NPC Doors and Homeless

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banque11
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NPC Doors and Homeless

Post by banque11 » April 26th, 2018, 5:02 pm

Are homeless NPCs moved by the game into LN-style apartment NPC doors considered residents?

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igazor
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Post by igazor » April 26th, 2018, 10:45 pm

No. They don't really live there, they just appear to, and go into hibernation (off-screen, completely not animated or simulated) behind those doors until called upon. In order to be considered a resident, a sim must have a (real) household to belong to. The service household is virtual and consists of all of the sims in those categories in a given world.

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Post by banque11 » April 26th, 2018, 11:31 pm

Thanks for the quick reply. A few more related questions if you don't mind:

1. So service sims belong to a virtual household. Does that mean the NPC door sims are all role sims?
2. Are sims living behing NPC doors considered homeless and culled by SP/OW?
3. Are Show Time performers considered role sims or service sims?
4. I have a town with a small number of residents (who all have jobs already) and no unoccupied houses. The Sim Fests are missing performers. I read that this is due to SP/OW culling homeless sims. Would adding NPC doors to the town shelter the performers from culling?

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Post by igazor » April 26th, 2018, 11:52 pm

1 - No. Leaving aside why a particular homeless sim is even in your game at all (service, role, homeless co-worker, street performer, stranded with nothing to do), EA Standard without LN is that homeless sims of all kinds go off the map to hibernate when their services are not needed or the game is not calling for them to be on-screen for any reason. With LN, some homeless sims will be assigned to NPC doors where they hibernate instead. This is really only for appearances' sake, to make the LN types of apartments feel more lively and busy. If you have enough NPC doors in town, it could be that all homeless sims end up getting assigned to them. There is an argument to be had that sims hibernating behind doors is less stressful on the game than the off the map kind so the system is actually helpful in that way, plus you can call the door sims down to the lobby by using the callbox if you just feel like having a chat with someone. But a homeless sim hibernating behind a door otherwise functions exactly the same way as a homeless sim hibernating off the map.

2 - The SP and OW cleanups of homeless sims are intended to target those who have no current career, service, or role assignments. Whether this works to the player's advantage or produces a never-ending revolving door of homeless sims leaving and new ones spawning to cover assignments that the game isn't always recognizing, especially for example Seasons festival lot Role Sims in between seasons when there is no festival happening and the dreaded Bakery cashier who never seems to hold onto their assignments, seems to vary by player.

3 - They aren't Role Sims, but I don't think they really qualify as Service either. They are a strange category, seemingly unique unto themselves in some respects. From what it appears, anyway.

4 - Not enough experience with Showtime Simfests to determine. But I imagine stopping SP and OW from managing and cleaning up the homeless would help if one can stand to work that way (this is the way I play, others do not). I really don't think it makes any difference whether these sims, like any others, are assigned to NPC doors or not.

But let's see if others have had different experiences to share.

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Post by banque11 » May 4th, 2018, 5:31 pm

Many thanks for the detailed reply. I'm happy to let SP/OW manage the homeless, but just want some performers for the Sim Fests without using residents already in the world or adding residents. The game generates other homeless sims (for registers, etc) without problem, so I'm trying to figure out why performers are absent.

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Post by igazor » May 4th, 2018, 10:26 pm

In an attempt to restate, the sims assigned to role giving objects generally retain their assignments when they happen to be off duty so OW and SP should be leaving them alone in their cleanup routines. My guess is that festival performers do not, so when they are not actually performing they can be seen as unemployed homeless with no reason for being in the game thus eligible to be "Managed" or "Cleaned Up" because the two mods just don't know anything different about them.

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