and nice. I don't even really like the adult stage, but I do use it for *some* realism in the aging of my families.

    Besides usually by the time I would need to age a sim up to elder I've long since moved on to new generations, probably a new town and left the rest of the family behind. So I don't really need to use this stage (which is fine by me!)

  • LunBeautyLunBeauty Posts: 2,734 Member
    Elder
    I play Elder the least out of all the age stages. I don't like Baby stage too because I find it a little boring and usually just speed through the two days or age them to toddlers right away. I guess I'm just annoyed that sims don't seem to age gracefully when they reach their 50s/60s. I don't hate the elder stage, but I feel like by the time sims reach that point in their lives, they've already done everything they could. The only reason to keep them around would be as live in babysitters to their grandchildren, which I've done before. A lot of the time, once the children of one of my families ages up to Young Adults, I'll start playing their lives and let Story Progression handle the aging parents.

    I'd say the toddler stage is also amongst those that I don't like much either. Yes, they're very cute and I love taking pictures of them, but it seems once they learn all their toddler skills (which doesn't take long for me because I have mods to speed up the process), it's a little boring.
  • LizaTehPancakeGirlLizaTehPancakeGirl Posts: 5 New Member
    Elder
    Baby and Elder for sure. With baby, it's just like, why are you crying! stop! and with elder, it's like, are you dead yet?
  • Nikkei_SimmerNikkei_Simmer Posts: 9,405 Member
    Baby
    For my legacy, my founders never reached "elder"...because of what I did to my story-line. But most of the time I skip baby because other than picking them up, feeding them, burping them...and a few other actions, there really isn't much you can do with them.
    GYZ6Ak9.png
    Always "River McIrish" ...and maybe some Bebe Hart. ~innocent expression~
  • MikezumiMikezumi Posts: 49,697 Member
    Baby
    The only life stage I skip is baby.
    I don't much care for children but I let them have their share of the lifespan.
    Teen, YA, Adult and Elder are all good for me.
    As a RL elder, I don't see why you think they should be denied woohoo or have to be depicted as crotchety folk who tell kids to get off their lawn.
    Inside my old skin is the same young person I used to be. I might not be like the young people of today but that's only because I grew up in a different time with different values.
  • JoAnne65JoAnne65 Posts: 22,959 Member
    edited January 2019
    I miss an eighth option: none of the above ;) I don’t skip life stages, they all get at least a couple of days. Life span of babies is the shortest (2 days, the minimum) but I don’t skip it. I do sometimes buy a birthday cake in the morning of their birthday (in any life stage but YA, A and E) instead of waiting for them to age autonomously that day.
    5JZ57S6.png
  • HejixHejix Posts: 1,056 Member
    Toddler
    I tend not to skip any age though. But toddlers are a bit annoying because they are more of a mini-game than anything else. They are cute however and I stick to them. But they are pretty limited.
    I want to play ALL the premade families! One day...
  • TadOlsonTadOlson Posts: 11,380 Member
    Elder
    I really tend to consider cutting the elder stage short though they're shortest of the adult stages and can often end up dying off before their time from things like forgetting to eat or setting themselves on fire from neglecting their cooking as they tend to get a bit absentminded.
    44620367775_0442f830c1_n.jpg
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    edited January 2019
    None of the above.

    The baby stage is not the most entertaining to play, I'll be the first to admit that. But what we must do to keep babies happy, comfortable, and begin bonding with the rest of the household is representative of or maybe I should say inspired by the responsibilities of baby care in real life even if it's not anything at all like taking care of such a young person. Sim babies don't have much personality, but in the five sim days (out of a lifespan of 242) that I play them, I am already letting my imagination run wild as to what they will be like once they start growing up.

    Some of you are not taking the actual demographics of sim players on this forum into account. As an adult and actually a soon to be elder myself, I don't like being referred to as an uncool wrinkly YA with less time to live. And I do not expect to be any grumpier than I am today or have a closer relationship with knitting needles in a few short years just because a certain birthday has passed. As for the walk, I've always walked funny anyway due to some minor physical imperfections but I guess that's just me. Older adults and elders are, like so many other things in this game, what we make of them. With the help of some mods and CC, my older adults and elders progress into these age stages gracefully, for the most part do not look or behave like EA might have intended out of the box, they are not all in big hurry to retire, and are every bit as much loved and needed in my game as the rest of them.

    This mod helped me the most in getting things started when going down that road, others don't use it but get the point and have crafted their elders in such a way that they don't really look like they are 110 years old at first glance either (apologies and no disrespect intended to any actual 110 year old simmers out there).
    http://modthesims.info/d/517293/age.html

    You should all be ashamed of yourselves and never mind my lawn (I live in a big city apartment and don't have a lawn), I want all of you off my Internet (shakes fist). >:):p
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
    NRaas has moved!
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  • Deshong04Deshong04 Posts: 4,278 Member
    None.

    For me, what's the point of a life simulator if I'm not going to experience and enjoy every single life stage available? Genuinely, I like them all but I just wished they had done so much more for infants, toddlers, children, teens and elders concerning both social interactions, Buy/Build mode content and CAS content.

    Each life stage adds an unique gaming experience which helps the overall genre it represents. This is the biggest appeal to me since TS2.

    Infants do what infants do...they completely depend on their parent(s)/caregiver(s).
    Toddlers begin to learn skills that will aid them as they grow and are also quite observant of what's going on around them.
    Children usually have big imaginations and love to play with family and friends. They too are quite observant of what's going on around them.
    Teens can be rebellious and usually moody. This is also the time they can start developing romantic relationships and deciding what they want to do upon graduation.

    Young Adults have the ability to live it up while still in their youth and make all kinds of mistakes along the way or take life more seriously.
    Adults are sometimes more mature but some go through a mid-life crisis if they were not satisfied with living life to the fullest in their youth.
    Elders can still work or retire and just enjoy their remaining years in peace with family and friends. Even go traveling around the world to sightsee.

    There is a lot more for most life stages. It also depends on the player's creativity and imagination based on what is available in-game.
    “What doesn't kill you makes you stronger
    Stand a little taller
    Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone
    What doesn't kill you makes a fighter
    Footsteps even lighter”
  • jaletu2005jaletu2005 Posts: 688 Member
    Well I dont skip it exactly but I do shorten the baby life cycle. I enjoy it more when my mother sim can be an at home mom cause then I can use that stroller more. And the baby swing is a must have! But it isnt the most enjoyable life stage. I miss the sims being able to sing to their babies.
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  • thuggishsplicerthuggishsplicer Posts: 1,745 Member
    Baby
    I also avoid skipping life stages, but I chose baby because I always set it to 3 days even when I play 190-day sims.

    I agree with @Deshong04 there should be more to children, teens and elders. I cheer and welcome the elders in my games, after all, all sims will become them and sometimes they can last a long time.
  • TheGreatGorlonTheGreatGorlon Posts: 382 Member
    edited January 2019
    Baby
    I always skip baby. The stage offers nothing to the development the Sims (parent or child), and so they're just pretty uninteractive, which I guess is true of most babies IRL too. Toddlers are where it's at, and I tend to have my young Sims spend the most time here developing skills.
    Post edited by TheGreatGorlon on
  • thuggishsplicerthuggishsplicer Posts: 1,745 Member
    Baby
    @TheGreatGorlon Actually there's a pretty difference between teens and adults, including height. They even need a whole set of clothes. XD
    Except if you're talking about another sims game.
  • bekkasanbekkasan Posts: 10,171 Member
    I'm with the none of the above group. I play all life stages. I like seeing how my sims react to their babies and kids and the bonding that goes on between creator and sim is important too. I play very long lives and story arcs with my sims. I get a better feel for where the story may go by watching each stage as the sim develops character. The elder stage is probably the longest because they don't die in my game, they move to that great big nursing home library if my story actually survives that long.
  • TreyNutzTreyNutz Posts: 5,780 Member
    Elder
    I guess I skip elder. I usually start with one or two CAS sims and play them until I'm done with their story and then start a new game. I rarely play generations and thus my 'main' sims almost never age to elder in my games.
  • king_of_simcity7king_of_simcity7 Posts: 25,102 Member
    Baby
    Babies. You cannot do much with them and they just get in the way when Sims just put them on the floor! :D
    Simbourne
    screenshot_original.jpg
  • igazorigazor Posts: 19,330 Member
    @TheGreatGorlon - Future update? I believe you are describing TS4 babies and teens. This thread is about TS3. :)
    o550pjoa47rpxo63g.jpg
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  • WaterdragonWaterdragon Posts: 780 Member
    Baby
    I often skip the baby stage. Their lifetime is set to the minimum 2 days anyway and if I can´t wait to see what they actually look like, I age them up after a day or so. I make sure however, that their parents and most of the household get to feed, snuggle and play with them. Most of them do it autonomously anyway, and if there´s a crib there will be no noboos on the floor.
    I love toddlers, they have 8 days to be adorable.
    Children (12 days) can be a bit boring (for me at least), but they still have tons to do, if you´re making an effort. Also, this is often the stage where it´s decided, if a sim will be "just another sim" or someone special. I also use the "children can" mod to let them do more things: http://modthesims.info/d/579548.
    Teenagers (12 days) are fun to play, the only thing that bugs me is the scolding system, which is why I have the user directed scolding mod: http://modthesims.info/d/533906.
    Young adults (37 days) and adults (37 days) kinda blend into each other, it´s where the most stuff is done in my game. Being in the "adult" stage in RL, I appreciate the wrinkles, and the a bit more dignified appearance of them.
    Elders (20 days) grew on me - I never really played them before I started my legacy, and it bugs me, that they are all so frail and skinny, thank you @igazor for pointing out that mod to me. A bit of CC helps with the limited clothes, and they still can do everything an adult can do.
    My sim´s antics: http://waterdragonsblog.com/
    My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio

    Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
  • SarahTheRedSarahTheRed Posts: 388 Member
    Toddler
    I play my main family with aging off, and my matriarch is fully maxed parenting, so super efficient baby care works well. I actually will leave babies infants for quite a while so my Sims can clear some career goals before focusing on toddler-hood. So the baby is just hanging out until we are ready for him to age up.
  • CheetahAlyssaCheetahAlyssa Posts: 345 Member
    edited January 2019
    Baby
    Ignore this sorry
    Post edited by CheetahAlyssa on
    A Part Of The Journey Is The End
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  • yowutupdoeyowutupdoe Posts: 18 Member
    Baby
    Babys to me are really just pointless in my opinion. All they really do is cry sleep and poop. You cant control them unless u want to age up. I believe they should have the baby grow into a toddler in one day so the baby prosess is faster :)
  • WaterdragonWaterdragon Posts: 780 Member
    Baby
    @CheetahAlyssa - Um, this is still a Sims 3 thread. I think, you are speaking about Sims 4.
    You can actually take Sims 3 babies out of their cribs and let your sims wander around with them.
    Take them into town in their car or a stroller and leave them somewhere on the sidewalk burried under snow, okay the game won´t let you actually do the last one.
    But yes, Sims 4 babies are just crying furniture.
    My sim´s antics: http://waterdragonsblog.com/
    My studio: http://www.thesims3.com/mypage/WatrDragon/mystudio

    Just assume that every edit I make is because of typos.
  • GoulsquashGoulsquash Posts: 715 Member
    None.

    I guess you could make an argument that I skip Elder, since I jump from save to save so often that my sims never really get there, but if they do I dont just shuttle them off to the side.

    Baby is one that I want to skip, but the challenge of them makes my games feel more real.
    My Blog - Currently updating Aurora Skies!
  • SindocatSindocat Posts: 5,622 Member
    Baby
    There is the least for babies to do, that's all. I keep them as a little burrito for a day or two, and do all the things - cuddles and bottles and diaper changes and rocking chairs and so on - but I don't spend a long time on it. I don't skip it per se... but it is the shortest duration. I want to see whose appearance they inherited.
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