I don't know when the price of a lot is calculated, but it would be really handy if when placing residential lots from the library in Edit Town mode that the price for the lot would be indicated before placement. I have my suspicions that this may not be easily implemented as the price doesn't appear until after the lot is placed normally.

This seemed to happen in a game of mine as well. I didn't test it very thoroughly, but both parents had fertility treatment and I got as far as 10 pregnancies that were all single births. I thought it was just bad luck.

Yes, I've looked into it. I actually like the looks of it a lot. However it kinda seems to work by creating magical events rather than guiding sims to action. This may not be that big a problem in the end, I played an earlier iteration and felt it was wacky (and buggy - but twallan it working his but off - I read him forum).


Thanks very much for your responses. I totally agree with your priorites. Except for the young/oldies getting hitched and making babies until the end of time thing which we apparently disagree on. Bloat and over processing will kill a game faster than lack of features (not that I've really noticed too much of a problem CPU-wise).

I've made a request along this line before and I've seen many others. I'm going to try and flesh out my case for better pregnancy/population options.

I very much like the core foundation that awesomemod does not allow magic happenings. I have actually seen solutions to some of my concerns in other story mode mods, but I refuse to allow spontaneous happenings. Awesomemod does not really allow for a realistic or sensible approach to reproduction. In my mind the NPC sim population should be normal, that is they should have realistic and familiar patterns with their choices. Awesomemod made them for work (boss caps, no free skills, advancement based on merit) why not for procreation. The problems with population control as I see them are as follows:

Problem 1: Sims will not/cannot become impregnated by accident or without particular furniture.

I like the idea of shotgun weddings or of a young couple getting pregnant when it was not intended. This happens in the real world (more than half of my friends have a sibling who wasn't planned). I appreciate that safe sex can be pretty much a guarantee, but sometimes people think they can (and often do) get away with the rhythm method or some such.

The crib requirement to actually have children requires a lot of set up, and even if you don't want every couple to have the option to procreate story mode boots people out of their houses to allow someone who randomly decided they did want to breed and now they need your house. The musical houses that occurs in a normal half cribbed town is strange to say the least.

I also like the idea of dead-beat dads after one of those Rabbit-Hole romances.

Problem 2: The fact that sims will try to breed at random occurrences regardless of current family size/age.

This is the one that really kills me. Ancient sims with children out the wazoo deciding to go for another child. Watching sims in their sim 50s get pregnant with her 12th child after her eldest already have teenagers of their own is unsettling (not impossible, but should this be the norm?). The only current solution I can think of is making all old Sims sacred, because removing their cribs just has them relocate some young couple when they decide it's time to get busy.

Problem 3: May/December Romances

They happen often enough IRL. But the constant pairing of YAs to elders (or even Adults) when their are sims available in their age group is also disquieting. It is almost the norm for a sim to graduate high school and end up with some ancient sim and starts making babies, (or supplanting some sim who has cribs and then making babies). Again this is possible, but not normal.

Proposed Solutions:
1) Introduce an average family size limit. This would be the default that most sims would aspire for, say around 1.5 for North America. This could be modified by traits (more for Family Oriented, less for Dislikes children). If you want to get clever, maybe use a calculation based on probabilities so that it is still possible that a couple would try out side of the average. Of course there are families that have many offspring IRL, but they are not the norm (ie not NPCs) If you want 25 kids into your 50s, play the family manually.
2) reduce the fertility for Adult sims, even if a 40+ person wants a baby the chances should be reduced. This is biology.
3) Introduce an integer value in the config for unplanned pregnancies (default 0%) - (more valid than a NPCWorkUniformRemovalChance value in my mind)
4) Introduce some form of age affinity. Either a configurable value for "Sims won't date X years away from their own age" or some method that would make the romance interaction less potent (so there would be a preference for those more proximate in age).

With these items in place the oft maligned crib requirement could be removed via an option in the config as well.

I can't imagine how frustrating it is to work as hard as you do only to get these kinds of posts. But these items do seem to come up. I am in perfect agreement with your desire to have actions and consequences without magic relationship advancements. But the current system does not seem real (even for a silly game with computer dolls) or very flexible.

I think these changes (or anything along these lines) are in the spirit of awesomemod as they aren't strange (male pregnancy), or frivolous (random outfits). Awesomemod made the game playable but every town I have ends up goofy with aunts and uncles 10+ years older than their nieces/nephews. Parents of now married chosen sims moving out only to start up a new family (or optionally sitting on their duff chosen but neglected).

I don't want to start using other story modes that magically announce repercussions from imaginary events.

Semper Fidelis Tyrannosaurus

I have been poking around for a little while now trying to see if it would be possible to make it so Adult sims have a substantially reduced chance to conceive a shild (as compared to Young Adult sims). I have only found one value that determines the chance of success for "Try for Baby". I know Pescado has alluded to the fact that the Sims 3 does not have a barren adult stage. Would it be possible to either make such a stage or reduce Adult's chance of conception? I really don't like 50+ year old sims having babies when their eldest children are already out of the house and reporducing on their own. (What is this Little House on the Prairie?)

Bumping, in case nobody saw the newness.

(I know, I know, self bump =  LAME)

Ooh, That makes a lot of sense, mind if I poach that and plop it into the mod? How does anyone else feel if I remove the shortest gameplays (I've heard of folks who get bored and want to age up the population - in my mind a year/day is sufficient but I can see the appeal of zapping the town with a 4yr/day dose of bad radiation).

I think this problem is in the base game itself and not Awesomemod induced, so I'll place it here under requests.

Some Service NPC Sims seem to skip the Young Adult age stage and jump directly to Adult. I've had a few (all baby-sitters) lined up for marriage material only to have some forty-something show up when my sim/they turned 18. I used Twallan's master controller to monnitor these jumps but they do not appear to be occuring to all service NPCs. I checked around and other have been reporting similar events on the official forums so I believe this to be a core game issue. My research would indicate that paper cariers age well and babysitters don't?

Just throw that on your pile of demands from the masses. (or buninante it)

I think most people poke arund a bit, it probably fine here. Additionally I found that my math was off in the mod. Long actually plays out at 1/3 of a year instead of 1/4. I wanted it to be a 1/4 (3months) so that pregnancies would last the appropriate time. If I change that value the Long lifespans now last 320 days, which is fine by me but I thought that it is substantially different from the EA 190 to be palatable.

As far as I'm concerned this change is a good one. Actually, If I do post a modified version, I think I'd like the lifetimes to be more like:

Setting	Duration	SimDay/RealTime
Short	40	2 Years
Medium	80	1 Years
Normal	160	6 months
Long	320	3 months
Epic	960	1 month

If anyone else agrees, let me know, and I'll post up that one as the revised.

I don't really want to submit multiple copies of what is at its core a very simple xml tuning. I've made changes to the mod that I use the 1/4 year, 320 day values but didn't submit them for the same reason.

Additionally, there is some contention on how Elder sim aging goes but the gist is 80 is not the maximum rather it's the minimum. After that point there is a chance they will die daily, but the law of averages say that you'll probably get a few more years yet. Actually it was stated earlier in this mod that 80 years is probably a bit too MUCH time to give them.

If you want to fiddle with these things yourself, XML modding is not mad science at all. It's really quite easy.

Step 1. Get a Sims 3 Package editor (I use s3pe http://forums.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=362412)

Step 2. Open the mod package.

Step 3. Edit the XML (In s3pe highlight the first (only) item in the list and then click the ‘Editor'] button below.

Step 4. Tweak as needed. (If you wanted the older folks to live to 90, change the kAgingStageLengthElderMinimum value from 1.875 to 3.125 (because 1.875*8(kDefaultSimDaysPerAgingYear) = 15 (elder duration), 3.125*8=25))

Step 5. Save your changes and commit them, then resave the package.

Done like dinner.

You may be right. I was looking at some data that indicated that 80 was the average in the first world, the UN has a chart that indicates that many do (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_life_expectancy. I'm in Canada so 80 is correct for me.

One of the fears I have with making it shorter is people croaking when I don't really want them to. Most sims in my game are representations of real people, I actually have a bundle of sims that are in their 90s because the real people are in their 90s. I don't think I'll be changing it as I can always kill an elder by forcing an age up but I can't bring one back as easily.

I agree that the teen years should be some of the most fun years to play (I know my teens were). But I wanted to be realistic and teen sims can't get into any of the shenannigans I did when I was young, so I kinda find teen fun potential reduced anyway.

One of the problems definitely is in XML. The ChangeRelationship section looks like this

It reads pretty easy I think. It seems that when a romantic story mode event is fired it has a 40% chance of changing instantly (this is the only section I am a little confused on... changed? could it go down). Every event has a 50% chance of escalating and 50% of event have a 50% of escalating more than one step. I'm quite sure Pescado also added additional boosts to Flirty and Hopelessly Romantic Sims so there's little wonder everyone get married on their first or second dates.

That being said, I reduced all these values to 5% and still had a third of my flirty sims married off within the week (Sunday-Sunday). If I had my druthers, Flirty sims would not have greater changes to their relationship scores but more frequent events and sims with commitment issues would have a substantially reduced likelihood to accept relationship escalations.

ETA: Okay did some more testing... If I set all values to zero sims still jump to the next romance level (they usually break up immediately afterwards because their LTR is still 0). So it would seem that the romance events are double whammys: 1st they romace up and then there is a chance for this XML to up their relationship and possibly (probably) romance 'em up even more. ick.

I'm having some success with this but romance events still fire like mad (the values in that section only seem to alter the severity of the actions). Do you know offhand where it determines how oftern story mode events happen? Or better yet, how often a story mode event is a romantic one?

ETA: Actually the real problem I'm having is my Flirty sims getting married off (or normal sims being married off to flirty ones). In my mind flirty means kinda playful, not looking to get married. One of my male slut Sims actually has Flirty and Commitment Issues, but I can't stop him from getting married even when I change the values from 50% down to 5%. And when I do change them to 5% everyone else has Romantic Relationships as 0-20% while all the flirts get hitched.

Thank you very much chann & Pes. Let's see if I can't calm those randy buggers down a bit.

There are already a ton of age tuning mods out there. But I'm gonna add mine to the heap because none of the others did what I wanted.

ETA: I've now added a few flavors against my initial reluctance to provide some variety.

These packages change the age stage lengths in the Sims 3 to be more in line with the human life span while keeping (loosely) along the same time brackets for Short, Medium, etc. I started with the assumption that a person becomes an elder at age 65 and the average lifespan in the first world is 80.

As mentioned in this thread and elsewhere, the way the Sims 3 deals with the Elder life stage has a duration that is actually the MINIMUM length a sim will live as an elder. After that there is a percentage chance that the sim will die daily (that chance depends on the lifespan you choose (Short, Medium, etc.)

I'll explain why I made the changes and some justifications after I show you a comparison.



The reason I made the changes is for realism. I play with real world people simified and introduced at their appropriate ages. The unrealistic aging model introduced had children graduating in what would have to be their late 20s, babies who didn't leave the crib until almost their third birthday etc.

The game gives some simple indicators of when these life stages occur. Children must go to elementary school. Teens go to high school, and cannot move out until they are Young Adults. These ages are pretty standard in the US (and many other countries). With a little wikipedia back-up (I was surprised that young adulthood is considered ended when you're 40). I made the mod the way it is.

Since elder don't actually die at the end of the time period selected, I've made two separate flavors AbsimiliardsKindaRealisticAgingMod (AbsKRAM) and AbsimiliardsRealisticAgingMod (AbsRAM).

AbsKRAM keeps in line with the EA-long-lived elder model, this was the original version I put out. The minimum elder life stage ends at 80 and it looks like the average age is around 85

AbsRAM is a newer version that ends the elder life stage at 70 with a reduced daily chance of death. This sets the average life span at 77.7 years (2006 US average), a more realistic number and that's what this mod was for.

Original EA Settings

Setting	Baby	Toddler	Child	Teenager	Young Adult	Adult	Elder	Total
Short	1 day	2 days	2 days	4 days	6 days	6 days	4 days	25 days
Medium	2 days	4 days	4 days	8 days	12 days	12 days	8 days	50 days
Normal	3 days	7 days	7 days	14 days	21 days	21 days	17 days	90 days
Long	6 days	15 days	15 days	30 days	45 days	45 days	34 days	190 days
Epic	30 days	75 days	75 days	150 days	225 days	225 days	180 days	960 days

AbsimiliardsKindaRealisticAgingMod (AbsKRAM)

Setting	Baby	Toddler	Child	Teenager	Young Adult	Adult	Elder	Total
Short	1 day	1 days	2 days	2 days	7 days	8 days	5 days	26 days
Medium	1 days	2 days	3 days	3 days	11 days	12 days	7 days	40 days
Normal	1 days	4 days	7 days	6 days	22 days	25 days	15 days	80 days
Long	3 days	12 days	21 days	18 days	66 days	75 days	45 days	240 days
Epic	12 days	48 days	84 days	72 days	264 days	300 days	180 days	960 days

AbsimiliardsRealisticAgingMod (AbsRAM)

Setting	Baby	Toddler	Child	Teenager	Young Adult	Adult	Elder	Total
Short	1 day	1 days	2 days	2 days	7 days	8 days	1 day	22 days
Medium	1 days	2 days	3 days	3 days	11 days	12 days	2 days	34 days
Normal	1 days	4 days	7 days	6 days	22 days	25 days	5 days	70 days
Long	3 days	12 days	21 days	18 days	66 days	75 days	15 days	210 days
Epic	12 days	48 days	84 days	72 days	264 days	300 days	60 days	840 days

Lifespan Settings

As there has been some interest in removing the shorter gameplay and offering more option for longer games, each of the two mods also has a long play (LP) version that will extend te lifespans should you choose.

Regular Versions (close to EA defaults)
The new life stage durations are mapped out to correlate somewhat with real time segments.
At Short setting, 1 day of game time = 3 years Real World Time
At Medium  setting, 1 day of game time = 2 years Real World Time
At Normal setting, 1 day of game time = 1 year Real World Time
At Long setting, 1 day of game time = 1/3 year Real World Time
At Epic setting, 1 day of game time = 1 month Real World Time

Long Play (LP) Versions
At Short setting, 1 day of game time = 1 year Real World Time
At Medium  setting, 1 day of game time = 6 months Real World Time
At Normal setting, 1 day of game time = 1/4 year (3 months) Real World Time (this also makes pregnancies the correct duration)
At Long setting, 1 week of game time = 1 year Real World Time
At Epic setting, 1 day of game time = 1 month Real World Time

Potential Issues
This is a purely XML mod. It should not conflict with any other non-age tuning mod you have. I've used it for months quite happily.

However...
It is that when you apply this mod there will be some sims in your neighborhood who have spent longer in their current life stage than the modded version allows. They will age up on the day the mod is applied.
This can leave precious little time for skilling toddlers and such. I play on epic and rarely notice an issue but I appreciate it could be a crunch for those who don't.

Bad News! I cannot for the life of me figure out where this would be done... I'm guessing maybe its in the "Socializing" XML, but I can't see anything controlling the rate of attraction. Please anyone who might know (Pescado), I've given a kick at the can, could you tell me waht I'm looking for.

Good news! I'm gonna go spelunking for that XML. Does anyone know which secion I should be looking at? I'll start looking now, but there's a pretty lemon lollipop for whomever can tell me where it is first!

I agree. I posted on this a while back. And I've given it some more thought. Pescado's view is that sims will try to pair up, if you want to do it make 'em sacred. I do agree with that. The problem I was having is my Lothario types with commitment issues getting hitched 40 seconds after they were in the game.

Realizing that most people are probably okay with this, I was trying to think of an easy way to slow it down or make it less likely to occur I play on Epic and it stinks when the first teen turns into a young adult they are snagged up fresh outa high school by any odd-man-outs   from the initial romance-o-rama that happened at game onset (even if they're 3 days shy of being an elder).

I believe a solution that is in keeping with the current way the mod seems to work is to implement a ScaleRomanceTo Aging and RomanceLikelihoodScaling values to the config that would allow the user to tweak to their content.

PS. I've become more active on the boards of late, mostly to report errors or make demands. Please let me take this opportunity to express my sincerest gratitudeto J.M. Pescado for even allowing for anyones input in his project, and my ugliest envy that I am too poor a programmer to figure this out myself. In my opinion the game would've been a complete peice of cack without the major revisions you've done.

Okay, things are partially working now.

I created 3 different STBLs one for male names, one for female names and one for family names.

In the male and female names I've grouped names by decade so I can specify in my config which group to grab from (for example AbsNames1940s or AbsNames1950s)

The text I imported from looks something like this...

The FamilyName STBL only has one set of names but it has been keyed with a string to localize and date it so I could make more in future. (The string I used is AbsNamesENC1990 to indicate names from the East North Central Part of the US from the 1990 census)



I started a new games killedallhumans. And plopped in a single sim. As NPCs were generated, I was disappointed to see a papergirl named "Christie Lively". I do not have "Lively" in my last name list...

But as sims were generated for coworkers, etc. Things started to look up as the names were plucked from my STBLs. But then another dissapointment occured.

I had specified AbsNames1940s in my config, and a sim named "Jammie Lockhart" appeared. "Jammie" only appears under AbsNames1970s and shouldn't have been selected.

I still wonder If I'm packaging the STBLs correctly, and if NPCs use these packages at all.

Still a no go. Getting sims with names like

**** AbsNames/FemaleName:Name/FemaleName:Name0 **** **** AbsNames/FamilyName:Name/FamilyName:Name2 ****

I'm wondering if I should be using s3pe at all to package this thing. I assume when I import the stbl file from Pescado's tool I should set the type to "STBL 0x220557DA" and I followed your suggestion of changing the instance from all zeros to "0x0038ED910DF37BA9" but that still leaves the Group at all zeros with a myriad of other checkboxes I can tick or leave blank.

It seems to me it's trying to find something along the wrong path (the FemaleName:Name and FamilyName:Name are incorrect) but I can't say whether this is a result of Pescados stblc.exe or an incorrect import.

Oh, I'm sure I'm doing it wrong. But I can't really find any info on how to do it right. I just tried a test file because I figured I'd bugger it up. I used your stblc tool to convert a text doc formatted thusly (not correct XML but Iwas trying to follow orders)


I then imported the STBL file into a new package with s3pe (didn't know what other program to use). Indicated the file was an stbl and didn't change the group or instance id (because I didn't think it would matter with the unique id "AbsNames")

I then set my config for all names to use AbsNames and that didn't work. I know I did it wrong, but god help me if I know how to be right.

ETA: Immediately after posting I realize that I misspelled FemaleName in the XML but that only solves part of the problem.

I can't for the life of me figure this out myself. I've tried making custom STBL packages with the prefix indicated but the game ends up naming my sims things like "Sally AbsNames/FamilyName_Female20 ****"

I had no Sally in my FirstName file and I don't know why it's taking the hash value for a last name.

PS sorry you got jumped on for asking a question... I'll bend over and receive my reaming now (OMG I have only 2 posts!)