More Awesome Than You!

I came into a bit of spare cash so I went ahead and picked up University.  (Thank you to those here who pointed out the enhancements NL gives it because that's what made me finally decide to buy it after all this time.  I think now it might be at least halfway interesting and that thought combined with the new features and objects made up my mind for the purchase.)

Anyhow, before I digress even farther, I wanted to ask you all for your input, sort of a dos and don'ts type things of things of which I should be aware.  For example, I have one teen sim.  When do I send her to college?  What's this stuff I've read about Sim IQ?  How about resurrecting sims?  How does that work?  Which mods do you all feel are important?  And, well, any other useful tips you all might have.

What's important? The FFS "More Awesome Than You" director's cut for Uni.

LOL  I kind of figured that went without saying.  ;D

Be sure to sqeeze every possible scholarship you can out of that teen before you send her off.  The easiest ones are the A+ scholarship, the top of teen career scholarship, and all of the skill based scholarships (level 8 in each skill).

What not to do?  Don't get friendly with Drama professors.  Unless, of course, you like drama.

You can send a teen to college any time..I like to play them out for at least a little while to build up scholarships.  You have right until before they turn into an adult to send them to uni..

Resurrecting sims...you have to be in the paranormal career track...the career reward allows out to bring sims back from the dead...pay the reaper well or you'll end up wit a zombie.  If you pay really crappy...NO SIM FOR YOU! :D

I agree with not getting friendly with the drama professors lol

Other than that..just play and have fun :)

Okay, so far so good--thank you for the great info!  One thing I forgot to ask earlier, is, can I install Uni over the top of NL, then re-install NL or do I need to uninstall my whole game and start from scratch?  I know in TS1 you could install previous expansions over the top, then install the last expansion back on without a problem.  Naturally I have to do everything backward. ;)

Sounds like I need also to look up that Drama Professor thread. LOL

I don't know about the installing, because I do a clean-install. You know, copy the existing folder and put it somewhere safe, uninstall, re-install and then add the stuff I need from the saved folder.

However, if you have NL, be sure to carefully read the mod read-me's. Some uni stuff is not compatible with NL.

The sim IQ is readable when using the 'eye in the sky'. Just click on it, choose options, then choose IQ. It will then tell you the IQ of the sim. It's in one of the babycontroller packages, but I can't, at the moment, tell you exactly which one.

I'm backing up my files now.  My daughter just told me that Nightlife can be uninstalled without uninstalling the whole game, so I think to start I'll try uninstalling NL, then installing Uni, then re-installing NL.  Hopefully that'll work!  Oh, so many unknowns I find myself procrastinating.  :P

Good luck Misty. And when you find yourself bored with Uni, which will be tomorrow at the latest (joking, sort of), come back and we'll tell you how to successfully fast-forward the uni-years while still reaping the benefits.

I always fast forward Uni it bores me to tears but gives my simmies an edge in the job market and in the social arena

Are you kidding?  I was completely turned off by the idea of Uni before it ever came out!  LOL  I won't be waiting until tomorrow to be begging on how to fast-forward the Uni time--I remember that being somewhere, so I'm begging now! LOL

The installation went pretty smoothly from what I can tell.  I uninstalled NL, then installed Uni and re-installed NL.  The game starts up fine.  Now I just need to enable custom content, patch and put all the custom stuff back in and hopefully will be good to go!  Geesh, that sure loads fast without all my CC!

From reading above it looks like I'll need to get that teen sim a job and let her work to the top for the scholarship, so that'll involve a couple of sim days.

Well, that was SUCH a productive evening!  NOT!! LOL

After getting my game all put back together I got started on getting little-miss-I'm-a-teen-sim ready for Uni, then the family decided we needed to start watching the first season of SGA we just got.  We don't have TV, so we buy a couple of shows on DVD, then we get glued to them.  Soooo, five episodes later, I finished playing her first day.  I did get her a job and she got one quick promotion, so we're on our way.  She's close to having Creativity maxxed so maybe I'll see if I can get that done before she goes.  Trouble is, she has four younger siblings.  I figure within a couple of sim days either she's going to run away to college or I'm going to go nuts getting her there.  (I have no clue how people play with 20+ sims in their game--I can barely manage 7 or 8 [wuss indeed]!)

My Uni Don't  ---   Never marry a mascot. Or cheerleader.

Okay--I'll bite:  why?  (I've heard mascots are bad news, but haven't seen anything about cheerleaders.)

BTW, thank you!

one might also add the streakers to the list!

apparently, they don't completely stop being mascots, cheer leaders or streakers...  which results in a little weirdness when they are moved back into the main neighbourhood.

I had a streaker marry Allegra Gorey Before and other than him wanting to sleep naked.  he didnt wander around nude after their Baby was born he quit even sleeping nude.and he limited his nude activities to the bath tub after that so gradually if they are married and become playable characters they stop the streaking.so in the case of the streaker patience is the key. the llama is actually a friendly mascot its the cow I chase. the Ll ama never totally stops the cheerleaders do stop completely

I thought all that mascot/cheerleader buginess was supposed to be fixed in NL and/or the patch? :P

Jen

if it has been I havent noticed it but then again I havent incorporated a mascot into a family since before the patch

Well, my fast-forwarding include several essentials: TJ's college adjuster plus, Merola's painting and mirror, and JM's college rampage. The Rampage and the Adjuster are, in my opinion, an absolute 'must have' for collage fast forward.

I also have TJ's alien abduction higher odds mod. It gets the teen the abuction scholarship, which is a nice $1,200 (or 1,500, I'm not sure).

To save them money should I decide to have them rent, I put their parents/guardians old stuff into their inventory, so they can furnish their house. Looks like my apartment did way back when, when I first started college. Odds and ends, not matching, all gifts from thougtful relatives.

Have your sim rent a house rather than living in the dorms. Then, shortly before your sim graduates, send another sim to college and have them live in that house. That way you can keep upgrading the house until you have an ubercool college pad with all the study party essentials.

Really, the only thing Uni is good for is increasing friend-count and skill-level to whatever is needed for their planned job. Use the college adjuster for their grades.

Why Eagle, I am shocked. Why, when I was first going to college we NEVER partied, we always studied, we were obedient...(I think my mother just fainted, hold on I'll be right back)

I do the same thing by the way. However, due to my forgetfulness, I neglected to update one of my uni-lots to NL and the house was lost, darn it. It would have been so easy to update it, it was one of the best houses on campus, fully furnished with luxury items and ridiculously low on rent and bills. I was ever so angry at myself.

I hope your Mother has revived again...........Mine is still a bit woozy after coming around from reading your post.I know in my first semester of college all we did was party err Mom's not in the room so I had free license to tell the truth there ;D its a wonder I passed Finals thats first semester LOL.anyhoo alot of my teens enter Uni and go straight to graduation with honor's thanks to TJ's college adjustor. but not all of them I have on YA there who is still a Junior in the mean time her younger sister has been there and graduated along with her 2 younger brothers and her twin brother

I only fast foward through the college phase until my CAS YA's have enough money to rent a house and get out of the dorms.  I loath living in the dorms (although J.M.'s new No Dormie Invulnerability hack has made dorm life a lot more entertaining).

When they're in there own place I usually play normally.  But sometimes I'll fast forward through that too if I'm in a hurry.  It depends on my mood.

I just got done fast forwarding a YA through Uni and he is currently at his wedding reeption.he went from Teen to Married in 24 Sim Hours

Okay--this is looking good so far!  So if I have #1 sim daughter move into a house while in college, then when her little brother and sister (they're twins) go to college they can move into the same house with her, and basically I should just be able to keep this whole family cycling through that house, and by the time her youngest sibling graduates she ought to have a child just about ready for college herself, so if I drag it out long enough that house should never be vacant.  Excellent suggestion!

I see there are different colleges in the neighborhood.  Which one works out the best?

I finally convinced my RL daughter that her sim-self should go to college when I told her that her sim-self doesn't have a career-oriented aspiration and that she'd be free to pursue her true love--art AND that the career reward object is an awesome camera!   ;D  Granted, I was going to send her sim-self to university, no matter what her real self thought.  :P

I use Sim State University

Uni is much more interesting with NL installed. Finally, that Stink turn-on really gets a workout.

I think its kinda obvious that Sim State was ment for Pleasentview, La Fiesta was ment for Strangetown, and Le Tour was ment for Veronaville.  But you can attach whichever one you want.  You can even attach all three to one neighborhood if you don't mind sending your neighborhood down a quicker path to overpopulation explosion.

Nah, I try to keep them on a slow path to destruction--ergo the main reason I started doing the Delete All Characters code when starting a new hood.  No need for all those NPCs taking up space unless they're really needed.

Okay--mayhaps, since this is the neighborhood Strangetown, I'll attach La Fiesta!  I'll attach SSU to my other hood. :)

Now, I'm getting off of here so I might can actually play a little today!

Thanks so much to everyone for all your hints and tips.  If you all think of more, keep them coming--I'm enjoying the read AND no doubt am going to need all the help I can get to survive this!

Me, I like to try out all the options at least a little before deciding I'm not gonna bother with those (tho I've never had a zombie, I just couldn't even find a reason for it). So, I'd suggest using one of the Uni's that has a secret society (I forget which one doesn't, but one of them doesn't), picking up at least one of the dormies or binned students (maybe a boyfriend or girlfriend of your main family) and testing the dorm a little, and maybe a greek house (I played that for about 5 seconds before I couldn't stand it anymore ;) and testing out all the commands and stuff. That should only take a few minutes - *then* start fast forwarding through all the boring stuff.  It's *really* easy to get 4.0 for any in-game born sim and especially fast if they've got their skills already at 8 for scholarships anyway. Don't forget to check out things like the extra chat options for students in the same major and letting a higher grade student teach a lower one to study (comes in handy for the Uni students that are already there) and the like.

NL does make it lots more fun tho. I've taken to running the game on the highest speed while setting them up to do what's necessary schoolwork-wise. I might let them earn some money tutoring other kids at the library or playing instruments or hustling pool, or working in the cafeteria - just for fun (my ingame sims usually don't need money) and visit the Uni lots, just to have seen them. But I don't fast forward all the way to senior as I think it's rather fun to spend time calling up a bunch of students in the directory and inviting them on outings - friends and dates both. My Uni kids spend most of their time downtown now and those years are actually about doing a lot of socializing (and sometimes a bit of experimentation ;)). When I get tired of it - I jump them to senior and graduate them :)

This is without my themed University story idea which I'm still working on and isn't in game yet.

Oh, I imagine you know it's not a great idea to have a baby while on campus? You can't do that without hacks anyways (unless you have a teen male that gets pregnant via abduction from the sphere thing) and I think there are hacks to fix it but just thought I'd mention it :)

COLLEGE RAMPAGE is the key to Uni. Then I amuse myself with horrible dates. Dream dates are easy, but very boring. I'm trying to cause more horrible dates. With flaming bags of poo. Any tips for good horrible dates (not just poke/insult/slap over and over)?

I intentionally iinstalled the colleges into a different Neighbourhood than the one they were meant for, because I thought the sims would like to go to college somewhere different to where they've grown up. So my Strangetown has Academie le Tour, and my Pleasantview has La Fiesta Tech. Just a suggestion :).

Oh, and all the colleges have a secret society as far as I know. But Academie le Tour doesn't have any Greek houses (fraternities/sororities) to start with, although you can make them once you're there.

the simple reason I always use academie is because of the lack of greek houses - in fact, I've never even been able to create one while there, not at all!

Just give the first person you see a wolf whistle.  Your date will freak and you'll have an Insta-Horrible date.  I did this with Lazlo Curious to get rid of that crush he had on Crystal Vu.   ;D

that'd be one way to get a bag of Flaming Poo  ;D 

Ask the matchmaker for a blind date while you're already on a date. Instant bad date, guaranteed bag o' poo. You seem to be able to repeat it indefinitely until the Matchmaker wanders off the lot.   ;D

ahh dont forget the stink letters that arrive after a horrible date from said gypsy

Most important thing to remember with UNI is: Don't fall asleep playing it.  :D

No, that's a boring way to do it. Abusing the jealousy engine is no fun at all.

thats a big  tip for sure

I built a co-ed greek house.  Okay, it started out as a Frat, but soon evolved as the guys started moving their girlfriends in.  :)  I had the same advantages as having a rental house, but I also had the added bonus of free food and stuff from frequent campus visits, and the added challenge of befriending sims I wanted to move in.  

I have about 10 core families, so what I do is send a "Generation", which is 4-6 teens at a time, to a dorm.  From there, I have the generation (older siblings) before invite them to pledge and move into the Greek House.  

Another tip:  Get a group together with nothing to do and let them do "Group Research."  It adds to their social motive, it adds friendship points, it fulfills wants, and it improves their grades.  Just DO NOT invite the cow, cheerleaders, streakers, and other sundry dormies that you do not want relationships.  They will be calling your Sim long after they have graduated and moved on from UNI.

Also, another don't:  I made the mistake of putting a pool table in my Frat.  Never again.  They were obsessed with playing pool.  If I had a party, they'd all stand around that pooltable.  If I wanted them to build skills or study, they'd get bored and run for the pool table.  

Well you could always introduce the date to CowPlant-sama.

Of course then you'd miss out on the bag of poo.

My teens head  to uni with all 7 skills maxed or they wait until they have them maxed playing with aging off has advantages

Even with aging on, I manage to max at least 5 (or get 8 pts in 6+)... I cheat body tho (I use the mobile - I just hate training body really), so say 4+ is fairly easy to do (I use smart milk, that's the only aspiration reward, and whatever career rewards the family has earned).

College Rampage. Call someone, talk until friends. College clock makes it time for exam. Rinse, repeat.

I didn't just start off cheating my way through everything. ;)

First off, I had a sim who was friends with Syera's sim-self's future love, George.  I had Abercrombie invite George to move in with him and George was loaded with tons of stuff in his inventory!  Then I used the NL aging cheat and turned George into a teen (I don't recommend doing this unless you are going to send said teen to college or unless you can shave off a ton of time from their life because they get the same number of days they had previously, so here George was with 28 more days of teenhood).  I used Merola's multi-painting to max his school grade (I was a little worried the social worker might come after him because he had an F- for a grade).  Once I did that I had him call for scholarships.  I wanted George to get another logic point so he could go for a scholarship, so went ahead and sent him to school the next day.  Syera's sim-self came home with him on the schoolbus and first thing off she started flirting with him!  (The wanton hussy! LOL)  George landed two scholarships for high skills, one for good grades and one for being an orphan.  The next morning he headed off for college where he could afford to move into a small rental house.  Then I sent Syera's sim-self off and she joined him in the house.  She had a few scholarships, too.

George's inventory included a pinball machine, dance sphere, a rug, stove, big stereo, $4,000 vase and a couple of other cheap items.  I let him keep the pinball machine, rug and dance sphere.

The pair are halfway through college living in a small two bedroom, two bathroom house I built for them.  It's completely furnished but not nicely by any means--just cheap stuff, and I think at the moment they have over $10,000 cash on hand.  Both are on the Dean's List.

I created a CAS sim and started him off in my other neighborhood.  Him I moved into a dorm and I'm not sure if it was him or me getting revolted by the stink of his dormmates that finally got to the both of us.  By the end of his freshman 'year' he was able to move out into a small house on his own.  He's halfway through college now, too, without any help from the college timer.

Overall, it's been a little dull.  The mascots, streakers and cheerleaders about drive me nuts.  I had one cheerleader pop onto the lot and hop into George's dance sphere.  I thought she'd die there before she finally left.

It seems to me it's a lot easier bringing up their grades by doing assignments than group research.  My on-his-own sim is also good friends with one of his profs and that has helped his grade some.  I think their relationship is at a high enough level now, though, that he's going to have to get on an intimate level with her if he expects anymore grade increases which he probably won't do considering he has a steady girlfriend already.

One thing I was wondering is that if you move new students into the household with existing students and the existing students graduate, do they keep any of the money they earned while in college?  George and Syera's sim-self have quite a little bank account going and while I sure don't mind handing off a fully-furnished house to the siblings I think they should have something for all their hard work.

That depends on whether you have no 20K handouts or not. If yes, then they do. If not, then all the money is generally lost and you get a puny 20K. Or a massive, free, unearned 20K. Uncool. Aren't college graduates supposed to be broke?

Thank you, fish-man!   :D