Re: Restarting game saved paused
The default for the game on load into any lot is for the game to be active. It does not open paused. There are mods that do have the game paused when you load in though. MCCC has an option to do it and there's probably one or two others that will do it.
As far as the sims not being where you left them, that does still happen if you have a mod so the lot opens paused but not nearly as much as it does without.
As @jpkarlsen said, if you play another lot, then when you come back to that specific lot, sims can be almost anywhere but most often on the sidewalk in front of the house since the game uses played sims in NPC roles when you are playing other households. No way around it. It does not matter if you play with autonomy on or off, it still happens.
Hope this helps.
