I know there are story progression mods (I have to use them to have any kind of interactive game!) but it drives me nuts that I *have* to use one in order to get story progression that SHOULD be provided by the game. I love doing challenges on this forum but I always break the rule about no-mods (I never qualify for HOF) because I can't stand the EA all-sliders-centered face that is on every. Single. NPC. And once you get into later generations you either get random non-original townies that move in (occasionally) or the paperboy who looks surprisingly a lot like the babysitter with different hair color/eye color.
This is the face I see on every NPC. Almost all adopted children have this face. They might have a different skin/eye/hair color but they all have this face shape. Sometimes the weight slider will be touched, but other than that... it's all this face. I ended up tweaking her face in Create-A-Sim because I was aiming to grab unique genetics, not the centered-slider ones! So even if EA story progression wasn't fixed, if they just added a little variety of face sliders instead of THAT ONE I would be happy.
I use a different CC skin, but it looks more or less the same.
I find it extremely annoying that in my challenge files, I try so hard to extend the lives of original townies so that one of my later generations can marry them and give non-clone babies. Not only won't they produce, if they die they will be replaced by clones. I can't imagine myself doing the immortal dynasty now that I realize other dynasties give more freedom on avoiding clones. I am not someone who favors extreme sliders or monstrous looks, I actually love so called 'boring' pretty faces but I just hate THAT face now.
I also dislike the townies growing up in horrible clothes, the style can be discussed and I am not a great stylist either but at least I'd want to let the color match. They keep wearing that quantum power suit outfit now that I have the ITF bonus contents, even with ITF switched off. The clones never dress right, and I am too fed up with them I only restyle the original townies now.
BTW I wish the default working outfit can be changed, sometimes they are horribly matched in color and shoe style (part-time job, self-employed) and there isn't much I can do, but to recolor the default outfit.