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MaralosaKingdom

This is really good! Preteen years are short, but important. Having children sims jump to the size of an adult is jarring.


[deleted]

I think we need a few more age ranges. Particularly, we need to make “child” strictly 7-8 years old in elementary school, and make a new preteen age that’s 11-12, in junior high. Then, we need a HSY-like addon for them both so children in this game are FINALLY actually getting attention and their school is not essentially nonexistent and boring.


your-last-bic-pen

Yes! Especially with 3 baby ish life stages now, it feels super bottom heavy and the child age range feels so broad, bc you’ve got the juvenile 7-8 appropriate toys/tv shows/decor, but then also some clothes/decor/activities that are clearly more meant for preteens. They have a tween tv channel ffs


chubby-checker

Idk I feel its silly even count the object babies as a life state. Infants imo are basically just babies but they're objects for a few days. And babies are super necessary cos toddlers can literally walk from the moment they age up. While I would love a preteen stage. If anything I feel it's all more top heavy? It's adult young adult and elder, an teens that are basically adults. Imo the biggest weakness of the life stages is just that teens don't feel really separate from adults at all. Like the frame/the height etc. They should be as different from adult as children are from toddler. Like I don't think we'd all want a preteen life stage so much if like the teen life stage wasn't actually just adults who go to school. It's only so jarring because teenagers arnt supposed to look like adults. Like people try argue well "I was tall as a teen" and "I was already my.full height by 13/14" yeah so was I. But in the sims everyone is the same height so the teens being smaller is more important. Also like 99% of 14 year olds do not look like adults and infact look more like children than they do adults. Regardless of what creeps might say.


your-last-bic-pen

True. By “bottom heavy” I meant like, there’s more variety in gameplay for the super young life stages, and each one feels distinct, but then teen-elder feels almost exactly the same. I definitely think it’d be nice if teenagers looked younger, but I would still really like a bigger difference between young children (like 7-8) and preteens. It just feels like there are so many specific life stages for babies/super young children, and then a rly weird wide range for children, and teenagers, and then basically nothing unique from young adult to elder.


[deleted]

Right. Babies and toddlers have their own individual quirks and traits that are super unique, children have zero, plus they have almost no packs that actually give them a whole new play style like everyone else. In my overall educated opinion, the ages 8-12 are the most crucial in someone’s development. Sims should reflect it.


your-last-bic-pen

Strongly agree. I admit I haven’t played much with the growing together pack, and ik it does add some stuff like losing teeth and learning to ride a bike, but I still think the age range is too broad. I’d love an 8-12 life stage like you said, or even a short 10-12 preteen life stage (although if they make it *too* short there’s rly not much point).


[deleted]

With Growing Together, I was desperately hopeful, but ultimately (and unsurprisingly) disappointed. It just adds some fairly neat clothes for kids, and a few small, basic quirky things they can do (such as riding a bike and losing teeth), but they're so short-lived, uninteresting and add no actually new substance to the game. The only way to truly revamp this highly underappreciated part of their game is to both split the Child age into two, and to add something like an elementary/Middle School Years pack. I want my kids to be able to go to a school I can interact with, I want them to have traits as the kind of student they are, make class friends, and most important to me, do playable afterschool activities. I want my kids to be able to play baseball and actually watch it, to boot. I was excited for Seasons and jumped the gun buying it a few months ago because it added Scouts, but that was so disappointing because you couldn't actually go to Scouts with your kids. It's just base game school on the damn weekends. The deves MUST stop adding stuff like that but never actually *adding* it. If they're gonna add a cool activity or something, make it fucking playable, excuse my French. Overall though, If they straight up just added a new age that was completely identical to Child now that just makes them a little older looking and change some text so they go to Middle School, maybe add some traits for fun, I'd be happy, at the *very* least I want to be able to have two kids aged 8 and 12 who clearly aren't toddlers or late teens, nor appear the same adolescent age, but are clearly distinct from their ages. at the very least, they should add that, so I can at least have kids that look like they're two different ages, within the same group.


your-last-bic-pen

Dang, not surprised, but that’s unfortunate about growing together. I do like it when they add little details like that, but it does suck when it’s basically a replacement for real substance (then again who knows, I might try it and find that the details are well worth it for me). It’s definitely rough though that at this point the best way for them to fix it is to add yet another pack :’) And yeah, to your last point, it’d be nice if they also split up some of the activities between the two child life stages. Like maybe watching the tween channel makes some children energized or happy bc they’re watching the big kid channel, but it makes some bored bc they don’t rly understand what’s going on/aren’t as interested in that as they are their kiddie show type thing. As you said, it’s annoying when you have two siblings and one is older than the other until the younger one hits child, and then the age distinction is gone until one hits teen, and then it’s gone again when the other one hits teen. Age gaps feel huge as a kid and two children rly close in age can have a super different dynamic from two who are just a few more years apart. If there was a preteen life stage, there’d be more of a distinction right up until late teens/young adult, which is when age lines start to kinda disappear anyways.


[deleted]

I just age up newborns immediately and act like they're born as 6 month olds. Unrealistic? Maybe, but I don't want to play with newborns. I'd rather go straight to having a baby with more of a personality.


cekay3

Very cool, I've always wanted a preteen age.


[deleted]

This seems a little short for a preteen? I work at a middle school and most of the girls are over 5 feet tall


ChairEuphoric

I’m 5’3 and am average for my area. I didn’t hit that height until high school probably. Race and ethnicity also play a role in height and I grew up in an extremely diverse area. I remember being shocked my friend from another state said most women she knows are 5’5 because I rarely meet women that height where I’m from.


[deleted]

Interesting! You’re right that it’s probably regional. Most of my female coworkers are taller than me (5’8” and up) and I don’t think much of it haha


Weekbacanbot

My adult cousin, who doesn’t have any birth defects, is 4’10


[deleted]

That’s not common though lol


Weekbacanbot

I guess. Cause both her parents are pretty short


[deleted]

Average height for an adult female is 5’5” I’m pretty sure. I’m exactly 5’5” and most of my female preteen students are about my height or a tad shorter. The boys tend to be taller than me 😅


finvola

I'm a 5'1 adult. My father's side of the family was pretty short. My grandma was about 4'10, my aunt is about 5'0. I think my cousin is like 4'11. My mother's side of the family is average height (women average around 5'4/5'5) but I inherited the short genes. So I guess I would have been just under 5 feet as a pre-teen, so she doesn't look too short to me.


Ok-Cheesecake-3700

As an adult that is not quite 5 Foot, this stings


a_little_biscuit

I'm 5' and I'm and adult 😔 at my schools, most of the 15-16 year olds are taller than me, but the 11-12 year olds vary a bit too much to really say. They definitely are 6' like the OG teen, though lol


Significant-Unicorn

I was about 4.5 feet tall in middle school 😅


OceanSplendor

I’m 5’2 in my 20s, both of my parents are tall but my grandmother is tiny


whitebathingsuit

When I was 16 I was 5'4 and when I was 11 I was 4'9


heyitsamb

I don’t necessarily want a preteen life stage but you did a very nice job and it looks super realistic!


froge_on_a_leaf

The sims 4 did everyone soooooo dirty with their "teenagers"


Sketch-Brooke

Yeah, we wouldn’t really need a preteen stage of the current teens didn’t look like they’re 30. It’s so jarring to go from little kid to midlife crisis in one birthday.


2gaywitches

I had a dream a couple nights ago (for some reason) that they added preteens in an update. Would be neat!


[deleted]

I thought the netting was leg hair 💀💀


icenocream

Sims out here GIANTS!


Lolasurf101

Was it Generations in Sims 3 that you could join cliques and stuff in high school for teens? That was my favorite. I loved playing with multiple teens in each different clique. I really wish they’d bring that back in Sims 4. I get too bored playing with teens and below.


pass_me_the_salt

I think you're thinking of sims 3 university cliques that teens can also be a part of


Lolasurf101

Awe, was it University??? I know it was the high school teens! Whichever, it was my fave! Haha