Hi there-
after playing the Sims 2 for a few years, I have recently realised that I have NEVER had a sim die naturally, of old age I don't seem able to play one family for longer than several days. Talk about short attention span! I get bored and mess them up instead.
How do you pass the time when playing long generations/legacies?
sorry if such a thread exists

One method would be to aim for long-term goals (which goals depend upon the EPs you have installed) and don't cheat to achieve them. Reach the tops of careers, maximize gardening and fishing skills, run a level-10 business, run several businesses, master witchcraft, master crafting (OFB and Freetime), throw parties, own a vacation home (<- doesn't help time pass, but does require Sims to earn more money), meet or become each kind of supernatural.

Also, play a story. Either plan something out or let your Sims tell you their story. Develop "meaningful" relationships (both positive and negative) between neighbors. Be sure your Sims are different from each other: not everyone in a family is going to be a doctor seamstress farmer potter roboticist.

Sometimes I reach a point when playing a family when the adults have reached the top of their careers, only work a few days and have soooo much time on their hands, and yet are bogged down with bringing up their kids so they tend not to go out (because I can't be bothered sending them to community lots and then come back and time hasn't moved on).

So that's why I created lots of hobby comm lots (buyable by sims with a particular hobby interest) or get them opening a business so it makes the family a bit more interesting to play.

Once I feel I've had enough with playing one particular family though (usually after I've reached a certain new chapter, eg a newborn has joined the family, kids have grown up, LTW's are met, etc) I move on to another one. My hood has a LOT of playables and therefore I like to rotate playing families as much as possible. I spend a lot of time building new stuff so often it takes a long time to actually move along with the various generations.

What I really like about my hood now is that community relationships are pretty strong and that fascinates me more than the individual families to be honest. Although sometimes it's nice to just go back and play ONE sim in one lot (less stress!)

I just age them with cheats.
boolprop testingcheatsenabled true -> shift+click sim -> Set to birthday.
Or i just quit and play another lot till i get some ideas for that sim.

I didn't used to let Sims age to elder and eventually they would be platinum with all skills maxed with badges ect. Then I would get bored with them cause I really didn't have anything for them to do. Now I let them age to elder and eventually die, I also tend to save stuff for them to achieve that would be normal for retired elders in RL. Like going on vacation or buying a vacation home, spending a ton of time fishing, writing a novel and so on. I find it a bit harder as I don't have the option to add FT since I'm on a Mac, I wistfully read others descriptions of hobbies and activities and pine for it.

If your bored with a family while they are at the child raising, career advance, skill building, business running stage after only a couple of days then I'm not sure what to say. You might try a challenge that isn't a legacy, there are some of them that look and sound very challenging indeed.

You really need to download the comocommunity time project. The first time I played using it was one of my best wow moments in the game. It gives you a whole new dimension to your game when you can play the sim who goes to town, and the one who stays at home. I know it says it's up to FT only, but I used it with AL. The mod doesn't work with outings, and there were a few occasions when the sim came back the moment they left (so basically the mod got skipped), but that was very rare. My experience with this mod was so great, that I wouldn't play without it and it was one of the first things I always downloaded after re-installing the game.

To the original poster. If you can't get past a few days with a sim, I would say it means your sims are boring characterless pixel persons. I agree with Mangaroo, play stories, without them you will not get attached to your people. You don't have to make the story yourself, sims, tell it very well actually, and you just follow where they lead you.

Don't always play the dad, mom and 2.5 kids scenario. Play differently, play slower, maybe that will help. By slower I mean don't get engaged, married and pregnant all on the first date. Not all sims have kids, not all of them marry, some like living alone. If you don't know how to start making a story, then stay busy, make an integrated economy, basically a new hood, clean template, no townie regenerate hack, and start with a few founding families. Maybe have one be a farmer and try to have him feed the whole hood with his products, in the spring/summer/autumn he fishes and gardens, while in the winter he spends his time selling his products in his shop. The rest can own shops or have normal jobs. Have all community lots be owned by sims, never build a community lot without the funding coming from some playable sim. Playing this way is a lot of work, but it's also a lot of fun and the more in depth your hood is, the more you will like your people.

Thanks ani, I knew about that mod but haven't put it in my game yet, mostly because there are times when I DO want certain sims to visit community lots just for a break (also I have the comm-skilling hack so I often send sims who need to skill up for job promotions to my custom library, for example, and get those skills with no time pressure on them).

What do you mean about being able to play the sim who visits the comm lot and also the one who stays at home - how do you do that? Are their two screens or something? lol

Edit - ahhhh, I've just read Crammyboy's explanation of how the mod works, it answers the above question. I think I'll give it a try for a bit.

I agree old sims are pretty boring to play. So What I do is build a multi-bedroom complex 'old folks home' and move all my elders to this home with one caretaker who keeps them company and cooks for them and is unemployed(just so when the elders die, all the stuff is still there with that younger sim). That way all the elders get played and time passes when there are more around to interact with so you can get them out of your game naturally and it's not as boring. It's not suggested though if you don't prefer to control many sims at once.

Skilling, hobbies, having kids, gardening, building things (OFB) etc. In my legacy elders are taking care of kids and the house, adults are working. I think playing with elders woud be so much more boring without FT. Also I've had many elder couples adopt a kid, that gives so much more life to playing with them.