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Roommates, dorms and rotational play.

Basically, I'm wondering whether it'd be possible to have two playable sims in the same dorm but only have one of them be active at a time. ie two seperate households in the same 'house' (dorm). An extensions of this would be two active households in the same residential lot and being able to switch who you are actively playing with and the other one becomes the roommate sim for the duration.

Do ya'll think this'd be doable? I realize it might seem kinda weird/granular but sometimes I like not dictating every little thing about how a couple's relationship progresses, it's always an orchestration but sometimes I like to be the one responding to something instead of being in charge of initiation and response.

I doubt it's going to be a thing because it seems like it would require underlying system changes (distinguishing households from the lots they're inhabiting) but I'd really like it.
&PHgr;

Comments

  • Moon_WillowMoon_Willow Posts: 732 Member
    Judging by the livestream when you send your sims to live in a dorm lot they merge their household with the playables already in the dorm and all of the sims in this merged household are playable. Personally I think this makes rotation playing a lot easier.
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  • DaepheneDaephene Posts: 1,760 Member
    It looked to me like if you want two different dorm households, you'll need them to live in different dorms.
  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,644 Member
    ... but if they share a residential house - you can play multiple household members. But I guess you will miss the specific dorm features, not having NPC students there, and probably not the services provided at the dorm. I have no idea if that would be a great loss or not, if I get this pack I will do many different ways of housing.
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  • SilentKittySilentKitty Posts: 4,665 Member
    I will try this out in a test-save before bringing my main-save online.
  • SimmyFroggySimmyFroggy Posts: 1,762 Member
    @Simmerville you can still have NPC roommates in a residential household, but they won't be auto-generated. On the upside, you get to choose them. But I wonder if they'll be the same as dorm ones with bringing free food, fixing things etc. Definitely no free cleaning or repairs though ;)

    It's gonna be interesting figuring out what works best.
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  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,644 Member
    @Simmerville you can still have NPC roommates in a residential household, but they won't be auto-generated. On the upside, you get to choose them. But I wonder if they'll be the same as dorm ones with bringing free food, fixing things etc. Definitely no free cleaning or repairs though ;)

    It's gonna be interesting figuring out what works best.

    That's so cool :) I might get this pack simply for adding some functionality to my lodging homes. I have about one lot in each world where sims can stay temporarily, being hostel or retirement home. Maybe the dorm functionalities is the closest we'll get to hotels...
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  • babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
    edited November 2019
    I’m trying to wrap my head around the concept of rotational play with uni students.

    From the Guru Q&A:

    There is some amount of progression that occurs for Sims already enrolled in university that are rotated away from. Unplayed Sims will finish their term and re-enroll, eventually graduating. Played Sims will finish their term but wait to re-enroll until the player rotates back to them. All Sims progressing in this way will earn an “average” grade while doing so.

    Let’s say I have 8 students to send. If I play them all together, I’ll be stressed out. I’d prefer to divide them into 2 groups of 4 and I want both groups to live in separate dorms. You have to be enrolled to live in dorms. If I play group 1 for a week, I want to have group 2 moved in so that they’re all able to visit each other in the dorm setting. So for that first term, group 2 will complete the term with an average grade. Will they be kicked out of the dorm at the end, since they can’t live there without being enrolled again? And where would I find them, in the played households bin? Is there an opportunity to get their things out of the dorm?

    Then if I swap households, I would have to re-enroll group 1 first, then re-enroll group 2 and start playing them while group 1 is progressing with an average grade.

    It shortens the time I’d get to play with them by forcing them to progress without me. I don’t know if I love that or hate that concept. Maybe their grade doesn’t matter as long as they pass.

    And how would this affect their memberships with organizations or secret societies if they get bumped out of being “enrolled”?

    This would be a logistical nightmare for someone wanting to send 20+ students to university simultaneously, right?
  • DaWaterRatDaWaterRat Posts: 3,351 Member
    I wonder ... and I can easily see how this could go wrong, but what if you moved the "down time" household out of favorites or otherwise mark them as unplayed. In theory, they should then re-enroll on their own.

    Might be worth testing when the pack drops, though it will have to be someone else doing so, as I'm not planning to get it before spring (unless it goes on sale after Christmas)
  • SimmyFroggySimmyFroggy Posts: 1,762 Member
    @babajayne
    Will they be kicked out of the dorm at the end, since they can’t live there without being enrolled again?

    I don't think so. They're still enrolled in university, just not taking specific classes. They should stay in the housing you've chosen, waiting for you to rotate back to them & choose the classes.
    An average grade is enough for passing and enough to graduate, as far as I'm aware.

    There are so many possible scenarios and set ups though that people will come up with, I think testing when you have the pack is probably the only way to get the answers you need for your specific one.
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  • MissyHissyMissyHissy Posts: 2,022 Member
    I'll definitely be testing out the rotational aspect before I use it in my BACC. As far as I can tell, as long as my Uni sim has finished their term, they should stay put when I rotate to someone else just not take classes? It sounds like that's what will happen which is fine for me because I don't want them progressing through their degree without me :D
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  • SimmervilleSimmerville Posts: 11,644 Member
    I'm a rotational player, so I was not very interested in this pack because it seemed too hectic and complex for my game. I just didn't find it worth the trouble playing 1 student for a very long time, while not being able to switch to other households and still keep my student on top of everything on campus. But then I learned that each term is only 5 days, and that a student (probably) won't lose any progress if I do a normal rotation between each of those 4 (?) terms.

    So, now I'm a lot more interested in getting this pack. I'll just stick with my student for 5 simdays at the time, while I normally stop with a household only for 1-2 days. I can even group my local students to share accommodation on campus to make the rotation more rational. I understand it might be too hard playing several students in the same household though, so maybe 2 is enough. Or my more "serious" students can stay at home, just to avoid the dorm chaos that might take my attention away from the study itself.

    I need to learn more about the terms/enrolling and if there is any limitations like how long they can wait between terms.
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  • Simtown15Simtown15 Posts: 3,952 Member
    @babajayne I was planning to send 29 sims across 4 households, but now, that seems like a terrible idea!
  • babajaynebabajayne Posts: 1,866 Member
    Simtown15 wrote: »
    @babajayne I was planning to send 29 sims across 4 households, but now, that seems like a terrible idea!
    I hope I am just misunderstanding the dynamics of it. If necessary, they could individually move back home to Newcrest between terms, or just sit in limbo “not in world”, but it’s just more fun in my mind to be able to visit them at another dorm. If I get the EP it will be for the uni experience, and I don’t think I want them progressing while I am not playing them, either. (I can understand why unplayed students would progress, I don’t care about them anyway, I don’t want to see the same crowd every generation)
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