Is there any way to increase the number of Sims in the High School? Add other faculty? Like School Nurse, Secretary, Gym Teacher? There is so much potential here but it just feels way too empty. If my computer can run Battlefield at the highest settings, adding more Sims shouldn't be a problem what-so-ever.
also, yeah, this pack really lacks so many things haha. The gym teacher could've just acted like a trainer does which i think already exists in the game I believe so the animation would already exist. I really think this pack should have had more focus. Either teen years or get to high school so that they could focus on either/or. Typically, I wouldn't want it to be separated since they already do this so much with concepts and make us spend more money, but in this particular case it would've help in allowing them to dive into the topics better. Like Get to High School could've been the EP and Teen Years could've been the GP.
So i finally found an okay enough deal so I caved in a got this pack all of my previous points still stand after playing it for a few hours. the school system needs an overhaul. it’s way too boring just sitting watching them taking notes or stare at their phone, some interactions for the player to choose would be nice.
the pier is quite buggy for me, idk about anyone else.
prom was okay, nothing super fun, sadly, and it’s weird how it only counts if you take a photo by yourself and not with someone in the photo booth for the event.
also, did they literally take drink vending machine items from Snowy Escape and put them in the ones in this pack or is that just “pack integration”? i’d have liked new vending machine drink options.
You know, this pack is fun when I'm playing households with teenagers, but when all I have is a toddler, or a couple kids, or young adults with pets, or really anything other than teens, the constant notifications get old quickly. I never minded the occasional notices about City Living, Mt Komorebi and Finchwick events. But every football day every week. Every cheerleading day every week. Every Thriftea thing every DAY. It's too much. Is there some option I'm missing that will turn these dang things off for my teen-less households?
Here is a list of my personal missed opportunities for this pack, in no particular order: <-- Modders (hint hint)
* The ability to distinguish the amount of time, a student has been in High School (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior) - There is literally nothing. Very missed opportunity. Giving me a countdown for my teens, would make it less "mundane" and give me something to work "towards" It wouldn't even be that difficult, just add it into their description as a student. If this was to be a Mod in the future, I would want my Sim to be able to "enroll as" in the office, and choose their grade. Then for their description to reflect this change. I'm SHOCKED that EA didn't consider this for the pack themselves.
* The ability to select what students are enrolled in your high school, all the time. There is no way for you to choose which students are in your high school without Mods. The game "rolls a dice" basically, and chooses game Teens first. Which is really frustrating, as most Simmers first thing they did, was go thru and create or download Teens from the Gallery to use in their schools. There are some Mods out already which "sort of" address this issue, (ChooseYourClassmates Mod by Rex) <-- but, that doesn't ensure that only the Teens you choose, will be in your school. The game still randomly chooses its own game made teens, and even then, those teens are not the ones who are always at your school. Sometimes they are there, and sometimes they aren't there. Maybe EA was thinking, "Hmm.. it will be realistic, and look like their ditching, if they don't always go to school." ?? Idk. Weird tho.
* The Ability to cancel festivals on the calendar. (ahem) As a Simmer, I do not like my game telling me what I need to do. This was a peeve for me with Get To Work too. I hate that I cannot schedule my own festivals. I hate that I cannot cancel the ones that are the calendar. I hate that the "events" of Career Day, Cheer Rally, and Football Rally" aren't actual events. Honestly, I think the entire festival collection of HSY is pointless. Even if you are a cheerleader or football player, its not like anyone comes to see you. What they should have done, was made "pep rallies" ... where the Football team AND the cheerleaders got together at the same time, and the other Simmies went into the bleachers, and they just cheer back and forth with each other. (Since we cannot have Friday night Football games) - this would have been a more welcome experience for me. I also would like to be able to say no to my game. The fact that I cannot cancel festivals, is what really irks me about that pack. Face painting, wearing your school colors (UGH. Another missed opportunity) - learning school chants.. ummm.. yeah, and gathering with friends on Friday night, I would have much preferred over the "festivals" that we got. Would they have gotten mundane? Probably, but the festivals we have now are really lacking. If Teens could do more at them, it would be worth it, but as it is, its just a missed opportunity.
* (I mentioned it already now, buut) - School Colors. Every school has school colors, and EA did a really nice job of giving us many different variations of colors with clothing that looks like uniforms... or things for school spirit. Here's the thing tho. You cannot choose what color is your schools color. Nor can you actually select what your Teens wear at your school. I've noticed, in my own personal gameplay, that my Teens always just wear the same colors. The Blue and the Red and the White. They never wear the other colors. What exactly was the point of giving us so many other colors to choose from? Not really sure... To be able to choose which colors your Teens wear, and to have things on the calendar like "School Spirit Day" or "PJ Day" or "Dye Your Hair Day" ... so many missed opportunities with that.
* School Chants - This has been a thing since TS2 University, in the Sims franchise. You can learn School chants, and do them with other students. This was another missed opportunity for HSY imo. I (kind of touched on it earlier) but I would really have liked to see the students all getting together for an actual event at the school, and cheering for their football and cheer team. Students gather in bleachers, and Sims gain moodlets and friendship being there. Additional activities for teens. (touched on this earlier)
* Career Day - Ok.. I kind of like this idea, but it has many faults. #1. Your Sim is "supposed" to ask all 3 presenters about the career they're speaking on, and listen to their entire presentation. Okk.. except, the ENTIRE TIME you are at "career day" that person is giving a presentation. So.. you literally have to interrupt them, and then, you don't even get a moodlet or actually learn anything. I would have thought that talking with someone about the career they do, would trigger at least something in your Teen? Since they wanted to explore careers for Teens, they could have went a step further, and allowed us to have the ability to research these careers, present papers on it... something! Just.. I see Career Day as pointless in its current state. its an excuse for your Teen to go to the Auditorium, and stand around for 2 Sim hours... and gain nothing. Real fun.
* The ability to set uniforms or choose the dress code or dress the teens in your school. There are a couple mods that do this, but I haven't tried any of them in my own gameplay as of yet. It would have been very nice, if we had the option (similar to Dine Out) where you can choose what your Chef, Server, and host wears. If they had just made a menu for "Everyday and Spirit Day" ... that would have been very much appreciated.
* The ability to choose your own crush. I'm not sure how the actual game mechanics work for this, as I have a mod, which chooses "less random crushes" and have never played without it. But. From what I have gathered, each time your Teen talks to any other Teen, they get a crush on them. Its kind of silly, and I really wish we could choose our own crushes. I really like that you can write about your crush, daydream, get over them in your diary... but. We should have a choice to who our Sims like. I like autonomy as much as the next person, but I don't like to not be given a choice. I really like the menus they have added for some of the other aspects of the games autonomous features. I think not doing this for crushes was another missed opportunity.
* Summer Vacation. I still don't understand it myself. Why can't we schedule time off school in the game yet? Yes, I know we have "time off work AND school" ... but that isn't realistic. Kids get much more time off school, than parents get off work. Summer Vacation and holidays... I have modded these own things into my own game, but I really shouldn't have to. We should have been given the option to do this in the game. Especially with a pack that focused entirely on school.
Overall. This pack is just "meh" for me. Going to school with my Teen, was fun for about 1 Sim week. Then it was just annoying. I was confused as to how long they had still. I got a popup talking about an Aptitude test, before they graduate, except, I have no idea how long until they graduate. This pack had a lot of promise, but many more missed opportunities.
yeah, completely agree. this pack missed many opportunities to expand on the gameplay. And yes, I also find the "festivals" very pointless and there seems to have been no thought put into them whatsoever. It's just " hey, come to this lot and do this sport." very disappointing.
The biggest issue with the school gameplay is that most of the tools are there and it wouldn’t be that hard to improve it, they just didn’t bother doing so. For an example they give you a mission to go speak to the principal. This happens literally only on the morning of the first day at school and could easily be re-used.
The rest of the morning prompts are always gym machine, treadmill, study for exam (which is removed if you already studied for exam). Lunchtime it is speak to a student and speak to one of the staff as far as I remember.
School has an art room, locker, library, music room, computer room, chess club, sports field, a class that isn’t yours, two teachers and a principal that you are never prompted to interact with after day one, at least outside of after school activities. They just send you to the treadmill every day.
Even ‘speak to Molly’ is more engaging than ‘be friendly to a student’. It wouldn’t be hard to just make it feel a bit livelier.
I wouldnt be surprised cause kids also can't do the pillow fight interaction I really hope this pack gets a refresh, especially the school day tasked events, cause it had potential.
It's honestly such a shame how things turned out with the high school pack. I was really looking forward to school game play, prom, kids in the hallway gossiping, you know, the works! I hate how generic it is, it's very bland and just not super interactive. Prom is cute, but it could be so much more than it is. I'm hoping like with the spa pack, they do a re-vamp and get us a little more.
I caved and bought it in the holiday sale 'cause I just really really wanted that bb and the world. The additions to the body hair options was nice, too. It's a nice EP, I love the world, bb, etc. As expected, going to high school is about as exciting as watching paint dry. But hey, it's not like my RL high school experiences were all that fabulous, anyway. Going with the student every day is a no, but it's not so bad if I only go with her once or twice a week, mainly so she can get her social need filled up, since she lives alone. I've played for several sim weeks and I'm about ready to have my student drop out, just to see what happens. First I have to get rid of that annoying 'fear of exam' thing - I'm not having that thing hanging over her head for the rest of her simlife.
I've made some changes to the school, turning it into a nice skill building area. When I follow her to school I keep her there so she can level up on some skills. I put a pool in the basement just because I can.
I truly don't think we need to be notified about football, prom, etc every sim week. I wish there was a way to stop those from happening. I haven't explored the world very much yet, because I've been concentrating on leveling my sim up and earning enough with her gardening to keep her going.
I've got a niggling idea to rebuild the HS, making the building smaller (probably with several floors), putting in a large area with gardening plots and maybe chickens, etc. I wonder how that would go. I wish we could put the HS in other worlds.
All in all, I'm glad I got it on sale, but this is not an essential pack.
I just played a bit with this pack and can't believe I paid full price. Should've waited for a sale, what a waste of money.
The rule of sims packs is ually wait until they are on sale . Rather its 50% percent off or 35 percent off it makes a difference. Since I pay only 30.00 dollars .I will say that the pack seems mostly worth it .I wish we had more poster decor in the pack .
What annoys me is that I currently have three teens in high school in two different households. And even when I change households their class schedule stays the same: the same weekdays, the same skills! Does that ever change or do all the teenagers all the eternity share the exactly same schedule (haven't played high school all that much yet in game length). Is there any mod or something that would add more skills that you can learn in high school classes? For me it's always charisma, writing, painting and programming and logic. It would be cool if sims could learn the basics of more skills in classes.
As I've recently started experimenting with it, I've come to suspect that Copperdale High School is a lycanthrophobic environment, or at least not werewolf-friendly. Teens who are werewolves either are not allowed to attend school autonomously with other students, or they do not feel comfortable doing so. Teens who become werewolves also seem to lose the privilege of being on campus, or the desire to be there.
Werewolf teens who're being played actively will go to school, however.
I've run far too many test situations to accept that this is coincidence based on the "rotation" of eligible students attending on a daily basis, due to the sims-per-lot limit. The next step would be to run a test save in which all teens in the game have been turned into werewolves, and if autonomous attendance drops to nothing it would confirm this.
Notably, this does not hold true when it comes to spellcaster teens. They seem to be perfectly comfortable showing up for school on their brooms.
I'm wondering if this is intended behavior within the game, or some sort of bug (either in my saves or overall.) It is definitely not mod-related, as I do not use mods or custom content of any kind, nor have I ever.
What annoys me is that I currently have three teens in high school in two different households. And even when I change households their class schedule stays the same: the same weekdays, the same skills! Does that ever change or do all the teenagers all the eternity share the exactly same schedule (haven't played high school all that much yet in game length). Is there any mod or something that would add more skills that you can learn in high school classes? For me it's always charisma, writing, painting and programming and logic. It would be cool if sims could learn the basics of more skills in classes.
If you have Get Together, it can be a lot of fun to form your own non-rabbit-hole student organizations. Unfortunately, you can't use the school building or auditorium as a hangout, which would make this perfect. Spa Day also includes yoga and meditation instructor items, which would allow you to teach your own yoga and meditation classes inside the school as an after school activity. (It might even be possible to do this during lunch, though I haven't tried it yet.) You just need to edit the lot while classes aren't in session.
As I've recently started experimenting with it, I've come to suspect that Copperdale High School is a lycanthrophobic environment, or at least not werewolf-friendly. Teens who are werewolves either are not allowed to attend school autonomously with other students, or they do not feel comfortable doing so. Teens who become werewolves also seem to lose the privilege of being on campus, or the desire to be there.
Werewolf teens who're being played actively will go to school, however.
I've run far too many test situations to accept that this is coincidence based on the "rotation" of eligible students attending on a daily basis, due to the sims-per-lot limit. The next step would be to run a test save in which all teens in the game have been turned into werewolves, and if autonomous attendance drops to nothing it would confirm this.
Notably, this does not hold true when it comes to spellcaster teens. They seem to be perfectly comfortable showing up for school on their brooms.
I'm wondering if this is intended behavior within the game, or some sort of bug (either in my saves or overall.) It is definitely not mod-related, as I do not use mods or custom content of any kind, nor have I ever.
Isn't there a pack-related setting about werewolves appearing in werewolf form outside of Moonwood Mill? I realize you're referring to even having them attend in their human form, but I think I heard somewhere that this setting might be a bit messed up. Have you tried turning that off to see if any will show up?
My username has been my internet handle for over 20 years since I was 16 and refers to when I had a crush on a very tall boy. I intend absolutely no violence toward beautiful giraffes.
Isn't there a pack-related setting about werewolves appearing in werewolf form outside of Moonwood Mill? I realize you're referring to even having them attend in their human form, but I think I heard somewhere that this setting might be a bit messed up. Have you tried turning that off to see if any will show up?
Actually, after a lot of experimenting, I found the problem. Unplayed sims can get "stuck" in certain stages of werebies or initial transformation progression, particularly if they're given a Cursed bite, or age up to teen as hereditary werewolves. The game won't bring teenaged sims in such a state onto the high school lot, which is rather realistic as they're not feeling very well and probably shouldn't be going to school.
You can fix this by calling them to hang out on a lot in Moonwood Mill and waiting for them to finish their initial transformation into werewolves, which is a process which apparently doesn't fully complete off screen. The reason why it needs to be in Moonwood Mill is because, at least some of the time, part of completing their transformation into their new state can involve ending up at the Howling Point in the nude (and very frightened.) If it's done in any other world, they'll get stuck in that end stage until they travel to Moonwood Mill, at which point they'll strangely be teleported up there and have their clothing removed and placed in a frightened state.
Once they complete all the stages of the transformation process on screen, they will start attending school again.
Here is a list of my personal missed opportunities for this pack, in no particular order: <-- Modders (hint hint)
---Snip---
Honestly, I feel the sims team messed up with the marketing. It says Highschool but the school is just a set dressing at best. I know they have a time crunch and (insert whatever excuse) so things are hard, but it would be nice if they focused in on flushed out content instead of shallow quantity. They should have scrapped the school and just sold it as a teenfluencer pack.
They should have really gone all out on thrifty so players could have full control over it and make it so I can't sell a suit for $9 million. Players should have been able to set who wears their clothes. If players want to market to only women, then fine, if they want to market their outfit to men and women then fine, if they want to market only to teens, children, or elders then players should be allowed to decide who they want to market their outfits to.
Players should be able to sell clothes at maybe max 300% markup price, but their ability to do so should tie into the number of followers they have, the more popular they are, the higher price they can sell an item.
Since the pack would focus on influencers, they should have tried to make having fans actually matter. Having followers doesn't really mean anything in the game, so it would have been nice if sims could lose followers and have trends that get disliked or liked. Maybe allow fans to request services from you.
It didn't have to just work for thrifty either, players can have fans request work from them if they are:
An artist - a fan can request sad art or a realistic art in poor quality or perfect quality
A musician could be asked to write a parody song or ask that a song be dedicated to them
A writer may be asked to sign a book or write a poem
A dancer might be asked to stream some dance tips
A gamer may be asked to host a 12 hour streaming event on a Friday night for some friends
Even for thrifty having a rabbit hole photoshoot opportunity for clothes/makeup/perfume offered based on your fan numbers could trickle to many other jobs
If they really buckled down on flushing out trendi and the influencer job this pack could have offered us a lot of gameplay time without the disappointment of the ignored school. Puberty like body hair, deodorant, makeup, skin care and perfume should have been base game updates that could have been enhanced with packs like spa day, eco life, warewolves and get famous.
I don't understand why violence is allowed in this high school.
I used the "Furio" spell to make the NPC teens fight with the teachers but nobody was expelled.
Because there isn't really any pack integration. I don't even think the pack acknowledges that occults exist. lol Also there isn't really any gameplay for the high school, most of the content is in trendi and the social bunny.
Here is a list of my personal missed opportunities for this pack, in no particular order: <-- Modders (hint hint)
---Snip---
Honestly, I feel the sims team messed up with the marketing. It says Highschool but the school is just a set dressing at best. I know they have a time crunch and (insert whatever excuse) so things are hard, but it would be nice if they focused in on flushed out content instead of shallow quantity. They should have scrapped the school and just sold it as a teenfluencer pack.
They should have really gone all out on thrifty so players could have full control over it and make it so I can't sell a suit for $9 million. Players should have been able to set who wears their clothes. If players want to market to only women, then fine, if they want to market their outfit to men and women then fine, if they want to market only to teens, children, or elders then players should be allowed to decide who they want to market their outfits to.
Players should be able to sell clothes at maybe max 300% markup price, but their ability to do so should tie into the number of followers they have, the more popular they are, the higher price they can sell an item.
Since the pack would focus on influencers, they should have tried to make having fans actually matter. Having followers doesn't really mean anything in the game, so it would have been nice if sims could lose followers and have trends that get disliked or liked. Maybe allow fans to request services from you.
It didn't have to just work for thrifty either, players can have fans request work from them if they are:
An artist - a fan can request sad art or a realistic art in poor quality or perfect quality
A musician could be asked to write a parody song or ask that a song be dedicated to them
A writer may be asked to sign a book or write a poem
A dancer might be asked to stream some dance tips
A gamer may be asked to host a 12 hour streaming event on a Friday night for some friends
Even for thrifty having a rabbit hole photoshoot opportunity for clothes/makeup/perfume offered based on your fan numbers could trickle to many other jobs
If they really buckled down on flushing out trendi and the influencer job this pack could have offered us a lot of gameplay time without the disappointment of the ignored school. Puberty like body hair, deodorant, makeup, skin care and perfume should have been base game updates that could have been enhanced with packs like spa day, eco life, warewolves and get famous.
That is an interesting take, I would have preferred if they had focused on the actual high school itself with active classes like arts, music and chemistry, classes would have worked kinda like organizations from Discover University but taking place in different classrooms at the high school and after school activities would have also taken place at the school.
Performing well during these activities would have motivated the player to create sims who were good at different skills and create different teen stereotypes that would have mattered.
Is there any mod or something that would add more skills that you can learn in high school classes? For me it's always charisma, writing, painting and programming and logic. It would be cool if sims could learn the basics of more skills in classes.
I don’t know about mods but my sims learnt archaeology and Salvadorado culture at school, the skills from jungle adventure. So I guess the packs you have influence it.
Here is a list of my personal missed opportunities for this pack, in no particular order: <-- Modders (hint hint)
---Snip---
---snip more ---
That is an interesting take, I would have preferred if they had focused on the actual high school itself with active classes like arts, music and chemistry, classes would have worked kinda like organizations from Discover University but taking place in different classrooms at the high school and after school activities would have also taken place at the school.
Performing well during these activities would have motivated the player to create sims who were good at different skills and create different teen stereotypes that would have mattered.
Oh I agree, when I heard they had a high school pack I was ready with my teen to enjoy "high school" and the sweet club life, only to find out there was no high school game play. I only say they should have focused on the teeninfluencer is b.c that is the game play in the pack, that is what they wanted to focus on. So I just feel they should have scrapped the school and just gone on in on that part instead. They could have released a high school game pack later that better flushed out school system:
Proms that we the player schedule on our calendars
Allow players to assign a theme for prom
Letting players assign uniforms/non-uniforms for students
Letting players assign staff outfits
Let players decided how each club acts (maybe I want my cheerleaders to be mean)
Let players create at least 3 to 5 active in school clubs who can try to recruit your sim (maybe I want my school to have a swim club instead of a football club, so I can set that so the NPC sims will try to recruit for a swim club instead of a football club.)
Give teens a report card
Make personalities, the parenthood manners, and your sims childhood skill (ex: creative, mental,etc) play a role in a teens academic abilities (ex: a child who maxed out the motor skill before becoming a teen may do better in gym class, but may fail in art class if they didn't max their creative skill as a child. Likewise a teens trait who may be artistic, but as a child never leveled their creative skill may fail as a teen in art, but be more inclined to practice and work hard at it b.c they like art...even if they are slower at building skills for it. While the manners could decide how the teen goes about being creative. Maybe a bad manner teen prefers rebellious or gross joke art.
Letting classes and homework offer actual skill training. Not paying attention or studying can lower your grade.
Going to detention can mess with your grade, you can meet bad students who encourage your sim to misbehave and have rebellious stages, getting too much detention can mess with your ability to go to career day too
Offer a rabbit hole extra curriculum classes to help failing sims get their grades up or to help that perfectionist sleep well during finals
Make career day mean something, let it attach to a sims personality trait. Ex: A geek sims may love a programmer career, but may hate the actor career, and might think the doctor career is ok.
Teens can use career day to rabbit hole shadow careers to discover what they like. Sims struggling to find something they like could get extremely stressed causing them to break out and struggle with studying and lowering their chances to get high grades. They may need to de-stress, seek advice from friends and family to help them calm down. While sims who find an ok job might be a little nervous or excited to discover their calling. With the sims who find a job they love at career day being excited for the future and confident of where they are going in life.
Crushes should have been introduced here unless they plan to make some sort of love is in the air stuff pack that just overhauls the entire romance system.
Puberty should have been here, every perfume/makeup item should have been usable now, deodorant, lotion, and brushing your teeth now matter. If you don't brush for 3 days straight your teeth stink and if you kiss someone it leaves a bad taste. Bullies at school and coworkers at work can complain about your breath and body Oder. Neat sims apply deodorant and brush on their own while lazy sims don't, slobs dislike it and eco sims want to use natural home made deodorants/soaps, etc.
Comments
also, yeah, this pack really lacks so many things haha. The gym teacher could've just acted like a trainer does which i think already exists in the game I believe so the animation would already exist. I really think this pack should have had more focus. Either teen years or get to high school so that they could focus on either/or. Typically, I wouldn't want it to be separated since they already do this so much with concepts and make us spend more money, but in this particular case it would've help in allowing them to dive into the topics better. Like Get to High School could've been the EP and Teen Years could've been the GP.
the pier is quite buggy for me, idk about anyone else.
prom was okay, nothing super fun, sadly, and it’s weird how it only counts if you take a photo by yourself and not with someone in the photo booth for the event.
also, did they literally take drink vending machine items from Snowy Escape and put them in the ones in this pack or is that just “pack integration”? i’d have liked new vending machine drink options.
* The ability to distinguish the amount of time, a student has been in High School (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior) - There is literally nothing. Very missed opportunity. Giving me a countdown for my teens, would make it less "mundane" and give me something to work "towards" It wouldn't even be that difficult, just add it into their description as a student. If this was to be a Mod in the future, I would want my Sim to be able to "enroll as" in the office, and choose their grade. Then for their description to reflect this change. I'm SHOCKED that EA didn't consider this for the pack themselves.
* The ability to select what students are enrolled in your high school, all the time. There is no way for you to choose which students are in your high school without Mods. The game "rolls a dice" basically, and chooses game Teens first. Which is really frustrating, as most Simmers first thing they did, was go thru and create or download Teens from the Gallery to use in their schools. There are some Mods out already which "sort of" address this issue, (ChooseYourClassmates Mod by Rex) <-- but, that doesn't ensure that only the Teens you choose, will be in your school. The game still randomly chooses its own game made teens, and even then, those teens are not the ones who are always at your school. Sometimes they are there, and sometimes they aren't there. Maybe EA was thinking, "Hmm.. it will be realistic, and look like their ditching, if they don't always go to school." ?? Idk. Weird tho.
* The Ability to cancel festivals on the calendar. (ahem) As a Simmer, I do not like my game telling me what I need to do. This was a peeve for me with Get To Work too. I hate that I cannot schedule my own festivals. I hate that I cannot cancel the ones that are the calendar. I hate that the "events" of Career Day, Cheer Rally, and Football Rally" aren't actual events. Honestly, I think the entire festival collection of HSY is pointless. Even if you are a cheerleader or football player, its not like anyone comes to see you. What they should have done, was made "pep rallies" ... where the Football team AND the cheerleaders got together at the same time, and the other Simmies went into the bleachers, and they just cheer back and forth with each other. (Since we cannot have Friday night Football games) - this would have been a more welcome experience for me. I also would like to be able to say no to my game. The fact that I cannot cancel festivals, is what really irks me about that pack. Face painting, wearing your school colors (UGH. Another missed opportunity) - learning school chants.. ummm.. yeah, and gathering with friends on Friday night, I would have much preferred over the "festivals" that we got. Would they have gotten mundane? Probably, but the festivals we have now are really lacking. If Teens could do more at them, it would be worth it, but as it is, its just a missed opportunity.
* (I mentioned it already now, buut) - School Colors. Every school has school colors, and EA did a really nice job of giving us many different variations of colors with clothing that looks like uniforms... or things for school spirit. Here's the thing tho. You cannot choose what color is your schools color. Nor can you actually select what your Teens wear at your school. I've noticed, in my own personal gameplay, that my Teens always just wear the same colors. The Blue and the Red and the White. They never wear the other colors. What exactly was the point of giving us so many other colors to choose from? Not really sure... To be able to choose which colors your Teens wear, and to have things on the calendar like "School Spirit Day" or "PJ Day" or "Dye Your Hair Day" ... so many missed opportunities with that.
* School Chants - This has been a thing since TS2 University, in the Sims franchise. You can learn School chants, and do them with other students. This was another missed opportunity for HSY imo. I (kind of touched on it earlier) but I would really have liked to see the students all getting together for an actual event at the school, and cheering for their football and cheer team. Students gather in bleachers, and Sims gain moodlets and friendship being there. Additional activities for teens. (touched on this earlier)
* Career Day - Ok.. I kind of like this idea, but it has many faults. #1. Your Sim is "supposed" to ask all 3 presenters about the career they're speaking on, and listen to their entire presentation. Okk.. except, the ENTIRE TIME you are at "career day" that person is giving a presentation. So.. you literally have to interrupt them, and then, you don't even get a moodlet or actually learn anything. I would have thought that talking with someone about the career they do, would trigger at least something in your Teen? Since they wanted to explore careers for Teens, they could have went a step further, and allowed us to have the ability to research these careers, present papers on it... something! Just.. I see Career Day as pointless in its current state. its an excuse for your Teen to go to the Auditorium, and stand around for 2 Sim hours... and gain nothing. Real fun.
* The ability to set uniforms or choose the dress code or dress the teens in your school. There are a couple mods that do this, but I haven't tried any of them in my own gameplay as of yet. It would have been very nice, if we had the option (similar to Dine Out) where you can choose what your Chef, Server, and host wears. If they had just made a menu for "Everyday and Spirit Day" ... that would have been very much appreciated.
* The ability to choose your own crush. I'm not sure how the actual game mechanics work for this, as I have a mod, which chooses "less random crushes" and have never played without it. But. From what I have gathered, each time your Teen talks to any other Teen, they get a crush on them. Its kind of silly, and I really wish we could choose our own crushes. I really like that you can write about your crush, daydream, get over them in your diary... but. We should have a choice to who our Sims like. I like autonomy as much as the next person, but I don't like to not be given a choice. I really like the menus they have added for some of the other aspects of the games autonomous features. I think not doing this for crushes was another missed opportunity.
* Summer Vacation. I still don't understand it myself. Why can't we schedule time off school in the game yet? Yes, I know we have "time off work AND school" ... but that isn't realistic. Kids get much more time off school, than parents get off work. Summer Vacation and holidays... I have modded these own things into my own game, but I really shouldn't have to. We should have been given the option to do this in the game. Especially with a pack that focused entirely on school.
Overall. This pack is just "meh" for me. Going to school with my Teen, was fun for about 1 Sim week. Then it was just annoying. I was confused as to how long they had still. I got a popup talking about an Aptitude test, before they graduate, except, I have no idea how long until they graduate. This pack had a lot of promise, but many more missed opportunities.
The rest of the morning prompts are always gym machine, treadmill, study for exam (which is removed if you already studied for exam). Lunchtime it is speak to a student and speak to one of the staff as far as I remember.
School has an art room, locker, library, music room, computer room, chess club, sports field, a class that isn’t yours, two teachers and a principal that you are never prompted to interact with after day one, at least outside of after school activities. They just send you to the treadmill every day.
Even ‘speak to Molly’ is more engaging than ‘be friendly to a student’. It wouldn’t be hard to just make it feel a bit livelier.
I've made some changes to the school, turning it into a nice skill building area. When I follow her to school I keep her there so she can level up on some skills. I put a pool in the basement just because I can.
I truly don't think we need to be notified about football, prom, etc every sim week. I wish there was a way to stop those from happening. I haven't explored the world very much yet, because I've been concentrating on leveling my sim up and earning enough with her gardening to keep her going.
I've got a niggling idea to rebuild the HS, making the building smaller (probably with several floors), putting in a large area with gardening plots and maybe chickens, etc. I wonder how that would go. I wish we could put the HS in other worlds.
All in all, I'm glad I got it on sale, but this is not an essential pack.
The rule of sims packs is ually wait until they are on sale . Rather its 50% percent off or 35 percent off it makes a difference. Since I pay only 30.00 dollars .I will say that the pack seems mostly worth it .I wish we had more poster decor in the pack .
Werewolf teens who're being played actively will go to school, however.
I've run far too many test situations to accept that this is coincidence based on the "rotation" of eligible students attending on a daily basis, due to the sims-per-lot limit. The next step would be to run a test save in which all teens in the game have been turned into werewolves, and if autonomous attendance drops to nothing it would confirm this.
Notably, this does not hold true when it comes to spellcaster teens. They seem to be perfectly comfortable showing up for school on their brooms.
I'm wondering if this is intended behavior within the game, or some sort of bug (either in my saves or overall.) It is definitely not mod-related, as I do not use mods or custom content of any kind, nor have I ever.
If you have Get Together, it can be a lot of fun to form your own non-rabbit-hole student organizations. Unfortunately, you can't use the school building or auditorium as a hangout, which would make this perfect. Spa Day also includes yoga and meditation instructor items, which would allow you to teach your own yoga and meditation classes inside the school as an after school activity. (It might even be possible to do this during lunch, though I haven't tried it yet.) You just need to edit the lot while classes aren't in session.
Isn't there a pack-related setting about werewolves appearing in werewolf form outside of Moonwood Mill? I realize you're referring to even having them attend in their human form, but I think I heard somewhere that this setting might be a bit messed up. Have you tried turning that off to see if any will show up?
Actually, after a lot of experimenting, I found the problem. Unplayed sims can get "stuck" in certain stages of werebies or initial transformation progression, particularly if they're given a Cursed bite, or age up to teen as hereditary werewolves. The game won't bring teenaged sims in such a state onto the high school lot, which is rather realistic as they're not feeling very well and probably shouldn't be going to school.
You can fix this by calling them to hang out on a lot in Moonwood Mill and waiting for them to finish their initial transformation into werewolves, which is a process which apparently doesn't fully complete off screen. The reason why it needs to be in Moonwood Mill is because, at least some of the time, part of completing their transformation into their new state can involve ending up at the Howling Point in the nude (and very frightened.) If it's done in any other world, they'll get stuck in that end stage until they travel to Moonwood Mill, at which point they'll strangely be teleported up there and have their clothing removed and placed in a frightened state.
Once they complete all the stages of the transformation process on screen, they will start attending school again.
Honestly, I feel the sims team messed up with the marketing. It says Highschool but the school is just a set dressing at best. I know they have a time crunch and (insert whatever excuse) so things are hard, but it would be nice if they focused in on flushed out content instead of shallow quantity. They should have scrapped the school and just sold it as a teenfluencer pack.
They should have really gone all out on thrifty so players could have full control over it and make it so I can't sell a suit for $9 million. Players should have been able to set who wears their clothes. If players want to market to only women, then fine, if they want to market their outfit to men and women then fine, if they want to market only to teens, children, or elders then players should be allowed to decide who they want to market their outfits to.
Players should be able to sell clothes at maybe max 300% markup price, but their ability to do so should tie into the number of followers they have, the more popular they are, the higher price they can sell an item.
Since the pack would focus on influencers, they should have tried to make having fans actually matter. Having followers doesn't really mean anything in the game, so it would have been nice if sims could lose followers and have trends that get disliked or liked. Maybe allow fans to request services from you.
It didn't have to just work for thrifty either, players can have fans request work from them if they are:
If they really buckled down on flushing out trendi and the influencer job this pack could have offered us a lot of gameplay time without the disappointment of the ignored school. Puberty like body hair, deodorant, makeup, skin care and perfume should have been base game updates that could have been enhanced with packs like spa day, eco life, warewolves and get famous.
I used the "Furio" spell to make the NPC teens fight with the teachers but nobody was expelled.
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The Sims 4 General DiscussionBecause there isn't really any pack integration. I don't even think the pack acknowledges that occults exist. lol Also there isn't really any gameplay for the high school, most of the content is in trendi and the social bunny.
That is an interesting take, I would have preferred if they had focused on the actual high school itself with active classes like arts, music and chemistry, classes would have worked kinda like organizations from Discover University but taking place in different classrooms at the high school and after school activities would have also taken place at the school.
Performing well during these activities would have motivated the player to create sims who were good at different skills and create different teen stereotypes that would have mattered.
I don’t know about mods but my sims learnt archaeology and Salvadorado culture at school, the skills from jungle adventure. So I guess the packs you have influence it.
Oh I agree, when I heard they had a high school pack I was ready with my teen to enjoy "high school" and the sweet club life, only to find out there was no high school game play. I only say they should have focused on the teeninfluencer is b.c that is the game play in the pack, that is what they wanted to focus on. So I just feel they should have scrapped the school and just gone on in on that part instead. They could have released a high school game pack later that better flushed out school system: