More Awesome Than You!

With several people talking about playing with aging off, I was just curious. I like aging on - I love toddlers but I get bored with them about the time they grow up, so it works well for me. Same with all the other age-groups... I kinda see aging as a milestone and work to get them there. I also tend to use those milestones to keep lots in sync. Play all the ones with toddlers until they hit children and even if they don't have kids, play them 4 days to keep them even. Like that.

But I'm the impatient type and even with aging on, I get bored if they're all doing something that'll be awhile, so I set the game speed up and fast forward them through all the boring parts of life (I think I wish I could do this in real life too :) Often I set it on 2 and even occasionally on 3 (when everyone is skilling or restocking or something.) But I kinda feel bad, they've got these little short lifespan of a fly lives and I fast forward them through at least a quarter of it.

Sooooo, I was wondering, especially people that play with aging off, do you get bored and speed your game up also? Do game play speed and aging have any relationship? What do you do with all that extra time? :)

I fast forward a lot. If they're skilling or even eating or taking a bath, I put it on 3. I also put it on 3 when the taxi arrives and is leaving because it takes them 30 minutes to get into the car and the driver to finally drive away :P And I do play with aging on almost always. I am not afraid of the Elixer of Life ;) so generally no one ages before I'm ready for them to.

I'm impatient and want to get things done! lol

I fast forward all the time but I play with aging on.  I hate pregnancies, babies, and toddlers and I am more than sick of most sims by the time they reach elder.  Ironically, the only ones I don't fast forward are the sims I don't like that I am letting do their own thing.  I like to see just how stupid they can be and cheer when they set themselves on fire or realize they are starving and too tired to eat.

I do slow down time if there is something going on that I need to micromanage like making a parent help with homework or getting someone platinum before work for a promotion though.

I always play with aging on. I always play on speed 2, and on speed 3 if they are skill building...this is why I am useless at writing sim stories-by the time I notice something has happened I have zoomed past it! :D
I guess I am the impatient type.

I would never play with ageing off because to me that defeats the entire object of the game.  Nobody lives forever and I get mighty sick of mine when they're elders anyway.  Since having the Lot Synchroniser I've made copious notes, even down to the times babies are conceived, so everyone is born in the right order (although I mucked it up at the start, so Cassandra got a boy and Dustin got a girl instead of the other way around - you wouldn't believe how annoyed I got about that!).

Speedwise, I play on 3 a lot, especially on lots where there are single Sims and they're skilling or whatever.  I also teleport them everywhere (courtesy of the Insim) because I can't be bothered to wait while they walk.  Some of my townhouses have so many floors they'd probably not even make it to work if I didn't.  I do play on 1 the majority of the time, especially on lots with quite a few Sims, but I would hate to be without the option to speed things up when there's nothing much happening.

I used to find elders boring until OFB came out -- now I find them to be perfect business owners, or better yet employees at their kid's business, rather than having them sit around all day watching TV. Since I always move at least one kid back into the family house after they graduate college to keep the 'family fortune' going, the kid(s) can start a business and retired mom/dad are great for making craft-type stock all day. :)

Aging off. It's only natural. This is, after all, a life simulation and besides, who wants to play the same sim at the same age forever and ever. It just gets boring. If you want them to live a little longer, use the elixer, that's what its there for. :P

Some of my lots have aging on, others have aging off.  Makes for some odd situations (like the female teen in my trailer park that has woohooed with 3 generations of teens trying to get out of that trailer park), but some Sims I like to keep around and others I like to age and die.

My default play speed is 2.  I use 1 as slow motion.

I play with aging on as I can always use the elixir for the Sims I like and may want to hang around a bit longer.  Definitely fast forward when playing Maxis Sims, such as the adult Tinkers, who somehow survived to middle age without learning one dratted cooking skill! I combine the fast foward with maxmotives.

I don't speed up any of my born-in-game Sims, although there are a few I may feed to the cow plant.

I fast forward when they are skilling or doing lame things otherwise I mostly play at speed 2.

Sometimes when there are only adults on the lot I play at aging off but not for long, when they have enough aspiration points to get the elixir I put it back at on and if I wish to make them younger I can if I wish.

I always hated the elder stage... now with OFB I found the elders lot more interesting.  They can now start their business, it is nice since there is a utility to the money they stack from time to time.

I play with aging on (but lots of elixir!).  I usually play at speed 1 (except when no one's awake on the lot), but I go up to 2 if nothing interesting's going to happen for awhile, and once in awhile to 3 if say someone's alone in the house and skilling or doing homework or an assignment.  But mostly I run at speed 1 (and take tons and tons and tons of pictures (http://www.davidchess.com/words/SimsStories.html)!).  This is unlike with the original Sims, which I usually played at speed 2.

I don't feel at all guilty about speeding up when I do; I figure it only changes the speed at which the game shows us stuff, and the Sims themselves still experience their lives at the same subjective speed.  I've never heard anyone suggest that turning up the game speed has any effect on aging; I would be very surprised if that was true.

i play with aging on, and at gamespeed 1.
 I micromanage my sims a whole lot, so speed 1 suits me just fine. The only time it fastforwards at 3, is if everybody is asleep, or nobodys home.
I do play with free will on, but they hardly ever get to use it, as i always have something for them to do

I play with againg on. Though I've never gotten past generation two because of how slow and distracted I am.  :P

I always have the speed at one except for when my Sims are skilling and when I get bored with what they are doing. Like when they're cleaning puddles from the shower, drives me insane.

I play with aging on, and usually speed 1, although I'll use speed 2 and 3 through showers, skilling, and food preparation if there are only a few Sims on the lot.

Main neighborhood is played with aging on, no life extension enhancements except under certain circumstances (house and money will be lost if eldest sim is allowed to die before child comes home from uni), mainly at speed 1. I use speed 2 to power through boring tasks or short waiting periods and speed 3 for anything with a lengthy waiting time. I do tend to pause a lot to micromanage but I am trying to get out of that habit and just let things happen while I switch between sims.

I'm guilty of speeding things up a majority of the time, mostly at speed 3 because I'm impatient dammit :P.  I haven't used aging off since I first started playing the original, I tend to feel like it's cheating, but I use the elixir sparingly when I need it.

Aging on, since I feel that the life cycle is what this game is all about.  But usually at speed 1 unless, like others here, there's just one or two sims and they're skilling or something like that, then it's usually 2 and at Uni usually 3.  I use 1 when I just want to see what kind of things they'll do on their own without me telling them what to do.

And if it's just a toddler who's awake while everyone else is asleep, and s/he's playing with a learning toy, usually 3.  But I always keep a watchful eye on everyone's stats when I "fast-forward".  Would hate to have a sim die because they decided to paint themselves to death!

My hand is perpetually on the 1 & 3 buttons. When they're doing something boring, I hit 3. When they do something I want to observe, I hit 1. Back and forth, back and forth.

It's gotten to the pt. where I'll be doing something else, like loading a program, and my hand'll automatically shift up to the 3 and 1, only to realize that, sadly, it doesn't work for everything else.

Oh oops, I wasn't clear. I didn't mean have an effect on aging in the game. I meant, do people that play with aging off tend not to fast forward and those with aging on fast forward more or whatever combination. Is there a correlation in the way people play the game :)

Thanks for the answers. It's interesting to me to know how other people do things. I tend to micromanage as well and hit pause a lot, then when all the commands are there, that's when I speed it up. I do watch the game when I play - I've never had a sim die because I made them do something for too long. And I actually must kinda like clicking, as I get bored if I don't feel like I have some input.

But lately (due mostly to the OFB strategy thread) I've been trying to let them have more choices (not telling toddlers what to do, not always making parents feed/diaper/bathe/play with the kids and my newest one, not changing the randomly rolled lightning bolts likes and dislikes so they choose more on their own if they're interested in a vampire or a redhead or whatever.) 'Cept now I find if I'm letting them do a lot on their own, I speed that up too so they'll hurry up and *do* something. Ok, definately impatient-type here :)

Okay, you guys might think I'm nuts, but not only do I play on 1 most of the time,  but I have even slowed the time down to 70-50% of the normal clock using merola's time control clock. The clock moved too fast for me before!

Heh, well, in most cases, I would call you nuts, :P but I can see why you would want to slow it down in some cases. For me, in single or small households, it's on 3 or 2 most of the time, but in some houses where I have lots of sims (meaning more than 8, I do have houses with more than 8 sims occasionally, and had a house of 18 at one point), it does get to the point of being rather unmanageable, so I wind up playing between 1 or 2 and pause most of the time so I can queue up commands for the sims, otherwise they'd probably end up doing something foolish (if free will was on, which it usually is) and killing themselves. :)

I fast-forward with the 3 key depending on what I have the Sims doing.  Actually, it's more like 3131313131133131.... :D

I always played with aging on, but I am starting to experiment with Aging off now with my new Sims.  In my old families though, I'd play a single Sim by themselves for about a Sim-week (especially in the Legacy family), and when their mate joined the household, I'd make them drink elixir to make them approximately the same ages.  I really hate having one die before their mate.

I fast forward through the boring bits like most others. bath time skilling time etc.

I play with aging on too.....I don't usually get attached enough to any one sim or family. I let them die when it's their time to die  :)

Oh, and to actually answer the question :),  I play aging on, usually equally split between speed 1 and 2, and only speed up to 3 when they're doing a task that takes a while (skilling, doing term papers, etc).  But I have found I've been playing more at speed 1 since I got OFB, especially at owned businesses -- the want for higher sales badges seems to pop up a lot, and that's hard to manage at speed 2 in a sole-proprietor place.

I play almost exclusively at speed 1, with aging on.  The most I normally do is hit pause if I'm trying to set something specific up.  Aside from that, I multitask.  I often read a book (or browse on the laptop) while the game is running, and switch focus as necessary.

Then again, I've not been able to install OFB yet, so I have no idea how that will affect my side reading activities.

Before OFB I HATED playing elders.  I would have them meditate and fast forward through their whole session.  Since OFB though, I make them craft constantly til they die. lol...somebody's gotta make all those snapdragons!

aging on, speed 1 most of the time (unless their at work/school or sleeping) I rarely pause unless I have to go do something.

If they are all busy skilling then I'll hit speed 3 but I rarely bother having them skill unless they actually need it - I don't want them all maxed and in the tops of their careers.

I don't play like alot of people though, my sims are usually doing something more interesting then taking care of needs (takes to long) Mine are usually hungry/tired/dirty and whatnot when I want them to be  ;D *hugs InSIM* 

Lately I've started being more hands off with toddlers and letting them pick what they are going to do/play with, when they age to children I use InSim to randomize their skills to ones I feel reflect their personalitys or possible storylines (this kid is very good at cleaning but sucks at cooking, that kid can fix anything but is stupid (low logic)) After that though they have to earn any more skill points themselves.

I'm finding large busy households are alot of fun thanks to Brynne and the no family size limit hack by Doc Doofus  ;D  My whorehouse is a mad house and it's getting even crazier! I decided the whores must raise the oopsie babys *loves risky woohoo and Lizzies waterbed* rather then having them get teleported off to the orphange. I think when the currently pregnant whores give birth there will be around 20 sims on the Lot, only 8 are adults. I've been avoiding looking at the kids family trees so I don't know who fathered who but I did discover the oldest kid was fathered by the Hoods Mayor  :o  Shame on him!

I haven't sped up any of the pregnancies in hopes of reducing the amount of oopsie babys  ::)

edit - I play will Free Will ON

Mwah. I love you too, sweetie punkin. Now get back to work. *cracks whip*

 :D This is exactly what I do ... I often find myself tapping the 3 button when I'm waiting for the game to load. Sad, I know.

I do that too :D

And what's most annoying since OFB, all my crafted items get called 1 or 3 or 31 because the focus is automatically on changing the name. That way, I can't tell which robot or toy I am making  >:(

I could remove the ability to customize craftables. I can't imagine why you'd really want to do that anyway.

oh yes, please do!
they probably did that so people would be satisfied with that they could actually make choices about what the items are like or something  :-\ so that they wouldn't complain. not that it made sense.

Aging on, Free will...eh? What free will?! You're 3D-rendered pixels! You DON'T have a will! Uh, what was I saying? Oh yes, free will OFF, bucketloads of Elixir of Life (all those aspiration points HAVE to go somewhere!), left hand hovering between the dash symbol and the 1 and 3 keys. Pause, issue commands, unpause, speed up if they're doing something time-consuming, pause, issue commands, etc. Macro is my best friend! I do tend to have small families though, 1-4 sims max, usually 2. I once played a 6-sim household and my head almost exploded after the 3rd hour of playing, while I usually play from 16:00 to 2:00 (or 6:00 on weekends) with one or two sims (with a 2-3 hour break to spend time with my g/f).

To answer the question, I play with Aging off.  I hate the time it takes to sync more than 10 families and how Maxis does genetics.  I swear that after I saw a child obtain the skintone of a distant relative or get that same damn flat nose their grandmother had I just don't want to deal with it anymore.  I also want to enjoy the fricking thing and not just speed through it.  However, I do use the Elixer of Life to keep my sims young instead of just using the cheat.  If I didn't, they'd have too many aspiration points and I wouldn't have a point of fufilling wants.  Plus, someone doesn't stay an adult for only 30 days.

As for the speed, I usually have it on 3 when I'm having my sim skilling, or at work.  Also, I tend to use it more when there's one sim in a house rather than a house with four sims.  I barely ever use 2.

I don't get why Maxis even made anything other than the color customizable.  Still, I'm not sure I'd want a hack to remove it completely... Then again I don't use most of J.M.'s new hacks because they affect my gameplay style.

Heh, me too. All that boring crap neds to be rushed through as fast as possible and skilling is such a pain, so are meals, bathing, and on and on and on... Remind me, what am I doing?

I played Sims 1 with queues and speed 3. However, I usually play such large families in Sims 2 that speed 1 is perfect. I just keep switching between sims and reassigning them.

And free will ON. My sims have lives! I just let one of my sims pick her future mate from a choice of 2. 2 bolts with each guys, invite both over at a party. See what happens. One guy had more hots for another girl at the party. The second guy was totally focused on my sim. Then they autonomously flirted several times. Match made.

This is something that I found quite entertaining yesterday. Two sim brothers were chatting at breakfast. And I hear the "hearts and flowers" thing so I paused it. Brother B had a bubble with a sim and the hearts and flowers, but I didn't know who she was. So i checked his relationship panel and he had never met her. I'm pretty sure Brother A (who does have her in his relationship panel) was talking about her, and Brother B, said, "Oh, she sounds HAWT!"

I find the little things like that to be what's enjoyable. My sims never max their skills. They are too busy having LIVES :)

Since the maxMotives cheat, my sims never sleep anymore (thank goodness!), so I have more time to let them play with their relationships and enjoy their jobs and skills - it's much more fun for me to play if I don't always have to feed the ants ;)

But sometimes, the game just drags, and if I'm waiting for that tenth baby to pop out or something, I'll set to 3 and watch my momma get fatter and fatter! I tend to fastfoward through homework, too, because when you have six kids on a lot, and they're all doing homework, it gets super boring.

Ahh!! Me too! I had my sim start and stop to make different colors and configurations, and goodness, that was so annoying. I kept getting 3131 in the text box, which I then had to delete manually.


Me too! I always get confuzzled when pple say that it's one of the easiest LTWs, but for me, there's no chance that any one of my sims will ever reach it. Mortimer Goth's the oldest sim in my neighborhood, been there since I first played the game, and a knowledge sim to boot, and still he has yet to max all skills.

I love that. So true. Most of us do not max out on all our "skills" in life, so why should sims? What is the point? I have a sim, Dash Delmar, who owns the gym...she studies mechanical a lot, autonomously sometimes, because that is where her interests lie. She is a tad of the manly, errr...empowered female side. Ex-marine. But will she be taking up the paintbrush anytime soon and maxing her girly creative side? Think not.

i cheat half the skills so i don't have to have them do it the boring way, especially bloody charisma, and it saves having easels and telescopes and other assorted crap on the lot unless i want them to do something specific.
i fast forward if i do have one or two sims only in a household and i want them to get a move on. never fast forwarded a pregnancy though sometimes i age transition babies and toddlers earlier than they are scheduled to
aging off i rarely use. only when i first started the game back at the beginning before i knew what the hell i was doing (some might say i still don't, but there you go)
OfB changes my gameplay a little. i too used to dislike elders but the thought of them having a regular job while they are still adults and then retiring and opening their own business is sort of appealing. i might be tempted to play certain elders with aging off for a while, but i haven't got to that stage yet

i do actually like the conversations they have when sitting down for a meal or watching telly. i rarely fast forward those

Maybe I'm too hard on my Sims, I like to see how early in their teen days I can max them all out.  Best so far: 5 days as a teen.  And that's after I encourage all their attributes (except playful, I hate playful Sims) to 10.

I do have to admit my children and teens don't have a lot of time for fun...

I totally agree witht he 31313111111111111ONEDAMMIT,ONE! thing on the craftables.  I wish it were just random out of those as to what "flavour" of craftable comes out, and not all the same kind.  Grar.

I do let my sims age...   ...  ...  All but two, but Morgan and Rainey are my babies, and I can't bear for them to die.  And yes, I ffw a lot when they're being boring.

Aging on, FF  A LOT, and the Elixier of Life. I have never let my simmies die. Permanent adults. Children get sent off to college and never return because I hate playing UNI.

I play on 3 and 2 a lot but since I also pause a lot I guess it evens out right? I only slow down to 1 for parties, play/romantic dates and other relationship building "events".
In fact I've recently discovered that huge un-official "block" parties with most of the hood in attendance are my very favorite things to do. I just kind of let things happen at these parties. It puts a little spice into the sims lives I think.

I have aging and freewill on but I use the InSim to add or remove days as I see fit. Little kids/todlers/babies suck so I just do a few things with them and then skip ahead. All those stages are really good for is a makeover, "aww how cute" and a few pics. Well, with the kids I do a little social to set up for future frienships and such. I usually remove a couple days from their parents and siblings lives also just to keep things together. Not usually as many as I've removed from the kids though since teen and adult are my fave stages. Also on occasion I have added a few (7 at most. well i don't know... nevermind) days to a sims life for varying reasons.

I am still playing sims from when I first started. Only a few people have died. Usually because I killed them.