Avoiding the storyline in Strangerville - Looking for advice and answers (No spoilers)

You might want to have someone confirm this, as I can't remember where I saw it, but I'm pretty sure a dev said the story will not bleed out at all into other cities (maybe you get messages from sims wanting to investigate? I wouldn't be surprised if they forgot to mention that, but they are easy enough to ignore, right?). So if all you want is the CAS, build/buy items and military career, you can just pretend the GP didn't come with a world and story, I guess. Just don't go in Strangerville. I'd probably wait for a sale if you want only a small part of the pack, though.