Instead of University, how about an Education Pack?
stilljustme2
Posts: 25,082 Member
There used to be a Go to School mod, how about expanding it as an EP?
The Sims 4: School Dayz
Customizable Schools (for teens)
These would work with a similar mechanism to the club system in GT. To create a school, you choose the theme, then choose subjects to specialize in (such as athletics, culinary, sci/tech, etc.) and activities based on your content (an athletic school could have yoga if you have Spa Day or basketball if you have City Living, for example). The game will produce a list of students and you can choose up to 8, then there will be a game-generated teacher for mentoring. For example, maybe you have a romantic teen, so he goes to a culinary school with all girls.
And like GTW careers, you can choose to go with your teen or send him/her alone to focus on another household member. The custom school day would be shorter, maybe only about 3 to 4 hours, leaving teens time for part-time jobs and outside school activities.
Study from home/homeschooling options
This would apply to children and teens with at least a B grade average. Similar to the City Living careers, the child/teen would get a call from school asking if they're coming to class or studying at home. If the choise is to go to class they leave as normal, but if they choose study from home they get a list of tasks to complete. They could fish or collect frogs for Biology lab, or interview an older Sim then write an essay, play an instrument for a couple of hours, etc. If their grades drop below a B then they lose the study from home privileges so there's an incentive to do the work and keep the grades up.
After-school activiies
These would be similar to the rabbit hole Scouting option in Seasons; children/teens disappear for a couple of hours after school to a specialized activity, but with the chance of a skill point. A child's Art Club or Music Club could gain a random Creativity point, for example, or a teen Debate Club could gain a Charisma point. A Study Club would have the children/teens return home with their homework already done, giving them more time at home to have fun or work on other skills.
Private school
As in Sims 2, you'd have to impress the school superintendent, or in dire situations an out and out bribe would work.
Private schools would have shorter hours and maybe even some off-days, but the homework would be a lot harder (maybe require doing research on the computer, or more active coursework similar to the study from home options). The benefit of private school could be a higher base salary when entering a career, along with starting at a higher level. If/when we get University it could provide a stipend to cover those out of school expenses like pizza and coffee, maybe even the ability to qualify for certain scholarships.
Extra stuff
Proms for teens (could take place at one of the in-game nightclubs with no YA+ showing up other than the NPC mixologist and DJ), graduation parry, graduation gifts in the mail (either items or Simoleons). To prevent the items from going into household inventory or accounts, they could arrive in boxes (similar to the capsules used for MySims figurines but a lot prettier) then the graduate opens them after they move out. Maybe your grandparents send you a computer or a microwave, or you get some decor items from friends or even Simoleons from that rich uncle Harry who nobody likes but you send holiday cards to stay in good graces.
New objects
Laptop computers a must (draggable from personal inventory), items to support the new customizeable schools -- could include tweaking of current items like allowing the serum maker from GTW usable by science students, etc. Expand the career outfit category and make it accessible without a cheat (patched in) so that players can create/modify school uniforms.
The Sims 4: School Dayz
Customizable Schools (for teens)
These would work with a similar mechanism to the club system in GT. To create a school, you choose the theme, then choose subjects to specialize in (such as athletics, culinary, sci/tech, etc.) and activities based on your content (an athletic school could have yoga if you have Spa Day or basketball if you have City Living, for example). The game will produce a list of students and you can choose up to 8, then there will be a game-generated teacher for mentoring. For example, maybe you have a romantic teen, so he goes to a culinary school with all girls.
And like GTW careers, you can choose to go with your teen or send him/her alone to focus on another household member. The custom school day would be shorter, maybe only about 3 to 4 hours, leaving teens time for part-time jobs and outside school activities.Study from home/homeschooling options
This would apply to children and teens with at least a B grade average. Similar to the City Living careers, the child/teen would get a call from school asking if they're coming to class or studying at home. If the choise is to go to class they leave as normal, but if they choose study from home they get a list of tasks to complete. They could fish or collect frogs for Biology lab, or interview an older Sim then write an essay, play an instrument for a couple of hours, etc. If their grades drop below a B then they lose the study from home privileges so there's an incentive to do the work and keep the grades up.
After-school activiies
These would be similar to the rabbit hole Scouting option in Seasons; children/teens disappear for a couple of hours after school to a specialized activity, but with the chance of a skill point. A child's Art Club or Music Club could gain a random Creativity point, for example, or a teen Debate Club could gain a Charisma point. A Study Club would have the children/teens return home with their homework already done, giving them more time at home to have fun or work on other skills.
Private school
As in Sims 2, you'd have to impress the school superintendent, or in dire situations an out and out bribe would work.
Private schools would have shorter hours and maybe even some off-days, but the homework would be a lot harder (maybe require doing research on the computer, or more active coursework similar to the study from home options). The benefit of private school could be a higher base salary when entering a career, along with starting at a higher level. If/when we get University it could provide a stipend to cover those out of school expenses like pizza and coffee, maybe even the ability to qualify for certain scholarships.Extra stuff
Proms for teens (could take place at one of the in-game nightclubs with no YA+ showing up other than the NPC mixologist and DJ), graduation parry, graduation gifts in the mail (either items or Simoleons). To prevent the items from going into household inventory or accounts, they could arrive in boxes (similar to the capsules used for MySims figurines but a lot prettier) then the graduate opens them after they move out. Maybe your grandparents send you a computer or a microwave, or you get some decor items from friends or even Simoleons from that rich uncle Harry who nobody likes but you send holiday cards to stay in good graces.
New objects
Laptop computers a must (draggable from personal inventory), items to support the new customizeable schools -- could include tweaking of current items like allowing the serum maker from GTW usable by science students, etc. Expand the career outfit category and make it accessible without a cheat (patched in) so that players can create/modify school uniforms.
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Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
8
Comments
I especially want the ability to customize the schools I make for the children/teens. This would be not only a tool for the various ways simmers play their game but a great story telling tool also. I know I'd probably make schools that are reflective of the way I tell my stories so I'd have.. military schools, finishing schools, art's and crafts schools and science and tech schools not to mention DZ's Center For Children Who Can't Read Good would definitely be a thing in one of my saves.
I'd love to customize the skills the kids focus on learning also. I'd like it to be like clubs in that you could go in and change it later somehow .. maybe add new skills as new packs come out or the school could come under new management with a new focus moving forward
I also like the idea of children making friends in this way... while at school. It would be helpful and a good way to advance those stories.
One thing I was thinking is elementary school (child age) is where you get all your basic education, plus options are pretty limited in what children can do so having them do traditional school/private school/study at home makes more sense. Teens can use everything that YA+ can so you have a lot more resources for planning a custom school. Plus, this pack could give the attention to teens that they really need.
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
In place of a very restrictively named event, it would be nice if it was labelled as a School Dance, and have the option for the player to rename it as whatever they want.
In addition to the name, it would also be nice if the player could control the style of the event:
Choose a venue, and decorate it
Decide on the music. DJ? Stereo? Pick a live band? (if bands are ever added to the game)
Select the catering. Punch bowl? Full bar? Snack table?
Choose a dress code. Formal? Party wear? Everyday casual? Costume?
..........
Not all schools have a ceremony with a cap and gown at the end of your education. More options would be nice.
Graduation? No graduation? End of year party or no? Muck up day, or not?
From Here
I'm surprised that they havent' been added yet. They've got to be saving them for an education themed pack.
I was thinking the same thing -- it could be a special lot like Von Haunt Estate or Myshuno Meadows where you can't change the lot type, but you can customize the inside to set up different classrooms. You can only access the classroom you're assigned for your class, but there'll be a common area where you can meet teens from other classes. You could customize that common area (for example if you have GT you could add foosball or the giant arcade machine), but the pack would come with items like a pool table, table tennis and maybe some two-person arcade games (the ones you can sit to play -- I loved those) for the common area, and a snack bar (modeled after the food stalls) to grab lunch or a snack (or if you have Parenthood you could bring a sack lunch).
Fun must be always -- Tomas Hertl (San Jose Sharks hockey player)
So I would still want the integrated idea that was implemented in Sims 3 to spend a "Portion of my time at University" and the normal sim world stop as it did. But also in the sense just like Sims3 Getting a better pay rate since the Sim did get a degree.
But would also like in integration as someone mentioned being able to be a professor. I personally think they didn't really give us many options in the Go to Work expansion and this would be an awesome type of Go to work thing for your sims who are in that field. Which definitely adds a bit more variety. As I was not impressed with that expansion.
Education would cover all age groups.
This opinion hasn’t gone over well in the past but I hope they break up these some of these ideas up into different packs so we end up with something with a lot more detail.
I love the idea of customisable active schools, yes please! I like the idea of having themed schools too, so you might have a sports school or a business school. I'd like to have a more customised, individual education experience for my teens and have them meet other teens with similar interests and background. Talking of backgrounds, it'd be nice to have options to create state or fee-paying schools, and day or boarding schools.
I do wish that the school week was less generic. I wish I could have my teen specialise in a certain subject group 'performing arts' [music, singing, etc], 'creative' [art and writing], 'sports', 'business and technology', etc. And then instead of having that pointless homework book to do every... single... day... we'd get actual homework tasks that compliment our Sims' personalities. My wannabe journalist might take 'communications', for example and work on their charisma and writing skills. The current school gameplay bores me to tears.
You could set it to only allow certain occults too, 'Alien school' or 'Vampire school'.
I would love after school activities! I like scouting so more of that sort of thing would be great.
I really liked the private school of TS2 and I liked impressing the headmaster, I found it to be an entertaining challenge and I mastered it after a while! I liked that they wore a uniform and that they returned each day. I preferred it to the boarding school from TS3 because I wanted to play with my kids, not just pack them away for weeks! I like the idea that attending private school will give you meaty scholarships and maybe some helpful connections later in life. Maybe you have to keep your grades up here because you are representing the school (as opposed to home schooling, see below) but if you are a Nathan Prescott type character you might be able to 'buy' good grades and stay in school even if you are lazy and obnoxious.
I would LOVE a home schooling option but I'm less keen on having it only for 'B' grade and above. Here in the UK some parents choose to pull their kids out of school if they feel like a disability isn't being properly supported, if their child is being bullied or if they have social difficulties. So you might find a child who has a 'D' grade at school could raise their grade to an 'A' with one-on-one tutoring at home. At least that's how I'd want to play it so I wouldn't like that minimum grade. I see your thinking on that though.
I think home schooling would be great for history players too, definitely a very useful feature!
I would LOVE active proms and graduations! I was SO annoyed by TS3 Generations because I was expecting to see those events happening and they were just rabbithole events. I was really disappointed by that. So having active schools would allow for things like that to happen properly! My Sims need that first kiss on the dance floor moment! It feels weird that in a life simulation game they are missing these rites of passage.
I like Movotti's idea of being able to customise school events as well.
YES! to laptops!
I also really need University back, I can't age up any of my teens until we get it so my game is in stasis! So a general education pack would be ideal.
I'd also like an education career, maybe with a track where you can do a PHD over time and become a Professor (my life goal is to grow up and become Mary Beard).
Not too keen on 'school dayz' because it's a bit 'Hi fellow kids' but maybe 'school daze' or just plain old 'Education'?
I would like that option too. A couple of my teens would definitely drop out and it would help me tell their stories. I have one teen who is in foster care and he's getting into all sorts of criminal activity. He's really REALLY smart though and he gets bored of school and can't follow the rules. So I would have him drop out. But he's actually a pretty determined character, he just likes to do things his own way, and I would have him be successful in other things. He owned an electronics shop in TS3.
So yeah, it'd be great for storytelling and character building. I would like education choices to have a real impact on Sims though. So if you go to a private fee-paying school you are going to have much more support in later life. But if you drop out of school maybe it's harder to get a job and you get paid less. But maybe my teenager above might decide he wants to go to Uni as an adult and study technology, he'd have to enrol on a basic skills course first and pass that before he can apply to uni. Maybe passing the skills test will get him into Uni but he'll have to pay full fees. So it's harder but still possible!
It's like... if you put in the hard work and effort when you're a teen, you have an easier adult life (because you'd have had to work hard to maintain those expected grades). But if you have an easy life as a teen, hanging out with your friends and avoiding homework, you will have a tougher adult life. So the choices you make have an actual impact.