What do you consider realistic aging settings?

[birdy]

Hello! My name is Birdy and I've been a lurker on this site for a very long time. I always read Carl's guide on an EP before I start playing.

I just got Pets and Generations the other day; I have not had a chance to play yet, but I've done a lot of brainstorming as to what kind of story I want to play this time around. I would like it to be as realistic as possible, which leads me to my question. What do you think is a realistic age setting? Now that I have the ability to pick the age lengths for each stage of life, I want to make it like real life. I was calculating that a real-year is equal to a Sim week, which works for baby through childhood. But when you get to adulthood, figuring the stage ranges from age 30 to 60, that makes 30 Sim weeks! o.O That seemed like too long.

So I am interested in everyone else's thoughts and how they've used the new age settings. Thank you!

[Trentorio]

I myself have been trying to play on the default normal setting lately, and in my opinion I think sims age and die way too fast, (as in Townies)  but if doing things like the legacies or dynasties I appreciate the extra challenge and understand why the rules default to Normal. I suppose it is realistic in a sense of climbing in your career and skills over your entire life if you keep it on normal.

I play more "casual" games so I usually bump normal up another week...so 28 days for YA and Adult and I might tack a few more days onto Elder.  I leave infant at 3 and toddler at 7 because I end up being annoyed otherwise. (Until I got the swing, and that's where they stay)

Generations is a good one to add length to the Child and Teen years if you want more out of those life stages. I usually put Child at 14 days and Teens sometimes I leave it at 14 sometimes I bump it up to 21 or some number between 14 and 21.

Effectively, I add a week to every lifespan on Normal.

The first game I ever played in Sims 3 I had set to Epic and seriously the nooboo was a nooboo for about 2 weeks game time before I realized I could age it up with a cake....that whole game everyone got the cake.

[birdy]

The first game I ever played in Sims 3 I had set to Epic and seriously the nooboo was a nooboo for about 2 weeks game time before I realized I could age it up with a cake....that whole game everyone got the cake.

LOL!!! That is really funny.

Thank you for your input. I really like the idea of adding a week onto Normal. I think I might also try a test family and do the 1 week=1 year thing just to see how long it feels.

[CSquared2]

I usually leave my settings at the default epic, but I'm beginning to change my mind about that.  For me, it's not about duration.  If you want generations to fly by, pick a shorter span.   For me, it's about proportion.  If a sim is an infant for five days, five days should count for a year if you want it to resemble real life.  Toddler stage should then be 10 days, ages 1-3.  Child should be 50 days, ages 3-12.  Teen should be 35 days, or a little less if you decide 18 years is a young adult.    Exactly where the other stages fall depends on your perception of where those stages begin and end.  The game is centered around young adults and, to a lesser extent, teens and adults, to appeal to the casual simmer who doesn't play muti-generational families.  There's a limit to "realistic," but I think the age settings as they are don't come very close.

[Hosfac]

I typically play on normal lifespan, and don't mess with the age sliders at all.  It's got nothing to do with wanting the generations to sail past...it's more about adding a sense of urgency and purpose to my sim's lives.  On a longer life span, it's easy to complete their life goals so they seem to spend a lot more time muddling about or just sitting around watching TV.  They may not always complete their LTW, but they live full and purposeful lives.  And with that, they and I are both content. 

Plus, I found that on longer life spans, I tend to more easily get bored with a family.  I get tired of looking at the same, old faces Sim-day in and Sim-day out.  Plus, it makes the Elder life stage excruciatingly long.  It's my 3rd least favorite life stage, directly behind infant and toddler respectively.

[birdy]

I kind of "role-play" Sims, so I sort of live vicariously through them. (Stay-at-home mom to two little ones - Sims is my only escape. LOL) With that said, I really like what CSquared2 said about using the infant's stage span to dictate the rest of them. I like my sims to muddle about some, too.

[xFezIsAFreakx]

I attempted a real life sort of lifespan for my legacy. It went like this: Baby - 2 Days, Toddler - 6 Days, Child - 16 Days, Teen - 28 Days, YA - 50 Days, Adult - 50 Days, Elder - 40 Days. However, I felt this was far too long and tedious, it was taking ages to get things done. I'm now playing on normal with a few adjustments.

[MoMoll]

I don't care since my sim can make the "young again" potion. So I keep it normal and let the rest of the town die off. She'll outlive the vampires and not have to hide from the sun.

[nemaline]

I tend to think of it as one Sim day being the equivalent of a real-life year. That's mostly because the normal life-span is 90 days, and while living a minimum of 90 years is a much longer lifespan than average, it's still pretty reasonable.

That way, Baby would be 1 day, Toddler would be 4 days, Child would be 8 days, bringing us to 13 years old. Then Teen would be 7 days. They'd become a Young Adult at 20, have 20 days in that life stage, then become an Adult at 40. 25 days as an adult would bring them to 65, which is a reasonably common retirement age. Then 25 days of Elderhood to make them 90 (or less than that, if you want a lower average age of death or really dislike Elders.)
 
I think it's better having some of the Adult and Elder days distributed to the younger age groups, though. Although 1 day of babyhood sounds great to me. Babies are dull.

[birdy]

Those lengths seem too short to me. Even on the Normal lifespan, I don't have enough time to build very many friendships AND raise skills AND have hobbies AND move up in a career. Maybe I try to accomplish too much with my sims. LOL

[MoMoll]

Welcome birdy: It depends on what you want your sim to accomplish. IF, you want lots of children, then have them. But if your main sim is female, she will miss work. If your sim is female,I wait until she is level 8 or 9 to have a child. Usually by then her work days and hours are reduced. Easier to handle.
Build friendships at work, use "chat with co-workers", talk to aquaitances on the phone (or use the computer) and throw parties.

[birdy]

Welcome birdy: It depends on what you want your sim to accomplish. IF, you want lots of children, then have them. But if your main sim is female, she will miss work. If your sim is female,I wait until she is level 8 or 9 to have a child. Usually by then her work days and hours are reduced. Easier to handle.
Build friendships at work, use "chat with co-workers", talk to aquaitances on the phone (or use the computer) and throw parties.

Those are some very good ideas, MoMoll. Thank you!

[pallyndrome]

I like to play with:

1 (or is it 2?) days - baby
5 days - toddler
10 - child
10 - teenager
21 - Young Adult
21 - Adult
21 - Elder

Though I'm thinking of increasing the elder years (just because I think it'll give my elders more time to make relationships with their grandchildren. I don't like putting the teenage years so long compared to child years, so I put them the same. And little time as a baby is nice

[ErinIsNice]

When I got Generations, I added a few days to child and a few days to teen, so I'd have time to play with all the new child/teen features. I feel like on the default normal lifespan, you have to skip some of the fun stuff.
I keep the young adult and adult at normal settings.

[Figwit]

I won't pretend my ages are at all realistic but I have chosen mine to suit my style.  I play on a very long life span - unless I am playing a challenge of some sort .

Baby is -3 though sometimes I age them up before then.
I have toddler -4 - which gives me time to train them if there are multiples and they can learn their toddler skills and read their way through most of the books.
Child - 7
Teen - 50 (I like my teens)
YA - 150 (my favourite age stage)
Adult - 50
Elder - 17

I have adapted my Options.ini file so I can have these ages by the way.