Can I stop my world from auto-populating?

AnnoyingTwit · October 2015

I've been trying to build a world where all of the Sims in it are ones I've made myself, but the game keeps moving in new families and messing it up! I've tried to turn off "Fill empty homes" but now they're just walking around everywhere instead, and yeah, the houses are empty. Is there a way to stop them from being generated altogether?

SheriSim57 · October 2015

I don't think u can stop their generation unless you have a mod. But, you can delete them in manage households. Be aware however that some townies sims are mailmen, gardeners, pizza delivery and if u have Get to work they are co workers, prisoners, suspects, etc. But I guess they will be regenerated. However if you have made friends with coworkers you might want to keep them, rather than delete them.

drake_mccarty · October 2015

No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

stilljustme2 · October 2015

If you're not mod-averse, check out MC Command Center over at MTS -- it might have some settings in it that would help you out. Custom Population control might work for your situation.

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=551680

ASDF0716 · October 2015

"The Sims 4- play however you want (as long as it's our way)!"

AnnoyingTwit · October 2015

I've been using MC Command Center, I'll tweak it and see if it helps. Thanks for the feedback!

Mmdrgntobldrgn · October 2015

It won't completely stop all toenies/npc's but if you toggle the "Fill empty homes" box under the game play menu(pic below) to unchecked it seems to help cut down on npc's roaming about and possibly even with the culling.

ps, game default is set to fill empty homes. You can also try reclassifying some of the empty lots around the world to non residential status until you want to use them. I've found that helpful in s3 as well.

stilljustme2 · October 2015

AnnoyingTwit wrote: »

I've been using MC Command Center, I'll tweak it and see if it helps. Thanks for the feedback!

The only other possibility would be to go into Manage Households every day and manually cull (delete) the households you didn't create -- they're likely in the Not In World population. I usually do my own culling every so often to delete single elders and other Sims I don't foresee my households interacting with.

AnnoyingTwit · October 2015

Mmdrgntobldrgn wrote: »

It won't completely stop all toenies/npc's but if you toggle the "Fill empty homes" box under the game play menu(pic below) to unchecked it seems to help cut down on npc's roaming about and possibly even with the culling.

Yeah, I turned that off and it helped them stop taking the houses I wanted to move people into, it just didn't stop them from appearing.

I don't mind the mailman, service workers, etc. I mind all the random people walking around and taking over my town.

JoAnne65 · October 2015

I must say this is really disappointing for me as well. I would so much love to create all the households in my world myself, aging off and off I go. But everytime I see new, ugly sims passing by I never asked for. I understand it's nice for people who don't want to create their entire town themselves, but I'd love the option.
Well, they added options to Sims 3, who knows they'll add this one to Sims 4. Hope so.

musteni · October 2015

drake_mccarty wrote: »

No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

For me this has changed. The last sim week I played (6 household, at least 10 loading screens) and only ONE townie was generated! I don't know why or how, but I hope it's permanent. My game is already filled with my own sims.

SnatchedPlumbob · October 2015

TBH this is fairly disappointing because I was hoping for the same as well. You can't add sims to your game and move them around the way you could have in TS3 or TS2. Heck even TS1. Everything has become a little more complicated even though this game is supposed to be more player friendly.

lovebypondside · October 2015

I'm dealing with this issue myself! I have the MC Command Center mod and I set my max homeless to 60 - filled my Not In World with 60 sims and STILL I have new sims generating. Anyone familiar with this mod know what I might have done wrong?

musteni · October 2015

SnatchedPlumbob wrote: »

TBH this is fairly disappointing because I was hoping for the same as well. You can't add sims to your game and move them around the way you could have in TS3 or TS2. Heck even TS1. Everything has become a little more complicated even though this game is supposed to be more player friendly.

I don't understand? You can add sims and move them around, it's rather similar to TS2 but easier in my opinion.

luthienrising · October 2015

lovebypondside wrote: »

I'm dealing with this issue myself! I have the MC Command Center mod and I set my max homeless to 60 - filled my Not In World with 60 sims and STILL I have new sims generating. Anyone familiar with this mod know what I might have done wrong?

The game might still have some creation it has to do above what's there, to fill certain roles.

lovebypondside · October 2015

luthienrising wrote: »

lovebypondside wrote: »

I'm dealing with this issue myself! I have the MC Command Center mod and I set my max homeless to 60 - filled my Not In World with 60 sims and STILL I have new sims generating. Anyone familiar with this mod know what I might have done wrong?

The game might still have some creation it has to do above what's there, to fill certain roles.

I understood that certain NPCs might be needed for like mailmen or GTW professions. I haven't been to any of the GTW lots since I re-installed the mod.

It have found pulls from the sims *I* made for bartenders/gym trainers/librarians (for the most part) -- then there are still just generated townies just blowin' down the street in their half-tees and green fedora hats and guyliner.

I've been to the spa a few times since and half the spa employees are sims I made and then half are randoms.

So, I'm confused.

KimmmyGibbbler · October 2015

[quote="JoAnne65;14164830"]I must say this is really disappointing for me as well. I would so much love to create all the households in my world myself, aging off and off I go. But everytime I see new, ugly sims passing by I never asked for. I understand it's nice for people who don't want to create their entire town themselves, but I'd love the option.
Well, they added options to Sims 3, who knows they'll add this one to Sims 4. Hope so.[/quote]

I am forever fixing up townies... I don't mind that they exist. I just can't bear to look at them the way they get generated.

Like why would you wear short pants, leggings, socks and open toed shoes... Whyyyy?!?
And who wears a sombrero with long fancy gloves and an evening gown... So gross.

I delete some every time I play. Yes every single time...

I also use MC Command Centre... And I love it.

KimmmyGibbbler · October 2015

[quote="lovebypondside;14165009"]I'm dealing with this issue myself! I have the MC Command Center mod and I set my max homeless to 60 - filled my Not In World with 60 sims and STILL I have new sims generating. Anyone familiar with this mod know what I might have done wrong?[/quote]

I have my max homeless set to eight... I think it means families not single sims... 60 is... Very very high.

KimmmyGibbbler · October 2015

Also I'm assuming you know this, but other people may not...

You have to set Use Custom Population to true, when I first started using the command centre it was off by default. Not sure how it is now.

Sorry for the hijack, as you were people. As you were.

lovebypondside · October 2015

KimmmyGibbbler wrote: »

lovebypondside wrote: »

I'm dealing with this issue myself! I have the MC Command Center mod and I set my max homeless to 60 - filled my Not In World with 60 sims and STILL I have new sims generating. Anyone familiar with this mod know what I might have done wrong?

I have my max homeless set to eight... I think it means families not single sims... 60 is... Very very high.

Is it? I thought the game culled after 180, which is why I selected half that. I don't think I set custom population, though. I will try pruning the number and checking that setting. Thanks!

Cinebar · October 2015

drake_mccarty wrote: »

No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

Thank you. I have always said the generation of new townies had nothing at all to do with the head count reaching 180 (not in my game) and now I know it is when I send Sims through a loading screen. That is so lame. But thank you for confirmimg my own theory. It seems to me they get culled and new ones generated in my game whether I had reached the head count or not. So, this theory makes more sense doesn't it?

ETA: My Sims have never stayed home in any of these games, I may send one Sim through a dozen loading screens before they ever go back home. Wow, no wonder I never have the same townies and they are gone and replaced faster than my head spins.

lovebypondside · October 2015

Cinebar wrote: »

drake_mccarty wrote: »

No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

Thank you. I have always said the generation of new townies had nothing at all to do with the head count reaching 180 (not in my game) and now I know it is when I send Sims through a loading screen. That is so lame. But thank you for confirmimg my own theory. It seems to me they get culled and new ones generated in my game whether I had reached the head count or not. So, this theory makes more sense doesn't it?

ETA: My Sims have never stayed home in any of these games, I may send one Sim through a dozen loading screens before they ever go back home. Wow, no wonder I never have the same townies and they are gone and replaced faster than my head spins.

I think you're both right.

Pegasus143 · October 2015

For certain "roles" you'll need sims with certain traits- make sure you've got some that are insane, and some with snob and materialistic.
Some mods you might be interested in:
Reduced Towinie Generating-

http://simsicalcreations.blogspot.ca/2015/05/reduced-townie-generating.html?m=1
Fewer Random Townies on Community Lots-
http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=560608
(I personally use this second one in my game and love it- the other one I don't use)

KimmmyGibbbler · October 2015

One last MC Command Center tip for the population module.

You can set the elder population to zero. This won't stop your sims from getting old, but it will stop the game from creating single family elders.

I've had this conversation before, I hate that they start out elderly and then die...
That's a terrible life and I wouldn't wish it on any little pixel.

drake_mccarty · October 2015

Cinebar wrote: »

drake_mccarty wrote: »

No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

Thank you. I have always said the generation of new townies had nothing at all to do with the head count reaching 180 (not in my game) and now I know it is when I send Sims through a loading screen. That is so lame. But thank you for confirmimg my own theory. It seems to me they get culled and new ones generated in my game whether I had reached the head count or not. So, this theory makes more sense doesn't it?

ETA: My Sims have never stayed home in any of these games, I may send one Sim through a dozen loading screens before they ever go back home. Wow, no wonder I never have the same townies and they are gone and replaced faster than my head spins.

I think it's a pretty bad game design. The game should pull townies from the unplayed bin instead of generating new sims entirely. A good design would stop the creation of sims all together once the population cap has been reached. That would solve the culling problem, but probably would affect performance on lower end machines with the game having to actually remember the sims exist.

AnnoyingTwit · October 2015

Tweaked my game settings, tweaked my MC Command Center settings, have Homeless set low, and still am finding ten-to-twelve families generated at any given time *sigh* I guess I'll stick to culling families manually every day.

The Sims Forums

Can I stop my world from auto-populating?

Comments