I think the game developer should know the reason why some people use "aging off". They want their game to be unchanged except for active households.
Or if anyone wants some unpredictable development of relationships in the town (not me), it shouldn't be only lowering down side like this. This is surely an unbalanced game design!
Judging by what some others are saying, i also suspect that the decay in general may be balanced around short lifespans. People on Short lifepsans may not have a problem with this simply because the sims are dying off before their satisfaction can crater. But also in active households, it can cause it to rise and fall rapidly, which can make it feel like a rollercoaster for those playing on Long, where you would normally expect a bit more stability.
I see, this issue will not be visible enough if it's short lifespan. But it's not the reason they could ignore the rest of the setting they provide the players.
This is why many mods were created just to disable the features in the pack. Some features are too broken and too painful to have than to enjoy.
But again, not all people can use mods. Console players, for example.
Yes, I wasn't excusing it because it doesn't affect Short lifespan players much, I prefer Long myself. Just saying that it may lead to it not being noticed as much by some.
I get why some play with aging off, but I do like some background progression myself, so that the world can progress alongside my characters. But at the same time, I want some control over it, so it doesn't devolve into pure anarchy, and break stories/lore, and this decay issue takes away control over it, unless you use a mod, which not everyone is willing or able to do.
Like, I carefully set up Neighborhood Stories so that many of the pre-mades in particular are restricted from certain types of changes like dying, quitting their jobs, or moving out, but it is allowed for randos. (also, adopting pets is forbidden for all. no apartment horses in my save.) This is the kind of control over events the Sims devs have added in that I enjoy. Also, I have a mod that adds marriage to NS so I don't have to rely on MCCC's more aggressive and hard to fine tune system for marriage. I also use Lot 51's Slower Stories mod to make Neighborhood Stories only runs every couple days to a week, so the changes don't seem too fast for a Long lifespan. (without mods, you could just toggle it on and off so it only runs on the weekends or something, at least) I have things set up so things are progressing, but calmly, and in tune for a Long lifespan with rotational play. But here, my only recourse is a mod to take control over this feature, in a system which I otherwise enjoy.
