NPCs keep spawning [ Edited ]

[crinrict]

If you delete or merge, I can see why that would happen and that's by design I'd say.

Editing on the other hand ... that's the part I couldn't duplicate.

[unseenlarks]

hi @crinrict. what confuses me is why the game thinks that merging households is a cause for creating new ones--the number of Sims isn't changed, and no NPC roles are modified, right? it *might* make sense if i deleted a Sim with a role already assigned to them, although others that meet the requirements to replace them already exist and could be used instead.

in the past, i've deleted several NPC mixologists to test this. the game replaced them with a newly-generated one, or it chose a pre-existing NPC with a lower skill level. and both times, a Sim with a maxed mixologist skill was available. same behaviour when editing or merging them. i don't know what the pattern is or if this is even useful to report.

[unseenlarks]

okay, they *keep* spawning, even after me not having edited/deleted/merged/otherwise changed anyone for a few days.
the NPC roles are still filled by the same Sims, so i don't know why the game needs more, even as filler. i already have more than enough.

[simvasion]

I edit my townies a lot, but I've never seen any spawn to replace them while in Manage Worlds. In my game, new NPCs spawn only when I'm in Live mode playing a sim.

You might think that you have enough sims, but the game actually needs a lot of roles filled. For example, in my game, Perfect Balance Spa alone has 13 NPC employees, because the massage therapists and reflexologists are on several shifts.

Similarly, my game needs 48 different bartenders, because each bar needs at least three bartenders to cover the morning, afternoon and night shift, and I have a lot of bars.

I keep a spreadsheet of NPCs and their job roles and currently have 172 NPCs filling jobs that are needed in my game.

Also, there can be issues merging NPCs into households - some jobs are invalid if the sim is placed in a home, for example, Mailman. If you place the NPC mailman into a house, they will lose their job and need to be replaced with a new sim that's "currently not in world".

Other jobs like Gym Trainer and Librarian allow NPCs that live in unplayed households and moved into a home in the neighbourhood just fine.

Once my game filled with enough townies, I noticed that hardly any new ones spawned. The only ones that keep spawning unnecessarily are Bar Regulars. Whenever any of my sims visited a bar in the game, it would generate at least one completely new NPC townie bar visitor, instead of using anyone from the avaialble pool of townies.

[unseenlarks]

yes, i agree. they spawn *after* editing any of them. also, i do have enough bartenders, gym trainers and librarians already. i don't own Spa Day or anything else that would require extra NPCs. many of my Sims are unemployed so i don't need many co-workers either.

i also see the bar regulars spawning unnecessarily. a lot. i think that's the main issue... because i have more than enough NPCs of all ages already which don't even show up as walk-bys, anywhere. hm.

[crinrict]

NPCs spawning isn't a bug. The issue here was that they spawn simply after editing which I can't duplicate.

[alanmichael1]

I observed the same thing yesterday. After editing, deleting and adding some NPCs under "Manage Households", I got immediately 10 new elders. But I think this has always been so.

[crinrict]

What if you're JUST editing and not deleting ?

[unseenlarks]

sorry, i've tried again. and **they spawn *after* editing any of them**. i suppose this is how new bar/lounge regulars appear, too? even if there's already enough. maybe it's not a bug. i've paid more attention and you don't even have to exit the game proper to see it happen. just go back into household management after awhile.

(i get households with one elder, or one YA, the most. rarely families anymore.)

[unseenlarks]

hi @crinrict!

i've been at this again, because i've been very ill and at home. so as my flare-up allowed, i decided to write a detailed example of what keeps happening in my game.

today, i edited (only clothing) a new townie i saw on the "other" bin. she had no job, wasn't a co-worker, was never seen around town/venues, as a walk-by, etc.

i know this because i check the townie bin all the time (last time was yesterday, actually, LOL) and she wasn't there--today, she stood out immediately because she was really pretty, but also because she had a backwards cap on, which i'd never seen on a female NPC/townie before. anyway, i didn't like her outfit, so just for the sake of it, i changed it.

(previous to finding her today, i hadn't deleted/merged anyone from the "other" bin in a long time. only watched it, and saw them spawn which, like you said above, isn't a bug.)

but back to editing: after i changed her clothes and left CAS she, of course, was added to "my households" and marked with a heart. i removed it and she went back into the "other" bin. and when i looked there, i saw three more households had been generated. (i keep track of the last names).

i took one of *those* new Sims into CAS, and changed her outfit. after i saved her, i removed her from "my households" and then looked in the "other" bin. two new households were there.

so i took one of *those* newer ones into CAS, and changed her clothes and last name, all of the same steps as above. i checked the "other" bin, and saw, again, two new households.

i checked the names and, instead of editing any of them, i loaded my own household. i was hoping (i always do, LOL) that *maybe* i'd see any of the newly-generated ones at venues/walk-bys/etc.

as usual, that was not the case. this is what happened: when playing my household, i see yet two new Sims at a pub. i go back to "manage households" and see them in the "other" bin. editing one of them, this time, doesn't produce any new ones. i go back to my household and travel. at the library, i see the usual librarian and three Sims i have created myself. after a few Sim hours, i travel to the museum. every Sim who shows up is either one of mine, from other played households, or a regular NPC who's been around forever and knows most of my Sims. i have my Sim stay for quite a few hours and this pattern continues.

i never saw any of these townies the game generated--not even the pretty, cap-wearing one that was the first i edited. :'(

i don't know why this happens. i play in different venues at different hours. i see the same bartenders/waitresses/trainers/librarians/etc. every time. these newly-generated Sims are nowhere to be seen, anywhere.

sorry... this was *so* long and maybe not even useful...