Aging

 So how will aging affect my game?

Aging with the Sims has always been an issue for me. I want my sims to age up and progress in their lives so I do like this aspect of the game. This is just in the test phase as I haven't totally perfected aging in Arlington yet but here's what I am thinking... Each "sim day" will represent one of the 12 months in real world time. Each year will consist of the 12 months we normally have so each year is 12 sim days - give or take depending if I want to throw in any holidays. Every season will be 3 days and the rounds I post about will be in two sim year periods. I hope this makes sense.

Fall: September, October, November

Winter: December, January, February

Spring: March, April, May

Summer: June, July, August

Each age group will be assigned an age range and will be aged up according to their birth month. The exception for this is children and teens - they won't be aging from a child to a teen in the middle of the school year - that would be silly. Instead, over the "summer break" is the time I will transition them to the new age group. Again if there are any kinks in this system I will adjust accordingly. As far as elders I haven't figured out how long I want their lifespan. It will most likely depend on how their life went. I'm also considering building a "retirement" community in town for the elders to live in but again it will depend on when I get to the elder stage.

I will also be assigning "birthdays" based on the zodiac sign of each sim. It will work similar to the way it happens in real life but since the signs overlap two months I have assigned each sign to one month. There will be a lot of birthdays going on in the same month but there won't always be an age transition so I think it will be fine. For example if Sally Sim is 3 years old and her birthday is in January, the following January when it's her birthday she is still going to remain a toddler. I'm hoping this works out well especially for the adult sims because once you hit a certain age a birthday is just another day so it won't be a crazy celebration every "year" it will only be a special day when it's a big age change - if you know what I mean.

Pregnancy will also look a little bit different in Arlington. I downloaded a mod that will make pregnancy last 5 sim days - (I was hoping to find one that allowed for 9 days much like the 9 months in real life time but this will have to suffice.) I haven't had a pregnant sim yet to test it so I will have to see how it goes. I'm not sure exactly how EA assigns zodiac signs with in game pregnancies so if worst comes to worst I will be editing the sim in CAS to change their sign to the correct one. It will all be trial and error.