Aging off or on and why?

I used to be a normal lifespan person but sometimes I would feel rushed to complete a goal and I was a bit militant with my playstyle. “What are you doing?! I told you to study this book!” I got so annoyed by any time wasted. By the time they age to elder and they have 2 weeks left to live, tops, it didn’t seem like enough time to enjoy all the special traits and rewards they had earned.

Then I got Seasons, and that normal lifespan doesn’t always allow children to enjoy all the holidays that are so special at that age. It’s been since then that I have reluctantly gone to the long lifespan (which is way too long IMO) and spent more time focusing on socializing and just enjoying and exploring everything they can do.

This is why I want more gameplay, to fill the void that’s still there for half their age at each stage. I don’t want to age them up early because I want everyone in my rotation to age at the same pace and that’s just too much to track. I already have a rule to age up babies after 5 days.

I play with aging ON. I believe the only time I played with it off was in my Sims2 days and we only have a certain number of Sims days in the game. Three days for a baby is okay, but you had training for the toddlers that was very hard in such a tight time constraint, especially when you hadn't the right amount of awards points to get the tools to help make training easier. So, since I also wanted more time with my Sim family, I would play with aging off and only turn it on when I was ready for my Sims to morph to the next age bracket. Then it went right back off.

In Sims3, we were given far more choices on the length of game we wanted. I had so hoped that would be transferred to Sims4, but, alas, no. Best I could do was to play on Long. Epic being my length of choice where I would control how many days per age bracket.

So, I play on Long. I age up my Sims with a cake if they're a toddler or over and age the babies to toddler at my own whim. I like to play with a set of Sims (mostly of my own making) at my leisure. (And I'm in that group of players who plays the same ones over and over again.) But I have been on this planet long enough to know that all things come to an end. Sims will age and die in my game. Sometimes, even Sims I don't wish to die get targeted by the game. :open_mouth: So, upon occasion I will exit without saving, roll back a game save or two as necessary, or I'll restart the entire game save.

Please do not misunderstand, I don't mind random deaths, in fact that's preferable, until the game seems to target a certain Sim of mine, as has been the case lately. Eh-Hem. Erik has died from being Hysterical, twice, most recently. Then he went Hysterical again! Needless to say, I brought my woes here to the forums and something a player said reminded me that I had made a back-up of my entire games folder before I patched. Thanks @Bonxie! for making that suggestion! I did as advised. So, what the other poster mentioned made me remember my back-up folder. I made a copy of the saves file and moved that into my game to restart Erik. (I sidestepped his third death by doing this.) I have to laugh at myself and at the ridiculous circumstance in that despite my best efforts, I got a warning Erik was freezing to death with the exchanged saves file. Face/palm. At least there's an easy remedy with the warning. I just had to direct him to go back indoors. Grimmie doesn't listen. Even when two Sims who are very close to the one that died isn't a guarantee of survival.

Unless or until this bug is resolved I shall take the advice given by another to stop emotional deaths via MCCC, which I have and use, just not to its fullest extent. I'm still on the fence as to whether or not to restart this entire game save, however. It just takes so long to get my Sims where I need them to be. Three of the oldest four married, Erik a Global Superstar Rock Singer with romantic woes. Raising Adrian who is way younger than the rest. Watching their parents age. So many decisions, too little time …

Permanently off. I've never aged a single sim. To me it makes no sense to spend so much time on a sim, ranking up in their career/school, aspiration, and anything else only for them to die off and make all of that work spent on them ultimately pointless.

I never play with aging. I form attachments to my sims and I have been playing with the same few for almost a year now and I don't have any plans of moving on. I never age the kids either.

Most of the time I play with aging off. I rarely get to the part where I want to age up Sims, so they'll stay forever young (collecting dust in my backed up saves because I decided to once again start a new save). I do have a legacy save that's on the normal life span with aging on - but that's it.

Off for both my household and townies. I’d tried to do generation-style plays before with againg on, but the problem is I just get too attached to these characters and don’t want them to move on! So I’ve switched it off and have been playing the same family now for about 3 to 4 months. Longest I’ve stuck with any family. I’d like them to be around when new content comes out.

Off for played households as then I can play them at my own pace and fully tell their stories but on for unplayed as most of them are townies or elders who are ready to be culled from my game.

I have it off, I put so much work into them that I want to choose how they age and when.

I play with aging off, but I count years by the Seasons calendar cycle, so on New Years Eve I turn agin on for just one full night. Everyone grow up, but it happens quite slowly. This far I used only 28 days per year/cyclus, but IU might double it in order to play more houses longer.

Btw, when I install a new pack or need more time to arrange something, I might play one extra full round before setting aging on. This way it gets quite flexible.

Aging off, I waited for toddlers so long I got very attached to my sims in my main game. I play rotationally.