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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 4:31 AM
Default University vs modded game/school at home
I know quite a few of you play modded versions where your Sims go to Uni at home. I've never paid that much attention as it wasn't in my thoughts to play this way. Now that I'm a full 3 generations into my hood and the population has expanded I'm looking for different options that don't involve me playing Uni for months on end. First of all is it possible to do both or is it an either-or situation if you decide to mod your game? Can the YA live alone in the main hood or do they have to stay in the family home? Are there major differences in gameplay?

On a general discussion level, I would be interested to know how you felt this improved or expanded your game.
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Mad Poster
#2 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 4:57 AM
I don't have experience with the uni in the main hood mod, but I can say that I've found a solution to the issue of playing nothing but uni for a long period of time: 1) don't keep your generations in lockstep, and you'll always have both uni lots and regular lots in the rotation at the same time, so you don't get completely inundated with uni. and 2) make it possible for your college students to get married and have kids, it makes uni much more interesting, and also helps with the not keeping generations in lockstep thing.
Forum Resident
#3 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 5:03 AM Last edited by teafortwo : 3rd Sep 2020 at 5:06 AM. Reason: I am old and slow
The 'bat box' can be used to (upgrade a Sim) as if an adult Sim has attended university. However, in my game, the Sim must have a B or an A high school grade average, at least 4 skill points in each category and 8 in 3 categories, They also must have studied (by reading books from a bookcase) all of the extra life skills (excluding parenting and marriage counseling). All elementary school students will have studied fire safety. High school students study Anger Management and Parenting. This is just my way and can be adjusted. Oh, and I also have the mod that allows skilling on community lots. (I built a community college where Sims can work on skills and where they can apply for work via the jobs bulletin board mod.)
Mad Poster
#4 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 6:00 AM
The trouble with playing University in the community would be that the default University runs at a much more relaxed pace. If you've developed a playstyle you enjoy that takes advantage of that pace, having YAs run on the same time scale as the rest of the hood may be too rushed. If, however, you are always feeling time dragging on University, then converting it to the same time scale as the rest of the hood may be exactly what you need.

If you are apprehensive about the learning curve of a large new mod, you might try other ways of breaking up University play, having downloaded the mod and undertaken to research it, so that you have it handy and are ready to go any time that you decide that your attempts to play the standard university more flexibly aren't cutting it. If you play multiple households anyway, there's no reason you can't play short university sessions between main hood households instead of doing the University time all in a lump, for example. Mods for altering the lengths of semesters exist, as do cheats for sending students to their finals on your schedule rather than the game's. Personally I always find that semesters seem shorter if I just take my students around to community lots - the semesters have the same number of hours, but if they're out at class time, they can attend twice as many classes (or cut one and still get full classtime) and a semester lasts fewer sessions.

Back up your game frequently, and experiment, is my recommendation.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
Original Poster
#5 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 6:59 AM
Thanks, guys for the response and advice. Well, I definitely have a playing style for Uni. I think in my head I was imagining being able to still play Uni but to also have a YA age group that could stay in the main hood. Basically, I want my cake and to eat it too! @Peni Griffen you are probably right I need to experiment before I make any major changes to my main hood. I might try setting up a test hood for that. What I probably need to do first is just loosen up and shake up my playstyle for Uni. @kestrellyn I don't even let couples live together on campus. Maybe I just need some drama or something to shake things up a bit. Maybe I'll change my ACR settings have a big party at one of the frat houses with all my playables and see who is still in a relationship at the end of it. I might install some of the workbenches in a house and focus more on students having a vocation. I'll have to work something out on the money side of things for that. Something to think about anyway.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#6 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 7:15 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Clashfan
I know quite a few of you play modded versions where your Sims go to Uni at home. I've never paid that much attention as it wasn't in my thoughts to play this way. Now that I'm a full 3 generations into my hood and the population has expanded I'm looking for different options that don't involve me playing Uni for months on end. First of all is it possible to do both or is it an either-or situation if you decide to mod your game? Can the YA live alone in the main hood or do they have to stay in the family home? Are there major differences in gameplay?

On a general discussion level, I would be interested to know how you felt this improved or expanded your game.


You can do pretty much everything you want. Except maybe get married.

You can send sims to uni and mod it's the length. Mine is 8 days + the 72 hours.
You can do a working dorm in the main hood with Lions Gold record
You can do uni from the family home or move out and do uni from your own place with Squinges college pack
You can decide on no uni but instead, run a business, get a job (mods) work at a business, make money other ways like bartending or painting etc.

I have done all of the above and all at once so feel free to ask for specifics.
I decided to not use the Gold record but leave mascots and dormies for the Uni hood, but I play Young Adulthood as a life stage for 10 days, whether they do uni or not so my aging is synced no matter which hood the YA lives in. Some start families.
It's as wide as your imagination.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Forum Resident
#7 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 8:10 AM
It does keep things more interesting to freshen our play style by trying different things. I have more than one hood in play and each one is played differently. Not all of my Sims go to University and every so often a Sim will drop out for some reason. One thing I'm keeping in mind now is that some careers, such as education or medical, should require a college education. Some of the custom jobs , I find, work well for Sims who do not attend college. I believe there is a mod here at Mod The Sims makes all of the townie jobs available to our Sims. When I play a premade hood I use the bat box to upgrade Sims with careers that should require a college education (such as the medical, science, education careers). I have over time built (and saved to file) more interesting dorms and campus buildings. The game provided dorms and buildings can be made much less boring (and more useful) with some creative remodeling. Oh, and there are some well done university hoods and dorms available for download right here at MTS that I find more fun to play in!
Scholar
Original Poster
#8 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 8:15 AM
Quote: Originally posted by joandsarah77
You can do pretty much everything you want. Except maybe get married.

You can send sims to uni and mod it's the length. Mine is 8 days + the 72 hours.
You can do a working dorm in the main hood with Lions Gold record
You can do uni from the family home or move out and do uni from your own place with Squinges college pack
You can decide on no uni but instead, run a business, get a job (mods) work at a business, make money other ways like bartending or painting etc.

I have done all of the above and all at once so feel free to ask for specifics.
I decided to not use the Gold record but leave mascots and dormies for the Uni hood, but I play Young Adulthood as a life stage for 10 days, whether they do uni or not so my aging is synced no matter which hood the YA lives in. Some start families.
It's as wide as your imagination.


I would be most interested in the option of some students living at home and attending classes, some students living in their own place and attending classes, and finally just having a YA stage in the hood with no classes. Although as I'm thinking about this them living on their own and attending classes is not really any different than living on campus anyway so maybe that's irrelevant. Can I accomplish this with Squinges college pack or do I need to add a lifespan mod as well?

Quote: Originally posted by teafortwo
One thing I'm keeping in mind now is that some careers, such as education or medical, should require a college education.
I get annoyed about some of the careers that are not even open to you if you don't go to Uni that should not really require a college education. Food Service, Music and Drama are the 3 that I think anyone should be able to reach the top in without Uni. That would be more realistic than the other way around.
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#9 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 9:55 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Clashfan
I would be most interested in the option of some students living at home and attending classes, some students living in their own place and attending classes, and finally just having a YA stage in the hood with no classes. Although as I'm thinking about this them living on their own and attending classes is not really any different than living on campus anyway so maybe that's irrelevant. Can I accomplish this with Squinges college pack or do I need to add a lifespan mod as well?

I get annoyed about some of the careers that are not even open to you if you don't go to Uni that should not really require a college education. Food Service, Music and Drama are the 3 that I think anyone should be able to reach the top in without Uni. That would be more realistic than the other way around.


The difference is on campus you get dormies and NPC's. When you play UNI in the main hood with Sqinges pack they go to class and exams is all.
You might also want a semester tester https://sunradersimblr.tumblr.com/p...larkys-semester Or you can just use Boolprop and get the apple sculpture one. Each sim doing uni at home needs one. You click it to 'begin class'. This starts the uni timer. When doing uni at home you can use the birthday cake to age the teen to YA and gain a memory of going to uni.

Ageing mods don't affect YA. Uni span ones do. https://modthesims.info/d/302233/fa...r-36-hours.html

For YA not doing uni age them to YA with the simblender (no went to uni memory) then you can get them a job via the simblender and you can keep track of it with this mod https://modthesims.info/d/601315/le...perimental.html
You can also hire them for your business with this mod http://www.insimenator.org/index.php?topic=41835.0
One downfall to not playing uni at all is you need to manually track the days since they still have the uni pannel.

As to jobs not open because of no uni, just use the simblender. Just about anything you want to do you can with mods.
There is also a mod to change what jobs need uni. https://www.modthesims.info/download.php?t=460959

There are very few things you can't do with this game.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Mad Poster
#10 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 4:57 PM
I've hacked my game to have the option of having young adult sims who either do high schooling from the town without moving to a non-existant campus or who want the education and can't afford to move to the campus and Mods to be able to extend the semesters for high school students so those living on campus get to work on it at a much more relaxed pace.I also have school Mods for the lower levels of schooling so they can also do schooling from home if the town isn't big enough to have them attend a school and their parents have maxed out logic or at least one has.Not all of my sims get to attend high school and some don't even get basic schooling until more modern times as education was just a right and not required by law until into the 20th century while my BACC in Dodge is still in the 1840's.
Scholar
Original Poster
#11 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 7:11 PM
That mod from Phaenoh might be just the thing I'm looking for in my main hood and I didn't even know it. As for the other, it does seem like most of it shifting my playing style pretty dramatically. I think Peni's idea of doing a test first is even more valid as I might try this and dislike it. I see a test hood in my future, I've never played any hood but PV so this looks like a good excuse to try one of the others. Well, this has been really helpful and given a bit to think about how to change up my playstyle. So cheers!
Theorist
#12 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 7:55 PM
While we're on the subject of college ... I'm curious if anyone's used ChristianLov's mod Adults go to college? Ya know how that works? Do they becomes YA's? It's an oooooold mod so does it work with all EP's?
Needs Coffee
retired moderator
#13 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 11:01 PM
Quote: Originally posted by CaliBrat
While we're on the subject of college ... I'm curious if anyone's used ChristianLov's mod Adults go to college? Ya know how that works? Do they becomes YA's? It's an oooooold mod so does it work with all EP's?


I'm interested in that too, although I fear it will clash with one of the many other mods that I have.

"I dream of a better tomorrow, where chickens can cross the road and not be questioned about their motives." - Unknown
~Call me Jo~
Field Researcher
#14 Old 3rd Sep 2020 at 11:16 PM
University is a challenge - I do wish it had been better incorporated into a linear gameplay.

I have created an epic list of university challenges that may help keep university interesting.
https://modthesims.info/showthread.php?t=645641
Hope it helps.

In my rotation, sims leave the main Hood for college for one season/10 days.
So for instance, Johnny leaves for college on the last night of fall, the first morning of winter. I play him, and any other teens that were the right age at that season, until they are halfway through university. Then I return to the main Hood to play Winter. At the end of Winter, I send the next batch to Uni, and Johnny is still there. I play him and his cohorts until they finish college; I play the second batch till halfway through. Then Johnny returns to the main Hood for Spring. I like the overlap.
That said, 2 sim days = 1 year for me, so it works
Then if a Sim doesn't go, they get 10 extra days of adulthood.
Forum Resident
#15 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 3:12 PM
Unpopular opinion: I really enjoy playing uni as rotational player.

I rotate through the main hood, and then I rotate exactly one semester through each uni household. The way I set up my age mod means that it takes into account the aging of young adults, and my new CAS townies are 18, while sims who attended college start life in the main hood at 21. To me, this represents the maturity/ responsibility/ self-management that sims get from attending university successfully. It also helps rationalize the better start to their careers. Not all of my sims attend university however, so there's a good mix in my hoods usually.

On average, I spend up to 9 days in a household, but I don't set strict limits for how long to play each family. It's actually the babies that I set my rotation by. When I have a pregnant sim give birth, any other pregnant sims who became pregnant in the same 'year' also need to give birth on their rotation. This keeps all the kids in the same year for school purposes, hence spending up to 9 days - that's the length of my sim's pregnancy.

So with a uni semester being 8 days, it fits perfectly into my rotation and I'm able to not only play and age uni students appropriately, but they also manage to visit home for important events while I'm playing their families in the main hood. The only thing I want to add is a proper spring break for them.
Scholar
Original Poster
#16 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 7:49 PM
I've spent a bit of time since posting this trying to identify exactly what my issues with Uni are. For the most part, I enjoy playing it. My two biggest issues are with dorms and how sims behave on community lots on campus.

I just flat out hate dorms, even when I play a small one and fill it with playables there is just something about the mechanism I don't like. I have a feeling that even if I had access to AL in my game I would also hate apartment dwelling as from the descriptions I've read the mechanism seems a lot like a dorm. In the past, I've used frat houses but my newly arrived sims would still have to spend at least a semester in a dorm and work on pledging and hope for a space to open up so they could move in. What I've done in this hood is I've built a few larger residences and simply move a new student into an established household. Similar to a dorm but it's just one large household. This has been working for me and is a new challenge as most of them don't know each other prior to move in.

My issue with uni community lots is that visiting sims don't hang on the lot for long. Can't get a game of pool going unless you bring along an entire foursome with you as a visting sim will either join too late or quit in the middle. See someone you are interested in sit down at the bar? By the time you get your sim over there to interact they get up and walk off lot. Mingling pretty much never happens on its own you have to self direct everything. For the most part I only use the lots for specific purposes, getting fit, skilling ecetra. I use a club/restaurant in my downtown that is restricted to YA's only for mingling and meet and greets. Which of course lenghthens Uni time as it stops the Uni clock. I like to let them do their own thing in these situations. It can lead to unexpected surprizes like one of my born-in-game sims falling in love with an original dormie. She seemed pretty determined he was the sim for her so I moved him into a house so they could date. I HATE him, I'm completely planning his early demise while she is blissfully happy and constantly rolling wants to date/talk/invite him over. I've tried changing his look, his clothes all to no avail, he remains a total jerk. I even mock him in my mind by sneeringly referring to him as "Tad" when his real name is Todd. It's a problem.

All to say I'm working through my Uni issues and finding new ways to make it interesting and overcome my dislikes.
Mad Poster
#17 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 8:29 PM
The community lot problem is much less of a problem if you get yourself smaller lots. That's why the biggest lot on Land Grant University Campus is 3x3 and full of things to do. Treat anything larger than that as hood deco, or bulldoze it and build something with the same purpose, but much smaller, and with things to do close to the entry point. Big lots + the leisurely YA walk mean that everyone spends all their time covering distance instead of interacting. Having need-fillers also helps, as on any community lot, as hungry sims who don't have to walk ten miles to get to the lone grill on the lot will make hot dogs rather than leaving. I always get lots of good interacting done when I take LGU students to community lots, and the most popular gathering place at my LFT is Estanque Salida, a neglected 1x3 "county park" with a fishing hole, redneck hot tub, chess game, grill, and restroom along with lots of atmospheric trash and weeds. it's always crowded and the sims stay for hours.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Field Researcher
#18 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 8:59 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Clashfan
All to say I'm working through my Uni issues and finding new ways to make it interesting and overcome my dislikes.


I'm trying this too. I'm sort of the opposite of you - I actually love the dorms. Ian Burb had the time of his life living in a dorm that was almost all female. He slept with a lot of them, via ACR, which was super entertaining.

I realized that I was doing something intentionally that actually resulted in less fun. I had playable sims that I had created living in dorms, or pre-made/moved in sims that were living in the Greek Houses, and I was treating them as place holders. They were there, and it was interesting to see what happened (like when Angela Pleasant slept with Jimmy Phoenix the first day of college because they were in the same dorm, while Dustin was in another and ended up sad and dumped), but I only committed to playing them through college if they created a bond with one of my other sims. It just wasn't fun for me to be properly playing one Sim through university, while the others were there and under my control, but who I didn't care about. So now, I'm going to play them through. Maybe allow them to spend one extra season at Uni, so they can keep a Greek House occupied until new students come, but no more than that before they are caught up in the inevitable march towards old age and death.

And I do love the idea of having non-Greek Houses where you have a number of sims acting as roomies. I've decided that 4th year sims aren't allowed to stay in dorms anymore, so that will force everyone to find some other accommodation during their time at uni.
Scholar
Original Poster
#19 Old 18th Sep 2020 at 9:21 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Coriel_Muroz
And I do love the idea of having non-Greek Houses where you have a number of sims acting as roomies. I've decided that 4th year sims aren't allowed to stay in dorms anymore, so that will force everyone to find some other accommodation during their time at uni.
It's more of what my own Uni experience as like. Having to learn to get along with a bunch of people you don't know very well and might not like. I've got 4 guys all recently moved in together, 3 of them are slobs and one is about a 6 on the clean scale. The first meal they all had together was the 3 slobs all trying to out burp or out fart each other and the poor 4th guy didn't know if he should be amused or disgusted. It was pretty funny and kinda gross all at the same time.

I also don't find as much pressure to keep it going as I do a frat with a "placeholder" sim. I can either use the "things stay" shrub or not and then go in and change things up before new people move in. Some of my long running frats become pretty luxurious over time so this is a good alternative to that.
Mad Poster
#20 Old 19th Sep 2020 at 3:04 AM
I used to play campuses and endedup early on having to custom build my own dorms like I later did with apartment lots because I had issues with the EA ones like never having enough computers for playables to write term papers and it always being in use by NPCs to just play games.I had students fail classes because of that issue as well as not being able to get anything to eat because the cafeteria closed down too early and washrooms never being available when they needed it.I made my dorms with apartment units instead of rooms and I'd use a hacked fridge that lets them get prepared meals out even without any cooking skill.I place that fridge in my apartment lots even when there's a functioning cafeteria there for when it's closed.
Link Ninja
#21 Old 19th Sep 2020 at 11:33 PM
I have the mega college pack and I've done a sim doing classes while staying at home - that was fine it was just they left for a few hours each day to go to classes and would have to keep up on their homework, but otherwise was living as part of the family.

I made a residential lot campus many years ago that was meant for this kind of mod, there's 8 'dorm rooms', a library, a hobby hall, and small gym contained on one lot. The 'Dean' is an adult who loves in a small cottage on the lot and maintains ownership of the property. The students go to to classes but otherwise have everything they need to study contained on this one lot, and no distracting mascots or cheerleaders come onto the property. I do like that set up quite a bit.

I liked the options because the residential 'campus' was like a community college or trade school and the college from home kind of felt like online classes, it was good to have a mix because I love having my sims in a YA stage just to see them that way. I still do a majority of UNI and I felt that remodeling the campuses really upped my interest in sending them to dorms and community lots, especially going back and added fun places like bars, restaurants, skating rings etc to the traditional uni campuses.

Uh oh! My social bar is low - that's why I posted today.

Mad Poster
#22 Old 20th Sep 2020 at 7:26 AM
@Charmful -I've had that in my game for a while though my BACC town Dodge is just starting out and will one day want kids to be able to get an education though it will start with then doing high school from home until the town is big enough to support adding a campus and had raised the finds from increased taxes to open one up and start construction.
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