No Uni Invulnerability For Dormies

[Kyna]

I've had to take this hack out of my game as I couldn't stand the books the dormies are leaving everywhere. 

They're sitting there researching.  They stop because their fun has bottomed out, put the book down on endtable or floor, walk a few steps to the bookcase, grab another book and start research, put the book down because of their totally red fun, grab another book, repeat, repeat, repeat.  It's as bad as when they used to leave their assignments everywhere.  I once 'carpeted' the entire ground floor of a dorm with those assignments and made a good start on the upstairs before I got your hack that stopped the assignment spam.

It's been fun watching them head dive into their food and pass out on the floor.  I even managed a death - but I missed seeing grimmy.  Just noticed a replacement dormie and headstone for the dead dormie at the end of the footpath by the portal.  She must have died as soon as she stepped back onto the lot.

[vector]

The dormies used to do that to me even before this hack, because they're filthy slobs.


I solved this problem by spawning the Sim Modder and changing all their neat points to max. It's not very student-like, but it does mean you're able to move around. It doesn't stop them with the OCD research, but they do put their book back on the shelf instead of leaving it lying at their ass.

[dmchess]

I also had a sim that seemed to be stuck doing research for what may have been days, if not at least several hours.

I've definitely had them stuck researching for days (pre-NL).  See Unsticking Jennifer...

DC

[miramis]

Since Nightlife my dormies don't seem to do any research, all they seem to do is sit in the hot-tub, fight, eat, do the occasional assignment and bowl.  They do more of the fighting then anything else, so much fighting that I sometimes have to invite them into the hot-tub before sending my sim to do something without distractions.  I haven't been back to Uni since installing this so couldn't say if there has been any difference yet.

[ElviraGoth]

I have one dorm that has two townies who fight ALL the time.  It's gotten so bad that evey other sim ignores it.  I even took a pic of two sims "hanging out" while the pair was fighting right next to them.

Need this hack.  Tired of the cheerleader and the mascot hogging the stuff I want my sims to use for hours and hours on end while MY sims have to eat, sleep and pee.

Thank you, Most Awwsome One! (Yeah that's misspelled on purpose.)

[Ancient Sim]

Well, I have been having some amazing fun with this, I tell you.  Been cracking myself up.  I took quite a few pics but unfortunately because I didn't add them to the album, they aren't appearing in Storytelling.  That means I have to go back to the dorm and add them, which will take a while because the second I go back one of my Sims has to go on a date.  Once I've sorted it, I will be back to post the pics.

[Kyna]

The dormies used to do that to me even before this hack, because they're filthy slobs.

I solved this problem by spawning the Sim Modder and changing all their neat points to max. It's not very student-like, but it does mean you're able to move around. It doesn't stop them with the OCD research, but they do put their book back on the shelf instead of leaving it lying at their ass.

I pulled the hack out of my d/l folder, as I said before.  Without the hack the dormies have stopped the endless cycle of "get book out - sit & research - instantly stop - put book on floor - get book out - repeat - repeat - repeat, etc".  So the behaviour was caused either by the hack itself or the hack is conflicting with another hack I have. 

I don't mind them leaving books out, as normally it's only a few books a day ... it was the looping behaviour, causing a situation like your picture.

While the hack was in the dormies kept trying to research as if that would satisfy their fun need, with it out they've gone back to watching tv to boost their fun.  And, more importantly, they are no longer blocking the bookcase with their silly cycle of behaviour.

[vector]

I pulled the hack out of my d/l folder, as I said before.  Without the hack the dormies have stopped the endless cycle of "get book out - sit & research - instantly stop - put book on floor - get book out - repeat - repeat - repeat, etc".  So the behaviour was caused either by the hack itself or the hack is conflicting with another hack I have. 

I don't think it's a conflict as such - just general dormie ineptness. Under normal circumstances they'd just take out a book and never get up off the sofa again (I've had dormies that spent their whole time in college doing this before). Now they try to research, but find it isn't fun enough, so want to stop right away, and then decide they want to research, "oh, but it's no fun", etc.

Perhaps an update to make researching non-autonomous for the little beggars? If it's possible.

[Ancient Sim]

Mine are doing exactly the same thing with the research, but only the ones with very low fun, the others aren't researching at all.  Some are coping with the hack amazingly well, others definitely are not coping.  I wouldn't want it stopped though, because it helps my own YA's if they join in.  The problem is that they keep trying to play the instruments but they can't because "I'm not in the mood for that, maybe later" Syndrome kicks-in.  Even my own Sims won't play instruments if their fun is really low, not even to perform, they seem to think it's work rather than pleasure, but surely that reaction should only go with the practice option? 

I've had one dormie just now totally bottomed-out on fun, energy and comfort.  She went into another dormie's room (one vacated by one of my Sims, so it had a more comfortable bed than hers) with the bed icon in her queue.  I followed her to see if she really would sleep and when I went into buy mode she was wearing her pyjamas and getting into the bed.  Next I knew, she was standing beside it with the icon "Disable Me" in her queue.  I've never seen that before and I have no idea what it means.  The day before I was told that there wasn't enough room for my Sims (there was) and she left, only to return immediately to fill the empty space she'd created, so maybe she was disabled then as well.  She's constantly bottoming out on fun, as is one of the males, but the others are basically OK most of the time.  For some reason these two seem to lose their fun as quickly as they acquire it.

[Kyna]

I don't think it's a conflict as such - just general dormie ineptness. Under normal circumstances they'd just take out a book and never get up off the sofa again (I've had dormies that spent their whole time in college doing this before). Now they try to research, but find it isn't fun enough, so want to stop right away, and then decide they want to research, "oh, but it's no fun", etc.

Perhaps an update to make researching non-autonomous for the little beggars? If it's possible.

That's the situation exactly.  I like the autonomous research as my sims can join in when they're rampaging - but perhaps an update to make dormies do something that would satisfy their fun would solve the problem.  So long as they don't start kicking my flamingoes.  I already spend too much time rotating those flamingoes because they get stuck when my sims kick them.  Besides, flamingoes are too good for dormies, the dormies don't deserve to use them.

[vector]

Heh heh heh - I left a flamingo on the lawn hoping they could use it to get their fun up, and only one dormie ever kicks it, and even then she only does something like once a semester. I put a swingset out for them as well, but forgot I also had Pescado's nobogartswings hack, so they don't use it at all. I should maybe take that out sometime.

I don't really use instruments, learned not to long before this hack came out. Might be worthwhile adding them again, since they won't use them day and goddamn night anymore.

[Ancient Sim]

Well, I know I promised some pics of my results from this mod, but I can't post them because the "upload folder is full" or something.  In any case, only one is worth posting because the others are too dark due to me having GunMod's Radiance Light System in my game. 

Basically, what I have had to do is remove all the beds from the dormies' rooms and scatter them around the lot.  Is there anything that can be done so they can actually sleep in the beds in their rooms?  As I reported in my last post, they are trying to do this but the game won't let them, instead they are being "disabled", whatever that means.  It would seem so much more realistic if they could sleep in their beds.  Since installing this mod and realising just how controlled the dormies really are, I've re-named them the Stepford Dormies.  Somehow, it seems to fit.

[J. M. Pescado]

When a dormie goes to its room, its energy is refreshed as if it had gone to sleep. This part is essentially "faked", because dorm rooms are faded out to ostensibly reduce graphical and computational load.

[maxon]

When a dormie goes to its room, its energy is refreshed as if it had gone to sleep. This part is essentially "faked", because dorm rooms are faded out to ostensibly reduce graphical and computational load.

In one of my dorms I think I have a bug.  The rooms of the dormies are not faded out since I installed NL.  I installed your mod and, indeed, it has the desired effect: dormies passing out, dormies starving, etc. etc.  They are now sleeping in their little beds too - I can see them doing their zeds (is that zees if you're American?). 

Anyway, one slightly unexpected side-effect of the hack is this.  The dormies now sleep in their beds.  Some of the idiots also lock their doors.  When the maid comes in the morning, she spends hours walking from one locked dormie room to another, wanting to make the beds but not being able to get in.  As she seems to prioritise bed-making over something important, like say, cleaning the f***ing green-smoking toilets which haven't been cleaned in 5 days, you silly cow, she spends hours walking up and down the corridors not doing anything useful and then gets paid a big wad of money at the end of the day for it.  I have had to resort to taking the beds out of the rooms (because I can't unlock the doors without a major fiddle about) just so that she can make them in the corridor and get over her bed fixation.  It's almost as bad as the fish tank (has that been fixed yet?).

You know if you were to make one hack that would really improve the quality of my game play it would be one that would allow me to administer a smack to the sims when they did something stupid.  I know you can't make that and it's all wishful thinking but you have no idea just how much it would add to my experience of the game.  (Clean the fishtank for the nth time, smack!, clean the fishtank ..., smack ... sigh.  Perhaps I should play something else).

[ElviraGoth]

One thing I've noticed is that now my sims have to lock their doors or they find a dormie sleeping in their bed!

Three different dorms.  Each one had one girl I was about to send to bed and their was a male dormie already sleeping in her bed.

I haven't had to lock my sims doors before because the dormies didn't bother them enough to.  Now it's essential.  Is this part of the hack that allows this to happen?

[Ancient Sim]

How are people getting the dormies to sleep in their beds?  They won't in mine unless I take them out of the rooms and put them outside or something, apart from the one who tried and got straght out again because the game insisted on "disabling" her.  Had my first death yesterday, too.  The game seems to be sending them to class far more often since I put this mod in, especially when they're on the verge of starving, so one poor girl died the second she got back from class.  Pity really, she was one of the few decent-looking ones.  A night or two after she died I got all the ghost noises but there was no sign of her ghost, just everyone jumping in fright at the image of one of the other dormies, so maybe she's possessed her.

[J. M. Pescado]

I haven't had to lock my sims doors before because the dormies didn't bother them enough to.  Now it's essential.  Is this part of the hack that allows this to happen?

Well, previously, dormies had no needs at all, since they could never become tired, hungry, dirty, uncomfortable, bored out of their skulls, etc. This meant that they'd be content to basically hog the instruments for hours and hours, never growing tired of this because nothing would make them stop until something forcibly yoinked them off, like the class call, or being sent to their rooms by the dorm controller.

Now dormies have needs again, so they'll do the usual imbecile-type-sim activities, like trying to sleep in random people's beds. It's a side effect of dormies becoming mortal again.

[Andygal]

I've been using the mind control mirror to get them out of my sims' beds and into their own damn bed.

And also to wake up a few that passed out standing up in the bathroom because I didn't want them in the way.

[Ancient Sim]

Well in the past they did lose stats, although probably not beyond a certain level.  One thing I noticed is that often they would have green fumes emitting from their persons and everyone would be holding their noses, yet when I checked them they weren't lacking in hygiene at all.  The game just seems to decide certain things at certain times regardless of whether they need them or not.  Now when they really are stinky, they don't always have the green fumes.  I think the poor game is confused.  One thing's for sure, they haven't a clue how to look after themselves.  I am starting to feel really sorry for them now. 

[Oddysey]

And that's why all dorms should come equipped with cow plants: to put those poor, confused dormies out of their misery. And so we can point and laugh.

[Ancient Sim]

I've encountered a problem with this.  I just had a new dormie, who happens to be one of my vamps.  In the past, she's been OK because she's spent all day arriving, going to her room, attempting to have a swing, then leaving because she "must flee".  She did this continously all day until sunset.  Now, unfortunately, she's not getting the signal to leave and as a result, she ate a meal then went to class before I realised she'd gone.  While at class, she went totally into the red on everything except social and turned into a pile of ashes immediately on return.  I teleported her boyfriend in to save her, at which pont her icon appeared in the panel although she wasn't selectable.  I made her selectable and put a coffin out, but as soon as I did that the game sent another dormie to replace her. 

So, basically it doesn't work with vamps, although it's not this mod so much as bad Maxis progamming.  They simply haven't allowed for the fact that dormies could become vamps, otherwise they wouldn't wake them up during the day and send them to bed at night.  Even constantly coming onto the lot and leaving again is not how it should be, but that's how it is without the mod.  Anyway, after exiting without saving and starting again, I've discovered that if I keep pushing her energy level right down, she stays in her coffin as long as her other vitals are above halfway.  Not ideal, but better than her turning into cinders every day.  She's been in the dorm 3 days now and only managed to go to class once without me realising and she was back just after daylight so didn't turn into a pile of ashes.

[ElviraGoth]

This meant that they'd be content to basically hog the instruments for hours and hours, never growing tired of this because nothing would make them stop until something forcibly yoinked them off, like the class call, or being sent to their rooms by the dorm controller.

Yeah, I had one dorm with an EDS on the roof and had a stupid cheerleader hog the thing all day and all night before she finally left and went home.  Have had professors spend hours on end playing musical instuments.  Or singing karaoke very badly.

And now that's all gone.  YEA!

Keeping the doors locked is no biggie unless I have a couple who wants to get it on in a double bed I have placed in one room, but that's easily solved by unlocking it just prior to the event.

Love this mod!  I have dormies passing out everywhere, now.  Thank yuh, thank yuh vera much!  (Slight Elvis drawl there.)

[jsalemi]

The latest NL patch from Maxis may be breaking this one.  I had a situation where everyone, including my two playable sims, got stuck on the second floor of a dorm and couldn't go down the inside stairs or out the doors to the outside stairs.  They were just all stuck in the same room.  I disabled this patch, and things seemed to return to normal in the dorm, as everyone became 'unstuck'.  I'll reactivate it and try it with a different dorm to see if the problem happens again.

[J. M. Pescado]

I can't imagine why the patch would specifically break this, since I don't think the code changed there, but oftentimes simply wiggling random things will "unstick" things that were stuck on a specific lot, even if the problem was unrelated, simply because it may cause something to reset.

[jsalemi]

Yea, I reactivated it and didn't have a problem with a different dorm, so it may have been a random thing (though I did try using the FFS debugger to force errors on everything in the lot, and it didn't help).  I actually ended up turning moveobjects on and physically moving all the sims to different locations, so that may have helped too.

So for now we can probably chalk this up to a one-time glitch, and I'll just keep an eye out to see if it acts up again.