The Sims 3 Generations Adulthood and Elders
New Gameplay Features from Young Adult to Elder
Sims 3 Generations Guide:
Chemistry | Children | Teenagers | Adults/Elder | Afterschool Activities
Day Care | Boarding School | Pranks | Imaginary Friend
Adulthood is the meat of The Sims 3 experience, but this life stage did not need as much new content so it's a little more thin compared to the Childhood and Teenage years. Still, Adults get some new interactions and features that will freshen your Simming experience. There is now a chance that Adults will experience a Mid-Life Crisis as the date with Death approaches. Thanks to Metropolis Man for his investigation into this mechanic for me.
Finding the right Sim is a hallmark of being a Young Adult Sim, and Generations gives the new Date option. Dates function similar to group outings from Late Night. Actually, a group outing can turn into a date by using flirty interactions.You can ask a Sim on a Date and go to lots with them, to craft a fun experience so that the Sims can connect. Your date will be rated and it'll improve relations between those Sims. Get creative and use all the tricks you know. Have a date over to the house for dinner. Practice your Mixology and find other ways to show off. This a fun, open experience that makes the process of wooing a mate much more directed.
Sims in love can give Flowers, which is almost always successful if your Sim is liked. They cost $40, but give a nice fast relationship bump. There are five colors that belie your intent, from friendly yellow to romantic red. Sims can also sit out under the stars together with this new romance option. It's one of the best I've ever seen, giving Sims a 'romancing under the stars' moodlet that is +15 for 8 hours. If your Sim is on a Date and tries to pull some moves only to fail, they'll take the walk of shame, a humorous expression of failure. A successful date will put Sims in an awesome mood for a few hours.
Sims who make it all the way on a date will now be able to Woohoo in the Shower and Tree House.
For dating and making friends, Sims now have the Give Gift option. It can be used to pass anything that is in your Sim's inventory to another. They generally want a decent relationship to accept a gift. They'll also judge how cheap you are, so I'd consider making it a good one based on something that Sim likes. A nice book for the bookworm, perhaps?
There's a new way for Adult Sims to make money with the Day Care profession. Your Sim can join up by reading the newspaper's jobs and professions section, or the same spot on the computer. For game owners without the Ambitions expansion, it will be the first profession, giving a weekly stipend and paying by the number of children under your care. There's plenty of new ways to spend Adults' money on Adult things like paintings, sculptures, and furniture. The new Chemistry Table will allow Adults to learn to make Potions that have a variety of effects. While Adults can't pull pranks, they can sure give someone a nice drink of Bladder Flow.
Midlife Crisis
Clearly the most interesting aspect for Adult Sims in Generations is the chance to have a Mid-Life Crisis. I say chance because that's exactly what it is, a chance, not a guarantee. What exactly triggers the 6-day Having a Mid-Life Crisis moodlet is anyone's guess. Testing was done with a Young Adult Sim aging up that was Miserable at the time and she did get the moodlet. But, after reloading, giving her static needs to make her elated, she aged up and also received the moodlet. 5 more reloadings pretty much confirmed that it's simply a random chance because she also did not receive the moodlet while Elated and Miserable. But, one thing is certain — the moodlet happens upon aging up to Adult.
So, what happens during an Adult Mid-Life Crisis? During the 6-day period your Sim will receive various Mid-Life Crisis Wishes. There's no question in distinguishing these from standard wishes because of their reddish background. Happiness points earned for fulfilling Mid-Life Crisis wishes are proportionally larger than the same type of run of the mill wish. It seems to be on par with the extra points an Ambitious Sim receives vs. a non-Ambitious Sim.
Another interesting mechanic about Mid-Life Crisis wishes is they cannot be cancelled, so before you left-click a Mid-Life Crisis wish from the revolving door area to drop it down to a slot, think hard about whether or not you'll be able to fulfill it (it would cancel at the end of the Mid-Life Crisis period).
One final note about the types of wishes that fire: If your Sim leads a solitary, boring life in seclusion, then you may not see many wishes. For example, you'd never see the Get a Divorce wish if your Sim was not married to begin with. Or if your Sim was unemployed, then you would not see the Change Jobs wish. General types of Mid-Life Crisis wishes are: Travel Abroad, Flirt with (Sim), and Move to a New House. Again, our testing was not extensive, so please report back to us some wishes you received and if you notice key parameters that existed to fire the wishes.
A Mid-Life Crisis can be cleared up with therapy. Just click the hospital and select Therapy, but be willing to cough up $2,000.
Adult Mid-Life Crises are a fun new way to quickly gain quite a few happiness points in a short amount of time. And it may take your gameplay for a Sim in a new direction you had not thought of before.
Elder
The only big changes for Elder that I noticed were canes and a few new social interactions. The cane is kind of interesting. Elders will move fairly slow, but can actually move a bit faster if you buy them a cane from the indoor activities buy mode menu. Clicking the cane, you can get the Southern Gentlemen gait, which was a bit faster in my testing. Geriatric gait is appropriately very slow. When your elder has a cane, you can find the Harass with cane interaction that is good for showing youngsters just how old and crabby they are.
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