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Not gonna lie, Discover University makes no sense
Magnezone
Posts: 212 Member
Veteran simmer here. Been playing The Sims since the early 2000s, and never have I seen anything in any of the games that's this finicky, and it makes no sense.
I've been playing with this pack a lot lately, and in DU, the only grades I ever seem to get are A+ and F. Nothing in between. I once got a C- I believe for one class on my first attempt, but every other grade I've ever gotten an A+ or an F, and what makes matters worse is I barely do anything different between these two.
I'll do all my studies, term papers, presentations, homeworks, go to classes and get an A+ for everything. I'll miss one class due to my character not choosing to go early for some reason, or forget to take notes once, whilst doing all these other things, and get an F in all classes. This is so far from realistic. Is this a glitch? Because it makes no sense, and should NOT be how the game functions. I've heard other people complain about similar problems, and the only feedback a lot of people on the forum seem to give is what I must be doing something wrong - I am, I missed a class, obviously. But missing ONE CLASS shouldn't lead to an immediate F.
I've been playing with this pack a lot lately, and in DU, the only grades I ever seem to get are A+ and F. Nothing in between. I once got a C- I believe for one class on my first attempt, but every other grade I've ever gotten an A+ or an F, and what makes matters worse is I barely do anything different between these two.
I'll do all my studies, term papers, presentations, homeworks, go to classes and get an A+ for everything. I'll miss one class due to my character not choosing to go early for some reason, or forget to take notes once, whilst doing all these other things, and get an F in all classes. This is so far from realistic. Is this a glitch? Because it makes no sense, and should NOT be how the game functions. I've heard other people complain about similar problems, and the only feedback a lot of people on the forum seem to give is what I must be doing something wrong - I am, I missed a class, obviously. But missing ONE CLASS shouldn't lead to an immediate F.
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Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
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Comments
I was having some random problems like this as well and someone else mentioned this caveat. I haven't really brought any new Sims to Uni in a long while because I play a bazillion households and don't want to be stuck in that gameplay, but I do think there's something to this. The devs did warn that Uni was designed to be challenging so it was most likely intended.
Try making note of which skills are increased by which classes and maybe try to do a little extra boosting for those skills and see if that helps.
Let's make Liberty and Justice For All a reality.
My sim is a Drama student. He had level 7 Charisma, but only level 3 comedy. He was getting A+'s in charisma classes, but Fs in comedy, despite mostly doing the same things. He missed a comedy class, and I assumed this was the issue instead, and that it was just immediately sending me from an A to an F for small mistakes.
If there is a clear skill level that needs to be met before even getting a grade at passing level, this should be clearly stated in the UI like in The Sims 2 and in careers, in my opinion. I shouldn't flunk just because my skill isn't at a level not even visible to me, despite DU's uni information saying I can do a multitude of things to raise my grade with no hard guidelines, not just building skill.
I guess I'm not sending newly created sims to uni anymore and just ones who have grown up in my game. Building skills to whatever the hidden level is from 0, plus having a social life, plus school work, just isn't really viable in one week.
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
Yeah, I mainly play Uni for my Sims to party and hook up. (Sims 2 style!) The studying was always just the obstacle in between. But with Sims 4 Uni, I have to give the students no more than two classes per semester so they can actually have time to enjoy their college years. But that ends up confining me to drag out longer times spent in those households because switching out can mess up their grades and progress and I don't dare leave my students unsupervised.
It's really too bad because University was one of my very favorite Sims 2 packs. But I just can't set it up and play it the same way. The time progression messes it all up.
I see people with huge family trees and tons of time spent on one save file, and my head wonders how they could possibly do that in The Sims 4 - family play is so dull. The Sims 4 is my "make interesting young adult & adult sims live their best life" simulator, I guess.
For people who play rotational family play and/or use aging, this pack seems set up pretty badly in a lot of ways - from the fact that it takes so long to get degrees, to the fact that it doesn't work well with swapping between families.
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
If it just included a "semester freeze" with no grade consequences when I switch out to another household, it would suit me better. I too, play with aging off, and I like to send a bunch of Sims to Uni at once, put them in separate dorms so they can meet each other and have parties or rivalries while they attend college. But I don't want to have to commit to playing through until graduation, I just want to be able to go play StrangerVille or Vampires or explore Selvadorada in between semesters, lol.
I plan to do a little more experimenting with it because I don't think it's a bad pack, but I'll need to find a new technique that works for me. Or a mod.
This doesn't fit with my experience at all. I've taken 3 sims through Uni that had 0 skills when they started. Just by doing their homework, attending classes on time and taking notes, handing in their term paper or presentation they all achieved A+. No extra studying.
One thing I would mention is that I do have them all work on research and debate at the mirror or a podium, so I wonder if that makes a difference.
The only time I've managed to get a sim to have a lower grade was by being late to a class. This seems to give your grade a huge hit.
I think there is some kind of bug going on for some people that is adversely effecting grades. It would be nice if Maxis would tell us what is required for various grades so that this becomes clearer.
That's interesting. I might have to go look at Carl's guide to see what he's found out about Uni too. He really digs into packs to share information.
It's highly possible that there are bugs too. When I was playing, I had built up to a full, 8 Sim dorm with additional dorm mates. Each Sim had taken two courses for the semester to make it manageable. But one of the things I was having a problem with was those darn rabbit hole buildings. They would exit the dorm for class and go over to the building, but since class hadn't started yet, they would stand around conversing or doing homework or decide to wander back to the dorm for whatever random reason and end up late anyway. I wish that they could just show up early for class so that once they reach the building they go in. Or just leave off the lot like they did in Sims 2. The Sims in 4 are way too easily distracted to handle standing outside a building for ten Sim minutes to get to class.
I will agree the grading stystem needs tweaking though, I’ve played a bunch of students now and the grades do seem to either be A or F lol
If I went to TS2 uni, graduating would allow me to unlock the best moneymaking career as an artist.
If I went to TS3 uni, graduating in science & medecine would allow me, as I reach 'world renowned surgeon' to triple my pay/hour.
Nothing of the sort here, nothing justifying sending sims to uni. I would simply waste my poor sims' time, promotions and raises. Therefore I haven't played with any feature of this expansion since two days after it's launch.
So +1 to the title of the thread.
Wow. I didn't know this. And it never occurred to me about the Get Famous perk essentially doing the same thing as going to uni.
I like uni with that said for the gameplay itself. Societies, partying, etc, but now you mention it, from a utility standpoint it has... Nothing to offer.
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
Turn aging off whilst you're at uni, manually. This pack does not seem to be intended to be played with aging on. TS3 uni also lasted 3 weeks with no extra credits, the difference is, it turns aging off for you whilst you're at uni. In TS3 I play long life spans anyway (custom, 160 days) so even if it didn't turn off aging, it wouldnt make the hugest different as my combined adult and young adult span is nearly 100 days.
Off topic but related to my previous statement, if TS4 had custom lifespans by default like TS3 I probably would play with aging on. But I don't since I hate kids in 4 and they live FAR too long on the long lifespan.
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
To be fair though, not everyone owns Get Famous, so it can't be counted on as a feature for DU.
Also, getting a degree in Sims 4 Uni does allow Sims to start in a branch path of a career that they studied, so they do skip the lower levels. But the branch path appears separately as a career choice, so it can be overlooked and a little confusing at first.
...How?
The only people I have seen that get probation are Sims played by youtubers that deliberately screw up their studies.
I am still think you either have a bad mod, or you are doing something completely wrong. I have gone thru Uni now 5 times, and I got ONE (1) F one time, and that was because I missed one class. As in completely didn't go one day. Since the term is only a week that is probably the equivalent of not showing up IRL to class for a month, so that makes sense.
The key is to get A- or better is to Always always always always be on time and do your homework. It is way worse to miss class than to skip homework, for example. Only half-plumb your homework but being on time nets you a B- or so.
@Magnezone I always pause aging while in Uni. I can't see a reason why not and quite frankly I am surprised it is not done automatically like in Sims 3.
Of course not all D.U players own G.F. But the real point here, is that E.A. provided us beforehand something better than anything D.U can provide on its main selling point: degrees, hence, careers and wages. And that's not even close. Which leads to the other points: other university expansions provided us with something we couldn't find anywhere else, while here, it's the opposite.
They have no excuse for that.
And for those who don't own Get Famous, do you think they're not better off working right away, with the perk 'connections' helping them start at level 4?
I'm asking cause I really don't know.
I'm like fairly convinced it's a bug only some people are getting, though I'm not sure what could be causing it. As I said, I only get straight As or Fs despite doing little between the two all that different. That's not right, surely?
Magnezone, the lover of Calientes, Lotharios, Landgraabs and Curiouses everywhere.
I have done poorly on elective classes if I don't work on the skill for that elective. I stopped taking electives because I had to work on the skill related to the elective and my sims are busy enough at college LOL.
The thing is, you still have to work for something either way. So yeah, why would you go to Uni if you're famous enough to have job connections?
But while the end result is similar, I don't see why having one would negate the need for the other. How many famous Sims is someone likely to play for that one same perk over and over? I haven't used it myself, so I'm not sure where it actually starts you in a career path, but I know that a degree in DU will start you on a specialized career branch. I think you can also make more money with a degree but I can't remember, I didn't really pay attention to that.
You can also take elective courses, which allow you to do things like starting skill-based professions and activities (like Veterinarian) with more skills so you start off with some advancement.
So I personally don't think DU is a bad pack. I think it's pretty decent. But I also think Sims 2 Uni was a lot better and Sims 4 DU just doesn't have that level of entertainment. But I believe that's mostly the fault of a weaker base game in general.
I mean it's a bit like real university tbh.
(Australian uni grades are a bit different so bear with me here) but getting a Credit or a Distinction or High Distinction are functionally no different for me. If I'm one percent short of a Credit, I still get a Fail. If I get a solid 50%, that's a Credit, and I pass the class and I'm allowed to graduate.
As and Bs and Cs aren't worth anything except clout.
As for the original topic, I have no clue how grades are constructed. All I know is I ended up with an A (not an A+) despite being maxed out in all skills, and always doing everything on time.
You've gotta get creative with Greek Houses.
The University Housing lot type lets you restrict it to Clubs (which was weirdly never mentioned in the livestreams), so there's your Frat House. All you gotta do after that is make a Club, call it "Alpha Kappa Beta" or what have you, and invite Sims to it.
ta-da, you've got a Greek House.
(EDIT: some weird word choices in that profanity filter btw EA)