7 years ago

Townie Households Almost All Have Same Structure

Has anybody else noticed this? For whatever reason, townie households almost always have the exact same structure. For me, it's just about always either single elder households (seriously, elders EVERYWHERE), households composed of a single parent and one child, or single teen households, which shouldn't even be POSSIBLE, given how you can't do this in CAS yourself (there HAS to be at least one parent or grandparent). Some other very clear townie trends I've noticed:

- Parents and children often look NOTHING alike. For example, I recently had a family spawn with a single mother and her son. The mother had dark skin and blonde hair, while the son had light skin and black hair. They also had absolutely no facial features in common.

- The townie generator clearly seems to favor adults over young adults. When I get a single Sim household that isn't a teen or elder, it's almost always an adult, hardly ever a young adult.

- Sims with Japanese or Middle Eastern names almost always have either red or blonde hair. It's hardly ever any other hair color. That can't be a coincidence! It happens way too often for it to just be a coincidence.

- The townie generator is totally obsessed with CL and Vampires content. I have all packs and EPs, so it seems odd to me that every townie would spawn in predominantly CL and Vampires content. There are lots of potential clothes for the townies to spawn in, but the generator seems to have a clear bias for clothing from CL and Vampires. Odds are, if you don't see them wearing Vampires clothing for their everyday outfit, they're probably wearing them for their formal or party outfits.

- CL names are especially common, and repeat frequently. The new CL names are really nice, but I'm starting to wonder if they added many of them into the mix, because names repeat all the time. I often have several families with the exact same surnames, exact same first names, or exact same first AND surnames. Some new names for the randomizer to choose from would be nice. Curiously, I am not seeing any of these names pop up when I randomize names in CAS.

- For some reason, the townies are obsessed with the eyeball ring. About 1/3 of townies that spawn in my game at any given time are wearing the eyeball ring. If they aren't wearing it for their everyday outfit, they're usually wearing it for their party outfit.

Is it just me? I also made a thread on this in Answers HQ.

LiaRose1435
7 years ago
It's not just you. I have almost all of those issues that you said. I also get a lot of households that are a single mother, teenager daughter, and child son who all look completely different. And my townies like to all wear the exact same cc hair but in different colours.
gizzinator1
7 years ago
You can create a teen only in CAS with the sims 4 and play them. I think at launch you still needed to have an adult, but I think they changed it with a patch. I have played countless games in the sims 4 with just a teen I created from CAS without having to have another adult.

I agree with most of your other points about the townie generation, names, etc.
CakeWitch
7 years ago
I have the same issue.
Sometimes I pretend that townies with single parents and children are looking different is due to adoption or I add a spouse that can explain the different appearances

I edit townies to match their last names or just change the last names.
And townies with the same last name, I make them related.

I like editing townies anyway, but it’s getting to be a burden. I know deleting them is faster, but what’s the point if the game isn’t just going to generate more
OldeSimsFan
New Traveler
7 years ago
I'm having the same issues as well. Having been in Japan (lovely place!) and interacted with real Japanese (nice folks, if a bit formal & reserved) I can verify they don't have blonde or red hair, but rather black.
Lorraine-Simmer
7 years ago
I've decided to keep track of the townies in a new file to get an idea of what the ratio of red/blonde hair is to any other hair color. So far, out of nine Sims with Japanese names that spawned, only ONE had a hair color other than red or blonde. One was an elder, but upon aging her down, she had red hair. 9-1, as you can see, that is a VERY skewed ratio. Like I said, there's NO way that can just be coincidence.

It would be really nice if someone could tweet this thread and the one on Answers HQ to the gurus. I'm really curious if they're aware of the issue.
LadyKyn
Seasoned Traveler
7 years ago
Usually get spawned 'fake' vampires with Middle Eastern names or my favorite dark skinned sims with red or blonde hair.

It's the oddest thing like it's almost preferred for the majority of townies. I get a lot of single parent families more than anything. Or single parent plus a child and teen. Game seems to like single moms.
keekee53
Seasoned Newcomer
7 years ago
Yep getting all of this too. I miss Shimrods townie generation mod which corrected a lot of this.
Lorraine-Simmer
7 years ago
Just started another experiment. No joke, the very first Sim that spawned, that being the LANDLORD, had a Japanese name and red hair. Just goes to show how often the townie generator favors this formula when the very first townie of the game follows it. There were also three more instances of an elder with a Japanese name having blonde hair upon being aged down. And there were four more single adult families who had a Japanese name with two having red hair and the other two being blonde. Only one of the Sims like this ended up being a young adult, but OF COURSE she had to have blonde hair. Only TWO Sims with a Japanese name had a hair color other than red or blonde.

That's a 9-2 ratio of red/blonde as opposed to any other hair color.

There is NO way this can just be a coincidence.
Lorraine-Simmer
7 years ago
I've made some curious observations. I actually think the game has a quota for the amount of a certain type of townie that MUST exist at any given time. For example, let's say I delete two elders. Within like two minutes of deleting them, two more elders spawn! And guess what happens when I delete vampires? That's right, more vampires spawn! That could possibly explain why an excessive amount of townies continue to spawn after changing or deleting them.

I still don't understand why we need this many townies, though. What are they all even for?!
SimsLovinLycan
7 years ago
"worldofdrakan;c-16207736" wrote:
I've made some curious observations. I actually think the game has a quota for the amount of a certain type of townie that MUST exist at any given time. For example, let's say I delete two elders. Within like two minutes of deleting them, two more elders spawn! And guess what happens when I delete vampires? That's right, more vampires spawn! That could possibly explain why an excessive amount of townies continue to spawn after changing or deleting them.

I still don't understand why we need this many townies, though. What are they all even for?!

I think the game's creators overestimated the amount and types of extras we would need in our gameplay sessions. That's the only sane explanation. Sometimes, just putting some options in the players' hands completely is the best way to go...