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    Can I send a teen to Uni but still play the base family?

    ignominiusrexignominiusrex Posts: 2,680 Member
    in The Sims 2
    I have a couple one of whom was given a lifetime wish of seeing 6 kids get married :# and so they started adopting kids in a hurry, but now the oldest is ready for college and is some kind of overachiever who really wants/needs to go...and I'm stalling because doesn't that mean I have to stop playing my original couple? I really don't want to do that, I'd rather just wave goodbye and hope they write.

    And how do people do it if they have more than one college-bound teen in a family? You have to choose which teen will become your main sim and everyone else misses out?
    Not sure what to do, I didn't want to stop playing my original couple and start playing one of their kids exclusively.
    You can call me Iggy or Rex (he/him) 10 ways to Fight Hate
    ```
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    Comments

    • EricasFreePlayEricasFreePlay Posts: 849 Member
      edited March 2022
      1) Time pauses in the base neighborhood when you send a teen to college. You can go back and forth between the base game and college. Time will pause in the college neighborhood when you play the base neighborhood.

      2) I just sent both of the Pleasant twins (Angela and Lillith) to college. I had each get on a phone separately and move to college. I will play Lillith separately, and then merge Angela with Dustin Broke (move one teen into a dorm and merge the second into the same dorm) into a custom dorm and play them at the same time.
    • CinebarCinebar Posts: 33,618 Member
      As EricasFreePlay said you can go back and forth to play the teens in university and or play the families (any of them) back home. Time is frozen in TS2. If I send more than one teen to college, I play them all in one dorm or Greek house etc. The great thing about TS2 it supports rotational play. I often send college students back to their hometown to meet up with old friends at a community lot and or invite their parents or someone from family over to the college dorm or any other community lot. Just remember when your Sims go to community lots in the college worlds the clock is still ticking. But if you send one back to another world/hood the clock is not ticking and they will arrive back at college at the time they left.
      "Games Are Not The Place To Tell Stories, Games Are Meant To Let People Tell Their Own Stories"...Will Wright.
    • maggiemae8135maggiemae8135 Posts: 790 Member
      The best part of College in Sims 2 is you can bring a whole group of students to the dorm by first moving them in to a house together. I use to do it all the time and it is what I miss most about University in Sims 4. It was a real challenge to play a group, but it was so much fun! They can help each other out with studying and alot of drama could occur when one of them wasn't active. I had the Pleasant twins, Dustin Broke and Dirk Dreamer and others, a total of 8. They were already in their relationships, and Lilith autonomously started to flirt with Dustin who was in a relationship with Angela. The fight ensued and I loved every minute of it! Part of the fun is the unexpected Sims 2 gives you. Hope you enjoy it!
    • EgonVMEgonVM Posts: 4,935 Member
      Yup. As others have said, The Sims 2 is really built on rotational play. So sims outside the household won't age, won't progress in pregnancy, won't graduate, won't gain skills, won't get promotions or demotions, won't change jobs etc. These only happen to sims you're currently playing with. This does cause things like townie children your sim had brought home befriending their children, still being a child.

      So you can switch there and back and other household's life won't change.
      Making The Sims Tutorial videos on YouTube since 2015!
    • ignominiusrexignominiusrex Posts: 2,680 Member
      Wow, thank you all! So I was nervous to allow even the oldest teen to go to college because I thought my game would switch to him and I wouldn't be able to do anything else but play him in uni. So I can enroll one teen after another in Uni, and let them just play themselves there, maybe checking in periodically to ensure they don't flunk out, playing the dads at home as my main interest? AWESOME.

      You can call me Iggy or Rex (he/him) 10 ways to Fight Hate
      ```
      wonderfullymade.jpg
    • Seera1024Seera1024 Posts: 3,629 Member
      edited March 2022
      You would need to play the kids in Uni in order for them to have any progression.

      They won't graduate. They won't flunk out. They won't even progress even a second.

      So don't think that in a few days/weeks that the kid will magically show up from Uni with a degree or having flunked out.
    • EgonVMEgonVM Posts: 4,935 Member
      edited March 2022
      ignominiusrex wrote: »
      Wow, thank you all! So I was nervous to allow even the oldest teen to go to college because I thought my game would switch to him and I wouldn't be able to do anything else but play him in uni. So I can enroll one teen after another in Uni, and let them just play themselves there, maybe checking in periodically to ensure they don't flunk out, playing the dads at home as my main interest? AWESOME.

      Well, I here run a tutorial channel from where I sometimes share videos on these forums. I'll put the one about University here under spoilers:
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSinJHXYR_k

      But I'll tackle two topics here: enrolling and other families/households.

      There are two ways to enroll teens:
      1. Use a phone to enroll them. This only allows you to enroll one sim at a time. The name of the household the teen will be in is the last name of the teen.
      2. There is a special enrolling button in the family bin you can use to enroll any teen that is in the neighborhood (marked with a PlumBob) or is a townie. This way allows you to put together a household of students and even name the household.
      Afterwards, they'll appear in the family bin in the college neighborhoods. You move them in like you move any other sim.

      Now the second topic: other families and households.
      I see you're used to The Sims 3's and 4's system of other households aging, progressing in college etc. That is not so in The Sims 2. Don't worry, I had difficulty getting used to The Sims 3's system...
      Sims outside the active household won't age, won't progress in pregnancy, won't progress in college etc. This means that if your sim has 10 days left before they become an elder, you switch households and play there for 5 days, and then return to the previous household, the sim is still 10 days away. Not only that, but it will still be that time you left them. The same story is here with college, though there, the aging bar is replaced with semester bar which shows how many hours until the exam.
      So yes, this means this:
      1. If you only play with the sim in the college and have them move back after graduation, the family back home remains totally unchanged.
      2. If you only play with the sim when their children are in college, they'll never graduate or get expelled.

      It's a different system which provides rotational play. The only way for other families to progress and age is rotational play.
      In short, you progress, others stay static.
      Unless you're using the story progression mod for The Sims 2, in which case it changes everything and it is out of my knowledge.
      Making The Sims Tutorial videos on YouTube since 2015!
    • IamJIamJ Posts: 44 Member
      When a teen goes to college in sims 2 they effectively move out of their family household, they are not attached to it anymore. When they leave college they end up in the bin as their own household, they don’t go back home. In sims 3 going to college is like going on vacation: like a temporary leave from home, but in sims 2 you move out permanently and become your own household when going to college. This is just one of many, many reasons why I prefer sims 2 😁
    • Neutral_Warlock16Neutral_Warlock16 Posts: 7 New Member
      Yes you can. When a sim enters college, their household will still be playable. You will need to play as your college student to have them progress however.
    • BoergeAarg61BoergeAarg61 Posts: 955 Member
      edited March 2023
      (Please ignore.)

      Post edited by BoergeAarg61 on
    • BoergeAarg61BoergeAarg61 Posts: 955 Member
      edited March 2023
      ignominiusrex wrote: »
      And how do people do it if they have more than one college-bound teen in a family? You have to choose which teen will become your main sim and everyone else misses out?

      I send every teen to college and usually manage to graduate everybody which is not at college when I decide to start over.
      They start new lives afterwards, meaning I don't really have main sims.

      For instance, Lilith and Angela Pleasant both went to college, but live in different dorms in La Fiesta Tech.

      Edit: Lilith lives with Dirk Dreamer, Stella Terrano, Blossom Moonbeam, Klara Vonderstein, Stephen Benson, Pong Grundstrom and Ricky Cormier.
      LilithDorm_rFLYuGqiUyiPS8xCvD4Xi6.jpg

      Angela lives with Dustin Broke, Gina Dai, Connor Dawn, Gavin Newson, Ginger Newson, Destry Wade, Diane Wade and Veronica Haggerty.
      Angela was at class when this picture was taken.
      AngelaDorm_n6ozbyyv2DyLiTgupsMThS.jpg

      Don't worry about the remain Newson's. Matthew Hart and Sarah Love moved in with that household after graduation from college to allow Gavin and Ginger to go to college.

      Stephan Benson, Pong Grundstrom and Connor Dawn came from vacation destination and brought hula and hang loose which are spreading around campus and from there to the other neighborhoods.

      Edit II: I have eight households at La Fiesta Tech now.
      Lilith has two semesters left, while Angela has four left. Angela has plenty of memories of Lilith's making dean list. :)
      Post edited by BoergeAarg61 on
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