NPCs that are in the game, but aren't in manage households? «12...Next Go

MDianaSims

Has anyone else noticed that their sims have become friends with NPCs that can't be found in manage households? Because mine have and who know how many there are that my sims aren't friends with!

Those NPCs can't be found, not under 'not in world' or in any of the worlds - I have prohibited townies from moving into homes, but checked if they were to be found there anyway, they weren't. I have GTW, and I know that some of these particular NPCs are/were co-workers in an active career. Most of the co-workers I can find in manage households, but not these.

So far, I've noticed this in my GTW-test save (I like to try everything without it disrupting the lives I have planned for my sims, hence a test), so I'm not too worried about culling. Not that I've actually played much in other saves, but still. I would like to know where they come from, how I can find and delete them, I don't like the fact that I have no control.

FYI: I have GTW and OR, the problem persist after repairing the game and add-ons. Don't use CC or mods. If it's of any importance, I play rotational (which isn't technically a technical fact, but it might somehow have a bearing on this)

EDIT: Officially reported this as a bug, so if you have the same problem, go here: http://answers.ea.com/t5/The-Sims-4-Bug-Reports/NPCs-that-are-in-game-but-not-in-manage-households-stealth-sims/m-p/4546037#M13060 and click 'me too'.

ModerateOsprey

Yes, just like you say. There are some I want to delete, but they keep turning up like a bad penny. Can't find 'em anywhere.

cherpar

I have this but mostly notice it with ghosts, which I would really like to get rid of.

MDianaSims

I kind of get it about the ghosts, even though I think it's ridiculous that dead people count towards your population limit. But living sims that you can't manage in manage households? That's new to me. It's about control, I seem to have very little of it. (Maybe I should just return to TS2 at least there you know exactly what you can and can't control.)

Besides, so far no-one seems to know what to do about it... But at least I'm not the only one with this issue.

SlyStarDust

I have been seeing them too. The ugly ones I cheat and add them to my household and delete them in manage household.

I ask if they have a career and they don't seem to be made for a career because they start off as unemployed. I have seen teens too. Very weird. It started when GTW came out for me. I first thought they were aliens, but when I added them to my household they were just normal sims, but they don't show up in manage households. Annoying.

stilljustme2

GTW added Sims generated for the various new careers -- for example, co-workers if you're in the scientist or detective or doctor careers, or employees for the retail. The problem is with the culling -- if you're not careful the game will randomly "cull" those employees or co-workers and you have to start from square one with new folks. I installed the "no culling" mod from MTS in the hopes that will help, and I go through and manually cull the Elders who are in single person "households". I'm really hoping there'll be a way to lift the population limit and enable us to have apartments for our single Sims and smaller families.

WormMommy

When one of my sims meet someone I find interesting, I just have him/her interact with the person until I'm given the "ask to move in" option.

emmaning

In the latest patch I think they tried to reduce culling. It might be something caused by tht. This seems like a bad thing.
Go on Google and search sims 4 patch notes
Top link and have a look. There it is. I'm too lazy to link. But it may be tht.

EIisabetta

stilljustme2 wrote: »

GTW added Sims generated for the various new careers -- for example, co-workers if you're in the scientist or detective or doctor careers, or employees for the retail. The problem is with the culling -- if you're not careful the game will randomly "cull" those employees or co-workers and you have to start from square one with new folks. I installed the "no culling" mod from MTS in the hopes that will help, and I go through and manually cull the Elders who are in single person "households". I'm really hoping there'll be a way to lift the population limit and enable us to have apartments for our single Sims and smaller families.

That doesn't have anything to do with this problem. All the sims generated for my active careers, thus far, have been created in "not in world" households that I can access and edit at will. What the OP is talking about is sims that do not show in the 'manage households' screen. Edit: Oops, I realize you may be just addressing the culling. In that case, my apologies and carry on.

I have not noticed this issue myself but will keep my eye open. I saw an 'entertainer' for the first time in the lounge earlier (new one on me, she was in a black formal dress and badly played the guitar and awkwardly told jokes, it was sad). I don't recall seeing her in the 'manage households' screen but I've already forgotten her name. I'll see if I can meet her later and see if she's among those sims. Maybe they are doing service sims differently now?

cherpar

MDianaSanders wrote: »

I kind of get it about the ghosts, even though I think it's ridiculous that dead people count towards your population limit. But living sims that you can't manage in manage households? That's new to me. It's about control, I seem to have very little of it. (Maybe I should just return to TS2 at least there you know exactly what you can and can't control.)

Besides, so far no-one seems to know what to do about it... But at least I'm not the only one with this issue.

why do you get it about the ghosts, am I missing something for their management ? I have left no urns for ghost so there shouldn't be any. Only started having this problem with GTW including it generates ghosts for the lots affected by crime. The ghosts ( who don't live there) are always the witnesses. One ghost is actually a former sim of mine ( I still hold her grave) in household inventory and at no stage did I ever let her become a ghost.

Surely there must be some way to say I don't want them being generated or existing?

MDianaSims

Thanks for responding!

@stilljustme2 I haven't had any issues with culling in this save, I haven't played that much with aging on and I very regularly remove NPCs. I have noticed my co-workers changing everyday in the hospital career, but most of the ones that didn't show up anymore I could find in manage housholds.

@SlyStarDust @WormMommy Thanks for the tip about moving them in and deleting the, seems an awful lot of work, but if it's the only way...

@emmaning A link would be helpful... Anyway I always read new patch notes and I haven't seen anything population-related in recent times.

@EIisabetta They're not just service sims, if it were just the mailmen/women and community gardeners and such I wouldn't mind all that much, even though I'd still like to control them. Yet, those I can find in manage households.

@cherpar Ghosts were there before GTW, now I agree that if there's no urn, there shouldn't be a ghost, but there is. Somehow dead sims still are part of your 'community', yet because they're dead, they're impossible to find. It's the system, it's been like that since the start or at least when they added ghost. I have never seen ghosts generated to be witnesses, I do always have the same set of witnesses. It's always Zoe Patel, Gavin Richards and J Huntington III, sometimes one of them is replaced by Mitchell Kalani or maybe one other sim, but always the same guys... (I'm just guessing they have the same names in English, I play the game in Dutch) So maybe those ghosts in your game are sims that used to live in your neighbourhood?

Anyway, I do think the system needs to be changed, I have some ideas about how I would like it. I've been planning to post a message about it, but haven't had the time yet, as I have to search first if there isn't anyone else who's done that already...

emmaning

@MDianaSanders idk if it's true or even in patch notes but I think I heard somewhere that they tried to reduce culling issues or increase max population.

Sigzy05

stilljustme2 wrote: »

GTW added Sims generated for the various new careers -- for example, co-workers if you're in the scientist or detective or doctor careers, or employees for the retail. The problem is with the culling -- if you're not careful the game will randomly "cull" those employees or co-workers and you have to start from square one with new folks. I installed the "no culling" mod from MTS in the hopes that will help, and I go through and manually cull the Elders who are in single person "households". I'm really hoping there'll be a way to lift the population limit and enable us to have apartments for our single Sims and smaller families.

This never happened to me. I play a career with the same co-workers always my game doesn't delete them. The only time a sim disapeared was when a doctor died somewhere and he came to work as a ghost. After 3 days he disapeared from existance, I guess his spirit was released to the netherworld

MDianaSims

HarmonySims280 wrote: »

He seems to be some sort of stealth Sim because I just saw the sim that matches that description walk past her house. He is still not showing up in the manage world screen.

I think 'stealth Sim' is exactly the term we're looking for, thanks for giving this phenomenon a name that's shorter than 'NPCs that aren't in manage households' (which is a short and inaccurate description).

So we agree they are generated by the GTW active careers? or are there people without GTW that have stealth sims walking in their towns?

Ulfric_Grimbrand

It's happened in my game a lot. I write their name down. Go to a Sim I keep just for moving ghosts out of the game (she's a ghost that lives in a Cemetery ... or is that Simetery? that I downloaded.) I get their Sim ID, Summon them, Add them to Family, manage household, and delete them.

PapayaPancake

I don't have problem when the game uses those "stealth sims" for suspects and prisoners. What I don't like is when the suspect is arrested and the case is closed I start seeing those sims in the normal world (park, gym, etc.). I rather see townies I created myself in public.

Shepherdmoon

I've encountered this problem and it's bugging the heck out of me. I've been deleting NPC's from the detective career so the game will put my own playable characters that I created in there instead. So far, I've been able to get everyone in except one, and it's because there is this mysterious "Walters" person that is not in manage households, and is therefore impossible to get rid of. I really don't want to go to the effort of befriending this infiltrator so I can invite him to my household and delete him. I certainly shouldn't have to do that.

simsilver

Have you tried testingcheats? To add those unknown citizen into family? You probably can delete them.

Or modify in CAS(testingcheats) to those unknown npc sims. I wonder what will happen if you modifiy or delete them.

Can someone try and tell me the results?

Shepherdmoon

simsilver wrote: »

Have you tried testingcheats? To add those unknown citizen into family? You probably can delete them.

Or modify in CAS(testingcheats) to those unknown npc sims. I wonder what will happen if you modifiy or delete them.

Can someone try and tell me the results?

Do you know the commands to do this?

simsilver

Shepherdmoon wrote: »

simsilver wrote: »

Have you tried testingcheats? To add those unknown citizen into family? You probably can delete them.

Or modify in CAS(testingcheats) to those unknown npc sims. I wonder what will happen if you modifiy or delete them.

Can someone try and tell me the results?

Do you know the commands to do this?

You must be in live mode to do this.
shift+c to open command box.
type in " testingcheats on".
shift + left click to any sims and then you'll get the options.

ModerateOsprey

Shepherdmoon wrote: »

simsilver wrote: »

Have you tried testingcheats? To add those unknown citizen into family? You probably can delete them.

Or modify in CAS(testingcheats) to those unknown npc sims. I wonder what will happen if you modifiy or delete them.

Can someone try and tell me the results?

Do you know the commands to do this?

To modify in CAS, you just need to enter testingcheats true then SHIFT click a Sim and select Modify in CAS

Shepherdmoon

simsilver wrote: »

Shepherdmoon wrote: »

simsilver wrote: »

Have you tried testingcheats? To add those unknown citizen into family? You probably can delete them.

Or modify in CAS(testingcheats) to those unknown npc sims. I wonder what will happen if you modifiy or delete them.

Can someone try and tell me the results?

Do you know the commands to do this?

You must be in live mode to do this.
shift+c to open command box.
type in " testingcheats on".
shift + left click to any sims and then you'll get the options.

ModerateOsprey wrote: »

Shepherdmoon wrote: »

simsilver wrote: »

Have you tried testingcheats? To add those unknown citizen into family? You probably can delete them.

Or modify in CAS(testingcheats) to those unknown npc sims. I wonder what will happen if you modifiy or delete them.

Can someone try and tell me the results?

Do you know the commands to do this?

To modify in CAS, you just need to enter testingcheats true then SHIFT click a Sim and select Modify in CAS

Thank you, I'll try at least one of these next time I play and let you know what happened. I'm wary, though, as the developers will often say that since a problem was fixed through cheating or a mod, it's no longer an issue they care about dealing with.

Lazarus_B4R

Since GTW the Sims that the game generates that don't show up in household management are NPC's with a hidden trait called"Guilty Criminal"..Unfortunately These NPC's can't be killed until you remove that hidden trait, Which is what I've been doing.

Shepherdmoon

I have it, I figured it out! At least in my case, thank you @simsilver and @ModerateOsprey, your suggestion led me to the answer. This "Walters" character was part of a household called "Turpin". I don't know how, but there were 2 male NPC's living together with different last names. Now that I tracked him down, I could just delete the household. This has the added bonus of getting rid of that weird guy that kept showing up on my doorstep for no apparent reason--he was Turpin. It seems this should not happen in game: households should not be automatically generated with people with different last names, but apparently it happens.

Shepherdmoon

HarmonySims280 wrote: »

Shepherdmoon wrote: »

I have it, I figured it out! At least in my case, thank you @simsilver and @ModerateOsprey, your suggestion led me to the answer. This "Walters" character was part of a household called "Turpin". I don't know how, but there were 2 male NPC's living together with different last names. Now that I tracked him down, I could just delete the household. This has the added bonus of getting rid of that weird guy that kept showing up on my doorstep for no apparent reason--he was Turpin. It seems this should not happen in game: households should not be automatically generated with people with different last names, but apparently it happens.

Then he should have shown up in manage households if he was part of a household. Right?

There are sims in my world that are not showing in the households.

Where are they?

The manage households either shows you the patriarch/matriarch of the household and not the others, or it puts all of them on the list with the last name of the patriarch/matriarch, I'm not sure which. Either way, my search for "Walters" turned up with nothing because I didn't know I was suppose to actually be looking for "Turpin". Of course they are kind enough not to show us their first names, so you can't search on that. Yes, I'm being sarcastic.

Shepherdmoon

No, come to think of it... when I look at played households it shows the whole family, not each individual by themselves. If you don't know they are part of a larger household, you will have trouble finding them, especially if they are wearing different clothing in the household picture (not in uniform in my case: instead of a cop he looked like a gangster).