I haven't played Sims 4 in a while because I mostly only play with 1 family and it can get boring. I wanted to get University (On Sale) because it's one of my favorite Sims packs. I have this Sims Fantasy where two siblings go to the same university and while one sim is in their dorm studying and enjoying the nice winter season through his window, the other is hanging out with their friends in the community area sharing stories and hot cocoa with everyone. I know that University brought a lot of things to the Sims but I'm afraid it's just going to be a pack you play with once and never use again. I don't want to just play with it for a few hours and then regret buying it. I know that it has features that can be used outside of University, but I was wondering how it has held up all this time. Do you still use University? If so, do you recommend it?
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I honestly imagined putting the terms for as long as possible so I could live on campus for a while. Is the living at home option basically like kids/teen going to school where they just leave for a certain amount of hours a day and have to do homework or is there more to it? Also, how does it feel to live on campus? Does it have a different vibe than living in a regular household or is it mostly the same? I'm really interested in the roommate system and thought that'd be fun to play with in an apartment.
The things I like with university is the dorm living, studying at the commons, throwing keg-parties (though I have a mod making sims less likely to ignore the keg), and going to university activities and spending time getting to know my dorm mates. I rarely take more than three classes at once, as I like my sim to have a life as well as studying. I also like to have adults who want to progress in their careers study on the side of their job from home - it's quite a challenge.
The things I wish were different are the studies themselves. You have three ways to finish a course (a final exam, a term paper or a presentation) and animations and actions looks the same regardless of your education. You can buy expensive books to study, but there is absolutely no need to do so as homework is enough to always get an A if you do the final project to an outstanding degree. If you go to uni a lot it gets repetitive after a while (all studies are the same). I wish there were more different task - like build a robot if your studying robotics, or paint a picture if you study art. Something to make each education feel unique and different from the others. I also wish it were possible to send several sims and still have them live on campus. I would also love for more university themed aspirations and skills, as well as skills to matter more in grades.
All in all, I am glad I have the pack, but there are definite improvements that could be made to it.
Oh and finally a tip, BEFORE your sim enroll, make sure you edit the dorms with the things you want there to be as you can't do that later. A thermostat is necessary if you have seasons, and I also like to put a dining table there so you can "call to meal" with all the food that your roomies bring in. That will greatly help with the socialisation of your sim.
This answers a lot of my questions with a lot of great detail thank you! How is University outside of well, University? I don't expect much from the roommates feature, but is it nice? Also, is there much difference between the different schools? I'd imagine they are essentially the same thing but with a different coat of paint, but does it at least feel different?
You can enroll up to 8 sims in a dorm if they have been accepted by the same university and play them but you'll have to use a cheat.
If you shift-click your Sim with testingcheats on you can access a sadly very empty University Debug Menu where you can click, 'Enroll in University' to be immediately taken to the enrollment screen.
How is University outside of well, University? I haven't played much with the roommate feature but have found other things in the EP that I like. Such as the 3 careers with work from home options, especially the fact that we finally got an education career. The robotics station allows you to build servos if you want to. I also enjoy the world that comes with the pack, including ponds your sims can swim. You can also live in the britechester world on a residential lot if you don't play a student. I find bikes useful as well.
As for the two universities : they basically function the same way but have different looks. The only differences are the versions of the degrees and the student organisations. Every degree has one normal version and a distinguished version that allows you to start even a little higher in the associated careers. Half of the distinguished careers are at britechester University, the other half at foxbury. So every degree has one normal version in one university and the distinguished one in the other. You need to apply and get accepted before you can take the distinguished degrees. The other difference between the two of them is the student organisations you can join. Each uni has their own three organisations. The secret organisation is the only one that can be joined from both universities.
Can you not edit the dorms once occupied in build/buy even with the freebuild cheat? I'm asking so I know if I should head over and make some changes through manage worlds or if I'll be fine because the freebuild code still works.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
Do you use a cheat for this? Also, do they have to be in the same dorm room?
Right now I have two sims at campus just to meet other educated sims to move in somewhere.
For instance for rotational play you might like the sims to stay at home with going to university. That's a new option with Sims 4.
On the other hand, you might like just leaving the sims on their own during each semester provided they have plenty of skills.
Yes, I would say it's still worth it.
@JAL I beg to differ with you. Play is basically the same as in town, inasmuch as you can only control one of your Sims in the household at a time. But I take SEVEN Sims to Uni to live in the same dorm. this allows me to control them. Now, I admit it can be tricky keeping up with the daily tasks but for me it's just a matter of getting my rhythm. In fact, I just learned a new trick I wasn't aware of in pervious go-arounds. I don't have to scroll down all four classes for each Sim to see what homework needs to be done. All I have to do is click on their homework notebook to see what they haven't finished. I like to get their presentation boards and those pesky Term Papers written, well-edited and submitted, too. For my young Rock Star, it's essential he gets ahead of the game, so to speak. In my mind taking two Sims through Uni would be a piece of cake.
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The roommate feature is fairly nice, and can add realism to things like semidetached houses or apartment buildings (without city living) as well as being used for uni. However, there are downsides. A roommate can never be married or in a family for one. But overall, they are fairly ok.
I do enjoy the careers a lot, especially the work from home feature which is added to some careers and which is great when you have toddlers in the household or when you're studying for an extra degree next to your average job.
I had actually never tried that before, so now I had to find out, and yes, with freebuild it works and you can edit your dorm.
I'm glad to hear that, because no matter how well I plan ahead I always end up having something that needs "correcting" in build mode once I'm actually playing a Lot. I have MCCC set to always have free build on for that reason.... LOL
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
I feel that you need to kinda make your own fun a lot with it because just playing it normally, going to class and going back to the dorms and doing all your homework and taking care of your needs while your roommates are failing at everything becomes very repetitive unless you try to do other stuff as well, but then university takes very long to complete so it doesn't play very well with rotational play or aging turned on.
I also feel that it's a pack that is limited a lot by the game's limitations. Playing University with multiple sims offer more of a challenge and is more fun but then it becomes very frustrating because you will have to travel with both sims all the time to make sure that they are going to class. Unless you are using mods you can't edit the dorms and have to visit the cafeteria sometime.
I had a hard time doing stuff with the organizations as well because it takes too long to visit them when they spawn outside.
So I had fun playing it, I got a lot of nice sims from that pack, the CAS items are very good, robotics offer a lot, but also takes very long because you have to keep crafting items all the time and they keep shocking you, unless you use mods. The careers are pretty good and the research and debate skill is very useful.
The world is not great, the town have very few lots and once I figured out how to get A+ I keep getting it every time so it has not aged well now. I'm hoping that future packs could make it more fun but Maxis keep making just kits which does nothing to improve this pack.
I don't use cheats, no, but they have to be in the same dorm building, though not necessarily the same room. As far as I know it's impossible to effectively have sims enrolled in different households at the same time because time will pass and I don't know how the game handles classes outside of the active household. I suspect the inactive household would do badly. So if I want sims in multiple households to go through university at the same time the only way to do it is to enroll them and play a term, then decline re-enrollment next time and switch to the other household.
I think I've sent my sims to organisation meetings maybe twice and I bought the pack very soon after release. It just seems like too much effort for not very much reward when they have so many other things to do.
I really enjoyed moving to campus and doing homework and projects. I did remodel the dorms with cheats and that was pretty entertaining as well, giving it the vibe I wanted, but the original decoration was pretty disappointing at first. I like how the pack adds a little bit more of realism to careers, and it's something I enjoy as well with other families. I don't think getting University it's something you regret after, but it does gets a little boring with time, but it's still pretty enjoyable.
Final grade/result:
Nice.
It's not outstanding, but it passes the term. 😂
So... it's like the Sims.
It is not more grindy or frustrating than than being a toddler, or going to school as a kid, or going to school as a teen, or having a job as an adult.
I would suggest two things. A. don't take kids through Uni back-to-back IE enter new students directly after a batch has just graduated. Allow yourself a cooling off period. And B. don't be a helicopter player. Allow some or all of your Sims to slack off a bit. Once in awhile don't have them take notes. Better still, if they were up all night working on projects or daily homework, have them fall asleep in class. This should lend itself to a more favorable gameplay, if you're tired of straight A+ grades across the board. Just sayin'.
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