Postponed Silver Years (Age Duration Hack)

Always thought Sim life was too short. Then came the silver years, which I thought was too long. So I rebalanced the years.

I love tweaking things around, and now that I found a balance which I like, I thought someone else might like it too.

My goal wasn't to try to make something that was realistic compared to our own lifespan, but rather give the Sims a lifespan which was well balanced for how the game works and my play style. As such, I added 2 weeks to adults, and taken away a week from elders.




The Numbers

I thought adults turned old too early. With my play style, my Family aspiring adults spending 2 weeks woohooing and raising children would never reach the top of their career. My Fortune Sims barely ever reached the top of their career even though they did not have children to waste their valuable time. I tried different figures, but I found that 2 extra weeks was just right for me. With 6 full weeks into adulthood, now they have plenty of time to achieve their goals, and even some free time to spare partying. Hey! Life is not just work and no fun!

Adult Default: 28 days (4 weeks)
Adult Changed: 42 days (6 weeks)

Note: The archive contains a second version of the mod with suffix ADULTUNMOD. In that version, age duration for adults is not changed.

Unlike other life stages, elders have a random life expectancy. They have a base value, and a bonus value based on their aspiration meter as they enter this life stage. If they are happy (high aspiration meter) they will live longer. High fitness or Body skill level are not taken into consideration. Trust me, I've seen the binary DNA -- anything else you've heard is mythology.

Elder Default:
Base: 10-20 days
Bonus: -2 to +10 days
Total: 8-30 days (30 days, that's even longer than adulthood!)

Elder Changed:
Base: 5-7 days
Bonus: -2 to +7 days
Total: 3-14 days (2 weeks is fair; 3 days are already too much for those who had an unhappy life)

I have not changed any of the other life stages (Baby to Teen). I matched Plantsims life stage durations with regular non green Sims.

The duration of each life stage is only calculated as a Sim enters that particular stage, either by transitionning from a previous stage or when they settle in their very first house after they were freshly crafted into CAS. Therefore, existing Sims will not be affected by this mod until they transition to their next stage. You could always change their days left in SimPE if desired.

Please note that unlike other mods, I did not change any code. Others have claimed that the code was broken and didn't induce any randomness in elder life expectancy. It is quite possible that the code was broken at some time, but I have never noticed such problem. I have tested a lot under Free Time and everything looks in order. Therefore, all this mod changes is a bunch of values.


Compatibility Note

Because of the way this file works, this mod is backward compatible with the base game all the way through the latest Mansions & Gardens expansion pack. This mod will cause a conflict with any other mod which deals with Sim age duration. Pet age duration is a different file and will not conflict with this mod.


Installation Notes

Starting with 1.1, the archive contains two versions. You must only install one, otherwise they will conflict with each other.

The regular version does exactly what is stated above in this description. The second version, which as the suffix ADULTUNMOD, is different in that the age duration for adults is unmodified, while age duration for elders is exactly the same as the regular version


Do-It-Yourself Kit

Since this mod only contains values, it is very easy for anyone to tweak the values as see fit without the need to complete a major. Simply open the file in SimPE and have fun. The labels for the different values are self explanatory for the main part.


Additional Credits SimPE which allowed me to do this
Notepad for its great capabilities
PaintShop Pro 9 for screen capture and editing
My grand-mother for showing me why elders are not to be kept around