When will the old sims die?

[Leto85]

I've got one elder sim who now is 212 days old while the countdown is set to 194 days. How did she came so old? She is not a vegetarian and she also didn't jogged 500 km.

[sydney511]

Is your lifespan setting on epic? Those sims live up to 900 days!

[Schipperke]

There are a few Sims who just seem to have inherited good genes or something.  I remember Christopher Steel in Pam's Dreamweaver dynasty living to somewhere around 115 days on Normal lifespan.  I'm sure I read a post reporting another Sim who lived to 122 days, also on Normal lifespan.  The longest any of my characters has ever managed is 112 days.  I've never seen any convincing evidence that being a Vegetarian or a Marathon runner actually increases a Sim's lifespan.  I'm not saying those things don't extend life, just that I haven't seen any proof.

[Leto85]

Is your lifespan setting on epic? Those sims live up to 900 days!

No, it's not epic. It's set to Long; 194 simdays.

[SimPoseyYum]

I just read an article suggesting that the first human to live to 150+ years has already been born.  That's statistically speaking -- the article didn't indicate that anyone actually knows who or where the specific old-age person is.  Anyway, maybe these long-living Sims are trying to tell us something? 

[Laurencius]

I've got one elder sim who now is 212 days old while the countdown is set to 194 days. How did she came so old? She is not a vegetarian and she also didn't jogged 500 km.

Is she evil? Because I'm told that only the good die young.

But in seriousness, I always thought death came to elder sims at some random point after the countdown is reached.

[Execution]

Sims are actually born with a time of death. Once, I played for about a sim week. Somewhere around the end, my Sim's mother died of old age. My game then crashed. When I played the family again, the mom died at the exact same time on the exact same day.

[Laurencius]

Sims are actually born with a time of death. Once, I played for about a sim week. Somewhere around the end, my Sim's mother died of old age. My game then crashed. When I played the family again, the mom died at the exact same time on the exact same day.

Interesting. Looks like Grim is very exacting when it comes to his soul-collecting schedule.

[Leto85]

Is she evil? Because I'm told that only the good die young.

Well actually... yes, she is. I'm not joking.

[Hosfac]

Sims are actually born with a time of death.

This is not true.  Elder sims are given a percentage chance to die each day that is based on the number of days that have passed since becoming elder.  This percentage is marginally affected by things like Vegetarianism and the Marathon Runner challenge.  This is information that comes from someone who designs game mods, and has seen the actual game code.

Likewise, my experience with death by old age is dramatically different.  I often forget to save, and sometimes a significant amount of time passes between saves.  One time, I had an elder die at well over 100 days old, and had a game issue that forced me to reset without saving.  That sim later died somewhere around 80 days.  Another time, I had a sim die very quickly after becoming an elder (in the high 70's).  In this game, the sim in question died at work and the Grim Reaper never showed up to claim him.  So I reset the game and, assuming that he'd die around the same time, I had him retire.  He lived to well over 100 the next time.

[TheChronicR]

I started a thread about the opposite subject, how to make Sims live longer, a while ago. It can be found here, if you are interested. One of the posts also describes the game mechanics Hosfac noted. It is Seabody's post, right here.

Hope that helped.

[Leto85]

I almost will say: 'It's about time.'
The 194 days a sim normally will live has the sim this topic was all about topped to 236 simdays. Extraordinary long it seems. But not really my choice.

[Sportsfan]

I get frustrated with a sim that lives long past when they are supposed to die because if they are a writer, then I don't want them to start a masterpiece only to die 15% into it. I find that this limits the stuff I do with those sims.

[Execution]

Limits? It's not like they live for only 5 days. You can start writing novels from childhood. You can max writing by the time you turn into a Young Adult and have the rest of that time to just write. You'll be pulling out Bestsellers every few attempts.

[Sportsfan]

I know that. I mean an established writer that already wrote a bunch of masterpieces I just don't know if he'll have time to write another before he dies. After they fill their age bar I just start messing around with them, trying new skills, interacting with new objects etc.