Sadly I guess passing notes and chatting during class weren't implemented because teens are supposed to use their phones for that
Right but at least it's something to do instead of just sitting there not doing anything until class ends it's a high school pack but it's anything but actual school related gameplay like even the homework the same like how will it boost up the Sims grade?
Such a missed opportunity not to add private/boarding school and military school options. They wouldn't even have to be a full-fledged experience, just another rabbithole the way EA likes it. But I loved in TS2 where you could invite the private school headmaster over and try to schmooze and impress them.
The carnival would've been really neat, if it (like that utter disappointment of a football field) wasn't mostly set dressing. The school itself, which arguably should've been the focal point of the pack, is desolate because of the limit on Sims per lot and there looks to be NOTHING interesting to do. They had so much creative freedom because an interactive high school experience has not been seen before in the franchise.
The lack of options while in the classroom is laughable. No passing notes to friends/crushes, hoping the teacher doesn't catch you? No group projects, no labs? And the stark lack of after-school activities is embarrassing. Parroting what others have said, nothing for creative Sims—no art club or book club or band or theater for example.
Wouldn't it have been cool to have a student government where you could run for election? Making signs to post around school and asking for support from your peers, having friends campaign for you, practicing a speech, then using your newfound position to make little changes to the school?
I don't know, this pack could've been a really cool addition to the game, but it looks like just another expansion you'd buy and mess around with for an hour before never touching the core features again. Doesn't seem worth the $40 price tag for me.
EDIT: Would've also been cool if they added a mechanic where you'd have to build out your college application, taking into mind your GPA, extracurriculars, rec letters from teachers... but I haven't seen mention of that anywhere.
Such a missed opportunity not to add private/boarding school and military school options. They wouldn't even have to be a full-fledged experience, just another rabbithole the way EA likes it. But I loved in TS2 where you could invite the private school headmaster over and try to schmooze and impress them.
The carnival would've been really neat, if it (like that utter disappointment of a football field) wasn't mostly set dressing. The school itself, which arguably should've been the focal point of the pack, is desolate because of the limit on Sims per lot and there looks to be NOTHING interesting to do. They had so much creative freedom because an interactive high school experience has not been seen before in the franchise.
The lack of options while in the classroom is laughable. No passing notes to friends/crushes, hoping the teacher doesn't catch you? No group projects, no labs? And the stark lack of after-school activities is embarrassing. Parroting what others have said, nothing for creative Sims—no art club or book club or band or theater for example.
Wouldn't it have been cool to have a student government where you could run for election? Making signs to post around school and asking for support from your peers, having friends campaign for you, practicing a speech, then using your newfound position to make little changes to the school?
I don't know, this pack could've been a really cool addition to the game, but it looks like just another expansion you'd buy and mess around with for an hour before never touching the core features again. Doesn't seem worth the $40 price tag for me.
EDIT: Would've also been cool if they added a mechanic where you'd have to build out your college application, taking into mind your GPA, extracurriculars, rec letters from teachers... but I haven't seen mention of that anywhere.
Imagine if you could have chosen to stare at crush or daydream about crush during class. lol
The student body sounds fun, it would have fit in well with valedictorian. We already have the animations from the politician role and the system to get votes and change sims minds is already in there from eco living. We can already protest with signs and a megaphone so just swap it to a campaign to vote for you. After you get elected they could have made use of the cottage living feature for small quest. Students from different clubs want things like more equipment or something. All things already in the game that they could have recycled to make this work. Maybe even allow you to be a bad student body and be removed. lol
correct me if im wrong on this but
since we are going for hollywood high vibes
where are the stereotypical villains?
can evil or mean sims do petty stuff like stuffing people in lockers or bragging about their little achievements towards sims that are already sad?
or heckle other sims?
i want to create chaos and drama
correct me if im wrong on this but
since we are going for hollywood high vibes
where are the stereotypical villains?
can evil or mean sims do petty stuff like stuffing people in lockers or bragging about their little achievements towards sims that are already sad?
or heckle other sims?
i want to create chaos and drama
We can pull pranks, send mean messages to people online, and sims with the Overachiever trait can brag about themselves to other sims. Would have loved to see more though.
If nothing else, I can make a popular sim who cyberbullies, hits people with stink bombs and picks on them outside of class.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
So, overall I feel like they didn't focus enough on the high "school" theme of the pack and branched a little too far out in other things?
Like, while I understand that they were probably limited due to having build the system from the ground up to include multiple sims; the school part itself feels very underutilized.
- No artsy clubs
- football field is very set dressing and couldve used more interaction opportunities.
- no choices in classroom behavior. No talking to other students, misbehaving, passing notes, sleeping, etc while teacher is teaching.
- from my understanding, no choice in trachers/faculty
- prom is a bit too frequent but I can forgive that.
- clubs really couldve afford to be a bit more involved
- things feel a bit too sanitized. I want to see a little more chaos. Mean sims picking fights, stuffing into lockers, etc.
- with lots being limited to 20 sims or so, schools feel very small. This may be unavoidable but it's gotta be said.
- aside from prom every weekend, there didn't seem to be many other school events?
- no option to set a school uniform
- no private/military school options - even as rabbit holes.
The new social bunny app is nice - but I feel like with the focus on phones (whilei t makes sense given it reflects modern stuff) mechanically we lose out on a lot of social interactions. Sims won't get off their phones.
While it might just be my age showing, Im really not into the constant push for "influencer" content. Especially since we've had it many times before and it seems weird to me for teens to have livestreaming careers but maybe I'm just living in a bubble with that. The BobaTea + Thrift store is a neat idea but honestly is something that couldve been put in another pack or a stuff pack or w/e.
And the pier, as much as I like the idea, honestly couldve waited to be put in another pack if it couldn't be fully fleshed out now. I 100% making ToL and HH rabbitholes, but the Ferris wheel? That's something we could've easily gotten so we could view at least OUR active sims (like in one cubicle).
Based on the livestream, it also looks like the autonomy AI could use tweaking. Sims could barely sit down on the floor for a second before wanting to run off to do something else, gets up from their current seat to another seat to do a task they could've easily done at the first seat, or couldn't seem to figure out how to read a electronic book on the bed properly.
Overall, while I have a lot of criticisms - there were good things I saw I just wish school content was more focused in on and fleshed out.
The fact that we have a programming class, but no gym, bugs me. Gym is universal, and the fitness skill is used more in everyday sim life. Sure, it's not confined to a class and doesn't follow the same sort of schedule, but we could just have our sims work out or run around the field outside.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
Such a missed opportunity not to add private/boarding school and military school options. They wouldn't even have to be a full-fledged experience, just another rabbithole the way EA likes it. But I loved in TS2 where you could invite the private school headmaster over and try to schmooze and impress them.
The carnival would've been really neat, if it (like that utter disappointment of a football field) wasn't mostly set dressing. The school itself, which arguably should've been the focal point of the pack, is desolate because of the limit on Sims per lot and there looks to be NOTHING interesting to do. They had so much creative freedom because an interactive high school experience has not been seen before in the franchise.
The lack of options while in the classroom is laughable. No passing notes to friends/crushes, hoping the teacher doesn't catch you? No group projects, no labs? And the stark lack of after-school activities is embarrassing. Parroting what others have said, nothing for creative Sims—no art club or book club or band or theater for example.
Wouldn't it have been cool to have a student government where you could run for election? Making signs to post around school and asking for support from your peers, having friends campaign for you, practicing a speech, then using your newfound position to make little changes to the school?
I don't know, this pack could've been a really cool addition to the game, but it looks like just another expansion you'd buy and mess around with for an hour before never touching the core features again. Doesn't seem worth the $40 price tag for me.
EDIT: Would've also been cool if they added a mechanic where you'd have to build out your college application, taking into mind your GPA, extracurriculars, rec letters from teachers... but I haven't seen mention of that anywhere.
I was also hoping for this and started to think why they didn't implement a system like that. My guess is that they probably thought this entire pack is about enhancing teenage sims lives, sending them off to a boarding school and not being able to play them is the complete opposite of what they wanted to go for. They want us to play teenage sims more not less.
Hi All,
I've never posted on this or any forum before so if I say/do something wrong then please let me know gently. I wrote this letter to organise my thoughts around the high school years pack. It's addressed to the sims team and all fellow simmers to make it read like a letter. As I said this was to organise my thoughts and is highly edited to negate giving offense to anyone, atleast I tried my best to do so and if I failed then I genuinely apologise. Lastly these are my own personal thoughts and opinions that I've formed from all information I have gathered and I suppose I just wanted to offer a perspective you may not have thought of. Okay so here goes nothing but I warn you, it's rather long. Thanks.
Dear Sims Team and Fellow Simmers,
I would like to state that I am not a part of the EA Creator Network, I’m simply a woman who has been playing the sims for most of my life. This means I do not have access to the early version of the Sims 4 High School Years Expansion pack however I’ve watched a lot of videos released by EA Creators in the last 24hrs including LilSimsie, MsGryphi, James Turner, Deligracy, Plumbella, SimLicy and Fantayzia to name a few and I was tuned into the Livestream. After the Live steam I was a bit bored if I’m being honest, though George’s pants were classic, and after viewing reviews and related content, I’m still let down. So, I’m writing this rather informal letter to just express my concerns about the pack and I’ve never done anything like this so I’m not sure how it works or if anyone will even deign to read this, but I figured why not try.
First, I am so impressed with the CAS and Build/Buy content of this pack. I think the pieces that were created were done so well and they are just beautiful, I’m particularly in love with the BoHo/Macrame/Dream Catcher furniture sets. It’s right up my alley. The body hair was done well, though underarm hair is absent, and the sexual orientation feature is brilliant if a bit simple, but I understand that’s a work in progress. I feel that a big thing missing in CAS was additional piercings and by that, I mean Helix, Tragus, Daith and extra lobe piercings as these are things that a lot of teenager’s experiment with. I mean, think belly button and tongue piercings which are common in teenagers especially in the Y2K era of which I was a part of (I graduated secondary school in 2013). Also new nails wouldn’t go amiss. And thank you for bringing back the curved walls. BUT I have a big issue with the fact there is only one reward trait that is the same for every single teen aspiration. Children have four aspirations each with there own individual reward trait specific to each aspiration and I feel that an expansion pack based on teen lives should have had at least equal this. The teen aspirations you’ve given us are decently varied and I can think of at least 2 other potential reward traits that would’ve worked so well with them.
Second, the world is beautiful, very detailed and so well done. My only gripe with it is the school and considering its an expansion pack based on high school game play, it’s a pretty big gripe. It can only be placed on the one lot in this one world. Having only one school that is playable in a game is completely understandable and is enough, however that one school should be able to be placed in any world you choose. For example, a school would be appropriate in Willow Creek, Newcrest, and even Windenburg. Also, I personally cannot wait to bulldoze it and build it anew. I think the school is missing a lot of depth, especially in gameplay. I like that the bus is back, and the car park is essentially confirmation that cars will be coming soon which you guys have been teasing for quite a while. BUT why aren’t cars in this pack? This is the perfect pack to reintroduce cars because learning to drive is a right of passage in most teenagers’ lives. It could have been an elective (I will talk about this black hole in a bit) or something for parents to teach their teens. Also, I think that school uniforms should have been selectable. You gave us all the CAS items we’d need to create school uniforms but left us without the tools to force teens to actually wear them. I’m Irish and in our school system, essentially every single public school has a school uniform. This would have been an easy thing to include as the system is already there from setting work uniforms. And to be able to choose the school colours? Why give us all the matching swatches for the school items and then not be able to choose the school colours so that the uniforms, cheerleading and sports outfits could all work cohesively. Don’t forget the matching pompoms. Or the letterman jackets.
Finally, the Gameplay. So Disappointing. There is no depth with this pack, and everything just feels flat. Where is the customization with school gameplay? The only bit I can see is from the afterschool activities and they’re not fleshed out either. Every student takes the SAME classes at the SAME time on the SAME day, ALL THE TIME. You’re essentially playing a week on repeat. There should have been a progression system in high school similar to university where each term gets you closer to the end and Graduation, which is probably the most anticipated and worked for momentous occasion of a teens life, which apparently doesn’t work (wedding stories flashbacks). Why weren’t there electives included? And by that, I mean school newspaper (writing), Drivers Ed (Driving), Debate, Wood shop etc., which could happen during that free time in the school day or before school or after school, literally there was so many possibilities here. In most school systems I’ve ever seen there is some choice with regards to what subjects you decide to take. Obviously, there was the core subjects like Maths, English and another language but then you got to choose between specific subjects such as History, Art, Business, Science (Biology, Physics and Chemistry individually), Geography and Home Economics (think cooking/baking/sowing). This could have tied in with university so well, where the subjects you chose and how well you did could influence your university application acceptances, as it does in real life. That system is also already in place from how skill levels influence the university application process or is like it. Also, there is no interactions available in class. There’s more interactive choice in school when you don’t actively go with your sims which defeats the whole point of this pack. I feel that term papers and presentations could have easily been worked in also. And SATs anyone?
The afterschool activities are just not done well. I’m so delighted that cheerleading is here and team sports, except there is no actual team sport happening here. Where are the Friday night football games and the school spirit? I mean you gave us the pitch, the scoreboard and the bleachers and none of them function in gameplay really. There is an athletic track around the pitch that your sims can’t even run laps on. I mean case and point right there. I also feel like there is a lack of them when you look back at the sims 3 afterschool options and it’s a shame that they all conflict with each other schedule wise, you should be able to pick more than one. We have pools so why wasn’t there a swim team? An athletics team for the athletic track? Even school band/choir? I have my suspicions here about why especially since you guys have been teasing bands for quite a while, I’d wager there is also a team element in the works. But that’s just one woman’s interpretation of the signs, I could be wrong, and I have been before. I also don’t understand why there wasn’t a teacher career included, I mean how did Ms. Prescott get to be the principal and how can we oust her? Having a career fair is very realistic but I would have loved to have seen university tables here as well with the rival mascots talking to students and such. Prom is a great idea and to be honest it seems the only truly fleshed out aspect of this entire pack. I find no faults with it which is great, but it’s only supposed to be one part of this pack, as it is generally only one, very meaningful mind you, experience in a teen’s life.
In short, this is a game pack that’s been labelled as an expansion pack and in my opinion pales in comparison to the previously released Werewolves game pack, and what’s worse is that it’s reminiscent of the My Wedding Stories pack. It lacks depth in the majority of the gameplay features but more importantly, it lacks variation in it’s replayability. It’s a pack that will be used time and again for the CAS and Build/Buy items and maybe even for Boba Tea, but I can see this pack getting very boring for a lot of sims players very quickly. I myself will probably buy it solely for the CAS and Build/Buy items and maybe to rebuild the school but only when it goes on sale as this is not worth the price of an expansion pack in my eyes. The last expansion pack released was Cottage Living which is, in my opinion, the best pack you’ve ever done in terms of building and gameplay and then Werewolves came which I absolutely loved and that is shocking in itself because I’ve always been more of a witch lover. But University is my most played pack purely because I love the element of going to school and building a life from scratch with my sims and it’s got so much variation that I can literally play it again and again. There is a massive amount of self-discovery and individual personalization features coming alongside this pack that are fantastic, however they are coming in a base game update free to all players regardless of whether they buy the pack or not and I feel that these new features have been used to bolster a pack that is underdeveloped and lacking in its most fundamental elements. The fact is the base game update coming offers more variation and personalization than the new pack release. Body Hair? Wants and Fears? Sexual Attractions and Preferences? ALL coming in the base game update.
I’m writing this because I was genuinely so excited for this pack and given the fantastic content the sims team has put out in the last few years; my expectations were justifiably high. Unfortunately, it seems the Sims 4 High School Years has fallen short of hitting the mark. I genuinely feel that if this pack had more time to be developed and was properly fleshed out, it truly could have been the best pack you ever released. I sincerely hope that in the future we see a return of the absolutely amazing standard of content that was previously released. It has given us a taste of really good gameplay and I’m afraid, also a taste FOR it. Lastly, I just want to say thank you to All, The Sims Team/Gurus, Mod and Custom Content Creators and anyone who reads this, for all the hard and amazing work you lot have done, honestly, I don’t know where I’d be without the Sims as a creative outlet and you all are responsible for making it happen, so really, thank you.
A Faithful Fellow Simmer,
M
Exactly this I mean I do like some of the things they brought in it's just the highschool "The School." Part is what's triggering me "How do the teens learn?" Is my question also someone else Brought up the parenthood projects how are they implemented in this pack? Also what's so silly to me is we have rabbit hole practice but we're throwing a football for a competition like really??? I understand the cheerleading part that's great but going to a rabbit hole for football just to throw a football is beyond dumb I would much rather have the game as a rabbit hole as well like in DU and get moodlet of what happened in game. We have game in Sims 3 and in Sims 4 DU but can't have one in the Sims 4 Highschool? Are you kidding me??? I asked for a Wedding Pack? That turned into a complete trainwreck now Highschool but no actual gameplay about the school? What will homework do for the class? I don't know. Detention what are the consequences? I don't know that either. In class gameplay? Sleep in class, do late homework, pass notes, take notes, ask and answer questions, write on desk, chest on exam when it's exam time. No we have none of these???
The mini trailer showed a sim sleeping in class.
That's a trailer it can have anything added to make it look good, I saw the game creators gameplay the classrooms gameplay what classroom gameplay there's was nothing granted it's not the full version but they said the same about my wedding stories but they released it broken. How come they didn't show the classroom gameplay in the Livestream because there's none. The football just needs to be a rabbit hole especially to have games.
The fact that we have a programming class, but no gym, bugs me. Gym is universal, and the fitness skill is used more in everyday sim life. Sure, it's not confined to a class and doesn't follow the same sort of schedule, but we could just have our sims work out or run around the field outside.
If they run outside on the field, I think there should be a low risk of a passing dragon whisking them off! 🏃🏻♂️🐉
The fact that we have a programming class, but no gym, bugs me. Gym is universal, and the fitness skill is used more in everyday sim life. Sure, it's not confined to a class and doesn't follow the same sort of schedule, but we could just have our sims work out or run around the field outside.
If our sim is on that field and we command them to go for a jog and they don't run around that track, I don't know what to say.
Why wouldn't they create a jogging path that would make them run on that track? Especially since they show sims running on it in the trailer.
My sim better run around that track.
I'm still waiting for the day a pack doesn't disappoint me by completely limiting Simmers' creativity and just adding the bare minimum within it's theme. Just another pack with unfulfilled potential...
I agree and even though I am intrigued by it is in some ways like CL with assets that cannot be used elsewhere and for me that is sad. It seems like EA/Maxis only allow a certain level of creativity. A lot of packs in this game had potential but it never hit its target.
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What— you didn't have hall passes when you were in school? We did. You weren't just allowed to leave class and wander about. If you were caught and didn't have a hall pass, or a viable reason, such as I had, hobbling on my crutches to see the school nurse, you risked getting Detention. Thankfully, I never was sent there.
That again is a (mostly?) American thing. In other countries, mine included, hall passes do not exist even as concept and no one is patrolling the halls either.
What I find strange is that football being even less fleshed out than soccer in DU.
Not to mention that not all classes are at the same time. There were ALWAYS at least one or two classes worth of kids wandering the halls or in the recess activity areas because they were between classes.
I'm still waiting for the day a pack doesn't disappoint me by completely limiting Simmers' creativity and just adding the bare minimum within it's theme. Just another pack with unfulfilled potential...
I agree and even though I am intrigued by it is in some ways like CL with assets that cannot be used elsewhere and for me that is sad. It seems like EA/Maxis only allow a certain level of creativity. A lot of packs in this game had potential but it never hit its target.
It feels like they can only focus on hitting a few targets, in this case they focused on some individual and personal experiences from being a trendy teenager, but many other experiences feels lacking...
I understand that Maxis can only use what they have available but... it doesn't give us a lot of options except for the ones that they had budget to develop for. I have a hard time seeing myself playing a sim who is not like Molly, Ash, Sidney or Kevin in the trailer.
I'm still waiting for the day a pack doesn't disappoint me by completely limiting Simmers' creativity and just adding the bare minimum within it's theme. Just another pack with unfulfilled potential...
I agree and even though I am intrigued by it is in some ways like CL with assets that cannot be used elsewhere and for me that is sad. It seems like EA/Maxis only allow a certain level of creativity. A lot of packs in this game had potential but it never hit its target.
It feels like they can only focus on hitting a few targets, in this case they focused on some individual and personal experiences from being a trendy teenager, but many other experiences feels lacking...
I understand that Maxis can only use what they have available but... it doesn't give us a lot of options except for the ones that they had budget to develop for. I have a hard time seeing myself playing a sim who is not like Molly, Ash, Sidney or Kevin in the trailer.
I mean I am sorta glad you can't actually be bullied, as I have discussed before, but everyone SUPER TRENDY is so weird. Again, it feels like we're back to when the game started and they only had SUPER COOL careers. Remeber it took a year before we had mundane careers.
I'm still waiting for the day a pack doesn't disappoint me by completely limiting Simmers' creativity and just adding the bare minimum within it's theme. Just another pack with unfulfilled potential...
I agree and even though I am intrigued by it is in some ways like CL with assets that cannot be used elsewhere and for me that is sad. It seems like EA/Maxis only allow a certain level of creativity. A lot of packs in this game had potential but it never hit its target.
It feels like they can only focus on hitting a few targets, in this case they focused on some individual and personal experiences from being a trendy teenager, but many other experiences feels lacking...
I understand that Maxis can only use what they have available but... it doesn't give us a lot of options except for the ones that they had budget to develop for. I have a hard time seeing myself playing a sim who is not like Molly, Ash, Sidney or Kevin in the trailer.
I mean I am sorta glad you can't actually be bullied, as I have discussed before, but everyone SUPER TRENDY is so weird. Again, it feels like we're back to when the game started and they only had SUPER COOL careers. Remeber it took a year before we had mundane careers.
Yeah the obsession with being 'cool and trendy' has gotten stale, and very unrelatable to most people.
So...no arts....
yeah....real "good" representation there...sure.
Its all about popularity right?
Be huge on social media and get a hot prom date...excuse me while I am trying not to puke all over my phone as Im typing this.
Ah so diverse....oh so diverse...nerds and jocks...yesyes...seriously its kinda funny how they always talk about inclusion and telling your own story, seems that only includes stereotypical, extroverted, hollywood pretty, spoiled, first world, social media fanatics.
But dont you worry EA/Maxis, my occult, artsy, loner teens are still gonna destroy that picture perfect dull little world of yours
Sure you can chose not to attend it but if there is a lot of talk about it, an npc asks your sim out and is crushed when you reject them because you do not want to do a 3:rd prom and have other sims in that household to play.
I am not happy about prom every week. Wish we could have had more influence in when it will show up.
Sure you can chose not to attend it but if there is a lot of talk about it, an npc asks your sim out and is crushed when you reject them because you do not want to do a 3:rd prom and have other sims in that household to play.
I am not happy about prom every week. Wish we could have had more influence in when it will show up.
I was thinking about this too. Like yeah, you can just not go. But what about all those pre and post prom parties your sim can get invited too? Would have to decline those, and it's just another reminder that prom is happening. And also like you mentioned, being asked out by another sim and having to turn them down, possibly negatively impacting the relationship? I didn't even think about that.
I was trying to see on the calendar during the stream and early access vids if you could at least delete a specific day of it (like you can with Talk Like a Pirate Day and those random holidays from Seasons), but I couldn't see any icons to do so. Seems more like an event like the GF Starlight Accolades that can't be deleted or moved.
I can understand their reasoning for making it weekly, for the sake of aging teens, but it feels like they really didn't take into account any other playstyle than the average short lifespan time limit. Even just with longer weeks and lifespans it feel excessive. I play aging off and 2 week long seasons. That's 8 proms a school year (6 if my summer holiday overrides school events, but something tells me that the prom event is separate from school, so even with a no school holiday, it'll still be something that will happen on its own).
And if we have important holidays during prom? Like New Years or something? I already know I'm gonna get so frustrated with the frequency of proms. Just give us more freedom to choose! I really wanted prom but this is a little much... Not sure why we couldn't just schedule it ourselves.
Yeah, prom every week sounds way too often, I play with aging off so it's going to get repetitive very quickly with sims asking you out to go to prom every week.
I am having more negative feelings about this pack than I expected. I like the CAS, the B/B and I like the world. But I am very worried about graduation. It doesn't seem to be working in the version the game changers have. I am afraid it will break my rotation system.
There should have been more options for schools. We should have been able to create schools on our own and assign students to those schools. I would have preferred more options to the current rabbit hole system. If there is going to be one school, let us at least pick who attends. What's it going to be like when I play Copperdale and teens from everywhere show up, but your next door neighbor does not?
Why do the after school clubs not meet in real life? Football, I understand, but all the others should be possible. Can I have clubs meet at the school?
Why can't children pillow fights with teens!
Why is prom every week? I heard it's so everyone gets a chance to go, but couldn't we have just been allowed to schedule it?
Hopefully, it will be better than I expect, or
modders will fix some of the issues, but I'm on the fence right now.
I'm starting to have more negative feelings about the pack too, it's the limitations of the sims4 that is starting to frustrate me. They said that they wanted to focus on teens forming relationships and hanging out, but after school activities are rabbit holes? The world is so small so Kevin, the main sim in the trailer doesn't even have parents? He is living with another family? The fair looks kinda...dull? We can't build high schools anywhere else or choose who attends them so it's going to be a bunch of random teens?
It really feels like many have mentioned here that they want you to play their story. You should play as a trendy teen who is socially awkward and sells clothes, streams videogames, sneaks out at night and hangs out at the pier and looks forward to prom. Want to play as a teen who likes to to do different activities? Too bad, those are just rabbit holes, not enough budget for that.
I think the main issue is that they decided to make the pack focused on the high school, and as expected, there is very little variable gameplay in it, however, that took the bulk of the dev time. In every thread I've seen over the years asking for a school pack, pretty much everyone in those threads wanted everything school except the actual school itself - what they wanted was prom, and pretty much only prom, and maybe graduation, classrooms and locker lined hallways to take pictures of their Sims in. It's one of the areas I really wished EA continued to ignore the community on.
I really wish instead of wasting all that effort into making the whole interactive school system, they instead focused more on out of school activities. Think the Boba/thrift shop, but in addition, skateparks and skate shops, video arcades and comic book stores, that sort of thing.
I feel like this has become quite a typical problem with Sims 4 packs at this point - they'll add the essential stuff needed for the packs theme, and then rather than going right in and making that essential stuff as in depth as possible, they'll start adding other stuff instead.
With this pack they needed to focus on either one thing, or the other. They should've either made it a pack totally focused on high school gameplay, no world or other stuff, just make the school experience as busy and in depth as possible, or a pack without the school and a focus on activities like the ones you listed. But instead, rather than having either of those things executed in depth, we have both of them executed without depth.
I’m also disappointed about the lack of interaction in class. I thought at least that the teacher might scold our Sims for not paying attention, but teachers don’t seem to interact with students during class, at least according to the early access videos I saw.
Also, in Fantayzia’s video she had her Sim use the vending machine, but instead of food like chocolate bars and pop, it had cream snack cakes. She was disappointed about this and I am too. I think it’s because chocolate bars and pop are not encouraged in school anymore, but that’s too bad because I really want a vending machine with those types of foods.
I have a custom vending machine from ATS4 with junk food, but unfortunately this was created before vending machines were available in the Sims 4, so the CC one is considered to be a fridge, and uses the animations from the fridge instead of vending machine.
I am having more negative feelings about this pack than I expected. I like the CAS, the B/B and I like the world. But I am very worried about graduation. It doesn't seem to be working in the version the game changers have. I am afraid it will break my rotation system.
There should have been more options for schools. We should have been able to create schools on our own and assign students to those schools. I would have preferred more options to the current rabbit hole system. If there is going to be one school, let us at least pick who attends. What's it going to be like when I play Copperdale and teens from everywhere show up, but your next door neighbor does not?
Why do the after school clubs not meet in real life? Football, I understand, but all the others should be possible. Can I have clubs meet at the school?
Why can't children pillow fights with teens!
Why is prom every week? I heard it's so everyone gets a chance to go, but couldn't we have just been allowed to schedule it?
Hopefully, it will be better than I expect, or
modders will fix some of the issues, but I'm on the fence right now.
I'm starting to have more negative feelings about the pack too, it's the limitations of the sims4 that is starting to frustrate me. They said that they wanted to focus on teens forming relationships and hanging out, but after school activities are rabbit holes? The world is so small so Kevin, the main sim in the trailer doesn't even have parents? He is living with another family? The fair looks kinda...dull? We can't build high schools anywhere else or choose who attends them so it's going to be a bunch of random teens?
It really feels like many have mentioned here that they want you to play their story. You should play as a trendy teen who is socially awkward and sells clothes, streams videogames, sneaks out at night and hangs out at the pier and looks forward to prom. Want to play as a teen who likes to to do different activities? Too bad, those are just rabbit holes, not enough budget for that.
I think the main issue is that they decided to make the pack focused on the high school, and as expected, there is very little variable gameplay in it, however, that took the bulk of the dev time. In every thread I've seen over the years asking for a school pack, pretty much everyone in those threads wanted everything school except the actual school itself - what they wanted was prom, and pretty much only prom, and maybe graduation, classrooms and locker lined hallways to take pictures of their Sims in. It's one of the areas I really wished EA continued to ignore the community on.
I really wish instead of wasting all that effort into making the whole interactive school system, they instead focused more on out of school activities. Think the Boba/thrift shop, but in addition, skateparks and skate shops, video arcades and comic book stores, that sort of thing.
I feel like this has become quite a typical problem with Sims 4 packs at this point - they'll add the essential stuff needed for the packs theme, and then rather than going right in and making that essential stuff as in depth as possible, they'll start adding other stuff instead.
With this pack they needed to focus on either one thing, or the other. They should've either made it a pack totally focused on high school gameplay, no world or other stuff, just make the school experience as busy and in depth as possible, or a pack without the school and a focus on activities like the ones you listed. But instead, rather than having either of those things executed in depth, we have both of them executed without depth.
Even tho I am one of... 3? people in the universe who could give or take Seasons either way, it is by far the pack that means the least to me, they did that absolutely right. They focused 100% on the thing it was about.
And I agree, either no world, but school exclusive stuff, OR a "Hollywood Teen Experience" pack without an active school.
There are several things that I do like with the pack but I would have preferred a pack like the Parenthood GP that focused on the system of a school and then let you place that yourself. Like retail, you have the default retail-stores in Magnolia Promenade if you do not want to build a school but you have the freedom to do so if you like.
Hmm… if you wish to take part in the story of High School in their town I believe if will feel very immersive. However, for me that is a very set story, and it doesn’t show the width of what I would like to see.
In the University Pack you could build an occult dormitory so even if you went to Uni in Britechester you would be surrounded by fellow occults every day. If you want to be with other occults in High School you might have to live with them.
Zerbu might solve the problem with the school being placed in one world. We will see how much we can do when it comes to who attends school and so on. Having access to the Go To School mod gave me a taste for the fun of designing schools for different worlds and doing different stories. It feels very limiting to have just one.
We are an diverse bunch of simmers. I would much have preferred more attention given to giving players options when it comes to the actual school. Where is it placed? Who goes there? How are students dressed? Iam not interested in trendi or streaming. Bet there are others who are very excited about the things that I dislike.
We will just have to see what the pack will mean for our own save. With a liberal amount of mods I might be able to get acces to the tools I want. Will wait and see how it works out.
Comments
Right but at least it's something to do instead of just sitting there not doing anything until class ends it's a high school pack but it's anything but actual school related gameplay like even the homework the same like how will it boost up the Sims grade?
The carnival would've been really neat, if it (like that utter disappointment of a football field) wasn't mostly set dressing. The school itself, which arguably should've been the focal point of the pack, is desolate because of the limit on Sims per lot and there looks to be NOTHING interesting to do. They had so much creative freedom because an interactive high school experience has not been seen before in the franchise.
The lack of options while in the classroom is laughable. No passing notes to friends/crushes, hoping the teacher doesn't catch you? No group projects, no labs? And the stark lack of after-school activities is embarrassing. Parroting what others have said, nothing for creative Sims—no art club or book club or band or theater for example.
Wouldn't it have been cool to have a student government where you could run for election? Making signs to post around school and asking for support from your peers, having friends campaign for you, practicing a speech, then using your newfound position to make little changes to the school?
I don't know, this pack could've been a really cool addition to the game, but it looks like just another expansion you'd buy and mess around with for an hour before never touching the core features again. Doesn't seem worth the $40 price tag for me.
EDIT: Would've also been cool if they added a mechanic where you'd have to build out your college application, taking into mind your GPA, extracurriculars, rec letters from teachers... but I haven't seen mention of that anywhere.
Imagine if you could have chosen to stare at crush or daydream about crush during class. lol
The student body sounds fun, it would have fit in well with valedictorian. We already have the animations from the politician role and the system to get votes and change sims minds is already in there from eco living. We can already protest with signs and a megaphone so just swap it to a campaign to vote for you. After you get elected they could have made use of the cottage living feature for small quest. Students from different clubs want things like more equipment or something. All things already in the game that they could have recycled to make this work. Maybe even allow you to be a bad student body and be removed. lol
since we are going for hollywood high vibes
where are the stereotypical villains?
can evil or mean sims do petty stuff like stuffing people in lockers or bragging about their little achievements towards sims that are already sad?
or heckle other sims?
i want to create chaos and drama
If nothing else, I can make a popular sim who cyberbullies, hits people with stink bombs and picks on them outside of class.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
Like, while I understand that they were probably limited due to having build the system from the ground up to include multiple sims; the school part itself feels very underutilized.
- No artsy clubs
- football field is very set dressing and couldve used more interaction opportunities.
- no choices in classroom behavior. No talking to other students, misbehaving, passing notes, sleeping, etc while teacher is teaching.
- from my understanding, no choice in trachers/faculty
- prom is a bit too frequent but I can forgive that.
- clubs really couldve afford to be a bit more involved
- things feel a bit too sanitized. I want to see a little more chaos. Mean sims picking fights, stuffing into lockers, etc.
- with lots being limited to 20 sims or so, schools feel very small. This may be unavoidable but it's gotta be said.
- aside from prom every weekend, there didn't seem to be many other school events?
- no option to set a school uniform
- no private/military school options - even as rabbit holes.
The new social bunny app is nice - but I feel like with the focus on phones (whilei t makes sense given it reflects modern stuff) mechanically we lose out on a lot of social interactions. Sims won't get off their phones.
While it might just be my age showing, Im really not into the constant push for "influencer" content. Especially since we've had it many times before and it seems weird to me for teens to have livestreaming careers but maybe I'm just living in a bubble with that. The BobaTea + Thrift store is a neat idea but honestly is something that couldve been put in another pack or a stuff pack or w/e.
And the pier, as much as I like the idea, honestly couldve waited to be put in another pack if it couldn't be fully fleshed out now. I 100% making ToL and HH rabbitholes, but the Ferris wheel? That's something we could've easily gotten so we could view at least OUR active sims (like in one cubicle).
Based on the livestream, it also looks like the autonomy AI could use tweaking. Sims could barely sit down on the floor for a second before wanting to run off to do something else, gets up from their current seat to another seat to do a task they could've easily done at the first seat, or couldn't seem to figure out how to read a electronic book on the bed properly.
Overall, while I have a lot of criticisms - there were good things I saw I just wish school content was more focused in on and fleshed out.
The Sims 4 hasn't introduced a new musical instrument since 2017
I was also hoping for this and started to think why they didn't implement a system like that. My guess is that they probably thought this entire pack is about enhancing teenage sims lives, sending them off to a boarding school and not being able to play them is the complete opposite of what they wanted to go for. They want us to play teenage sims more not less.
That's a trailer it can have anything added to make it look good, I saw the game creators gameplay the classrooms gameplay what classroom gameplay there's was nothing granted it's not the full version but they said the same about my wedding stories but they released it broken. How come they didn't show the classroom gameplay in the Livestream because there's none. The football just needs to be a rabbit hole especially to have games.
If they run outside on the field, I think there should be a low risk of a passing dragon whisking them off! 🏃🏻♂️🐉
If our sim is on that field and we command them to go for a jog and they don't run around that track, I don't know what to say.
Why wouldn't they create a jogging path that would make them run on that track? Especially since they show sims running on it in the trailer.
My sim better run around that track.
I agree and even though I am intrigued by it is in some ways like CL with assets that cannot be used elsewhere and for me that is sad. It seems like EA/Maxis only allow a certain level of creativity. A lot of packs in this game had potential but it never hit its target.
Not to mention that not all classes are at the same time. There were ALWAYS at least one or two classes worth of kids wandering the halls or in the recess activity areas because they were between classes.
It feels like they can only focus on hitting a few targets, in this case they focused on some individual and personal experiences from being a trendy teenager, but many other experiences feels lacking...
I understand that Maxis can only use what they have available but... it doesn't give us a lot of options except for the ones that they had budget to develop for. I have a hard time seeing myself playing a sim who is not like Molly, Ash, Sidney or Kevin in the trailer.
I mean I am sorta glad you can't actually be bullied, as I have discussed before, but everyone SUPER TRENDY is so weird. Again, it feels like we're back to when the game started and they only had SUPER COOL careers. Remeber it took a year before we had mundane careers.
yeah....real "good" representation there...sure.
Its all about popularity right?
Be huge on social media and get a hot prom date...excuse me while I am trying not to puke all over my phone as Im typing this.
Ah so diverse....oh so diverse...nerds and jocks...yesyes...seriously its kinda funny how they always talk about inclusion and telling your own story, seems that only includes stereotypical, extroverted, hollywood pretty, spoiled, first world, social media fanatics.
But dont you worry EA/Maxis, my occult, artsy, loner teens are still gonna destroy that picture perfect dull little world of yours
Sure you can chose not to attend it but if there is a lot of talk about it, an npc asks your sim out and is crushed when you reject them because you do not want to do a 3:rd prom and have other sims in that household to play.
I am not happy about prom every week. Wish we could have had more influence in when it will show up.
I was thinking about this too. Like yeah, you can just not go. But what about all those pre and post prom parties your sim can get invited too? Would have to decline those, and it's just another reminder that prom is happening. And also like you mentioned, being asked out by another sim and having to turn them down, possibly negatively impacting the relationship? I didn't even think about that.
I was trying to see on the calendar during the stream and early access vids if you could at least delete a specific day of it (like you can with Talk Like a Pirate Day and those random holidays from Seasons), but I couldn't see any icons to do so. Seems more like an event like the GF Starlight Accolades that can't be deleted or moved.
I can understand their reasoning for making it weekly, for the sake of aging teens, but it feels like they really didn't take into account any other playstyle than the average short lifespan time limit. Even just with longer weeks and lifespans it feel excessive. I play aging off and 2 week long seasons. That's 8 proms a school year (6 if my summer holiday overrides school events, but something tells me that the prom event is separate from school, so even with a no school holiday, it'll still be something that will happen on its own).
And if we have important holidays during prom? Like New Years or something? I already know I'm gonna get so frustrated with the frequency of proms. Just give us more freedom to choose! I really wanted prom but this is a little much... Not sure why we couldn't just schedule it ourselves.
I feel like this has become quite a typical problem with Sims 4 packs at this point - they'll add the essential stuff needed for the packs theme, and then rather than going right in and making that essential stuff as in depth as possible, they'll start adding other stuff instead.
With this pack they needed to focus on either one thing, or the other. They should've either made it a pack totally focused on high school gameplay, no world or other stuff, just make the school experience as busy and in depth as possible, or a pack without the school and a focus on activities like the ones you listed. But instead, rather than having either of those things executed in depth, we have both of them executed without depth.
Also, in Fantayzia’s video she had her Sim use the vending machine, but instead of food like chocolate bars and pop, it had cream snack cakes. She was disappointed about this and I am too. I think it’s because chocolate bars and pop are not encouraged in school anymore, but that’s too bad because I really want a vending machine with those types of foods.
I have a custom vending machine from ATS4 with junk food, but unfortunately this was created before vending machines were available in the Sims 4, so the CC one is considered to be a fridge, and uses the animations from the fridge instead of vending machine.
Even tho I am one of... 3? people in the universe who could give or take Seasons either way, it is by far the pack that means the least to me, they did that absolutely right. They focused 100% on the thing it was about.
And I agree, either no world, but school exclusive stuff, OR a "Hollywood Teen Experience" pack without an active school.
There are several things that I do like with the pack but I would have preferred a pack like the Parenthood GP that focused on the system of a school and then let you place that yourself. Like retail, you have the default retail-stores in Magnolia Promenade if you do not want to build a school but you have the freedom to do so if you like.
Hmm… if you wish to take part in the story of High School in their town I believe if will feel very immersive. However, for me that is a very set story, and it doesn’t show the width of what I would like to see.
In the University Pack you could build an occult dormitory so even if you went to Uni in Britechester you would be surrounded by fellow occults every day. If you want to be with other occults in High School you might have to live with them.
Zerbu might solve the problem with the school being placed in one world. We will see how much we can do when it comes to who attends school and so on. Having access to the Go To School mod gave me a taste for the fun of designing schools for different worlds and doing different stories. It feels very limiting to have just one.
We are an diverse bunch of simmers. I would much have preferred more attention given to giving players options when it comes to the actual school. Where is it placed? Who goes there? How are students dressed? Iam not interested in trendi or streaming. Bet there are others who are very excited about the things that I dislike.
We will just have to see what the pack will mean for our own save. With a liberal amount of mods I might be able to get acces to the tools I want. Will wait and see how it works out.