Townie

Townies are a class of NPC in The Sims, The Sims 2, and The Sims 3. In fact, they are probably the biggest class of NPC. Introduced in Hot Date, Townies are Sims who do not live in the neighborhood, but they live close enough so that they can come into town. They are full fledged Sims with jobs, skills, and personalities. In The Sims 2, they even have aspirations and, once Nightlife is installed, have turn ons and turn offs.

Marylena Hamilton, a Townie in The Sims 2

Townies are created by the game going in to the resources the player has to create Sims and then doing some mixing and matching. In The Sims, this includes custom body and head skins. In The Sims 2, it will not include custom clothes, but will include custom hair that has been placed in one of the color bins.

Note that NPCs from other neighborhoods are never Townies.

The Sims

As mentioned above, Townies were introduced in the Hot Date expansion pack. Townies at this time were only "native" to the Downtown area (though they could come over when invited once a Sim knew them) and were generated whenever a Sim went to a Downtown lot. These Townies all had the last name "Townie" and were deleted as soon as a Sim left Downtown. The only exception to this was if the Sim had a relationship with a Townie, that Townie was then saved so that the Sim could continue the relationship. With the addition of other expansion packs, this was changed, and Townies were no longer deleted when playable Sims left their "native" area.

In general, newly-created Townies will not know anyone outside of their "native" area. However, if both Downtown and Vacation Island are present, Downtown-based Townies may have one or two Tourist friends, and a Tourist may have one or two friends Downtown.

Issues caused by Townies in The Sims

Until the release of Makin' Magic, marrying a townie could cause a problem known as the Urban Renewal Loop, in which the game would get stuck in a loop while trying to create a replacement for that townie.

Since the Somebodies of Studio Town normally wear high fashion instead of everyday wear, the game will try to give a newly generated Somebody a random High Fashion skin instead of the default High Fashion skin. However, it cannot properly handle assigning a custom High Fashion skin to a newly generated Somebody, and will crash if it tries. Since The Sims doesn't distinguish Maxis skins from custom skins, and since there aren't too many Maxis High Fashion skins, it will often try to do this, especially when populating Studio Town in a newly opened neighborhood.

Types of Townies in The Sims

• In Hot Date, they are known as "townies". (Some players may use the Nightlife term "downtownie" when referring to them, but that's a retrofit.) All Downtown-based townies have the surname "Townie".
• In Vacation, they are usually called "vacationers" or "tourists", but are organized into families with random last names. (Tourist NPC families usually consist of 3 or 4 Sims and always contain both adults and children.)
• In Unleashed, there are no townies; instead, neighbors will pay a visit to Old Town.
• In Superstar, the townies in Studio Town have the last names "Anybody" or "Somebody". The "Somebodies" are on the Fame track, while the "Anybodies" are not.
• In Makin' Magic, the townies in Magic Town have the last name "Strange". This is probably because other Sims consider them strange, but it could also be a nod in the direction of the fictional magician Stephen Strange. All "Stranges" have wands, though they will not use them autonomously.

The Sims (console)

In The Sims for console, there are two types of Townies. The first type of Townies are the Sims who live in the neighborhood and are met in the Get a Life Storyline. Unlike the Townies in The Sims for PC, these Townies have unique last names. However, only the Townies in the Roomies household, the Party Girls household, and the Party Guys household can be made playable. The second type of Townies are the Sims who only appear on the community (multiplayer) lots. These Townies are only included because of the lot's minigame, which can consist of making friends, lovers, or stealing food. The Get a Life Townies can appear in both the storyline lots and the multiplayer lots, while the second type of Townies are restricted to only the multiplayer lots.

The Urbz: Sims in the City

In The Urbz: Sims in the City, Townies were one of the main focuses of the game. In each district, there were five Townies. Unlike the Townies in The Sims, their names and personalities were completely unique. The player's mission was to befriend them to raise their reputation, so the bouncer would let them go to the overnight party in the district. Befriending some of them will often result in the Townie teaching the player a new social interaction. If the friendship is raised enough, the townie will change their style to match the player's. Townies could not become playable by marriage, they can become playable by joining the player's group. Townies could not regenerate, as they were all different and unique.

The Sims 2

In The Sims 2, the Townies went through some improvements.

• Last Names: Townies now have last names, the name "Townie" no longer exists.

• Age Groups: Townies, like playable Sims, are in all life stages from child to elder. This, however, did cause some gameplay issues.

  

  Chloe Gozanga, a townie child in Pleasantview

• Full Access: With a few exceptions, Townies no longer have "native" areas, but can appear anywhere a playable Sim can go. The types of Townies that have "native" areas in The Sims 2 are:
  • Young adult townies from a college sub-neighborhood, who will not appear outside of that sub-neighborhood.
  • Downtownies, who only go to Downtown community lots.
  • "Local" townies from the vacation destinations, who will not appear outside of that sub-neighborhood.
  • "Tourist" townies, who only appear at the vacation destinations.

Note

Young adult townies and DownTownies may appear on a residential lot outside of their "native" area if they are furious with one of the residents.

Each neighborhood has its own set of Townies, though the Maxis-generated names often overlap. (E.g., in Pleasantview, there are two townies named Ivy Copur.) In addition, custom neighborhoods will be generated with the same set of Townies as the starting neighborhood, which is usually Pleasantview. Sub-neighborhoods also have their own Townies, who will have randomly generated names. The "pool" from which Townies' first and last names are drawn is loaded with the names of the staff of The Sims, such as Lakshmi Jayapalan, the lead designer of The Sims 2.

Townies in The Sims 2 have no family relationships, and do not have any other Sims in their family trees. Players should not assume that two townies who have the same surname are related.

Types of Townies in The Sims 2

As expansion packs were released, many new types of townies were created.

• In University, Young adult townies were created to populate the college sub-neighborhoods and to occupy the empty rooms in dormitories where playable Sims live. For the latter reason, they are sometimes called "Dormies".

• In Nightlife, Downtownies, townies who lived Downtown, were created.

• In Open for Business, Bluewater Village and each new shopping district generated its own townies.

• In Pets, many new pet townies were created, which could be befriended and adopted by playable Sims.

• In Seasons, the Garden Club members were created. In most respects, they are ordinary Townies. However, they sell the Plantophic-C potion, which cures PlantSimism. Also, when a Sim applies for Garden Club membership, they will come to inspect their garden and approve (or reject) the application.

• In Bon Voyage, two new types of townies were created, both of which could only be found in the vacation sub-neighborhoods. If invited to a house, they may remain as houseguests for three days.
  • Locals only appear in their own vacation sub-neighborhood, and already know their own local gestures, dance, etc.
  • Tourists are not limited to one vacation destination, and may appear in any of them. Sometimes, they will have already learned some gestures or dances.

• In Apartment Life, many new townies were created that appeared in every neighborhood. They were each a part of a certain social class, and frequently appeared as roommates and neighbors in apartments.

Meeting the Townies

Townies in The Sims 2 could be met in the following ways:

Welcome Wagon

The first day that a playable Sim moved into a house, several Sims would show up at the front door as sort of a "Welcome Wagon". This is announced by a pop-up in the corner of the screen. These Sims were all adults and the game would try to use neighbors as much as possible. If it was not, however, the missing Sims would be replaced by Townies (For example if the player moves a new Sim in and they only had 3 Adult neighbors then all 3 would be used and the game would use 2 Townies to bring the Welcome Wagon to 5). This backed the belief that the Townies in The Sims 2 were made so that if there weren't enough Sims in a neighborhood, there would still be plenty of Sims to make friends with.

However, if Sims are living in an apartment, the Welcome Wagon will use neighbors in the same apartment building instead of Townies.

Just passing by

Townies were also on the list of Sims who could be used in a walk by. In a walk by a Sim is selected by the game. That Sim starts at one end of the lot and walks to the other end on the sidewalk. During this walk they can:

1. Do nothing (just walk to the other side)
2. Run across (Sims will run halfway through the lot in their fitness clothes, stop to stretch, and run out of the lot)
3. Read the newspaper (only if it is a new issue)
4. Steal the newspaper (if they are reading it already and no one shoos them, or if they are either mean or furious at a resident)
5. Use an item that is outside
6. Knock down the garbage can (if they are either mean or furious at a resident)
7. If a gnome decoration is outside, they can steal it.

If there is a child in a family, child Townies may walk by.

Community lot visitors

If a playable Sim is on a community lot (regardless of where the lot is) there is a good chance Townies will be there as well. Next to meeting them as part of the Welcome Wagon, this is probably the best chance to meet a Townie - at least without Nightlife and/or Open for Business. If one of the playable Sims visiting the community lot is a child, child Townies may appear.

Friend from Work/School and Meet the Professor

Sims who had a job (Adult/Elder) or went to school (Child/Teen) had a chance to bring home a Townie with them. This was announced by a pop up in the corner of the screen. The Townie they brought home had to be...

1. In the same Life Stage as them (though there is an exception to this).
2. (Working Sims) On the same career path as them.
   1. If the playable Sim's job had a work outfit, the Sim brought home would be wearing that outfit, even if they had a different job.
   2. In Open for Business, a playable Sim employed at a business may bring home an employee who works at another business.

The playable Sim got a 20 point Daily Relationship with the Townie they brought home. However, Sims with either the Notable Reputation or Sterling Reputation business perk, or the Popularity aspiration benefit Fast Friends get higher starting relationships with that Townie.

The exception to rule 1 was in University, where Young Adults attending their first classes in a major were considered to have "Met the Professors" in that major, even though they did not bring them home.

Gypsy Matchmaker

In Nightlife, Sims could call the Gypsy Matchmaker and ask for the Matchmaking Service. For a fee the Gypsy would summon a Sim that matched up with the Sim who was paying for the service (The more paid, the better the match). Townies were on the list of Sims who could be called on.

As Customers or Employees

Sims who ran a business (which required the Open for Business expansion pack) would meet Townies as customers. In fact, once the player had the pack this became one of the best ways to do it.

Business owners could also hire Townies as Employees.

As Neighbors and Roommates

In Apartment Life, if the apartment building that a playable Sim is living in has empty apartments, Townies will often move in. Once they do, Sims may introduce themselves to them. Alternatively, Sims living in an apartment could advertise for (or choose) a roommate to live with them. Only Townies can become roommates, although, they won't become playable. They have a satisfaction meter and will leave if it falls too low.

Turning a Townie into a Playable Sim

Since Townies were fully made Sims it was possible to make them playable. There were two main ways of doing it.

An Addition to the Family

Townies could be added to the active family in one of the following ways:

Marriage/Joining

Adult/Elder Sims who were engaged to a Townie could ask the Townie to become their spouse. If the Townie accepted, they moved in, usually giving the Sim money and taking their last name, the Townie was then made a PC with a relationship of Married/Joined to the Sim who popped the question.

Moving in

Adult/Elder Sims who either...

1. DID NOT have an Engaged relationship to a certain Townie
2. Did have an Engaged Relationship but wanted a dry run first (As per the player's wishes)
3. Were Friends/Best Friends with a Townie at least in the Teenage Life Stage

Could ask a Townie to Move in with them... The Townie then became a PC and gave the Household money. The now ex-Townie at the player's option could change their last name to the name of the Sim who asked them to move in OR could keep their last name (This required the University EP though).

In The Sims, if a Sim asked a Townie of the same gender to live with them it was considered moving in.

Adoption

Child Townies could be added through adoption.

Resurrecting

If a Townie known to a playable Sim dies, they can be resurrected using the Resurrect-O-Nomitron or the Genie lamp. The Sim resurrected will be made playable and added to the family.

A dead Sim can be temporarily added to a family using Tombstone of Life and Death using the "Add Neighbor to Family" option. They will stay on the lot briefly (long enough to resurrect a family member with the Resurrect-O-Nomitron) before disappearing or becoming a ghost.

New University Student

Players with the University expansion pack could hit the "Go to College" button once they were in the University sub-neighborhood. From there they could choose a Teenage Townie (or 2 or 3 or 4) to send to college. The Townie would become a PC Young Adult student of the college.

Downtownies

Once Nightlife was installed the Townies were divided in to 2 subclasses. The second subclass was the Downtownie. They were richer and usually better skilled than the regular Townie. The Townies had them beat in one area though. The Downtownie was (like the Townies had been in The Sims) restricted to the Downtown area unless invited elsewhere. Downtownies may autonomously call Sims and invite them to dates or outings.

The pre-built downtown sub-hood comes with a pre-made set of downtownies. Although their names are randomly generated for each neighborhood the downtown is attached to, they are recognizable by their appearance and clothing. Who's Who Downtown

Examples of Downtownies:

• Jon Smith Tricou's Descendants: Six teens with a very unique heritage...
• Diva and Mr. Big: A very rich breed of dateable NPCs
• Dateable Slobs: Very mean and messy
• Grand Vampires: The leaders of the undead Vampires.

Aging & Death

Being full-fledged Sims, Townies could die or be killed off in any way that playable Sims could. Since more Townies would be made if the number in the Townie pool dropped too low, some players made a hobby of killing them off.

However, townies still do not age in The Sims 2. With The Sims 2: FreeTime, when a Sim has a birthday, it is possible for the player to select up to three townie friends to grow up with them.

Gameplay issues caused by Townies

Townies were known for causing two non-serious gameplay issues:

1. If a PC Sim becomes an adult, Child/Teen Townies would call asking why the Sim doesn't talk to them any more. This has been fixed with a new feature called "age NPCs" with FreeTime.
2. A bug in the game prevented Teenage Townies that had moved in with PC Sims from aging normally. (This bug has since been fixed by a patch and is here only for reference purposes.)
3. The Townie students in dorms and college are actually adults, not young adults, so they cannot graduate. If someone turns the townies in to young adults (by using SimPE), the townies will eventually graduate. The mascot townies, cheerleader townies, and streaker townies will move to the base hood, but they will still act the way they did on campus. (the streakers will streak to other neighbors houses, mascots will go to their neighbors houses, and cheerleaders will cheer at the other houses) This was fixed in later expansion packs, and the Townies are now Young Adults.
4. While aging child townies with FreeTime, they will still have the grow up aspiration while they are teens, this issue cannot be fixed without using boolprop, a hack or SimPE.

The Sims 3

About Townies

The Sims 3 has been designed to be played with minimal switching between families, so townies are now considered any Sim that is not part of the active household. Townies can be residents of a player's base neighborhood, they can be homeless, and they can be residents of foreign neighborhoods introduced in The Sims 3: World Adventures. Premade worlds start with premade townies but as generations progress these are replaced by game-generated Sims. Townies generated by the game are often extremely badly dressed due to the random system by which some of them are created. Also, they often have very strange genetics, such as blue eyes with red hair, dark skin and round faces that have been dubbed "pudding faces". Generated townies can often be recognized by their clashing clothing and colors. The player has some limited control over this problem thanks to Stylist career path in The Sims 3: Ambitions.

Townies in The Sims 3 have kept many of the improvements introduced in The Sims 2, however with the new open neighborhood, it is even clearer how far out of town they must live. There are relatively few predetermined Townies in The Sims 3, instead most of them are generated by the game when a player loads a neighborhood, and only generated as needed. However, there is a small chance a magician or townie will show up at a big park. Premade worlds like Sunset Valley, Twinbrook and Bridgeport tend to have premade homeless townies such as Lucy Ferne, Des Eyre and Pin Yin.

Some townies, notably those introduced in The Sims 3: World Adventures have 'native' areas: These are Tourists and Explorers.

There is a Townie lot type introduced in The Sims 3: World Adventures, and you can add it in your created worlds. Only homeless townies can move into this lot and the household will never be selectable.

Bridgeport, the neighborhood introduced in The Sims 3: Late Night, is the neighborhood which features the largest amount of twonies, due to the insertion of many new nighttime jobs in many types of clubs, discos which can't be performed by playable Sims because they are supposed to visit the new buildings. Some of those townies are: Victoria Boxer, Armstrong Diesel and Erika Talon.

Types of Townies

Residents

Resident townies live in neighboring houses. They can become workmates and man registers. The game prioritises these Sims over homeless Sims for many tasks. Resident townies can move away completely if story progression is enabled.

Homeless

Homeless townies can sometimes move into household. They are often drafted to fill certain NPC roles such as paparazzi.

Service

Service townies are part of a special invisible household. Service townies carry a variety of inheritable hidden traits.

Ghosts

Ghosts can be found in many nooks and crannies of a world and they can potentially be resurrected. In Ambitions players can generate random ghosts by transfiguring spirits.

Foreigners

Foreign Sims live in Shang Simla, Champs Les Sims, and Al Simhara. They carry inheritable hidden traits relating to their respective cultures.

Tourists

Tourists are townies that appear to be 'visiting' a player's neighborhood from other destinations once The Sims 3: World Adventures is installed. They can be recognized by their clothing, which will be specific to their homeland, i.e. Tourists from Shang Simla will appear in Chinese-style clothes. Tourists also visit destination worlds, so Sims from Sunset Valley or Shang Simla may appear as tourists in Al Simhara, etc.

Explorers

Explorers are randomly generated in destination worlds, never in base worlds. They are dressed in khaki or beige clothing that resembles that worn by Indiana Jones. They appear in destination worlds other than their home; eg, a Sim living in Shang Simla could appear in Al Simhara or Champs Les Sims as an explorer, but never Shang Simla.

Meeting Townies

Welcome Wagon

Much like in The Sims 2 NPCs will visit the player's lot when they first move in to the neighbourhood. However, these are usually playable Sims from other households in town, and not actual townies.

School & Careers

A great way to meet townies is to use the 'Talk to Coworkers' options while working or going to school at a rabbit hole. This will draft or create sims to be your coworkers, and often it will create townies. With Ambitions expansion pack, tattoo artists, stylists and firefighters will often be pre-made, generated or predetermined townies.

Community lots

Townies with certain traits are more likely to gather at the appropriate community lots, i.e. Athletic Sims are more like to turn up at the Gym.

Travel

Travelling to other worlds in World Adventures allows players to access a range of townies with different traits and skills.

Drinking Venues

Going to bars, clubs and lounges is a great way to meet townies, especially townies with the Party Animal trait or celebrities.