More Awesome Than You!

I love what Jade is doing in Thyme with her Academy of Apprenticeship Arts, and I'm trying to incorporate some of the elements she used in a more standard Maxian uni sub-hood. I am using whiterider's Missing Majors Uberpack just for flavor, and have a dorm with all manner of crafting benches and tools.

Basically my students will be expected to earn a major-dependent combination of gold badges, skills (including writing novels, painting a fixed number of paintings, and performing) and hobby goals to graduate. However, I have no idea how, in that setting, I can get my business majors to earn Register, Restocking and Sales badges. (I assume with Cosmetology they can just practice on each other?)

Ideas would be appreciated.

Perhaps the Academy could own a business in the main neighbourhood and the students could be employees there.  One of the BRY set of hacks allows YAs to be hired, although I'm not sure which one (possibly no lame hires?).

Hmmm...possible, and that might be the most reasonable work-around, but visiting the main hood stops the uni clock. Is there any way to have a "work as cashier/sales clerk/stocker" option, like the "work as barista" one, available in the sub-hood?

They could study badges on Monique's computer.  http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=64137

If you have FT, this computer is not updated for it, but still works.  You just wouldn't get the new FT options.

Numenor has a Cash Register Trainer (http://www.modthesims2.com/showthread.php?t=215417) that may be useful. I stopped playing uni hoods, so I don't know that they couldn't run a business there. Other than this cash register trainer, I　don't know there is any actually object that you can "train" people with, without having them actually work on those skills, except for Monique's computer of course.

Not that I've seen.

What I have my sims who own businesses do quite a bit is go up in the attic or somewhere out of the way and meditate during the hours they were supposedly working. You could always make your college students do the same.

Providing they're living on the lot they are practising the badge skills on then Numenor's cash register over at MTS2 should let you practise the cash register skill. If you're having them go to a community lot on the uni campus to practise their skills though this cash register doesn't work as the game sees it as a business register and automatically generates cashiers to man it even when there's nothing to sell.

I don't think there is any way of them practising sales and restocking in the uni hood though. I've been trying to set up something similar to what you describe and it's really frustrating that there's no way to learn these skills. Can people with gold talent badges pass on their skills by talking to other sims? I know sims with high skill points can pass on that skill to another sim by talking to them in FT but I haven't tried with badges yet. Maybe you could have a sim with gold badges that tutors the students if that's the case?

I don't have anything past NL (OK, I do, but I haven't installed anything yet.) However, I know that UNI students can work as cafeteria workers and (I thought) cashiers in UNI community lots. I have a Fortune sim in UNI right now, so I'll confirm this and report back.

Naturally, this is no guarantee that they can get badges via OFB. I won't be able to test that part until I'm done with what I'm working on right now.

YAs can own businesses in any 'hood outside the Uni or vacation 'hoods, and everyone who lives with the owner in the dorm, or residence can visit it with almost all of the same privileges.  I think this is the easiest way to accomplish what you want, in conjunction with Zazazu's method of meditating for the time spent at the business.

You could have any business owner outside the uni 'hood hire the YAs.  I play with the whole BRY suite and I regularly get YAs in my hiring pool.  Setting their work hours would be a pain for the owner though, since you have to know when each student has scheduled classes, which of course changes.  The other issue is that the YAs won't gain badge points unless you play the business with the owner, so you'd have to sync up the right number of hours for each student.  On the whole I think this is more trouble than it's worth.

The other thing to keep in mind is that sales badges will be easy to get.  Register badges can only be earned in reasonable time with the smartercashier hack.  Restocking badges take days and days.  Several of my business owners built two 10-star businesses before they earned the gold restocking badge.

Do you have seasons? Orangeade is your friend.

Orangeade is unpredictable though since it can give points in any of the nine badges (did the fix for the FT badges ever get posted anywhere? DO WANT!).

True. For best performance, max out your floristry, gardening, cosmetology, robotery, fishing and toycrafting badges before drinking orangeade.

Orangeade is my enemy in uni, since I want them to EARN the badges.
*Note to self: no orangeade in the dorm...let 'em drink coffee and beer like all good underclassmen...*

Considering how much of a pain in the ass it is to farm orangeade in useful quantities, if you make them actually farm it rather than use one of several exploitive ways of gaining mass quantities of the stuff, they DO earn it.

Confirmed this doesn't work: students can't work as a cashier in UNI/NL. Whether OFB added that capability is yet to be seen. I may test this pretty soon: I wanted to clear these six out of college before installing OFB or anything else. But they've made it to their junior year, one Popularity sim has gone permaplat, and so it's all just a matter of time.

I don't think I'll do the custom majors, though. The way I see it, Uni's too much of a grind as it is. I'd rather concentrate on earning an LTW while not failing.

I have to agree.  In fact, considering how long it takes to grow enough oranges and lemons, it's a total rip-off that the juice is sadorandom.  After all, if you have to earn all the cheap crafting, farming, fishing and sales badges, before using it to gain a few precious badge points, orangeade isn't much of a friend.  :-\

Of course the young sprogs who drink it probably didn't do any work for it.  I'd bet it was made by their elders and betters trying to give the young ones a good start in life.  They guys making it already picked up most of the badges they needed along the way.

Monique's computer from MTS2 allows your sims to study for all badges. It has not been updated for FT.