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Postponed Silver Years (Age Duration Hack)

by Tom Duhamel Posted 3rd Jan 2009 at 10:23 AM - Updated 31st Dec 2012 at 9:57 PM by Phaenoh
 
50 Comments / Replies (Who?) - 41 Feedback Posts, 8 Thanks Posts
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Test Subject
#2 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 10:49 AM
Hi!
For I never know what to do with my elders, I always think it last to long they have their date with Death. But the days my Sims live in adulthood fits to me and my gameplay.
So I'm a little sad, I can't take only one of the changes. Perhaps you make a mod only for the elders...???
I already took the petmod and will test in some minutes. Thank you very much for this.
Lab Assistant
#3 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 10:54 AM
This is such a great idea! I think this would really help a lot of people, coz because my fave sims family's parents didnt have kids 'til the middle of adulthood, and , before this, i would keep having to give them the elixir of life, which spends a lot of their aspiration points. Thanks!
Inventor
#4 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 11:26 AM
Oh dear !! "My grand-mother for showing me why elders are not to be kept around "
LOL
Thank you Tom420, this is indeed very usefull, my Sim elders are very good in babysitting but after that......... I've putted some in an elderly home apartment lot, but as I don't play them anymore, they seem to live forever.
Test Subject
#5 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 1:45 PM
such a great idea. Very useful, thank you very much

meow
Scholar
#6 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 1:57 PM
I never seem to have the problem. I'm always able to build up enough aspiration points to buy the elixir of life to keep going on as an adult.

Sims2 was basically flawed in its age categories: The "adults" are 20-30-somethings and the elders seem to be 80+ with one foot in the grave. There are no credible 40-60-somethings (these are the ones putting the YA's through college!). I hope that they correct this in Sims3. (BTW, I'm 68 and don't walk around stooped. I still am working full-time and go to the gym regularly. I do groan a bit, though ;o)

Imagine a world without hypothetical situations
Test Subject
#7 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 2:14 PM
I can get a better result with 'agingoff'.

Why don't you guys try that?
Instructor
#8 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 2:56 PM
LordOrochimaru, because some people don't like to cheat.

This is a very nice mod. I'm gonna give it a try. Thank you.
Test Subject
#9 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 3:00 PM
When I saw this on the downloads homepage...I just said 'hallelujah'!! Thank you for making this!
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 3:16 PM
This sounds really cool but like chster1111966 I am content with the Adult ages but really like the way you did the Elder ones, much more logical. Is there any chance of you releasing a Elder-only edition?
Test Subject
#11 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 4:28 PM
Oh, thank you for this! I agree completely with your logic and have thought about trying to do something like this myself, but then I always think I'm going to mess something up! I like to have more than 30 days in adulthood, and while I can use the elixir or a hacked object to accomplish this, I hate having to have those things taking up room on my lot. (Especially the elixir; it's ugly, IMO. ) The shortened elder life span is appreciated as well and is definitely more realistic.

Now if someone would just make a middle-age life stage so that Sims don't go from looking 20-something to looking 70-something in a heartbeat, things would be grand.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 4:45 PM
This is a great mod! I too think the adult life is too short. How can my sims get to the top of their careers and raise kids to adulthood before they become elders??? It can't be done in the short adult life stage...your length is much more logical. And the elders do hang on too long sorry to say!!! Thanks!!
Lab Assistant
#13 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 6:13 PM
I agree with you that the adult life is to short etc. But if you look at the teens, I think that stage is way to long, 15 days. I think if you take away 7 days of the elderly and give 14 days to the adult, you make their live 7 days longer. Why not take that 7 days off from the teen stage, that is much to long. But I like the idea of the adult fase making that longer. As to the eldery sims. I let them keep their jobs and they even have new relations, so I don't have problems with what to do with them, but still the eldery time is to long. Thank you for this mod.
Field Researcher
#14 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 6:18 PM
This is a very useful mod, but I have one question. I wanted my elders to have a slightly longer life expectancy than you have in your mod, so as you suggested, I opened the file in SimPe. In your post, you say that elders have a base of 5-7 days, but when I checked in SimPe, it has values of 7 for both the min and max values and bonus values from -2 to 7. How do these values make an elder's lifespan 3-14 days as you state? I see it as 5-14 days.
Test Subject
#15 Old 3rd Jan 2009 at 7:47 PM
raynuss is absoolutely correct.

Elder age duration is calculated something like :

Elder Age Duration = 0xA + (SimGUID mod (0xB - 0xA)) + Aspiration Bonus

So if 0xA and 0xB contain the same value then any variation in elder age duration will be based on the aspiration score at the time of aging.

I suspect that Tom420 might have accidentally uploaded the wrong version.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#16 Old 4th Jan 2009 at 12:23 AM
Default Update 1.1 and other debilities
Releasing an update the very same day my file is accepted and posted is not something I've done before, but well, here it is. I just uploaded update 1.1. Release notes are at the top of the description above, but here is some additional information.

raynuss is right, I made a mistake. I had entered 7-7 instead of 5-7 for elder base age duration. As feefa suggested, I probably uploaded the wrong version. I had many of those files around so to test all the many possibilities until I found what I liked, and I probably grabbed the wrong one. This is now fixed in 1.1. See, even the greatest minds like mine do mistakes

Also, at popular request, I made a second version in which elder age duration is reduced exactly like the first one, but adult age duration is left to Maxis default of 28 days (29 for plantsims). Make sure to use only one of the two versions, as using both would make them conflict with each other. As the title implies, my idea was to take years from elders and give them back to adults, thus the second version does not match my original idea. But well, I'm listening

If you had the previous version (1.0) already, make sure to remove it from your Downloads folder when installing the new version (1.1) or they will conflict. The filename is changed since I put version number in the filename (so it's easier to manage when you want to update in the future).

I will not make a version with teen age duration modified. Basically, this mod was based on my tastes and my play style. I offered an alternate version because I feel a lot of people were actually looking for just a shorter elder life without affecting other ages (and actually I had planned such alternate version but decided not to include it when I released 1.0), but doing one more version for all possible requests would turn this into something exponentially larger each time. Beside, it is really easy to do yourself and experiment with the values until you find something that you like (look at Teen Min and Teen Max. If you do, you are free to post your modified version in a post under this thread (if so, make sure to specify what version it's based on and what you have changed) or upload it as a brand new download (in which case I do not request any credit, those are just numbers).

At this point, I would like to add that I love teens. It's all a mater of tastes and play style and I understand why others don't like them, but my teens have a lot of things to do, they hang out, have parties, and keep their parents in good shape. Furthermore, they are good at cleaning the house and helping their younger brothers and sisters. Conclusion, I love them and wouldn't shorten this magical part of life.

To those who mentioned that the same effect could be done using cheats or the green mixture, well some of us prefer not to use them and instead rely on a more automatic, natural method of modding the game. I do not force any one into downloading my stuff (although I don't understand why one would accept to miss any of the mods written by the greatest modder of the community -- namely me) I do respect your opinion and I appreciate all the comments, positive or negative.

To conclude, I would like to mention (just in case it wasn't clear in the original description) that the comment about my grand-mother is a joke Here is the disclaimer: No grand-mothers were hurt during the production of this mod. Beside, a full glass filled with fresh, icy pepsi was spilled all over my laptop during the production of the update (and *no* this part is nor a joke)
Forum Resident
#17 Old 4th Jan 2009 at 4:26 AM
This was a great idea! I do feel that the sims seem to skip a bit of an age time frame. Like someone said, adult sims usually look about 20s to 30s and then BOOM- they turn like 80! There should be that 40s to 60s "Middle age" in the sims also.

Thanks for making this hack, it was a wise idea!

Please come check out my SIms 2 Story "Love Child" Caution: Must be 18+
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#18 Old 4th Jan 2009 at 5:41 AM
I totally agree with the lack of ages, and there is nothing we can do about that.

I guess Maxis had to stop splitting the life stages somewhere, or they would end up with too many. For instance I would split teenhood in two too, as I feel that 12-15 and 16-18 are very different periods of life. Adulthood could easily be split in three: 20-29; 30-45; 46-64. And toddlers into... well, you get it

I like to simulate the sub-life-stages by changing clothes, activities, etc.
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 4th Jan 2009 at 11:40 AM
Thank you very much for the elder-only one, it is much appreciated.

I agree about the sub-ages, it would be lovely if there was but there is not. I myself use age 'masks' in the last 10 years of the adults life to simulate middle-age.
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#21 Old 6th Jan 2009 at 7:21 PM
You can download as soon as you join; your issue must be caused by something else. Try the suggestions stickied in the site issues forum; if you still have a problem post there.
Alchemist
#22 Old 8th Jan 2009 at 9:07 AM
Thanks for this mod! I do kinda think the Elders live too long.. and nobody goes from 25 to 75 in two minutes. So, the longer life for adults gives an impression of "middle aged" lol. I do really wish, however, there was a whole 'nother life stage between child and teen. I'm kinda in between those two, very close to what the teen is, and I'm not three feet tall, looking like a little child, but I'm not full grown looking like a woman either -_-. Well, thanks anyways!
Forum Resident
#23 Old 9th Jan 2009 at 1:19 AM
Outstanding!

Thank you.
Banned
#24 Old 17th Jan 2009 at 4:56 AM
Hey, sorry I'm really not trying to be mean or rude, but why would you download this when you can just use the elixir of life an aspiration reward that comes with the game?That makes your sims retain their age just fine.
Field Researcher
Original Poster
#25 Old 17th Jan 2009 at 9:08 PM
joninmobile: Several of the mods here have an effect which can be reproduced by using cheats or in-game objects, but some players like to have those things done automatically, without any intervention. Furthermore, this mod main idea was to shorten elder's duration, and in fact one of the two versions of the mod included in the archive doesn't do anything to adults.

The choice to download or not some particular mod is all about preferences and play style. If we were all using the game exactly the same way, we wouldn't need any mod in the first place as Maxis would have already made the game the way we all like
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