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Original Poster
#1 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 3:51 AM
Default WCIF this mod for more unique appearances for game generated townies and NPCs?
Can someone please help me to locate the mod mentioned in this thread http://modthesims.info/t/405593 here? I'm unsure where the exact URL is, but I really wanted to be able to get the game to stop generating townies and NPCs with the same face, because it makes the experience of meeting new Sims rather repetitive if there are too many Sims with the same face. That's one thing I liked about the townies and NPCs that were created by the game developers.
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Scholar
#3 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 6:08 AM
I had found this tutorial that would probably help you out https://realsims3.weebly.com/how-to...-different.html.
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Original Poster
#4 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 6:15 AM
@ nitromom - I'm still not sure what precisely it is that I'm needing. Since there seem to be various bits and pieces that I can download. Yet I'm probably only looking for one bit of it. Also I want to keep story progression disabled to prevent playable Sims from moving out of their houses and to prevent them from moving out of the neighbourhood, because once that happens, those Sims cannot be recovered.

@ Squidconqueror - I'm taking a look at what you've posted right now. It looks rather handy so far. But are there any direct links to the mods that I need to download? I have difficulty in following what it is that I need to download.
Scholar
#5 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 6:41 AM
Nitromon posted the links.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 6:50 AM Last edited by igazor : 15th Sep 2018 at 7:01 AM.
There is no standalone fix (that I know of) for the genetics system in this game, which is what needs adjusting to fix never-ending pudding generation. That's why they are included as features of mods that do so much more whether this is wanted or otherwise, it's all very complex and inter-connected.

One solution is AwesomeMod. You don't have to run Awesome's version of story progression (called Story Mode) in order to get this feature but Awesome is a Core Mod and many of the things it does cannot be controlled or dialed back. It is one huge mod that includes two files, one for the mod itself and one for the user selection of options; it does come with player-controlled options but only a limited amount. There are no decisions to be made about which file(s) to download.

One solution is contained within NRaas StoryProgression. To extend the solution for total NPCs like Service/Role Sims, the SP Population add-on module is required in addition to the base mod. In this case, the player must accept SP's version of progression or else none of this has any effect and there is a learning curve involved. NRaas SP is not a Core Mod but it is also very large with many optional add-on modules, though almost infinitely customizable again once one gets past the learning curve.

Both mods have ways to limit how their versions of progression might impact some or all inactive households. At NRaas we call this Rotational Play. But this can't be controlled in such a manner if SP progression is not first embraced.
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Story+P...+Caste+Settings

If what is being asked for is absolutely none of that but one single, simple mod to alter the genetics of NPCs as they are spawned without all of the other trappings and none of the stuff that comes along with it, I'm afraid that really doesn't exist. The features of AwesomeMod have never been separable from the one Core Mod. In the case of NRaas SP, the system leverages the same altered genetics system that is used when pregnant resident sims give birth, so the programming from the base mod has to be there in order for this feature to function.
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Original Poster
#8 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 10:17 AM
I already have the NRaas mod so it would save me the trouble of having to add more mods. If such an option comes with the NRaas mod then I have no idea how to work that particular part of the mod.
Mad Poster
#9 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 2:58 PM
You already have NRaas StoryProgression and its SP Population module, but you are not running its form of progression? Or this has now changed from what you said prior?

For resident immigration, the genetics of the sims being spawned as new households of inactives arrive come from potentially three different places. To control the chances of each, SP's progression must be active and the immigration gauge must be some value >0 or else immigration is shut down and the options won't show up.
NRaas > SP > General Options > Enable Progression > True
NRaas > SP > General Options > Options:Lots > Options: Immigration/Emigration > Immigration Gauge > (some value greater than 0)

NRaas > SP > General Options > Options:Lots > Options: Immigration/Emigration > Chance of Bin Offspring > (default is 50)
This is the chance that an arriving sim's genetic parents are copied from a sim in the household bin, as viewed in Edit Town. To foster more genetic variety, seed the bin with households that have the more random attributes that you seek. Individual households can be exempted from such use with Immigration Disallow Bin by House on the same menu. To shut the option down entirely, set the Chance of Bin Offspring to 0.

NRaas > SP > General Options > Options:Lots > Options: Immigration/Emigration > Chance of Random Offspring > (default is 10)
This the "EA way" where random sims are generated temporarily to be the genetic parents of the newly arriving ones and leads to large helpings of zero-slider sims.

The chance of the third way is 100 - (the sum of the first two) and will use random sims already in town as the temporary genetic parents of the newly arriving sims. If you already have a world full of zero-slider sims, then this one will yield more of those. If you already have genetic variation among the population, then this source will yield more of that.

To cover the true NPCs, Service Sims for example,
NRaas > SP > General Options > Options:Sims > Options: Immigration/Emigration > Replace Service Sims with Immigrants (similar option for NPC Roommates)

Then the three sources for these sims' genetic parents and the other options open up just like with the Options:Lots menus. And this is where the SP Population module is required. In this case, the mod will replace already existing NPCs with the new variants not immediately but as it cycles through them.

Also with SP Population, you have the option of invoking SP's Advanced Genetics that allows for greater variation and skin blending. NRaas > SP > General Options > Options:Pregnancy > Advanced Genetics > True. Without Advanced Genetics on, EA's genetics are used in its place.

Final note, wherever I've mentioned the genetic makeup of these newly arriving or replacing sims, the "parents" referenced are temporary sims created behind the scenes from whichever of the three sources just so their genetics can be used, then they are discarded. These aren't real family parents that would show up on the sims' family trees. In the cases where sims already in town are being used for this purpose, we would think of the newly arriving ones as very distant, far off the family tree relations to the existing ones but so far off that they aren't really related like we would consider third or fourth cousins if we had them.
Lab Assistant
#10 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 3:31 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
The NRAAS SP is not the same as EA SP, it doesn't move anyone out of your neighborhood and you can prevent them from moving houses in your neighborhood.

Wish that statement was true, but it's not totally. In my current game, which is in Moonlight Falls, NRaas SP got rid of the EA premade paper delivery boy and girl and replaced them with new ones. Now instead of the EA premade ones, I have at least two new paper delivery boys and one paper delivery girl, all with some really bizarre names, but there may be more and I just didn't notice them.
Also in this same game, Durwoods got a baby boy, most likely adopted, since I didn't notice Serena to be pregnant, but when I checked the family again after a day, the baby was suddenly gone. True, the baby may still be somewhere in the system and may be adopted by another family, but if the baby was taken away by social service, shouldn't Zack and Zoe be taken away as well? Though I am happy they weren't since they are both very close friends with my Sims' kids and if things will go right, I hope Zack will hook up with Max once they'll age up
I dunno, but both of these cases seems very weird to me.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 15th Sep 2018 at 4:32 PM
Quote: Originally posted by peno
Wish that statement was true, but it's not totally. In my current game, which is in Moonlight Falls, NRaas SP got rid of the EA premade paper delivery boy and girl and replaced them with new ones. Now instead of the EA premade ones, I have at least two new paper delivery boys and one paper delivery girl, all with some really bizarre names, but there may be more and I just didn't notice them.
Also in this same game, Durwoods got a baby boy, most likely adopted, since I didn't notice Serena to be pregnant, but when I checked the family again after a day, the baby was suddenly gone. True, the baby may still be somewhere in the system and may be adopted by another family, but if the baby was taken away by social service, shouldn't Zack and Zoe be taken away as well? Though I am happy they weren't since they are both very close friends with my Sims' kids and if things will go right, I hope Zack will hook up with Max once they'll age up
I dunno, but both of these cases seems very weird to me.

When we say that NRaas SP does not allow for emigration (culling, removal of sims) from a world by default, we are referring to resident sims. Newspaper deliverers are Service Sims and therefore homeless NPCs and are always volatile. If they are allowed to age, then they will be replaced when they hit the teen stage (they may become babysitters or put to some other use). If SP with its SP Population module is instructed to "Replace Service Sims with Immigrants" as per the above, then they will be replaced for that reason. Or they may be replaced for no reason at all I guess, but they were never part of the resident population.

SP does not allow the removal of babies from a resident household unless there is a very good reason for it. The social worker scenario might have been a possibility although that would take the baby out of the game not give them to another household, or the baby might have died (this shouldn't really have happened), but as long as SP's progression remains enabled and EA's is not ever running, the baby should not have just disappeared like that. Even with SP's emigration arranged for, which is not easy to do and not likely to have been arranged by accident, the entire household might have emigrated perhaps but babies cannot do that on their own. Are you certain that you did not crash or quit without saving at some point and the adoption that may have happened the first time didn't happen on a re-play of the day in question?
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Original Poster
#13 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 7:46 AM
Quote: Originally posted by peno
Wish that statement was true, but it's not totally. In my current game, which is in Moonlight Falls, NRaas SP got rid of the EA premade paper delivery boy and girl and replaced them with new ones. Now instead of the EA premade ones, I have at least two new paper delivery boys and one paper delivery girl, all with some really bizarre names, but there may be more and I just didn't notice them.
Also in this same game, Durwoods got a baby boy, most likely adopted, since I didn't notice Serena to be pregnant, but when I checked the family again after a day, the baby was suddenly gone. True, the baby may still be somewhere in the system and may be adopted by another family, but if the baby was taken away by social service, shouldn't Zack and Zoe be taken away as well? Though I am happy they weren't since they are both very close friends with my Sims' kids and if things will go right, I hope Zack will hook up with Max once they'll age up
I dunno, but both of these cases seems very weird to me.

That happened to me too. I lost almost every single NPC in Moonlight Falls, which forced me to move the townies and NPCs into a household that I wished to keep. I unfortunately lost Sally Zeno which sucked because she was very close to Mara Nix who I was currently playing as. Both she and Sally were already elders so it made no sense to me that the game would delete her like that. I'm pretty sure NRaas was responsible because I didn't lose NPCs that were still alive until then. I'm considering copying her from an unplayed copy of Moonlight Falls, age her into an elder and put her into my saved copy of Moonlight Falls. Though it will be weird since all the Sims in Sally's generation are now deceased - with the exception of some fairies and vampires. And a couple of werewolves that at some point suffered from stuck aging.

I'll probably just revive her for the sake of preserving her grave but it means that her connections to the Nixs will be lost. Musa Maaz, Frank Renaldo, and Brett Hartz are the only default NPCs that died of old age allowing me to preserve their tombstones. I've preserved the tombstones of all the playable Sims that have already died, except the game did not produce tombstones for Doreen Caliente, Flora Goodfellow, and Pappy Wolff. Probably because they didn't know anyone in Mara Nix's household well enough for the game to bother keeping. Also the game didn't produce tombstones for Frida Goth, Olivia Goth, Samuel Goth, and Violet Slymer. Probably because they were already ghosts. But now I can't get them back. Maybe I should do what I'm considering doing with Sally Zeno.
Lab Assistant
#14 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 8:23 AM
Quote: Originally posted by igazor
When we say that NRaas SP does not allow for emigration (culling, removal of sims) from a world by default, we are referring to resident sims. Newspaper deliverers are Service Sims and therefore homeless NPCs and are always volatile. If they are allowed to age, then they will be replaced when they hit the teen stage (they may become babysitters or put to some other use). If SP with its SP Population module is instructed to "Replace Service Sims with Immigrants" as per the above, then they will be replaced for that reason. Or they may be replaced for no reason at all I guess, but they were never part of the resident population.

I did check that setting and it's on false. Hmm... I also checked Register settings but I didn't do anything with its settings for this game. I have the paper delivery pool set to two and when I looked at that I realised that I didn't see the mew paper delivery girl anywhere for quite some time either. I hope this new paper delivery boy will stay, since he just spend the night in my house and became friend with both of my Sim kids.
Quote: Originally posted by igazor
SP does not allow the removal of babies from a resident household unless there is a very good reason for it. The social worker scenario might have been a possibility although that would take the baby out of the game not give them to another household, or the baby might have died (this shouldn't really have happened), but as long as SP's progression remains enabled and EA's is not ever running, the baby should not have just disappeared like that. Even with SP's emigration arranged for, which is not easy to do and not likely to have been arranged by accident, the entire household might have emigrated perhaps but babies cannot do that on their own. Are you certain that you did not crash or quit without saving at some point and the adoption that may have happened the first time didn't happen on a re-play of the day in question?

I dunno if this may be related, but I just realised that shortly after the Durwoods got the baby, they moved to different house. Maybe that's related and the baby were lost (or more likely, forgotten) somewhere in the process of moving? Interestingly, when the move happened, Zack and Zoe were in my house on a birthday party for my family's baby. Maybe some kind of bug? BTW, Durwoods also adopted puppy and that one was moved without any problem, so I dunno what happened with their baby. But another baby that happened to be adopted in my town, which was adopted by the Goth ghosts, seems safe for now, but after this experience, I better keep watch for it.
Mad Poster
#15 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 8:52 AM Last edited by igazor : 16th Sep 2018 at 10:03 AM.
I don't know, maybe I had better find a better or more convincing way to say this. Homeless sims are volatile. SP does not protect them because they are not residents. They will sometimes stay in our games for their entire lives, being used for different purposes along the way, and sometimes they will not. If we want to maintain any kind of lasting relationship with the newspaper deliverer, mail carrier, babysitter, maid, the homeless co-workers (I've gotten surprise hurt by these disappearing too soon myself), the homeless Role Sim running a bar or cash register someplace, etc., then it is best to move them into a residential household of their own or with others thus making them proper town residents and, if they were Service Sims, then not in that position any longer.

Can't say what happened with the neighbor's baby I'm afraid, except that getting lost among the moving boxes is not something that is meant to happen with or without mods.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 10:39 AM
Maybe one of the ingredients to the differences we are seeing here is NRaas > SP > General Options > Options:Households > Manage Homeless. I play with this one on False because I don't want SP to "manage" my homeless, it keeps doing stuff to them that I would rather it didn't. And it will if on True, come to think of it, remove unassigned homeless sims from the game if the mod thinks they don't have any reason for being there. That shouldn't really apply to the service pool unless it becomes over-staffed, but bye-bye for example to the homeless festival booth workers when the season has just changed and the new one's festival booths aren't in place yet.
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Original Poster
#19 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 1:08 PM
Is there any way to prevent the mod from occasionally deleting all service NPCs from the game, especially the ones that have strong connections to the Sims that I'm playing as? It's rather annoying, and it's all because of that that I lost Sally Zeno. I'm going to have to revive her by moving her from a new copy of Moonlight Falls to the existing copy. But because of that, she'll be more than one generation behind. As all the regular Sims of her generation have died from old age.
Mad Poster
#20 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 6:37 PM
Quote: Originally posted by nitromon
Ah, I just checked, yes I have it set to true. So if I set it false, then homeless cannot move in with residents?

It's not so much that they cannot do that with the setting on False, it's that SP will stop pushing them to do so and will pretty much leave them alone. The game itself (I think, or it's one of the mods) will force homeless sims to join an existing household if they impregnate someone so that they will be instantiated, not in hibernation, when the baby is born and their genetics can be used. There may be other scenarios I am not thinking of that can cause this to happen. But they shouldn't be pushed into households strictly for social or romantic reasons.

Quote: Originally posted by C.Syde65
Is there any way to prevent the mod from occasionally deleting all service NPCs from the game, especially the ones that have strong connections to the Sims that I'm playing as? It's rather annoying, and it's all because of that that I lost Sally Zeno. I'm going to have to revive her by moving her from a new copy of Moonlight Falls to the existing copy. But because of that, she'll be more than one generation behind. As all the regular Sims of her generation have died from old age.

If you change SP's Manage the Homeless to False, then SP should leave them alone. Overwatch has a Clean Up Homeless function that is already on False by default. But we can't really stop the game itself from doing that. The thing is, we aren't supposed to be that engaged with the homeless population. Service and Role Sims exist merely for the comfort, convenience, and amusement of our playable sims and other residents. I know we as players always want things better and beyond what EA intended but in this case there are only so many things we can do to protect the homeless population from being interfered with.
Lab Assistant
#21 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 7:19 PM
I have Manage Homeless on false, yet I still had Patty and Suraya Younan, premade teenage homeless Sims in Moonlight Falls, to join the Hoppcraft household, yet no one else from that homeless family was pushed to any other household (though I've found out that Becky became a bartender and Denis Elixir store cashier). Since the adult Hoppcrafts are still happy couple and Alfred just recently aged from toddler to child, I doubt there is any romantic relationship here, even less impregnation. The game could be weird sometimes, I guess
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Original Poster
#22 Old 16th Sep 2018 at 11:53 PM
Though that doesn't seem to stop the game from purging the NPCs that are no longer useful for their intended purpose on every rare occasion. I'll have to bring back those NPCs that I wanted to keep and move them into a household so they won't be considered as NPCs anymore. I'll have to say that they were time travelling or something since all the Sims of their generation, minus some werewolves, fairies, and vampires are now dead. And I can't remember when they probably would have died, had they not been deleted. I tend to sort all the tombstones in chronological order of when each Sim died. I also lost a few game generated Sims in the process which I didn't want deleted. They were probably NPCs since all the townies are safe.
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Original Poster
#23 Old 17th Sep 2018 at 12:49 AM
And yeah, I currently haven't got either SP enabled. Do I have to enable NRaas' version of SP in order for the game to make Sims with more facial feature options available besides the vanilla face?

Also from what I'm seeing, the game is only using two different skin tones. The browner skin tone but with sliders set randomly for normal Sims, and the green skin tone for alien Sims. It would be nice if the game could use all the normal skin tones, and occasionally the abnormal ones.

Oh wait, looks like I do have to. But what are the consequences of having NRaas' SP enabled? I don't want the game to be subjected to any negative side effects.
Mad Poster
#24 Old 17th Sep 2018 at 5:28 AM Last edited by igazor : 17th Sep 2018 at 6:42 AM.
This is what NRaas SP does. Scroll past the lists of internal links to get to the readable part.
http://nraas.wikispaces.com/StoryProgression%20FAQ

I'm sorry, but I think we've kind of come full circle here. In order to get NRaas SP's version of genetics to have any impact, then SP's version of progression must be running. I did point this out from the beginning. The genetics system on births, newly arriving immigrant households, and NPCs are all a subset of progression. If the player views story progression (of any kind) generally as negative side effects, then this is not the mod to be using. Yes, one can negate the effects of progression one by one using the mod's almost infinite sets of controls but unless the player really is after that kind of challenge after a while doing so is going to be like playing whack-a-mole with the mod as every single thing the mod does beyond the genetics system it provides will likely be viewed as annoying.

Perhaps try AwesomeMod.

Again sorry if this seems harsh or I am reading too much into this thread, but it sounds like you are after a TS2 type of experience and will not settle for less. In that case, then my recommendation would be do not play TS3 if it's not going to provide the fun experience and levels of control that are required and if it will only seem to lead to aggravation. TS3 is a different game from TS2 and can only be transformed by mods to an extent to make it feel more like the latter in some ways, it can't be made to be entirely identical in its behavior.
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Original Poster
#25 Old 17th Sep 2018 at 7:13 AM
It's not that I don't enjoy playing TS3, and I find it a very fun experience, though TS2 does remain to be my favourite, I am currently going through a TS3 phase. And I am enjoying it. I just wanted to be able to get my townies and NPCs to look more unique. And I want to be able to do this without the risk of any Sims moving out of the neighbourhood where they can't be recovered.

I could try AwesomeMod but I had trouble understanding precisely what it is that I need to do to customise it to my liking. Currently I've been using NRaas to edit all the townies and NPCs when the game creates them. But it really would be nice for the game to be able to make more unique looking Sims without me having to do anything.
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