What happens if you turn off auto age Sims 4?
Have you ever felt like your Sims grew up too fast? As soon as you blink, your adorable toddler has suddenly turned into a teenager! Well my fellow Simmers, I‘m here to let you in on a little secret – you can take back control of your Sims‘ aging process by disabling auto aging in The Sims 4. mischievous laugh
Turning off this setting stops your playable Sims from automatically advancing to the next life stage when they reach the end of their current one. Instead, YOU decide exactly when they age up by having them blow out birthday candles. Pretty nifty right?
But before you race off to toggle that switch, let‘s dive deeper into what really happens when you disable aging (trust me, the impacts can get a bit quackers)…
Your Sims Stop Aging Up Automatically
The most obvious impact is that your Sims will no longer age up automatically on their birthdays. So if you have a Child Sim who turns 10 days old, they will not automatically transition to the Teen lifestage. Instead, they will remain a Child until you manually age them up.
Without automatic birthdays, your Sims can essentially stay a certain age indefinitely. For example, according to player reports, some Simmers have kept a Single Sim as a Young Adult for over 100 Sim years!
Of course, keeping Sims from aging indefinitely can cause some…interesting developments which I‘ll cover later. But first, a cute duck illustration to lighten the mood:
[Duck wearing a party hat]
Quacky the Duck says:
"No more surprise birthday parties?
But I had my party hat ready!"Elder Sims Won‘t Die of Old Age
One huge impact of turning aging off is that Elder Sims will not die automatically from old age. So even when their time is supposedly up, they‘ll just keep on living!
Some players have kept Elder Sims alive for so long that they‘ve maxed out multiple aspiration rewards. Now that‘s what I call getting some bang for your buck out of Elders! laughs
However (and this is a big however), even with aging disabled, Elders can still shuffle off their mortal coil from other causes like electrocution, fires, hunger, embarrassment…you get the picture. So don‘t get too comfy with your immortal Elders just yet!
You Take Full Control Over Sim Life Stages
With aging turned off, the passage of your Sims through their life stages is completely in YOUR hands.
You decide when toddlers finally become children, when teens finally grow into young adults, and so on. Total control baby!
This allows you to pace your Sims‘ aging precisely aligned to your gameplay plans. For example:
- Keeping teens as teens until they max out key skills for their future career
- Preventing young adults from becoming elders until they complete key aspirations
- And so on!
The table below summarizes how manually controlling aging stages can benefit your gameplay plans:
| Life Stage | Gameplay Benefit from Delayed Aging |
|---|---|
| Baby | Max out key childhood skills before becoming a toddler |
| Child | Complete child aspirations before the teen lifestyle |
| Teen | Max charisma, romantic relationships while still a teen |
Of course, the downside is that manually aging up each Sim can become…well a bit tedious and time consuming!
My trusty duck assistant Quacky has some thoughts on that:
[Duck with party blower]
Quacky says:
"Blowing out candles over and over?
That‘s a lot of hot air!"Well said Quacky! Anyway, moving on…
What About Pregnant Sims?
Here‘s where things can get really quacky! If a pregnant Sim stops aging, the pregnancy will not automatically advance further. Basically Sims can get "stuck" being pregnant!
To progress the birth, you‘ll need to manually age up the preggo Sim. This immediately concludes the pregnancy so be prepared for a sudden bub to pop out.
Having lots of immortal pregnant Sims around can definitely send your game into a tailspin. So if you disable aging, keep a close eye on expectant mothers and age them manually when needed.
[Duck carrying baby duckling]
Quacky says:
"No more waddling around forever!
Quick, age me up before I lay an egg!"Unplayed Households – What‘s the Deal?
When you turn off aging, it only applies to played, user-controlled Sim households. This means that NPC Sims in unplayed households will still continue aging automatically.
So while your active Sims live in an immortal time bubble, the rest of the neighborhood races by as normal!
This can create some…intriguing scenarios when non-aging Sims start interacting with the naturally aging townies.
Just imagine your forever Young Adult Sim hitting up the local bar and running into elderly townies they went to high school with! laughing Ah yes, the weird wonders of Sims aging mechanics!
If you want to freeze aging for NON player characters too, you‘ll need to disable auto aging for unplayed Sims in your game settings.
Performance and Stability Concerns
While immortal Sims sound fun, keeping them age-frozen indefinitely can negatively impact game performance and stability over time.
Some potential issues as reported by players include:
- Strange/erratic Sim behavior
- Broken wishes/fears
- Pets aging past owners
- Child/adult hybrid glitches
The game engine simply struggles to handle Sims who stay a certain age for too long. So even with aging disabled, make sure to manually age up your Sims periodically to avoid technical quack-ups!
[Duck covering eyes]
Quacky says:
"This is getting weird...I need to flap away!"To summarize, turning off aging gives you precision control over your Sims‘ life progression. But beware the weirdness that can unfold if immortal Sims linger too long!
I hope this guide has helped explain exactly what happens when you flip that aging switch in The Sims 4. Let me know if you have any other questions – until then, happy Simming!
[Waving duck with walking stick]
Quacky says:
"Goodbye my feathered friends!"