Forum Discussion

New Traveler

2 years ago

Solved

Neighborhood Stories: Sims not having babies or adopting children.

Product: The Sims 4
Platform:PC
Which language are you playing the game in? English
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
What is your current game version number? 198.158.1020
What expansions, game packs, and stuff packs do you have installed? All expansions except Get Famous Game Packs: My Wedding Stories, Dream Home Decorator, Realm of Magic, Parenthood, Dine Out, Spa Day, Outdoor Retreat. Stuff Packs: Nifty Knitting, Tiny Living, Laundry Day, Toddler, Backyard, Romantic Garden, Cool,Kitchen, Perfect Patio.
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? Play regularly with Neighborhood Stories turned on for both "My Households" and "Other Households"
What happens when the bug occurs? The townies do everything NS is supposed to do, except expect babies or adopt babies/children
What do you expect to see? Notifications that Sims are "preparing for their baby to be born soon" and that Sims have adopted babies/children
Have you installed any customization with the game, e.g. Custom Content or Mods? Not now. I've removed them.
Did this issue appear after a specific patch or change you made to your system? Yes
Please describe the patch or change you made. It originally appeared after the giant update just before "Growing Together" was released I presumed it would be fixed with an update, it wasn't! ‌

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After I originally realised the problem, I deleted CC etc and still no babies being born through Neighborhood Stories or no Sims adopting children. I tried a new game and it was working so I very reluctantly (after posting on here and trying a bunch of other options) deleted my saved game, thinking it was an old (broken)Mod that was embedded. It still wasn't right. I recently decided to uninstall the WHOLE game and reinstall. I've been taking it super slowly and it's been fine- Sims having babies through NS and Sims adopting children. I saved that and continued remaking the Sims I'd lost with the uninstall (no CC this time). Suddenly I notice it's doing it again... No babies or adoptions. I played on fast forward for a whole Sim week and none. I went back to an earlier save and it's working fine. I'm wondering if it's when I get over an amount of SIms... The game that isn't working has 48 playable Sims but I even moved some of them to the 'other" folder to see if that made a difference if I got it down to under 30. It didn't! The game that IS working has 28 playable SIms. The only other thought I've had is whether it's related to the amount of time I've played that game and if it stops working after a certain length of time. It's incredibly frustrating because I deleted years worth of work- houses, families etc to reinstall and it's still doing it with no CC!

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

flauschtrud
2 years ago
There are some rather complex metrics that determine if Neighborhood Stories get triggered or not and for pregnancy and adoption it's related to the number of kids in your save (I think the relative amount compared to the total population).
So it could be possible that your save already has a bunch of kids (played and unplayed households) which could make it quite unlikely for new pregnancies and adoptions to get triggered.

5 Replies

PipMenace
Hero
2 years ago
I’m so sorry you lost all your work - that’s definitely frustrating! If it ever comes up again, copy the saves and tray folder to your desktop first, before reinstalling the game. Then, after testing, you can move your files back in and see if they work (the tray folder is the contents of your library).
I believe there is a max for total number of Sims in the save, though find it hard to believe you would reach it so quickly, especially with less than 50 played Sims.
I also know they reduced the frequency of babies/adoptions (very necessary in my games, especially when aging was off, as every single townie was filling their household up with babies). But it should still be happening, just at a slower rate and perhaps with a little more concern for whether a particular Sim should WANT kids.
So just to check - there are households in your save that have fewer than 8 total Sims, and contain at least one adult, and that adult doesn’t hate children? And not only are neighborhood stories turned on over all, but you’ve checked the neighborhood story settings for played and unplayed sims in the household manager, and both have baby and adopt are active?
them1dn1ghtfa3ry
New Traveler
2 years ago
Thank you for your reply,
Firstly- Yes, I have families with less than 8 members with two members married and being family oriented etc. I also have the neighborhood stories set to adopt children and have babies both in the "my households" folder and also the "other households" folder.
Originally, I did copy the game and then copy files back in but it was still doing it and I had a problem locating an old mod (cheat menu) in order to delete it and some people said it was embedded and because of the update, it made sense to me that it had become outdated and I thought there was no other way to get it to work.
Once I reinstalled the complete game, I was making sure it was working so I kept checking every SIM day or two to make sure there were Sims having babies or adopting children. It was working fine so I created a new save and then continued on with that, so I had a point to come back to should it stop working. Sure enough, after I'd created a few more Sims and played the game for a while longer, it's not doing it. I know it is meant to happen at a slower rate now but I play The Sims most days and I know what a reasonable amount of time should be. It's just not working!
I'm currently trying to experiment to see whether it stops with an amount of Sims or after an event (twin births etc) but with no CC in the game, I don;t know what is causing the problem.
I did read someone elses post on here saying they had a problem with Accidental Deaths.. That all Neighborhood Stories were working for them except accidental deaths, which feels like the same problem I'm having, as all other NS seem to be working fine.
flauschtrud
Seasoned Ace
2 years ago
There are some rather complex metrics that determine if Neighborhood Stories get triggered or not and for pregnancy and adoption it's related to the number of kids in your save (I think the relative amount compared to the total population).
So it could be possible that your save already has a bunch of kids (played and unplayed households) which could make it quite unlikely for new pregnancies and adoptions to get triggered.
them1dn1ghtfa3ry
New Traveler
2 years ago
@flauschtrud That's very interesting and not something I've heard anyone else say. It's also something very possible given that would apply to my saved game. I'm going to have to experiment with that. Thanks for the message, it's given me something different to consider.
them1dn1ghtfa3ry
New Traveler
2 years ago
You have made me sooooooo happy! It's fixed!!!!
What had happened was after I fully uninstalled my game, when I went to rebuild my families etc. It was working and then suddenly it wasn't. I had considered it might be after a certain number of Sims in general but not specifically children/toddlers/infants/babies. Your suggestion gave me a new direction that no one had previously mentioned. As I had been rebuilding families I did have an excessive amount of children and babies. Once I got it down to under 50, it worked!! I've since had 5 babies born through Neighborhood stories and I can't thank you enough for taking the time to write to me!!