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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 3:11 AM
Default What do you make of the Welcome Wagon?
I know some people mod the Welcome Wagon out, but it's one of my favourite features of the game. A strong sense of community spirit has long been an important aspect of my game, and, especially with new CAS Sims, the Welcome Wagon provides a opportunity to make friends quickly. The usual routine for my newly arrived ex-CAS sims is to spend a hour or more studying cooking, and then, at half past twelve, when their Welcome Wagon visitors arrive, they serve them a meal of lunch meat sandwiches.

I am fascinated to see who the game sends. Quite often it sends 3 adults who live nearby, but sometimes it sends adult townies, and in my game it sometimes sends teens. Usually the Welcome Wagon comes about half past twelve on the day they move in, but I've seen the Welcome Wagon turn up several days later. Bianca Monty had been living in her little house in Mendoza Lane, when three business owners from Bluewater showed up. I wondered whether they really wanted to welcome her to the area, or whether they were really trying to drum up business. Sadly their visit was wasted. Bianca was out at work when then came, and after an hour or so, they gave up, and went back to Bluewater. In real life time, it had actually been over a year since she moved in, and, in the meantime, I had bought OFB and attached Bluewater as a sub-hood. So they couldn't possibly have come the day she moved in!

This week I was playing teen Keith Cormier, originally a Veronaville townie, who, along with his girlfriend Mallory Mace, has been appointed Jones & Moltke's representative in Monopolis. He moved into the firm's site office in Monopolis, and the plan is for Mallory to join him in a few days. Anyway I was interested to see who would turn up for the Welcome Wagon for Keith. For several other new residents in Monopolis, "Rich Uncle" Milburn Pennybags, the billionaire financier behind Monopolis has turned up in person to welcome them, often accompanied by his Head of Planning Val Briggs, who in turn brought his wife Fay. So I wondered if they would come for Keith too. It would make sense from Keith's point of view, as he really has to establish a good working relationship with the Pennybags organisation. But no. Keith's Welcomers turned out to be two playable teens and one adult townie. The only one who is really local was Edgar Edwards, a gay Romance teen, who lives with his mum Gwyneth not far away in Euston Road (the Monopolis street names are taken from the UK version of Monopoly). The other teen was from Veronaville -- Julian's little sister Brigitte, who only turned teen last month. The adult townie was Regina Tsvirkunov, who is just one of the nicest Sims in all Veronaville. She is a regular supporter of the Welcome Wagon movement, and has welcomed quite a few newcomers to their new houses. She has a good listening ear, and has made friends with quite a few of them. By the way, though you probably wouldn't guess it if you met her, Regina has the Romance aspiration.

There are actually several Sims, both playables and townies, who regularly support the Welcome Wagon movement, sometimes travelling considerable distances to sub-hoods to welcome newcomers. Apart from Regina, the townies who come to mind are Demi Love and Edward Mellon, though I have to say Demi is a lot grouchier than Regina -- I know who I'd rather have as a visitor! Amongst playables, Julian's parents Martin and Manuela Moltke are also regular Welcomers, though I don't think I've ever seen them travel to sub-hoods. As police officers, it sort of makes sense that they might be more public-spirited than others. Another keen supporter of the Welcome Wagon is gay teenager Ravi Bertino, who lives downtown in an open relationship with Jack Gill. He has travelled both to Bluewater and Monopolis to welcome new Sims. With a friendly personality to rival Regina's, Ravi is the Pleasure Sim who loves to give pleasure to others.

I presume it must be a thing in real life somewhere, possibly in America. We moved into a new "cookie cutter" boxy little house last year, in a new scheme, and we could really have done with something similar. I don't think we know all our neighbours well enough (though I must say some have been very helpful during the Covid crisis, getting shopping for us).

So, what do you make of the Welcome Wagon? If you're one of the people who mods it out, why don't you like it?

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 4:41 AM
I guess I like it, but it sends people that the home owner may not like. Like my alien "invader" living secretly in the woods..I sent him out to argue with everyone. A bunch of old married people is no use to my house-of-girls just looking for a good time. But for nice families, having neighbors and their kids show up is nice.

Stand up, speak out. Just not to me..
Forum Resident
#3 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 6:15 AM
I don't have a welcome wagon in my game because I intentionally modded it out. All my houses are changed over to dorms which means free housing.
Along with notownieregen and npc limiters the welcome wagon does not exist in my game. I don't have to worry about Humble dropping off a computer since he's modded out too.
Alchemist
#4 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 7:33 AM
I did mod out Humble--mostly because I didn't want my sims to get free stuff anymore, but there was a time when he was glitching and causing errors on lot load. So he got the boot along with all the other npcs (the matchmaker, garden club lady, etc.)

The Welcome Wagon, though, I actually like! For some of the reasons you mentioned, AndrewGloria--I like seeing who the game sends. Sometimes it causes people to meet who I may not have introduced. It can also help fresh CAS sims get acclimated to the hood. I suppose I don't need it as much anymore, because I have mods/to increase walkbys and the number of sims on community lots, but still. It's nice for neighbors to come over and introduce themselves. I like apartment gatherings for the same reason, now that I think about it. I know some simmers mod that out too, but idk. I like the sense of community that both the gatherings and the wagon give. So I personally use Twojeffs' Welcome Wagon mod--there's a version that gives you a choice of whether you want one or not. That way if it doesn't make sense for the sim, or if I'm testing something, etc., I can skip it, but it's there if I want it.

About welcoming neighbors to the neighborhood--yeah, it is something we do (or at least my family does), but I wouldn't think it's just an American thing. You'd naturally want to check out the new people moving in next door right? See if they're crazy, or just make sure they know the block rules and don't park in your parking spot, you know? I live in NYC so I've really own seen it for people in the immediate vicinity, like within a 5-6 house radius. But I imagine that in some small towns and well-knit suburbs, you'd go over and introduce yourself to people a bit farther from you. If you're really nice you might give them your house number--especially if the neighbor is next door--or give them some food. I wish TS3 did that; people already could bring food to parties. A Welcome Wagon bringing food would've been really nice.

"May the sunlight find you, thy days be long, thy winters kind, thy roots be strong." -Grand Oak Tree, DAO

XPTL Mod Archive | Change a Mod's Mesh into a CC Object | Increasing the Game Difficulty | Editing ACR 4 Your Age Mod
Bored? Read an unfinished legacy or sim story. | aka Kelyns | she/her
Mad Poster
#5 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 8:32 AM
Love the Welcome Wagon! Welcoming new people is relatively common in my country - people sometimes turn up with wine, cake, a basket of fruit or something else to eat as well. You may also get a welcoming note with a small gift on your porch. In the rural town I used to live, everyone in the street gets a welcome wagon.

My game revolves around the community rather than just around a group of families, so the sooner my Sims can meet new Sims, the better. It is always fun to see who turns up. This is a good opportunity to build the first friendships for new Sims and I take full advantage of it.

Humble is out, though - while I don't really mind him or his computer, he is pretty useless in a hood where all Sims have to mingle and get to know each other.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 9:48 AM
I have a mod that lets me choose whether to accept the welcome wagon or not (most of the time I click no to it, though - I usually have other things to do). I think I've kept that hack to have an option in case I just want to play straightforward (as in no testing CC or storytelling/pictures, just regular gameplay).

As for Humble, I had him running about for a while, but eventually downloaded a mod to get rid of him (couldn't even remember I'd done so, but haven't seen him for a while and there is a file in my downloads, so I must've done it at some point).
e3 d3 Ne2 Nd2 Nb3 Ng3
retired moderator
#7 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 1:18 PM
I'm playing minimal mods at the moment- I get them all, Welcome wagon, matchmaker, humble- I love it all! In Sims 1 the welcome wagon used to bring fruit cake, chocolates or flowers, which was quite nice. I always wished we could have that in Sims 2. In Sims 4 they took it a step further, and the welcome wagon brings fruitcake, but everyone hates it and gets a bad moodlet! I like that my sims get to meet new neighbours, I notice that the welcome wagon always consists of people my sim hasn't met yet, which is why you sometimes get townies or subhood sims if you know a lot of sims in the main hood already. In real life I would hate a welcome wagon, darned neighbours are always interfering and gossiping around here!
Forum Resident
#8 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 2:01 PM
I wasn't even aware you could mod out the Welcome Wagon, but regardless, I like it. It gives new sims something to do, gets friendships going, and can even begin drama if certain sims don't get on. For example, when Lilith first moved into her house Downtown, the Welcome Wagon consisting of Nervous Subject, Vidcund Curious, and Dina Caliente was a disaster. Nervous and Vidcund both ganged up and bullied Dina... Lilith joined in on the bullying...

I also look forward to seeing who shows up, too.

When a game is predictable, it's boring.
That goes for any medium that isn't life.
That's why The Sims 2 is my favourite sims game.
It has elements of unpredictability and everything feels more involved.
The Sims 4 is another story altogether...
Mad Poster
#9 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 3:43 PM
I don't remember modding out the welcome wagon but I haven't seen it since I modded out passerbys. But I never really liked it because my new sims were always busy(getting jobs) when they drop by. I did, however, try and google to see where the concept started. But since the USA has a business called Welcome Wagon that was founded in 1928, it was impossible to do. What I did read, however, was that when immigrants made it to the states they were lonely for their homeland and usually lived in an area where immigrants lived and those immigrants greeted the new immigrant families and welcomed them to their new home.
Scholar
#10 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 4:28 PM
I have the mod that lets me decide whether the Wagon is welcome or not. Usually, if Sims are moving into the neighbourhood for the first time, I let it come, but if they've just moved house within the hood, and particularly within the subhood, I don't always bother. Also, if there are toddlers, I often don't let the Wagon come, because the guests tend to get in the way of childcare. I wish it would make more effort to send singles to meet single Sims, though; they always seem to get married playables, who then spend all their time canoodling and ignoring the newcomer they're supposed to be welcoming! Just out for a free lunch, I guess. (Actually, I think it favours playables over townies, and I don't play many singles.)

I haven't allowed the Wagon at all in Highway to Respite. Refugees on the Highway aren't going to be visiting each other at every night stop, and Respite Sims certainly won't be visiting the refugees or vice versa. Respite itself is restricted entry, so only other subhood residents could form the Wagon. I tried allowing the Wagon with the Visitor Controller set to Ban Non-Locals: it announced the Wagon, then everybody vanished in a square of blue light as they arrived! Refugees arriving in Sedona, and every Sim growing to adulthood there, visits the Village Records Office to apply for work and housing assignments, so everyone meets Tessa Ramirez (the Village Administrator) along with anyone else who happens to be at the Office. In that context, I don't mind too much if they meet refugees who shouldn't be there yet: some of them would have known each other back in Bluewater before the sea levels rose, so that's the head canon explanation. Refugees don't have phones, so can't be contacted to maintain relationships until they actually arrive, and by then the relationship is usually down to 0/0 anyway. Also, pretty much everybody in Sedona works in construction, so they meet each other at work and bring new arrivals home to meet the family.
Mad Poster
#11 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 6:02 PM
I used to have issues with it where two sims in that group would start fighting each other and have a Mod to let me choose which often means it won't happen in a newly started town with my first arrivals as there's likely not any neighbors living there yet.I've got other Mods to bring visitors over to my homes anyways.
Mad Poster
#12 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 6:03 PM
I don't have mods affecting welcome wagons directly but something must be hidden in other mods because usually my welcome wagon is 1 or 2 sims or none. I don't play with townies and maybe this affects the number of sims who came to welcome. I tend to greet them and the only exception is if my sims are out of lot when they arrive. Simsample reminded me chocolates and flowers from The Sims and I really got nostalgic and miss them in TS2.
Lab Assistant
#13 Old 18th Dec 2020 at 7:45 PM
It depends. I play a medieval-style neighboorhood. So peasants who come to a noble or royal moving in are just dismissed, other nobles and royals are usually welcomed. For the merchants it depends on how rich and well connected they are. One of the families is currently very well connected and everyone welcomes them because the current head's sister was a mistress of the king, his daughter is a mistress to the crown prince, one of his sons is married to the oldest surviving daughter of the Sultan and one of his nieces might become a concubine of one of the Sultan's son. They basically slept their way into the circles of nobility and royalty and everyone of course wants to know them and profit from their connections.
Peasants usually also welcome one another when they move in since they all depend on one another and maybe a match between the families can be arranged by meeting this way. Nobles and Royals that come to a peasant's home are also welcomed and taken very well care of. It is after all an honor to be visited by the ruling class...even if it is their fault you live in absolute poverty.
The clergy is welcomed by everyone and she (it is currently only one nun) also welcomes everyone. Would be weird if she wouldn't since she is also the headmistress of the orphanage/house of children whose parents can't take care of them.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 19th Dec 2020 at 5:18 PM
I've had to work with the idea of using teleporter Mods to create a welcome wagon group when there's enough to have it and it's not likley to happen when there's only one or two other families in town besides the founder couple though they'd usually welcome the first new neighbors to their home as a makeshift welcome wagon held at their home and they might give leftovers to the new arrivals to take home and stock their fridge with.
@Katerina Petrova -I'm setting up to play my TOT challenge in the early exploration and colonization of the New World in the 16th century with my game and I'll have sims of many different backgrounds coming to the colony.
Instructor
#15 Old 20th Dec 2020 at 12:59 AM
I would never mod away the welcome wagon, it's too useful to me for that. I want random things to happen to my sims, things that I don't really control, and the welcome wagon adds one of those random elements at important points. Maybe a sim ends up really hitting it off with a sim I would never have expected them to get on with, or they really take a dislike to a sim I hardly expected them to notice. Once a sim lost an unexpected amount of simoleons first day on the lot because of a chance card and had no money left and not a roof over their heads, but that sim's partner had a blast with another sim in the welcome wagon and got a very handy expensive TV they could sell because that other sim decided to network a bit. And Natasha Una got to live her best life in a bohemian organic farming collective together with the Ramaswamis and one of my CAS sims because she and the Ramaswamis were in the welcome wagon when he moved in and I had just started playing the neighbourhood - things just seemed to fallinto place aturally and I could never have planned anything out that would have turned out equally well. If I don't want the welcome wagon because my sims are busy with other stuff it's not difficult to just ignore them and they'll get bored and go away.
Mad Poster
#16 Old 20th Dec 2020 at 4:32 AM
I modded away the welcome wagon. Found it too obnoxious to tell everyone to leave me alone. If I want to meet new Sims I'll go to a community lot which seems more practical to me.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Field Researcher
#17 Old 20th Dec 2020 at 3:09 PM
I like the Welcome Wagon. I've modded Humble out for years (I actually forgot about him, to be honest). Like AnMal said, I like seeing who is in the Welcome Party and what can grow from that (be it good or bad). I did find out that not every household gets one. I'm playing one of the Maxis templates at the moment, and so far I've found out that if the families live with one street between their home address, then they have been included in the Welcome Wagon, but one family on the opposite end of the map got no Welcome Wagon showing up (I have no townies). It seems realistic that no one trekked all that way to greet them.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#18 Old 31st Dec 2020 at 2:50 AM
A new one today: a child as one of the Welcome Wagon party. Monique Chryston, her son Noah, her boyfriend Glenn Wallace (who is also Noah's father) and an unrelated teenage friend Archie Cornwall are staying in the Downtown Changing Hut. They are CAS Sims destined to become townies. (In my game there's always a good chance of them becoming playable one day, and anyway, as townies they're still full citizens of Veronaville with the same guaranteed rights as playables -- life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.) Well I always start my CAS townies-to-be by moving them into a "changing hut", which has no beds, as it's not designed for an overnight stay, but has everything Sims need to spend the day with a modicum of comfort. The main purpose of the changing hut is to make changes to Sims that I can't make in CAS, like changing surnames, and deleting family relationships that were enforced by CAS. But when I've got them there, I generally keep them there till the Welcome Wagon comes, since it gives them an opportunity to meet other Sims and begin the process of integration into the community.

So today I was interested to see who would welcome Monique, Noah, Glenn and Archie to downtown Veronaville. It turned out to be two teens and a child, all of whom live in the next street (Greaves Avenue). The child was Scott Philippine, who came with his older sister Nancy (who is in a live-in relationship with male model Gerard Paton.The other teen was Jolyon Jeffrey,who lives with his parents and brother and sister, a few doors along the street:
Scot and Nancy started life as Maxis Veronaville townies; they only became playable quite recently.

Anyone else had children in the Welcome Wagon party?
Screenshots

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 1st Jan 2021 at 11:46 AM
I have a mod affecting mine which causes it to glitch and sometimes not show up, but even when it does arrive, it's not exactly something I bother with. Usually my newly moved in sims are already off for their first day at work when it arrives.
Lab Assistant
#20 Old 2nd Jan 2021 at 2:32 PM
I always welcome the Welcome Wagon, I use a mod to make it an optional yes/no to having it arrive though depending on the type of house. Usually when I start a house it's perfect to just get my Sim to meet people I've planned for them to meet extra early, although as I primarily play apartments it's existence isn't as essential since my Sim can usually knock a door to meet neighbours at any point they need to.
Lab Assistant
#21 Old 9th Jan 2021 at 3:30 PM
I love the welcome wagon. I usually play neighbourhoods for a good few years, and whenever I start a new one I forget how difficult it can be to get the next generations rolling when nobody knows eachother yet and those long standing childhood friendships which sometimes become relationships just aren't there. Once people start getting to know eachother via the welcome wagon and go on from there my individual starter households start to really feel like a community.
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#22 Old 13th Jan 2021 at 10:43 AM
The next day Jacob Palmer, a Romance Elder townie-to-be stayed in that downtown hut. He got three playable Elders for his Welcome Wagon: Patrizio Monty and Enid Smythe from Veronaville, and Denise Jacquet from Bluewater. There aren't any Elders living downtown, so if the Welcome Wagon decided to send playable Elders, then it had to bring them in from elsewhere. I think there are a couple of Downtownie Elders, but the game chose ones from other parts of the neighbourhood.

I recall kestrellynn posted recently that, if you keep replaying the same Sims moving in, the game always chooses the same Welcome Wagon Sims, suggesting the selection must be controlled by some sort of complex algorithm. However it works, I find it fascinating. Recently I find that the Welcome Wagon always comes about half past twelve on the day that Sims move in. Earlier in my game, my Sims sometimes have to wait several days. That might be just because my game now has more Sims to choose from.

The next "family" of townies-to-be to move in consisted of 2 Elders, 1 Adult and 2 children. (I removed the relationships between the adult and the children.) They got the same Welcome Wagon visitors as Monique Chryston and her friends (see my last post above), i.e. two teens and a child, even though there were no teens in the house (which was again the Downtown Changing Hut).

I'm now playing The Stouts, a new playable family of overweight Romance Sims, who have moved into a new build Jones and Moltke house in Monopolis. (Of course the children aren't Romance -- well, not yet!) I'll let you know who they get for the Welcome Wagon.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#23 Old 14th Jan 2021 at 4:23 AM
I like the Welcome Wagon, I just wish if everyone is out when they get there they'd hang around until someone gets back, or come later in the day when someone's home.

It's a nice way to get to know the neighbors.

In my game, and I don't remember if I've modded it or not, it's always sims that themselves aren't at work/school that day, either unemployed, self-employed, or who have the day off. I'd have to rig for a Saturday move-in to see if I could get teens or children. Sometime or other I'll do that.

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#24 Old 16th Jan 2021 at 4:50 PM
Thanks Sunbee. I never thought of that. On checking I find that Nancy Philippine, Scot Philippine and Jolyon Jeffrey are all enrolled in Simlogical Flexi School: Nancy because she's living with her adult boyfriend; Scot because he's just moved in with his sister, and Nancy wants to spend time with him; and Jolyon because I played the Jeffreys on Christmas Day, and nobody goes to school on Christmas Day!

Enrolling them in Simlogical Flexi School is (at least for me) Is an easier solution than changing the entry day. I wouldn't have a clue how to do that.

The Stouts got three adult women as their Welcome Wagon guests when moving into their new house in Northumberland Avenue, Monopolis: Fay Briggs and Winifred McArdell are near neighbours, living in the nearest occupied houses on either side of them. Bianca Monty came from downtown Veronaville to join them. None of them work on Mondays: Fay and Winifred are stay-at-home mothers. Bianca, in her job of an Executive Assistant, has Mondays off. Actually quite a few Maxis jobs have a Monday rest day. Maybe it's to make sure that there will be Sims available for the Welcome Wagon.

So it's beginning to look as if the game checks that Sims are available before selecting them for the Welcome Wagon. It's more than it does for Sims turning up at community lots. And I'm pretty sure it doesn't check the availability of walkbys on residential lots either.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Mad Poster
#25 Old 16th Jan 2021 at 8:11 PM
AndrewGloria, I use Pescado's lotsynctimer a lot to keep everyone on the same day, and Paladin's season changing vase to keep everyone sorted with seasons (which, iirc, isn't an issue for you). So if a Sim moves out on a Saturday, the third day of spring, the first thing I do is set their new lot to Saturday, and the second thing is set it to third day of spring. There's a warning about 'could break your lot', but I've never had that happen. But I also don't fuss with hour and minute, just day.

I think I probably noticed because in Uberhood play, I play a lot of 'first days' back to back starting out, and it's always the same handful of sims at every house in the neighborhood, and then I load one of their houses, and get them jobs, and suddenly they've dropped out of the Welcome Wagon. You know, I'm in Pleasantview, and I'm getting Dina, Nina, Darren, Mortimer, and Brandi in various combinations, and then Dina gets a job in Law, Nina in Dance, and Darren gets one in Architecture, and suddenly Brandi and Mortimer are the only folks who show up to welcome in the Oldies and Burbs. And then I manage a crash or decide on a major cc change and start the Uberhood over, and it happens all over again. Wait a moment, there's a check for something going on here!

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
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