Kicked into Oblivion?

[Tealeaf]

So, I started a new game last night.  I evicted/bulldozed all the residential properties in Sunset, and then put several of my own sims into houses built from their starting funds.  My idea was that I would have them just form relationships and start families with one another, rather than adding townies into the mix.  I turned story progression on, moved each family in to their new shacks (either as loners or as a siblings pair) and played each one through long enough to get each sim a point or two in the skills of cooking, charisma, and whatever it is that helps them in their choose profession (I got them whatever job that came up as a wish when their feet hit the ground).  All went well and fine.

   So today, I log back into the game to play the first sims I dropped into my new game, a pair of lovely Latina sisters with the last name of Herrerra.  I find their house easily enough on the map, but when I click on it seems that their house has been taken over by family of 5.  I figure they might have split up and moved in with some other families, maybe gotten boyfriends or something.  But nope, I checked through all the occupied houses and they were simply gone.  I also discovered that one of my bachelors had disapeared, to have his house, with his name, now in the hands of a family of three.  I evicted the conquerors and reinstalled the rightful sims, but of course I had to re-teach them how not to burn down the house when making waffles and other basic survival skills.  And I've turned off story progression.

    I want to like story progression , I really do.  Seems like neat idea.  But I don't want my sims to end up kicked into oblivion but marauding townies, either.  I'm sure that playing the townies in story progression can be alot of fun, but that's not what I'm looking to do in this particular scenario.  I just want to see how my town plays with the sims I drop in.

So, can what I want to do be done with story progression toggled on?  Anyone have any helpful suggestions?

     

[samoht04]

Story Progression allows families to move out of town and new ones to come into town like you have, so if you want to play the sisters, you must put them in last and play them all the time.

[Pam]

Tealeaf,

It sounds like the new and improved story progression to me.  It's always been the risk when you change active households that the household you switch from will continue with their lives without your control.  Including moving out of town.  They'll get married, have babies, get jobs, and everything else, too.  In the meantime, new people will also move into town and make any number of living arrangements.  With the changes made to story progression recently, it happens more often and it's more noticeable.

I'm curious to know how many families you placed in the town and how many are now gone.  If it's not a large number, maybe try to keep playing the town and see how it goes.

[igzigpuff]

I had a game where I bulldozed a house to put in one of mine (deleted the game now), but when I first started the game or my Sim would come back from being out the house, the old one I bulldozed would appear instead of the one I placed down on the lot (it was a 2 story, the one I put in was a ranch with a basement).  After my Sim was in the house the one I placed would appear, but it was such a glitched game I finally deleted it  !

So I wonder if you bulldoze a house if the game still recognizes the old one and thinks it's an unoccupied house and if you have story progression on it moves someone in??  I don't play with aging or story progression on, so I didn't experience that problem...curious. 

[Tealeaf]

I moved in 14 families, and lost 2 of them in the time it took me to get everyone in the 1 or 2 member households about 3 or 4 skill points each.  I fogot to mention in my starting post that I don't have any mods at all on my game, I lack the smarts to get them installed, and I don't find that I really miss them too much.  Also, I've never even open the cheat screen, so I don't think I could have messed things up by accident that way either.

   I have a feeling that if I left story progression on, I'd have no custom sims at all in very short order, other than whatever my active household was.  And I like to switch households often!  Maybe story progression just isn't for those of us that do.  Which is too bad, because I'd like to see what my sims do when not under my direct control, as long as that something were not to just pull up the stakes and leave town forever.

[MegTrog]

I have a similar scenario.  I'm playing a legacy family, so I'm not switching anyway, but I decided before I started, I'd evict all the default residents and put in several households of my own, creating my own fun characters.  I wasn't prepared for how many townies would move in!

Anyway, I created around 35 characters in at least 10 different households.  Half of one household split up with a couple of them disappearing from the game altogether (I can't find them in 'edit town' view anymore, and I haven't seen them around).  The elder couple have both died, but everybody else is still around, although much to my disappointment, none of them seem to have babies, although I have had a spontaneous romance.  A ton of townies appeared though, and I think eventually my families will die out (save for the played household).  Kind of a shame, as I think I'd get a kick out of seeing the generations of other families unfold alongside my legacy's.

What I wish is that there was a way to check the news without having your Sim take an action to read the paper.  I like the way that the paper fills you in on what's going on, but it's a time-consuming action for your Sim to take.  Is there any other way to monitor the story progression?  At least it warns you when a friend dies, but I'd love it if there were an option that would flash up a message "So and so is married / moving / having a baby" as the events occur.  Or a panel you could check the neighbourhood events on.