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Field Researcher
Original Poster
#1 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 12:33 AM
Default Do you use a custom age span?
I have my age span set up as 5 days baby, 7 days toddler, 10 days child, 18 days teen, 56 days adult, and 15-20 days elder. I also have 18 hour pregnancy. My age span is almost a multiple of the Maxis age span, but I got confused and I'm off by one day. However, ACR works now and I can't be bothered to change it again. In my age span, it takes 40 days from baby to adult, so sims have 15-16 days, depending on what time of the day they get pregnant, to focus on meeting potential partners, fulfilling lifetime wants, getting promotions, and generally earning enough money to support a family before starting one. They are also usually able to meet their grandchildren before they die, depending on how late in life their children had kids.

According to the Maxis age span, most parents are elders at some point when their kids reach teen if they don't have kids right away, they die when their grandchildren are very young and they suddenly go from young to hunched over elder by the time I would consider them middle aged. Seriously, get your sim pregnant at 29 days left and the kid will have around 4 days left as a teen when their mother becomes an elder. Pregnant at 18 and an elder by 33? I don't think so!

What are your custom age spans? Do you give your sims a lot of time or a very short life?

All's fair in love, war, and video games! ~LyokoGirl5000
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Lab Assistant
#2 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 1:37 AM
I only changed my teens from 14 days to 7 days. The rest is vanilla.
Alchemist
#3 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 1:51 AM
Not exactly. I turn aging off and they only age as fast as I do, or when I feel like they should.
Top Secret Researcher
#4 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 2:01 AM
I don't use any aging mod, I just allow my Sims one bottle of elixir of life each (used typically during the adult and/or elder phases of life) to allow them a bit more time.

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Mad Poster
#5 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 3:10 AM
I have greatly extended life spans. It's not for everyone, but I want a lot of time with my Sims. In fact I extended it recently because my current crop of adults were getting close to being elders and I'm definitely not anywhere close to ready. Numbers aren't that close to real life, but it's close enough for me. Currently it's set up as follows
Pregnancy - 10 days
Baby - 9 days
Toddler - 18 days
Child - 28 days
Teen - 36 days
Adult - 400 days
Elder - 70 -5/+14

Large dogs are puppies for 5 days, adults for 36 days and elders for 16-21 days. Small dogs are puppies for 6 days, adults for 51 days and elder for 16-21 days. Cats are kittens for 6 days, adult for 61 days and elder for 21 days.

Creations can be found on my on tumblr.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 4:02 AM
My age span is 1 day = 6 months:
Baby 2 days (age 0-12 months)
Toddlers 8 days (1-5 years old)
Child 14 days (5 to 12 years old)
Teen 10 days (13-18 years old)
Young Adult 10 days (18 to 23 years old)
Adult 74 days (23-60 years old)
Elder is 60+ and I have not changed it since I have not had an elder die since I started this age range 3 years ago -yes that's how slowly I play. Since I would like the average age to be at least 70 they will need at least 20 days. Only I haven't fiddled with them.

I use 48-hour pregnancy.
pets I forget but they have longer life spans as well.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#7 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 4:21 AM
I just use TwoJeffs' age duration hack, which makes adult lifespan longer and elder lifespan shorter, and both are somewhat random.
Mad Poster
#8 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 5:05 AM
I use to use "elixir of life" all the time but after about 8 years I stop using it and only go with what the game has.

Having 4-5 generations in the same house and having ACR you have some really crazy things happenings around your house.
Sneaking off to the hot tub to woohoo and having the rest of the family having negative thought bubbles for the next 3 hours is not fun.

No, I no longer use any type of aging.

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Mad Poster
#9 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 10:28 AM
I use Inge's age duration hack:
Babies-2 days
Toddlers-2 days
Children-6 days
Teens-6 days
Adults-50 days
Elders-30 days or so.

I shorted the baby-teen ages to reflect more or less the actual ages that real life kids do in years.

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Mad Poster
#10 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 10:51 AM
I get by with occasionally turning aging off, using Elixir of Life or the blender for making a sim 3 days younger/older.

I think age hacks may or not may not suit certain play styles - I don't think it suits mine.

The vanilla adult age seemed a bit short to me when I started playing, and I did use aging off. Now that my sims go to community lots for skilling and social purposes, they get a lot more done in a day - I don't use the community clock thing - so I don't need them to be around longer as adults.
The vanilla teen stage is a bit long, but it does not bother me, because they all go to Uni and I don't have to wait until they almost grow up.
Elders do get to use their elixir of life - they earned it. And I need them to take the grandkids on holiday before they die.
Scholar
#11 Old 17th Jul 2021 at 8:57 PM
I mostly stick to the vanilla age spans, but there are a couple of things I've tried with the adult stage.

One is to use the Elixir of Life - but not just to lengthen the lifespan: it has to be taken at a certain fixed time, regardless of aspiration, so it gives me more variety, with some folks taking early retirement due to poor health and others continuing to work well past what would normally be retirement age.

The other is to use the SimBlender to age CAS adults down three days every Sunday, which gives them more time to skill and build relationships, and means they don't become elders while their first child is still in diapers.
Forum Resident
#12 Old 18th Jul 2021 at 3:24 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
My age span is 1 day = 6 months:
Baby 2 days (age 0-12 months)
Toddlers 8 days (1-5 years old)
Child 14 days (5 to 12 years old)
Teen 10 days (13-18 years old)
Young Adult 10 days (18 to 23 years old)
Adult 74 days (23-60 years old)
Elder is 60+ and I have not changed it since I have not had an elder die since I started this age range 3 years ago -yes that's how slowly I play. Since I would like the average age to be at least 70 they will need at least 20 days. Only I haven't fiddled with them.

I use 48-hour pregnancy.
pets I forget but they have longer life spans as well.


Mine is similar, with a 1 day = 6 months idea (though I stay with the default of 75 hour pregnancies):
Baby 2 days (0-12 months)
Toddler 6 days (1-4 years)
Child 16 days (4-12 years)
Teen 14 days (12-19 years - though they can age up as soon as they're 18)
Young Adult 16 days (4 years at 4 days/year - I play university for twice as many days per rotation)
Adult 67 days (technically 16.5-50 years, but adjusted to account for age at transition)
Elders default 40 days but anything from 20 days to I think 102? (50+ years)

Due to the way the game handles age transitions, I added an extra 5 days that shouldn't be there into the adult age range, so that Elders say they're 100 days old (ie 50 years) when they first transition. It works as I'm adjusting new adults' ages anyway - sims either go to university or grow up at the end of the year when they're either 18 or 18.5, and then I adjust their age when they become an adult to either 18/18.5 to match or with less days if they've been to university (so age 22 or 22.5 usually).

I chose my adult/elder transition age so that female sims fertility cut off is reasonable. It does mean they look too old initially as elders - it would be nice to have a middle age stage (or that wonderful Age mod from TS3), and I don't let them retire until they're 65 (or have a golden anniversary party until 50 years after their wedding). My sims are likely to meet their grandchildren as long as they had kids before 40 or so and their children do the same (and if they aged to elder with a good aspiration), and there is a chance of meeting some great-grandchildren. Jenny Smith turned 50 about as her first grandchild was born with gold aspiration - she'll live to see great-grandchildren as long as one of the first three or so has a child before the age of about 30.
Mad Poster
#13 Old 18th Jul 2021 at 6:11 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Sunrader
Not exactly. I turn aging off and they only age as fast as I do, or when I feel like they should.
I'm much the same. Sometimes they age even slower than me. I think I'm aging too fast! I'd like some Elixir of Life. Or just turn aging off in my lot!

Quote: Originally posted by Katerina Petrova
I only changed my teens from 14 days to 7 days.
That would never do for me! I've been playing young Andrew as a teen ever since the first I loaded the game up -- over eight and a half years ago! All being well Andrew and Julian will eventually go to university. And Andrew has plans for his life after university.

But some teens in my game I just can't imagine as adults at all. For instance Jack Gill and Ravi Bertino. What need would they have for uni? Jack says they're already students at The University of Life. (They go to all-day nightclubs every day.) Some other Romance teens might decide to go to university -- to study Drama!

Sometimes I think teens are just more fun to play than adults. They tend to want to have fun -- rather than wanting to have babies! And, for the most part, they're not yet burdened with adult responsibilities.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#14 Old 18th Jul 2021 at 11:04 PM
Quote: Originally posted by AndrewGloria
That would never do for me! I've been playing young Andrew as a teen ever since the first I loaded the game up -- over eight and a half years ago! All being well Andrew and Julian will eventually go to university. And Andrew has plans for his life after university.


I thought you had said sometime ago that you had aged them to young Adult?

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Scholar
#15 Old 18th Jul 2021 at 11:33 PM
I used to use my custom one which was:

Baby - Default
Toddler - 6 days
Child - 9 days
Teen - 12 days
Young Adult - 8 days
Adult - 36 days
Elder - Random

But now I use mostly maxis but took away 5 days from teens and gave it to the adults, so adults now have 34 days instead of 29 and teens have 10 days instead of 15. I don't know what to do about the premades ages after applying my aging mod though since more than half of the teens will lose all of their days and pretty much be grown into adults which isn't fun at all. I could always note down all of their default ages and then apply them after Chris Hatch's Neighborhood Age Fix mod does its job, but there are teens who start at 15 days and adults that start at 29, so I don't know whether to shift them to the new default starting age which would be 10 & 34 respectively.. Doing that would likely mess up the "age sync" of their friends and relatives, if I make sense?

Why do we stress ourselves out with petty details like these (not meaning to offend)? :P
Mad Poster
#16 Old 19th Jul 2021 at 7:08 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
I thought you had said sometime ago that you had aged them to young Adult?
I temporarily aged Andrew up to an Independent Teen using the Sim Manipulator so he could get married. I did this twice -- once to get engaged and again to actually get married. I found that, with Jenflower's Woohoo Teens installed, I only had to age up the teen making the proposal. Julian was (very) happy to accept both proposals while remaining a teen. Once they were engaged (and again once they were married) I quickly aged Andrew back down to a normal teen. They will be going back to school shortly. Thanks to Jenflower's Homework Sometimes Faster Fun Andrew and Julian both enjoy school.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Link Ninja
#17 Old 19th Jul 2021 at 8:39 AM
I use Phaenoh's age span mod. However, I also liberally use sim blender to give back days like throwing candy at a parade when they are adults and elders. Who knows what the true average span for those stages are in my game? Not me. They get long lives unless a fire does them in.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Scholar
#18 Old 27th Jul 2021 at 6:09 PM Last edited by sturlington : 27th Jul 2021 at 7:26 PM.
In my game, one day equals one year. I use the birthday cake or sim blender to age them up when they are in the younger stages and send them to college early. I have a really nice mod that extends the adult span and also randomizes it, so it's different lengths for different Sims, which I think reflects various states of health and disease. Some Sims just age faster than others. And then the randomized elder span is comparatively shorter.

Pregnancy = 36 hours. What can I say? A Sim's gestational period is just longer. This is better than the way-too-long vanilla 75 hours, but any less would be too short. They wouldn't get to do anything while pregnant.
Baby = 0-1 years old (2 days including day of birth)
Toddler = 2-5 years old (3 days)
Child = 5-12 years old (7 days)
Teen = 12-20 years old (8 days) -- at that point they either go to college or are aged up to adult
Young Adult = ~2 years -- I don't really play college, and since everyone in my game goes to a "tech" school, it's kind of considered a community college and only lasts 1-2 years. I'm not really strict about it. I just put them back into play when it's convenient.
Adult = randomized but on average between 35-45 days. So they'll be between 55 and 65 years old when they age to elder.
Elder = randomized but generally ends sometime in their 70s
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