Can I stop my world from auto-populating?

No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

If you're not mod-averse, check out MC Command Center over at MTS -- it might have some settings in it that would help you out. Custom Population control might work for your situation.

http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=551680

"The Sims 4- play however you want (as long as it's our way)!"

I've been using MC Command Center, I'll tweak it and see if it helps. Thanks for the feedback! :)

It won't completely stop all toenies/npc's but if you toggle the "Fill empty homes" box under the game play menu(pic below) to unchecked it seems to help cut down on npc's roaming about and possibly even with the culling.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fe/89/9c/fe899c624a5ced19bc60de20bd91f962.jpg


ps, game default is set to fill empty homes. You can also try reclassifying some of the empty lots around the world to non residential status until you want to use them. I've found that helpful in s3 as well.

"AnnoyingTwit;14164737" wrote:
I've been using MC Command Center, I'll tweak it and see if it helps. Thanks for the feedback! :)

The only other possibility would be to go into Manage Households every day and manually cull (delete) the households you didn't create -- they're likely in the Not In World population. I usually do my own culling every so often to delete single elders and other Sims I don't foresee my households interacting with.

"Mmdrgntobldrgn;14164747" wrote:
It won't completely stop all toenies/npc's but if you toggle the "Fill empty homes" box under the game play menu(pic below) to unchecked it seems to help cut down on npc's roaming about and possibly even with the culling.
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fe/89/9c/fe899c624a5ced19bc60de20bd91f962.jpg

Yeah, I turned that off and it helped them stop taking the houses I wanted to move people into, it just didn't stop them from appearing.

I don't mind the mailman, service workers, etc. I mind all the random people walking around and taking over my town.

I must say this is really disappointing for me as well. I would so much love to create all the households in my world myself, aging off and off I go. But everytime I see new, ugly sims passing by I never asked for. I understand it's nice for people who don't want to create their entire town themselves, but I'd love the option.
Well, they added options to Sims 3, who knows they'll add this one to Sims 4. Hope so.

"drake_mccarty;14164662" wrote:
No the creation of non-played sims occurs everytime you go through a loading screen, including when you load into your household to play them. There could be a mod to stop this, but I haven't seen one that does that.

For me this has changed. The last sim week I played (6 household, at least 10 loading screens) and only ONE townie was generated! I don't know why or how, but I hope it's permanent. My game is already filled with my own sims.

"SnatchedPlumbob;14165001" wrote:
TBH this is fairly disappointing because I was hoping for the same as well. You can't add sims to your game and move them around the way you could have in TS3 or TS2. Heck even TS1. Everything has become a little more complicated even though this game is supposed to be more player friendly.

I don't understand? You can add sims and move them around, it's rather similar to TS2 but easier in my opinion.