What Lifespan Do You Like to Play?

[sydney511]

Baby - 2
Toddler - 4
Child - 16 (I love this stage!)
Teen - 18 (I love this stage too!)
Young Adult to Elder - Maxed (Slider is full)

I would do longer but it screws up my legacy file.

[Lynley1248]

I generally play on normal life span, with a few tweaks.  I shorten the teenage stage a day or two and increase adult by a two or three.  I like to play generational and short doesn't give me enough time to accomplish anything while long leaves me impatient and wanting to move on to the next generation.   I only play on Long when doing the occassional challenge.  I've never played with aging off as that is one of my favorite aspects, seeing each new generation going from baby to elder.

[ClumsyMum]

If I'm playing a challenge then I play on Long lifespan, per the rules, but otherwise I use Normal. Short is too short for me and anything longer than Normal is...well, I have a pretty short attention span! I'd love to be able to play more than 2 generations of a family, but I can't, I just bore to easily. My poor sims get brought into existence, never to be played again. 

[Rinkils]

depends on what kind of a game I play
right now I am prefering something more relaxing, verging on nostalgic, and I am focusing on one family history since stylized as if in early 50-ties
so currently: epic (babies 7, toddlers 49, children 140, teens 196, YA 420, adults 420, elders 350)
with seasons set on 7 days each this gives me almost realistic life span when counted in years - about 56 years
also, they always have birthdays on the same day in a week and in the same season, as they were born (exception with becoming a toddler)
have been playing that for a while and the nostalgia factor, especially with all kinds of wheather on, definitely works
moreover, I immensely love the child stage, it is so much fun, I would like to make it last even longer

just one thing I DON´T like when playing epic: it should be a part of a base game, not story progression or whatever mod, that the rate of work / school advance should be automatically decreased when you wish to play longer life spans ...  with epic lifespan to reach a top level of whatever 5 careers one after another would be ridiculously easy... my Sim became a Star News Anchor in 6 weeks without even bothering to do interviews

[Rinkils]

I almost always play on epic unless I'm playing a challenge that requires something else.  I don't know the breakdown, but the lifespan is 900something days.  Infancy and toddlerhood are both 23-25 days, I think.  I really enjoy this setting the most.  There's so much to do in the game, trying to rush through it and get so much accomplished is no fun for me on the shorter settings.  Long isn't so bad, but I do prefer epic.  I want to accomplish those things, but without all the stress.  I think it also lets me really get to know my sims.  It's easy for me to start a family and never play them again.  When I've played a family for hundreds of days, though, you get more attached and are less likely to abandon them.  Part of me also really enjoys the small pleasures in the game, the gardening, reading to children, sitting in the hot tub.  On shorter lifespans, those activities just take too much time.  On epic, I can indulge my desire for the simpler joys.   

totally agree with those simpler joys
and with such long life spans, the way they spend their days is much more realistic... with seasons even more, because you can do more things
why would somebody wish to work out 10 hours straight when they only have 90 days to live?
but I also wish to play legacy some time to try something else

[Pam]

Both threads on this subject are old, but I'm merging them together.

[Mahmeya]

I play on epic reduced to +/- 750 days this way: baby 7, toddler 14, child 67, teen 82, YA 225, Adult 275, elder 75. Horse lifespan set to 365, Dog to 170 and cat to 140.
Seasons around 15 days so child and older enjoy each of them.

Similiar reasons as others on longer lifespans: more relaxed gameply with less time stress on the sims. And I play sims as relaxation. Truth is that I'll most likely have to rescale it as even though the generation 4 is in child stage, first generation isn't even elder yet (but this may be because gen 1 and 2 are cured supernaturals and thus their life is a bit longer by this)

[CreativeCrayola]

I only play on Normal lifespan. Everything else is to long for me  I only ever use the birthday cake when it is someones birthday.

[pixie095]

I go on long but sometimes I make them age up before the bar is full. 

[Saturn]

Baby  - 2
Toddler - 3
Child - 7
Teen - 14
Young Adult - epic
Adult - epic
Elder - epic

[wickedjr89]

I am ocd in my sims lifepans since the ability came to customize them completely. I even write the days down they have left in the age each day etc. I only ever play legacies really too. My sims lifespan is 4 days to a year (which also makes the 3 day pregnancy fit perfectly). It has to be set to epic to make it work.
Infants age 0, Toddlers 1-4 Children 5-11 (I used to have it 5-12 but I thought the teen span was too short so..) teen 12-17 YA 18-39 Adult 40-59 Elder 60-79 I also have the pets set accordingly to what their average life spans are in real life, in relation to how I have my sims set.
I realize i'm weird...

[cndneh]

Right now I am trying a mash up of projects... a Short Town Jump Dynasty.  "Short" indicating the lifespan.

full life  = 30 days

baby - 1
toddler - 2
child - 2
teen - 7
young adult - 7
adult - 7
elder - 4

let me tell you ... choosing "having 5 teenagers LTW"  is insane when you only have 14 days to have 5 babies.  The house is full of cribs.. or bunk beds, or both!  And somewhere in there people sleep, occasionally eat, sometimes wash.  hah!

[Rinkils]

My sims lifespan is 4 days to a year (which also makes the 3 day pregnancy fit perfectly). It has to be set to epic to make it work.
Infants age 0, Toddlers 1-4 Children 5-11 (I used to have it 5-12 but I thought the teen span was too short so..) teen 12-17 YA 18-39 Adult 40-59 Elder 60-79...
I realize i'm weird...

Then I´m weird too. I need to have it as realistic as possible, so I am also adjusting lenghts of life stages so that I can count my Sims´ age in years. I redesigned it a bit since last post, however. With 4 seasons, each 3 days long, the year lasts 12 days.
babies - 6 days - up to 1/2 year total age
toddlers - 42 d - up to 4
children - 108 d - up to 13
teens - 60 d - up to 18
YA - 192 d - up to 34
A - 192 d - up to 50
elders - 120 d - up to 60
total 720 days

[wickedjr89]

Then I´m weird too. I need to have it as realistic as possible, so I am also adjusting lenghts of life stages so that I can count my Sims´ age in years. I redesigned it a bit since last post, however. With 4 seasons, each 3 days long, the year lasts 12 days.
babies - 6 days - up to 1/2 year total age
toddlers - 42 d - up to 4
children - 108 d - up to 13
teens - 60 d - up to 18
YA - 192 d - up to 34
A - 192 d - up to 50
elders - 120 d - up to 60
total 720 days

Yay for weirdness, normal is over-rated. :p Glad to know i'm not the only one that makes it so they can count how old their sim is. I have my seasons (all 4) set to 8 days each, so with their year being 4 days my sims seasons last 2 years each for them lol. I have my sims ages as follows
Infant - 4 days - newborn to 12 months
Toddlers - 16 days - 1-4
Children - 28 days - 5-12
Teens - 24 days - 12-17 (I can't get it on 24 but it's on 25 so I use the Mastercontroller mod to age them up one day, though otherwise i'd just age them up 1 day before their birthday. Since I have all their ages written down anyway to the day, crossing off the day once it's gone, I see their ages stagger sometimes but MC fixes the problem right up. I probably qualify for ocd on this...i'm ok with that lol. So in my legacy I really can say my sims exact ages)
Young Adult - 88 days - 18-39
Adult - 80 days - 40-59
Elder - 60 days - 60-74

I even have the pets planned out accordingly. I even looked up how long it takes horses to grow up to figure out how long to keep them foals as well as how old they get on average, same with cats and dogs lol. Horses have a total of 25 years, cats 15 years and dogs 12 years.

Edit: I also have the moon cycle set to 8 days, just like each season, so it also lasts 2 years for them.

[Joria]

Challenges = long life span.  Other than that I play on Epic because there is always more I want to do.  I like having nooboos and kids so don't worry about aging them up.  Being an elder myself I prefer avoiding that particular life time.  lol  This time around aging is going off because I want to keep my particular Sim a ya.