My mods are hosted at the site linked in my signature.

Cheers.

Yeah, that sort of ugliness happened to one of my sims when she was courting a guy I'd custom made for her. He got partnered to some sim who didn't even ever seem to actually exist--I never saw her anywhere. In a fit of spite I turned off storyline progression and never permitted it to ruin my plans again. I'm still very stuck in the control freak Sims2 environment. It's not been easy for me to let go, especially when the EA brand of story progression seems to put in pointless stupid couplings and pregnancies just for the sake of keeping the town populated. I prefer to control the population myself by just adding sims. Better yet, I have everything turned off, aging, story progression and I'm playing Sims2 style and building each household up to approximately equal points. At some point, like a time bomb, I'll re-engage aging and story progression just long enough to let some couples have babies and develop a little. Then it all goes back off again until I'm darned good and ready to permit the next stage of life to occur. And I'm keeping a backup of my "frozen" town just in case I don't like what story progression and aging do. I'm a complete tyrant, I know it.

I played in a similar manner... Turned EA Story Progression off as soon as I found it simply didn't work. After that I choose to start switching households and control everyone in town.

My primary 'hood runs on Epic life-span, so I can leave the Aging enabled, but still have time to visit and play all the interesting families.

----

Once StoryProgression mod was up and running though, I simply turned off pregnancies, and let my mod handle the progression.

I still run on Epic, and still micromanage a number of the families in town... But it can be fun to sit back and watch the sims live their own lives, and make their own decisions.

Cheers.

you can "break couple up" (build up your relationship then ask them to break up with sim x) although i too wish that EA story progression thing was better and made more sense... Awesomemods not working for me

That's why the only 'parenting' magazine I subscribed to for about a year was Mothering magazine. Now, I just read their forums at motheringdotcommune. It's all about natural family living.

Lol, i learned a lot from reading this thread. And specially Summersong had some good points. I am glad i didn't have a dad like Pescado, i would definately grow up to be a rebel, painting trains and buildings in the nighttime. Hehe. I might try the story progression off too, and simply do not give the teens jobs, just ignore it. It's a waste of time anyway, i want them to build up some few skills, go fishing, do gardenwork and learn how to cook.

But that's the entire point! Bacteria and parasites are good for 'em, it toughens them up and builds up their immune systems. Sure, a few of them might die, but that's only because they were weak defectives and had it coming. It's good for the gene pool!

LOL, yes, actually some exposure to bacteria is good. Parasites--well, not too sure about them. I had just typed but erased a paragraph of observations made on my mother's upbringing in third world post-war conditions but that was too far off topic to keep. And I thought the discussion about foot-long parasitical worms might gross too many people out. Suffice it to say, I kind of prefer my life of moderation and balance--yes to SOME bacteria, a big NO to the parasites! Now as for the gene pool, theoretically I come from excellent stock, as both my father's side and mother's side experienced harsh culling out of weaker children. But somehow the idea that generations of weaker babies died so that my family's gene pool would culminate in the production of the glory of me is just impossible to comtemplate with a straight face. And if you see my cousins, ahh well, let's just say Darwin would be doing this:

Getting back somewhat on topic, I definitely am very tempted to try a story progression mod. I've been looking for some time at the one developed by Twallan. I'm just a bit hesitant though to even install the modding framework. I want to see what the next EP and round of patches brings and see if those throw off the hard-won stability people are just starting to enjoy after the last round we just endured.

I'm not unhappy playing the game the way it is now, but it would indeed be interesting to see what an unborked story progression would add to the gameplay. All this talk of teens is making me want to create some teen characters in the near future. Even with the limitations on teens I was really enjoying my Clemmie. The fact that the game was constantly trying to railroad her into the life of a cloistered nun was actually part of the fun and charm of playing her character. I always got a strange sense of satisfaction in blatantly ignoring all the little challenges she was getting issued and still finding ways of making her an A-student anyway.

i...i ate worms, before. ):
*still alive and parasite free* and like pescado said, bacteria is good for your immune system. if kids werent exposed to anything, a cold could KO them later in life.

id rather they die when theyre babies with less suffering than as adults who know what theyd be missing out on. ):
but agree. the media is fulla shit. :D

and late reply is late, but id like to add to your statement of: I'm not unhappy playing the game the way it is now, but it would indeed be interesting to see what an unborked story progression would add to the gameplay.

... i actually dont seem to have any fun with babies through teens. all thats really left to teens is collecting, befriending, and...thats about it. unless theres something i dont know about. i usually just use that stage to prepare them for adulthood ( cooking skill is a MUST--no burning the %$&@#*(^&$ house down, god damnit! ). i probably push them harder than the game does, since they have 5 days of school and 2 free days.... which is boooooooriiiing. epic boredom, even. school sucks up all the time i would usually use to have them go out and socialize in interesting ways, and when they come home theyre too tired/bored to do anything useful. /rant

unborked story progression is a wonderful idea. i just wish EA knew this, too.

Well I don't know, SuicidiaParasidia, I found Clemmie to be the MOST fun character in my household to play. Perhaps part of it is I was playing that household with my 5 year old watching and she, being a kid herself, identified and cheered along Clemmie and she suggested things for Clemmie to do. Playing from an adult's perspective, I wouldn't have thought of a teen character as interesting on my own, but with a kid next to me making suggestions, Clemmie became a central character while I had that household (it's still around but in limbo because it got corrupted AND because it was an old pre-patch, pre WA save format).

She could do pretty much what the adults in the house do. Sex of course, is out of the question, but she could still have her puppy love crush on Bob Newbie Jr. That was very cute and charming to play out, actually. And I don't know, I remember Clemmie doing a lot with her time. School and homework did eat into her activities a lot, but she did still get out into the community and have some fun. She was able to make only a handful of friendships, though, compared to the adults who, even if they work can end up befriending half the town.

Well we heard already from one teen, the OP, about how frustrating teens are to play in this game. It would be lovely to hear from more people actually in that age range or younger and get their thoughts on playing the teen stage. They might have ideas and be doing things with their characters a lot of us adults are overlooking.

I'm sorry there was more I intended to say when I sat down to make this post but there is the oddest sound coming from my computer. It's driving me to distraction. I hope the danged thing isn't ready to break on me again.

They don't. Too bad you don't have AWESOMEMOD, because you SUCK TOO MUCH, no?

There is a version for 1.8 and WA 2.3. I don't think a more recent version is necessary.

The entire post made me laugh because it's all so true. In regards to TS3, it's all about choice. Not all sim teens have to work, go to school or obey curfew. However if you choose to fail or stay out late then there will be negative consequence (just like in real life, kids seem to forget there's also curfews in real life lol). Most of my sim teens do not have a job and spend their free time building their skills for their future career. And my teen sims always seem to be rather popular. I always make sure everyday they go to school that they "talk to their friends" by the time they're adults they usually have 5-10 friends/best friends.

I would prefer it if the curfew was more realistic, e.g. the police only come for the teen if someone sees them out past curfew, and the teen can run and hide from the police.

That's in AwesomeMod. Too bad you DON'T HAVE IT, because YOU SUCK.

Yes, I think you might be right

Mr. Pescado, please stop flirting with everyone.

I do not flirt. I have the Unflirty trait.

LOL...

I like his flirting

You vixen!

I deleted my school, Kids have more time to do things now.

wow, late reply is late. ( on my part. )

no. but you totally wish i did suck, dont you?



sadly i do not have my own 5 year old and i have the feeling that my neighbors would object to the spontaneous "borrowing" of such a child. so i wouldnt know as far as that goes.



except stay out after dark, reap the benefits of certain traits ( limiting. ), and of course, woohoo. i might be more romantically inclined if teens could 'confess attraction' to adults without a mod, too... seems highly unrealistic that teens would be stuck with other teens and/or never get it on. ( and since the sims is supposed to be simulating RL, ha ha, well...yes. unrealistic. )



technically i am barely out of my teens. but even as a teen i was nowhere near as outgoing or friendly as a teen would need to be to go out and live life at that stage. so again, i wouldnt really know. but ive heard stories...as have we all.
*goes to chug nyquil* rassin frassin cold/fever.

well my sims game that im playing right now is modded thanks to this website (:
my teen sim and her fiance live at home with her toddler brother and their twin daughters. the mom of my sim died. therefore, the teens are the oldest in the house. they have no adults around at all, except for when the ghost of my sims mom comes in for a visit at night or when someone like zelda mae stops by
about the freedom thing, the lack of adults gives my sims a lot of freedom, but they have to get a babysitter all the time
my sim recently skipped school because i wanted her to have a home birth and i thought that the baby was due that day
however, i agree that they dont have freedom. the cops sit outside their house

Well, your kids don't HAVE to go to school or do their homework. That's a choice. Of course, there are consequences for making certain choices.

In my real community, we generally have two groups of kids. The first group comes from middle class families and generally aspire to higher education, good jobs and the like. (In short, they buy all of the B.S. which is given to them by misguided school guidance counsellors). These kids go to school, then football practice, band, private lessons (for whatever) before they spend hours completing their homework. 99% of this stuff has absolutely zero relevance for anything they will ever do in their lives, while they are not taught stuff which might be truly useful for them.

Then there is the other group of kids. Those who are disruptive in class, never do their homework, and will cut class for no reason at all. Our community also has the highest teen pregnancy rate in the State. They do not aspire for a college education and may spend the rest of their lives working for McDonalds while aspiring to move up to being a clerk at WalMart.

Which group of kids live happier lives? Probably the second. (I was in the first group and largely view my high school and college years as a waste of time and money.)

There may be definite advantages for you kids to be cutting class, and not doing their homework. They might be better off fishing, socializing with other sims, collecting stuff and otherwise trying to maximize their happiness. The main downside seems to be that they might pick up a negative trait or two. Little ones, of course, might be hauled off by the evil social worker. (Do social workers automatically have the evil trait? If not, they should! "Look, I just took your kids away! Ha! Ha! Now Suffer!")

There is a lifetime reward which allows you to change negative traits. (Or you can use a cheat!) So are you better off going to school and being a good drone, or building up a bunch of lifetime happiness and simply buying off the bad traits?

Plus, a lot of the homework seems to be like some of the term papers and the like that we saw in Sims 2 University -- completely useles!. Once you have an "A" in a class, the homework really does not help you and not doing it really does not hurt you. In fact, if you take advantage of an opportunity or two, you easily can raise a "C" to an "A" So cut a few classes and make it up by cleaning up some bug cages.

The trouble it, the game sometime makes being bad very hard to do. I had a kid I had distined to be a teen delinquent. I gave him a leather jacket, a mustache, piercings and a tattoo (one of the old style). I would have given him a motorcycle if the family had the money. But he still graduated with an "A," despite my efforts to the contrary!

One of the most fascinating aspects of the Sims is that they are a reflection of our own values and personalities.