Forum Discussion

halimali's avatar
11 years ago

The Aging Options Explained

The game has basically 3 aging options that can be turned on and off.
After experimenting quite some time I came to the following conclusion:

Auto Age (Played Sims): Played sims are those lots with the plumbob icon above where the background is in green color. In other words are those lots that you have entered and saved. Even if you just played it for 1 second. If you entered a lot and saved then it will go under played lots and the sims living inside that lot are played sims.

Yes: The sims inside these lots will keep aging even if you are not playing them.
No: The sims inside these lots will not age whether you are playing them or not
Only Active Household: Means the current lot you are playing, Sims inside that lot will age but any other played lots will not age. (That is TS2 Style)

Auto Age (Unplayed Sims): Unplayed sims comes into two categories:
1- Townies who are living outside the world. They have no home on the map
2- Playable Sims that live on the map but you never played them before (The plumbob icon for these lots on the map is just in grey color). For example if you installed the game and added your family to one of the lots and never played The Goth family (or any other premade sims) then the Goth family are unplayed sims.

For this option there is a tick, you just tick it if you want the unplayable sims to age up.

In case you want the townies only to age up then all you need to do is go once into the lots that you never visited. Load them and save them so they become "Playable Sims". After that tick the Auto age unplayed Sims. While keep the auto age (Played Sims) to No or Age only active household.

I hope it is more clear now for those who still did not understand how the aging works.

  • What a nightmare for you, pjericksim! And all I was contending with was side-romances. Yikes. I have all but abandoned the notion of rotation-style play. I'm currently playing a Legacy Challenge. Lots of ghosts in said town. And I'm only just now into the third generation. :open_mouth:
  • > @friendlysimmers said:
    > i prefer not to let my sims age so i keep aging fully off and i also turn off death in game

    So do I now. When I first started playing I had a few weeks break, then when I went back into the game all my sims had died of old age! I often have a few weeks break from the game so it makes more sense to turn off aging and death.
  • "flippinmary;14594324" wrote:
    > @friendlysimmers said:
    > i prefer not to let my sims age so i keep aging fully off and i also turn off death in game

    So do I now. When I first started playing I had a few weeks break, then when I went back into the game all my sims had died of old age! I often have a few weeks break from the game so it makes more sense to turn off aging and death.


    The game does not continue to age Sims when it's not running. Are you sure you had actually exited, not left it running? Could someone else have been playing the game on your computer?
  • I did all of those like un checked boxes etc. but my family had a baby and she wasn't even pregnant when i left to play on another family? what happened ?
  • So, to say I am frustrated would be an understatement. Before I purchased this game I did a little bit of research trying to find out if the Sims 4 did story mode, and thought I read that it was optional. As I hated the Sims 3 because of story mode, the optional choice appealed to me. So I am playing my family, the kids are growing up time to move out, and so I start their little families only to find out that continued to age up. I was so mad, and looked up if there was a way to turn off aging, and found the options in-game options, and carried on, to find out that one of my sims gave birth, and then came across this thread. Is there a way to disable them giving birth when they are not the active household? Is there a way to delete the new baby sim and start over?

    I have to say that I find this sort of play to be so annoying, the best thing I thought, about the first two Sims games was that you could play how *you* wanted. I hate that the game keeps playing for me as I can do it myself. I didn't play much of The Sims 3 for this reason, and I am glad that I have not bought any expansions for the Sims 4 yet, I was gearing up to, but I am not going to invest the money playing a game I should be able to play how I want. anyway, side rant. I appreciate any guidance.
  • EmmaVane's avatar
    EmmaVane
    Seasoned Veteran
    "dvlsltlsistr;c-17388810" wrote:
    So, to say I am frustrated would be an understatement. Before I purchased this game I did a little bit of research trying to find out if the Sims 4 did story mode, and thought I read that it was optional. As I hated the Sims 3 because of story mode, the optional choice appealed to me. So I am playing my family, the kids are growing up time to move out, and so I start their little families only to find out that continued to age up. I was so mad, and looked up if there was a way to turn off aging, and found the options in-game options, and carried on, to find out that one of my sims gave birth, and then came across this thread. Is there a way to disable them giving birth when they are not the active household? Is there a way to delete the new baby sim and start over?

    I have to say that I find this sort of play to be so annoying, the best thing I thought, about the first two Sims games was that you could play how *you* wanted. I hate that the game keeps playing for me as I can do it myself. I didn't play much of The Sims 3 for this reason, and I am glad that I have not bought any expansions for the Sims 4 yet, I was gearing up to, but I am not going to invest the money playing a game I should be able to play how I want. anyway, side rant. I appreciate any guidance.


    When playing rotationally it's best to wait until the baby is born before switching households.

    I rotate weekly on Sundays so I don't try for babies any later than Wednesday.