Story Progression - problems

[Janna]

If this is in the wrong section, please move it and I am sorry, it isn't so much as asking for help to fix, just in understanding.

I have been having problems in the area of story progression.  Children of townies age, but hardly marry and if they do they don't have children.  Their parents die and occasionally a new family moves in, but no chilldren. 
SV has become in a couple of games a town of YA, Adults and Elders, none getting married, no new births, just the the set families, such as the Bunch, with the adults aging, dying, the kids age up to YA but none are getting married.  Pauline and Hank marry, but no children, same with some other couples, the Keatons, son ages up, but doesn't seem to marry, has girlfriends but breaks up and no marriage, his parents die with him as the only child. 

Same in RV, the main townies are aging and dying off, but very few marry and those who do very few have children.  Those who are children can either age up and same as SV, or seem to be staying young for longer periods of time.  In one game I had a sim offspring attend school with no classmates until the end of his teen age and then they didn't fit what I was seeking for my plans for the family.  In MF the Woff family's children stayed childen for three generations of my sim family.
I generally end up creating a new game, make some single sims with the traits and LTW's that I need to fulfill the personal dynasty I have designed for this family. 

Families seem to move randomly from one house to another during a game, and sometimes they move from a four bedroom house worth close to $100,000, with three family members to a house with one bedroom and worth $16,000. 

What gives?  I'm starting back to saving families that I created that have children so I can add them to another town when a family I created has children and they can hopefully find a future mate for that personal dynasty.

Is the computer you are playing on a factor in the story progression; the power of it affecting how much it can handle, do, the size and actions of the sim families? 

[Trip]

This has been a universal problem since Pets or thereabouts, and it has nothing to do with computer power. I don't get townie children on my semi-ancient laptop, and Rica doesn't get townie children on her rig that's probably much better than mine. It was most likely something implemented in the Pets patch that affects everyone.

Yes, and it really sucks.

[Turoskel]

My dynasty game in Riverview was totally dead, just full of elders and story progression was only moving elders in, it is very frustrating. I do wish townies had children still but they don't anymore, I was amazed to actually see a marriage happen between original townies as that never does much now either.

After posting my story progression problem in the dynasty thread Rica suggested I try the daycare job to make the game spawn some kids, so far it has helped a bit, at least I have some younger families moved in, all EA clones but kids for my dynasty children to grow up with as it's not just finding a spouse it's the friend requirement too, no good if they all die before you reach elder.

I guess in some ways it's a lesson in be careful what you wish for, people complained story progression was over doing it so they altered it and now it does very little, a middle ground would have been preferable.

[simlover16]

 Yeah, I've noticed that. When I read Pam's ID, I noticed how the families in her town were reproducing BUT that was BEFORE pets. My neighbor just has the base game, and his story progression baby booms all over the place. I mostly play in SV and people rarely get married and I've never seen children. Only Claire Ursine.

[Trip]

Is your neighbor patched up completely? The problem seems to be patch-related and not Pets-related (I didn't get townie children after patch 1.29-ish, but I played for a long time on that patch without getting Pets. And on an earlier thread, at least one person stated that they didn't get any townie children even though they didn't have Pets). But if it was truly Pet-related, I'd uninstall that EP in a heartbeat.

(And I don't mean to be nosy or prying. I just really miss townie children!)

[Wiry]

Is your neighbor patched up completely? The problem seems to be patch-related and not Pets-related (I didn't get townie children after patch 1.29-ish, but I played for a long time on that patch without getting Pets. And on an earlier thread, at least one person stated that they didn't get any townie children even though they didn't have Pets). But if it was truly Pet-related, I'd uninstall that EP in a heartbeat.

(And I don't mean to be nosy or prying. I just really miss townie children!)

It's a patch issue. I got Pets last weekend. Before I got addicted to Mods, I had played for YEARS with no Townie children.

[Ricalynn]

It's a patch issue.   I have just base game on a second computer for testing purposes and I haven't gotten a townie child since 2011?

[Janna]

I'm up to date on patches.  I guess we can hope that before TS4 they will fix it but I doubt it; they will be too busy with that and the expansion/world games soon to be released. 
Just add to the games as I need with my own created sims. 

[Joria]

I know when you are playing a dynasty adding your own "extra" Sims to a town is a rule breaker, but I wonder, considering the mess the patch has made of things, if you couldn't add some of the "extra" townies you find in your library?  There is at least one couple with a bunch of kids and another that has one or two.  That could solve the problem and since they aren't made by you, you wouldn't know all about them.  Or maybe save and then import some townie families from other towns to fill in when your town turns to all older folks.  It doesn't do much for story progression but at least you wouldn't wind up with a failed dynasty because of it.

[Ricalynn]

Dynasty and challenge rules state very clearly you can't add any extra families including EA made ones.

As for the original topic, there are ways to do this without using edit town which has been discussed in another thread about story progression.   You can move in males from around the neighborhood and have them have children with other townies.  If you play with Genies, genies can enscorcel sims which allows you to control them temporarily.  This would be a good way to also help the game along.


Another option is there are mods that help but they're not allowed in any of the challenges we have here on the forum but they do work for getting life back into your towns.

[ve1ocity]

In my current ID, I've had one of my sims being 'man around town' and having lots of out-of-wedlock nooboos-seven to be exact. What i noticed was that when the count increases more families with children and teens move in. All the new families who have moved in have children. My generation 2 is still young adult so I'm not sure if it will continue but will keep this thread updated.

[simlover16]

 My neighbor is like WAYYYYYYYYYY behind on the patches, so that explains it. I guess it was some patch around pets, maybe? I read somewhere that it's pets. Just another lousy lie, I guess.