Playing with the Oldies

[Kala]

I'm thinking about playing with the Oldie family for the first time and I would like to know what I should and shouldn't do.  Ei:adoupting kids, makeing them over in SimPE, and such.

[ZiggyDoodle]

At first glance I thought I was at the BBS. 

At any rate, there are no "should" and "should not" rules in the game.  There are too many variables.

Decide what you want to do then do it.

[Kala]

I asked this question because of other maxis families that are buggy.

[Dark Trepie]

Decide what you want to do then do it.

And do it fast.  You have at least 2 sim weeks before they croak from old age.  (Herb has a week and a half)

[J. M. Pescado]

The purpose of the Oldies is essentially to boost their relationship with their grandchildren, then croak. That's basically it for them. They don't really come with any other useful abilities, or even jobs, and by standard Maxis rules, they're basically just waiting to die, since they have no means of getting any other income, no skills, nothing. To top that off, they're also buggy, so I wouldn't breed them or do anything foolish like that, and at < 2weeks to go, I wouldn't have them adopt anything because they'll drop dead before it finishes growing. Basically, the Oldies are the Maxis advanced tutorial of "getting old and dying". They can't perform any really USEFUL elder functions besides that, as they have no skills, so can't teach anything, no jobs, so can't provide money, and there aren't any babies, not that they live in the same house...they're basically the example of "death by old age".

[jrd]

Move them in with the Pleasants to traumatize Lilith even further by letting them die of old age.

[Kala]

Move them in with the Pleasants to traumatize Lilith even further by letting them die of old age.

Hey ehy now, I like Lilith.  I think I'm going to leave the old folks in the family bin.  I'm playing enough famlies right now.

[proudbrunette]

when i played the oldies i had them adopt like 5 toddlers it was kind of funny actually...lol but i didn't save the game jsut experimenting......

[Eleonora]

Move them in with the Pleasants to traumatize Lilith even further by letting them die of old age.

Hey ehy now, I like Lilith.  I think I'm going to leave the old folks in the family bin.  I'm playing enough famlies right now.

Or you could put them in a house, turn the game speed to turbo and go and do something else. It shouldn't take too long for them to die, and that way their family tree won't look too wonky (Imagine, if Lilith and Angela had grandkids, Marie-Sue and Daniel both dead, but the Oldies still alive. That would be rather weird)

[Elven Ranger]

Move em onto a small house, and move Lilith in with them to give the poor kid 1/2 a chance!

[Dark Trepie]

I have to agree with JM here.  Their sole purpose seems to be making the Pleasant's bank account larger.

-Have them make friends with Mary-Sue, Lilith, and Angela.
-When Herb dies those 3 should get a nice inheritance, and Carol should get around $20k.
-Have Carol move in with the Pleasants.  When she dies the Pleasants should have inherited between $30k - $40K.  Easily setting them for life.

Now the challenge is getting Carol to die with a platnium tombstone.  She'll pretty much be in a foul mood for the rest of her short life after Herb dies.

Move em onto a small house, and move Lilith in with them to give the poor kid 1/2 a chance!

I don't think that's possible.  Unless you're using the Kitten Killer.

[Jack Rudd]

In my game, I've moved them in with the Pleasants.

[Elven Ranger]

Move em onto a small house, and move Lilith in with them to give the poor kid 1/2 a chance!

I don't think that's possible.  Unless you're using the Kitten Killer.

yup, just use the 'add neighbor' cheat

[Avalikia]

I had them adopt a child (as opposed to a baby or toddler).  She was a teen when they died, so that worked out well, actually.

[J. M. Pescado]

I have to agree with JM here.  Their sole purpose seems to be making the Pleasant's bank account larger.

Well, basically, that's their purpose, to teach about how to play the dying-of-old-age game. Seeing as they have no other useful abilities.

[Elven Ranger]

I have to agree with JM here.  Their sole purpose seems to be making the Pleasant's bank account larger.

Well, basically, that's their purpose, to teach about how to play the dying-of-old-age game. Seeing as they have no other useful abilities.

And that's why I alway's ignore em

[J. M. Pescado]

They can't just be ignored, either, or it'll desync your neighborhood. You have to finish them off.

[Elven Ranger]

your right ... So i moved em into a lil house, intending to let em live out there 'golden days' with there grandchild .... So Herb flert's with Coral who rejects him, they both fall out of love with eachother,  collapse & need 2 shrinks at once, and lilith thinks they are cracked! lol.... All in the 1st few seconds of playing em!!

[Ellatrue]

I just had them adopt a bunch of kids. It amused me.

[J. M. Pescado]

your right ... So i moved em into a lil house, intending to let em live out there 'golden days' with there grandchild .... So Herb flert's with Coral who rejects him, they both fall out of love with eachother,  collapse & need 2 shrinks at once, and lilith thinks they are cracked! lol.... All in the 1st few seconds of playing em!!

Maxis sims very frequently start off in a very shitty state compared to what they'd actually have needed to get there in the first place! Thus, you frequently see married couples not at 100/100, or best friends not at a minimum of 100/50, etc. Since they don't satisfy the prequisites to hold that state, basically anything going wrong causes it all to implode at once.

[proudbrunette]

Ellatrue: ISN'T it amusing to have them adopt a ton of kids! i was hysterical watching them trying to take care of all of them! i think like 2 had to go with the social worker though but then i just adopted two more lol!

[kutto]

The fraterity at La Fiesta Tech has something along those lines. The guys there are all friends, but none of them are at 50. I assume that they stay friends forever, as they have in my game. Though, they have yet to leave college.

[J. M. Pescado]

The friends will collapse the moment they interact with each other, and immediately stop being friends.

[kutto]

Not the case with these guys. They've even had negative interactions, but still friends.

[Ellatrue]

So is the lifetime high enough to help it otherwise?

meh... yeah, I like giving my families a bunch of kids because I enjoy the chaos and the challenge. So having the oldies adopt to add the additional difficulty of the time limit and the limited budget just made it a lot more interesting.