LOTP question

[Karen]

I have heard a number of people say that there is supposed to be only one "leader of the pack" wolf, the big brown one with the fluorescent yellow eyes.  When I first started playing Pets, my LOTP was called Shiro.  I recently noticed one called Baron and another called Charlie, in the same neighborhood.  They look absolutely identical.

Is the "only one LOTP per hood" just more Maxis EA lies and propaganda?  I don't even play werewolves, nor do I have any intention of doing so, I'm just curious.

[J. M. Pescado]

All wolves look the same, but as with any NPC, the typical count for NPCs is 3 of each. Antiredundancy eliminates this requirement.

[Karen]

That's strange, because I normally play with antiredundancy installed.  I suppose it's possible that the other two spawned later, when I was trying to debug a problem and loaded the game without any hacks at all. 

In any case, it doesn't seem to be true that the LOTP is unique (in the sense that Grimmy or Mrs C are unique).

[staroverthebay]

The Reaper and Mrs Crumplebottom are consistent for all hoods, right? The names never change. Maybe it's the whole dynamic of a random name that spawns the multiples? I've found multiple "Count _____" and "Countess_____" available to my sims in a single hood, when there should only be one of each, only one Grand Vampire of each gender. (And no other vampires at all, since I haven't had any of my sims bitten yet by a Grand Vampire)

* staroverthebay is just guessing wildly and grabbing at straws

[Gwill]

I have at least two black wolves with glowing eyes in my hood, I use the director's cut, and I haven't done anything to mess with the wolves.

[Orikes]

In a similar vein as this question, does the LOTP show up during the day looking like a normal gray wolf? The LOTP I've seen in my neighborhood is Balin. I've also seen Balin show up during the day as a normal looking wolf. No dark, no glowing eyes. Is it the same wolf, or just a redundant naming scheme?

[Venusy]

As far as I can tell, it's probably a redundant naming scheme problem. Only one way to test it, download christianlov's pet teleporter and see if two wolves are listed with the name of Balin.

[Gwill]

In a similar vein as this question, does the LOTP show up during the day looking like a normal gray wolf? The LOTP I've seen in my neighborhood is Balin. I've also seen Balin show up during the day as a normal looking wolf. No dark, no glowing eyes. Is it the same wolf, or just a redundant naming scheme?

I have two Baxters.  One grey and one black.  My sim is friends with one of them, but not the other, so I don't think they are the same pet.  I'm guessing Maxis just didn't make the list of available townie pet names large enough, and it becomes really obvious since strays and wolves don't have last names.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hey, at least you didn't end up with one called "Mister Fluffles" or something.

[Havelock]

I've found multiple "Count _____" and "Countess_____" available to my sims in a single hood, when there should only be one of each, only one Grand Vampire of each gender

If i remember right a fresh createt Downtown has 3 Grand Vampires of each Gender. It follows the Maxis EA  Rules of creating useless NPCs. I have seen 3 Wolfes in my Hood File listed as NPC. Maybe they are random used as LOTP.

[Ness]

I guess we can only be thankful that there is only one crumplebutt!

[jrd]

There is a difference between what I call Service NPCs and object NPCs.

Object NPCs are those which get read from objects.package, such as Mrs Crumplebottom and the Grim Reaper. They are unique and non-interactible. They do not have a character file.

Service NPCs are normal Sims in the Service NPC pool, with a character file and everything. They include the waiters, maids, grand vampires, etc.. These can (mostly) be interacted with. And the default game will spawn three of each, and more if needed. Antiredundancy limits this to one minimum, and more only if really needed. So if you have a maid invited over as a guest and the maid service arrives, a second maid will be spawned. And if you go to a store with seven registers, seven clerks will be spawned (or six if you already had one).

HTH, YMMV.