[Base Game & Career Packs] Sims Lose Jobs

Sims losing their job/skills if added to your household has been part of the game since day 1. It was that way so that if you had asked sims to move in that had careers that were not available to the player like the librarian or postal worker, that a new one would generate and the sim you moved in would be a blank slate. The mechanic is working as they orginally intended, I am not sure it can be changed so easily. I know it can be frustrating, but you can always use cheats to get back the career level and relevant skill levels.

I didn't realize about the postal worker or librarian and that makes sense. I just know that is how it's always worked. Nothing is the same on the npc side as it is for played sims. 

Your idea is appealing in many ways for sure. But I imagine that the more stuff that needs to be retained by the game would be worse for our save files. Especially for something that only bothers a minority. Not saying your style and wants are not important so don't take that the wrong way. I am not a programmer so I am definitely not an authority about something like this. But I think in a game like this that less can be more for things that are not absolutely necessary and might not be widely used or missed. I can hear Spock in my head saying that ,"The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." 

Like I said though, I'm not a programmer so maybe this wouldn't be as big of a deal as I think when it comes to save files and such. In which case I am 100% with you and support your ideas because it would indeed be cool. 

Interesting...

Reading through your example and through the generation template I dug up, the sim should very much be in the Acting career and have at least 2 levels in Acting skill. Gig history is other thing, that stays with the main sim, but it's an interesting idea to have two sims do the same gig.

However, back to the careers and skills, I'll have to test it out, but for now, I suspect that the cause is the "My Households and Other Households" system. Sims in Other Households can get culled, so to prevent the save file taking too much room, skills and careers aren't usually kept with these sims. It's an issue though, I agree.

So I'd like to ask: the sim you invited to move in, were they generated or pre-made/created?

The reason this happens is also because the game "repurposes" Sims to avoid generating new ones.

If the game needs a Bartender, it checks for Sims with appropriate Mixology skill first and foremost. Then it checks for sims in the area- bartenders are, believe it or not, localized. Different worlds will try to have different bartenders made of sims who actually live there.

 If a Sim exists who fits the mold for a Bartender, it'll use them. If they don't, it will generate a new one.

To avoid endlessly generating sims, some filters for which sims can be given which roles have "repurpose terms". Soemtimes, they are set to "Don't Repurpose"- which means existing Sims cannot be modified to fit the job. sometimes they are allowed to repurpose- which means if no appropriate sims are found, "unimportant" Sims can be repurposed to fit the mold.

So the process here is

You join Acting career -> Game needs several roles filled -> All those roles have terms determining who can fill those roles and why -> This includes coworkers -> Coworker is generated -> Coworker is an "Unimportant" Sim, as in not a played sim or a special NPC or a living-in-the-worl Sim -> Coworker is allowed to be repurposed for other things as well, and their actual under-the-hood identity is thus considered fluid and not a key component of who they are.

If you go into manage worlds BEFORE moving this sim in, it's possible marking them as "played' will prevent this from happening on adding them to your household. I'm not sure on that. But doing that would prevent them from being repurposed in other situations, too. (Have you ever noticed vendors are never sims from your played households? This is why)

It's actually a really complex and IMO pretty elegantly handled system but it does have a few goofy side effects like this. That sim you ended up liking is meant to be a background character and isn't as rigidly kept track of as a result.

If you move them into a seperate household before moving them in with your sim, they will still have the same career,( I'm not sure about their job level.) I had a detective have an affair with a coworker and he fathered children with her. I then put her and child in their own house and she was still a detective and still worked with my sim. They have never lived together I just make him stay over at her house from time to time. 

If they lived together they wouldn't see each other at work any longer as you can only control one sim at work at a time

I do think your system of retaining career and gig data would make it way more enjoyable to play co-workers. It would be sweet if more than one sim can be controlled in an active career. What an awesome concept.  I wonder if that is possible for EA to do?