The Sims

[Benji]

Right, so life stages for better balance. Right now I have it set like this

PHASE       LENGTH (DAYS)
Pregnant    3
Baby        3 (6)
Toddler     4 (10)
Child       8 (18)
Teen        15 (33)
College     16 (49) (decreased from default which was 24)

PHASE       LENGTH (DAYS)
Adult       40 (40) (increased from default which was 28)
Elder       9–31 (49-71)

The reason I have done this is because far too much time is spent playing University in comparison to the rest of the game. You can also easily make every student get an A+ and have plenty of friends with 24 days, which reduces the motivations of most characters to make them unique. By removing 8 days, you force every student to focus on their work, their social skills, their love life, or whatever their other motivations might be and make the expectations and struggles of university life a bit more realistic.

I have increase the adult stage length because with University installed and playing each lot at an even pace, Maxis never took into account the fact that this would mean a larger than realistic percentage of Sim parents would be long dead before their kids graduate. I felt 40 days worked well as you can see from the above numbers as it means all Sims would be hitting elder hood just before their kids graduate (which puts them into the 50-60 age bracket I think of as elders starting in).

I am contemplating changing a couple of things, one is that I might increase the adult phase to 50 as Elder Sims are forced out of top jobs which seems unbalanced, and compensating by reducing the Elder stage by a total of a week or so on either side of the "random" and aspiration factors they receive.

The other change I think I'll make is that the baby stage is utterly pointless, and the toddler phase has always been too short for my tastes, so I might reduce baby stage to a single day, and increase the toddler stage by those removed two days in its place, giving you enough time to teach them to walk, talk, and be potty trained, as well as socialise with family members.

That seem about right?

[Walker]

Do I get Sims 2 and join the fun?

[Benji]

3 minutes ago, Walker said:

Do I get Sims 2 and join the fun?

Me and @Cymbols are bringing y'all back down the rabbit hole.

[Benji]

Thinking about it, I may reduce pregnancy length too, that way Sims who want 20 kids might actually be able to achieve it without the stupid Elixir or twin-scumming with that delicious cheesecake*.

*eating cheesecake forces twins, if you didn't know

[Cymbols]

51 minutes ago, Benji said:

Me and @Cymbols are bringing y'all back down the rabbit hole.

Do it do it do it! 

Only played for maybe an hour last night and it's still so good.

[Schlitzbrille]

1 hour ago, Walker said:

Do I get Sims 2 and join the fun?

It's not a matter of "if", it's a matter of "when" and "how".

[Cymbols]

So on my Pleasantview. I've only expanded to uni and downtown, not bothering with OFB. If I add in the OFB district will I get more townies and shit? Don't want to bother with any of the families over there, or businesses at all, but would make things more interesting. 

[Benji]

Yes, you get new townies and NPCs.

[Cymbols]

Turns out I'd already done it and just not noticed. Deleted all the households, apart from the rich dude, who I moved over to the main town. 

Recent development, Don Lothario gets the maid pregnant, and in a fit of guilt, marries her. The new house I've moved them in to is like one square too small in every direction though and they keep on getting in each other's way. It's built on a raised foundation as well which makes it difficult to fix. Haven't decided whether I'm going to have Don stick around or not, one of the Caliente's is still on the market, though she has yet to meet the rich guy.

[Rocky]

Are you guys playing this with any control? or is it purely on free will?

[Cymbols]

Free will is an illusion  

But nah, I treat it as my own personal soap opera, though I'm only really having the time to play as two households for two days at a time. Turns out when I last played my data (like over a year ago), I moved some random bloke in with the redhead Caliente sister. No idea who he is, so the plan was for her to sleep with him, invite Don Lothario over, sleep with him, and try for baby with both for the drama of finding out who's it is. Unfortunately, random bloke came back from work and caught Nina/Dina in bed with Don before he could have his turn, so I moved the poor heartbroken soul out. Dunno what I'm gonna do with him. Malcolm Landgraab being another single blond male doesn't bode well for this guy's survival chances. 

On to the Oldies. Herb died, thank fuck. These two are so boring. Might move Coral and the cat in with the Pleasants tbh so she can live out her days as a minor character in their lives. Next will be the Broke family and the Dreamers I think - I tend to go around town in a counter-clockwise direction. 

[Benji]

On 23/03/2017 at 08:51, Rocky said:

Are you guys playing this with any control? or is it purely on free will?

I keep it on default, but I generally control every action anyway unless I'm hyper focused on one specific task/story for a character.

7 minutes ago, Cymbols said:

Free will is an illusion  

But nah, I treat it as my own personal soap opera, though I'm only really having the time to play as two households for two days at a time. Turns out when I last played my data (like over a year ago), I moved some random bloke in with the redhead Caliente sister. No idea who he is, so the plan was for her to sleep with him, invite Don Lothario over, sleep with him, and try for baby with both for the drama of finding out who's it is. Unfortunately, random bloke came back from work and caught Nina/Dina in bed with Don before he could have his turn, so I moved the poor heartbroken soul out. Dunno what I'm gonna do with him. Malcolm Landgraab being another single blond male doesn't bode well for this guy's survival chances. 

On to the Oldies. Herb died, thank fuck. These two are so boring. Might move Coral and the cat in with the Pleasants tbh so she can live out her days as a minor character in their lives. Next will be the Broke family and the Dreamers I think - I tend to go around town in a counter-clockwise direction. 

Have him die and have Don framed as a murderer what with Bella disappearing from his house too

[Cymbols]

19 minutes ago, Benji said:

I keep it on default, but I generally control every action anyway unless I'm hyper focused on one specific task/story for a character.

Have him die and have Don framed as a murderer what with Bella disappearing from his house too

I was going to try and turn him back into a townie tbh, but death does seem like the easier option  Although...he does look a bit like the Broke kids, even though he's probably too young the be the father of the eldest 

[Schlitzbrille]

All y'alls storylines make so much sense

[apsham]

Great. I'm probably going to friggin' install this now.

[Benji]

4 hours ago, Cymbols said:

I was going to try and turn him back into a townie tbh, but death does seem like the easier option  Although...he does look a bit like the Broke kids, even though he's probably too young the be the father of the eldest 

Also they already have a dad who died in a pool accident. I suppose you could SimPE him into being their uncle?

[Mick]

5 minutes ago, Apsham said:

Great. I'm probably going to friggin' install this now.

[Cymbols]

I always get the sand timer each time I switch character or change menu, and it takes like ten seconds to do it. Any idea why it's being so slow? It really kills things when it's a household with multiple people in.

[Schlitzbrille]

3 hours ago, Cymbols said:

I always get the sand timer each time I switch character or change menu, and it takes like ten seconds to do it. Any idea why it's being so slow? It really kills things when it's a household with multiple people in.

What's your computer specs like? How recent was the installation? How much custom content do y'all have in-game?

[Mick]

1 hour ago, The Handsome Luchadore said:

What's your computer specs like? How recent was the installation? How much custom content do y'all have in-game?

Well, any PC or laptop bought after 2010 should run the game just fine, even if it's Ultimate Edition. Here, follow this and see if it helps, @Cymbols