[ARCHIVED] Game-generated townies are all same household structure

Okay, so not same sex parents then. Single mother overdose, it is. Doesn't really make it much better. I want all kind of family structures.

Like a dog with a bone I don't want to let this one go. It has been in the game since the release. What I have observed is that once starting live mode in a new game the first automatic generation of townies produces a good variety of sims in age, gender and family structure with both male and female children being created and two parent families. The game seems to produce new townie families every time there is an age up cycle of the town's population. The first time there is an age up the game reverts to creating these single mother households with a teenage daughter and boy child. The familes are almost always dark skinned with dark hair with occasionally the daughter or boy having lighter skin and lighter hair.

There is a hot topic about a bug associated with small eyed and square jawed men whose features get changed when they age up. A lot of people are confusing that bug with they way the game randomizes townies. The complaint is that all townies are getting the small eyes and square jaws. Play the game long enough and all the townies look like clones. The issue here is the game randomizer and how it creates townies. The point is that the randomizer doesn't work. It doesn't randomize. It gets stuck on dark hair and dark skin. It almost never creates any blonds, red heads or light brown hair. It gets stuck with the small eyes and square jaws features when creating townies. And it gets stuck creating this single family structure.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v481/Barbara917/TheSims4/Townies.jpg

OK, this is happening in my game. I just thought it was crazy that I had not seen 1 girl child generated (unless it was in a played household). But I am getting the mother, teen daughter, boy child theme in every unplayed household (other than tons of single Sims) I see in the world list. I'm also seeing the diversity within these families that has been remarked about.

However, I'm not sure the gameplaying approach is making the difference here. In the old world I played a bit legacy-style. Then I started a new world, playing the Friends characters, and hopping around between 4 households for a few Sim weeks before allowing them to start families. And this not-so-random family theme has been occurring in both of these neighborhoods.

Here's a screenshot from my game. Coincidence?

I am having the exact same issue. I'm really surprised this hasn't been fixed yet because it's a pretty major issue in my opinion. It's very really jarring not to have any female children or teens walking around, and the complete absense of any fathers. I've been starting to generate my own townie families to even things out, but I really shouldn't have to do that. It's a lot of effort for what would probably be an easy fix on EA's part.

I have noticed the dark hair/skin tendencies in this particular family type too. Here's a screenshot. I'm using some CC (but no mods) and I've gone and edited most of their clothing and hair (because townies have awful fashion sense) and the sons in the family have mostly aged up since I've been playing, but it's still very obvious what's going on here.

I'll also note that I started out with a single young adult female sim for the legacy challenge. 

There is at least one other thread detailing this, and many people (myself included) are experiencing the same issue. What you are seeing is not families made of two female adults and one male child, but one female adult, one female teen, and one male child. In other words, LOTS of single mothers in the homeless pool. And yes, the women are pretty much always dark-skinned, while the male child is generally much paler. I personally wouldn't mind a few families with this particular template in the homeless bin, but when it's pretty much all of them, you know something is borked. Here's hoping for a fix from either EA or some clever modder, because when my sim family finally starts having male children (3 girls so far!) they're going to have a hard time finding a mate from the townie pool!

@kamb64 Merged with existing thread.

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@Brimmely wrote:

I am having the exact same issue. I'm really surprised this hasn't been fixed yet because it's a pretty major issue in my opinion. It's very really jarring not to have any female children or teens walking around, and the complete absense of any fathers. I've been starting to generate my own townie families to even things out, but I really shouldn't have to do that. It's a lot of effort for what would probably be an easy fix on EA's part.

I have noticed the dark hair/skin tendencies in this particular family type too. Here's a screenshot. I'm using some CC (but no mods) and I've gone and edited most of their clothing and hair (because townies have awful fashion sense) and the sons in the family have mostly aged up since I've been playing, but it's still very obvious what's going on here.

I'll also note that I started out with a single young adult female sim for the legacy challenge. 

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I personally wouldn't say that it would be an easy fix. Bug fixing is rarely easy, and I suspect that what they're trying to do with the random generation is very complicated, which makes it all the harder to fix. Trust me, I've done programming, and often you find that even things that would seem simple at first tend to get complicated.

That said, I do sympathise with your frustration. Best of luck getting this fixed soon.

(Sorry I don't have any more info on this issue)

@luthienrising Is this still a problem for you or did it get better ?

I haven't had any new townie households created since the most recent patch. Not even when I took Sim kids to the park. I'll pop back here if that changes!