Yeeee-haaa!

[babewithbrains_14]

I am very very very happy today, fellow Sim fanatics. Well, I have been very very happy since Wednesday, anyway. The reason: I purchased TS2 Uni!!!

After investigating futher on World Sims about TS2 Uni, I discovered some people had had problems installing, found the game a challenge, and some *shock horror* were disappointed with the game content! (I sorta went on another site for the last of those points.)

I LOVE IT!!! It's so fab!

So - has anyone got tips for me?

:D :D :D

[Lynet]

Watch out for 'chartering' a greek house. Search the forum here. I haven't even bothered trying it but I understand that Sims develop severe memory loss unless you get one of JMP's fixes.

[Kristalrose]

skill-building needs to be much more of a priority. I find myself looking for ways to build skills while the children are very young. My toddlers are spending much more time playing with their bunny lately!

[Vchat20]

i must say that one of JMP's hacks that has been a MASSIVE help for me is the baby control object. it is essentially an eyeball hanging from the ceiling of your nursery (its a normal object you place there) and will control your sims appropriately to take care of the baby or toddler's needs. again MASSIVE help for my inept baby care skills :p

[zydeco]

Yep, I'd definitely make JMP's Armory section a first stop. Grab the "Critical Fix" zip and the "University Final Clock". I don't know how you can play University without his final clock. It prevents the game from being tedious.

[babewithbrains_14]

Erm - thanks for the help! But downloads don't want to work on my computer for some strange reason . . . :S

[kuponutty]

I'd would of saved up for nightlife! My friend said its the buggiest EP ever. I like to stay with TS2's prequal.

[babewithbrains_14]

How much do you think Nightlife will be? Uni was £20. How much is that in dollars? I think Nightlife will be the same price.

[zydeco]

skill-building needs to be much more of a priority. I find myself looking for ways to build skills while the children are very young.
I think this is one reason I started to find University tedious. I know JMP likes to make a game of maxing out his kids skills but it makes for a deadly dull sim game IMHO. Watching my sims live their life around a bookcase or move from one career item to another in an endless drive to max skills is dreadful. I finally made one neighborhood that private school and University isn't an option. It's a completely different challenge keeping an entire sim community ignorant. I find it a nice change when I get tired of making teens dance their buns off or hang out at the community pool hall just so they can get those final funky scholarships.

I have never had anyone drop out of college. Does going to college for 2 years and dropping out make them any different from someone who never attends a university?

[Randomzero]

If they drop out on their own will, then they get a memory with a white cross on a Uni sybmol. However, if they get kicked out for horrible GPAs, then they get an additional fear slot I believe.

[zydeco]

Ahhh...so there is a penalty then. That's interesting. I did move one sim out of the dorm into off campus housing and his class performance meter stalled. I thought I was going to have to have him drop out. Moving him back to the dorm seemed to correct the problem though.

[Rowanstaff]

I just got University this week, too. $34 American. Now I am building a new town and a new Uni town to go with it.

[garyalexza]

I think this is one reason I started to find University tedious. I know JMP likes to make a game of maxing out his kids skills but it makes for a deadly dull sim game IMHO. Watching my sims live their life around a bookcase or move from one career item to another in an endless drive to max skills is dreadful. I finally made one neighborhood that private school and University isn't an option. It's a completely different challenge keeping an entire sim community ignorant. I find it a nice change when I get tired of making teens dance their buns off or hang out at the community pool hall just so they can get those final funky scholarships.

I have never had anyone drop out of college. Does going to college for 2 years and dropping out make them any different from someone who never attends a university?

I think its the opposite ... My sims kids can max skills and so on when they are kids, and when they finish Uni they are pretty much done with skillbuilding . Then I can get them any job they want, and play them without worrying about silly skills and stuff. They have more time to hold parties or have friends visit or woohoo with millions of other sims or try to get abducted (not succesful yet). Its actually like real life ... you work your **** off while young so that you can get a good education and degrees and then you can enjoy life. Well at least thats the way my parents believed it should be done.

[surprised_by_witches]

I find sims who are maxxed out and permanently happy are rather boring. Since I discovered that I push less to make them perfect. I have Sims I started as infants and others who started in college and there isn't a whole lot of difference between them. I find toddlerhood is good for building up charisma, but the kid stage is so busy with homework and school that I don't find much time to build their skills. On the weekends they might build one skill of their choice (depending on what they find fun), but that's about it. And teenagers, oy, don't get me started what with the pimples and the hormones and the homework ... almost like the real article LOL.

Most of my skill building happens in college anyway.

However, one sim who just graduated was offered the job of CEO right off the bat due to her amazing number of skills. She started as a toddler, so it might have given her a bit of a boost. She still has some skills to build before she becomes a tycoon, though.

So maybe there's a small difference.

[zydeco]

I find sims who are maxxed out and permanently happy are rather boring. Since I discovered that I push less to make them perfect.
I, too, find it boring if everyone maxes skills and reaches the top of their career ladder. It's too easy to achieve everything in a lifetime. I've found it more of a challenge to keep some stuck at a low or mid level career point. In real life, few people become tycoons, hall of famers, mayors, or doctors. I've quit giving all babies smart milk. Few go to private school. Not everyone goes to college. In some families I omit giving them some necessary skill building tool. One family may not have a telescope or chess table. They have to get their logic points by doing the daily crossword. (I don't think you can max out logic in a lifetime by doing the crossword puzzle alone.) By doing this I can have a police track sim remain a patrol officer for life rather than have 20 Captain Heroes. I enjoy having some families struggle to buy groceries. It's fun finding a creative place to put an extra crib because they have no money to add on to the house.

Its actually like real life ... you work your **** off while young so that you can get a good education and degrees and then you can enjoy life. Hmmm...I don't agree with this. I've noticed that many kids today don't play. They sit in front of a computer or game console. The playground is one of the most educational places on the face of the earth. It's the first place to learn the art of negotiating. It's where you take your first punch and learn to return one when necessary. It a place to learn a lot of survival skills. One learns when to run, when to stand your ground and when to diffuse situations with humor. You learn to take turns, be a team player or a leader. It's where you learn about friendship and loyalty. You learn life isn't always fair and you get to learn to play as only children can. If you wait until you have your degrees and a good job and money then you've missed out on many of life's real skills and some of the best memories. Some things you just can't learn from books.

[garyalexza]

Aaah .. but in real life you have only one go at it ... and I would go on but I would hijack the thread ... but then that seams like a common occurence... :P

So has anyone checked if BabeWithBrains14564 has enjoyed TS2U so far? :)

[Kristalrose]

Well, she hasn't posted in 3 days, so what does that tell you?:D

[surprised_by_witches]

I enjoy having some families struggle to buy groceries. It's fun finding a creative place to put an extra crib because they have no money to add on to the house.

You and I are of a similar mind, Zy. I don't use smart milk, either and some of my houses are crowded indeed ... and there's nothing wrong with being a patrol officer for life, after all. A little struggle is what makes life interesting.

It's where you take your first punch and learn to return one when necessary. If you wait until you have your degrees and a good job and money then you've missed out on many of life's real skills and some of the best memories. Some things you just can't learn from books.

If only we didn't have so many rules in place that prevent kids from being kids. If my daughter were to punch someone on the playground, even in self defense (which is the only way she'd ever hit someone) she'd be suspended from school. I'm not saying I want kids to be allowed to hit each other, but they never were when I was a kid. If you got in a fight you went to the principal's office. It wasn't an automatic suspension though. We don't need all these rules. I think we've lost sight of what childhood is about, and I agree wholeheartedly with Zy. Childhood is for being a kid, not for staring at a computer screen ... and the playground is a proving ground for later life.

Which is why I send my daughter to school. I could homeschool her but I think school teaches kids how to get along with other kids, especially how to deal with mean ones. You can't avoid mean people but you can learn to diffuse them.

Of course, with kids taking guns to school it becomes a whole new ballgame. But all these rules aren't really doing anything to prevent that ... I think we're going about this all wrong.

[babewithbrains_14]

Well, she hasn't posted in 3 days, so what does that tell you?:D

:p Am back!!! It's quite simply fab. The thing I haven't tried yet but am looking forward to the most is resurrecting my sims.

[surprised_by_witches]

I tried to resurrect Gabe after Ischade's cowplant ate him, but the game wouldn't let me. It only gave me the option of resurrecting Dante or Lia, who died of old age.

Apparently if the cow plant eats you you're beyond saving. :eek:

[babewithbrains_14]

I forgotten how to get the cowplant. I just made a knowledge sim, and her lifetime want was to max out her seven skills. *Yawn* So I just maxxed them out using boolprop. Didn't work. So I almost maxxed them out with boolprop, just left one point clear on each bar. Now I'm going to see if that will work - I'll get her to max them out by herself.

[Lynet]

The townie George McCarthy had almost all his skills maxed out when I moved him into college. I thought, "WOW," good potential husband for one of my sims. He married Sybil Sparrow (and their kids are writing to each other under the thread "Dear Emmy" which Slimsim moved to Forum Games through some logic I can't follow :rolleyes: ). George quickly studied up on the remaining couple of points he lacked and now is the most BORING :( sim in all my neighborhoods. Makes good money, though. I don't let him retire. He has achieved lifetime wants three times--business tycoon, master criminal and hall of famer. He just keeps getting up every morning, eats, gets dressed, thinks about going to work, and then goes to work. All the action happens when he's not there. :eek: I think something may be developing between his bored wife and Uncle Drake (who likes to relive his past glory as a college mascot.)

[surprised_by_witches]

I suspected as much, Lynet ... when the cat's away and all that. ;)

I actually like the "max out all skills" ambition, call me nuts. I like that it takes a while to do, because Lynet is right: permanent platinum sims are the most boring to play. Angst and tribulations are what make a good story. I don't work too hard at it, and my sims never seem to quite make their ambitions ... I'm so mean, I know.

You could argue to move Emmy back. East Simders and the Simmer's didn't get moved and they're essentially the same thing.

Now, watch. My soap will be moved too. :rolleyes:

And Babe, you get the cow plant as a career reward for the Natural Science career. Which means the sim has to have gone to college.

[babewithbrains_14]

Aaah, SBW - I knew I'd seen it somewhere.

Well, I maxxed out the skills - and it worked! Venus is now constantly happy - yeah - it is quite boring. Now though, I have quite a large problem!

When Venus moved up from the ranks of sophomore to junior, a little message appeared, saying that I had so many aspiration points Venus could change her aspiration!

After giving it some thought, I decided against it. Venus is a knowledge sim, and that's how she's gonna stay. So back to the game. One of her wants now said that she wanted to invite her boyfriend over, and another said flirt with her boyfriend. I did both those things - no scrolling, no new wants!

As well as that, two of my other sims, Emma :D and Kallissa, have no wants! Their bars are both blank!

Anyone, little help? I thought if I spent some aspiration points vis-a-vis the Venus situation, that may help. What you think?

[Chee-Z]

Most of my Sims get the lifetime want fulfilled when they're elders, which is helpful because then I can focus on the younger generations while the elders do as they please. But when an adult Sim fulfills the want, yeah they are boring. Though it makes Fortune sims easier to deal with...no buying 10 $900 couches for example. :rolleyes:

[surprised_by_witches]

Everyone gets a chance to change their lifetime aspiration when they become a Junior, whether they have a lot of points or not, but I think that's kind of dumb, as I've mentioned before. I choose their aspirations carefully, and they then become part of that sim, so changing it would be jarring. I did have a Fortune sim in my old neighborhood who started acting more like a Romance sim, so I was going to change her (never got that far before I quit that neighborhood), but she was the only one.

I'd rather be allowed to change their lifetime want instead. I hate some of those. 20 simultaneous lovers? It's a good thing I don't care that much about reaching "permanent platinum" anymore ... :rolleyes:

As for your sim's blank wants, Babe, I've had one slot be temporarily blank for a sim and then right itself. Maybe having them do some "happy point" things they typically like (buy clothes, gain a skill point, influence someone to clean) would help set their wants spinning again. Or you could try moving them to a new lot. That might help. Sometimes a lot becomes buggy. I've had two dorms in the same uni crash, makes me think that particular neighborhood is a bit touchy.

That's about all I can think of.