@Geezerbiker Without mods I don't think there is any way for NPC households to randomly have children. There are a couple of MCCC settings you might want to look at. The MC Pregnancy module allows you to set the chance of pregnancy for various age groups. I'm seeing the default value is 20 which seems kind of high to me-- like a 20% chance of pregnancy for all NPC couples for each check several times a week? Whoa... If you set that value to zero then there should be no random pregnancies in your game. Or at least try a smaller value to slow things down a bit.
MC Command Center > MC Pregnancy > Pregnant Sim Selection > Pregnancy Percentage
The MC Population module will allow homeless Sims to populate empty houses, I think even if you have that unchecked in your game options. Allow Homeless Move-in is enabled by default unless you disable it in your settings.
MC Command Center > MC Population > Moving Settings... > Allow Homeless Move-In
I'll ask around if there are any other settings that might affect these thing in your game but these two might be a good place to start.
What you are seeing is normal for MCCC's default settings.
Move in homeless sims: MCCC will override the gameplay setting even if it is unchecked. So if you don't want NPCs moving in, you need to shut it off in the MCCC option. Also the results vary if you have aging on or off for NPCs. If you play with it on, you can fill your houses up with babies that never age up. I play with NPC aging on so they will grow up and die.
In addition to what @RandomBuzziness has said, there are a couple more things you can do.
Under MC Command Center > MC Population > Moving Settings > Open Houses Default is 1. You can raise that number to reduce the number of lots that NPCs can be moved into. I use 2.
Under MC Command Center > MC Population > Moving Settings > Homeless Apartment Percent Default is 100. You can lower that to reduce the number of NPCs that move into the San Myshuno apartments. I don't know if will work for those in Evergreen Harbor. I have mine set at 25.
Under MC Command Center > MC Pregnancy > Offspring > Maximum Household Offspring Default is 3. Lower that to slow NPC family growth. I have mine set at 1. There is also a Maximum Offspring option also with a default of 3. But that one will affect your playable sims too so unless you don't want twins or triplets, leave that one alone. Or if you want your playables to have more multiple births, say quads, then you can raise it to 4. It doesn't affect how often a multiple birth happens, that is still random, It only allows you to decrease or increase the number of babies that can be born at one time. I learned this after lowering it to 1 and then noticed that I wasn't getting any twins anymore. It took me quite a while to figure out it was this that was causing it because I thought that it was only for NPCs, but apparently not. After I changed it back, I got twins and a set of triplets. And I still get twins every now and then.
Under MC Command Center > MC Pregnancy > Marriage Percentage Default varies by age group but YA and Adult is at 20. You can lower that to lower the number of NPC marriages, thus fewer kids in the game and slower overall NPC growth. I have mine set at 10.
One other thing. If you have the Vampires pack, don't make NPCs vampires because they will never grow old and die. Or if you do, delete them or cure them. If they marry and have babies, chances are that a good percentage of them will also be vampires. So you can fill up your game with NPC vampires if you play a save long enough. I did it in a test game to see if it could happen and proved to myself that it will happen. Took awhile I but filled up every house in WC, OS and Newcrest as well as Forgotten Hollow. I do use NPCs to get the create 5 vampires milestone, but I make a note of who got turned and once I get the aspiration completed, I go into Manage Household and delete them as I don't want NPC vampires in my game, just my playables.
Hope this helps.
Thanks you've helped me a lot. I didn't know all those settings were there until I went digging for them. I was only accessing The MCCC settings by clicking on a Sim not the computer... Anyway I think I have a handle on the problem now
I don't expect an answer to this... However it seems odd that MC Control Center was last updated quite awhile ago and it was only after the game was updated more recently that than that I started seeing the problem. It's odd but I suppose so are a lot of computer problems...
Thanx again,
Tony
Latest version of MCCC is 7.3.0 released August 7. Do you perhaps have an old version you haven't updated?
@Geezerbiker Version 7.3.0 is still fine to use but the newest version is 7.3.1 updated on August 11th. MCCC is something you definitely want to check for updates after every game patch. The notes from Deaderpool's patreon say that both 7.3.0 and 7.3.1 are all good for the August 18 game patch.
I was using 7.2.0. I didn't know it was out of date. I've since downloaded the updated version but I have too much going on today to do any gaming. I'll install the update and see how it goes over the weekend...
BTW, I only have the base game with the Family and Holiday add ons. I'm too cheap to pay for most of the expansion packs since I don't think the cost of them would equal that in enjoyment in game playing. Maybe at some point I'll give in and try one or 2 more but for now, no way...
Tony
The problem seems to be solved. No more unexpected pregnancies and also the maid doesn't quit her job when she gets a house. Previously, I would have to delete the maid Sim from time to time and let the game recreate her/him as needed. Now the maid is keeping her job. I've put her in a house to see if that changed and she's been in a house for 3 or 4 game days now and now change there. I was also having the same problem with the nanny and gardener but I had to start a new game because of over population and I haven't needed either of those yet.
The game still generates random homeless Sims at an alarming rate but since they're no longer being put into empty houses, they're easy to delete. I check for it every time I switch households...
Tony
