Put a "Stop Generating Random Townies" Button in the settings

[simsplayer818]

I'm on Xbox Series S as well and I play with ageing off.

I was having issues too with absolutely loads of townies being generated after cottage living, I know they were addressing that but I feel that it does still happen in CoL worlds.

I cull NPCs regularly and try and avoid the ones that I know from my retail stores, bars, stalls, etc. The other day I thought I'd accidentally deleted the Crumplebottoms though but luckily I hadn't.

I agree it would benefit from a button to enable/disable generation of townies. That way we could have more control over the townies we have. If we had a set number and saw the same ones all the time. It might make them feel like more a part of the game instead of a random annoyance in some cases. When it adds so many new ones it's often stranger after stranger. I try and keep a core group of them but randoms are constantly arriving.

[MamaSimmerPlays]

I like the idea of being able to cap the number of NPCs in the game. One of my longer-playing saves I counted over 400 NPCs - and I play with ageing off, so they were all floating around doing nothing useful at all. We could have a set number cap, or have a set of default numbers for low/medium/high to allow for adding more worlds or NPC roles when we buy new content. But the way if you go on a date to a pub the game will generate a dozen or more "pub regulars" who have no purpose in life other than hanging around in the pub hoping to catch your attention - that's a bit silly. Send a few off-duty vendors and buskers and even people with real jobs to hang out in the pub in the evening after work!

On the other hand if you go to one gym and then go to another gym and find the same pap standing around outside the second gym? Nope. Every gym should have its own pap in attendance, not just one single pap that stalks you to see if you've got famous enough yet to be worth harassing between one gym and the next.

[AryaKhaleesi]

I agree! I also think after High School Years it's really bad. I have to keep deleting them so often. Either put in the option to stop randomizing them or make so that they don't look terrible. I always put in my own Sims to help fill in some of the jobs and it works fine. I just hate seeing the towines in the world that look awful. 

[zensluv4real]

I agree and it seems like a lot of players would like this issue sorted out by the Devs. I have tons of unemployed NPCs in my game yet the game keeps generating new ones for each new mixologist, librarian, etc. Why not pull first from available unemployed Sims before generating a new townie? Then the game would only be generating new townies when there aren't enough NPCs already in game. I get that a new librarian position might require 2-3 Sims to fil that role (8 hour shifts, right?)? Then it would be nice to edit those Sims in CAS to look and dress how we want them to, and then they stay hired in that role as long as they live. 

[babuchas01]

The "generate random NPC" would not be necessary if it the game was properly designed. If i have 200 unemployed sims already in my game, why does the game generate a new horrendous random NPC to fill a mixologist job? Why on earth does the game not use one of my hundreds of unemployed sims to do that job? If i already have 20 DJ NPC in my game, why does the game generate a new one every single time my sims go to a nightclub? Use one of the already existing sims! Random sims to hang out on bars?! Why!? I have 400 sims in my game, use some of those instead of generating more and more new useless horrendous NPCs!

It is a horrible lazy design, completely unnecessary if they had programed it well. 

[xochiquetzl_xkvn]

So, this is a known thing. The game needs random Sims to fill NPC jobs. There are roles that aren't playable jobs, and for whatever reason the game generates a new Sim for those nonplayable jobs rather than using, say, Bob Pancakes as your stall vendor. (Eliza seems to show up a lot in the science career in my saves, though, for some reason.)

There are a couple of things that people recommend, but they're all mods.

1. There's a mod that is behind a permanent paywall that people frequently recommend but I'm going to not do that because I've never used it--I don't use permanent paywall mods. You can find it if you want.

2. MC Command Center has a feature that imports random townies from your tray. I use this a lot, and semi-regularly go to the gallery and download cute Sims to spawn in as townies. This completely ignores their skills and traits, though; it just uses their appearance. This is mostly good enough for my purposes, as I just don't want a lot of hideous fashion disasters walking around my game. You can also go out of your way to download diverse Sims to put in your tray, and I highly recommend this as well. The game doesn't always do the best job of generating minority Sims, in my opinion.

3. Zero has a mod called "Assign NPC Role" and I've experimented with this. Once you do this you can't play them, of course, but it does work. I created Sims (well, tray Sims, see above) and assigned them NPC roles in the acting career, and when my actress showed up on set they were the director, producer, etc. Then I went to the park and my assigned gardener showed up to garden there. I mean, it's hilarious that Guillermo de la Cruz from What We Do in the Shadows always ends up the costume guy on set and Parker from Leverage always ends up the gardener, but... This might be more than you want to do, but I did it as part of setting up my starter save. It's really nice that the mother of one of my townie teens is an NPC gardener, and I enjoyed setting up a household with a Nanny mom and a DJ Headliner son...

Between 2 and 3, I'm mostly satisfied. If someone is generated in that's too hideous, I just delete them and let MCCC spawn in someone from my tray.

Sadly, for console players, I think you would have to just give fashion makeovers to all those Sims as they spawn in, yikes.

[feb0469d636b2f81]

Changing the way townies are generated should be priority 1 for the devs. It is INSANE that we get hundreds of randos. Just use the same townies for these roles!!! Or better yet, just NPC's! They cause the game too lag even on a high gaming PC. The way the devs design it IS the bug.

[ItsNaviana]

I'm on one of my sims kicks lately, but I'm about to quit due to the townies. I always end up forgetting how annoying they are. I decided I wanted to play strangerville again, but the game spawns SO MANY unnecessary townies. The game already generated enough scientists, military, conspiracy peeps. Why does the game continue to spawn more? I have about 20+ of each strangerville townie. Why doesn't the game reuse the already generated townies, it's so frustrating.

[ItsNaviana]

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 1.98.158.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? Everything minus most kits
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Play the game for a few sims day and count newly created homeless households
What happens when the bug occurs? Game endlessly generates townies
What do you expect to see? The game reuse generated townies for their existing roles and only generate new townies when absolutely necessary. (example: if 8 Strangerville scientists already exist, don't generate more)
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Neutral/Not Sure 

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I last played the sims somewhere around the release of cottage living. After that I took a long break that I am now returning from. I decided I'd replay Strangerville and this is when i noticed my issue.

The game seems to endlessly generate townies whenever one is needed for a situation. Having played an in game sim week, the game had generated about 15+ of each Strongerville role. Even though the game has already generated that many scientists, military, and conspiracy sims, the game doesn't seem to reuse/respawn them and makes a brand-new townie when the game needs to fill a roll. I mentioned above that I last played when cottage living came out, as I don't recall this being an issue then. During that time I was also playing jungle adventure and I don't recall the game constantly making new local townies for that.

Having so many sims filling up the non-played household tab has become frustrating, and I hope something can be done to limit the amount of needed townies

[simsplayer818]

@ItsNaviana I cull them about once a week. I weed it down to single figures, at least under 100 and also give some of the more randomly attired ones a glow up, if they have become friends of any of my played Sims or if I've got them in stores or food stalls, uni groups for example.
It's amazing how they respawn though! But I'm quite ruthless with the old delete button. Take that, person in short shorts, ski mask and eyeball ring... delete! Then I play a festival and there seems to be loads more of them. I didn't mind the "fill empty homes" game option though, but that seemed to vanish quite some time ago.
I'm on Console so can't use mods.