Hi I was directed here from reddit.com/r/thesims after posting twice about NRAAS Relativity Mod and not getting any helpful responses. I really enjoy some of the features the mod offers, such as slowing down the game clock and altering skill and motive speeds. HOWEVER, I am having a really hard time understanding how to work the mod. I find the Interactions page and the FAQ page to be jibberish and way too confusing. I was hoping someone could explain some things to me in plain English/simpler terms...

I have the speed set to 25 (0.68 times the regular game clock). I have "Apply Life Span Skill Factor" set to True, however skills still increase way too quickly for my liking.

Q1. If I want my skills to increase at an even SLOWER rate, should they be set to True or False under "Relative Skills"? Should I input a value less than 1 under "Skill Gain Factors"?

Q2. If I want my sims to sleep around 8-9 hours each night based on the game clock, should Energy be set as True or False under "Relative Motives"? Should I change any of the values under "Motive Decay Factors"/"Motive Delta Factors"?

Q3. Similar question for other motives; If I want my sims to get hungry/need a shower/use the toilet at a rate that matches the slowed down game clock, should they be set as True or False under "Relative Motives"? How does adjusting the values under "Motive Decay Factors"/"Motive Delta Factors" affect motives?

Setting all relative skills to False means that the skills won't be gained faster when running on slower speed, so yeah you've to set them all to false. If it's still too quick for you, try lowering the speed more. Same as energy, set it to false so your sim can have 8 hours rest and leave it to default in motive decay and delta factors. For the rest of questions, looks like SarahSims has already had an answer.
https://simsarahsarah.tumblr.com/relativity

1 - Yes. Skill factors between 0 and 1 will slow down skill gains. Factors over 1 will speed up skill gains. So 0.5 would be half as fast, 2 would be twice as fast for each skill this could apply to.

2 & 3 - These take some trial and error. How much sleep sims need is going to depend on how tired they were to begin with, the energy replenishment rates of their bed (they are all different), whether they have the Meditative Trance LTR. By default, energy is not a Relative Motive, so sims should be working with a base need of 8 hours. If you make it a Relative Motive, then the Motive Decay factor will provide a further adjustment over the rate energy depletes during their day, depending on what sims are doing. Motive Delta will provide a further adjustment over the rate energy replenishes while they sleep. It's the same for the other motives, except that some of them are Relative Motives by default, and again subject to some trial and error (how often do you want your sims to be hungry enough for a full meal, need to empty their bladders, take a shower, etc. will vary by player).

So just to clarify, Relative Motives have to bet set to True in order for the Motive Decay and Motive Delta factors to be applied??? And overall, False Relative Motives DEPLETE at a slower rate than True Relative Motives????

Decay values are not relative, delta factors are. That just means they can have different starting points. I would recommend not trying to nail this down mathematically, that will only lead to further confusion. Instead, try setting factors that seem to be logical, start with energy then move onto the others, and see if you are getting the effects you want after a couple of sim days. If not, adjust accordingly. There are multiple ways to get the same or very similar results.

I'm so sorry but this just further confuses me. How are decay values not relative and delta factors are?? I was under the impression that once a Relative Motive was set to "True", the Decay and Delta factors further adjusted the motives. I thought "False" Relative Motives ran relative to the (set speed) in-game clock?

That just means that the Decay values are applied to standard, non-adjusted rates instead of the scaled relative ones. The speed at which the game clock moves, 2x and 3x for example, relative to the player and real time, are not as relevant for most of us.

And, I'm sorry to take things as far as this, but what difference does it make? As I suggested, don't worry about the mathematics behind it all. I am sure you have some well-defined goals in mind. For energy, you would probably prefer that sims both active and inactive, with allowances for unusual things like night owls and overnight career shifts, wake up refreshed after 7 or 8 sim hours of sleep (plus or minus other factors like bed quality and how exhausted they were to begin with). And that these sims, both active and inactive, are not yawning all over the screen by 5pm or still wide awake and full of energy at 12 midnight.

For hunger, you probably want them hungry enough for a full meal 2x a day, or maybe 3x. For bladder, maybe they should have to use the toilet 1x or 2x per day but 4x would be absurdly too often. Different players want different things here.

The goal, to me anyway, is to manipulate the mod's settings to get the effects you want and again, there are going to be different ways to accomplish the same or very similar things.

Motives set to be relative will be altered to increase relative to the speed you have set. Those set to false won't. They still will honor the motive delta's you have set either way. The delta's are just an additional way of allowing you to control the motives to your liking. Decay's don't scale relatively and will work relative to the game clock. This is because relativity scales the length of interactions but if it didn't scale the motive gains, either by them being set to be relative or by your delta changes, they would fly up shortly after the Sim started the interaction and just not be very realistic. Because most interactions don't cause motive decays, and if they do they are often just tanked, the decays primarily work on the simulator and aren't majorly affected. As with the delta factors, the decay settings are merely there to allow you to alter the motives to your liking and aren't directly related to the altering of time outside of the fact that lengthening the day is obviously going to make you want the motives to decay in different ways or it won't make sense. Hopefully that helps.

Thank you - between all of these comments I finally have a better understanding of the mod. I was not aware of the fact that there are different ways to accomplish similar things, which is relaly what was confusing me! Thanks for the help!