I really enjoy your explain it all posts - so many interesting details I've never noticed about the game.
I have a couple of questions I hope will count as 'small.'
- How does being added to a group affect the autonomy of non-active sims? (Do they still have any? Doesn't seem like it sometimes.)
- Can a sim with the Tragic Clown role turn up in a non Tragic Clown situation, e.g. as a regular walkby or venue visitor? And is the clown outfit an everyday outfit for them, or is it a situation outfit only for when they are being a Tragic Clown?
Tragic Clown isn't a permanent entity- the game basically summons a Sim to be the clown when the situation happens, and when it's over, they go back to being normal or are deleted (not sure specifically in this case). The way the game handles situations like this is expressly designed so that certain NPCs are important and persist- like how it brings a Father Winter back if you remove, kill, move in, etc him- but other NPCs are situational and will basically be there when needed and don't really exist otherwise. The game might re-use the same sim the next time- thanks to hidden information jammed into that sim when they're created or picked- but the sim isn't really "that NPC" when they aren't "on the job"!
If you look at my Venue posts you'll see a good few explanations of similar situational roles that don't really "exist" outside of "when they're happening", or you can think of how a bartender works- the sim isnt really a bartender when not tending the bar, right?
