Proportionate Aging Mod (four days to the year)-- Is There Any Interest?

[hat_plays_sims]

Gaguing Interest: Aging Mod

So whenever it gets too hot to sew, I've been putzying away at an aging mod, because I got a bee in my bonnet to learn how. I'm still testing it, and I'm kind of half seeking testers for it, because along with Sim ages... I had to mod ACR. (Old ACR, not the new version. The new version still seems to be in Beta, but I could probably mod it without too many difficulties.

ANYway, it'll be at least a week, probably closer to two, before I'll let myself post this sucker, but would anyone be interested in testing it/downloading it once it's been tested?

We all know Sim pregnancy lasts for three days, right? And human pregnancy lasts for nine months (okay, closer to ten, but nine is the popular count). So one Sim day should equal three human months, right?

I honestly thought that was the way it worked for a while-- babies are babies for three days, nine months is a reasonable infancy. But Sims are only toddlers for four days... so they're starting school at twenty-one months old? The teenage years are the worst for being disproportionate-- Sims are teens for fifteen days but adults for only 28? Man, if I expected my adult years to be only twice as long as my teenage years before I got old and slumpy, I don't know what I'd do. But hey. I ignored it, because I heard somewhere that aging mods conflict with InTeen.

And then Abel6669 posted his Tripled Sim Ages mod and I decided to look into things. I mean, he was firing them off by request left and right, so an aging mod itself couldn't be too hard to figure out, right?

Totally wasn't. And they don't conflict with InTeen. And they don't conflict with ACR, but they do break it. So I went and looked up HOW they broke it and whether or not it could be fixed, which led me to a post on MATY. I was tempted to skip the work and just nab that mod, but... Sixteen days to the year? Yeah, okay, sure, you could assign holidays, but...

Dang.

However, knowing it could be done meant that I could do it.

The proportion is a pretty simple one-- if a pregnancy lasts three days, then three days is nine months. If three days is nine months, then one year is four days.



Maxis ages go thusly:

Infant: 3 Days
Toddler: 4 Days
Child: 8 Days
Teen: 15 Days
Young Adult: 24 Days (discounting three-day post-grad grace period or any academic probation)
Adult: 28 Days
Elder: 9 to 30 Days

Plantbaby: 4 Days
Plantsim: 28 Days
Elder Plantsim: 9 to 30 Days

Puppies and Kittens: 5 Days
Large Dogs: 21 Days
Small Dogs: 25 Days
Cats: 25 Days

I found no info on elder pets, besides 'varies.'

My mod is a little different...

Infant: 4 Days
Toddler: 12 Days
Child: 32 Days
Teen: 24 Days
Young Adult: Unchanged (because otherwise I'd feel rushed through Uni)
Adult: 112 Days
Elder: 12-216 Days

Plantbaby: 24 Days
Plantsim : 112 Days
Elder Plantsim: 4-128 Days

Puppies and Kittens: 4 Days (the only stage that got shorter)
Large Dogs: 32 Days
Small Dogs: 44 Days
Cats: 60 Days
Elder Large Dogs: 8-24 Days
Elder Small Dogs: 8-32 Days
Elder Cats: 8-40 Days

Infancy lasts until the age of one, toddlerhood from age one to age four, childhood from age four to age twelve. I know four is a little young to start school and I can bump that back to five, but I just feel like a four-year-old isn't a toddler anymore. The teen years are from twelve to eighteen, adulthood from eighteen (or twenty-two) to forty-six (or fifty. I'll get back to young adults in a minute), and the Change of Life hits at forty-six (or fifty) and continues until death... which could hit at forty-nine or 104.

Plantbabies get to be little sprouts for six years, but Plantsim adulthood is unchanged (it makes ACR easier that way). Plantsim Elders whither more quickly than regular elders-- depending on their aspiration, they might stick around for a year or for thirty-one years.

I've had cats all my life. I wish kittenhood lasted longer, but you get about a year of them being all tiny and adorable. Adult cats don't start slowing down until around fifteen (which is a bit late but... kitty!), and could live to be seventeen to twenty-five.

Like cats, dogs, large and small, stay puppies for one year. I wish I could've made the large dogs stay puppies longer, as in reality, but... the puppy is an itty bitty thing and then suddenly transforms into this big galoot... No, one year stretches my suspension of disbelief enough. Small dogs get old at age twelve, and don't cross the rainbow bridge (which is the goddamn sappiest thing I've ever read, and I surprised myself by being moved anyway) until age fourteen-- and could make it to age twenty. Large dogs don't live as long as small dogs, so they get old at age nine and could shuffle off their mortal coils anywhere from eleven to fifteen.

I said I'd get back to Young Adults, and here I am. Young Adults count as being on their first day of adulthood through their whole college career, so their age in days has no effect on this mod OR on ACR (the other thing that counts Sims' age-in-days). You could make University as long or short as you wanted and it will have no effect on this mod or ACR. There are two reasons I'm not modding the length of a University career; one, if I decide the length of college isn't right, there's already a 'semesters last 48 hours' mod on MTS, so why reinvent the wheel? Two, I like the three-day semesters. I don't feel rushed, since half the time I'm sending people off to Uni to build adult relationships and whatnot. (Third bonus reason: a little mod called Harder Skills. I'll get to that in a bit.)

So University SHOULD last for six years, but I'm pretending it lasts for four by default, and I'm not counting the three days grace period you get after graduation. It only made any difference in deciding when the adult and elder stages should end, though-- yes, your Sims can live to be 104 years old, if they go to college and live immensely satisfying lives and probably age up in permaplat.

So now let's talk about the ACR half of this mod. See, okay. ACR is set up to count a Sim's age in days, and apply a base chance of autonomous pregnancy-- through either Risky Woohoo or Autonomous Try-For-Baby, but I'm going to keep using the term autonomous pregnancy-- for each day of their fertile life. This chance starts at 70% at twenty-two days old-- eight days before the adult transition, for InTeen compatibility-- and descends until it hits 0% on day fifty and cuts off completely on day 65, six days after elder transition. What's the difference between 0% and cutting off completely? The 0% base chance is just that-- a base chance. There are other factors involved in determining a Sim's chance of autonomous pregnancy, positive and negative.

This is also why ACR and aging mods don't play nice together. None of their code conflicts, but where InTeen's two 'target' ages, 18 (eight days before adult transition) and 40 (five days before elder transition) count backwards from transitions, ACR counts the total days your Sim has been alive from birth. If your aging mod causes your Sims to pass Day 65 somewhere in their youth, their autonomous fertility is... not so autonomous. They'll still whoohoo autonomously, but it won't DO anything.

On top of that, when I discovered the fertility just kind of descended in a straight line, I was displeased. When I plotted out fertility, I plotted an arc. I actually made a graph, so hey. My math teachers were right, I DID need this stuff in real life! (So far I haven't had to find X yet, so my algebra teachers aren't off the hook yet.)

If you use InTeen, with this mod autonomous pregnancy starts at age sixteen, eight days before adult transition, and right in line with InTeen's age eighteen. The base chance of pregnancy at age sixteen is 51%. Peak fertility (70% base chance of autonomous pregnancy, and the highest ACR starts with by default) hits at age twenty-two to age twenty-four-and-a-quarter, which are well into the adult years-- for a non-Uni-grad Sim, adulthood starts at eighteen. (I'll come back to Uni Sims in a minute, again.) But those two and a half years are at the very top of the arc-- it's high from age nineteen and a half to age twenty-six, when it starts to drop sharply. By thirty-five, the base chance reaches 23% and start to drop sharply. By age forty, the odds are at 5% and have leveled out a bit; it isn't until forty-three and three-quarters that the base odds hit 0% (they can still get pregnant, it's just harder). InTeen's Age 40 lands at five days before elder transition, which in this case is forty-four and three-quarters-- you still have a chance for pregnancy if you hurry, but miscarriages become more likely, especially if your Sim has had a miscarriage before. Elder transition is at forty-six, which is not the end of the 0% pregnancy odds (six days past elder transition is, as in unmodded ACR)... but the game won't let your Sims get pregnant anymore anyway, so it might as well be.

It all looks unnecessarily complicated, but human females are less fertile when they first become fertile, become more likely to get pregnant over time, and then as they approach menopause, their chance of pregnancy decreases.

Getting back to Young Adults again, and sort of still on the topic of fertility... The game counts Young Adults, I've said before, as being on their first day of adulthood all through college. An adult on their first day of adulthood as an autonomous pregnancy base chance of 63% with my modded ACR. However, with JUST ACR, this doesn't mean anything, like the fact that teens have an autonomous pregnancy chance at sixteen doesn't mean anything-- without InTeen, only adults can get pregnant.

InTeen, however, brings with it more than just teen pregnancy-- there's the chance of miscarriage, a touch of realism a lot of historic gamers (like me!) want in their games, and support for Young Adult marriage... and pregnancy. Sure, okay, college students probably shouldn't be able to afford a lavish wedding, but they can get married in real life if they want to, right? Of course right. And little accidents can happen to a co-ed just as easily as they can happen to a townie.

The trouble with that is... well, scroll on back up there and look at my numbers for the default Maxis ages. If a Sim and her sweetheart go to college on the same day and she hears those happy little chimes, she's still got twenty-four days of school left. Now, hiring the nanny does work, so there's no worries about missing class. (Worries about what the nanny does, on the other hand...) Three days of pregnancy plus three days of infancy plus four days of toddlerhood plus eight days of childhood is only eighteen days, and any child Sim who transitions to teen while living on a University lot magically becomes a Young Adult, totally missing out on the entirety of their teen years.

With my mod installed, however, that same Sim and her sweetheart can have their happy little accident and graduate with a child of but five-and-a-quarter-- it should be a three-year-old, I admit, but if you want that... there's a mod for 48-hour semesters, like I said, and besides, toddlers and infants sometimes get left behind when the parents move out of Uni houses. It's problematic (although you might just be able to push it until the kid's child transition). Children, so I hear, make it into the cab on their own just fine.

My aging mod adds function, not just time!

There are some other ups and downs of this mod...

Cons:
- If you use this mod, you will NEED Harder Jobs, Harder Skills, Harder Grades, and Slower Aspiration Benefits. You flat out need them, no bones about it, otherwise everything happens way too fast, especially hitting permaplat, which will make your elders live to be a hundred without fail. In fact, if you know of any other Increased Challenge mods, send 'em my way-- I'm not fussed about getting less money, but anything that makes it harder to hit permaplat is a good thing with this mod.
- Seasons end up being fifteen months long, proportionately (five days per season times three months in a day), and one day is just too short for a proper season.
- I gave elders a really long possible lifespan. Like, really long.
- University ages don't match up by default.
- If one is selling the Castaway Stories Elixir of Life in an OFB shop, it is seriously underpriced by default for how powerful it is with this mod. (Prices can be changed in SimPE, though, and something that rockets you back to the first day of your current age group probably ought to cost more than a couple hundred simoleons before setting it to Insanely Overpriced anyway.)
- In an unmodded game, if they start their first day of adulthood and successfully Try For Baby as soon as the grub is born, a Sim can have eight kids, discounting twins; in a with this mod, if they start their first day of adulthood and successfully Try For Baby as soon as the grub is born, a Sim can have 36 kids, discounting twins. (Thankfully, this is just shy of physically impossible in humans-- it actually takes ten months to complete a pregnancy, not nine, so even if you managed to conceive right after giving birth (unlikely but not impossible, take note!), you could only have thirty-two children in twenty-seven years-- if your body didn't give out on you first. Sims' bodies never do.)
- Flavor text as you hover over a Sim's life meter will say '99 days to elder' instead of '24.75 years to elder.' Which is awkward but not something I can fix.
- Pet ages are optimistically realistic, which means they're always too short.
- You may have to give all Sims in the neighborhood new ACR tokens to have the new fertility arc take effect for Sims with lengthened lifespans, which means Sims with regular lifespans get a little messed up in terms of autonomous fertility (so if you're only testing it, try testing it in a new testerhood).
- With Slower Lifetime Aspiration Gain in, your Young Adults' lifetime aspiration meters (those are the ones that came with Free Time and reward you for monumental moments in your Sims' lives, like having a first baby or getting married) actually won't fill at all; this is because EA nerfed Young Adult progress here (otherwise it's a LOAD of aspiration in a short time) and the mod lops that progress down to one-third. (This could be a pro for some; slow lifetime aspiration bars even further by holding off on first kisses and first woohoos until college; try to get engaged or even married there, as well, and nerf that bonus.)

Pros:
- Elixir of Life is de-valued; one keg of it will not now give your Sims half again their adult life back. (One keg has five servings, each serving is three days, for a total of fifteen days-- half the adult lifespan by default, but just shy of four years under my aging. This might count as a con for some.)
- If you're writing or thinking of writing a story-driven legacy instead of a regular legacy, you have more time to get to know your characters without using aging cheats. (Nothing wrong with aging cheats, but for my sake I wanted everything to happen automatically. Other people have awesome systems in place, but I'd lose track if I had to do it all by hand.)
- If you're using a season to mark a round of gameplay-per-household in a neighborhood-wide challenge, children no longer grow up at weirdly-staggered rates.
- Sims are now children for longer than they are teenagers, which is a much more natural state of affairs.
- Family Sims can now have ten children or graduate six children from college or breed twenty kittens or puppies without cheating their ages, snorfing down cheesecake every time they get knocked up, or starting to breed as teenagers. (It's humanly possible to have ten kids between 18 and 46, after all.)
- Romance Sims can have fifty first dates without having to have an average of two dates per day.
- By the time adults are ready to age up it's quite possible for a player to be willing to let them grow old gracefully instead of diving for the elixir keg, the Castaway cauldron, or feeding a hapless townie to the cowplant.
- There is plenty of time for Sims to try things; go on vacations, throw parties, go on dates, build home businesses, have five top-level businesses (own the whole town, Mr. McDuck!), breed pets, move house now and then, and basically have lives beyond skill, badge, work, breed.
- It is oddly refreshing to have time to play with toddlers rather than just forcing them to eat, sleep, and skill.
- Kids, too, have time to play instead of just racking up the skill points. It's entirely feasible to USE some of those cute dollhouses, teddy bears, and toy boxes we download!
- Except for those households where trying desperately for that male heir-and-a-spare makes in-character sense, I should never have to tell my Sims to Try For Baby.
- With Harder Skills in, you will feel like your teens have really EARNED those scholarships.

So, questions...

Would anybody be interested in proportionate ages besides me? Is there anything I need to warn for with aging mods (besides that there can be only one)? Does anyone know how aging mods affect Bigfoot?

And perhaps most importantly, is there anybody out there who might want to help me test this mod (especially if I can contact you over PM here or at GoS or even MTS or via email, because I am nowhere near ready to release this publicly)? Particularly people with different game configurations than me (I have all EPs/SPs) or who don't use InTeen, or who have Sims lying around almost ready to age to Elder without stupid high Aspiration levels?

Comments

[kinsley]

I can test this for you.

My current installation is Uni/NL/Seasons/AL/M&G and I don't use Inteen, so if it would be any help, you can PM me here or at GoS.

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you! I'll get a beta-test package together as soon as I can and PM you.

[hat_plays_sims]

Also, is your username the same at GoS as it is on DW? The option to PM you here is grayed out.

[eefje00704]

I'm interested! Except I have the new ACR :( I'm also not useful for testing purposes, since I a) have all ep's and sp's, like you, and b) don't have any sims atm.

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, I can always look at the new ACR and see if I can do to it what I did to the old version and you could test that. You know, except for the no-sims thing... I'm glad you're interested!

[aquilegia]

I would like to test, with the caveats that I have all EPs + M&G and would be throwing myself into a pre-made neighborhood (although bonus of that is sims at many life stages right there, ready to go). I don't, however, use Inteen.

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, hey, not having InTeen is something that could use some testing! It's no real harm throwing it into an established 'hood, except for the ACR token thing. I guess I better get that tester package assembled.

[(Anonymous)]

I'd like to volunteer for testing. I was thinking of getting an aging mod anyway, so amazing timing once more. ^^ I'd be happy to help you with this, even if I didn't need one, though. Just for your basic awesomeness.

My game has all EPs, all but two SPs and uses Inteen as well as the new ACR (at least that's what it should be, seeing as I just had to redownload it a few month ago, due to pc weirdness).

Hope I'll be able to help
Ann (Lyndira on MTS)

[hat_plays_sims]

Okay, quick question-- do you have this ACR or this ACR? I'll PM you when I've got my testing pack ready, since I think I can update the pregnancy bits very simply.

[(Anonymous)]

This sounds so intriguing! I also hate telling my sims when to try for baby, and like it better when they are in control of that themselves. Then it's a pleasant surprise for me to see how big the families turn out. What fun that would be in a Royal Kingdom neighborhood, where one family may have tons of kids, and another not as many. I'm a big fan of randomness.

The new age lengths are more realistic, and having the other harder mods is not something I really thought about doing before, but it does add some spice to the game. Just because they're pixels doesn't mean their lives have to be easy, eh?

I really wish I wasn't so swamped this week because I sure think testing would be fun. But I look forward to seeing what others say about it and will be keeping an eye on your progress. =)

-Astral

[hat_plays_sims]

It'll be a while before I'm ready to release-- a week or two, at the absolute earliest-- so if you change your mind once you're less swamped, let me know!

And the autonomous pregnancy thing is exactly why I had to mod ACR-- I cannot do without it. In my testerhood, I think I have maybe three or four born-in-game Sims who were deliberate conceptions, discounting the multi-PT-mod-testing household, where everybody was born as a result of Make Me Alien Pregnant. I have one couple who has like nine kids-- one boy, the rest girls-- and only the first one was directed.

[cosmetical]

I would be glad to test this out for you and it sounds really awesome, especially since I've been meaning to play out a full custom hood prosperity style and I think this would enhance that experience, but I have a few things where I'm not sure if they'd become a problem or not. I have all EPs and SPs except for Glamour Life and I use this ACR, which I'm supposing is the old version? I don't use InTeen.

But if those aren't big huge deal breakers, I'd be glad to help you out. As far as I know, PMing me here is completely possible, otherwise my username at GoS is cassandra. :]

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, except for not using Glamour Life or InTeen, you're on the same setup I am... but I'm still interested to know how it works for you, especially the ACR mod. (There are only two versions of ACR out there that I know of, the 1.10.10 and the Version 2 Beta. If you're using 1.10.10, you're on version 1.)

If nothing else, I totally want as much feedback on elder lifespans as possible.

[meshys_sims]

I would love to help test! Although I'm pretty much exactly the same when it comes to your game.

All EP's & SP's, Old ACR, no InTeen. I'd be willing to get the new ACR &/or find some version of InTeen and try that.

PM me here or GoS: Username is Meshy614

[hat_plays_sims]

Honestly, if you're willing to muck around with elders a bit and see how long they live with various aspiration levels, your game configuration doesn't really matter. I know CAS elders all start with the same number of days left, but I don't know if the way I did my bonuses and penalties means that they can only die on a handful of set days or if they could drop like flies any time.

[(Anonymous)]

Ooh! A week or two until release? It sounds like a lot of fun to help test. And I can definitely find time to do so then! I am running all the EP's, but only 3 SP's. Currently, I do not have Inteen or ACR. So my game is pretty virginal except for a few fun hacks/mods that I have installed. But none of them have anything to do with romance or aging. I just registered at Garden of Shadows, so you can reach me there as Astral Faery. I look forward to helping out.

[hat_plays_sims]

Virginal is good! Especially for just testing the aging mod. You should have a PM over at GoS very shortly. (This is not a fast mod to test, not with the ages I gave Sims.) Thank you!

[sparrow]

I would love to help test this! I have all EPs, M&G, Family Fun, Celebration, and H&M stuff, and I do use InTeen. I use the newest ACR, meaning the beta version. I've been trying to coordinate my Uni time with the time that passes in my Legacy 'hood, and let me tell you, this makes me positively GIDDY knowing how much easier it's going to be.

Also, where would one find the mods that you said are essential? If it's too much trouble to find links, just the site they're on would be helpful, Google doesn't always like cooperating with me.

[sparrow]

I should tell you how to contact me, huh. You can PM me here or on GoS (I'm thedogstarlives), but if it wouldn't be too much trouble, an e-mail to straydogsick@hotmail.com would be best, since I check that multiple times a day, as opposed to once a day like with GoS and DW. I'm really looking forward to testing this for you!

[sunni9676]

Hat, I'm glad you are working on this. I was already debating about the aging issue and wondering if I should get a mod. In the past when I played I would stop aging and not even bother with keeping track. But since I am in the process of setting up a hood I want to create a true population that is functional. I had also been wondering which hack would be best for teen marriage - I assume InTeen? With a medieval hood I think 'adult' age begins around 16, so I wanted that aspect of realism in the game. I have no idea of what ACR is about since I haven't used it. Your mod seems to flow ideally with what I had already been wanting, so I am excited to try it when you finish!

[hat_plays_sims]

I only know of a couple things besides InTeen that allow for serious teen romance-- ACR allows for teen/teen and teen/adult woohoo, Jenflower's Woohoo Teens allows for teen pregnancy, and I know there's a Special Arch on MATY that lets anybody marry anybody, regardless of age, consanguity, or whether or not they're already married. I use InTeen, though, because it adds other things I like and want-- miscarriage if a pregnant Sim's needs drop too low (which cuts down on the number of pregnancy need-failure-related deaths, too), support for University families (students can get married as well as engaged, and raise kids on campus), teen/teen and adult/teen marriage... It is an inelegant mod, I'm told, but it does everything I want it to do and I've never had a problem with it despite its poor reputation. (I mean, I have 311 hacks at last count, and InTeen has never given me a problem.)

You do absolutely want to read InTeen's documentation before you install it, and before you decide which flavor packs you want to install-- I have I Love Kittens, No Adult Teens, No Age of Consent, Risky Honeymoon, Risky Runaway, and Risky Sneak Out and Go Out.

ACR is Autonomous Casual Romance, and it adds unparalleled autonomy and, um, kind of a fun element of chaos to your game. It modifies how jealousy works, and allows you to choose lot-by-lot whether you want ACR's jealousy, Maxis default jealousy, or no jealousy at all (which allows for a free-love hippie commune). It also lets Sims decide for themselves when they want to woohoo or try-for-baby. If you have InTeen and ACR installed, they work well together and can let your teenagers (above the age when ACR kicks in, eight days before adult transition) end up autonomously pregnant, too. I really like that with an extended lifespan, because why should I be the one to dictate when it's a good time to have a baby? ... You know, besides being the one who runs everybody's lives. If I didn't want any surprises, I'd go play with my dolls.

You can read about ACR here and InTeen's features here.

I heartily recommend both, especially for a period 'hood.

I'll be posting the mod here and to GoS, since an aging mod isn't a niche thingy and there is a spot for mods on GoS, so once the testing stage is over, you totally won't be able to miss it. *grins*

[(Anonymous)]

Well, I am definitely interested in this mod. The one I'm using now doubles the adult life span, which is nice, but the kids grow up too fast. Also my ACR couples almost always try for a baby when they're young, leaving me with 5 kids in a row from a homosexual knowledge couple. And since they grow up too fast and leave for university while the parents are still young, more time for them to create unwanted babies. And this is also the only mod that has pet ages that I like. I would be delighted to help you test this mod. I have a fresh installation on my sisters laptop with no mods and all EPs/SPs, which is the ideal testing grounds. My regular installation is heavily moded, including inteen and ACR, also good for testing conflicts. If you're interested I can give you my e-mail.

The only thing thing that turns me off with this mod is that elders live way to long. When they're elders I usually don't have anything else I want to do with them, and with this mod, the problem will increase. In fact, the main reason I have the double adult life span mod is because it cut elder years in half. Perhaps you could make an alternate version that only makes elders last a max of 15-25 days for people like myself?

[hat_plays_sims]

Well, I admit there are a lot of people with all EPs/SPs in the beta test group already, but I'd particularly like as many people as possible to watch how long the elder stage actually lasts under various conditions, so if you want to drop me your email, I'd be happy to have your help!

I planned the elder ages the way I did because... well, people can live to be a hundred before they drop dead, although right in the 70-75 range is most common for healthy individuals. If the elder stage only lasted 25 days, by my scale everyone would drop dead by the age of fifty-two (and a quarter).

There are two ways to change that-- one, it'd be pretty simple to change the length of the elder age to match the elder plantsim age (much more difference than that and all the bonuses would need to be re-calculated, and that? That was tricky to space out evenly), and two, the adult age could be lengthened if you don't mind your adult females going through autonomous menopause while still having full player-directed fertility and not having ACR and InTeen's fertility rates match up perfectly anymore. It's not something I'm interested in doing for myself, because the point of this mod is proportion, but it's super-simple to do yourself if you wanted to-- age duration mods are just a matter of opening the file in SimPE and changing the number in each field to one day less than your target number. (This mod has all the ages neatly labeled, which was a godsend when I had to work out elder bonuses.)

Since how long elders live is (supposedly; there may be a random factor) based solely on how long they spend in Platinum aspiration, you could always play with mods that increase aspiration decay, try to only boost your Sims to Gold, avoid fulfilling lifetime aspirations, or... well, really, any mod that extends Sim ages this far calls for increased challenge mods and some playstyle adjustments. If my beta-group's elders are still consistently living long lives, there may be something I can do to make it harder to achieve the higher golden-years bonuses-- I'm just not exactly sure what 'process hour' means, so I didn't fiddle with it.

[morgaine2005.wordpress.com]

Hey Hat -- like I mentioned in the other thread, I don't think I'm in much of a position to test this, owing to an astounding lack of time.

However, I do have another make-things-harder mod to throw your way: Permaplat as a Semi-State (http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php/topic,894.0.html). Basically this mod allows your Sims aspirations to decay, even if they're permaplat -- they just decay much more slowly. If the elder bonus is based off time in platinum, this should help decrease that time.

Or maybe not -- I guess it all depends on just how much time & energy you put into keeping those Sims happy.

[hat_plays_sims]

It might be a really awesome hack, but it's not available for download, alas! Damn shame, because it looks really cool.

[(Anonymous)]

Hmm, interesting. I don't know if I would like this or if it would drive me nuts. I definitely could test this out for you. I'm on a Mac, so I'm only up to Bon Voyage and don't have any SPs. I have the old InSim. If you would like me to test this you can PM me at GoS. :)

FyrDragon at GoS

PS : Thanks for your latest hair dump! I especially love the re-texture of Nouk's Own Hair. I've always loved the mesh, but thought it needed more curl!

[hat_plays_sims]

I'll drop you a PM! I'd love to hear how it works on a Mac, too. InSim shouldn't affect anything, though, just InTeen and ACR.

And you're welcome! I've been looking forward to attacking that hair with the SAU curls for ages.

[prosthetics]

Eep, so maybe this isn't any of my business - but I am sincerely interested in this mod. I am just unavailable for testing or any such thing (and was unavailable) - so I'm just wondering if the testing has gone underway or anything, because I would truly be interested in downloading it :3

[hat_plays_sims]

I haven't had a chance to do a lot of testing myself (I know it works, but don't have all the info I want about elders or collegiate families yet), and I've heard back from a few of my beta testers... Eventually, I'll release it, promise, I just want to make sure it works in various game-and-mod configurations.

[(Anonymous)]

Delurking here just to say what a fantastic project I think this is! I love your work- I stumbled across this blog while researching mods for my new medieval hood, and a more balanced aging mod would be so helpful. I wish you all the best in this endeavor!

*cheers from the lurking corner*

-Monzz (novice medieval Simmer)

[hat_plays_sims]

Thank you! One of my current households is a tester house-- six Knowledge Sims whose wants only really get fulfilled when they roll a desire to get a skill point or badge-- so I'll be checking out how hitting Elder works with various Platinum stages.

(I will say Ancient Highway's Higher Bills is driving me a bit nuts... but oh I want it for the flat rate on University bills. Maybe I'll take a peek under the hood and see if I can tear it apart...)

[(Anonymous)]

I would be super-stoked to try this. I would prefer to be contacted on GoS (TehHaru) as I cannot remember my DW password at the moment.

EPs: Nightlife, Business, Uni, and Pets.
SPs: All except Glamor Life, so, yes, Mansion and Garden
ACR: I'm not sure which version I have. Old, I think?
Inteen: Apartment Life version, I think? M&G fusses up compatibility and I have to use the higher-version Inteen or it will not work in my game. (Will freeze any household with a teen.)

[aureliacnidaria.livejournal.com]

I'm VERY interested in this particular mod. I'm getting seriously bored when actually playing (even having purchased the game less than two weeks ago!) because due to the too short lifespan I can't do anything with my sims except for skilling, studying/working and breeding. I'd like to have fun with them! So I'm looking forward to this mod.

[hat_plays_sims]

I need to run a couple more tests to see if I can't get a greater spread of elder ages-- I had a household running with six Knowledge Sims who... well, I kept hammering maxmotives, because it's a testerhood, but I didn't try too hard to keep them platinum-- green, sure, but not platinum. Most of them are clustered right around 72 as their death date, and the one who transitioned in platinum will go in the high 90s. Least awesome will go at 69. Which isn't inhuman, but it's not a really good spread. I'll need to check it with Sims who have to eat, sleep, and go to work before I'm willing to release it.

[illykitty.livejournal.com]

I am very interested in this mod. I always wanted my Sims to have more time but I don't want to turn ageing off either. This solves the issue! I hope you release it someday. Looking forward to it! :)

[islandkitty]

I can never stick with a game very long... because sim lives are too short, so I feel more rushed to max out every aspect of their perfect sim lives instead of spending more time having fun with them. So I get bored pretty quick. :P

I hope you're still working on this! It sounds *amazing*, especially with how you're trying to fix it to work with ACR.

[hat_plays_sims]

I'm planning on releasing this before too long-- I haven't cracked open ACR2.5c yet to update it. Part of me wants to hold off on releasing it at all until ACR 2.0 is out of beta testing altogether.