Questions about aging and memories

[Mew1210]

I wanted to age down one of my Sims for storytelling purposes (I'd age him back up when I'm done taking pictures). However, this Sim is currently a college student. Would aging him down be a bad thing? D: I was thinking about teleporting him to a residential lot, then aging him down (so I won't have to worry about classes or assignments), but I don't want to mess anything up... >.>

Also, I've been adding new memories to some of my Sims using SimPE. (I don't like the CAS memories. :P They don't add any depth to the character!) Do the memories have to be consistent with other members of the family? For example, can the father have a memory of his child growing up well, but the mother does not?

[Peni Griffin]

Many of the Maxis characters have inconsistent memories. Whether this contributes to the underlying borkage of the neighborhood, I cannot say. IRL, of course, people remember things differently all the time.

If the storytelling is putting together a story for public consumption, as opposed to "storytelling purposes" within the game, it would be simpler, and less risky, to clone your characters in a separate hood created for the purpose and run photoshoots at different ages on copies of the relevant lots.

As part of the game, I wouldn't touch messing with the age of a YA with an eleven-foot pole. It sounds like hanging a sign round your neck saying: "Hi, Trouble! I'm here!"

[Josepina]

You could export the sim with SimPE. Age down in body shop. Load them into a testhood, take pics, make vids etc. Delete.

[Fivey]

Ohh, don't get me started on the lack of depth memories certain sims (especially CASes) have.

I HATE how bland the Bluewater Village Sims' memories are! According to his family album, Malcolm Landgraab IV's parents DIED YOUNG in his childhood. After being made an orphan, he was adopted by his elderly grandparents, who probably died soon after. Most likely, he spent his teen years alone in his family's mansion. Seeing how he only starts off with 20k in hand, he most likely was JUST barely making it by emotionally and economically in life, with his only companions being a slowly emptying wallet and the soulless garbage that his dear parents left behind. And WHAT does his memories say to reflect on such tragedy?

"lol I kissed some person"

NO. NO.

Alright, rant over.

I'd go with Peni. Cloning is a good idea.

[Sunbee]

Or you can go with making a backup copy of your neighborhood, aging him down and getting your pics, saving the pics (if you're using the in-game camera), deleting the neighborhood, and then replacing with the copy. Cloning sims is more work.

[Peni Griffin]

That lack of depth is exactly why I don't worry about the memories much, except to keep them tidy enough to prevent breakage and induce proper behavior. What "really" happened is what I write in the captions in the storytelling tool. The memories exist mostly to help me keep track of context when I open each lot, and inform me of significant events that happened when I wasn't looking.

[Simsica]

I've aged YAs up and down with no problems at all. Of course, I've done it in my main hood. If you do that in uni subhood you still need to bring the aged down/up Sim back home with a telepoting or summoning hack of some sort.

As for memories, if you use InSim for this, the option "grow up" on its Temporal Adjustor will give them memories of growing up. If you select the option to "select age" you won't have this problem. But memories can be deleted in SimPe, also without problems, or moved up and down in their memories panel, so that they're consistent.

Back up your hood and experiment. But, do back up first. And everything will be just fine.

[Mew1210]

I think I'll just back up my neighborhood and experiment with it. That seems to be the easiest solution for me. And as for memories, I think I'll just leave them alone. I really don't need to edit them. xD

Thank you for helping, everyone! <3

Edit: Well, that was a complete fail. :I There were so many glitches! (Although, it was funny to see a toddler say "you didn't let me get any sleep! I'm leaving!" Apparently, my YA Sim was still considered a "guest" even though he was a toddler and I had made him selectable. xD) I restored my neighborhood backup, just in case. I'm just gonna make a test hood and recreate the family there. :faceslap:

[Simsica]

What do you mean - you have made him "selectable"? You need to make him a member of the household for that not to happen. You need a hack like InSim, Inge's Teleporter or some such thing that lets you move Sims between households. If you are going to go as far down as toddlerizing that Sim, you need to know that the game treats tots and babies in a certain way - they're not supposed to be anywhere else but in their own home. So the game will move them away. That's why they need to be members of the household you're playing.