How to make the game randomly generate certain types of townies/household?

The 2nd test was after the PS had updated the game. I made a new save, but created a sim with the exact same traits and aspiration as the one I had made for the previous save and also moved her into Sandtrap Flat in Oasis Springs. No premade households were deleted nor were any new households that were generated. I set Neighborhood Stories to allow for households to have a baby, but not adopt as they trend to go a bit overboard when that option is available, friendship and romance changes and move in and maybe also join a career - it has been a while 😳

• Day 1: Once again I had my sim stay all day at her lot, but talked to some of the sims that spawned outside near the house. However, this time it was practically only premades that spawned for several sim hours (11 premades appeared before a random townie was finally generated), the amount of activity seemed lower and the Welcome Wagon didn’t arrive until 5 or 7 pm (I had almost given up hope) and only consisted of Johnny Zest.
  • Checking unplayed households at the end of the day showed that 5 new random households had been generated:
    • 2 x 1 single YA female (judging from their outfits when they spawned near the house they were both pizza delivery sims even though I hadn’t made my sim order any)
    • 1 single adult male
    • 2 elders (husband and wife)
    • 1 adult male and teen son
• Day 2: I had my sim stay at homw until around noon just to try to replicate the previous test. Then I sent her to the park in Oasis Springs and later to the bar in Oasis Springs.
  • Unplayed households showed that 15 new households had been generated:
    • 12 x 1 single sim household (one of which was the bartender)
    • 2 x 1 single YA female with teen daughter and child son
    • 1 single adult female and teen son
• Day 3: Replicating the previous test, I sent my sim to Willow Creek sometime after noon. First the library, then the gym and finally the nightclub where she stayed until around 5 PM.
  • Checking unplayed household showed that 6 new households had been generated:
    • 6 x 1 single sim households (1 librarian, 2 bartenders, 1 thief, 1 police officer and 1 personal trainer)
• Total: 26 new households (2 children, 4 teens, 27 adults (YA, A and E))
  
  

Just to test a few more things, I decided to play for 1 additional day.

• Day 4: I downloaded a base game pool and playground from the gallery and placed them in Newcrest with no extra lot traits. My sim woke up a bit late due to getting back so late, so I had her go to the the pool at 1 PM. It has been a while since I did the test, but I think 2 or 3 adults arrived while she was there, 1 or 2 teens and 1 child. At 5 PM I sent her to the playground where she stayed until 8 PM. During that time only 2 children spawned - one of them was a new kid, I think, but can’t quite remember. Afterwards I made her go to the museum in Willow Creek. No other sims came to visit the museum while my sim was there (apparently it’s closed at that time of day/night, but some spawned on the street and paths around) so I had her hire a bartender and a pianist before sending her home around midnight.
  • Unplayed households showed that 3 new households had been generated: 
    • 1 single female adult (pianist)
    • 1 single female teen
    • 1 single YA female with 1 teen daughter and 1 child son

So definitely a lot fewer kids (children as well as teens) seem to spawn now and not a whole lot of variety in terms of the type of households that are generated when it’s only base game (I’ll come back to what I’ve been seeing in my test save on the PC in another post, but I can say this much, it has been showing a little more variety) unless playing for a lot longer would have some kind of different effect. However, I definitely think more variation ought to be something that should be present from the get go and not be pack dependent.

When and why they changed it, I don’t know. Maybe is was to try to limit save files becoming too large too quickly? Maybe to postpone the onset of culling? I adore the randomly generated townies as I find them fun and quirky and interesting and I enjoy finding out their traits, because they’re always a surprise whereas with the premades once you know, you know. But the culling that inevitably sets in is very frustrating, because it imposes the risk of losing some of my sims’ friends as well as ones I just simply find interesting to see walking around. Or maybe it’s because with so many packs now, the amount of premades already take up a lot of space? I think I have around 80 premade households in my game if not more and I don’t even have all of the packs. But the problem is if the tweaks are meant for players with almost all packs, but then negatively affects players with fewer packs… 🤷🏻‍♀️

I remember reading a few years back about the frustration some legacy players faced, because after a while there weren’t really any townies left, neither premade nor randomly generated, for their heirs to marry. So they used MCCC to help keep the gene pool going, however, that wasn’t an option if you play on console. So we got Neighborhood Stories, but it isn’t much good if the only types of households that are generated consist of a single female sim with a teenager daughter and a child son.