For example, the age of majority needs to be 19 in my game rather than 18 or some other number, because I need high school aged sims to be able to use the in-game school system and many of my teenagers will turn 18 before they graduate high school.
Another example is that children and babies can be left at home in game, unattended, without any consequences. That just doesn't make any sense to me. So, even though my sims don't need a babysitter, I make them arrange one (like here) for the sake of realism.
So if you were a young sim living in my world, these would be the laws that governed your growing up.
age in years:
10: may be left unsupervised for less than 2 hours
12: may work less than 10 hours per week
12: may be left unsupervised for less than 6 hours and babysit younger children
12-16: teenage age of consent, less than 3 years age difference
15: may work less than 25 hours per week
15: drivers ed begins (ha, imagining that we ever get drivable cars in TS4)
17: emancipated teenager:
- estranged teenagers will not be classed as runaways
- may work less than 35 hours per week
- adult age of consent
- may drop out of high school
- may join the military
- parents are obligated to provide support until high school graduation
- may enter a bar, but cannot be served alcohol
19: age of majority, full adulthood:
- may sign leases
- own property
- get married
- vote
- gamble
- drink alcohol
- work full time
- take guardianship of minors
- take out loans
25: academic trusts become fully vested
25: may own or start a business
60: retirement pension available
other laws and punishments:
- public indecency
- punishment: $200 fine
- public fighting
- sentence: public unrest to assault
- punishment: fines to various jail time, depending on severity
- improper care and maintenance of a cowplant:
- sentence: assault to involuntary manslaughter
- punishment: fines to 15 years in jail
- hacking:
- chance of being caught—1/100 sloppy/clumsy traits, 1/200 normal, 1/300 genius traits
- punishment: fines to 5 years in jail
- criminal sabotage/mischief:
- chance of being caught—1/100 sloppy/clumsy traits, 1/200 normal, 1/300 genius traits
- punishment: fines to 10 years in jail
- involvement in organized criminal networks (crime career):
- chance of being caught—1/150 sloppy/clumsy traits, 1/250 normal, 1/400 genius traits
- punishment: 2 to 25 years in jail
So there's still no babysitter or nanny at all in TS4? That seems so crazy to me, especially when you think back to TS1. There was no nanny then either but if there was a baby in the house, your sim couldn't leave unless there was someone else there to take care of it.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway, this is very cool! The issue you're running into with your age of majority (some 18-year-olds still being in high school) is part of the reason why the last year my sims are teens is 17. It's mostly because I didn't turn 18 myself until I was 3 months into uni but what you're talking about here was definitely a consideration too. It's always cool to see how other simmers who want to inject some realism into their games deal with this kind of thing. :)
Well, I sort of didn't explain that very well, lol! The babies can be left, but what happens is that they *poof* away and you get a pop up that says they've gone to "day care." Then when your sim comes back home, they *poof* back into their crib. So there's no need for a babysitter or nanny, because any time your sims leave the lot (whether to a community lot or off-screen work), the baby always goes to auto-daycare. It's just too easy and unsatisfying, so I prefer to arrange something in my game, even if there's no need for it.
DeleteChildren though, they can be left anytime and anywhere. It was the same for TS3, and I didn't like it then, either. The kids can be as young as about 4 years old, in my imagining, and that is FAR too young to be left alone!
What month do your school years start in Australia? Ours start in August/September here, and I had a September birthday, so I was one of the first in my senior class to turn 18. (Pretty much everyone turned 18 by the end of our senior year unless they had an odd summer birthday.) It was horrible though, because I felt so grown up and I had a whole year of high school left to finish, lol!
Oh, EA...that's such lazy programming and no fun for the player either! I was playing a TS2 family yesterday with a toddler and was so charmed watching the nanny give him a bath. <3 She's a bitch to everyone, except that kid!
DeletePrimary and high school starts in late January/early February here and uni starts in early March. So a calendar year is roughly the same as an academic year, which makes the ages pretty easy to deal with in game. I still fudge it a bit though. Here, a kid turning 5 in September wouldn't be allowed to start kindergarten until the next year. For public schools, the cut-off is 31st July and Catholic schools are even stricter and have a cut-off of 30th June. I didn't bother with any of that in my game though. If you're 5 at any point in the year, you're in kindergarten.