Okay, tbh, I'm not sure if this belongs here, help, or the WCIF section, because I rarely post on this website and all. So if it's in the wrong place, please forgive me! D:

Anyways, I was wondering, are there any ways to make the story progression, well, keep progressing? It seems like after a couple generations the town is completely deserted, as townies stop having kids of their own. It's not exactly fun to have the only other residents being your relatives, and it's even less fun when you want to have a family and, well, everyone's related to you.

I looked into Nraas Story Progression but I'm a little worried about the lag. Still, I like the idea of it acting on what a Sim wants rather than what the town needs, because I think one of the problems with the townies not having kids is because my family ends up taking all the "slots" or something like that.

Anyways, I was just wondering, does anybody know of ways to keep other families running in Sims? I mean, I suppose I could go around daring Sims to kiss each other until relationships start forming, but even then, the game doesn't make them have kids. (Or at least, not from my experience.)

Just in case, I have all EPs, as well as Master Suite, Town Life, Outdoor Living, and High-End Loft Stuff.

Anyways, thanks for any help I may get!

Well, before I got my new computer, I played the Sims on a laptop. And the performance was horrible with every EP, SP and tons of CC. But I did install StoryProgression because I'm stubborn like that. I also refused to set simdetail on low to make life easier for my laptop. But in all fairness, I can't say that I noticed a lot of difference after installing SP. I just set all the stories for friends and relatives only, and sometimes just for relatives if I had a big family with a shitload of friends.
I could never ever play without that mod though. I didnt only make the townies have kids and get married, the community lots also get more people visiting them. It truly makes the town feel alive.

Get NRAS, if you have a good enough computer there shouldn't be any appreciable lag. I'm only running 8 gigs of ram and a Gforce GT 610 graphics card (these days that's a pretty crap computer. I picked it up refurbished cheap and spent less than $40 upgrading the card) and the only lag I get is a minute or two right after I load while it switches from EA progression to NRAS and I'm running every NRAS story progression scrip there is. You will probably want to change the setting of who it tells you about to friends and blood or it will pop up messages about what everyone in town is doing which may be a source of some of the lag other people complain of.

I'm also running TS3 on a laptop with all but two EP's. I use NRaas Story Progression, Master Controller, Error Trap, and I thiiiiiink Overwatch? I didn't notice that much lag after installing the mods (as compared to running the game with the EP's and no mods). I only started having problems when I started installing the little Story Progression personality modules. I was crashing a lot after installing all of 'em, but I took about half of the personality modules out, and I haven't had problems since (and I've got most of the rest of the Story Progression modules).

It's doable, for sure, but I've gotten to the point where I'll start up the game through the launcher, set the computer down, unload the dishwasher, come back in, select my save file, vacuum, fold some laundry, come back in, and play. A couple weeks ago I made pancakes and did all the dishes over the course of the two loading screens. I don't have issues during gameplay, but load times suuuuuuck.

Thanks for all the replies!

I guess I may as well just download Story Progression, since I can just remove it if the lag is bad. I already have the crappy loading screens, so yeah, that probably won't bother me much.

As for NRaas, I do have Master Controller and Vector, but those were the only mods I'd installed from the website. Though I got Late Night recently and now I'm probably gonna get Overwatch as well because of all the cars and stuff that build up in Bridgeport.

Anyways, thanks! Here's to hoping I won't break my game in doing this. I've never backed up my Sims files, but I suppose I will now, just in case I do need to uninstall it and I have issues. This laptop was built for gaming, though, so based on what you guys said I'm pretty sure I'll be fine ^-^

You should back up your Sims 3 folder or your Electronic Arts folder before installing those Mods.I actually backed up the Electronic Arts folder just before I started my Mod installations and that's what I always backed up before patching my game or installing new Expansion packs.This will also back up your saves because they're in the Sims 3 folder and backing that or the Electronic Arts folder is backing the game saves up.

Alright, thanks. In the event that I did encounter an issue installing, when I moved the folder back in, would I need to put the EP discs in again as well to let them reinstall, or would I just put the ITF disc in as usual?

Overwatch is essential, so is Error trap get that too. I don't know how people managed to play before Twallan wrote those. The other mods from there are merely nice, but those two combined will fix and prevent massive bugs that could seriously screw up your game.

You won't need to re-install the game or the EP's. Starting from the ITF disk should work fine. I believe the computer's knowledge of which games and EPs are installed is mainly in the Registry, which you haven't touched.

I have a suggestion for increasing your confidence in the backup of an entire folder:
(1) Rename it first
(2) Then copy from the renamed folder to a new one
(3) The new one is what you play from, the renamed one (whose contents haven't been altered one bit) is your backup.

I don't believe this is strictly necessary for changing TS3 configurations, I just find that it helps me to avoid making mistakes.

Alright, guys! Thanks for the help. I'll get Overwatch, Error Trap, and Story Progression.

Does anybody here is playing with SP personality modules? Is it worth it?
I want to know it, cuz right now I'm thinking about them, just little bit worry that this can mess all gameplay..

I know some folks do use them, although TBH, I wasn't a real fan of all the notifications those modules generated, with attendant overhead. They really don't mess with game play per se, but they do add to the burden of running the game. Right now, I rely on SP, but limit it to the optional modules of Extra, Career, Money, Population, Relationship, and Skill. Those provide me with all the control I feel I need to keep things moving along. I keep notifications limited to blood and romantic Interests, and once I had my optional settings adjusted to meet my needs, (game hint) I exported those settings and simply import them for a new game so I don't have to try and remember all the options I need to choose to get a flow I prefer.

And while the Caste system seems a little overwhelming and confusing, once you figure it out, it's a powerful tool to keep groups you create active in ways you prefer for your game style. For example, I prefer my teen sims to socialize after school. With all the other teens working part time jobs, that was difficult. As those part time jobs don't really serve any purpose (it's not like working in the bookstore or the spa will help you as a YA in any career), and truthfully, it's not like they need the small income they receive (which doesn't even go to the teen, but to the general family funds anyway), I simply set up the Teen Cate to prevent them from getting any jobs. One setting which then applies to my whole teen town population, and now my town has lots of teens out and about after school for my active teen sims to socialize with. Now, just because I don't see the point to teen part time jobs doesn't mean another player would agree, I'm simply providing an example of the kind of granular control you can exert over the game.

Granted, I am running with a very capable machine, so I find no particular impact on game performance with the setup, but depending on your hardware, YMMV. I would suggest that unless you feel a real bond to some of the personality progression stuff, that you keep them out, especially until you see how your system handles the basic story progression stuff, then add in modules and see how they affect performance for your particular system and style of play.

Have fun with it, because having a functional SP really does make game play a richer experience. Funny thing is, I was hoping EA would have had enough sense to see how important SP was after the TS3 experience, and up their game for TS4. Instead, they must have figured it was "too hard" to do well, and once again just eliminated what could have been, IMO, one of the best features of the series, if logically coded.

I like playing with the personality modules. It adds a little bit of color and flavor to the game, which I like. I have the Lovers and Meanies modules, but I'm considering taking them out to try out different ones.

I guess, I will try it to see how it works to me.Now just need to do a save backup.

Nraas Story Progression is quite interesting... especially in vacation worlds. In my game, one of the premade couples started fighting and then soon became enemies. Wonder if they'll break up.

I'm running on only 3 GB and there's a slight lag, I have all but a few of the EPs.

But it works fine for me overall. If it weren't for Twallan, my towns would eventually be ghost towns too! I want the little buggers to be fruitful and multiply!