How often do new townies spawn?

They spawn whenever you visit a public lot.

I'm not sure if it's the same for every player, but my game generates about 4-6 new sims whenever I visit a public venue despite my bin being full of townies I created myself or downloaded :| Wish there was a way to stop it.

There doesn't seem to be any solution but to constantly delete the new sims, I do that.

@agustd Oh, no! I may look into a mod to stop it. I hate deleting sims. :'(

Thanks for your help!

I use this mod to basically stop townie generation. It hasn't been updated for seasons so there are some quirks, and for some reason it doesn't seem to work properly if you put it into a sub-folder.. but it's doing a good enough job for me.

Of course, if you don't have a large enough pool of homeless sims for the game to use, it will continue to generate them as needed, regardless.

It sure seems like every time I visit a lot there are all these sims I've never seen before. It can be a good thing and a bad thing. I do like how it keeps the game fresh.
What I do is if I like a townie, I click on that heart icon and that sim will not delete. Sometimes I save to my gallery for insurance.

Awesome!
Thank goodness for modders, I was so frustrated that the game generated random vampires ALL THE TIME so hopefully they'll update it for seasons soon

Does this also apply to strays? What if I don't want certain strays to vanish forever? Is there a heart option for them too? (Plus how do I even find this stuff?) I know there are a lot of townies that I enjoy having around and would hate to lose them. They're not in world..what does that mean and how do I get them in world?

Ok forgive me because I'm a dork, but if I click the heart on the bottom they move into my households? Does that mean they won't ever get deleted? What if I left them where they are in the other slot? I'd like to move a lot of these people into homes or apartments, but the money thing is so annoying :( Plus the strays. I love a few of them that are always a joy to see roaming around like that mayor cat and this cute dog with a sweater named Joey. If I put them in my households does that mean they won't ever go back outside again?

You can place the stay animals in a household, they don't even have to be in the household you are actively playing, and you will still see them out and about. Yes if you click on the heart at the bottom they will not never deleted, ever. You can do this for the strays as well, and also any homeless sims you don't want deleted. Plus you can also set up the number of sims you have in game (little heart that are clicked) before the game will delete anyone. The choices are 80, 150, 200, or unlimited. The only ones that will be deleted will be those who you have not clicked the heart on.

"MzPigglyPooh;c-16593098" wrote:

"agustd;c-16586324" wrote:
They spawn whenever you visit a public lot.

I'm not sure if it's the same for every player, but my game generates about 4-6 new sims whenever I visit a public venue despite my bin being full of townies I created myself or downloaded :| Wish there was a way to stop it.

There doesn't seem to be any solution but to constantly delete the new sims, I do that.

I know what you mean. My game does the same. I wish there was a way to stop it from doing that and just use the sims Ive already created.

If your not opposed to mods, there is one that will do exactly what your wanting.
http://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=604590

I created 19 homeless sims, and with this mod, I've only had 4 sims that the game spawned so far. Granted it's only been 3 sim days since I started this game save, but all the NPC sims used for the DJ, the bar, gym trainer, complete restaurant staff, restaurant critic, and the mailman all were sims that I added.

"TravisBlackfox;c-16592946" wrote:
Ok forgive me because I'm a dork, but if I click the heart on the bottom they move into my households? Does that mean they won't ever get deleted? What if I left them where they are in the other slot? I'd like to move a lot of these people into homes or apartments, but the money thing is so annoying :( Plus the strays. I love a few of them that are always a joy to see roaming around like that mayor cat and this cute dog with a sweater named Joey. If I put them in my households does that mean they won't ever go back outside again?

What do you mean by "the money thing?" You can use the freerealestate on cheat so that you can move them without it costing money.