Low Population

[blc1977]

I have only one saved game that I play and it's Sunset Valley. I am now in my second generation of my family, working on the third, but I have noticed that my town has at least 19 empty houses and not a lot of townies anymore. Does the game randomly add townies so that I don't have to create them in CAS (which can be very time consuming) or will the population of my town slowly die, and I will have to move to another town? 

I do have story progression on, of course, and the original legacy townies are growing up & getting old, but I haven't noticed any new Sims in town lately.

[bubbles]

The game does generate townies to move into houses around town but it has a cap on the number of families in town. If you want more houses filled, or sims to get married and have children, you could try the Nrass Story Progression mod. You can find it by checking out the mods board here or just googling it.

I haven't heard if the town getting as empty as you are describing, but then again,  I don't check my town for things like that often.

[blc1977]

Thanks! I am always leery about using mods but maybe I will give that a try.

[bubbles]

I've never used it myself but many forum members use Nrass mods and he is one of the most trusted modders out there.

[blc1977]

That's good to know Although I was just on the site and it has a whole list of Story Progression mods to choose from - I have no idea which one I am supposed to download.

Can anyone who is an expert on the Nrass Story Progression mod tell me which one I should download? Thanks! 

[JodySuzanne1305]

I usually just create a lot of random sims and families and pop them into my game. However, they will be jobless until you switch to their household and get them jobs, I believe. You could also download sims from the Swap Shop on this forum that already have some skills and pop them into the empty houses. I don't use mods either so let's say I create a large family and I want them to be able to afford a large house. I start a new save file and merge them with a rich family, move my family out taking all the money, save the file to the bin, them pop them in the empty houses in the files I care about. That's probably a LOT more work than using a mod, but I really enjoy create a sim and create a style with their clothing, so I usually don't mind.

[Saltypaws]

That's good to know Although I was just on the site and it has a whole list of Story Progression mods to choose from - I have no idea which one I am supposed to download.

Can anyone who is an expert on the Nrass Story Progression mod tell me which one I should download? Thanks! 

For the story progression mod, I just use the base mod.  It should be the first one in the list, just make sure to match the update version of your game.  The last update of the game should match the story progression mod.  I never used mods either, but when my towns would eventually turn into ghost towns, I started doing research on Nrass and finally decided to download it.  It has been a life saver and I am so glad I started using it.  Almost all games have all houses occupied and they get jobs and raise families without any help from you, unless you switch households and play another family.

[blc1977]

Thanks for all the info guys! I did download the Nraas mod and am trying out all the mods for the story progression but it is slowing down my game a little, so I may remove all but the base mod. What would you suggest? Thanks!

[KhaineGB]

If you're going to use Nraas mods, these are the ones I would personally recommend.

Story Progression - For obvious reasons.
Register - Can be used to reduce wild animal populations, which helps with lag. Also helps populate shops/stalls.
Overwatch - Performs game cleanup once every 24 sim hours.
Error Trap - Grabs errors, logs them and resets the sim rather than just letting the error sit there.
Saver - Fixes issues with the save system, prompts you to save every 30 mins (Save as, not just a normal save)
Traveller - Helps fix issues with going to the future or on holiday.
Traffic - Cleans up taxis, limos, etc. Can also be used to turn on/off ice cream vans and food vans.
Mover - Less useful than the others. Mostly just helps prevent issues moving house or neighbourhood.
Go Here - Helps fix routing issues.

I know that seems like a lot of mods, but they -really- help reduce lag.

[blc1977]

Thanks Khaine! I will give these ones a try and see if it makes any difference in my game. Appreciate the advice!