Talk:Non-playable character

ALL NPcs
Hey, what happens if you make all NPC guys playable ( will some new guys come in, and even if you make them playable, will more come up? Will it just be impossible to order chinese and so on? MrWoof

no, u will be able to use npc services because new random sims replace any ones that become playable. hope this helps.68.195.43.207 14:38, September 19, 2009 (UTC)usagi

Time to Split?
This page is already very, very long and it's going to get much longer as TS3 EPs come out. Does anyone else think it's time it was divided or at least reorganised somehow?

Perhaps make this strictly about the role of townies in general, and move the lists of townies to their own pages; eg, "Types of Townies in The Sims", "Types of Townies in The Sims 2", Types of Townies in The Sims 3"?

(Kiwi tea 02:23, December 16, 2010 (UTC))


 * It is I, who actually made it that long... I was just trying to help improve this page, since it was poorly organized...


 * Actually, it's types of NPCs, not Townies. I think it might be right to split the page. I feel like it's well-organized already, but it's still long. I just agree if the page is split, but I have no idea the way to reorganize it again. Nikel23 13:23, December 16, 2010 (UTC)


 * IMO, sub-pages would be sufficient, and it would probably be best to make them sub-pages of Townie. I see no need for a sub-page for "Types of Townies in The Sims", as what is said in Townie is enough. Dharden (talk) 20:17, December 17, 2010 (UTC)


 * I think it would be nice to add a page on Mannequins or at least include information about them on Create a Sim. In Dec 11-Jan 12 I created three Mannequins and until late 2012 I had no idea what they were called. I originally called them Aliens with pale grey skin and later on Mutants when I found out that all Aliens had to have ancestors with green skin.C.Syde65 (talk) 06:43, December 11, 2013 (UTC)

Organizing by topic rather than game?
I'm not sure about that. It could cause loss of game-specific information, especially given the differences between NPCs in The Sims and in later games. Dharden (talk) 22:05, January 3, 2011 (UTC)

Can you kill an NPC?
The only thing I can think of is having a Repair Technician come when there's a TV in the water and try to fix it and die of electrocution. And of course anyone dying of fire. 78.150.224.195 (talk) 19:43, January 25, 2013 (UTC)

Sorry, this was me, I forgot to log in. XXxCrazyThingXxX (talk) 19:44, January 25, 2013 (UTC)
 * Hmm, I've often heard that repair technician can be electrocuted and die. NPCs needs are static, meaning their needs will not go down even if you trap him. That doesn't mean they are immune to death though. I've just killed a proprietor by summoning a meteor as an alien upon him.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  17:10, January 28, 2013 (UTC)

Universal NPCs?
I've heard that some NPCs, like the Grim Reaper, are "universal" meaning that it is the same person for each neighborhood (i.e: a pizza delivery person is NOT universal). Also, interacting with them out of their in-game purposes can lead to game corruption.

So be warned if you're tempted to talk to them!

from simsgothgirl90.222.255.141 (talk) 18:23, December 9, 2013 (UTC)

90.222.255.141 (talk) 15:41, December 8, 2013 (UTC)
 * Some of these NPCs have been noted in their respective articles to warn the players not to interact with them. So yeah, they're not safe to interact with.  Nikel  Talk  –  Vote!  15:51, December 8, 2013 (UTC)


 * yeah this is simsgothgirl. I don't have an account, so i just post stuff from simssgothgirl
 * from simsgothgirl -- —Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.222.225.141 (talk • contribs) 05:30, December 8, 2013 (UTC) - Please sign your comments with ~


 * Sims like the Grim Reaper, Mrs. CrumpleBottom, ideal plantsim, Therapist, etc. have their character files located in the objects.package file in the C:\Program Files location (not where your saved games are stored!). Those files are used by all neighborhoods, which means tampering with them outside their in-game purpose will corrupt that file, requiring you to replace the damaged file, or reinstall the game.
 * Universal NPCs are not to be confused with two other types of NPCs - "Incomplete NPCs" and "Safe NPCs". Incomplete NPCs have a character file that's in the neighborhood folder (meaning that messing with it will cause neighborhood corruption and not game corruption), but the file is either incomplete, or doesn't have the required playable data, which means that they should be left alone. "Safe NPCs" are Sims that have a complete character file in the Neighborhoods folder, and they have playable character data. It is possible to move them in without cheats or hacks, and if you can do this, you know that the developers probably intended you to move them in.


 * For an incomplete list of NPCs that are safe to play as/not safe to play as, see this page. If there's a Sim that isn't on the list, it's best to leave them alone. K6ka (talk | contrib) | NG Userpage | The Last Stand Wiki | The Sims Wiki | YouTube | Wikipedia 21:29, December 9, 2013 (UTC)

Wrong NPC Type
What I find strange is that when I was playing on another PC (a good one though), which I had installed all the expansion packs and stuff packs I own, there was this NPC Food Stand Chef that the game tried to spawn in a walk by. She had the appearance of a Socialite, which could explain why the game tried to treat her like a townie, but her name was (I can't quite remember exactly how it was, but her name was Ivy Byall, and instead of being Ivy Byall, she was called, something like "Food Stand Chef Ivy Byall").

The game kept forcing errors on her so I had to delete her when the game tried to spawn her. I added her to the "Socialites" bin in consistency with standard Socialities, and removed the "Food Stand Chef" bit from her name. But because the game still recognised her as an unsafe NPC that shouldn't be made to behave like a townie, the game continued to force errors on her. So I added her to the NPCs bin, and the game treats her solely like a Food Stand Chef, but she's still called Ivy Byall, and she still looks like a Socialite, although when she spawns on lots with a food stand, she is dressed in food stand chef clothes.

But my question is why there occasionally is a random bug that can result in generating a townie that has something wrong with them? Like one of the generated townies (on my PC) had their plumbbob stuck in their body (if they were made selectable), when it normally only appears in the wrong place for certain safe NPCs like Repairmen and Headmasters, and certain unsafe NPCs like Repo Men. And once there was this female Sim that the game randomly generated, but she was apparently recognised as a male, because she had a male voice - provided by voice actor David Boat. ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 08:07, August 8, 2015 (UTC)
 * Maybe you should check SimPE for that female Sim with the voice of David Boat. And did you do anything that could cause corruption in your neighborhood? Maybe you have to use HoodChecker. Sims  Plumbob.png  Player  (talk) (mistakes) 06:31, August 12, 2015 (UTC)
 * Her gender was ticked off as male, but there's no chance of resurrecting her because I deleted her from the game, because of her ambiguous gender, and because she used the 18th face template. I didn't have SimPE at the time, yet, so I couldn't correct her gender. ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 06:35, August 12, 2015 (UTC)
 * I've just found out, the Sim I mentioned that had the plumbbob stuck in his body didn't turn out to be a townie, he was actually a Big Boss. I checked his NPC type, and his hexadecimal code is 0x0003 which is the code of the Big Boss NPCs, although the main purpose of this NPC was removed prior to release. But I checked the character data of another NPC that the game generated for Life Stories with the same hexadecimal code, and he has Big Boss NPC character data in his character file. ―  C.Syde  ( talk &#124;  contribs ) 10:24, July 1, 2016 (UTC)