Hey guys!
I'm having issues with my story progression, it is turned off (not ticked)
But I am still having random sims move into my world.
Any idea why this is happening?
I am using hidden springs, I didn't know if this is known for disregarding story progression?
I also deleted all the initial families, and moved in just 3/4, would this force more sims just so the game could function? I do not understand why sims are still moving in when story progression is off, and I did not have this issue in other worlds I have played.
Thanks in advance!

Are you using the default story progression?

New sims are moving in to fill job positions probably. I recommend you to use Nraas Story progression. It gives you more control over the population of your town

If you use NRAAS you can toggle immigration, too.

Yes, EA's story progression, I tried Nraas and found it a bit too detailed and confusing. I haven't had any problem before, I thought It may be the fact my population is low, but wouldnt the world just generate 'homeless' sims to fill in any job roles? As I have ea generated sims as colleagues and bosses that are not living in my world.

Is NRAAS default settings the same as Ea's? Meaning I only need to tweak the immigration? Leaving the rest running the same as if I was just using Ea story progression -off . With NRAAS I got to the stage I didn't know what meant what, and what was going to progress or not. I didn't know if I manually had to turn off every progression individually (immigration, marriage, babies, etc)

I have done the same with Riverview before, and never noticed computer generated immigration, but maybe I added enough sims of my own. I have split some of the families now and added some new ones meaning more houses are full. No new immigration as yet, but have online played for 1 sim day or so. Hoping that's the issue.

Try deleting beds in houses you want to remain empty. I did that before switching to NRaas

Oh that's a clever idea! Did it work? Or is that why you switched to NRAAS?
Never straight forward with The Sims 3 is it? Haha

Try reading this FAQ if you want to use NRAAS SP.
Also, I made myself a career mod that stops the game from creating sims for the co-worker position and I've never had any more random sims since then.

Ahaha, it really isn't why I switched over, although that's a funny thought. It worked like a charm actually! Sometimes the game can do more than it gets credit :D
For the record, I only installed NRaas to keep the towns alive and still manage immigration manually. It CAN be done. Deleting beds and readding them later is a bit of a hassle, though :p

By default, Twallan's SP will not create new non-service immigrants. To stop service immigrants, use Register. To control emigration add Population StoryProgression.

Whether in addition to or instead of the SP mod (and Register to better control Service/Role Sim spawning), some of you might find it easier to pull the refrigerator out of lots you want to remain uninhabited. Inactive sims will not move into a lot that has no fridge. Or, even easier in many cases, mark the residential lots as (Player) Ownable in Edit Town to keep the rifraff inactive residents out. What some of you might be seeing is not only immigration, but inactive households splitting up and moving around thus taking up more houses as time goes on, households grow in size, etc.

They were probably not moved in to fill job positions but rather role positions:
Stylist is by default a resident, as is the Consignment clerk and any Sim that mans a World Adeventures cash register. The Festival Ground concession stand might require residents too. If any of these objects are present in a world the game will move Sims in for them, regardless of whether story mode is on or off.