Questions About Specific Sims in the Manage Households Tab

@AalyahReed 

In short, what you want to do works.  I have done exactly what you want to do with every one of the sims you've mentioned and even a few other NPCs that I want to keep in my game in the same roles forever.  And I've even done a little more.  I made those that were not already immortal, immortal which is most of them and made them not age as well.  And I have edited most of them in CAS.

I keep all of them under the My Household tab in Manage Households as well as a few other NPC like the OR hermit, butlers and university professors.  As long as they are marked with the light green plumb bob icon in MH, they remain NPCs and keep their NPC roles.  You can edit them in CAS with no problem.  With few exceptions, if you ever move them into a house and enter the household in live mode, they will lose their NPC roles though and the game will make new sims for those roles.  And I found that if you merge some of them into a household with others, they will also lose their NPCs roles.  So just let them be as single sim households (or in the case of the HonB Mayor and her son, a 2 sim household) and never play them in live mode.  You can move them into a house and visit them, just don't play the household ever.

Keeping them under the My Household tab does keep them from being culled and used for some other roles.  They may still get grabbed for things like walkbys, jogging and gym patrons but otherwise they retain their NPC roles.  There is one thing though, if they are not immortal out of the box, they will still age and die and then new sims get generate to fill the NPCs roles.  They are not all the same though.  Father Winter is immortal from the start.  Butlers will not age but can still die by accidents.  Most of the others will age and die.  There is a way to stop that though if you use mods, specifically if you use MCCC.  You can give them flags to stop aging and make them immortal.  Which is what I have done for mine.  It can be done and it works to preserve those sims in your game forever.  And you can use the MCCC options on the fly at any time you see the sim out in the world.  

So, in the order you mentioned them, here's what I did.

HonB:  Kim, Mayor, Mayor's son, Michael Bell:  I gave them stop aging and immortal flags.  You don't have to do anything with Agatha or Agnes.  Those 2 are hidden and immortal.  You can't edit them in CAS.  For the Scotts, I did not realize they had NPC roles and because I always go into every household we get in new pack to make all the premades playable before I actually play in a new world to keep them from aging until I get around to them, I inadvertently caused them to lose their NPC roles as the bar owner by making them played and my game made new ones.  Didn't even realize what I'd done until quite a while later.  I liked the new couple owning the bar so I just let it be. The Scotts are just another family now. 

 RoM Sages:  Morgyn, Simeon, L. Fabia:  I gave them stop aging and immortal flags.  I made the mistake of combining them into a single household in one of my test games, and they never showed up at Magic AHQ again.  Thankfully, it was in a test game, not my main long term save.  Just leave them as single sim households.  I also have 3 other sages as well that the game made for a total of 6 where I did the same thing.  If you stay in Magic AHQ for a long time when you visit, you'll notice that they sort of work in shifts and after a certain amount of time, they will leave and be replaced by other Sages.  Stay there long enough and they will return.  It really is like a shift change at a factory.  One thing I found though, is giving the 2nd shift Sages a makeover in CAS doesn't do any good as they will always revert to however the game dressed them whenever they show up in Magic HQ.

IL Mermaids:  In this case, they are just like any other sim and they age and die.  They do not have NPC roles and never did.  There is nothing special about them.  They're just mermaids and they died one by one and I lost them all.  I was able to get them back by downloading them all from the Library and combining the households into one household of just mermaids.  Then my game grabbed them to be stall vendors since they didn't have careers.  And because they were stall vendors, they never showed up out in the world in Sulani as mermaids, only as stall vendors.  So I moved them into a house and gave them a regular career, moved them back to not in world, and made them unplayed.  Now they show up as mermaids doing mermaid things.  I did give them stop aging and immortal flags so I will always have them.

DU Professors:  I gave them stop aging and immortal flags.  I have 2 of them.  I gave them full makeovers and unlike the sages, they are wearing what I gave them in CAS whenever I see them. 

Father Winter:  Clement Frost.  FW is immortal from the start but it is possible to get him into a household via asking to move in, marry, etc. and the game will make a new FW and Clement becomes just like any other sim and loses the NPC role.  In my case,  for a while, I had made all the immortal sims mortal via an MCCC option so he died eventually.  The game made a new FW.  Several in fact.  But unlike Clement, the new ones are hidden and you can't edit them in CAS normally.  Eventually, I wanted Clement back.  So I tried something.  I created a new game and it gave me a new Clement in the Other tab of MH.  I took him to CAS and saved him to my library.  Then transferred him back to my main save.  Put him in a house, then immediately moved him out back into not in world without ever entering the household in live mode.  Crossed my fingers and the next Winterfest, he showed up as FW at the house I was playing.  So that can work, at least for him.

OR Hermit:  I just liked one of my hermits a lot and wanted her to be the one that always showed up.  But my game just created a new one every time I went to the Deep Woods even though the others were still there under Other in MH.  So, I tried something.  I made her immortal and deleted the others.  Since then, she's the only hermit I have and shows up in the Deep Woods every time now.  Exactly what I wanted.

Butlers:  All butlers have aging off when they are made by the game.  They can still die by accident though.  Mine keep dying by electrocution from trying to fix broken robovacs.  There is a current bug with them so they can't be repaired but the butlers will keep trying to repair them until it kills them.  After losing the third one that way, I made them immortal.  I also keep an eye on the robovacs and replace them or use the debug cheat to fix them when they break.  Other electronic items do the same thing too so you have to keep an eye out.   

Neighborhood Stories:  I have the stories off for the sims under the My Household tab of MH on for the Other tab.  That way, none of the sim in My Households, played or unplayed, are affected by the stories. 

Hope this helps.

@AalyahReed 

Mostly what @CGrant56 said!

My Sims occasionally marry RoM sages, and I've had them "move in" as roommates without breaking them. They're still in the Magic Realm, etc. Also sometimes the game assigns them jobs and this is apparently okay; Simeon is an arts critic in my current save, for example. I do edit them in CAS and I have also flagged them as immortal; I figure they're taking Potion of Rejuvenation regularly (but I can't make them without breaking them lol). I gave Morgyn new pronouns last night.  :D

MCCC sometimes puts the RoM sages into houses and this seems to be okay.  Othertimes it will break NPCs; it depends on the NPC.

I was dismayed when Neighborhood Stories killed Baby Ariel in my game because she's supposed to be Immortal, but thus far it's left the RoM sages, Agnes, and Agatha alone. Less because I'm attached to Baby Ariel--no offense, Baby Ariel--and more because it made me afraid that NS wasn't respecting the Immortal flag.  Then again, she doesn't have it, she has her own custom flag, so...

As for the Scotts, I used to use MCCC to get Sarah pregnant before NS and would also edit them, but I used MC CAS because I was very afraid of "breaking" her. I think I've just edited her in CAS since and it was fine.

@CGrant56 Thank you for replying - this is incredibly thorough, and I really appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions!

I like your idea to give some of the NPCs, like the Sages, immortal flags with MCCC to retain their role - I wouldn't have thought of that!

It's great to know I can edit them in CAS, and as long as I don't play them in live mode, they should be okay. I will make sure they have the light green Plumbob in My Households.

Thank you for the tip not to merge them (with the exception of the mermaids) - I wouldn't have thought that would be a problem, but now that I know that it is, I will avoid doing that.

I had read that the game sometimes spawns additional Sages to work in shifts - very interesting that editing the originals in CAS works, but editing the subsequent other Sages doesn't - how strange!

I had no idea about the bug with the robovacs - I shall definitely keep an eye on that one - I don't want my Sims or their butlers dying from trying to fix them.

So just to clarify, from what I understand: You keep all the NPCs you mentioned below under the My Households tab, with the exception of the Mermaids, who you temporarily housed, gave jobs, than moved out so they were "not in world" and put them back in the Other Households tab as unplayed? 

And if I were to decide to keep the mermaids mortal, should I keep them in My Households, or still in Other Households?

Also, It also sounds like you keep Father Winter "not in world" and put him in Other Households as unplayed, is that correct?

I haven't encountered the OR Hermit yet - I'm assuming he/she does not spawn until I visit Granite Falls?

Again, thank you so much for taking the time to explain all of this - it really helps!

-AalyahReed

@xochiquetzl_xkvn Thank you so much for replying!

It makes since to make the Sages immortal - I think I'll probably do that. 

I may eventually decide to play with the Scotts, at which point I realize that Sarah would lose her role as Pub Owner, but for now I want her running the pub.

It sounds like you have had success editing her through both MC CAS & regular CAS.

Quick Question: MC CAS allows you to click on the Sim and take them into CAS that way, right, rather than through Manage Households? So if I saw a Sim out-and-about and I wanted to edit them, I would click on them and use the MC Menu to pull them into CAS?

Again, thank you for taking the time to reply!

-AalyahReed

@AalyahReed Yes, or, if you have testing cheats on, you can just shift-click on a townie who’s out and about and choose to modify them in CAS that way. That’s what I usually do.

@AalyahReed 

I keep all of the sims I mentioned, including the mermaids and Father Winter, in My Households to protect them from being affected by the Neighborhood Stories.  Right now, all told, I have around 25 NPCs in My Households.  I've always kept them there, even before the Stories.  And the reason is pretty simple why I started doing that years ago, to protect them from me and from the MCCC story progression when I was using that.  Periodically, I will do an NPC purge and delete every sim in the Other tab of MH.  That way I don't accidently delete those I want around forever when I do that.  Purging the NPCs like that forces the game make new ones but depending of where I'm playing, it might take a while for the game to generate them.  I started doing that because I wanted to find out if I could force the game to use my played sims for most of the walkbys, gym patrons, etc. (Not the bartenders, stall vendors, etc.).  It's been partially successful but as the number of NPCs grows, the number my played sims I see out in the world when I go bowling, to bars, to the City Life festivals, etc. goes down and the NPCs sort of take over again. Then it's time for another purge.  Although, with NS, I may not have to anymore since it keeps killing them off (I think they might have overdone that one a bit).  

On the mermaids, under which tab you want to keep them is up to you.  It all depends on what you want to do with them.  I want to keep the original group in my game forever as they are.  So, I made them immortal and flagged to not age.  I keep them in My Households along with the rest of the NPCs that I want to keep forever.  I let mine die off once and missed them so I brought them back and decided that's not going to happen again.  While they were gone, the game did make new ones but I didn't like them (you know how awful looking some the game generated NPCs are, right?  😃) so I brought them back, gave them a makeover and I'm happy with that and intend to keep it that way.  

On the Sages, I did makeovers on the ones that were added, what I call the 2nd shift Sages.  If I see them out in one of the worlds, they are wearing what I gave them in CAS.  But at Magic HQ, they always revert to what they were wearing when they were generated even though those outfits are no longer on them in CAS.  The same goes for any NPC that gets generated when you are at Magic HQ.  I think that's due to a change made after RoM was released.  Originally, the game generated sims you saw at Magic HQ were dressed randomly using items from all packs and they just looked awful.  Then there was a change a short time later that started giving them random hats which was just as bad.  Another change and for the most part, NPCs you see there now are only wearing RoM CAS items for the most part.  And if you see another playable Spellcaster there (which is rare now) being used as an NPC, they aren't wearing their assigned outfits either, just a randomly generated RoM outfit.  My guess is that the last change forces all sims, except the active you are playing, to dress that way.

Like what happened for @xochiquetzl_xkvn MCCC story progression, when I had it active, grabbed Simeon and married him off and put him and his family on a lot.  By the time I caught it, he'd already had 2 kids. So I had to undo that.  Wasn't hard, just had to take the household to CAS, delete the wife and kids and them move him back to not in world in MH.  Btw, I did forget one thing on the Sages but @xochiquetzl_xkvn mentioned it and jogged my memory.  The Sages don't have jobs originally, but if you ask them about their career, the game will give them a random one.  In Simeon's case (everything happens to him for some reason), the Simeon in my main save is a bartender.  What surprises me is that he's the bartender in many of my bars all the time.  And he's still a Sage and shows up at Magic HQ.  I'm not going to mess with it since I want to keep him a Sage.

@xochiquetzl_xkvn  Baby Ariel - you might be better off in that the game killed her off for you.  She's been a problem since she got added because she has no last name and because she is a hidden sim, you can't normally edit her in CAS to fix it.  She causes a lot of errors or at least she used to.  I haven't seen a post concerning her for a while so it might have been fixed by now.  Not sure though.

Hope this helps.

@xochiquetzl_xkvn Thanks for clarifying! It's great that we can just click on the Townies & NPCs as we see them and fix their horrible outfits!

-AalyahReed

@CGrant56 Thank you for clarifying about where you keep the mermaids & Father Winter - Based on the info you provided, I plan on keeping them in My Households as well, just "not in world."

Periodic NPC purges sound like a good idea.

I have read a lot of complaints about the RoM Magic Realm situational outfit nightmare, and once I am done building my Save File, I plan on adding in a mod I found to try to help with that issue. I don't understand why EA thought situational outfits in the Magic Realm (or anywhere else, mind you) were a good idea. It seems like most players hate them, and their are countless mods to address the issue. I know MCCC has options to edit & control situational outfits, but unfortunately their isn't a category for RoM/The Magic Realm, so I had to look elsewhere.

It's interesting that asking a Sage about their job gives them some random job, but that they still keep their Sage role.

As to Baby Ariel, I've made her mortal with MCCC, but I didn't know that there had been issues with her due to how her name is structured. She does show up in the My Households tab, but I have not attempted to edit her yet.

Thanks again!

-AalyahReed

@AalyahReed   You're certainly welcome!

Many people, including me, don't like a lot of the situational outfits very much just because of how mismatched they are a lot of the time and just look awful.  It's been a complaint of many players since day one.  I spend a lot of time and effort in CAS dressing my sims and I don't like it when they don't wear the clothes that I chose for them when they get used as NPCs in some circumstances.  I just want them to look like I want them to look, that's all.  And I want them to show up out in the world instead of the game constantly creating new NPCs for no other purpose than to serve as background sims.  You can control it somewhat with MCCC by forcing sims to wear their own clothes for some things but not all like, as you said, the Sages and in the Magic Realm.  Other places too.   

The problems with Baby Ariel stems from the fact that she has no last name, only a first name.  If you give her a last name, as far as I know, the problems go away.  But she died in my main save a long time ago so it's not an issue for me and I don't intend to bring her back like I have other sims.

How we play the game is entirely up to us players.  No two people play the game exactly the same way.  Whatever works for one player, works for one player.  Others do it differently and it works for them.  I just described what I do just to let you know that what you were thinking about doing is possible and how to go about it if you haven't already figured out how to make it happen.  So, I'm glad you think it's helpful.

Hope this helps.   

Yeah, I also hate situational outfits. I recently installed Bienchen's mod to deal with them.

Without the mod:

1. Boy, what are you wearing? Because I've moved a family to Sulani (because the father graduated Uni and got a conservationist job), when I see the child in the world he's wearing a sarong with a mismatched open shirt. Okay, he lives there? but he just moved there, and also the color combo is UGLY and also it's just not the outfit I chose.

2. Girl, what are you wearing? My elegant classical musician is traipsing around town in a trucker hat, 70s unibrow shades, and mismatched clothing.

3. Mortimer Goth has been dressed as a hot dog for weeks... (because he was a walkby at GeekCon)

4. Boy, what are you wearing? The Sulani boy's older brother is wearing a durag and shades despite being kind of a farm boy. (We moved their chickens to Sulani, too.)

5. Girl, what are you wearing? It's summer, you can take off the Winterfest minidress and Santa hat...