Hey guys, I have a tricky question. I ran into such a problem in my game: I have a family that I play, and one of the members of this family has a child with an unplayed sim. Then the unplayed sim dies, and he is culled from the family tree of the played family. Also I’ve noticed that if I play one sim from an unplayed family, and he/she dies, then in a while this sim gets culled. Is that because the rest of the family is unplayed? To summarize this all, what to do in order for the family tree not to be culled? Does all the family members need to be “played” at all times? I still don’t understand how this works;( Thank you! Hope you can understand what I wrote here😉))

Hey, I don’t think you understood my question, but thank you so much for taking your time and giving me all this information! I’m trying to figure out how the culling process works, and how the played vs unplayed sims get culled? Is it enough for let’s say one sim from a unplayed family to be played in order for all the unplayed sims to be in the family tree and not get culled from it?

To expand on what @Psychotps wrote. When a Sim dies and becomes a ghost it is no longer considered played and will eventually be culled.The Tombstone/Urn has three interactions:Mourn: Will decrease the Sims mourning periodRelease to Netherworld: The ghost is immediately culled.Strengthen bond..: Which will delay culling.Not all options are immediately available. Kids will only have mourn available.You may also befriend the Ghost and add it to the family at which point it again becomes played.

@justyniaok1 Did he get culled after he was dead? If so, please refer to the post where @jpkarlsen (comment #10) explained what happens in this regard after death. 🤔Edit: Just curious... Your culled sim is not blacked out, right, like in this bug report? https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/NEEDS-INPUT-Sims-in-Family-Tree-Disappearing/m-p/7287642#M80659

Households that you've favourited in Household Manager will not be culled, no matter if you have played them or not.

@SheriGR He did get culled after death. Thank you for the link, i'll read it.

Culling Questions | EA Forums

13 Replies

SheriGR
Hero
7 years ago
@justyniaok1 Personally, I play with aging off for played and non-played sims. Mine all age up when I have them do it. Some people play one active household per game save to have more control. You can adjust the aging settings in options. You can turn aging off or on for played and for unplayed households in any combination you like.

As far as the child you lost from the family tree, you could try to roll back to a previous save to when they were still there. For future reference, keeping backups of your game and saving sims/homes, etc. to hour library for safekeeping is a good practice. I will add a few links below that may help. Please let us know if you have additional questions:
Rotational play: https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/tutorials/rotational-play.php
Retrieve previous save or backup your game: https://sims4.crinrict.com/eng/2014/09/save-games/
Save to your library (households, rooms, lots): https://www.carls-sims-4-guide.com/forum/index.php?topic=26324.msg439569#msg439569
justyniaok1
7 years ago
Hey,
I don’t think you understood my question, but thank you so much for taking your time and giving me all this information!
I’m trying to figure out how the culling process works, and how the played vs unplayed sims get culled?
Is it enough for let’s say one sim from a unplayed family to be played in order for all the unplayed sims to be in the family tree and not get culled from it?
SheriGR
Hero
7 years ago
@justyniaok1 As far as I understand it, if you play a sim household (all sims are in a 'household', even if it's just a household of one), it is moved to your 'played/favorite households' (and has a solid blue heart in households rather than an empty heart), and that the households in your 'played/favorite households' do not get culled. If any sims gets culled it will be from the unplayed households. Please refer to this article for more information about sim culling and relationship culling: https://sims4.crinrict.com/en/2016/06/culling-what-is-it-and-what-does-it-do/
Psychotps
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
@justyniaok1 @SheriGR is right.

But I think you might be a little confused as to how "Played" and "Unplayed" works. The "Played" tag refers to the household, not the individual sims. If you play a house, the entire household will be tagged as "Played".

If you play any household, even for a moment, the entire household will be tagged as "Played". Now this is different than "Favorite" households.

Open up the household manager from the neighborhood screen. "Played" households will be the ones with the bright-green plumbob. The Favorites will be the ones with the solid heart.

I believe the ones tagged as "played" will never be culled.

Since families can be in different households, if one is played and one not, the one that's not tagged as "played" could possibly be culled.

The best thing to do would be, every time you move a family member out, go and play them for a moment after moving them out. This will tag the new household as "Played" and prevent them from being culled.
justyniaok1
7 years ago
@Psychotps Thank you so much for your respond! I have another question on the topic, maybe you can help with this one too.
I have a family that is "played" one of the sim (SIM A) marries an "unplayed" sim (SIM B), who now becomes played. SIM B has a whole unplayed family that I did not make played- they are NPC.
So these two sims live together have children, and then SIM B dies of old age, and he gets culled.
Question: What was I doing wrong? Did he get culled because he still had part of his family unplayed?
SqueamishNerd
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
Households that you've favourited in Household Manager will not be culled, no matter if you have played them or not.
Psychotps
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
@SqueamishNerd If that's the case, then that will work also. Instead of going and playing a moved-out household, just favorite them. Thanks! Personally, if I was playing a household and moved a family member out, I'd rather have them tagged as "Played" rather than just "Favorited" though. Played has other benefits.

@justyniaok1 Ok, Let's look at it like this...

SimA is a member of HouseholdA
SimB is a member of HouseholdB

If SimA romances and marries SimB, and you move SimB in with SimA, then SimB is now a member of HousholdA and not HouseholdB. (A sim cannot be a member of two households at the same time)

Since you were playing SimA/HouseholdA, HouseholdA will be tagged as Played. If you never played HouseholdB, then HouseholdB will never be tagged as played. You have to play it before it can be tagged as "Played".

If SimB dies and gets culled, it was likely because he was a ghost. I'm not really sure how it works, but I thought ghosts were automatically culled by the game at some point. I wouldn't expect it would be the same for "played" ghosts. I thought there was an option to "strengthen" a ghosts connection to the world?

I don't play with ghosts very often at all.
SheriGR
Hero
7 years ago
@justyniaok1 If Sim B died of old age it sounds like he never was culled? Are you saying that he was culled from the family tree? Or did you possibly move the household into the library and place them into a new save? When you move a household into the library the only part of their family tree that remains is the household members that were with them when they were moved into the library. If it is not one of these circumstances please clarify. Thank you!
SheriGR ☕ – I play on Mac, no Mods or CC, & backup daily. I don’t work for EA.
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jpkarlsen
Hero (Retired)
7 years ago
To expand on what @Psychotps wrote. When a Sim dies and becomes a ghost it is no longer considered played and will eventually be culled.
The Tombstone/Urn has three interactions:
Mourn: Will decrease the Sims mourning period
Release to Netherworld: The ghost is immediately culled.
Strengthen bond..: Which will delay culling.
Not all options are immediately available. Kids will only have mourn available.
You may also befriend the Ghost and add it to the family at which point it again becomes played.
Psychotps
Seasoned Ace
7 years ago
@jpkarlsen Interesting, so when a sim dies, it's removed from the household? If so, that would explain why it becomes "unplayed" as it's no longer a member of the played household and can then be culled.

If you either build a relationship or already have one with the deceased, you can invite them BACK into the household, and then it's governed by the "played" tag and won't be culled.

Very good to know!