I just recently got the Sims 3 and I was curious about a couple of things.

Who are the people picketing City Hall and how do you find out what it's all about? My Sim tried talking to one but she just stopped picketing and became her new best friend lol.

Can you really only play one family in a town at a time? If I try and switch families it says something about losing all their opportunities etc. and becoming a NPC. I always liked having a few houses to play where I had control over what happened to all of them.

You don't become NCP. Any wishes you have saved just go away. And the points you'd saved up get reset.

It took me weeks to figure out how to switch families when I first got it. So you're doing better than me. Everytime I wanted to play a new sim, I thought I had to make a new neighborhood. I don't think I'm the only one that's made that mistake. I've seen friend's games with a different neighborhood for each different sim they played.

Actually when you switch to a different family the one you leave DOES become npc... as those sims are not playable while you are controlling the other family. The wants and opportunities you have queued for that family will go away because you are switching the active household, but any lifetime points you have already made for sims in the family you are leaving will still be there when/if you come back to them.

Also a word of warning for switching households, if you have story progression on the game will automatically move the family you have left behind along. meaning people will age, have babies, die, move away etc. Some times this is nice and fun to see what happens, but if you are wanting to create a certain story you might not like that the family could change a lot when you come back to it.

The Picketing at City Hall is just a random thing that happens. I have yet to see if there is really a reason to it other than something to talk about in town.

In my game at least they are picketing with the purpose of bringing back the Helper Monkey!

:/ why would they want to bring back an un-needed program that can now sometimes place custom content in the wrong place?

The protests outside City Hall happen every... Sunday, I think? I'm pretty sure they have no purpose other than adding something a little different to the game.

As for switching households, Awesomemod definitely retains wishes, opportunities and points.

If you've installed any EPs or are patched up, sims you've ever played won't be moved out of town (deleted) by EAStory.
You do need a hack like Awesomemod to retain wishes and opportunities. I believe either Twallan's StoryProgression or MasterController can do that too.
Awesomemod and MasterController also make switching households very quick and easy. Just CTRL+CLICK a house or sim to switch with AM, and MasterController makes it an option in the pie menu when you click on another sim.

I think I've seen sims protesting against burglars, fires, and clowns. Their protests make me chuckle because it's not like anyone would be pro-burglars or pro-fires. Clowns are kind of iffy, I do recall seeing a poll that most people think clowns are creepy.

They're a great way to get your new Sims towards knowing 20 people, though, which is an excellent boost for early Charisma.

I went and played for tips at a protest...everyone stopped protested and started dancing...made some good money, too

Thanks.

Protesting about the lack of emergency services provided by the government. That sounds familiar. XD As for the clowns; they're obviously protesting about that annoying one in Sims 1 that used to come into your bedroom and cry all night. DX