Absimiliard's Realistic Aging Mod (updated Oct 4)

[Absimiliard]

There are already a ton of age tuning mods out there. But I'm gonna add mine to the heap because none of the others did what I wanted.

ETA: I've now added a few flavors against my initial reluctance to provide some variety.

These packages change the age stage lengths in the Sims 3 to be more in line with the human life span while keeping (loosely) along the same time brackets for Short, Medium, etc. I started with the assumption that a person becomes an elder at age 65 and the average lifespan in the first world is 80.

As mentioned in this thread and elsewhere, the way the Sims 3 deals with the Elder life stage has a duration that is actually the MINIMUM length a sim will live as an elder. After that there is a percentage chance that the sim will die daily (that chance depends on the lifespan you choose (Short, Medium, etc.)

I'll explain why I made the changes and some justifications after I show you a comparison.



The reason I made the changes is for realism. I play with real world people simified and introduced at their appropriate ages. The unrealistic aging model introduced had children graduating in what would have to be their late 20s, babies who didn't leave the crib until almost their third birthday etc.

The game gives some simple indicators of when these life stages occur. Children must go to elementary school. Teens go to high school, and cannot move out until they are Young Adults. These ages are pretty standard in the US (and many other countries). With a little wikipedia back-up (I was surprised that young adulthood is considered ended when you're 40). I made the mod the way it is.

Since elder don't actually die at the end of the time period selected, I've made two separate flavors AbsimiliardsKindaRealisticAgingMod (AbsKRAM) and AbsimiliardsRealisticAgingMod (AbsRAM).

AbsKRAM keeps in line with the EA-long-lived elder model, this was the original version I put out. The minimum elder life stage ends at 80 and it looks like the average age is around 85

AbsRAM is a newer version that ends the elder life stage at 70 with a reduced daily chance of death. This sets the average life span at 77.7 years (2006 US average), a more realistic number and that's what this mod was for.

Original EA Settings

Setting	Baby	Toddler	Child	Teenager	Young Adult	Adult	Elder	Total
Short	1 day	2 days	2 days	4 days	6 days	6 days	4 days	25 days
Medium	2 days	4 days	4 days	8 days	12 days	12 days	8 days	50 days
Normal	3 days	7 days	7 days	14 days	21 days	21 days	17 days	90 days
Long	6 days	15 days	15 days	30 days	45 days	45 days	34 days	190 days
Epic	30 days	75 days	75 days	150 days	225 days	225 days	180 days	960 days

AbsimiliardsKindaRealisticAgingMod (AbsKRAM)

Setting	Baby	Toddler	Child	Teenager	Young Adult	Adult	Elder	Total
Short	1 day	1 days	2 days	2 days	7 days	8 days	5 days	26 days
Medium	1 days	2 days	3 days	3 days	11 days	12 days	7 days	40 days
Normal	1 days	4 days	7 days	6 days	22 days	25 days	15 days	80 days
Long	3 days	12 days	21 days	18 days	66 days	75 days	45 days	240 days
Epic	12 days	48 days	84 days	72 days	264 days	300 days	180 days	960 days

AbsimiliardsRealisticAgingMod (AbsRAM)

Setting	Baby	Toddler	Child	Teenager	Young Adult	Adult	Elder	Total
Short	1 day	1 days	2 days	2 days	7 days	8 days	1 day	22 days
Medium	1 days	2 days	3 days	3 days	11 days	12 days	2 days	34 days
Normal	1 days	4 days	7 days	6 days	22 days	25 days	5 days	70 days
Long	3 days	12 days	21 days	18 days	66 days	75 days	15 days	210 days
Epic	12 days	48 days	84 days	72 days	264 days	300 days	60 days	840 days

Lifespan Settings

As there has been some interest in removing the shorter gameplay and offering more option for longer games, each of the two mods also has a long play (LP) version that will extend te lifespans should you choose.

Regular Versions (close to EA defaults)
The new life stage durations are mapped out to correlate somewhat with real time segments.
At Short setting, 1 day of game time = 3 years Real World Time
At Medium  setting, 1 day of game time = 2 years Real World Time
At Normal setting, 1 day of game time = 1 year Real World Time
At Long setting, 1 day of game time = 1/3 year Real World Time
At Epic setting, 1 day of game time = 1 month Real World Time

Long Play (LP) Versions
At Short setting, 1 day of game time = 1 year Real World Time
At Medium  setting, 1 day of game time = 6 months Real World Time
At Normal setting, 1 day of game time = 1/4 year (3 months) Real World Time (this also makes pregnancies the correct duration)
At Long setting, 1 week of game time = 1 year Real World Time
At Epic setting, 1 day of game time = 1 month Real World Time

Potential Issues
This is a purely XML mod. It should not conflict with any other non-age tuning mod you have. I've used it for months quite happily.

However...
It is that when you apply this mod there will be some sims in your neighborhood who have spent longer in their current life stage than the modded version allows. They will age up on the day the mod is applied.
This can leave precious little time for skilling toddlers and such. I play on epic and rarely notice an issue but I appreciate it could be a crunch for those who don't.

[Anach]

Looks good.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have one of these that works quite simply by setting things to the Rule of 6, where each "1" represents 6. Thus, Baby+Toddler = 1, Child =1, Teen = 1, YA =2, (18-30), Adult = 3 (36-54), Elder  = 2 (60-72). Note that elders don't actually *DIE* immediately at the end of their stage, that is actually the "minimum", so if you set it to higher values, they will hang around for the equivalent of 900 years.

[lefty]

I've  been using this for a few hours in my game, and it works just fine. Initially I did have a bunch of elders bite the bullet all at once, but now it seems they are dying anywhere from 80-90 days. I personally enjoy playing the YA and Adult lifespan more, so this works great for me, thanks.

[LVRugger]

I have one of these that works quite simply by setting things to the Rule of 6, where each "1" represents 6. Thus, Baby+Toddler = 1, Child =1, Teen = 1, YA =2, (18-30), Adult = 3 (36-54), Elder  = 2 (60-72). Note that elders don't actually *DIE* immediately at the end of their stage, that is actually the "minimum", so if you set it to higher values, they will hang around for the equivalent of 900 years.

Um, Pes, what happens at 30-36 and 54-60? Maybe make YA = 3 and A = 4? If I followed your plan, I would probably make elders = 3 (60-78) so they make sure the kids they spawn on day 59 aren't left alone in early teenhood.

[J. M. Pescado]

Um, Pes, what happens at 30-36 and 54-60?

Nothing? They are YAs at 18, 24, 30, Adults at 36, 42, 48, 54, Elders at 60+.

Maybe make YA = 3 and A = 4?

Yeah, I quoted the numbers wrong, that's what I have in the data file.

If I followed your plan, I would probably make elders = 3 (60-78) so they make sure the kids they spawn on day 59 aren't left alone in early teenhood.

Shit happens. Especially when you wait until you're 54 to try to spawn, and you're lucky if you can manage that. The odds of them croaking it immediately on the dot are pretty slim anyway, since that's only when they *START* to risk dying, and if they do? SHIT HAPPENS.

In TS2, there was a "Sterile Adult" phase that happened shortly before the transition to elder to prevent that, but TS3 doesn't appear to have implemented it.

[myskaal]

Definitely a much better time line. Throwing it in my game immediately.

[byronh]

Good idea, but I think EA distributed the ages the way they did because of the playability. In my opinion, child is the most boring life stage and teenager is the most interesting life stage (especially with the NRaas part time careers and a teen romance mod of some kind). Even though there's no way that they could look like a 17 year old for twice the length that they look like an 11 year old, the amount of interactions and skills available to children is just too small to hold most people's interest longer than the teenage life stage.

Edit: I think I'm gonna use your mod but just move a few days of life time from child into teen.

[Absimiliard]

Good idea, but I think EA distributed the ages the way they did because of the playability. In my opinion, child is the most boring life stage and teenager is the most interesting life stage (especially with the NRaas part time careers and a teen romance mod of some kind). Even though there's no way that they could look like a 17 year old for twice the length that they look like an 11 year old, the amount of interactions and skills available to children is just too small to hold most people's interest longer than the teenage life stage.

Edit: I think I'm gonna use your mod but just move a few days of life time from child into teen.

I agree that the teen years should be some of the most fun years to play (I know my teens were). But I wanted to be realistic and teen sims can't get into any of the shenannigans I did when I was young, so I kinda find teen fun potential reduced anyway.

[Kyna]

teenager is the most interesting life stage

I disagree, and am so glad this mod cuts the teen stage to about where it should be.

I always felt that they made the teen stage twice as long as it needed to be in TS2, and they've done the same in TS3.  Personally I find the stage boring, especially in TS2 - by the time my sims turned teen they were one point away from maxing out all skills, so it was a case of picking knowledge & getting the Max Skills LTW completed, picking up the last couple of scholarships, using TJ's crystal ball to summon a compatible townie teen to macro/romanticate to get the first kiss out of the way, then on to uni ASAP.  The only advantage TS3 teen stage has over TS2 teen stage is that I can grow my sims up as soon as they hit teen if I get too bored with the stage.

[Anshin]

I'd like to see Elder reduced to 10 days since the average male lifespan in the US is 74. Reducing the Elder days to 10 would make sims 75 years before they even start having the option to die, meaning most would live beyond 75 anyway.

I think the days you have set for the other lifestages are perfect.

[Absimiliard]

You may be right. I was looking at some data that indicated that 80 was the average in the first world, the UN has a chart that indicates that many do (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy. I'm in Canada so 80 is correct for me.

One of the fears I have with making it shorter is people croaking when I don't really want them to. Most sims in my game are representations of real people, I actually have a bundle of sims that are in their 90s because the real people are in their 90s. I don't think I'll be changing it as I can always kill an elder by forcing an age up but I can't bring one back as easily.

[Buzzler]

FYI: The expected value for the number of days an Elder lives beyond his minimum life span is pretty easy to calculate, too. (POV)

n_Days = (-1) / ( ln(1 - p_Death/100) )

with
p_Death - Chance of Dying in percent
ln - Logarithmus Naturalis
n_Days - Number of Days (or MTBF...)

If you want to tweak it to a certain number:

p_Death/100 = 1 - e^(-1/n_Days)

with
e - Euler's number

[GayJohnScarritt]

Oh, well that was simple.


<per another thread, yes, we need a Sarcasm font>

[J. M. Pescado]

Good idea, but I think EA distributed the ages the way they did because of the playability. In my opinion, child is the most boring life stage and teenager is the most interesting life stage (especially with the NRaas part time careers and a teen romance mod of some kind).

That was the goal, but the thing is, 12s are just annoying, lesser versions of adults where none of the CC people makes actually fits. All the GOOD stuff is in the YA stage, really.

[Buzzler]

Oh, well that was simple.

Oh, come on, this is highschool math!

For example: The default death chance for normal lifespan is 14%. So if you use an old-fashioned calculator or the Windows calculator in science mode, you simply enter 0.86 (1 - 14/100, who needs a calculator for that, and is older than 12, is too stupid to buy himself a bun and tell if he got the correct change, thus should have the propriety to just die to make the world a better place), hit "ln", hit "1/x", and hit "+/-". The outcome is ~6.63, which means Elders are expected to live ~7 days beyond their minimum life span. Really, what is not simple about that?

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes, but remember, he's an F. Fs are a bit, you know, STUPID.

[Treehugger]

I like the idea of this modI find the age ranges far more realistic than what is currently offered in the Sims 3.  I see that I am not the only person who is bored with the exaggerated length of time for the teen years.  But at least in the Sims 3 you can age them up early with the birthday cake whereas with the Sims 2 all you could do was send them to Uni which added a whole new dimension of boredom.

I think the reason Eaxis make the teen age span so long is they think that is the age of the people playing the sims because all they see on the BBS is 12s being well 12s, not realising that anyone older has fled the inanity of the BBS and found oases of sanity elsewhere.

The only thing I don't like about this mod is that the overall lifespan is reduced to 80 days I would rather it had been kept at 90 days.  The thing about those life expectancy tables that someone linked is that they are lefe expectancy at birth and include the possibility that the person could die prematurely as an infant, child or adult.  Which is why the figures for the third world countries suck so much because they have much higher infant mortality rates.  Even in western countries such as Canada and New Zealand there is the change you could die young because of a motor vehicle accident or cancer.  The actual life expectancy of someone who reaches the age of 70 in a western is higher than you would expect from those tables.

Maybe you could make three versions of this mod with the life expectancies for the medium life span set to 74, 80, or 90 days.

 

[Tingeling]

As someone with Dyscalculia I can honestly say i didn't anderstand a word of that calculation!

Noone expected you too.

[witch]

As someone with Dyscalculia I can honestly say i didn't anderstand a word of that calculation!

Noone expected you too.

Jeebus.

Dingaling, look, you've already been told about noone but for some reason you have an obsession about him. Someone, I think it was Liz, already informed you that the word is no-one. Please pay attention and stop trying to ape your betters in the sporking stakes. Quite frankly you are becoming more retarded by the hour.

[Tingeling]

As someone with Dyscalculia I can honestly say i didn't anderstand a word of that calculation!

No-one expected you too.

Jeebus.

Dingaling, look, you've already been told about noone but for some reason you have an obsession about him. Someone, I think it was Liz, already informed you that the word is no-one. Please pay attention and stop trying to ape your betters in the sporking stakes. Quite frankly you are becoming more retarded by the hour.

Edit: Corrected typo.

Ape my betters? That is an interesting turn of phrase. I was under the impression that sporking n00bs was an acceptable thing to do. Apparently I must have got it wrong. Or are your definition perhaps different than mine? Granted, my previous post has very little substance. I am not sure though where this retarded behavior you claim that I am exhibiting is observed, other than an occasional outburst of frustration about n00bs that can't use the proper grammar or who themselves exhibit retarded idéas. Do enlighten me of what behavior you are speaking of, and I will change whatever you seem to consider to not be up to MATY's standard.

[witch]

Ape my betters? That is an interesting turn of phrase. I was under the impression that sporking n00bs was an acceptable thing to do. Apparently I must have got it wrong. Or are your definition perhaps different than mine? Granted, my previous post has very little substance. I am not sure though where this retarded behavior you claim that I am exhibiting is observed, other than an occasional outburst of frustration about n00bs that can't use the proper grammar or who themselves exhibit retarded idéas. Do enlighten me of what behavior you are speaking of, and I will change whatever you seem to consider to not be up to MATY's standard.

Half-cocked, loose cannon, those words mean anything to you?

Yes sporking is a MATY national sport, however experienced sporkers are also aware of their audience and don't inundate the place with continuous diarrhoeic verbiage, most of which is neither pointed nor funny. In simple terms, much of your sporking is at about the level of those you are supposedly sporking and personally, I'm sick of seeing you trying to be a 'cool kid' in nearly every damn thread I load. Just for an e.g.

As someone with Dyscalculia I can honestly say i didn't anderstand a word of that calculation!

Noone expected you too.

No-one expected you to.

Two mistakes in the one lame spork.

[Anshin]

I've been using the realistic aging mod for a while now and love it. Absimiliard, I hope you upload it to modthesims.info where it can get the exposure it deserves.

[Absimiliard]

I've been using the realistic aging mod for a while now and love it. Absimiliard, I hope you upload it to modthesims.info where it can get the exposure it deserves.

I think most people poke arund a bit, it probably fine here. Additionally I found that my math was off in the mod. Long actually plays out at 1/3 of a year instead of 1/4. I wanted it to be a 1/4 (3months) so that pregnancies would last the appropriate time. If I change that value the Long lifespans now last 320 days, which is fine by me but I thought that it is substantially different from the EA 190 to be palatable.

As far as I'm concerned this change is a good one. Actually, If I do post a modified version, I think I'd like the lifetimes to be more like:

Setting	Duration	SimDay/RealTime
Short	40	2 Years
Medium	80	1 Years
Normal	160	6 months
Long	320	3 months
Epic	960	1 month

If anyone else agrees, let me know, and I'll post up that one as the revised.

Maybe you could make three versions of this mod with the life expectancies for the medium life span set to 74, 80, or 90 days.

I don't really want to submit multiple copies of what is at its core a very simple xml tuning. I've made changes to the mod that I use the 1/4 year, 320 day values but didn't submit them for the same reason.

Additionally, there is some contention on how Elder sim aging goes but the gist is 80 is not the maximum rather it's the minimum. After that point there is a chance they will die daily, but the law of averages say that you'll probably get a few more years yet. Actually it was stated earlier in this mod that 80 years is probably a bit too MUCH time to give them.

If you want to fiddle with these things yourself, XML modding is not mad science at all. It's really quite easy.

Step 1. Get a Sims 3 Package editor (I use s3pe http://forums.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=362412)

Step 2. Open the mod package.

Step 3. Edit the XML (In s3pe highlight the first (only) item in the list and then click the ‘Editor'] button below.

Step 4. Tweak as needed. (If you wanted the older folks to live to 90, change the kAgingStageLengthElderMinimum value from 1.875 to 3.125 (because 1.875*8(kDefaultSimDaysPerAgingYear) = 15 (elder duration), 3.125*8=25))

Step 5. Save your changes and commit them, then resave the package.

Done like dinner.

[Lion]

I'm using your current one and loving it.  Your new one sounds great too. Please post it.