University installation advice?

[Motoki]

There's some other way to play???   

(That's pretty much how I play TS2 outside of college also.  I'm prolly just a control freak!)

Heh, well I do pause a fair bit in the regular neighborhood too, but I'm not a nazi about making the kids learn skills (which I suppose adds to my college to do list because I then have to worry about skills on top of everything else) and I don't really care what the old people do. There generally is at least one adult gone during the day. With University they're always home :p and a lot of times they have so much crap to do I feel compelled to shove their asses in the energizer machine. 

[miramis]

not to mention that downtown lots don't seem to have the college clock ticking away like the campus does, it's nice to take a break there without watching the time.

Whoa, now that's an interesting data point!! 

There's a lot of interesting data points about Nightlife that Maxis never mentioned, for example in the objects area there are some Wall cabinets & hanging saucepans for the kitchen, a wall mounted wine rack (these all come with a few multiple colours), loads of new paintings, some new potted plants and matching vases (large and very nice), some new cheats that would be useful for movie makers, including a freezing motives cheat and a cheat to add aspiration points to a sim.  There are also little lights and a candle/salt set that can go in the middle of a table (including the little tables) and sims can still eat at them!   I love the downtown houses and community lots, the houses are very liveable and realistic.  So much so, that I keep meaning to package them so I can reuse them

[Zeljka]

Okay, I am the world's slowest Sim player because I never installed Uni. The content didn't particularly appeal to me, and all of the talk of bugs and issues was off-putting.
I do want Nightlife, though, so I'm not going to make the mistake I made in Sims 1 -- only getting certain expansion packs and then being relegated to the underclass in available user created hacks and downloads.
I've done a ton of research on my own before asking...honestly, probably too much research and my head is spinning.  I am asking, not because I'm too lazy to look on my own, but because I've figured out that most of the board members here are Way More Awesome Than I Am, and I can get some sound advice.
If you could dial back to the pre-Uni days, knowing what you know now, what would you do? (I've recently rid myself of townies and am running Pescado's notownieregen hack.  I assume I want to the same with the dormies, since townies made me crazy.)

Wow, thanks for asking this question.
I am in the exact same boat and after similar (months of research) wondered the same time. I had figured out that 80% of my problems would be solved with 'MoreAwesomeThanYou', My beloved hacks from Inge,TwoJeffs and Dizzy2 are EP compatible, and I can check the few others for compatibility. (my hacks are in subfolders by modder so it's fairly easy)
Sending aways non residents and making sure families are at home is an awesome piece of advice, (make me play homes I haven't touched in ages), but I've never heard that before. I was thinking I would just toast my neighbourhoods and start afresh, but this would probably be easier. So, (backups of course)

Could I install (clean), try a test neighbourhood to make sure it works, then put an old neighbourhood back in, along with all 'nocrappyMaxischaracter regen' hacks before going in again? Or will I be stuck with dormies no matter what? Was the coffee barista thing solved with NoNPCSpam or is it still better to avoid coffee bars?

Hopefully by the time I get Uni figured out, JM will have his copy of Nightlife and I can replace my uni hacks with them... being one EP behind has it's advantages, hopefully we can enjoy the EP without it's numerous flaws.
 :)Thanks everyone

[windy_moon]

Sending aways non residents and making sure families are at home is an awesome piece of advice, (make me play homes I haven't touched in ages), but I've never heard that before. I was thinking I would just toast my neighbourhoods and start afresh, but this would probably be easier. So, (backups of course)

Could I install (clean), try a test neighbourhood to make sure it works, then put an old neighbourhood back in, along with all 'nocrappyMaxischaracter regen' hacks before going in again? Or will I be stuck with dormies no matter what? Was the coffee barista thing solved with NoNPCSpam or is it still better to avoid coffee bars?

Hopefully by the time I get Uni figured out, JM will have his copy of Nightlife and I can replace my uni hacks with them... being one EP behind has it's advantages, hopefully we can enjoy the EP without it's numerous flaws.
 :)Thanks everyone

Okay, this was a good decision.  We may not be more awesome than other people, but we are awesome enough to hang out with them.  

I'm very happy.  My kids just came home and the 11 year old is off playing college campuses, all patched up with Pescado fixes and I am finally taking a break.   I don't know whether I will ever get into campus life ... but just playing my regular Sims and their neighborhoods with a Uni boost added a lot of fun.

LTW's are fun.  I've redirected some of my major storylines to fill them, and it's a nice change up.

The biggest joy for me has been arming myself with every Pescado Uni capable hack he had.  This is the first time I've stocked up (nervous about different versions) and I am loving it.  Skilllinatin', Macrotasticin', Bathroom Usinatin'....

Zeljka, I followed the advice here and I had no problems.  My computer is relatively powerful but it does freeze up from time to time.  For some reason, when I first installed Sims2 it froze up maybe once an hour or so and then calmed down, same thing with Uni.  After 11ty hundred hours of play this weekend, everything is running very smoothly.

Must have the lot debugger so you can upgrade all your pre-Uni Sims.  The 6 want slots are great.

Oh, influence points.... *scratches head*.  I think the real point of them is on campus because in normal life, they seem pretty useless.

(Much more fun giving parties now.  Good party stuff.  Love the musical instruments, too.)

Take the plunge.  The water is safe now.

[Zeljka]

Yay
Haven't seen too many in love with the the new 'Influence', but I figure Merola's mind mirror is the best Influence anyway...

Thanks for your reassurance, I can't wait
I know the Uni part won't be thrilling, but I do look forward to the Cow Plant and Lifetime wants. Mostly I look forward to being able to use all of JM's hacks again.  I've missed the thrill of adding new awesomeness to my game.