Townie

What is a Townie?
Townies are a class of NPC in The Sims and The Sims 2. 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 in to town. They are full fledged Sims with jobs and skills and personalities. In the Sims 2 they even have Aspirations and once Nightlife is installed have turn ons and turn offs. Townies are created by the game going in to the resources you have to create your own Sims and then doing some mixing and matching.

Note that NPCs from other neighborhoods are NEVER Townies.

Townies in 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 your Sim knew them) and were generated whenever your Sim went to a Downtown lot. These Townies all had the last name "Townie" and were deleted as soon as your Sim left Downtown. The only exception to this was if you had a relationship with a Townie, that Townie was then saved so that your Sim could continue the relationship. With the addition of other expansion packs the area that townies showed up in continued to grow.

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 replcement for that townie.

Kinds of Townies in The Sims

 * In Hot Date, they were known as Townies
 * In Vacation, they were known as Tourists, but they all have random last names.
 * In Unleashed, there are no townies, instead, your neighbors will pay a visit to Old Town.
 * In Superstar, there are the Anybodies and the Somebodies in Studio Town.
 * In Makin' Magic, they are known as the Stranges.

Townies in The Sims 2
In The Sims 2 however the Townies went through some improvements.


 * Last Names: Townies now have last names, the name "Townie" was no longer there


 * Age Groups: Townies, like Sims were in all the different age groups. This however did cause some gameplay issues.


 * Full Access: There was no "Native" Townies area. Townies can be generated and appear anywhere your Sim can be.

Due to the complexity in The Sims 2 Townies this page will all but pertain to them.

Meeting the Townies
Townies in The Sims 2 could be met in the following ways.

Welcome Wagon
The first day that a PC Sim moved in to the neighborhood several Sims would show up at the front door as sort of a "Welcome Wagon" this was announced by a pop up in the corner of your 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 you moved 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 you didn't have that many Sims in a neighborhood that you would still have plenty of Sims to make friends with.

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 was selected by the game. That Sim started at one end of the lot and walked to the other end on the sidewalk.

Community Lot Visitors
If your Sim was on a Community Lot (regardless of WHERE the lot was) there was a good chance Townies would be there as well. Next to meeting them as part of the Welcome Wagon this was probably the best chance to meet a Townie (At least until Nightlife and/or Open for Business).

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) The same job on the same career path as them.

The PC Sim got a 20 point Daily Relationship with the Townie they brought home.

The Exception to rule 1 was in University where a Young Adult could bring home an Adult. When this occurred the Sim was to have "Met the Professor"

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 paying for the service (The more payed 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 (This 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.

Turning a Townie into a Playable Sim
Since Townies were fully made Sims it was possible to make them into PCs. 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 had a Relationship of 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 (Those who had the University EP could have the newly married former townie keep their last name though.), the Townie was then made a PC with a relationship of Married/Joined to the Sim who popped the question. (Maxis decided to avoid an anti-gay bashing issue by allowing Sims to be Gay or Straight depending on how the player used them.)

It should be noted that in The Sims Marriage requires a Male and Female Sim.

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
Baby/Toddler/Child Townies could be added through Adoption.

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.

Death
Being full-fledged Sims, Townies could be killed off in any way that a Sim could. Due to the fact that if the pool of Townies dropped too low more would be made, some players made a hobby of killing them off.

Gameplay Issues caused by Townies
Townies were known for causing two non serious gameplay issues


 * 1) If a PC Sim became an adult Child/Teen Townies would call asking why the Sims doesn't talk to them any more.
 * 2) Before a patch fixed this (and hence it is here only for reference purposes.) a bug in the game made it so that if a Teenage Townie moved in, they wouldn't age normally.