"Dakota88;c-17414568" wrote:
"DaWaterRat;c-17413428" wrote:
"TamakiSakura84;c-17413301" wrote:
What about making preteen a phase child Sims go through in the last couple days before becoming teens? Rather than diverting attention from existing life stages, it would actually enhance one.
Now this idea I like. The last ... let's go with 15-20% (so that it's roughly equal across life spans, but 2-4 days in normal) of time as a child is a "Pre-teen" phase, where they can get some of the interactions that people want for Pre-teens. And maybe it lasts 1-2 days on normal into being a teen. And the exact time would be variable. While "pre-teen" is only 2 years long in real life, the amount of "pre-teen drama" varies by kid. My daughter had almost none in her life, while some of her friends had rather considerable amounts.
The problem with this is that people want preteens because the jump from 8 to 18 is so bad in this game. Your suggestion wouldn't fill this big gap, the children would just behave differently being children and that's it. It's also the physical appearance in between that we miss. It's not like you become adult height overnight, you know.
I'm not so sure about that. I know a couple of young men who went from slightly shorter than my admittedly short self to nearly a head taller within the space of a single school year. Yes, they grew 6-8 inches in 9 months. That year also happened to be their eighth grade year in both counts... the year they became teenagers. Yes, they continued to grow afterwards, but they did have a significant growth spurt relatively at once.
And Sims don't grow the way humans do, because making them grow naturally is an animator and clothing modeler's nightmare - at least for game production. I've dabbled with both for CG figures in Daz Studio. Making something that scales well and smoothly is a pain, and Daz Studio is miles above the engine used by the Sims for such things.
Maybe it's because I'm short, and my daughter is short, but the children in the game look to me like they could fit anywhere from 8 to 12, because I've known kids that short at 12. I was the kid that short at 12.
And I always told the kids at Church that I wouldn't believe they were teenagers until they were taller than me, so again, the height doesn't bother me at all, because most of them did end up taller than me. And again, see the kids who grew swiftly in the course of a year.
Really, I just see it as a lot of sturm und drang for a 4 day life stage that will get zero, or close to zero, asset support after creation. Not from Maxis, and probably not from CC creators either. I feel that energy is better spent trying to convince Maxis to make teens shorter again for Sims 5 and/or height sliders along with improved animation and clothing morphing support so that having different height character models doesn't require a whole new wardrobe and set of animations for each one. And there is no reason for the Pre-teen period to last longer than 4 days on normal.
But you do you. I'm out.
