How do I find a specific Townie?

[SimPenguin]

Is there a directory or something I'm missing to find a specific Townie?  I left one of my Sims unattended for a while and when I checked back with her, I found her with a married name and a baby!  (But no husband in residence).  Unfortuately, this was after I had placed a copy of her and deleted the original so she has no one in her friends que - I can't identify the father by tracing him back from there.  Strangely, the kid doesn't have a father in his family tree.  I've searched every dang house in town and there is no one with the last name in question which makes me believe that there are more Townies wandering around than we see homes for.  I've been hanging around in clubs and downtown for days, checking the names of everyone who passes with no luck.  Ack!  You'd think there would be a master phone book somewhere...?

A second question:  Can I give the baby up for adoption?  It appears that the adoption agency only gives and doesn't receive.  Do I have to abuse the thing until it's taken?  That seems really horrible.

[Pam]

What's the last name of the townie?  I'm sure many members would know more about him.

No, you cannot put a child up for adoption.  As you said, only severe abuse will take him/her away.  However, if you're willing to use cheats, you can turn on testing cheats and shift-click the child and just delete him.

[SimPenguin]

Wouldn't you know, I left the post-it I wrote the name down on at home...  I'll have to get back about that one later tonight.

I ultimately solved the adoption problem by cheating - aging up the child and then sending him off into the world.  For some reason though, it just bugs me that I can't legitimately put a baby up for adoption.   

[ratchie]

Although you cannot put a baby up for adoption you can move it into another home.

Change active household get a member of that family to visit the house where the child is. Use testingcheatsenabled shift click on the child and add to active household.
Then you can go back to your original Sim who will be child free.

Rachel

[Esther1981]

You can also go into Edit Town and merge the child into another household. Welcome to the forums SimPenguin!

[SimPenguin]

Thanks for the great adoption suggestions - I didn't think of any of them and they are all solutions I can live with.   

I will have to get back with that Townie name...  I've lost the note and it will be another couple of days before I can get into the game again.  :::sigh:::

[SimPenguin]

Ok, I've become completely obsessed with this...  I couldn't tell you why.  In the end, I used a Sim I consider disposable and the "make me friends with everyone" cheat.  Through process of elimination, the Dad has to be Ian Bowler.  I thought I had it cracked with that, but no.  Apparently Ian Bowler is not only homeless, he doesn't have a phone, a computer, or ever hang out downtown.  I tried having my Sim call him (he wasn't on the choice list).  I tried inviting him to a party (not on guest invite list, even though he was a friend).  I tried chatting with him on the computer but he must not have one (not on list of people to chat with).  I searched the graveyard, no luck.  Augh!

I realize each game probably uses this Townie differently, but does anyone have any experience with trying to track this particular one down?  I see by searching that he's had kids with gamer's Sims before.   The rascal.  Where does he hang out?  How did you find him? 

Interestingly enough, from what I can see of him on his icon, his son has absolutely no resemblance to him (or his Mother, my Sim).  And I can't figure out why the son does not show a father in his family tree?  Is it because he's a copy and that deletes out all relationships?  You'd think the tree information would still stay in his file, even if the Dad isn't in the game anymore.

[Hosfac]

Even homeless townies have phones, although you can't go over to their houses (since they don't actually have one).  I've tried following a homeless townie "home," just to see where they go, and they end up going to a vacant lot and vanishing into thin air.

Ian lives in the same "household" as Sunny Bakshi and Abraham Finkel, and they will often move in to a vacant house when the town's population starts decreasing.  If they move in and the population goes up, it's possible that he would move out of town again.  If that happened, you wouldn't be able to call him...of course, he wouldn't be on your friends list, either (although he'd remain in the family tree of any kids he had).

But, if the child doesn't have a father in his family tree, it means he was adopted by his mother.

[SimPenguin]

Dang nab it, I wish I had noticed this kid *before* I deleted the original family!  I think this is hopeless.  I don't believe he was adopted because the Mom's name had changed too as though there had been a marriage.  And I think the tree is empty because this is a *copy* of the original family (which severed all friends and ties).

I've been running this neighborhood (with aging off, I should mention) for a significant amount of time - I've lost track, but I'm thinking several Sim months.  Ian's roommates have also moved on - Abe still has a phone and I called him and invited him to a party, but Sunny is missing entirely. 

I think I may have a naming bug on top of everything - There was a father and son I found this weekend, the father had a last name which *I* added to the game (and there is no way he can be related to that family) and his son had a different last name.  I can't figure out what went on there.  Also, I created a John Watson at some point and I just found him in the phone directory as John Wafson - This *has* to be a bug, right?  Or maybe it's a problem with the "friend all" cheat - Potentially pulls wonky information into the aquaintance and phone list.  Or maybe it's just the result of running a neighborhood with aging turned off for a really long time - The game may not know what to do with people if they can't eventually die of old age.  Maybe this name bug arbitraily attached the name Bowler to a completely unrelated Sim (now missing from the game) and Ian *isn't* the dad - which would explain why the son doesn't seem to look anything like him (from what I can see from Ian's tiny icon).

One thing is for sure - Ian Bowler is alive, has no house, and does not show up on any phone or invite lists.  Perhaps this is just a bug and not normal game procedure.

[Hosfac]

Aging and story progression are sort of linked, in a way...at least if you want your game to work properly. 

With just story progression off, inactive sims don't do anything.  They don't form relationships, they don't end relationships, and they don't have children.  However, they still age and before long they'll die of old age.  But since they're not having children, there's nobody to replace the sims who die.  In a couple of generations, the active sims are the only ones left in town.

With just aging off, all sims are frozen in time but will continue to form relationships and have children, but these children will never age up.  After a while, you'll have houses full of infants.  This causes two things to happen:  sims (including infants) will start dying in bizarre accidents or by starvation, and adult sims will move out of town, leaving you with a high concentration of infants in the town (meaning fewer people to meet at work).

If you turn one of them off, it's a really good idea to turn them both off.

[SimPenguin]

Thanks for that info.  I'm fairly new and didn't get the distinction between aging and story progression.  In fact, all the autonomous changes have been driving me a bit mad in general, so turning off story progression would be the way to go for a lot of reasons.  I'm really used to the Sims 1 environment and enjoy building homes and having total control over the Sims I create - Having to clean up their lives when I switch in after a long absence has been a pain. 

Do you think turning off story progression will stop the astroid attacks?  I am *really* sick of them destroying my properties.

[Hosfac]

If you turn both aging and story progression off, the game will progress much in the same way that Sims 1 does.  Nothing will happen in the other households unless you take control of that household and make it happen.  Personally, I'm a fan of story progression but I do understand why some people wouldn't be.  It can be a cruel and ruthless mistress at times.

And while I'm not 100% sure as to whether or not story progression affects meteor events, I imagine that it would.  I can think of no other mechanism that would control those.

What I find truly bizarre is that you see enough meteors fall in your game for you to consider it enough of a problem to do something about lol.  They're supposed to be rare occurrences.  Perhaps you're just "lucky."  Then again, I suppose that's a matter of perspective. 

[SimPenguin]

I didn't have any astroid attacks for the longest time and then, a slew of them.  Which was fun for a while.  But then a community spot I had spent hours building (and had no copy of in the library because I didn't realize how necessary it was to do so) was completely demolished.  For some reason, quitting the game without saving never really works for me - The properties seem to back themselves up and when I return, it has saved the changes regardless of what I told it.  I didn't even have any screen shots yet to quickly recreate it.   

I litterally cringe when I need to send my Sims out now - I dash them around to do their chores as quick as possible and then run home so that if something *does* happen, it's just to their house/family.  I just don't need that kind of stress.  I have enough of it in my REAL LIFE.