How to Control Families in Sims 4 Neighborhood Stories

If you have ever wanted the households in your worlds for The Sims 4 to be more independent and make their own decisions to make them feel like real neighbors, then the Neighborhood Stories feature is for you! Choose how much control these townies have over their lives using the Manage Households settings.

How do Neighborhood Stories work in The Sims 4?

The new Neighborhood Stories free update in The Sims 4 adds a new layer of detail to your gameplay. Your unplayed households in your neighborhood will now make autonomous decisions such as moving, divorcing, having kids, and more. This can make your world feel more alive and realistic without having to use a mod like MC Command Center.

Thankfully, for those who do not desire this feature, it can be limited or disabled. You can edit households to choose whether or not they are included in this autonomous feature. If you choose to include a household, you can even select which autonomous behaviors can occur.

How to Configure Households for Sims 4 Neighborhood Stories

To edit your neighborhood households, you'll go into the world that you are currently playing in (for example, Willow Creek) and find the Manage Households button at the top right of the screen. Once there, select the double arrow either at the top right to edit all households or click on the double arrow on a family to edit them specifically. Now, you can check off or on any of the features you want to be autonomous. If you leave them checked, Sims in unplayed households will do these things without your control.

Related: Neighborhood Stories Free Update added to The Sims 4

Customization for Neighborhood Stories

If you want to edit what the other households can autonomously do, you need to check the box that says Enable Neighborhood Stories. After that, select any of the possible things you want the Sims to do on their own:

• Adopt a Child
• Adopt Cats & Dogs
• Die in Accidents
• Have a Baby
• Join a Career
• Leave a Career
• Move In
• Move Out
• Retire from Career
• Rescue Horses (with Horse Ranch Expansion)

Is Neighborhood Stories for The Sims 4 on consoles?

Players of The Sims 4 on console have long lamented the inability to use mods for gameplay, especially ones that add more immersion with townies. The Neighborhood Stories feature now gives these players the power to create a more immersive world without mods. The Neighborhood Stories feature is available for both console and PC players of The Sims 4.

Want to see more The Sims 4 guides? Check out How to download and use the Wicked Whims mod in The Sims 4 on Pro Game Guides.