Neighborhood stories experiences?

Darkshadow608 · July 2022

I was just wondering what everyone's experience is with neighborhood stories and whether you feel it runs smoothly.

I haven't played in a while, but since Werewolves I picked up the game again, and I've found this to be a bit unnerving. In this particular save, significant characters started dying off all over, families kept adopting kids and pets until their households were full and the same people keep calling to ask me whether they should make friends - I don't care about their friendships, it's not significant in the overall game experience, especially if I don't play their households.

In my next save, I did a rags to riches and made sure that neighborhood stories were customised more to my liking: no accidental deaths, no adopting children but allowing pregnancy, allowing career changes but not allowing moving out. But still, my sims kept dying and my sim's acquaintances kept calling to tell them they adopted a child or pet they desperately want me to meet. But clicking on the mailbox to see changes only reveals 1 single thing. I have to go look specifically to go see what is happening.

Probably not important but my lifespan is set to long at the moment.

I am curious what everyone else is experiencing with the neighborhood stories and what their thoughts or fixes are. Is it bugged?

GalacticGal · July 2022

I just know that I need to set my own NS, rather than leave them on the game-default setting. I am keeping my Main save Sims safe, but went ahead and allowed for death to remain 'on' for the other households. My bad. I had absolutely no clue that NS would even touch the essential NPCs, such as Thorne Bailey and Dirk Dreamer from Get Famous. Thorne retired from the Entertainment Career, then later, after Dirk Dreamer died, Thorne drowned in his own pool.

I have no desire to restart this save yet again, despite how I miss these two. The Starlight Accolades just aren't the same without them. My Rock Star had made friends with both of these Sims, even though or maybe because of a very slight rivalry brewing between Thorne and Erik. Erik became a Global Superstar while he was still a Teen. Thorne never really had a chance. Erik just now won his 18th Accolade for Best Song.

I, too, play on Long. Always.

As for whether or not it's bugged, is up for debate. Since we can set things for each household, although time-consuming and tedious, it's likely not bugged.

Sharonia · July 2022

I've completely disabled it. It's a mess of mass adoptions and death and don't want it in my game.

cyncie · July 2022

Since you can customize it, I actually like it. I have it turned off for played sims, custom settings for premades and other important households that I want to have some input in, and on for “other households.” That way, it’s not too aggressive for most of my significant sims, but there is some community activity going on. I very rarely have a lot of death, adoptions only occur in households I allow, and I disable move in/out for most of my premades.

My only complaint is, either Neighborhood Stories or MCCC is moving special NPC’s out of their jobs. I’ve had to use NPCC to restore most of the NPC’s in Henford On Bagley. I can’t blame Neighborhood Stories, though, because MCCC was doing this even before NS was available, and I haven’t taken the time to figure out which one is currently the offender.

mightysprite · July 2022

Your sims have accidental deaths turned off but they are dying anyway, and it's not of old age?
Are you sure you have deaths turned off for your "My Households" as well as "Other Households" ?

WildIrishBanshee · July 2022

I always have it turned off for played - leave my sims alone! Sometimes I customize the settings, sometimes I just let it run wild and see what it will do - it killed off Sara Scott in the save I'm playing now. Kind of feel bad about that. But it's kind of funny seeing the antics everyone else gets up to - Nancy left her Boss career, for one. That was a shocker. If I were into writing Sims stories, that alone might send me running. But I still leave the writing for "work", at least for now.

Darkshadow608 · July 2022

mightysprite wrote: »

Your sims have accidental deaths turned off but they are dying anyway, and it's not of old age?
Are you sure you have deaths turned off for your "My Households" as well as "Other Households" ?

Omg I thought it was a once-off setting, and you're right, that was it.

Thanks for the help, I appreciate it

Darkshadow608 · July 2022

WildIrishBanshee wrote: »

I always have it turned off for played - leave my sims alone! Sometimes I customize the settings, sometimes I just let it run wild and see what it will do - it killed off Sara Scott in the save I'm playing now. Kind of feel bad about that. But it's kind of funny seeing the antics everyone else gets up to - Nancy left her Boss career, for one. That was a shocker. If I were into writing Sims stories, that alone might send me running. But I still leave the writing for "work", at least for now.

Eliza is gone, but she and Bob had a newborn baby and he is now a single dad in my game. Sucks that I lost Mortimer and Caleb this time around.... but for some reason Don Lothario always dies and I never mind that happening and literally every save Marcus Flex and the Mayor from Henford end up living together in Forgotten Hollow. Its happened so much, I think its cannon.

Handel · July 2022

Turning off for played households is the default and with time, I've learned to ensure that favorite premades and townies don't move out of a house I've set up for them. And households with only one adult and lots of kids don't have death enabled, since adults dying means kids are lost to the aether.

I do like keeping an eye on the activity of who's moving in and out...and the PAIN of seeing beloved townies and created households that were just in the townie pool just die. It hurts, but life is full of pain and suffering and sorrow that one can't prevent.

Also having kids and adoption is disabled for all. I know that would lead to households full of kids and YEESH.

mightysprite · July 2022

Happy to help @Darkshadow608 glad you got it sorted!

SilentKitty · August 2022

I updated to the werewolf-patch about 2 weeks ago and I like the Neighborhood Stories. It is a happy surprise because initially I was quite worried about story progression coming to the game but this was done very well.

It is turned off for all household as a start and then I have developed a little routine that I do after I am done playing. I scroll down to the last household in "Other households" and give them a quick lookover. Is someone adult with less than half a bar left or an elder? Do they have any relatives in the family tree? If the sim in question is an elder and needed for a family tree connection then I send them over to my dear lady Death who resides on Windenburg Island. She specializes in flower arranging and deals with that on NPC-days. If the sim is not needed for a family tree then they are transferred over to the retirement home-household that conveniently have death in accidents turned on. Much easier this way.

I am a micro-manager by nature so this suits me very well. Each household get individual settings for moving in or adopting a pet. If something happens I go and switch it off since I do not want a ton of cats or babies.

Have only read about this feature up until now, it is nice to see it in game myself.

Frogeyes · August 2022

I love the idea! But it seems like at the most unexpected time a family adopts 4792033021490 million kids and its so annoying! Because of this I turn the adoption settings off but they still keep adopting! The Goths have 4 adopted kids! Though my game has been real glitchy in general lately...

Cabelle1863 · August 2022

I think they need to work on it more to make it a feature that runs well. Right now some of the decisions the game makes are kind of ridiculous. In one save, it moved Simon Silversweater into a home, so he was no longer one of the Mages. And then he adopted 5 dogs. 5! I wouldn't mind if he adopted 1 or 2 but 5 is crazy. Plus, I didn't want a new Practical Mage yet. It also gets a little crazy on sims adopting or having children. The Scotts have 3 kids now, and she's pregnant again. Sometimes it seems like NS is determined to make every family a max-capacity household.

Trying to set options at the main setting (played or unplayed) doesn't work that well for the children . Like others have mentioned, the households will still adopt or have kids. It stopped the crazy amount of pet adoption though. I suppose I'm going to have to adjust all of the settings for each household if I want to use this feature, which is kind of a pain. I like it in some ways because I wanted a little variety & surprise, but not a massive population boom.

Umbreon12 · August 2022

I turned off the neighborhood stories for my played families.
For the townies/NPCs, I have random death turned off, and a few other things I changed for them. Adoption and babies aren't off the table yet, because I want my Sims to have options.
So far, there have been mostly adoptions and new births so far. Just today in one of my save files, Eliza and Bob adopted a child.

mirta000 · August 2022

Cabelle1863 wrote: »

Sometimes it seems like NS is determined to make every family a max-capacity household.

Funnily enough this matches my experience playing The Sims 3 with Nraas Master Controller installed. For some reason every household wanted to have all 8 slots filled no matter how.

MADELF69 · October 2022

I actually dislike the Neighbor Stories. I'm running 4 Households on my Xbox Series X, And under a different save, a single household. The four different household's save? The stories are trying to control the households, that I'm supposed to be controlling. I take a member, to a different lot, and I receive a phone call, from the member at home, asking if they should try for a baby. What is the point of having the control of a household but having a program forcing me to do something that I don't want. In other saves? The boyfriend received a call from the girlfriend, if she should accept the boyfriend's proposal. And before I figured this insane program out? My sim had proposed. I was planning to do a romantic date and propose. But this program? Messed it up! If they are going to have these stories in this game? It should not, try to control my households. That is why I'm playing this game, so I can decide what happens, not some stupid interfering program. Also? Tiner Tinker? One time I advised her to get pregnant, and she did. The other time? I said no. But she showed up pregnant, again. So, why give me any say in the stories, if the program is going to do whatever it wants? This and many other things, they have put in this game. Has ruined it for me! I'm not going to purchase any more content. Unless it's free? And I really wanted to get the Werewolves content. But everything is buggy and unstable. And they have not fixed anything that was complained about a year or so ago. The doctor's field, the coffee makers, I could go on for months. One of my sims, comes home from work, and stands there for 3 and half hours and this has happened numerous times, as well as other things. Thank God, I shut the auto age off. I don't even know why bother to complain. They got my money, and there is no money in fixing anything. Well thanks for allowing me to vent. A good day and my best wishes to all.

Vik · October 2022

I just keep getting calls on getting with someone in a relationship, and they call back that things went well. Other than that, really nothing happening.

SheriSim57 · October 2022

I have neighbor hood stories turned off in both of my rotational saves…..

GalacticGal · October 2022

MADELF69 wrote: »

I actually dislike the Neighbor Stories. I'm running 4 Households on my Xbox Series X, And under a different save, a single household. The four different household's save? The stories are trying to control the households, that I'm supposed to be controlling. I take a member, to a different lot, and I receive a phone call, from the member at home, asking if they should try for a baby. What is the point of having the control of a household but having a program forcing me to do something that I don't want. In other saves? The boyfriend received a call from the girlfriend, if she should accept the boyfriend's proposal. And before I figured this insane program out? My sim had proposed. I was planning to do a romantic date and propose. But this program? Messed it up! If they are going to have these stories in this game? It should not, try to control my households. That is why I'm playing this game, so I can decide what happens, not some stupid interfering program. Also? Tiner Tinker? One time I advised her to get pregnant, and she did. The other time? I said no. But she showed up pregnant, again. So, why give me any say in the stories, if the program is going to do whatever it wants? This and many other things, they have put in this game. Has ruined it for me! I'm not going to purchase any more content. Unless it's free? And I really wanted to get the Werewolves content. But everything is buggy and unstable. And they have not fixed anything that was complained about a year or so ago. The doctor's field, the coffee makers, I could go on for months. One of my sims, comes home from work, and stands there for 3 and half hours and this has happened numerous times, as well as other things. Thank God, I shut the auto age off. I don't even know why bother to complain. They got my money, and there is no money in fixing anything. Well thanks for allowing me to vent. A good day and my best wishes to all.

Have you set NS for your controlled households? Do that and you may find your Sims are safe. I would just turn them off entirely for your Sims.

cyncie · October 2022

I’m not having any real problems with NS. What I’ve found is that you have to establish your settings from the beginning and adjust them periodically. Otherwise, it can be pretty aggressive.

I have Neighborhood Stories off for all main played sims, custom settings for Sims and premades I want restricted, and on for game generated townies and premades I don’t play or need in game. With these settings, nothing radical or drastic is occurring to any of the sims I care about. I haven’t seen the game override my decisions with the phone calls, either.

Tootasnack · March 2023

I have had mostly the same experience as Darkshadow608. I went looking to find out of anyone dislikes the NS update as much as I do. It does not add to the game play at all. I thought there would be more spontaneity. But the sims just mindlessly adopt chidren and pets or have babies until their household is full in less you turn the figure off. Also why do they move out of their houses if they are not going to move into another house. If a sim were to move out of his home to move into his girlfriends home I would find that interesting. But they just move out of their homes to be homeless and take all of the furniture with them. Homeless sims rarely move into homes and they quit or retire more than than they change jobs. Also, there was a brief time before NS dropped when my unplayed households were forming relationships on their own. Some moved into other households, got married changed their last names and had babies. It was really exciting, but since NS it hasn't happened at all. It is rather disappointing. It was fun to create sims for a little while and see who connected on their own. I have played with their traits to see it that effective who chose to adopt/have child or pet and it did not make any difference. But I have never had an issue with accidental deaths. I do not use NS for my played households. For my unplayed household I turn off adopt pet, adopt child, move out and die in accident.

lisamwitt · March 2023

I ended up turning NS off for everyone and I only turn it on for extraneous Sims from my own family that I move out into the world, away from my main Sim. They get to do whatever the want. Everyone else stays the same until I directly make them do something.

PlumbobCrossing · March 2023

I turned it off because almost every household was having babies and dying. No thanks. I’m too much of a control freak for my saves to allow that. Lol Now I just get constant phone calls of sims wanting to have a baby. At least I can spam no!

cornflake88 · March 2023

I have only had a good experience with neighbourhood stories.
I've not had excessive deaths or adoptions.
I've been playing the 100 baby challenge. My sim has had 52 children, 29 grandchildren and 2 great-grandchildren to date.
Only 1 early death from the adult children and only 1 early death from the adult grandchildren.

sinisterlemons · March 2023

> @PlumbobCrossing said:
> I turned it off because almost every household was having babies and dying. No thanks. I’m too much of a control freak for my saves to allow that. Lol Now I just get constant phone calls of sims wanting to have a baby. At least I can spam no!

Sounds like me. I want total control of the game and world. I don’t want any changes, unless I’m making them haha

WildIrishBanshee · March 2023

I turned off certain things for unplayed sims, like dying and move out I think, cause they were getting stupid. The rest weren't bad, so they stayed - and everything is off for my played sims. I'll decide what happens there, thanks.

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Neighborhood stories experiences?

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