Story Progression Toggle: Is it borked?

[J. M. Pescado]

So, confirmed Story Progression OFF players ONLY: If you've ever turned it on for any reason for any amount of time, you don't count. Include details on whether global aging was on or off, and the ages of the spotted anomaly spawn.

Has anyone noticed that, despite story progression being off, certain sims appear to still manage to be spawning somehow? And if you've noticed anomalous spawn, who were the parents? Also, have you noticed any suspicious roommates that weren't there to begin with, or "intruder famblys" that lack a description, except you didn't make them?

So far, suspicious babies noted:
Ursine Fambly, spawns a babby with the father as one of the Frio brothers, who the mother doesn't appear to like or even know. However, fambly description hints at such a possibility, so it's possible that this is a tribblesim that was born pregnant. Anyone else?

[spaceface]

Claire Ursine starts off pregnant according to the wiki http://sims.wikia.com/wiki/Claire_Ursine

[DigiGekko]

I have story progression off but don't really have anything to report yet. FYI, Ursine is confirmed to start pregnant. There is also an old lady playable who starts with an adopted baby on her doorstep.

I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of the playable sims have been "pre-programed" to have children, with or without your help. IE, Daniel Pleasant might grow up and have the twins all by himself. Maybe some story progression is really forced in the town. Maybe not, could just be a giant bork. Of course, since the town has to keep its numbers up, I'm sure that there's plenty of new babies that are forced to be spawned.

I think someone who has deleted all the premade families, set sim ages down to normal or short, makes several of their own test families, and has just let the game played with some observance could do most of the investigating.

[Caz]

I feel I should step in here to say:

Don't believe ANYTHING you read on the Sims Wikia, unless you know for a fact it's true. That place is full of lies and bullshit.

It claims Jocasta Bachelor is pregnant with Michael Bachelor and her husband is already dead. Nope. He's very much alive and Michael is a TEEN. Kaylynn doesn't have a sister and her father is not black, her mother is not a blonde maid either. Many of the Sims they claim are in Sunset Valley don't exist at all.

[seanachai]

Sims Wikia IS total BS. But Claire Ursine's pregnancy is also confirmed here: http://thesims3.ea.com/view/pages/blog.jsp?author=Jennie%20Hozman

[Zazazu]

My current belief is that story progression only affects the premades. That, or it's completely borked. I haven't seen any new pregnant townies, and my sims are hanging out in the town square every single day. The only true townie toddlers I see are one I know came from a sim pregnant at game start (Claire or no, I don't pay attention to townies much) and one other, who is probably the adopted one. I've forgotten the spawn's name.

At current moment, I can't speak to it since it's always possible that I had it untoggled for five seconds before I started playing in earnest (as in, with my first family), and since you had me try it with it retoggled. However, I intend to restart the 'hood to do a challenge of sorts as soon as the eldest son in my current family reaches adult.

[J. M. Pescado]

I had the Hart fambly spawn ANOTHER baby. Where are all these filthy babies coming from?!? I turned that off!

[coltraz]

I had my Sim go to the gym last night, and there was a hideous little baby on the floor inside the door for everyone to walk on and around. I took a picture of it. Why it was lying on the gym floor without an ounce of supervision, I don't know.

[JonaBullets]

I may have miss read the first post, I'm not sure if this is only for Story Progression Off players, if so, please move this post to the proper thread...
(Also, this is my new account, I was jellygoose before this)

I have Story Progression on HIGH, and Life span on EPIC, running 2 different games:

In the first game, I moved a chick in after a while, we "Tried For Baby" bam.. done... She was preggers, and was for about 2 sim weeks for memory, Baby was born and the Simolgy says: Baby grow up in 40 days (no problems)

In the second game, I got down with a chick, she stayed over, I wasn't wearing protection, the bells went off. she got preggers, (still playing EPIC mode) she went home, she came over 2-3 days later, fat as ever... and then, she wanted to goto the hospital. so I took her, she had the kid.. and walked home with it. All good, she invited me in, then i went home for a sleep. I then invited her over couple of days later, tried for another baby.. then she went home, not thinking about it.. I saw a pop-up saying that she had a baby boy and its name was Locke... all this in less than a week... but then I noticed her walking around town, with a toddler under her arm, this was the first kid... but this was defo not 40 days after!

It seems as though regardless of having it on EPIC or not, the aging will remain on NORMAL, this sucks.

Anyone else noticed this kinda thing?

(Again sorry if this is in the wrong place.)

[chaos]

I believe that Zazazu (and others?) have mentioned that, no matter what settings you choose, only your current household is affected by them, and the rest of the neighborhood ages per the game's default settings. Apparently, this is a "feature."

[FourCats]

I had my Sim go to the gym last night, and there was a hideous little baby on the floor inside the door for everyone to walk on and around. I took a picture of it. Why it was lying on the gym floor without an ounce of supervision, I don't know.

The parents realized it was hideous and abandoned it?  The other sims were as disgusted with it as you were so they were walking on and around it paying it no mind? Maybe the sims are really showing intentional thought?

nah.  That would be beyond EAxis capabilities.  Must be a glitch.

[Zazazu]

I have Story Progression on HIGH, and Life span on EPIC, running 2 different games:

There is no high setting for Story Progression. There is only TICKED and UNTICKED. You're thinking of Autonomy. Also, you're insane.

[JonaBullets]

I have Story Progression on HIGH, and Life span on EPIC, running 2 different games:

There is no high setting for Story Progression. There is only TICKED and UNTICKED. You're thinking of Autonomy. Also, you're insane.

Yes, but with story Progression off, she wouldn't have a kid would she? and yes i mean aging set to HIGH... why am i insane? ur right though.

[J. M. Pescado]

Yes, but with story Progression off, she wouldn't have a kid would she? and yes i mean aging set to HIGH... why am i insane? ur right though.

That's my point: It's not SUPPOSED to be happening, but it apparently is anyway!

[phyllis_p]

I had a thought. (Horrors!)

What if "Story Progression" doesn't refer to the progress/progression of the story of your neighborhood/families, per se.  What if it refers to the progression of the "Sim history" story?

Has anyone noticed/played long enough to notice whether Mortimer and Bella autonomously get married if Story Progression is on?  Or if they don't get married if Storry Progression is off?  Plus other "historical" liaisons like that?

Just a thought, like I said.


Edited because I realized I'd misspelled liaison.  Damn borrowed word, anyway!

[Zazazu]

That's what I was starting to think, too, Phyllis. My plans were to keep M&B from each other, or kill Bella in a fire, but I'll leave them be.

Confirmed pregnancy out of the box: Justine Keaton is pregnant and will deliver on the second day. News of such is in the paper. In both tests, she had a baby boy named Benjamin. I just started testing last night, so haven't gone past three days.

[jolrei]

I had a thought. (Horrors!)

What if "Story Progression" doesn't refer to the progress/progression of the story of your neighborhood/families, per se.  What if it refers to the progression of the "Sim history" story?

This would be consistent with EAxoid tendencies, I would think.  I always thought the Pleasantview stories were a stupid idea, but apparently people liked to play them out (no really!).  When I first heard of Story Progression, I thought "now they've found a way to code the story into the game itself so it plays itself out, with the option to disable it and play your own story.  Under this scenario, sims would not be subject to the story, but would still be able to sadorandomly have babbies.  Considering the normal sadorandom features of TS2 as a baseline case, one might then expect that this would mean that babbies would be spawned more often than not as soon as you leave one house to play another.

If I ever get downloaded, I can join the test.  At present, I am just philosophizing (with a sort of ongoing morbid fascination).

[Insanity Prelude]

For the story to go totally as planned, the Caliente sisters and Don Lothario would have to show up eventually. And Dina's ugly enough in TS2 already.

[kazebird]

If that is indeed it's function, what would happen if you killed Mortimer?

[literatebse]

If that is indeed it's function, what would happen if you killed Mortimer?

Bella would marry his just-a-sim-with-a-translucent-skin-and-a-glow ghost, of course.

[Zazazu]

Report back from one week of Story Progression disabled from starting new game, fresh neighborhood, Sunday-Saturday:

• Justine Keaton had baby boy Zane (names seem to be random, was Benjamin in another instance)
• Moon family moved to neighborhood
• Sofia Moon and Santos Christy married
• Racheal Ursine born
• Scotch household left neighborhood
• Brook Kofi born
• Hilda Wainwright born
• Mae household left neighborhood

Pretty conclusive that disabling progression does not prevent marriages and spawning. I'll report back again after the next week. I'm not really strong on what the Pleasantview setup is supposed to be since I only played it for a very short time (long enough to kill Don Lothario in a pile of pestilence). If anyone notices things that look like they contribute to that history, please say.

[DigiGekko]

I can confirm a little something here. Story progression has been set to off since a little time after starting the game. Recently, I moved in a family I made into a house on edit town mode, never switched to them. Saw them walking about town for about week. My kids met their kids at school. Then, I check the newspaper to see that they've moved away. I mean, wtf is that? My own family moves away without me? I figure it's because I plopped them and forgot them. So I re-plopped them, and this time I went to visit them. They were all still standing outside their house when I went over a few hours later. I introduced my dad character to the parents, and everyone went inside. I'll wait and see if they move away again. At least the auto-keep-copy of family feature is a nice addition.

Now I've got a couple other families I plopped and forgot, although I did briefly switch to them as active households. So I'm thinking that only families you literally put down and never even switch to might move. Still, this means it is possible for the game to simply move out/even kill any of your playable families. The possibility is there, and that's just messed up.

[Katya]

For the story to go totally as planned, the Caliente sisters and Don Lothario would have to show up eventually. And Dina's ugly enough in TS2 already.

For the  story to work completely, we need the now-completely-removed alien abductions/pregnancies as the Caliente sisters have an alien grandfather. No alien pregnancy = no Calientes.

[seanachai]

For the story to go totally as planned, the Caliente sisters and Don Lothario would have to show up eventually. And Dina's ugly enough in TS2 already.

There was actually an interview with MJ Chun recently (the one in which she confirmed Render Girl wasn't in the game) and she said the Lotharios are in the bonus European neighborhood ... Riverview or whatever it's called.

[Caz]

After I got Bella and Mortimer to marry, I left them and went to play some other households. They later had a girl...

... named Tracie.

I got Bella to rename her Cassandra at City Hall, so good enough, I guess. But it seems Sims 3 won't go on to become the story of TS1 and TS2. Bella and Mortimer seem more like easter eggs than anything, and a ton of Sims needed to create the TS2 Sims are missing anyway. Most of the TS1 Sims don't even exist either.