[MOD] Slow Down the Aging of Citizens

[Mithkabob]

Edit: figured out how to get it on Steam Workshop.

I have 3 versions, slow aging speed, very slow aging speed, and configurable speed. Slow gives your Citizens about 20-24 years to live and Very Slow gives them 80-96 years. Default game is about 5-6 years.

Download: Slow Aging Speed to 1/4
Download: Slow Aging Speed to 1/16

Subscribe to Slow Citizen Aging on Steam Workshop
Subscribe to Very Slow Citizen Aging on Steam Workshop
Subscribe to Configurable Citizen Aging on Steam Workshop

Instructions: unzip the file into your mod folder. You may have to create the addons and mods folders because they won't be there.
Or, subscribe to the items on the Steam Workshop.

The mod user folder is located at:

On Windows C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Colossal Order\Cities_Skylines\Addons\Mods
On Mac /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/Addons/Mods
On Linux /home/<username>/.local/share/Colossal Order/Cities_Skylines/Addons/Mods/

When in the game, go to the content manager mods tab and turn on the mod.

How it works: it uses the ThreadingExtensionBase from the modding API to do a OnAfterSimulationFrame call. I loop through the Citizens in the same way that the CitizenManager does it in the main game. I subtract 1 from their age except every 4th time in the slow and every 16th time in the very slow. I also won't reduce their age below certain thresholds to avoid setting off education/job change events again.

Update: Download a new configurable speed version.

After first loading up a map, it will create a file in your Cities: Skylines game directory called slowCitizenAging.txt, located like so:

Windows - C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\Cities_Skylines\slowCitizenAging.txt
Mac - /Users/<username>/Library/Application Support/Steam/steamapps/common/Cities_Skylines/slowCitizenAging.txt
Linux - /home/<username>/.steam/steam/SteamApps/common/Cities_Skylines/slowCitizenAging.txt

After the file is created, you can open it up and change the number in the file to the divisor you want for your speed. I.e: 5 for 1/5 aging speed. You don't have to completely exit the game for the update to take place, as long as you exit to the main menu and load a new map it will read the new value.

 

[Sotrax]

How does this affect the game in general and especially in the late game? Will the cities grow faster? More citizen? Or just less deaths? I am curious

 

[rikmarkes]

Thank you Mithkabob.

Would it be too much to ask for a more moderate version, like 8-12 years? I think with a 1/3 death span in comparison with maximum life cycle, the death waves would be more flatten down.

 

[LordPeter]

Nice!
I vote for 2 other versions, 1/2 and 1/8 if that is possible. Should give people every option they might like (I'd personally go with 1/8).

How does this affect the game in general and especially in the late game? Will the cities grow faster? More citizen? Or just less deaths? I am curious

Good thought: Since Cims now live longer, maybe you'd have to nerf the "birth rate" (if something like this exists) a little, lest you're cities should grow too fast?
Or does population grow as usual?

 

[zorkman]

If they live for a very long time they will be in education for years, which presumably means many more schools to build. On the positive side, once they are educated, you workforce will be skilled for a long time. As LordPeter mentioned I expect you would have to change the birth rate to counter this.

 

[Mithkabob]

Mostly you just get less death rate. Education takes longer, but your workforce is more stable.

The birth rate levels out because of the cap of 3 kids per family. There is a good chance for most every family to become full fairly fast. Also with the amount of time it takes for the citizens to age, you have less of them moving out/around/getting married.

I'll add a configurable speed version as well.

 

[TornPr1nc3]

This mod is must have. Hopefully you can get it up on the workshop eventually. At least I can grab it here. Thanks, it's very much appreciated!

 

[aethyr_]

Rather than slowing it down, would it be better to spread it out? Right now part of the problem seems like everyone lives to be 6 years old, so you end up with population cycles that swing wildly. If you changed it so people had a life expectancy of 5-7 years, it seems like it would reduce some of the large fluctuations.

 

[Jaylentwin]

I'll try this out, but I have a quick question. I'm going to use the very slow version of the mod, which should let my citizens live between 80-96 years. Is the lifespan variable, or do they all die at the same age, except just a longer lifespan. If so, I think the problem will only be delayed and be worse if the lifespans aren't fluctuated...

 

[Jaylentwin]

Bump