Just curious how often everyone accompanies their teen to school. I would imagine for those who rotate you probably spend a great deal of time going to school with your sims? I'm only on day 2 and already know I won't be going with my teen every day. It doesn't allow you to focus on other household members and my teens are teens for a very long time so she won't be graduating any time soon. I'm thinking twice a week will be sufficient. Tuesdays and Fridays.
I was following Cassandra Goth every day but she got expelled last night. 😭😂.
I started a new house but haven’t followed any other teen yet.
Btw, if some of your teens aren't showing up at school, check to see if they are enrolled. Some of mine were not. They had no "career". Not sure if it was a mod issue or what. I re-enrolled them, but had to cheat the grade back up.
All my mods are updated for the pack, but that might be a cause, since the mod would have changed.
Has anyone tried having two lunch stations? Mine is always so crowded and my sim doesn't always get time to order and eat. Maybe I'll send her with a sack lunch.
Just curious how often everyone accompanies their teen to school. I would imagine for those who rotate you probably spend a great deal of time going to school with your sims? I'm only on day 2 and already know I won't be going with my teen every day. It doesn't allow you to focus on other household members and my teens are teens for a very long time so she won't be graduating any time soon. I'm thinking twice a week will be sufficient. Tuesdays and Fridays.
Years ago when I played with my teen Sim, I made sure the parents had jobs. I would just sit there every week day and wait for the time to fly by until my teen and his little sister came home. I don't have to do that anymore. Because the high school day goes by so fast, I'm planning on attending everyday with my teen. The majority of days I'll go straight home except on maybe Fridays; going to play this by ear and mix things up a bit. I only control one Sim in a household and the other Sims are left to their own devices to care for their own needs. Thankfully, I've never had an issue with my Sims caring for their needs and doing what they want to do.
Today, I finished my master save, got my back up copies and am ready to go with my high school teen gameplay. I realized that I'd have little interest in playing this game without all my Sims, builds and full worlds. How anyone does a Save instead of a Save As is beyond me as I just can't. Yet, I hope to never have to move every build and Sim to a new save again.
I've never had the desire to even play a premade and don't get me started on townies . Yet, some of them I do like especially if they serve a purpose like the the ones in Cottage Living or I like something about their look. Thank goodness we can go in an edit Sims which is a big plus in my book. I also like it when Sims have an assigned roles and you see the same ones like the teacher, principal and janitor every day.
No. You could just grab something from the vending machine. Some days I will send my teen with a sack lunch because I think it is a nice touch. I really enjoy ordering and eating lunch at the cafeteria though.
Has anyone tried having two lunch stations? Mine is always so crowded and my sim doesn't always get time to order and eat. Maybe I'll send her with a sack lunch.
As I was going around forming relationships and friendships, I noticed a lot of neat things. When Aaron was at Brit Bloom's apartment, Danaca West showed up out of the blue and asked him if they could be best friends. Sadly, I had to decline because Aaron's best friend is going to be Alexander.
Now that I have all my relationships established, I'm hoping to see some of Aaron's friends at school. When I was testing my high school build, I did notice that several friends of the teen I was playing did show up for high school. At least every now again different teens will attend. So, we shall see.
Meet the Teens:
Navigating high school and the ups and downs of being a teen can be a challenge. Yet, Aaron Ashton feels up for it. Aaron will be on the football team and one day the star quarter back. Some of his buds on the team are Kolby Murakami, August Messer and Caiden Oakes. His best friend, Alexander Goth, is the team captain of the chess team. Sadly Aaron is currently a D student; don't know how that happened but it is what it is. His first day of school will be tomorrow and I can't wait. How can a guy concentrate when his crush, Bella Purdy, doesn't even know how he feels. Will Aaron build up the courage to confess his feelings? Only time will tell.
My plan is to go around and put a lot of teens in after school activities to see how things play out in the game. I've always liked seeing the teen scouts walk around in their uniforms.
Young love is so sweet. Carly and August just made things official. I changed Carly's hair because I really like the new base game hair.
Hadley and Reed are so cute together. Reed is on the computer team while Hadley is trying to figure things out. Hadley's dad is a well known artist and he's hoping Hadley will follow in his foot steps one day. Although Hadley enjoys painting and doesn't want to disappoint her dad, she's not sure if painting is what she wants to do with her life. Welcome to Teen Times.
i do have a lot of gripes with this pack's execution of a lot of it's features but for all it's mehhs i do like that teens are way more fun to play now, and as bland as it may be at least the active school is more enjoyable than a rabbithole!
i am playing with the teen version of Zoe Patel atm and i am having a blast
she did make it to prom queen
she scored her crush (yep, it's teen Neymar ^_^ ) and the two are really heavily in love sinche he has a crush on her as well!!
and she is captain of the cheer squad atm with Sofia breathing down her neck
Sofia recently joined my little posse since she has a crush on this young lad... she clearly is into the "bad boy type" since she has a crush on teen Sergio Ramos (even though he has a pristine reputation >.< only in the sims will Sergio Ramos ever be seen as a good boy!! but yeah...WAY too easy to get a good rep in this game -.-)
Sergio likes her too but he also seems to be into Luna Villareal and he has a crush on Morgan Fyres.... he is kind of a playboy atm but he does really like Sofia so he hasn't cheated on her...yet....
Has anyone tried having two lunch stations? Mine is always so crowded and my sim doesn't always get time to order and eat. Maybe I'll send her with a sack lunch.
I moved one of the vending machines inside and put the lockers by the classrooms. It helps a bit. I think you have to mod to get a second cafeteria worker. I forgot who has that mod though.
Has anyone tried having two lunch stations? Mine is always so crowded and my sim doesn't always get time to order and eat. Maybe I'll send her with a sack lunch.
there is mod for second lunch vendor, tho. I know you are mot using those but if someone wants, by same creator who did that more students in school-mod
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
@Ellupelluellu@simgirl1010 I grabbed it and I went and got the mod she referenced, Choose High School Classmates, at least that's one I think she was referring to. I haven't had a chance to try either one out but they both look interesting.
I know some people do not like the changes to Sims using their phone. My older Sims are no more obsessed with their phones than they were before; so, I don't know where all this is coming from. Now my teen's use is the right animation, amount and so realistic and/or unrealistic depending on how you view it; but, I love it.
Now, I don't know anything about what it takes to code a game or how they are able to find the right balance since it is totally subjective. Yet, I fear if they nerf the phone features based on a few complaints, that is truly unfortunate. Plus, if you nerf the phone animation you may never see it in the game. Does all the fun need to be sucked out of the game when a realistic or unrealistic feature is added? It's the Sims after all—a fun, entertaining way to spend some of our free time.
Please pass these sentiments on @EA_Cade since I noticed this came up somewhere within this or another thread. Does a "phone dependency" now exist—I think not. There are a lot of Simmers who play the game and do not come online to voice their opinions. So, I truly hope the developers take this into consideration before they tone down or nerf the way Sims, especially teens, are using their phones. Many are happy with this new added feature. Please don't nerf it or tone it down because I fear we will rarely see such animations as is illustrated below if they make changes to this feature. Thank you for your consideration.
My teen woke up in the middle of the night on her own when she did this animation with her phone. It was great and then she went back to sleep all on her own. For the first time, I feel like my teen is truly alive and doing teen-like things which is a credit and positive to High School Years and the latest teen update.
While I understand where you are coming from, I don’t think the phone works as intended, to say it bluntly – it is simply bugged. I sent my sim on hiking in Granite Falls and the animation became jittery, no cool down (not even a second) and it looked ridiculous when she didn’t even looked around as she used to while hiking only glued to her screen. I hate that, to be honest. The more your sim walks, the more broken animation became. Also when the cool down is gone, it will not stopped when they dig things or do other stuff.
I would like to point out that sims were using their phones before, only when they did it was to search web or play game, a real activity which brings their fun up. The animation you are happy about is empty and is just that, an animation that is broken on top of being useless. It takes precious in game time where days are already short.
I can appreciate many small and big things this pack (and patch) brought to the table that add realism to sims lives: shaving, teens silly greeting, getting excited, sexual orientation, different gossip animation and the whole HS experience which I couldn’t play without at this point. But I need to be honest and say that the phone is broken. Your sim didn’t walk up in the night because it’s a fun feature, but because this freaking thing overwrites everything else. Did you realize that sims stopped running because of it? Yeah they did, good luck going to far away location like vending machines in Sembamachi in Mt. Komorebi. Before the update my sim will jog there no problem, now she is walking staring at her lovely phone. What about werewolves? They are running rampaging on all fours while staring at their phones. Is it still good?
Another thing is changing phone color which is also bugged and causes your sim doing it over and over again every time you load in the new location or start the game. So it’s clear phone is overall not working as intended. It is not complain, but simply stating the fact.
I’m all for being positive, I love this game, it’s the only Sims game that I ever really liked, but being blind to bugs and badly made features doesn’t help this game, it hurts it. I hope that some patch along the line will put the phone where it’s place – in my sims pocket.
I know some people do not like the changes to Sims using their phone. My older Sims are no more obsessed with their phones than they were before; so, I don't know where all this is coming from. Now my teen's use is the right animation, amount and so realistic and/or unrealistic depending on how you view it; but, I love it.
Now, I don't know anything about what it takes to code a game or how they are able to find the right balance since it is totally subjective. Yet, I fear if they nerf the phone features based on a few complaints, that is truly unfortunate. Plus, if you nerf the phone animation you may never see it in the game. Does all the fun need to be sucked out of the game when a realistic or unrealistic feature is added? It's the Sims after all—a fun, entertaining way to spend some of our free time.
Please pass these sentiments on @EA_Cade since I noticed this came up somewhere within this or another thread. Does a "phone dependency" now exist—I think not. There are a lot of Simmers who play the game and do not come online to voice their opinions. So, I truly hope the developers take this into consideration before they tone down or nerf the way Sims, especially teens, are using their phones. Many are happy with this new added feature. Please don't nerf it or tone it down because I fear we will rarely see such animations as is illustrated below if they make changes to this feature. Thank you for your consideration.
My teen woke up in the middle of the night on her own when she did this animation with her phone. It was great and then she went back to sleep all on her own. For the first time, I feel like my teen is truly alive and doing teen-like things which is a credit and positive to High School Years and the latest teen update.
While I understand where you are coming from, I don’t think the phone works as intended, to say it bluntly – it is simply bugged. I sent my sim on hiking in Granite Falls and the animation became jittery, no cool down (not even a second) and it looked ridiculous when she didn’t even looked around as she used to while hiking only glued to her screen. I hate that, to be honest. The more your sim walks, the more broken animation became. Also when the cool down is gone, it will not stopped when they dig things or do other stuff.
I would like to point out that sims were using their phones before, only when they did it was to search web or play game, a real activity which brings their fun up. The animation you are happy about is empty and is just that, an animation that is broken on top of being useless. It takes precious in game time where days are already short.
I can appreciate many small and big things this pack (and patch) brought to the table that add realism to sims lives: shaving, teens silly greeting, getting excited, sexual orientation, different gossip animation and the whole HS experience which I couldn’t play without at this point. But I need to be honest and say that the phone is broken. Your sim didn’t walk up in the night because it’s a fun feature, but because this freaking thing overwrites everything else. Did you realize that sims stopped running because of it? Yeah they did, good luck going to far away location like vending machines in Sembamachi in Mt. Komorebi. Before the update my sim will jog there no problem, now she is walking staring at her lovely phone. What about werewolves? They are running rampaging on all fours while staring at their phones. Is it still good?
Another thing is changing phone color which is also bugged and causes your sim doing it over and over again every time you load in the new location or start the game. So it’s clear phone is overall not working as intended. It is not complain, but simply stating the fact.
I’m all for being positive, I love this game, it’s the only Sims game that I ever really liked, but being blind to bugs and badly made features doesn’t help this game, it hurts it. I hope that some patch along the line will put the phone where it’s place – in my sims pocket.
If you are having issues with the phone in a mod free game, then report it to the proper place on EA Answers HQ; or, start your own topic on AHQ if the link below does not address your issue since you said it is a bugged feature. Happily, I'm not having any of the issues you mentioned with the phone.
Features and gameplay in a simulation game are subjective in my opinion. Anyone who likes the new phone feature and/or not bothered by it, isn't being "blind to bugs." The phone feature is by design and if it is not then like everything else that people have their free given right to complain about will get toned down. You do not have to belittle how someone else feels about a feature when expressing your opinion.
I love new places my sims can go to spend their day/Careers. So I knew I wanted high school expansion. I haven't had time to play as much as I hoped, but so far I've been liking it.
High school opens up whole new opportunities for me, such as recreating Kim Possible in sim form (high school student/cheerleader/secret agent). Currently playing Ravenia the teenage witch. Loving it. :)
The only thing Ive been slightly disappointed on (in addition to bugs) was that the other students feel bit bland. I wish they initiated more interesting stuff on their own, had quirks, that sort of thing.
@Ellupelluellu@simgirl1010 I grabbed it and I went and got the mod she referenced, Choose High School Classmates, at least that's one I think she was referring to. I haven't had a chance to try either one out but they both look interesting.
@DaniRose2143@Ellupelluellu@simgirl1010 I have Choose High School Classmates. I really like it. I didn't see all 20 of the Teens I picked to be my lead Sim's classmates, but I didn't see any random Teens at school, either.
The game did spawn more Teens at the football and cheerleading contests. This made sense, because the game calls these events "festivals." I use MCCC, and when I set it to pull all walk-by Sims from my Gallery, I got Teen versions of Sims I'd created. That was, honestly, even more fun.
I admittedly waited two weeks to buy High School Years. My daughter, a young Teen who is getting close to her own High School Years, was super excited for the pack...and then her mood was completely deflated after we read about the issues people were having.
Last week, we decided to go ahead and take the HSY plunge, so I bought the pack. We reasoned there was very little chance we would encounter all the issues we'd read about on the forum, and we figured we could find a way to get around the ones we did experience through the help of the amazing TS4 modders' community.
Full disclosure: We use MCCC, UI Cheats Extension, and a handful of small mods in our game. We also have a collection of CC clothing. Our game is, therefore, not pure "vanilla," but it's not been modded heavily. We did have to work a bit to make HSY do what we want it to do, but after a few days, we're both glad I bought it. I posted above about the Choose Your Own Classmates mod, which came highly recommended and has been wonderful so far.
We haven't seen any inappropriate romantic overtures, and our Sim isn't receiving offers to be best friends with every other Sim in the world. He has developed crushes on three of his classmates, and being around his crush(es) sends him on a rollercoaster of moods that is, honestly, very realistic. An unpredictable combination of Happy, Flirty, and Embarrassed...that sounds a lot like the emotions that have probably accompanied teenage crushes since the beginning of time.
There was one fight at school during the first week. Our Mean Girl was involved, which made sense. It started soon after school let out on Friday. We'd heard the adults would do nothing to stop fights, and that's exactly what happened. The principal and a teacher gathered with all the Teens in the building, watching while boxing glove thought bubbles filled the air above them. The combatants stopped fighting after almost an hour...but they apparently weren't through. To use a hockey metaphor, they dropped the gloves and went again! By the time Round Two ended, sometime after 5pm, the Cheerleading Competition had begun.
The most memorable thing about our Sim's visit to ThrifTea is the wacky outfit choices other Sims make when they spawn there. I've posted a few examples on the Townie Fashion Police thread. I can see how some of you are annoyed by this tendency, but I find it hilarious. And, when a Sim we placed in the game visits and commits a fashion violation, their clothing reverts to normal when they leave the lot. No harm, no foul.
Our lead Teen is on Social Bunny, and it's worked fine. The messages get a bit repetitive--everyone tells the same two or three jokes--but that's been eye-rollingly endearing so far, rather than unbearable. Checking Social Bunny is seamless; it doesn't stop our Sim from doing other things, which is a huge, huge relief. Social Bunny hasn't had a big effect on our Sim's relationships, either. The gains are small and logical. If he slides in his crush's DM with a flirty message, a little green heart will appear above his head, he might get a Flirty moodlet, and their pink bar will expand a little bit. They don't become Soulmates because of one message. I'm not sure I'd have most Adult Sims use it, but for younger Sims, I think it's perfect.
The worst problem we've seen is related to Prom. Our Sim rather adorably asked a girl he's crushing on to Prom, and she said yes. Saturday night rolled around and, promptly at 7pm, we saw the popup asking us if we'd like to join our Sim at prom. We naturally said yes...and watched as he stood on the sidewalk in front of his house, doing absolutely nothing.
I'm not sure if the forum moderators would want me to describe the workaround Z and I developed, but with a bit of ingenuity and the help of MCCC, we created a fun Prom experience for our Sim and his friends. There was no Prom Royalty, but otherwise it captured the feel of Prom Night and, most of all, it was fun.
That's the way I'd describe the experience Z and I have had with HSY so far. It's been fun. And we play The Sims to have fun, so I'd say it's been worth its cost.
@MoonlightGraham , thank you , it was nce to read your input about the pack I have it, and have hoarded mod or another for it, but not yet played
Im sorry prom did not go how it should of been, i will see how will mine go And yes Im one of those who do not mod out that ThrifTea shop fashion, as I find it indeed hilarious :P
My love, my love, my fearless love, I will not say goodbye..
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
@MoonlightGraham thank you for posting such detail about your experience with the pack. I have read so much about bugs that I have been afraid to purchase it. It would be nice to know if more people are not having some of the issues being shouted about.
I will have a look for your post about the prom and your pics in the fashion police thread. I'm not stalking you, I promise lol. I am still just reading as much as I can about people's experiences with the pack.
Comments
I started a new house but haven’t followed any other teen yet.
All my mods are updated for the pack, but that might be a cause, since the mod would have changed.
Years ago when I played with my teen Sim, I made sure the parents had jobs. I would just sit there every week day and wait for the time to fly by until my teen and his little sister came home. I don't have to do that anymore. Because the high school day goes by so fast, I'm planning on attending everyday with my teen. The majority of days I'll go straight home except on maybe Fridays; going to play this by ear and mix things up a bit. I only control one Sim in a household and the other Sims are left to their own devices to care for their own needs. Thankfully, I've never had an issue with my Sims caring for their needs and doing what they want to do.
Today, I finished my master save, got my back up copies and am ready to go with my high school teen gameplay. I realized that I'd have little interest in playing this game without all my Sims, builds and full worlds. How anyone does a Save instead of a Save As is beyond me as I just can't. Yet, I hope to never have to move every build and Sim to a new save again.
I've never had the desire to even play a premade and don't get me started on townies
Now that I have all my relationships established, I'm hoping to see some of Aaron's friends at school. When I was testing my high school build, I did notice that several friends of the teen I was playing did show up for high school. At least every now again different teens will attend. So, we shall see.
Meet the Teens:
My plan is to go around and put a lot of teens in after school activities to see how things play out in the game. I've always liked seeing the teen scouts walk around in their uniforms.
Young love is so sweet. Carly and August just made things official. I changed Carly's hair because I really like the new base game hair.
Hadley and Reed are so cute together. Reed is on the computer team while Hadley is trying to figure things out. Hadley's dad is a well known artist and he's hoping Hadley will follow in his foot steps one day. Although Hadley enjoys painting and doesn't want to disappoint her dad, she's not sure if painting is what she wants to do with her life. Welcome to Teen Times.
i am playing with the teen version of Zoe Patel atm and i am having a blast
she did make it to prom queen
she scored her crush (yep, it's teen Neymar ^_^ ) and the two are really heavily in love sinche he has a crush on her as well!!
and she is captain of the cheer squad atm with Sofia breathing down her neck
Sofia recently joined my little posse since she has a crush on this young lad... she clearly is into the "bad boy type" since she has a crush on teen Sergio Ramos (even though he has a pristine reputation >.< only in the sims will Sergio Ramos ever be seen as a good boy!! but yeah...WAY too easy to get a good rep in this game -.-)
Sergio likes her too but he also seems to be into Luna Villareal and he has a crush on Morgan Fyres.... he is kind of a playboy atm but he does really like Sofia so he hasn't cheated on her...yet....
I moved one of the vending machines inside and put the lockers by the classrooms. It helps a bit. I think you have to mod to get a second cafeteria worker. I forgot who has that mod though.
Love the new teen pranks.
there is mod for second lunch vendor, tho. I know you are mot using those but if someone wants, by same creator who did that more students in school-mod
ETA: https://www.patreon.com/posts/70234902
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
While I understand where you are coming from, I don’t think the phone works as intended, to say it bluntly – it is simply bugged. I sent my sim on hiking in Granite Falls and the animation became jittery, no cool down (not even a second) and it looked ridiculous when she didn’t even looked around as she used to while hiking only glued to her screen. I hate that, to be honest. The more your sim walks, the more broken animation became. Also when the cool down is gone, it will not stopped when they dig things or do other stuff.
I would like to point out that sims were using their phones before, only when they did it was to search web or play game, a real activity which brings their fun up. The animation you are happy about is empty and is just that, an animation that is broken on top of being useless. It takes precious in game time where days are already short.
I can appreciate many small and big things this pack (and patch) brought to the table that add realism to sims lives: shaving, teens silly greeting, getting excited, sexual orientation, different gossip animation and the whole HS experience which I couldn’t play without at this point. But I need to be honest and say that the phone is broken. Your sim didn’t walk up in the night because it’s a fun feature, but because this freaking thing overwrites everything else. Did you realize that sims stopped running because of it? Yeah they did, good luck going to far away location like vending machines in Sembamachi in Mt. Komorebi. Before the update my sim will jog there no problem, now she is walking staring at her lovely phone. What about werewolves? They are running rampaging on all fours while staring at their phones. Is it still good?
Another thing is changing phone color which is also bugged and causes your sim doing it over and over again every time you load in the new location or start the game. So it’s clear phone is overall not working as intended. It is not complain, but simply stating the fact.
I’m all for being positive, I love this game, it’s the only Sims game that I ever really liked, but being blind to bugs and badly made features doesn’t help this game, it hurts it. I hope that some patch along the line will put the phone where it’s place – in my sims pocket.
If you are having issues with the phone in a mod free game, then report it to the proper place on EA Answers HQ; or, start your own topic on AHQ if the link below does not address your issue since you said it is a bugged feature. Happily, I'm not having any of the issues you mentioned with the phone.
https://answers.ea.com/t5/General-Discussion-Feedback/Who-asked-for-more-phone-use/m-p/11714156/highlight/true#M65512
Features and gameplay in a simulation game are subjective in my opinion. Anyone who likes the new phone feature and/or not bothered by it, isn't being "blind to bugs." The phone feature is by design and if it is not then like everything else that people have their free given right to complain about will get toned down. You do not have to belittle how someone else feels about a feature when expressing your opinion.
High school opens up whole new opportunities for me, such as recreating Kim Possible in sim form (high school student/cheerleader/secret agent). Currently playing Ravenia the teenage witch. Loving it. :)
The only thing Ive been slightly disappointed on (in addition to bugs) was that the other students feel bit bland. I wish they initiated more interesting stuff on their own, had quirks, that sort of thing.
@DaniRose2143 @Ellupelluellu @simgirl1010 I have Choose High School Classmates. I really like it. I didn't see all 20 of the Teens I picked to be my lead Sim's classmates, but I didn't see any random Teens at school, either.
The game did spawn more Teens at the football and cheerleading contests. This made sense, because the game calls these events "festivals." I use MCCC, and when I set it to pull all walk-by Sims from my Gallery, I got Teen versions of Sims I'd created. That was, honestly, even more fun.
Exie hay, cavero, mabza meeah vendarzo.
Yevsas mairzeemo!
I admittedly waited two weeks to buy High School Years. My daughter, a young Teen who is getting close to her own High School Years, was super excited for the pack...and then her mood was completely deflated after we read about the issues people were having.
Last week, we decided to go ahead and take the HSY plunge, so I bought the pack. We reasoned there was very little chance we would encounter all the issues we'd read about on the forum, and we figured we could find a way to get around the ones we did experience through the help of the amazing TS4 modders' community.
Full disclosure: We use MCCC, UI Cheats Extension, and a handful of small mods in our game. We also have a collection of CC clothing. Our game is, therefore, not pure "vanilla," but it's not been modded heavily. We did have to work a bit to make HSY do what we want it to do, but after a few days, we're both glad I bought it. I posted above about the Choose Your Own Classmates mod, which came highly recommended and has been wonderful so far.
We haven't seen any inappropriate romantic overtures, and our Sim isn't receiving offers to be best friends with every other Sim in the world. He has developed crushes on three of his classmates, and being around his crush(es) sends him on a rollercoaster of moods that is, honestly, very realistic. An unpredictable combination of Happy, Flirty, and Embarrassed...that sounds a lot like the emotions that have probably accompanied teenage crushes since the beginning of time.
There was one fight at school during the first week. Our Mean Girl was involved, which made sense. It started soon after school let out on Friday. We'd heard the adults would do nothing to stop fights, and that's exactly what happened. The principal and a teacher gathered with all the Teens in the building, watching while boxing glove thought bubbles filled the air above them. The combatants stopped fighting after almost an hour...but they apparently weren't through. To use a hockey metaphor, they dropped the gloves and went again! By the time Round Two ended, sometime after 5pm, the Cheerleading Competition had begun.
The most memorable thing about our Sim's visit to ThrifTea is the wacky outfit choices other Sims make when they spawn there. I've posted a few examples on the Townie Fashion Police thread. I can see how some of you are annoyed by this tendency, but I find it hilarious. And, when a Sim we placed in the game visits and commits a fashion violation, their clothing reverts to normal when they leave the lot. No harm, no foul.
Our lead Teen is on Social Bunny, and it's worked fine. The messages get a bit repetitive--everyone tells the same two or three jokes--but that's been eye-rollingly endearing so far, rather than unbearable. Checking Social Bunny is seamless; it doesn't stop our Sim from doing other things, which is a huge, huge relief. Social Bunny hasn't had a big effect on our Sim's relationships, either. The gains are small and logical. If he slides in his crush's DM with a flirty message, a little green heart will appear above his head, he might get a Flirty moodlet, and their pink bar will expand a little bit. They don't become Soulmates because of one message. I'm not sure I'd have most Adult Sims use it, but for younger Sims, I think it's perfect.
The worst problem we've seen is related to Prom. Our Sim rather adorably asked a girl he's crushing on to Prom, and she said yes. Saturday night rolled around and, promptly at 7pm, we saw the popup asking us if we'd like to join our Sim at prom. We naturally said yes...and watched as he stood on the sidewalk in front of his house, doing absolutely nothing.
I'm not sure if the forum moderators would want me to describe the workaround Z and I developed, but with a bit of ingenuity and the help of MCCC, we created a fun Prom experience for our Sim and his friends. There was no Prom Royalty, but otherwise it captured the feel of Prom Night and, most of all, it was fun.
That's the way I'd describe the experience Z and I have had with HSY so far. It's been fun. And we play The Sims to have fun, so I'd say it's been worth its cost.
Exie hay, cavero, mabza meeah vendarzo.
Yevsas mairzeemo!
Im sorry prom did not go how it should of been, i will see how will mine go
Sea may rise, sky may fall, My love will never die..
My heart, my heart, My drowning heart, Oh all the tears I've cried
Oh I may weep forevermore, My love will never die..
The Prom workaround my daughter and I created was actually very cool. I've decided I'll post about it, in case anyone wants to try it themselves.
Exie hay, cavero, mabza meeah vendarzo.
Yevsas mairzeemo!
I will have a look for your post about the prom and your pics in the fashion police thread. I'm not stalking you, I promise lol. I am still just reading as much as I can about people's experiences with the pack.