Story Progression Issue

[LaB]

I evicted everyone from a new town and put single young adults (apart from two couples) in the houses just to start again so kids and teens should be the same age so I turned off the story progression while I go round the Sims and get their skills up and in love with Sims, but when I've gone back to one of the couples, they've had a baby. I've just looked at options and story progression is still off, but free will is still on high. Could that effect this?

[Edited for grammar.  -Pam]

[Pam]

I would think that Story Progression being turned off would prevent such things.  Let's see what others have to say about it.

[catlover]

I played with story progression and aging off for a long time. High will was still on the highest setting. The townies did not age and I did not notice any new babies being born. Everyone stayed the same age and in the same households as I expected. Now that I have turned both aging and story progression back on, the babies aged to toddlers almost instantly as well as the rest of the townies. I'm not sure if this had anything to do with the fact that I played the game so long with those two options off, but everyone in town is aging and moving around very quickly. Sims are moving out of town and new ones are moving in rapidly as well. Every day when I turn the game on, I have noticed that most of the Sims in town have moved into different households and no matter how often I go into Edit Town mode and place everyone where I want them to be and save the game, they still move. I'm sure it is because of free will being set on high, but it does get annoying when I spend so much of my time fixing their homes up for the family living in it at the time. I have even noticed that my oldest families that I have had in my game forever move out of their houses and don't even show up in a new home. I have searched for them in every household and they are not anywhere to be found. But when I go back into live mode and look for them under relationships, they are still there and I can call them and meet up with them in town somewhere. I stayed with them for a full 24 hour period to see if they would leave to go home, and they stayed wherever I met with them. They were homeless. It did not make any sense to me since I have empty houses available, and they had money to live on, but they moved out of their homes and live invisibly somewhere until I call them to meet up with them. I have even followed my mail person before and watched her stop in front of a house and run inside. I actually watched her enter the house and when I had my Sim go up to the door to visit she was not in there. I searched everywhere and she simply was not there. That seemed really strange to me. This game is both fascinating and mysterious at the same time. I wish I could offer fresh ideas or answers, but I thought it was worth sharing my game experience if it helps anyone.

[Saltypaws]

I finaally gave up on trying to keep my sims in one spot, sort of like putting puppies in a box, so to speak, lol.  I don't know how many times my sims have moved, so I just don't fix their houses anymore, only just a few things.  It is annoying, but I guess it is not going to stop, so I just don't pay attention anymore.  I just go on a sims hunt every now and then.

[AriaGirl77]

It's annoying, but it seems like the game is simply not designed for playing more than one family at a time.  When you try to control all the families in the neighborhood you're just going to end up frustrated because they're always going to just do their own thing.  The townies are designed to be either played as your one family, or used as friend fodder for the family you're currently playing, nothing more.

[Pam]

I've pretty much always played just one family per neighborhood.  Sometimes I get annoyed with all the moving about, especially if it's my own extended families.  But I think, overall, I prefer the more aggressive story progression because it gets boring when they always do the same thing in every game all the time.

[LaB]

I just wanted a number of new sims and deleted all the others. (apart from all the sims that just walk about who don't live there). I didn't want the married sims or the elder sims. I was going around just to make sure they had jobs and stuff, so when I do play just one family all the others can get on with their lives and should have kids about the same time.  

[bshag]

I've always played with story progression and aging on but mostly played with the epic lifespan.  I really like my families and even most of the townies so I guess everyone aged at the same pace.  No one really died except of old age and that didn't occur very often because of the length of life. 

I other day I was playing a sim couple and happened to notice in map view that almost all the houses were filled, which pleased me to no end.    Almost as quick as I made that observation, for 4 nights in a row someone left the game by means other than dying of old age...2 starved, 1 burned to death and I got notification that the Harts moved out of town "due to a better opportunity..."we'll miss you."   Boy was that a new one.

I guess it was just the game's way of culling the townies.  I haven't played that game since...was very afraid.   I really love sp.     

[catlover]

I was giving some thought to why the Sims move around so much in the town. I think it must be more than just their free will. I noticed that the family funds amounts were getting low on some of the families, especially the homes that I have worked on with remodeling and refurnishing. Because of the upgrades I am wondering if that had an impact on their funds and that is why they moved so quickly. I don't know if I am on to something or not - it just puzzled me why they move around so much. Some families stay put and haven't moved at all in my game, and they are the rich ones. That's one reason I think that family funds may play a part in why they move. Does anybody else have a thought on this idea?

[bshag]

I really haven't had an issue of my CAS families moving all that much...guess I'm just lucky.  Townies have moved all over and sometimes I've had to hunt them down.  In my games even the rich ones move around...Agnes Crumplebottom, the Wolffes, Altos, all have ended up in much smaller houses with the same amount of money.  I've given money and stayed long enough with some sims, getting them jobs, etc. only to have them up and move to another stupid house, so I don't do that anymore. 

I really think, as far as the game goes, that's it's just a random thing.

[AriaGirl77]

I am certain that they didn't move around so much in previous patches, but of course back then there were other issues.  My guess is that this is just a temporary move-around bug and that a patch or two from now it won't be an issues.  Because think about it, the designers of the game designed certain families for certain houses, don't ya think it might also annoy some of them to have their creations ditch their custom made digs?  I would be. lol