How do you set up your university to keep it interesting? what do you put in the community lots how big do you make your dorms do you have separate housing?

I custom build dorms or edit maxis built ones, and I add activities on community lots so my students don't stay in their dorm all day. I also tend to build larger dorms so that my sims can make as many friends as possible in stead of three or four as they would in a smaller dorm. This all adds gameplay.

I haven't made a custom college, but I'd think you'd build one the same way you'd build any other neighborhood.

First, what do you need? A dorm or two; some community lots; some off-campus housing. You can always start small and expand as you go. The important thing is to build lots you will want to use.

I find, using Sim State, that there are lots I never go to, but there were lots not provided that I need. I almost never go to the Quad - there's nothing there but a coffee stand. But students who have spent all their money on moving into a residence can't afford a computer, or possibly even bookshelves, so a lot or two providing these - presumably the library, at least - is essential. Dorms may not have room for musical instruments, and what's a campus with noplace to jam? Sim State came with a gym full of exercise equipment, but no pool or athletic fields, so I provided them. Sims in residences or who don't want to eat mac and cheese day after day will want to buy groceries, and many aspirations regularly roll wants to buy electronic equipment, to give gifts, or to eat out. Why should they have to leave campus to do these things? Basically, build community lots that fit the college theme, and that your sims will want to go to.

I have not figured out how the game figures the move-in cost of a residence. I recommend plopping down a few buildings from your lot bin, seeing how the price ranges come out, and tweaking them. Sim State is set up with two-bedroom residences on Peanut Street and one-bedroom residences on Almond Street; I have added some decayed Stately Homes on Crumplebottom Drive and some bungalows, in imitation of the college neighborhoods with which I am familiar. I'm only currently using two of these, plus the prebuilt Greeks, but it's nice to see them there and know scholarship students needn't be stuck in a dorm.

Personally, I prefer small dorms, because dormies aren't long-term friends and I think University is most fun when you have a lot of playables. Also, big dorms are easy to lose the greeks in when you're pledging and can be slow to run. But you can experiment and see what works for you. No reason not to have both.

You'll want to build appropriate to the history of your community and college. Is it new and raw? A mellowed institution? A land-grant college intended for the practical education of the workforce? An ivory tower with lots of history? A party school? These will affect the look and available amenities. Party Down University may have a bubble-blower on the quad, while Puritan State may hide its wild side in seedy side streets. Maybe there's a secret room in the student center, where the perpetual poker game goes on "in secret" (everybody knows its there, but nobody admits it). Maybe there's a stage full of instruments in front of the student union building where impoverished creative students play for tips. Maybe fishing for your supper in the summer is a campus tradition. Maybe one street of residences is "lover's lane," with cozy cottages flanking a make-out park.

What do you wish your college had?

I'm thinking I want the college to have an old feel that can be updated and still look nice

Totally OT, but I just have to say that Peni, I always enjoy reading your posts. You truly have the heart and soul of a writer... keep up the good work!

As for the subject at hand, I'm a huge Uni fan, but I've never built a custom Uni... that's something I'd like to try in the near future. So far I've only played Academie Le Tour (I wanted to play La Fiesta Tech, but I'm not a big fan of the desert terrain). My sims almost always live in dorms, huge dorms, because I feel there's more "life" there than in separate housing. Separate housing feels almost like playing the main hood, with the exception that the sims can't get married or have kids. The sims will get to the "house, picket fence, minivan, 2 kids and a labrador retriever" stage after uni (maybe )... but while in college, I want them to live life to the maxx.

I usually send a large group of teens to college together; it can be anywhere between 10 and 30. I then divide them into a couple of dorms, usually at least 8 sims per dorm, preferably even more (I have a hack for that). There's rarely room for any dormies... but occasionally I'll use a dorm with more rooms than playables, just to get the pot stirred a bit. My sims have usually found their spouse-to-be in their teens and share the dorm with them, but if not, they'll be horny as hell by now, and try to make advances towards anybody in sight, if I've forgotten to put them in the Friend Zone (ACR). At this point it's time to bring out the Crystal Ball, and find them a suitable mate (I prefer for their First to be playable, not a townie/dormie)... now that it can be an adult as well, and the adults in the main hood are fair game, it's a lot easier. If they happen to find The One this way, fine; they'll stick with that person and continue the relationship after college. If not, they are then free to pursue any dormie, townie, NPC, well whoever they want (and how many they want ).

As far as the community lots on campus go, I really haven't touched them much. Just a slight makeover for the ugliest ones, and of course I always add my most important objects, like the blender, the batbox, the weather controller, and the teleporter cat. My sims mostly hang out at the dorms, they're nicely equipped and modified; no need to go to community lots, they have everything they need. Normally, in the main hood, I'm quite big on going to community lots... but in Uni I just don't bother much. Dunno why.

I have a mod to shorten the semesters, so it's max. 48 hrs each in my game... but I might shorten it even further with the College Adjuster, if I'm getting bored (which can happen, if all the students have found their mates, are engaged and boringly happy, and there's nothing left for them than to graduate and start their 2 kids, a van and a labrador life). OR if the dorm happens to be rockin', and there's a lot going on 24/7, I might make the semester longer (gotta love the College Adjuster!).

I have a boatload of Uni mods to nuke all the annoying stuff (like the idiotic YA walk!), otherwise I'd go nuts. But like this, heavily modded and with the possibility to adjust it exactly the way I want it, I really enjoy playing Uni. No need (yet) for anything fancy/new/extra inspiring, 'cause I've played Uni for such a short time (why did I procrastinate 2 years before finally trying it?!), that I haven't gotten to the boredom-"been there, done that"-part yet. Plus I play Uni so rarely (like once or twice per generation, since I like to send everybody at once), that it feels new and fresh every time.

Why, thank you, ma'am.

I see we play University very differently, while still enjoying it; vive la difference! I keep my college going constantly, partly because I like it and partly because the Greeks will die and the Alma Mater and Romantic Resources household stories be lost to the active game if any hiatus occurs, so I have to keep a steady cycle of new blood coming in. And I use Community Lots, rather than the College Adjuster, to stretch out or shorten my semesters. Sometimes I'll send somebody who needs to get through a semester fast on a walk around campus - start at his home lot and travel by line-of-sight around the whole place, doing a little something at each one. That's the kind of thing you do on campus, after all, and it speeds up the semester without feeling like I'm rushing or cheating myself of any play time; also, without committing any other sims to the increased pace..

I remember one night (this was the night I realized I was going to give in to Ernest's Sage-Ann-or-nobody fixation) I took Jane Stacks around campus, and at every other lot she ran into Ernest, still dressed for the toga party his friend Greg had dragged him to (he did assignments all night). Jane, trying to do Ernest and Jane both a favor and get them over Sage Ann and Castor, respectively, was throwing them at each other, so Jane Greeted him every time - and every time he slipped away as fast as he could. Those two totally should've worked together, but he just. Would. Not. Talk to her. The day I sent Jared Starchild to the Student Union and he first met the nerd girl I made for him in CAS, though, was like magic - it was like he spotted her as she walked in, said: "Why have I never noticed her before?" and headed straight for her like she had a flashing arrow above her head. Neither of those things would have worked nearly as well if I'd kept them at home.

My dorms always seem to glitch up after awhile, too. Pinenut Dormitory almost runs in real time instead of sim time now. I'm a patient person but I have to fast-forward just to get by. I'm thinking of tearing it down and adding the five-person dorm. I mostly use it for incoming greek fodder, anyway, so I'd rather have a small one. But I'm sentimental about Pinenut, because that was where the Alma Maters first went, and some of the things they bought are still there.

I've played the Academie Le Tour, Brainania (from here), and built my own. I only get about 10 townie/dormies per community lot, so the large lots that come with the game feel too much like a ghost town to me - they get bulldozed.

My dorms are fairly small with 6 - 8 dormies. Everything is centered around a the main student area so I always see some action. I've only played dorms, partly because I use the no20K handout and want to keep all the money for my sim, and partly because I run out of time before moving my sim out of the dorm.

I like community lot skilling and socializing, so the dorms have very few skill objects (1 bookshelf, mirrors, an extra easel so my sim can sell another dormie's painting for cash, and sometimes a computer). The idea is that while the students go to class, they need to go to 'labs' for skilling. Buildings are built on themes - a science building, a medical building, a performance arts building etc and career rewards are used to flesh these out. (There's some great cc out there, including x-rays for a medical building.) "Off-campus" lots are usually a small bowling alley with the burger joint from AL, a mini-mart, and some sort of bar. This kind of play will only work will if you don't have long load times.

Labs for skilling is brilliant! If I ever build a custom University I'm yanking that.

So if you play without the $20K handout you get to keep your grant money? That's another reason I like to keep a few continuous households - otherwise unused grant money vanishes into the ether.

I like to build ultra-modern or downright wacky campus buildings, especially dorms. Community lots are compact, multi-level places like malls and labs and libraries. I posted a video tour of a dorm I built on YouTube to give you an idea of the utterly fantastical kinds of lots I like to end up with.

I nabbed the lab idea from Brainania. While those are mini-lots, it works well with regular sized lots, too. For instance, the Le Tour library was re-purposed as Life Sciences. Main floor was aquatic (the large AL aquarium, those whale things that hang from the ceiling, etc.), upper floor was botany (including cow plants - I had also found some great cc botanical prints).




The only money you get is the money you acquire at Uni - including all the grant money.

I don't use the no20K handout mod, but when my sims graduate, I go into buy mode and buy expensive stuff (like paintings and statues) and put it in the inventories of the graduating sims. This way everybody gets what they've earned, and no money is left behind. Most of them then move back in with their parents until they get married, and have the inventory stuff as a nest egg when they start their own families.

I do that too. Best way to do it, I reckon.

I;m going to try and use the lot adjuster for the first time to create these mini lots to make a custom uni it will be a basehood one. And in another subhood I'm going to make a school district with the appropriate places for field trips and skilling sorta like uni but for teens children and toddlers. Only a few residents will live in the school district. the only person living on the uni district will be the uni president and two teachers.

scratch the part about the lot adjuster I trid to install and kept getting an error message so nvm on that lol

I use Academie La Tour and give it a makeover. The only building I tend to keep somewhat intact structurally is the library although I do change up the inside arrangements. I use small dorms the largest having 8 rooms and they are strictly for Freshman. I have a rotating system where the college is in constant use because I like to play Uni and I tend to have a lot of students after the first generation in my hood.

Since I play using a rotation system anyway it seems to work out that I always have at least a few students in college at any given time. Students either pledge a frat/sorority or they move into private housing after their Freshmen year. I find the dorms to be glitchy even when I take precautions between occupancy by deleting and replacing all the chairs to avoid them being stuck. Also the dormies are usually short term relationships unless a Sim has 3 bolts with them and they have potential to become their spouse. If that is the case they either move into private housing with their mate or I get them into one of the frats and they get added to the playable students. I also play with Pescado's "nodormieprotect" which means the dormies needs don't stay static. This leads to a bit of mayhem with them passed out about the place and in a few extreme cases death. How hard is it to remember to eat when the food is put out for you? If they can't figure out that simple step perhaps it's best they don't have an opportunity to breed.

I play with "nodormieregen" so I age up teen townies to YA's and then convert them into dormies to replenish the population. So when I add Sims I add them into the town as teens. This way I get a turn over in the teen population throughout the generations and also in the dormie population. If they've been dormies for a couple of generations and I'm sick of seeing them about the place I usually age them up and convert them into townies or downtownies as I see fit. You need to have around 40 dormies at any given time for the game to function properly if not I've found that you end up with clones popping up on the community lots.

For the community lots I've added in a bowling alley, diner and a pool/poker hall I use these for outings and dates or social networking. I don't shorten the semesters but like Peni use the community lots to use up the students time. My students tend to date a lot either while looking for their future partner or once they've found them. They seldom leave campus on a date so my semesters tend to go pretty quick. They also do most skilling on the community lots as I have a hack that allows for that. The gym, student center and music hall (all custom built lots) are pretty busy places for this reason and not used so much for socializing.

I make good use of TJ's visitor controller on the community lots especially if I want them to meet certain groups of students or keep them away from certain aspiration types. I find the professor's to be completely useless in the game, since the idea of a Sim woohooing their way onto the Dean's list appalls me I can't see the point in socializing with them. Most of them become stalkers if you befriend them and they stalk you forever. So I have a hack that keeps Sims from meeting them first day of class and they are banned from all lots. Usually the only time I ever see a professor is when they show up on a business lot to buy stuff. I don't ban the other Uni NPC's however as they provide a bit of levity, correction I ban the streakers cause I find them annoying rather than funny.

My favorite houses to play are the Greek houses. Lots of parties and socializing but they somehow all manage to still do well grade wise. The household fund builds with every generation and I have them enlarge or add to the house prior to the new kids taking over. I look at it as an alumni legacy for them to donate their school funds to the house. At this point in my game the houses are pretty decked out and plush so the new thing is for the house to fund one group vacation a generation as a bonding experience.

I used to have the students take their funds via the buy expensive crap and put it in their inventory method but they just got too rich to quick back in the real hood. Going to Uni and more than likely graduating with honors is already so much of a boost in life I don't think they need the extra help. The exception to this are any date rewards they receive. Those go straight into their inventory either for future use or for them to sell for cash later in life. Since their parents have to pay to send them to Uni (I use Monique's computer for this) they are likely to have loans to pay once they get out, unless of course their parents are uber rich and foot the whole bill. I don't play with the no20K handout so they do start off with that.

I pre-furnish the private housing with what I consider to be the basics and students that move there are only allowed to take items that they themselves have purchased while living there. The cost of private housing is fairly high in my game so they don't usually have to much cash left over when they graduate. Since they have been using any purchased items they can't get a big cash infusion by selling them off. I also make sure they fully stock the fridge when they leave and if they've upgraded furniture (like a better bed) they have to either leave it behind or replace the original furniture. Basically they have to leave it exactly as it was when they moved in.

The overall theme of the college is ivy league and the hood is decorated accordingly. Mine's more like Bowdoin than Harvard since it's still located in a small town instead of a city. Lots and lots of trees and perhaps the odd dinosaur remains and Celtic ruin about the place.

*sorry for the long post didn't realize I had written a novel until I posted it* :D

Why would you need a hack to skill on a University community lot? That's a feature of University, and why the labs work.

Hmm...is there a tutorial for building custom colleges? It'll be a long time before I need one, but if I ever do, I have no idea how to tell the subhood it's a University and needs to allow public skilling, price residences to rent to students, keep out adult townies, etc.

Posts never do seem as long while you're writing them as they do when you see them posted, do they? You're not going to see me judging anybody else for posting long, though...

Agreed - nice idea. I will add those to my science faculty buildings.

I have two custom unis attached to Little Carping - Redbrick (based on traditional redbrick English universities (my own) and Metropolitan (a modern city university). Redbrick, being more scholarly, gets two seasons of autumn, while Metropolitan, being more social, gets two seasons of summer. It's an easy way to differentiate the overall achievement of students. When I built them, I built custom dorms and community lots. The basics for a uni hood, for me anyway:

1. Central building for all the stuff universities should have. The idea is based on the administration buildings in my own university and its usually built round a quad or open space but I don't fill the building with offices. There's usually a computer room, bookshelves, cafe and a refectory (Americans would call this a cafeteria). I build the refectory with the requirements for a dorm cook and one will turn up and cook meals all day long. And there'll be a shop of some sort, usually selling phones and games and magazines. I tart it up a bit with CC for stationery displays and so on to make it look like a university supplies shop. Loos, of course, and the Redbrick Quad building has an art gallery and nice gardens to sit in. Metropolitan has a swimming pool.

2. Library - nuff said really. You can't have a university without a library. Redbrick has an august Palladian pile (pic) while Metropolitan has a modernist fantasy in white stucco. I got to indulge in different building styles when I was building them.

3. Farts Faculty - I'm one for simulating university life and so you need to have somewhere where your sims go to study. Arts faculties usually have a lecture theatre (with on-wall telly so the sims can see films), a performance space (i.e. instruments), a computer work room (I stick them everywhere on university lots), an art room (easels), practice rooms with different instruments, a reading room with comfortable chairs and desks, a dance studio. I'm trying to get at the sort of activities you'd do as an arts student. Somewhere to sit and chat. There are usually plenty of objects d'art so sims can be poseurs looking at stuff.

4. Science Faculty - same as above except with a science bent where sims can go to be deeply unfashionable - wait, I mean geeky, yes, GEEKY.

5. Sports centre - essential for keeping sims fit and building body skill. Will include a swimming pool and gym. Large shower rooms essential. It's also a good excuse to use those two-story windows as indoor pools look daft inside only one story. This means you can build a balcony overlooking the pool with a cafe on it.

6. Students union - I have one of these because we have them here. It's a sort of basic social place for the most part so there's a bar, a disco and a place to practice instruments as a group. But there's also a small shop (again with the phone kiosk - YA is the time most of my sims get a phone of their own), photo booth, refectory, study room and games room plus a corner somewhere with shabby sofas and a telly.

7. Accommodation office - this is basically a one room dorm dressed up to look like an office building. I like to use this when I have sims move to university from the main neighbourhood. I do this because 1. I like to see the cut scene with the parent dropping off the new student (sometimes just to see which parent turns up - that feckless Phoebe Vaughan took her son Randolph Jnr to university despite the fact that he'd run off several sim days earlier and gone to live with his father) and 2. the place contains that coat hook where you can get new clothes for free and a mirror. I can then change the newly grown sims's doubtlessly hideous outfit for something more sensible and fitting to their personality and can adjust their make-up, hair style, whatever before I send them off to their actual dorm (and thus avoid cluttering up the wardrobes of said dorm with horrible EAxis trash clothing).

8. A night club type place of some sort. Redbrick has Jack's Shack which has a stage and a bar and pool hall and hot tubs upstairs. The beer barrel is a fun addition here. Metropolitan has Confession - a night club based on a club of the same name from a game I used to play.

9. I usually build a row of shops or two - there can be: corner shops with veg for sims who live in their own house (I have stopped playing uni that way now - all my sims live in halls of residence (dorms) these days), pub, clothes shop, internet cafe, coffee cafe, burger stand maybe, launderette (this is a thing of mine), games shop, newsagent.

10. Dorms of course. I build a variety: really bigs ones down to quite small ones. I don't always include all skilling objects. Depends on the dorm. If it's a really big one (and I build really big ones sometimes), it will get all whistles and bells but the smaller ones usually have one or two things missing. This means I am forced to use the community lots which is a good way to get sims to socialise with other students.

Some of these lots are large and it helps I have a really big computer with lots of RAMs. I think that's about it. I find that a sort of minimum to give the place a flavour. I also will have individual residential lots and, usually, a church (the small church in Redbrick is a favourite build of mine).

You just add the university as a sub-hood like you do any other. Because you add it as a university, the game knows that and makes the adjustments for skills.

Long posting? Who? <cough> no, no, not me.

Shows you how long I've had that hack! Probably prior to my adding University.



This is a fantastic idea for all of the reasons you mentioned. I think I'm going to have to appropriate this.

As a side note when my half alien Sims went to Uni I wanted to see who would show up to send them off. No one. Even though their father was very much alive they were alone. I thought that was a bit strange.

If you want a custom college atttached to a specific neighborhood, just choose the "create college" option on the University selection window.

If you want to create a new subhood template (one that can be added to any neighborhood in the future), then here's a tutorial:
http://www.modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=420196

All you need's a place for them to sleep; if you have Nightlife they can go downtown, or they can visit a base hood community lot.

I had a Fortune Sim that mostly stayed in her private residence, building up her talent badges.

if you want to make a base hood uni then lakesidehieghts.blogspot has a great tutorial.
The accommodation office is a great idea!

That typo is annoying. Do you mean this?
http://lakesideheights.blogspot.com...e-tutorial.html

yes i did sorry for the typo

What fun would that be? The guy wants to BUILD a COLLEGE.

One thing that would be fun...build hobby lots on the campus. Really good for if your Sims have lots of skills and are just looking to pass the time before finals.