Where do the townies hang out?

[Janna]

I have been playing pets and I hardly ever see anyone, except for a set few.  I have gone to the dog park and stayed there for quite a long time, and hardly anyone shows up.  I have went to some of the "events" such as a horse competion and there was no one there.  I stayed in the area for a while, about an hour of sim time, and still no one showed up.  The same with a couple of other events, a grill a thon and there was only two people who were there.  One was going around and cleaning up the food set out, but there was no one at the tables or in the dog park.   

The only ones that I see on a regular basis is the Fox family and Honey, who plays music sometimes in the dog park. 

It looks like if I want to start a family I will have to create my own. 

[Pam]

I have been playing pets and I hardly ever see anyone, except for a set few.  I have gone to the dog park and stayed there for quite a long time, and hardly anyone shows up.  I have went to some of the "events" such as a horse competion and there was no one there.  I stayed in the area for a while, about an hour of sim time, and still no one showed up.  The same with a couple of other events, a grill a thon and there was only two people who were there.  One was going around and cleaning up the food set out, but there was no one at the tables or in the dog park.   

The only ones that I see on a regular basis is the Fox family and Honey, who plays music sometimes in the dog park. 

It looks like if I want to start a family I will have to create my own.

Which town are you playing?  I can normally find Sims at the shopping locations, like the bookstore and grocery store.  Also, the theater is fairly active during movie times.  And the restaurants have Sims coming and going.  It's not always a park or an event where they hang out. 

[Korva]

That's Appaloosa Plains. I play there almost exclusively and there's usually quite a bit happening; oddly enough the criminal warehouse looks like a popular place to hang out even for perfectly law-abiding Sims. How good is your computer? I hear the number of townies who show up is partly related to how your rig "scores" on the system requirements. So a powerful computer will allow more Sims to run around doing things.

If you put fun items on a community lot (either in Edit Town or by buying the lot and then using the real estate buy/build interaction), the townies appear to stick around longer. I always buy and spice up the beach and the equestrian training grounds, and even when my own Sims are not on the lot there'll often be someone playing darts or Gnubb all night.

[Chuckles_82]

I find a fair few of them at the library. Plus, if you convert a few of the residential lots to bars, they congregate there during opening hours. If you are having trouble finding townies, zoom out to town view, and you can see little round shadows where people or pets are, whether on lots or anywhere in between.

[Pam]

I hear the number of townies who show up is partly related to how your rig "scores" on the system requirements. So a powerful computer will allow more Sims to run around doing things.

Where did you hear that?  If you have a link, I'd like to research that.  I've never heard of this.

[loveSims]

Pam have a look at this thread.http://www.carls-sims-3-guide.com/forum/index.php/topic,5122.msg207597.html#new

[Korva]

Yes, it was that and similar threads I was thinking about. Mostly it's about LN and bars, but occasionally it's mentioned that the ratings govern how many Sims can show up on any community lot, like in this thread, which also claims that sometimes the game will underrate a CPU and cause the empty lot syndrome on a rig that is actually perfectly capable of handling full lots.

(That thread speaks about changing game files, not just deviceconfig.log, and while it does give good explanations and warnings, I'm a bit hesitant to link it anyway. If you think it's too risky, I'll delete the link.)

Janna: do you have the problem in other towns as well or is it a new one just in Appaloosa Plains?

[MoMoll]

I wonder sometimes if it's the town and the town personalities. When I play Sunset Valley, people tend to go to the park and then go home and stay there. I've put in dance clubs, and they'll come and leave very early.
When you play Bridgeport, people are always out and about.
I think EA has triggered something for neighborhoods. Big city, people roaming around until all hours at night (also, who wants to be stuck in a tiny apartment). Sleepy neighborhood, people stay home with the kids.
Only played Appaloosa a few times and found it too boring. Same problem, people stay home taking care of their horses and animals.

[Pam]

Thanks for the link, loveSims.  I don't see how that's connected to the power of the computer, though.  I've gotten that very same glitch with the staff stuck near the elevator and my computer is plenty powerful enough.

Yes, it was that and similar threads I was thinking about. Mostly it's about LN and bars, but occasionally it's mentioned that the ratings govern how many Sims can show up on any community lot, like in this thread, which also claims that sometimes the game will underrate a CPU and cause the empty lot syndrome on a rig that is actually perfectly capable of handling full lots.

It's ok to link to it.  Personally, I don't trust much of what I see on the official Sims 3 forum because I don't know those people and it's sometimes known to have wildly incorrect information about the game.  In my opinion, if the computer meets the minimum requirements of the game, it will be able to produce the townies that live in each town.

[Janna]

I don't have any problem in other towns, I may have to stay a couple of minutes, depending on the town, SV I have to stay a bit, Riverview it becomes crowded real fast depending on the location and time.   The pool fills up real fast no matter what time, but the juice bar lot  mainly in the evening. 

I wonder if it could be that since it is geared more toward pet owners, as MoMall, stated, maybe they are staying home taking care of the horses and other critters.  The only place I see a lot of people is at the library.  If I didn't see anyone there I would think it was a ghost town, LOL 

In all of the towns I hardly ever see people at events, such as grill or chess competitions. 

You would think that at the animal competition there would be people there though.  At a horse competition there should be quite a few but none showed up.  I stayed there for over an hour sim time, still no one showed up. 

Interestingly, the only people my sim had meet at night was one night when I had her roaming (it was after I had posted here) were people who hated children. 

I created a sim family, hubby and wife and they had twins and I made a park, so I'll get to see if anyone shows up there.


They did have a Peeping Tom, but it was a dog !  I laughed as she dashed out of the house, a line stating there is a peeping tom, and I saw a dog running away from the window. 

[Korva]

Hmm, that is odd then. I don't have a basis for comparison since I started playing the game with Pets and have stuck exclusively to Appaloosa Plains except for brief looks at the other towns, but the town never looks empty for me. People play music in the dog park, hang out at the cat jungle, the (refurbished) saloon and especially the library, the horse ranch and (oddly enough) the criminal hideout, which is a favourite place for flirting couples.

[Seabody]

I can't remember where I found this, but I kept it in a Word Document on my Computer because it's good information:

This is pretty obvious, but you will most likely meet people with the athletic trait at the gym or the stadium, the restaurant will be busy during lunch or dinner, bookworms are at the library, Sims in town will probably go to the big park rather than the little park while you are playing as someone else. Also, uncontrolled Sims will not go to any empty lots.

[samdiatmh]

Just took a look at the criminal hideout, there's some rare seeds there

I tend to find most people at the library at some stage, it's always crawling with people

[Janna]

The problem in both Riverview and in Appaloosa Plains is that there are no big Central Park for the sims.  In  AP, there are nice ones for the dogs and cats, but not a one for families with a playground and fishing like in SV.  Riverview the same, lots of small parks, but no Central Park and the tiny playground in the residental area doesn't seem to attrack families.

I have gone to the regular places, libraries, diners, gyms and such, and very few showed up.  And I'm not taking about just for a short time, I had her at the library reading skill books, and she read two of them.  The Fox family, two elderly, a couple of kids and that was all, and not at the same time either.  At the gym for a long period of time and I think only one person showed up. 

I decided to play another game with AP and there were still very few sims at the dog and cat park, but a bit more at other sites and out and about; not a lot but enough to feel the town hadn't become a ghost town. 

[JudesSims]

In Riverview, everyone seems to hang out at the Community Gardens.