Townie

What is a 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.

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.

Kinds 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.

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, however, 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.


 * Full Access: With two 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.

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

Due to the complexity of The Sims 2 Townies, this page will mainly pertain to them.

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.

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 that there would still be 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. During this walk they could:
 * 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 furious at a resident)
 * 5) Use an item that is outside
 * 6) Knock down the garbage can (if they are furious at a resident)
 * 7) If a gnome decoration is outside, they can steal it.

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.

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 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 Roommates
In Apartment Life, Sims living in an apartment could advertise for a roommate (or choose manually) to live with them. Townies are able to become the Sims Roommates, although, they won't became 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 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.

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.

Resurrecting
If a Townie known to the player's 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. 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 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.

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.

The Sims 3
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 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. Twinbrook is one of few neighborhoods to have premade townies like Lucy Ferne and Des Eyre.

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.

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, tatto artists, stylists and firefighters will often be pre-made or generated 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.

Townies
Townies are often extremely badly dressed due to the random system by which they are created. Also, they often have very strange genetics, such as blue eyes with red hair and dark skin. They can often be recognized by their clashing clothing and colors. This may change with the introduction of the Stylist career path in The Sims 3: Ambitions.

Tourists
Tourists are Townies that appear to be 'visiting' a player's neighborhood from other destinations once The Sims 3: World Adventures is installed. Not all tourists are Townies, some are visiting. 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.

Explorers
Explorers are always premade, they are a category of Townie that appears only in destination 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. (For example, a sim living in Shang Simla could appear in Al Simhara or Champes Le Sims as an explorer, but never Shang Simla.)