Forcing Story Progression

[Chuckles_82]

Can anyone who is more familiar with how story progression works tell me how I can force my game to progress faster? Without actually cheating or using mods. I like mods, but can't use them in a dynasty or other challenge. Previously I have never turned story progression off, but once I switched it off (and then back on again) new sims never move into town. Mostly I want new families to move into town, but if children grew up and moved into their own place, that would be good too.

[KrispyNickyB]

Well if you aren't playing any type of challenge just go to Edit Town. Go into the houses you want use "testingcheatsenabled true" then click on the sim and "trigger age transition" this will age them up. You can also make families and put them into empty houses in the town.

[Chuckles_82]

The trouble is that I am playing a challenge, of sorts, and can't do that. I want a way to force the game to bring in more sims. I can cake up sims and kill them off, but the game isn't bringing in more.

[MoonsAreBlue]

I would love to find a "legit" way to do this, but I don't know of any. The only thing I can think of that might help is to have your sim read the newspaper everyday. The newspaper will inform you if a new family moves in, but I don't know if reading the paper will spawn families. It's a possibility though, and something I hope someone can confirm or deny.

[KrispyNickyB]

Story Progression should be causing something to happen. Read the newspaper like MoonsAreBlue says. Let us know if it says anyone moves away or moves in. Also, have you checked to make sure your sims are aging? If you have that bug it might be messing with SP.

[TheCub]

You could try getting a new job. If there aren't enough sims in your new career, then story progression might move new sims into town so they can be your coworkers.

[Chuckles_82]

I'll try that. That was my next step in testing out how to get more sims. Usually they don't move in, but fingers crossed it works! I'm going to send my sim on a rabbit hole rampage! I'll post my results when I'm done. In the meantime, if anyone else has ideas, feel free to share! Or if you can explain how the SP code actually works, it might shed some light on how to make it work in our favour.

[Pam]

Is it happening in more than one game file?  You've restarted the game and your computer?  Maybe try turning Story Progression off for a little while, then turn it back on.

[Frey]

Hmm, I'm not sure I got it right: yoy think your Story Progression is kind of broken? Or you just want it to progress faster? Sorry, my english betrays me sometimes 

Anyway, if your Story Progression is broken, what about doing a factory reset? If you save everything up, do the reset and then put everything back, you shouldn't lose any progress from your challenge save file and it might fix the issue. I'm just guessing here, but doing this has fixed other glitches like this for me before so it would be a good idea to give it a try.

[Chuckles_82]

I've tried all the usual things - it seems only partly broken. In another game file, sims moved in with other sims or moved house, but again, no new sims moved into town.

[Pam]

I've tried all the usual things - it seems only partly broken. In another game file, sims moved in with other sims or moved house, but again, no new sims moved into town.

How long (in Sim time) is passing with no new families?  Also, exactly how do you determine that nobody has come to town?

[Chuckles_82]

By checking a) the newspaper; and b) edit town. In the 10 weeks from my previous game, no new sims came to the town - AP in this case. I'm playing SSV now, and there used to be new families would move in within the first 3 days. Now, none. I'm not sure if it started with a patch or what, but I have only worlds added to this folder - no other store content, and certainly no CC.

[MoMoll]

I don't know what your challenge is; but, if you still have some of the library sims provided by EA with each expansion, you could go into Edit Town and just add a few of those generic families.

[BellaClo]

If I understand your problem correctly, you mean that ever since you started practicing for the Clones challenge and turned story progression off (for the 1st time ever), you think that SP doesn't work anymore (or not completely) when you turn the option back on? Just as if the toggle on/off button in the options panel is broken? This was a bug at the release of the game but one that has been fixed for long.

Does this happen in all your saves? If you have several Sims 3 user folders, does it happen in all of them (that could mean a "broken" options.ini file)? Does it happen only in existing saves or in fresh new one too? Does it happen in folders where you have no additional content installed? (there are "premium" items in store worlds, maybe they conflict with each other?)

For the coworkers in RH, have several Sims take jobs in different RH and use the Meet coworkers tone (to force the game to assign them) until you get the pop up that your Sims has met all his coworkers. Then switch to another RH and repeat. Yet, I think that the job/coworkers engine is not part of the Story Progression per se.

You can also try to plop lots with objects that require (resident) Sims:
Registers (Consignment shop, pet shop, WA shops)
Stylist from the Salon lot.

I think that mixologists, bouncers and tatoo artists are always homeless, so it wouldn't help here.

Another idea: delete all the living families and do the same again (coworkers, registers, stylists). With no living souls lefts in your town, the game is forced to spawn new ones. If nothing happens, you'll now for sure that your story progression is broken. If this happens in all your saves and Sims 3 folders, with or without store content, then the only thing left is to reinstall the game.

Good luck with your troubleshooting!

[samoht04]

Chuckles, I think EA's Story Progression works with Numbers not Age, Gender, Career and Fetility etc. So even if 80% of your Population was Elders it wouldn't speed up their deaths as the numbers might still be under. However Elders are not a great option if you want your Sims Friends or Spouses to be around for a while. I get this all the time, I've just had this in my Dynasty and I'm coming out of the Barren Period now, as the Original Townies are starting to die off as they reach that minimum 90 Days. Some new families are starting to appear as well as more and more notifications pop-up.