Anyone know how the game picks which sims visit community lots?

I'm curious about this too. I noticed when visting the gym I usually see Bella Goth, Don Lothario, and any sims I've created that work out frequently.

I know some lots spawn more people of certain age groups than others. For example, Cafés and Lounges tend to have more Adults and sometimes Elders.

@citysimmer I think I've seen that somewhere as well about certain lots spawning different ages groups. I got to thinking about it because it baffles me sometimes the sims of my own that I see out and about sometimes, when I know full well they'd be at home with the kids rather than walking around town. I also wonder if it has something to do with whatever household your playing, or have recently played. Thanks for the feedback.

However it works it isn’t random enough for my liking. There’s actually a setting in MCCC that’s supposed to alleviate the problem of the same sims showing up everywhere but it doesn’t completely fix the issue.

@So_Money I tend to agree that it isn't random enough.

It's a "list" so to speak of sims who can visit lots. This list is however long and doesn't really change. Thus, you have the same sims visiting community lots all the time

Of course, different venues will allow for different age groups to show up i.e. you shouldn't find children in bars but if you visit a pool you might find them visiting in swarms

There is always a list of requirements that a Sim must meet in order to be picked by the game. That’s why children would visit libraries but not nightclubs. Besides age, the requirements could also include traits, skill levels, fame level, occult type, career type, whether they’re currently at work/school, whether they’re played or unplayed, what world/neighborhood they live in, whether they have spouse/children or not, etc. Each venue type has their own list of requirements. Some venues could have multiple sets of requirements for different types of visitors (for instance, art galleries attract both regular patrons and painters; these two have different requirements).

Besides the hard requirements that must be met, there are also criteria that make certain Sims more likely to chosen than other Sims. For instance, a Sim with level 5 fitness skill is more likely to be picked as a gym goer than a Sim who’s only level 1.

When picking a Sim, the game goes through every single Sim in your game and check whether they meet the hard requirements or not. If they don’t, they’re instantly tossed out. If they do, the game will calculate a score between 0 to 1 for this Sim based on how close they are to the the favorable criteria, with 1 being a perfect match. Once this is done, the game will then use weighted random to pick from the five highest scored Sims. Weighted random means that if Eliza Pancakes receives a score of 0.8, and Summer Holiday receives a score of 0.4, then Eliza is twice as likely to be picked as Summer.

Here's what I have worked out so far. When it comes to specific sims visiting lots, it seems to be random, often they are friends of your played sim. Probably to save memory.

Street - In the morning, Teens, and Kids (Who are going to school, and YA and A who are going to work, and joggers), During lunch time - elders, because they have no jobs, in the afternoon, teens and kids, going home from school, and YA and A coming home from work, and then during late hours, YA and A in party wear, because they are going out for parties, and late during the night, teens, who are out and doing mischief I guess.

Gym - YA, and A who are often active. Other than that, it seems random.

Library - Random, but mostly kids.

Lounges - Lately, they have seem to be more random, but they used to have a lot of elders.

Bars - YA, and A

Parks - Random, but a lot of Teens hang out here at night, if you have trouble finding teen friends, go to the park late in the evening.

Nightclubs - Seems to be mostly YA and A.

Restaurants - The game seems to often pick families or sims dating or who are married to each other. But also random sims.

Cafe's - seem to be random, mostly YA and A.

Museum - No idea, seems to be mostly YA and A for me.

Pool - Mostly elders and kids

Spa - seems to be mostly YA, and A who also automatically gets tense.

Thank you @Cupid @elelunicy and @logion for your insightful answers! I just learned a bunch I never knew before. It makes much more sense to me why I see certain sims at different lots. I hadn't realized teens hangout at the parks in the evening, but I'm definitely going to be paying closer to attention to the sims visiting community lots I'm on more often now.

There was never a rhyme or reason when I played this game. I had children in the bars, elderly in the night clubs, one teen (and that is the total of Sims) in parks, YAs in the lounges, kids and adults in musems, etc. I saw Sims lined up (at the portals) often for them to spawn into the world in WC (since my Sim lived beside the library) and it would one day be a long line of teens, then a long line of kids, then a long line of elders. It has never made sense in this game. In the other games it made sense to me since I knew if I took my Sim to a lot of commuity lots then played another Sim that first Sim would show up.