Where do people come from?

[Kreathyr]

The question sounds stupid in my head when typing, but anyway...
I'm a fairly new player (2 weeks tomorrow  ) and have noticed some nice features already.

One thing I'm curious about though, where do sims come from.
Of course, I know how making babies works  , but In the game you meet a lot of NPC sims.
Where do these people come from?

From what I've counted there are more people in game then there are houses/lots avaliable. (might be mistaken here)

Also, I've read the post about the legacy challenge and that raised a similar question.
When you progress, will npc's automatically get children of their own? Or will new people be ramdomly moving in to the neighborhood?

Thanks in advance,

Kreathyr

[Pam]

Hi Kreathyr.

The game is supposed to bring new people to town randomly just to have new characters.  And sometimes over long periods of time (like the generations of a legacy), the town will sort of die off and you have to re-populate it.  And sometimes there are people I can't find in town, like the service providers.  My Sims are able to make a phone call to the maid, but can't necessarily find where he/she lives.  I had a burglar once that I was trying to find in town and never could.  So, yes, I think there may be more people to interact with than you have houses for.

[JohnnyDiscard]

I "followed" the magician Sim, Willow, from my house back to her home.  Or rather, I tried to.  I paused the game, re-centered the camera, repeat ad nauseam.  Her car eventually stopped in front of an empty house and she walked up to the door and vanished.  My mailman did the same thing.  These Sims are "homeless" and only exist when they are out and about.  Female "homeless" Sims cannot try for baby.

I needed to mock a burglar, and it took forever because she did not have a home either.  I eventually came across her in the park, which is where I've seen other "homeless" Sims.

[Pam]

I tried to track down a burglar the same way, Johnny.  The same thing happened with disappearing in front of a house.  My Sim was able to call him on the phone and invite him over so she could beat him up (I was so mad that he kept burglarizing my family), but after the first time he wouldn't come over anymore.  Lol.  Never did track him down.  Then finally, when he broke in again and the police got him, the husband let him go.  That particular thief was so thankful that he never came back.  Unfortunately, others did.

[Kreathyr]

So you won't see any (new) offspring from the original inhabitants?

[Pam]

Well, I think you do see offspring of original inhabitants.  I also think that EA is plugging in updates regularly that are making improvements to the gameplay experience.  I've noticed new things in the game that seem to be improvements.  I have a third generation family and I haven't lost any townies that I know of.  Hopefully EA is making it better for us.

[Kreathyr]

Ok
It would be nice to see the kids of my sims getting to know the children of their friends.
Maybe even grow up together.

[Pam]

Children can get to know other children at school.  While they are away for school, select "Meet New Friends" or "Talk to Friends" on the upper left action box.  They'll make friends and even have after school visits.  It's a good way to make a pool of friends that are around the same age for future marriage prospects.

[bshag]

I've been playing since the game came out and I'm only on my third generation...too sentimental I guess.  Anywho, I've had a situation where most of the original townies (non-NPC) were dying out as most of my sims were friends with them.  This worried me as I had been reading over at the sims3 forum where ppl's game towns were becoming deserted.  Then I started seeing and meeting totally new townies of whose last names I was unfamiliar with.  You play this game as much as I have and believe me, you recognize most of them.    I was very glad to see the game "generating" new ppl. 

[Pam]

I've noticed the same thing recently.  There seems to be new people that I haven't had to add to the town myself.  Hopefully this issue is beginning to be resolved with updates and such.