Age Difference

[irrelevant]

So what is the largest age difference you have seen in a married couple? I've seen a couple with a 43y/o man and an 18y/o woman (25 years), and I've currently got a 40y/o man with a 60y/o wife.

I'm just wondering how far I can expect to go with creative evictions to get folks to hook up, er, form new families. 

[salamander]

I think so long as they're still paired, the evictions might not work as you want ... but that would be interesting: is there spouse swapping going on when there's no place to call home?  Hmmm...

[irrelevant]

No, but what I've got is all manner of widows living with children in their 20s and 30s. If I can shake things up, maybe I can get the widows with some younger guy, and some new families in the spare houses who could still have a child before 40. I guess I should just make a save and try it.

[salamander]

Even with the age difference you're seeing, doesn't it seem that if two adults of opposite sex are housing together, they're married?  If the 20/30-year old is a child of the widow, is there no housing they could move out into?  If not, if you could evict the widow before she goes cougar, you might have a better chance of getting result you want.  No evidence to support that, but it's how I think about things working in the game.

[irrelevant]

What I'm trying to do is shuffle the deck with the housing that I have, without building more. If a 60 y/o widow is living with her 25 y/o son, that isn't helping things at all. I need to get that boy hooked up with someone younger, but without building a house that means finding a match for the widow.

[salamander]

Hmm ... without building more houses, it seems like you'd have to be pretty lucky to get it to work.  If a widow and her young son and a widower and his young daughter were all evicted then let back into houses, I wonder if the age groups would sort themselves out.  I don't think I've ever tried something quite like that -- sorry.

[irrelevant]

Oh, that absolutely would work. In fact, you never would see that, because it would happen on its own, in my experience. I've spent a fair amount of time poking around in my bannies bedrooms to see what they get up to. There's plenty of this kind of hooking up that we mostly never notice because it happens just as fast as the situation arises.

You get a widow with a son and a widower with a daughter, and boom! the old lady and the young lady swap situations.

[salamander]

And assuming the elderly folk are of wholesome character, everyone's happier. 

[slink]

If you want to shake everyone up, mark all of the houses for demolition without any builders assigned.  After a season passes (don't do this in winter!) let everyone back into the houses.  You may end up with a lot of people homeless afterward, though.

[irrelevant]

@slink Yes, this is what I'm doing, but selectively. Two-three houses at a time. Trying not to trigger a baby boom.

And you don't need to wait that long, whatever reshuffling is going to get done, happens pretty much as fast as you can do the necessary clicking.

Homeless doesn't bother me, that's their problem    There will be an empty house for them soon enough.

[rkelly17]

Oh, that absolutely would work. In fact, you never would see that, because it would happen on its own, in my experience. I've spent a fair amount of time poking around in my bannies bedrooms to see what they get up to. There's plenty of this kind of hooking up that we mostly never notice because it happens just as fast as the situation arises.

You get a widow with a son and a widower with a daughter, and boom! the old lady and the young lady swap situations.

@irrelevant, the Masters and Johnson of Banished.

[slink]

My mother gave me a book written by them, and all I can say is that they were either spreading propaganda or they really didn't have a very varied clientele.

[rkelly17]

My mother gave me a book written by them, and all I can say is that they were either spreading propaganda or they really didn't have a very varied clientele.

Not going to take a position on that one!