So my system for the passage of time has changed a little in this save so this page is dedicated to all thoughts of that.
Seasons & Time
During the first ‘stage’ of the game, my seasons are set to 14 days. This is because I’m working with only a small handful of households and the students at University. Because of the way my University education is set up, I’m only playing the students for their studies twice per academic year.
Once the students graduate, I’ll be increasing this to 28 days per season because I’ll have more households to rotate between.
This means that each Sim-Year lasts 56 days at the moment but will increase to 112 days.
Pregnancy
Right now, I have pregnancies set to 42 days, to simulate 3 seasons, or 9 months. When I increase the seasons again, this will increase to 84 days to match the increased number of days per year.
I tend to ensure I’m playing a family when their baby is due, simply because I’ve yet to find a way to change a baby’s name! As a result, I frequently note down approximately when a baby is due.
Ageing
I switched ageing off at the beginning of this game and I age up everyone manually on their birthdays only.
The exception to this rule is for the younger sims. Infants and Toddlers are aged up on their birthday until they’re due to start school.
For school-aged toddlers, children and teenagers, they officially age up in the Autumn, just before they start school. Teenagers leaving secondary education age up in summer, just as school ends for the summer, after they turn 18. This is for starting Uni/work purposes.
Then Young Adult, Adult and Elder Sims age on their birthdays again.
~ Newborns age to Infants at 3 months old (so one season after they’re born).
~ Infants age to Toddlers on their 1st birthday.
~ Toddlers age to Children in the Autumn when they are 4. Because Autumn marks the beginning of the academic year, children all start school together so the year they will turn 5 is the year they age up to children.
~ Children age to Preteens in the Autumn when they are 11 and in the academic year they will turn 12.
~ Preteens age to Teens in the Autumn when they are 13 and in the academic year they will turn 14.
~ Teens age to Young Adults in the summer they have finished school/the academic year they turned 18.
~ Young Adults age to Adults on their 40th birthday.
~ Adults age to Elders on the 60th birthday.
Death
Naturally, it’s hoped that all my Sims will live to their Elder stage and pass from old age. But with ageing off, this won’t happen on it’s own and since I don’t want to rely on accidents all the time, I needed to implement a system for them. This is obviously going to be a work in progress and will probably be tweaked when I get some elders close to this point but the system I have is inspired by this blog post. While the blog features Sims 2 features, I’m adapting for Sims 4.
I don’t intend for my Sims to live beyond 100 because it’s not common and this is a game. Additionally, I do want an element of randomisation but with the Sim’s lifestyle having an impact.
So as my Sims become elders, I’ll roll for their lifespan on their birthday. After that point, it will be unchangeable (unless an accident occurs, of course). This will be because it would be deemed a bit too late to make major lifestyle changes at that point in their lives.
So when Sims turn 60, they’ll be given a base number of 18. So if they have lived an average life, they’ll have a chance of living to a maximum age of 18. So on their birthday, I’ll roll a random number between 1 and 18 and add that to their age.
So for example, if Paul Roberts lives an average, nothing-out-of-the-ordinary life, his base number will be 18. I randomise a number between 1 and 18 and the roll comes out at 14. So adding that to 60 implies that Paul will live until the age of 74. Not bad.
However, there are ways Sims can improve their odds (or indeed, destroy them) and that’s by their lifestyle choices. So good choices will give an opportunity to add to the base number and bad choices will reduce it.
Base Score ~ 18
Bonus Points:
Fitness ~ Sims will gain 1 point for every two levels of fitness, so is maxed out at 5 points. So Sims with Level 8 fitness on the 60th birthday will gain 4 bonus points in this category.
Health ~ Sims who have high fitness levels will gain a bonus of ten points.
Lifestyles ~ Sims with a Health Food Nut or Energetic lifestyles can get a bonus of 3 points.
Experiences ~ Using Zerbu’s Experiences mod, Sims with high skills in positive emotions (level 7 or more) will gain a bonus point for each skill (maximum 6 points).
Hobbies ~ If Sims have more than 5 points in 3 skills relating to their hobby, they can gain 3 bonus points. This is to simulate the Sims knowing how to relax and unwind and leads them to less stressful lives.
Family Relationships ~ Strong ties to family are good for the soul, so if a Sim has maintained positive family relationships with at least 65% of their family, they’ll get a bonus of 5 points.
Pets ~ Elders with some animal companionship are more likely to live longer than those without, so elderly Sims with a good relationship with a pet can see a bonus of 2 points.
Satisfaction Points ~ Sims with an exceptionally high number of satisfaction points can see themselves gaining 2 points. Sims will need 50,000 points or more to qualify for this particular bonus because it indicates they’ve lead a very satisfactory life and are content.
Goals ~ Sims can gain bonus points for completing Aspirations. Sims will get 2 point for completing 5 Aspirations.
Penalty Points:
Health ~ Sims who are overweight will have a penalty of 5 points.
Lifestyles ~ Sims who have the Junk Food Fiend or Sedentary Lifestyles will have a penalty of 3 points.
Experiences ~ Using Zerbu’s Experiences mod, Sims with high skills in negative emotions (level 7 or more) will get 2 penalty points for each negative emotion (maximum 6 points). This is to indicate that they’ve spent a lot of their time Angry, Sad or Embarrassed and therefore, stressed.
Poverty ~ Living in poverty for an extended period of time doesn’t do anyone any good but especially if Sims are elders and still below the poverty line. I measure this with Zerbu’s Experiences mod since it gives out moodlets relating to the Sim’s financial status. So Sims still below the poverty line at 60 will get a penalty of 4 points.
Enemies ~ A Sim with a lot of enemies is likely to be a stressed Sim. So Sims get a penalty of 3 points for having any enemies.
In Summary:
Base Number ~ 18
Bonus:
Fitness (maximum +5)
Health (+10)
Lifestyles (+3)
Experiences (maximum +6)
Hobbies (+3)
Family (+5)
Pets (+2)
Satisfaction (+2)
Goals (+2)
Penalties:
Health (-5)
Lifestyles (-3)
Experiences (maximum -6)
Poverty (-4)
Enemies (-3)
So I’ll use Paul Roberts as a vague example. He’s only 44 so his roll is a long way off yet and there’s plenty of time to make positive changes to his life to improve his odds.
Base: 18
Fitness +1
Family +5
Poverty -4
(BASE) 18 + (FITNESS) 1 + (FAMILY) 5 – (POVERTY) 4 = 20
So the roll would be between 1 and 20. In this example, Paul rolled 20 so he’ll live to about 80, which is pretty good! However a lot can change in the next 16 years of Paul’s life; both positive and negative but if everything continues fairly unchanged, his life expectancy looks pretty good.
The Daily Plumbob 