What is your "realistic" lifespan settings?

I use five sim days to correspond to one real life year, with a 390 day lifespan (78 years). I also don't like toddlers being so helpless right up until they're school aged, so I cut the toddler stage short, added the difference to the child stage, and treat the child like a preschooler, using NRaas Story Progression's careers module to homeschool them until they reach the equivalent of 6 years old.

Baby: 2 days
Toddler: 18 days
Child: 40 days
Teen: 30 days
Young Adult: 110 days
Adult: 140 days
Elder: 50

Since elders almost always live beyond their life expectancy, I set the elder stage to the minimum age I want them to be when they die.

I use mccommand and added a week to each normal lifespan amount with more for teens and ya. I use 28 day seasons though to space out holidays more

Seasons don't have to be seven (7) days. You can lower that to three (3). Or, of course, extend it.

I just play one day equals one year of life. So, babies get two days as I can't adjust it any lower than that and 24 months seems the right transition to toddler to me. Then, toddlers are really only "toddlers" for a couple years, but they can't start regular school here until six or seven. So, I give them five (5)days, which is plenty of time to get trained in everything and have all the books read to them. Grade school lasts Kindergarten through sixth grade, so that's seven days as a child. And, I only give my teens seven days as well (13-19 is seven years). I like the way all the life states work out to an even week (if you combine infant and toddler years together). I round the other life states in even weeks too. Current life is at 77 in my game, with the option for healthy living and luck adding more time in the twilight years.

We all play so very differently and have our own ideas of what is realistic, don't we?!

"ciane;c-17030129" wrote:
Seasons don't have to be seven (7) days. You can lower that to three (3). Or, of course, extend it.

I just play one day equals one year of life. So, babies get two days as I can't adjust it any lower than that and 24 months seems the right transition to toddler to me. Then, toddlers are really only "toddlers" for a couple years, but they can't start regular school here until six or seven. So, I give them five (5)days, which is plenty of time to get trained in everything and have all the books read to them. Grade school lasts Kindergarten through sixth grade, so that's seven days as a child. And, I only give my teens seven days as well (13-19 is seven years). I like the way all the life states work out to an even week (if you combine infant and toddler years together). I round the other life states in even weeks too. Current life is at 77 in my game, with the option for healthy living and luck adding more time in the twilight years.

We all play so very differently and have our own ideas of what is realistic, don't we?!

So true!!
I love having my kids experience each season, multiple times, and 7 days seems like enough time to go to the festivals and rack up some tickets!

So far I am enjoying my version of an epic lifespan. Overkill much? Still.Not.Bored.

Seasons
Spring - 93 days
Summer - 94 days
Autumn - 89 days
Winter - 89 days
Year - 365 days

Infant: 93 days
Toddlers: 1460 days
Child: 2920 days
Teen: 2555 days
Young Adult: 7300 days
Adult: 9125 days
Elder: 13140 days

36, 593 days more or less for each Sim's lifespan from birth to death. I also changed the pregnancy length as well to match.

I am more likely to celebrate and decorate for the holidays as it's not something that is too often like with the other previous life spans I had used. I wish the developers didn't put a limit on certain features but then again I doubt any of them actually thought there may be a player who would actually want to play a realistic life span Sims style. :p

I have the principle 1 year = 4 days, and all the seasons are 4 days each, so it's the same season for a whole year. That way children, teens etc. can experience several seasons, but the life of my sims isn't unbearably long. I can deal with young adults beign YA for long, but not so much for toddlers and children and I want things to seem 'right' so I wouldn't just make the toddler stage shorter randomly because the years wouldn't nicely equal anymore. If that makes sense.


So, right now:

Baby: 2 days (half a year: toddlers still need to learn how to walk and don't do so right on their birthday, and most people learn to walk when they're around 1 years old)
Toddler: 18 (4,5: 0,5 years to 5)
Child: 28
Teen: 24
Young adult: 88 (18 - 40)
Adult: 80
Elder: 30, it seems. Didn't know. Had to look at my optionsfile. 67 years is young but I don't really care they always live longer anyway. If I manage to play a sim until they're an elder...

Interesting thread. I often tend to set my sims to Epic lifespan, then realise things are progressing too slowly and switch to normal or something of the like... then realise it's progressing too fast hahah

"Deshong04;c-17030266" wrote:
So far I am enjoying my version of an epic lifespan. Overkill much? Still.Not.Bored.

Seasons
Spring - 93 days
Summer - 94 days
Autumn - 89 days
Winter - 89 days
Year - 365 days

Infant: 93 days
Toddlers: 1460 days
Child: 2920 days
Teen: 2555 days
Young Adult: 7300 days
Adult: 9125 days
Elder: 13140 days

36, 593 days more or less for each Sim's lifespan from birth to death. I also changed the pregnancy length as well to match.

I am more likely to celebrate and decorate for the holidays as it's not something that is too often like with the other previous life spans I had used. I wish the developers didn't put a limit on certain features but then again I doubt any of them actually thought there may be a player who would actually want to play a realistic life span Sims style. :p

Whoa! How did you get so many days? What's the secret?

@ilikethesims30 Sorry about the late response. Just seeing this but just in case if you didn't find out.

Start > Documents > Electronic Arts > The Sims 3 > Options (I open this document in Notepad.)
This path may be different if you are using a MAC or digital version.

Here are options pertaining specifically to the age of human Sims.
-agingstagelengthbaby
-agingstagelengthtoddler
-agingstagelengthchild
-agingstagelengthteen
-agingstagelengthyoungadult
-agingstagelengthadult
-agingstagelengthelder

It looks like: agingstagelengthelder = 13140

After the equal sign is where you can input your own custom life span to go beyond what the sliders allow in-game. Once changed and then saved, it should be reflected in-game. When done you cannot touch any of the lifespan sliders or it will revert back its slider limit.

@ilikethesims30 To change the seasons length to a custom number beyond the slider limits, it is the same process as changing the human Sims life spans in the Options document within TS3 folder.

Here are the specific options.
-springlength
-winterlength
-falllength
-summerlength

It also has the equal sign and after that the number to adjust: summerlength = 94
Save your changes and again if you move the in-game sliders it will reset to the default slider limit.