What determines whether or not a sim dies of old age a particular night?

[kewpie]

In TS2 it was so easy that I could plan out deaths. I played the Apocalypse challenge and there was a rule that you couldn't move the gravestones until you unlocked something. It was so predictable in TS2, that I could send a sim out an hour before she died to the corner of the lot so she could meet the grim reaper in a nice convenient place. It was always 6 PM right on the dot, I believe. And if they were at work during the grim reaper's visit, they would croak right on the sidewalk as soon as they got out of the car.

In TS3, the sims hit the end of their meter, but it seems a crap shoot whether they die or not. Sometimes sims act TS2 style and die right on schedule - but sometimes they live for weeks later. I've never seen a sim go over 110 or so though.

So is it just a coin flip every night? Or do the odds get higher as they get older? Is there some point where they luck out too many times and the game just decides to off them after 110 or so? Or could they theoretically live forever if they win the coin toss enough?

[ButchSims]

Part of it is how they lived, like, certain traits and skills will increase their lifespan. A high athletic skill, and jogging a lot, will let them live longer than the stated number of days. I think there is a set number somewhere in the files, but it has so many variables I'm not sure how it arrives at the final number.

[olomaya]

Well I know vegetarians live longer as do marathon runners (those that complete the marathon skill challenge) but damned if I know anything else as I've got a group of elders in my town who are just clinging on to life...well for dear life. For one, I even got the "XXX doesn't have much longer to live, get in some face time with XXX" but he's still around and it's been Sim days!

Long story short, I'd be interested if someone's figured out the particulars as well.

[coltraz]

There's basically a certain percentage chance of dying every day past their set lifespan. Somewhere I read the specific number, but I can't find it now. The odds are lesser, as mentioned, if they lived a "healthy" life, but it essentially comes down to odds...and it is possible - unlikely, but possible - that a Sim could live forever.

[LotrFanboy]

To be honest, I don't think I want to know. I like the unexpectedness of it. What's the fun in knowing when you're going to die? ;)

[kewpie]

It always seems like they live forever if you are wanting them to die, but they die right on schedule if you want them to stick around a few more days. I am jittery because I have a child living with his grandma. He ages up 2 days after she's scheduled to fill up her age bar and if she dies before he turns into a teen, my game ends and he goes to the social worker. It's a silly challenge thing I'm playing so I can't move in a non-family member to take care of him. Also can't cake him early either So that old lady better not kick until the kid ages up.

[applefeather2]

My first instinct is to say, have her meditate. Meditate!

[edejan]

Why not keep a few death flowers in granny's inventory? Is that considered cheating since it's a feature of the base game? Each one will grant her an extra day if the reaper comes.

[babele44]

It's life fruit that grants an extra day, the death flower will prevent death from taking her and she'll be back at day one of her age state.
I had this recently when my household got called that a friend of theirs was about to die and as I dearly wanted the ghost opportunity and needed an urn I sent my Sims to her house the following day. Grimmy was quite in time at around 6 p.m. and then this lady shows him that flower. Damn, I thought, where the f... did she get that from? I then remembered that she worked in science and I think either that flower is one of the rewards or she must have gotten it during her fishing skilling phase. Anyway, when I checked her age she was back at day one of the elder state. Her son will not be too happy, I guess, because she hates him and he had already planned to convert her room into a nursery.

But anyway, I think coltraz is right. As soon as an elder reaches the end of their bar the game rolls the dice once every day, "To Be or not to Be". And there doesn't seem to be any growing chance the more they exceed their limit. I play on epic and when DeAndre Wolff from Twinbrook had reached the biblical age of 1200 something (966 is the limit) I decided that if Grim won't do the job, I will.

[kewpie]

She lived just as long as she needed to. Funny thing though. The teen was out fishing on his very first afternoon of teenhood. Grandma was cooking dinner and the stove caught on fire. I forgot that she was a coward and she passed out during the fire and was unable to put it out. Grandson was all the way across town. There was no fire alarm. Oops.

I had no idea that she could have died at any moment the entire time she was alive because of that coward trait.

[J. M. Pescado]

A sim will live for a minimum number of days as an elder. After that, it will just randomly die or not die every aging tick, with a fixed random chance every night. All the various statistical fallacies thus come into play for your beliefs on the odds of a sim dying. Given a sim that has already survived X days, it is no more likely to die than it was at the beginning. Also, I don't recall seeing any actual evidence supporting the "Vegetarian" idea. Marathon Runner, I remember seeing have an actual effect, but I didn't remember seeing Vegetarian do anything.

[PunkyBreester]

I'll come out and admit this right now - as attached as I may become to a particular sim, after they've been an elder for a while, I'm just bored of having them pattering around the house all the time.

I've been keeping a close eye on my legacy founder's age meter, and it "ran out" DAYS ago (been almost a week now, I think). I feel a little guilty saying this, but I'm literally waiting for her to die :rolleyes: Every night that she goes to bed I'm like "How are you still alive?!" :lol:

[r_deNoube]

I concur with Mr. Pescado. They do not *really* die on a specific day just because they're at your party.

[Zokugai]

Once they hit elder they have pretty much no purpose. ESPECIALLY if they retire.

[rockergrrl37203]

Once they hit elder they have pretty much no purpose. ESPECIALLY if they retire.

Are you kidding?? I love retired Elders! Get them to max out a skill that can make lots of money (fishing, gardening, painting, writing, etc) and let them spend ALL DAY doing it. They can earn so much money before they die it's ridiculous. I had one Sim who was writing a Masterpiece every few days and earning over $10,000 per book. When she died her weekly royalties were over $40,000 per week. If you get the moodlet manager or the motive mobile then your Elders will never need to sleep so you can force them to make money round the clock. They are also great for babysittingand teaching toddlers their life skills while mom and dad do whatever it is they need to do.

Yay for Elders! :lovestruc

[babele44]

Once they hit elder they have pretty much no purpose. ESPECIALLY if they retire.I used to think the same but then I played those two sisters in Riverview, the Spensters, and it was one of the best games I had. I managed to have both of them fulfill their LTW and had them adopt a toddler as their heir. It was a lesson in time management due to their slower movements but when they both died within a few days I was actually really sad. And so were their much younger lovers :heyhey:

[MiniMimi]

110 days? Bleh that's nothing. My best score is 154 days IIRC. A torture. That elder asploded all my sicrut plans for that family by not leaving his place from the eight sim limit! Now I know I could have killed him myself, or change the settings to allow more than 8 sims in my mods but hey, that's cheating. Plus elders are indeed useful as 1) they cumulated a ton of LT points to spend, weeee! 2) they generally are a decent or good cook and their meals will be more varied and give better moodlets 3) they have spare time to take care of the house and do the babysitters.

[Zokugai]

Are you kidding?? I love retired Elders! Get them to max out a skill that can make lots of money (fishing, gardening, painting, writing, etc) and let them spend ALL DAY doing it. They can earn so much money before they die it's ridiculous. I had one Sim who was writing a Masterpiece every few days and earning over $10,000 per book. When she died her weekly royalties were over $40,000 per week. If you get the moodlet manager or the motive mobile then your Elders will never need to sleep so you can force them to make money round the clock. They are also great for babysittingand teaching toddlers their life skills while mom and dad do whatever it is they need to do.

Yay for Elders! :lovestruc

Or you could do that with a young adult. But you can't have one because you have this random old dude using up your last household slot.

As soon as sims hit Elder, if they've already made their LTW (and if they're my sims, trust me, they did that a LONG time ago) I ignore them and let them go on pure autonomous mode. My attention is far better spent on the younger members of the family.

[Srikandi]

I used to think the same but then I played those two sisters in Riverview, the Spensters, and it was one of the best games I had. I managed to have both of them fulfill their LTW and had them adopt a toddler as their heir. It was a lesson in time management due to their slower movements but when they both died within a few days I was actually really sad. And so were their much younger lovers :heyhey:

Yeah... one of my favorite ways of propagating a sim household, which completely avoids child-rearing headaches, is the "May-December" system... where an elder sim marries or moves in a YA partner to be their heir... and inherit when they pass away... and when THAT person is an elder, they repeat the process... and so on.

I've had RL relationships with large age differences in both directions (at different ages of course), and I think they can be pretty fun :)

Elders may move a lil slower and have faster motive decay, but they should have enough happiness points to more than offset that with Steel Bladder and so on. The only thing other sims can do that they CAN'T do is give birth. Of course they do not have the clothing options of younger sims, but there is some nice CC for them... otherwise they don't play any differently from any other sim, so I don't understand the hate :/

[Zokugai]

I just don't see the point of continuing to play them when they're at the top of their careers, already have their LTW, and can't have kids. They tend to take care of grandkids autonomously, so there's really nothing left for me to do with them.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

[Srikandi]

I just don't see the point of continuing to play them when they're at the top of their careers, already have their LTW, and can't have kids. They tend to take care of grandkids autonomously, so there's really nothing left for me to do with them.

Ah, well I tend to use MasterController to give them a new LTW... so I never have a sim without one... but that is, of course, cheating. So I see your point :)

[Zokugai]

I wouldn't consider it cheating so much as unrealistic. I do try to have a lifelike game.

I think the strongest argument in favor of having elders around is live-in babysitters. Because god knows the actual babysitters should be reported to the Better Business Bureau.

[babele44]

Elders are just as good or bad as babysitters as soon as you leave your lot and let it go into low detail. The secret of a good babysitter is that it will do its job when you keep your camera focussed on your home lot. It has nothing to do with age or traits, because, surprise, the servive NPCs that come with the two recent Store worlds have no traits at all and function just as well, or badly, depending on how you view it.
An in-house babysitter, aka Grandma, may be a bit better at reacting to a toddler's needs but essentially the functioning of autonomous care-taking is dependant on where your camera's focus is. My babies and toddlers are never in the reds even though their parents are out all day. My camera is usually with the parents but I monitor the kids' needs occasionally and when one of them plummets I focus back to them and a few seconds later the babysitter reacts. The reverse also works: if my kid is in the greens I just don't focus on it in order to prevent the babysitter from doing something.

But anyway, I guess the difference between simmers with regard to elders is whether they consider the game either as some sort of efficiency challenge or a simulation of life. Purpose, function and usefulness are part of the first category, something that I began to drop gradually after playing a household of elders for the first time.