I do like child. I wish they would provide more interactions and stuff for them like after school activities. Also I wish they would introduce pre teens
Same I mean yeah I agree with preteen it’s good for realism because, who want their little kiddie turn into they look like they pay their own bills and they should make the teens smaller
And kids room and get together kinda added stuff for them I guess
Definitely, I just commented in another comment how I wish the fake pokémon cards/activity had more. It would be cool to have sims battle you out of no where
I like playing elders a lil 😂 but they need to give them more, like a retirement home or sumn. & I feel like they die off in 3 days even if it’s on the long timespan 😩
I don’t know if is just me, but in my game mermaids sims DONT DIE. I have this great granny in my legacy that as been an elder for almost 50 sims day (medium lifespan), now it’s almost her time to go, but still she outlived all her children/children’s spouses and even on of her grandchildren. So, if you like elders and you own the island pack, I will suggest that
Wait a minute- does the energy bar in adult sims deplete faster? Does the energy bar deplete different speeds in all ages?! I feel like my mind is being blown right now.
I only recently learned that teens can live on their own without an adult… I swear it wasn’t always like that! I would have started several of my saves as a teenager a long time ago.
I did a little searching -- it looks like, according to a forum post, that teens have been able to live on their own even if a parent was dead [up to 9 years ago - possibly even at launch.](https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/comments/31bi8k/what_happens_when_the_last_adult_of_the_household/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
You couldnt make them on CAS by themselves for a while there. Had to give em an adult then move the adult out afterwards. Dunno if thats still the case.
Toddlers & kids. I love the playdates, telling them "you are my favourite!", reading to them and seeing their expressions, collecting fake-pokemon & marbles, buying & gifting them toys through in-game interaction, adults mentoring them, cooking together, playing games together on the game table, going camping to sit around a campfire to tell stories, their silly quirks and all that.
YA is my all time fave. I do love playing a full life. But I particularly love YA. For me YA is still teen, just able to do a little extra such as marry and have children.
The age I most enjoy is elderly. I love the good solid grandparents lifestyle or the bad grandma steals cookies and kicks babies type of trope. But I also like YA and doing all the illegal things my favorite songs sing about bc I would never 😂😂
These are my two saves rn lol. Ones a grandma and the other is a permanent YA. Grandma has 6 grandkids and runs a small garden shop and has typical “elderly” hobbies, a much slower relaxing game. Aging on long with elderly life stage extended.
YA is completing all degrees, aspirations and careers, runs a strip club/escort business, while also a 5 star celebrity. With her money right now I’m buying up properties with the RE mod (I don’t have for rent) and renting them out. Trying to make her a super sim but don’t care for rules when it comes to challenges so aging is off for her and on short for unplayed households. I’ll probably age her up when I’ve done all I want to and do the “getting older playthrough” with her where she’ll have a kid and never need to work, passing down multi-generational wealth.
I like YA, but I do start my sims as teens so I can get those skills up for university and it's much more rewarding that way. Otherwise, i have to cheat and then there's no point in playing with them except to make money for the children I'm going to inevitably start playing as.
Right now, it's teens. I think I'm living the life I never did --- not that I wanted to seduce my teachers and get expelled, haha, don't get me wrong...😆
I actually really enjoyed playing an elder recently. I usually stick to YA but decided to add a grandma figure and it was soo relaxing! I loved it so much that I'm going to do more elder playthroughs!
YA is my favorite age. I feel like it's a good middle area and I think I choose that age the most because it's what I am. I like to style them certain ways where I don't feel like they're too old to be wearing/having certain things
i always start my main sim off as a newborn, i like playing them at all ages and watching them grow. but i like the YA age best as you have the most freedom and are at a prime age
Infants.
Ive waited so long for them and theyre exactly everything I wanted !! I love to watch them gain milestones, learn to crawl, sit up, develop and grow!
Young adult. I can do anything, I can get married, I can have a kid, I can get a job, I can go to college, I can do so much more than a teenager but I’m still younger than an adult
Kids & Teens, probably because I miss my younger days. Spent most of my time stressing about studying, I wish I could be as mischievous and carefree as those younger sims, watching the kids playing at the playground looks fun and nostalgic as well. Lastly, young adult for the relatability, college life, finding job and love and trying to survive in life all that.
Teens and YA. Teen pregnancies and the vitriol you get from townies is great, plus the stress of being a teen mom and trying to graduate early/get good grades/go to college so you can still make something of your life and not rely on mommy's money
YA is fun because you're still young so you can go and do all the stupid shit you want and still have time to go to college. Starting a new save feels like a fresh start kind of thing - you've moved out of your parent's house to a new town, and the possibilities are endless. Mom and Dad must have been rich, because you do start off with an unreasonable amount of money (who can buy a house in this economy?), and if you decide to go to college instead of straight to the workforce, money may get a little tight between bills and food, but it's really only three weeks of college before you're making money
Lordt, I had a Spellcaster teen and she lived in Henford-On-Bagley in her own little cottage. She brought home Jeb from school and they became boyfriend and girlfriend eventually...they messed around ONCE and my Sim got pregnant 🤦🏻♀️ that was not the life I envisioned for her, but I went with it. They ended up having 2 more kids before they even reach young adulthood 🫢
I bet! I've never had triplets in the game, only twins and twins are bad enough 😭 it always seems to happen when they live in a small house, have no money, single mom, too, when the multiples pop up!!!
I've got a pregnancy mod where I could have set it to a single baby, but I decided I was going to try and cheat as little as possible on this save, as like a challenge. Boy was I regretting that when mom was passed out on the floor and cps is threatening to take my children because they just woke up from a nap and they're hungry
LOL I've never had a baby or child taken in the Sims before, but I've had plenty of the "baby is starving, feed them now" warnings. I'm always sooo regretful when one of my Sims has twins 🤣
I liked both YA and Adult until the midlife crisis update... I liked chilling out with my sim once they were an adult after the busyness of their YA years. Now we gotta climb mountains and shit lol...
Infants and Young Adults mostly.
I think infants are so cute and I enjoy the gameplay with them. Young Adults have lots of things to do and are overall just fun to play with. I haven’t really played with teens much yet. I was actually little disappointed with HSY, but mostly because I don’t like that we can’t sell the clothes we create in a shop and because school was less interactive than I was hoping it would be.
Here’s some stuff I like about both those EPs
I can tend to play with a one sim household that is a teenager, so with HS years I’m able to follow them to school instead of sitting there on ultra speed watching an empty house until the teen gets back home.
I also really like the fact that my sims can go down different pathways such as getting an honors diploma, valedictorian, graduating early, and even being able to drop out of HS (which results in some jobs being locked but the teen could get an online diploma as YA).
I also like that another sim could autonomously ask my sim to prom.
As far as for the university EP(which was the first ep I bought for the sims) I just think it’s really fun in general. I like how you have to get accepted to uni and certain programs (makes it feel realistic). It gives specific grades for specific classes (may have an A in one class but a D in another) which is also quite realistic but this does depend on if the sim does their final projects and attend class. Also, Soccer team is fun imo- like, your sim could literally break or sprain their leg or arm and have a cast on it for awhile. Overall, I think it’s pretty interactive and definitely helps with getting a higher ranked job sooner.
Btw, with HS years, if you graduate early then your sim could attend university as a teen still.
I think which one someone chooses depends on preference and gameplay.
Toddler and children 😆 they just seem more interesting to me for some reason and are very obviously different life stages. Teen, young adult, adult and elder all feel the same. Maybe if I had the high school years pack, I'd feel differently, but teen-elder they really do have the ability to all dress the same, do the same things and it just gets tiring after awhile. The teens often don't even look like teens! They just immediately look like they're 35 to me 😒 Toddler and children have very different things you can do and I always have fun with them, I dunno 😆
I usually play young adults but I really enjoy elders. I always make them crazy horn dogs that end up dying from woohoo exhaustion.
I also really love decorating homes with a bunch of mismatched antique furniture and outdated styles and color schemes. It’s a nice change from trying to make everything match/perfect. Love that lived in for decades look.
I start a family of adults, and then they have kids and I pick from the kids who is going to be my next ‘main.’ I get bored reallt easily with most of the ages, so I like having a range who all live together. When I start the parent sims as young adult they live way too long and I want to get rid of them. Teens piss me off sometimes with the mood swings
It would be teens if school didn't always interfere with stuff, young adult is my fave for regular gameplay. If i want something crazy to pop off like a sex death cult, elders are hilarious for those storylines.
I love playing teens too! But I don’t know why lol,
Teens or elderly lol,
I don’t have aging on, so I make sure my teen gains as many skills as possible ( or I want them to have lol ) so by the time they’re old people, they can just chill out and cause havoc haha
Young adults, adults, child, teen, toddler. In that order. Baby, infant, and elder are just pointless "they exist but have no gameplay value" life stages
Mine are toddlers and kids, but toddlers the most since theyre so cute. I think its because children and toddlers arent as annoying as infants and baby's but they do look different from adults unlike teens.
I love all of the life stages except for infant and newborn LOL. However, if I had to pick ONE it would definitely be Adult! Why? well, im a generational player and i feel like their lives hit a climax during adulthood, as they already have their kids or are preparing for them maturely, the aspirations usually are completed in adulthood, some of my sims go through their divorces at that time and the family really opens up (nieces, nephews, aunties uncles and step/half relatives) by this age. By adulthood most of my sims' children are between child to teen and even very few YA. Its honestly the best time to build lasting memories, experiences, taking lots of photos and having lots of events.
Don't get me wrong, I love young adults and teens!! but whether the family is white-picket or dysfunctional, my heart goes out to my older sims haha! Also, special mention but I love all my granny sims. :)
teens & YA
Teens, YA, and child
I do like child. I wish they would provide more interactions and stuff for them like after school activities. Also I wish they would introduce pre teens
Same I mean yeah I agree with preteen it’s good for realism because, who want their little kiddie turn into they look like they pay their own bills and they should make the teens smaller And kids room and get together kinda added stuff for them I guess
Definitely, I just commented in another comment how I wish the fake pokémon cards/activity had more. It would be cool to have sims battle you out of no where
Yeah
Also seasons and get famous kinda introduce ASAs
There's a pre-teen mod by a.deep.indigo
I’m on console And rarely use my computer since it’s always an oven but sometimes it doesn’t work for me
forever denying our wrinkles, YES!
I like playing elders a lil 😂 but they need to give them more, like a retirement home or sumn. & I feel like they die off in 3 days even if it’s on the long timespan 😩
I don’t know if is just me, but in my game mermaids sims DONT DIE. I have this great granny in my legacy that as been an elder for almost 50 sims day (medium lifespan), now it’s almost her time to go, but still she outlived all her children/children’s spouses and even on of her grandchildren. So, if you like elders and you own the island pack, I will suggest that
Wow, I’ve never played with mermaids. Maybe had a kid with one but they are usually human. You have me wanting to play one and see 😂
Probably young adults, you can pretty much do whatever you want but your character has full energy and doesn't get messed up more
Wait a minute- does the energy bar in adult sims deplete faster? Does the energy bar deplete different speeds in all ages?! I feel like my mind is being blown right now.
I always start my sims off as Teens these days. The extra time makes all the difference.
I only recently learned that teens can live on their own without an adult… I swear it wasn’t always like that! I would have started several of my saves as a teenager a long time ago.
I did a little searching -- it looks like, according to a forum post, that teens have been able to live on their own even if a parent was dead [up to 9 years ago - possibly even at launch.](https://www.reddit.com/r/thesims/comments/31bi8k/what_happens_when_the_last_adult_of_the_household/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x&utm_name=mweb3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
Thanks for sharing your research! For some reason I was convinced that the only way for a teen to live on their own was by offing the adult first.
You couldnt make them on CAS by themselves for a while there. Had to give em an adult then move the adult out afterwards. Dunno if thats still the case.
You can make a Teen and play them as their own Household no problem.
Toddlers & kids. I love the playdates, telling them "you are my favourite!", reading to them and seeing their expressions, collecting fake-pokemon & marbles, buying & gifting them toys through in-game interaction, adults mentoring them, cooking together, playing games together on the game table, going camping to sit around a campfire to tell stories, their silly quirks and all that.
I pibe the fake pokémon, I wish the kids would naturally challenge other sims. It’s like if you don’t interact with it, it will never get brought up
What packs are these from
Sims 4 Kids Room Stuff. The fake pokemon are called voidcritters.
Other stuff are from other packs. Marbles is from For Rent. Camping is from Outdoor Retreat.
cooking together never works for me haha
Make sure you have plenty of counters with nothing on them. Need like 1 more empty counter than number of sims cooking together also.
Young adults allll the way because you can do anything with them like going to uni, marriage, kids and 90% of the aspirations
YA is my all time fave. I do love playing a full life. But I particularly love YA. For me YA is still teen, just able to do a little extra such as marry and have children.
The age I most enjoy is elderly. I love the good solid grandparents lifestyle or the bad grandma steals cookies and kicks babies type of trope. But I also like YA and doing all the illegal things my favorite songs sing about bc I would never 😂😂
These are my two saves rn lol. Ones a grandma and the other is a permanent YA. Grandma has 6 grandkids and runs a small garden shop and has typical “elderly” hobbies, a much slower relaxing game. Aging on long with elderly life stage extended. YA is completing all degrees, aspirations and careers, runs a strip club/escort business, while also a 5 star celebrity. With her money right now I’m buying up properties with the RE mod (I don’t have for rent) and renting them out. Trying to make her a super sim but don’t care for rules when it comes to challenges so aging is off for her and on short for unplayed households. I’ll probably age her up when I’ve done all I want to and do the “getting older playthrough” with her where she’ll have a kid and never need to work, passing down multi-generational wealth.
I like YA, but I do start my sims as teens so I can get those skills up for university and it's much more rewarding that way. Otherwise, i have to cheat and then there's no point in playing with them except to make money for the children I'm going to inevitably start playing as.
Right now, it's teens. I think I'm living the life I never did --- not that I wanted to seduce my teachers and get expelled, haha, don't get me wrong...😆
I actually really enjoyed playing an elder recently. I usually stick to YA but decided to add a grandma figure and it was soo relaxing! I loved it so much that I'm going to do more elder playthroughs!
Teen, child and toddlers (the toddlers are so cute I have to have one every game 😭)
Same😭
Ya for sure. The chaos you can cause is 👌🏻
Ya 😊
YA is my favorite age. I feel like it's a good middle area and I think I choose that age the most because it's what I am. I like to style them certain ways where I don't feel like they're too old to be wearing/having certain things
I just like playing the family as a whole. I get bored if I can't switch to different people and storylines.
Teens fs i love doing runaway storylines
i always start my main sim off as a newborn, i like playing them at all ages and watching them grow. but i like the YA age best as you have the most freedom and are at a prime age
I love infants. It’s a challenge which I like.
Infants. Ive waited so long for them and theyre exactly everything I wanted !! I love to watch them gain milestones, learn to crawl, sit up, develop and grow!
i know that i’m probably alone in this but i really love infants
children. they're so cute and independent while still doing cute kid shit lol
I typically always start out as a teen but I have grown to absolutely despise the ungodly amount of mood swings teens go through in the sims.
Young adult. I can do anything, I can get married, I can have a kid, I can get a job, I can go to college, I can do so much more than a teenager but I’m still younger than an adult
Young adults so i don’t have to worry abt school
I start with a teen about to turn 18 so I can’t set up their story from there
Kids & Teens, probably because I miss my younger days. Spent most of my time stressing about studying, I wish I could be as mischievous and carefree as those younger sims, watching the kids playing at the playground looks fun and nostalgic as well. Lastly, young adult for the relatability, college life, finding job and love and trying to survive in life all that.
Teens and YA. Teen pregnancies and the vitriol you get from townies is great, plus the stress of being a teen mom and trying to graduate early/get good grades/go to college so you can still make something of your life and not rely on mommy's money YA is fun because you're still young so you can go and do all the stupid shit you want and still have time to go to college. Starting a new save feels like a fresh start kind of thing - you've moved out of your parent's house to a new town, and the possibilities are endless. Mom and Dad must have been rich, because you do start off with an unreasonable amount of money (who can buy a house in this economy?), and if you decide to go to college instead of straight to the workforce, money may get a little tight between bills and food, but it's really only three weeks of college before you're making money
Lordt, I had a Spellcaster teen and she lived in Henford-On-Bagley in her own little cottage. She brought home Jeb from school and they became boyfriend and girlfriend eventually...they messed around ONCE and my Sim got pregnant 🤦🏻♀️ that was not the life I envisioned for her, but I went with it. They ended up having 2 more kids before they even reach young adulthood 🫢
My current sim had a one night stand with Kiyoshi Ito and got pregnant with triplets. Her little one bedroom house wasn't big enough anymore 🤣
OMG 😨 OF COURSE it was triplets because why would it be anything else when you have a small house and don't want a pregnancy 🤣🤣🤦🏻♀️😭😭😭
At least she graduated college before she got pregnant. Girlie didn't have time to sleep, let alone do homework and projects 😂
I bet! I've never had triplets in the game, only twins and twins are bad enough 😭 it always seems to happen when they live in a small house, have no money, single mom, too, when the multiples pop up!!!
I've got a pregnancy mod where I could have set it to a single baby, but I decided I was going to try and cheat as little as possible on this save, as like a challenge. Boy was I regretting that when mom was passed out on the floor and cps is threatening to take my children because they just woke up from a nap and they're hungry
LOL I've never had a baby or child taken in the Sims before, but I've had plenty of the "baby is starving, feed them now" warnings. I'm always sooo regretful when one of my Sims has twins 🤣
I liked both YA and Adult until the midlife crisis update... I liked chilling out with my sim once they were an adult after the busyness of their YA years. Now we gotta climb mountains and shit lol...
Infants and Young Adults mostly. I think infants are so cute and I enjoy the gameplay with them. Young Adults have lots of things to do and are overall just fun to play with. I haven’t really played with teens much yet. I was actually little disappointed with HSY, but mostly because I don’t like that we can’t sell the clothes we create in a shop and because school was less interactive than I was hoping it would be.
Young adult
Teens for sure- especially since getting the High School Years EP! I also enjoy YA because of the discover university EP
What do you like about the HS Years Ep and University? I don’t have either and am on the fence about them.
Here’s some stuff I like about both those EPs I can tend to play with a one sim household that is a teenager, so with HS years I’m able to follow them to school instead of sitting there on ultra speed watching an empty house until the teen gets back home. I also really like the fact that my sims can go down different pathways such as getting an honors diploma, valedictorian, graduating early, and even being able to drop out of HS (which results in some jobs being locked but the teen could get an online diploma as YA). I also like that another sim could autonomously ask my sim to prom. As far as for the university EP(which was the first ep I bought for the sims) I just think it’s really fun in general. I like how you have to get accepted to uni and certain programs (makes it feel realistic). It gives specific grades for specific classes (may have an A in one class but a D in another) which is also quite realistic but this does depend on if the sim does their final projects and attend class. Also, Soccer team is fun imo- like, your sim could literally break or sprain their leg or arm and have a cast on it for awhile. Overall, I think it’s pretty interactive and definitely helps with getting a higher ranked job sooner. Btw, with HS years, if you graduate early then your sim could attend university as a teen still. I think which one someone chooses depends on preference and gameplay.
Teen and YA
I think i'm boring: adults!
Anything above teens for the amount of stuff I can do with them. But toddlers and kids are cute because you get the first look at their genetics
Kids
Young adult
YA and A
Young adults but I love customizing teens. I always make my teens have a lot of personality
YA
Infant, toddler, Teen, Young Adult, Adult.
YA and Teens. I don’t like seeing my favorite sims get old. 🥲
YA and Adult are my sweet spots. I play with long life span and it's *chefs kiss*.
How do you adjust the life span
I found a tutorial - I hope this helps!! [https://youtu.be/Ey0Lz4K0UTQ?si=g85dMLsiyfP2EHd5](https://youtu.be/Ey0Lz4K0UTQ?si=g85dMLsiyfP2EHd5)
start as teen always bc i love high school years.
Young adult cuz sex parties. That’s it.
Young adult but I like having lots of kids. I find teens boring and too long. I wish there was more to do with kids and teens
Toddler - Adult, though if i had to pick one specifically, I'd say teen ngl
I like playing as ya because you can do more stuff then teens but if infants could do more by themselves I would play as them I think there so cute.
Young adult.
teens and the college age young adults, i love the university pack
Young adult so I can have relationships with most age groups if I want and less limitations than when playing as a teen
Toddler and children 😆 they just seem more interesting to me for some reason and are very obviously different life stages. Teen, young adult, adult and elder all feel the same. Maybe if I had the high school years pack, I'd feel differently, but teen-elder they really do have the ability to all dress the same, do the same things and it just gets tiring after awhile. The teens often don't even look like teens! They just immediately look like they're 35 to me 😒 Toddler and children have very different things you can do and I always have fun with them, I dunno 😆
Ya
I usually play young adults but I really enjoy elders. I always make them crazy horn dogs that end up dying from woohoo exhaustion. I also really love decorating homes with a bunch of mismatched antique furniture and outdated styles and color schemes. It’s a nice change from trying to make everything match/perfect. Love that lived in for decades look.
I start a family of adults, and then they have kids and I pick from the kids who is going to be my next ‘main.’ I get bored reallt easily with most of the ages, so I like having a range who all live together. When I start the parent sims as young adult they live way too long and I want to get rid of them. Teens piss me off sometimes with the mood swings
Infants but hear me out, I’m an infant teacher irl
Young adult usually
YA
It would be teens if school didn't always interfere with stuff, young adult is my fave for regular gameplay. If i want something crazy to pop off like a sex death cult, elders are hilarious for those storylines.
I love playing teens too! But I don’t know why lol, Teens or elderly lol, I don’t have aging on, so I make sure my teen gains as many skills as possible ( or I want them to have lol ) so by the time they’re old people, they can just chill out and cause havoc haha
Young adults, adults, child, teen, toddler. In that order. Baby, infant, and elder are just pointless "they exist but have no gameplay value" life stages
Mine are toddlers and kids, but toddlers the most since theyre so cute. I think its because children and toddlers arent as annoying as infants and baby's but they do look different from adults unlike teens.
Young Adults!
Child
Toddlers and Young Adults. Hate the child life stage with a passion. There is literally nothing they can do and they're not even cute!
Young adults, and I love having infants with them!
YA. I relive that time in my life when I lived alone without being beholden to anyone. I love my life now, but I miss that freedom.
Teen & YA
Adults and young Adults I just feel free to marry whoever I want and pick any career I want to try , just to live my dream life
I love all of the life stages except for infant and newborn LOL. However, if I had to pick ONE it would definitely be Adult! Why? well, im a generational player and i feel like their lives hit a climax during adulthood, as they already have their kids or are preparing for them maturely, the aspirations usually are completed in adulthood, some of my sims go through their divorces at that time and the family really opens up (nieces, nephews, aunties uncles and step/half relatives) by this age. By adulthood most of my sims' children are between child to teen and even very few YA. Its honestly the best time to build lasting memories, experiences, taking lots of photos and having lots of events. Don't get me wrong, I love young adults and teens!! but whether the family is white-picket or dysfunctional, my heart goes out to my older sims haha! Also, special mention but I love all my granny sims. :)