Will my neighborhoods explode soon? :(

[KnowitallSim]

I'm worried, here's my amount of character files.

Riverblossom Hills (I'm pretty sure there's no Bluewater, College or Downtown attached yet):
470 characters 

Pleasantview:
594  (I recently reset this neighborhood and I've played very very little with it since then, no Bluewater)

Strangetown (have not added vacation neighborhoods yet, or Downtown or Bluewater, but I've played with it the most I think):
434

Veronaville (the only neighborhood I've sent sims on vacation so far):
751 

Apricotview (pretty much test neighborhood):
505

So...how close to exploding? 

Also, what's this "Ideal PlantSim" I keep hearing about?

[Aggie]

As for the Ideal PlantSim: it's just like Pollination Technician #9. When a PlantSim spawns a plant baby, half of the DNA comes from the Sim and half comes from the Ideal PlantSim that you never see. That's how Sim Me ended up with a black-haired son (when I have brown hair).

[Soylent Sim]

Pre-NL the limit for character files was 800ish.  Post-NL, it was increased dramatically.  So long as you don't go out of your way to batch-produce characters, you should be okay until TS3 comes out.  Or if you're not okay, it'll happen for non-population based reasons.  (Although especially with Veronaville, do add antiredundancy.  BV has an ugly bug that can cause unpleasant population explosion.)

The ideal plantsim is best viewed as the "other parent" for plantbabies.  Simspawn avoid being exact duplicates of either parent because they have two sets of genes at work.  Plantsims buds don't have a normal second parent, so the ideal plantsim's genes are what keep them from being exact clones of the parent.  And while exact clones would be better in a horticultural sense, it'd get boring in actual gameplay.

[Khan of Wyrms]

Here's my amount of character files:

Idylleville, 3903.

No worries.

[Zazazu]

BV has an ugly bug that can cause unpleasant population explosion.

My brand new neighborhood with 3 playables has 294 character files after going on three vacations. Pescado's anti-redundancy is truly a critical fix. Stupid Eaxis of Evil.

[pixiejuice]

Here's my amount of character files:

Idylleville, 3903.

No worries.

Thanks, I feel better about the 913 Sims in my Lakeside Heights now

[KnowitallSim]

Here's my amount of character files:

Idylleville, 3903.

No worries.

Thanks, I feel better about the 913 Sims in my Lakeside Heights now

Same, I don't feel that worried 

[LFox]

I only got 310 in mine and well if yours hasn't exploded on 3903 then well i got nothing to worry about ever.  I somehow doubt i will ever reach that.

[lowbart]

My biggest neighborhood, Pike Creek, which has three downtowns (the idea being they are all separate cities with Pike Creek being the suburb of one), two colleges, and no business or vacation district, has about 400-500 sims. I guess that now that I have OFB and Pets, overpopulation shouldn't be a problem. It will probably be glitches due to VBTs I did before finding this forum that eventually destroy Pike Creek.

(I am looking around for a way to backup some of the sims I liked better so than I can move them into my clean hood when necessary.)

[Anne]

I think you're okay - my custom hood has 672 right now with all three BV destinations attached (and a downtown, business district and university) and I've been playing it since NL came out. (I play slow, I know)

Just for reference sake, though - I keep a plain vanilla, never been played Pleasantview on my computer (for testing new EP's before I add my downloads back - (I never save, so it's still frozen right at the EAxis beginning) and, as of right now, it has 634 character files.

[snabul]

My oldest Neighborhood has 2430 Sims and is still running.

120 of them are living, the rest is NPCs or dead.

[Skarlath]

Huh...and I was freaking out about having 194 Sims. Guess I don't have to worry much!

[pamysue]

I'm still playing my original Pleasantview and it has 1022 char files.  It works fine.

[jolrei]

I believe that while it is prudent policy to try to avoid overpopulation, since Nightlife it is now not known how many character files is too many.  As noted, some hoods continue to chug along without problems (if they are using critical fixes) into the thousands of character files.  At this point, if your hood is working and you have 1000 character files, your biggest problem may be drive space, not exploding neighbourhoods.