elders, not boring for long!

[dejadejavu]

Okay so elders can be quite boring to play some times. Well here's some things that could liven them up.

I posted in another thread that there should be varying degrees of health with late adulthood and elder (inspired by Cassie).

Active - Not be all drooping and gross. Still attractive, and has similar mood decay.
Normal - Basically what TS2 had.
Frail - Not too drastic, but more of a bother for other sims. Here's some ideas that could make having elder frail sim in the house super realistic -

Needs help getting up or else it takes a loonnnnng time.
Actions in general take longer.
Visits to the doctor are frequent.
Bladder quite weak.

***These types of sims shouldn't be all that easy to get, you'd really have to be unhealthy/overweight for a long time. Regardless they should still be managable***

Elders in the sims need to have the same types of relationships that real life elders have. Also all of the options below depend on what traits the elder has. Maybe a nosy, fplayful, family oriented sim might squeeze cheeks to greet their grandkids, while a friendly, polite sim might give them a hug.

Grandkids - Different ways to greet them such as squeezing cheeks, kiss on the forehead, big grandma hug.

Lots of options for spoiling the kids - Convincing their parents to let them do fun things, bringing presents, giving them money etc

Lots of options for lecturing - If there are group convos, say in the living room during a family gathering, more loopy elders could take over the convo and go into a long winded story that other sims would listen to (or not) depending on their traits.

Their own group up kids -

Give lots of advice and help - Helping in the kitchen for a family dinner, to pressuring a single child to get married.

Calling over family to help out with things.


If anyone has any other ideas post them!

[Cassie]

I am just going to put what I wrote in the 'Stage Transition' thread, as you pretty much just said what you did then.

Excellent ideas! That's exactly what I had in mind while I was thinking of frail Sims - the sort of elders you see where I live. They could walk really slow, or, have to use a walking stick to move around. And they'll generally like to stay indoors, and they could be more prone to catch colds and other illnesses. I also think caring family members will not only help them getting up, but what about help getting them dressed sometimes? I guess they could only do this if they don't stick with the spinning, but still, it's a thought. And the family could generally make them small meals rather than dining at the table - I'm really picturing a really frail Sim who isn't going to enjoy moving around too much.

As for the normal elders, it'd be nice if they more enjoyed the outdoors and the old chit-chat with their elderly neighbours, such as taking the grandchildren to the park and sitting on the benches and having a good old chat with elderly friends. And feeding the ducks with their grandchildren - guess I'm more picturing the Grandparent/Granchild relationshsip here, so I'll stop.

And active elders definitely should leave that droopy walk behind, it's terribly annoyiong. And they should have less wrinkles and healthier skin and bones, so they can still go running and play games with their grandkids. They could, in extreme measures, be even more active than the parents, always out and about and never catching illnesses. And they could live to as late as possible, whereas frail Sims should die at a much earlier period. Whether the elder is frail, normal or active should just depend on how they've done things in their liftetime - whether they frequently worked out and played activities requiring lots of energy, if they tended to be lazy and watch TV all through their life, their diet etc etc.

EDIT: I'm modifying this specifically for this thread, becauser you didn't mention this before - I really like the idea of elder Sims presurring their son/daughter to get married or have children or something.

I also think we should have a 'pushover' elder, that will do anything for their grandkids (or maybe even kids) - even if they're poor to the bone, if the grandchildren ask for money for the latest toy in the toystore, or their own adult child wanted money for a new expensive dress, they will scrape all of their pension just to make sure that kid is happy. It's kind of sad, but still.

[dejadejavu]

Yea, I really like the pushover elder thing.

Also I think there should be an option on the telephone for "Ask a Favor" or something like that. This should be for family members and friends only. You can call someone up and ask them to fix something, help with kids, etc. This could save money and also create more of a community feel. It would also help elders a lot because they might not have all that much money.

[2ppanther]

not all old people should look the same and they should be able to dye their hair and look some what good

[dejadejavu]

Well they kind of can...there is lots of custom content. But yea, they should have to go to a salon or the store to get hair dye if they're elders. Getting pretty shouldn't be that easy for them.

[simmy1smeeve]

Yeah, for sims they just go in front of a mirror and come out of the bathroom stunningly beatufiul. :-\

[The Adam Diamond]

yes, and also, their hair should be a bit more realistic. they are too young to hav entirely grey hair, they need somesort of mixture of their hair colour and grey.
like slightly greying hair as they get older.

[Cassie]

I have absolutely no idea why, but I feel we may have the gradual greying of hair as they age - because we know for certain that an adult gradually transforms into an elder, I think slight hair greying will be included in this package.

[dejadejavu]

I really hope we have gradual aging as well. I think there is a decent chance that we could have it, since they seem to be moving towards gradual, seamless changes in general. I also think that if we didn't have gradual aging, there would be wayyyy to many birthdays happening all the time in the game.

[peachpie937]

i hate when the elders always wake up in the middle of the night because they're not tired anymore and then they end up exhausted in the middle of the day