Yup, that was the result of my quick little test too.  Ah well...

Hmmm, a little off-topic, but is the reverse of this true?  If I build dorms and/or residences in the Uni subhood, and then move them to my base hood uni, will the controller still work?  Anybody know?  I'd love to skip spawning all those stupid semester testers. 

I might have to do some experimenting...

On paper - my chart is one page, all 84 playable sims listed from oldest to youngest, and my ages are modified so that one day = one year in a normal lifespan.  I'm very picky about this, so that if a couple has a child when they're 20, they'll be 40 when the child is 20, or whatever.  If they get out of sync for whatever reason, I'll cheat them back to their proper place.  I play 2-sim-days for each household in the round.  It goes kind of slow, but I have fun with it. 

Right, the only way you'll get scholarship money is to move them to the real college first - they can't stay there, or they will age to adult.  I consider it college orientation   I just move them into a lot, pause immediately, pocket their scholarship money, and then move them to my downtown uni via Inge's teleporter. 

That may be more work than some are willing to do - you could also just write down how much scholarship money they're due, and give it to them via family funds cheat.

Can't help with the movies though, mine are always turned off.

Same here, at about 28 households and 2 sim-days each, it takes me a little over a month to get through a round.  (playing during rugrat naptime, or if hubby brings home work at night)  I'm beginning to realize that means if I play another year, I'll see maybe one more generation grow up.  I'm okay with that though - I'm playing more for the stories than the spawning at this point.

I've never played any Maxis hoods.  I've had three custom hoods in my TS2 playing experience.  The first hood lasted about a year, six generations, and then it got too big and I got bored with it. 

My second hood I built on a terrain I didn't like (before I knew about terrain surgery and all that), and that lasted a year before I scrapped it.  I cloned my favorite characters though, and moved them to my current hood, which I've been playing over two years now, and am on the fourth generation (sixth if you count that the clones were third generation from the previous hood).

I'm quite attached to my Simmies and their little dramas. 

Yes, mine re-pop back to the second trimester once back in their own houses too.  I tried even forcing an error on the visitor, but that didn't do anything.

 

That would suck!  I haven't seen that one yet!

Thanks for the comments and sympathies.

I have some 1st belly bump pregnant ladies in my game, and when they're invited over as visitors, they show as full-term (2nd and biggest bump).  From what I've been reading, other people have had this problem before too.  It's quite annoying for storytelling purposes, when she's supposed to be only just showing and instead looks like she's ready to pop.

Has anyone ever made a fix for this?  Or know of a workaround for it?  Some way to get them back into their smaller belly bump, even if just temporarily?

Yes, that is exactly what I do - 48 hour semesters.  All you need to do is use the college clock or TJ's college adjuster to take the final exam 24 hours earlier than you would normally.  And it does just what you say - allow them to choose between having fun or studying.  So there you go.

Maybe it would help you to only allow assignments, skill-building, and term papers when there is a want rolled for it.  My sims even have to choose between working jobs and going to class sometimes.  So yes, I would agree that playstyle is probably the problem here.  I'm never bored with my YAs. 

Or you could try the slower skilling mod that's in this folder.  It's not quite the same idea as what you have in mind, but it will definitely make your college experience harder.  Career promotions too, for that matter.  I've been using it a couple weeks now and it really does the trick!

Same here.  My criteria: family sims have to be at least a little bit nice; popularity sims have to be outgoing and playful; fortune sims are serious, outgoing, and not lazy; pleasure sims have to be playful and not too nice; romance have to be mid-range nice/mean, outgoing, and not too serious; knowledge sims have to be serious, neat, and not too outgoing.  Secondary aspirations are entirely character based too, and are chosen according to personality, how they were raised, and what kind of wants they roll.  Most of my sims don't choose a secondary aspiration until college or adulthood.

Those are really interesting. 

I do the same thing for niceness as a turn-on, and I have a bunch of teeth/freckles/scars/beauty spots as face masks to use.  I was always so disappointed that they didn't put niceness and other personality features as turn-ons and turn-offs.  Especially since being attracted to niceness or playfulness makes so much more sense than being attracted to glasses or full-face makeup???  I use hats for a turn-on for playfulness.

I use ACR for sexual orientation, balanced 80% straight, 10% bi, 10% gay.

Who they end up with is based on their attraction score in ACR.  I usually have my playables date around long enough to see who they're most compatible with, and the one they like best they settle down with, that is, if they're the settling type.

That is such a great idea!  I never thought of doing that.

Nope, it doesn't.  I checked with a YA, living in a dorm downtown, uni-record in place, and she only had the option of traveling to the regular base hoods.

I've played mixed households before - teen/YA, and adult/YA.  And if I remember correctly, my teens would never age to YA unless they've been moved into the lot from the sim bin.  I tried, actually, to just summon my new round of college students and add to family, as a hopefully quicker way of aging them up, but they wouldn't age unless I physically moved them out and back in.  So I would deduce that a child transitioning to teen should stay teen, and have to be moved out and back in again to become a YA. 


Did you have the uni-record present on the lot at the time you tried?  I have to delete mine for a second while I have my YAs get their jobs, then pop it back in once I'm done. 

You can also just leave it out for a while and have regular townies walk by.  Of course, you'll have to put it back in again before you can do any assignments or send them to class or whatever, but I take mine out occasionally, just to see what adults and teens walk by.  My YAs are downtown, after all, and it wouldn't hurt for them to meet some rich downtownies to marry

In case anyone is interested in trying study abroad, I wrote up a little post on my experiences with it: http://lakesideheights.blogspot.com/2008/07/amelia-bradshaw-studies-abroad.html

It's a lot of fun, and a nice change of scenery. 

Cool, I'll be giving this a try.  Even with harder jobs, I'm still looking to make jobs even harder.  If it's hard to skill up enough to get much further than the first few career levels, there might actually be some incentive to work in dead-end OFB jobs.  Yay for more poverty!!!  I don't even have anyone living in my ghetto right now.

ETA: Wow, that sure did the trick!  This is absolutely going to make Uni harder, and that's a good thing.  For the first time ever, I had to struggle to get my Sim a B+, and that was only because I had her pull an all-nighter playing piano to get her grade bar opened up.

My ghetto is going to be bursting at the seams!  I might even get to use my government subsidized apartment building

The last couple I had draw the "move away" event, I sent them to Twikkii Island to become locals there.  That's kind of neat because they're "away," but the woman has a sister that I still play and she can invite her to visit if she wants.  I have their ages marked on my chart so I know when it's time to let them die of old age.

Otherwise, another subhood works too, and Inge has those prison token things so they aren't caught wandering around community lots.  The sim bin would work just the same, but it irritates me to have Sims sitting in my Sim bin. 

Well, as this thread isn't TOO old yet, I thought I'd add that I'm trying something new with my hood.  Real-time seasons in each round - each household will be played representing a particular month of the year, so that I can see the seasons progress twice through the year in each round (two-year rounds).  Since my 'hood is so huge, I feel like I've been stuck in the same season forever and I can't wait to get out of fall!  

I don't know if anyone's tried something like this before, but if you want to give it a try in your own neighborhood, I've written up a more detailed post about it in my blog: http://lakesideheights.blogspot.com/2008/07/real-seasons-in-each-round-and-of.html

I also just drew four new random events for the new round I'm playing.


Eeek!  That would take forever!   But I'll tell you about the ones I drew for my most recent round.

- a teenager runs away from home -- I actually have never tried this one before.  I think the relationships just need to be back and then it happens automatically, right?  So I have a fight anytime mod (or something like that) by Squinge (?) which would do the trick.   

- a forced chance card pass! -- testing cheats, the chance card tester thing.

- a deadline to write an article -- Monique's computer has an option to write articles for money.

- DUI! pay a $1000 fine and cannot drive for 10 years! -- I'll use familyfunds for the fine, and as far as not being able to drive, that will just be up to me to enforce.  I'll make a little note by her name on my chart so I remember.

Feel free to ask about any particular events you'd like to know about.

I was thinking the same thing, but no.  I found the problem.  It appears to be the Freetime version of Woohoo Teens, conflicting with I have no idea what... took out Woohoo Teens and now my slutty YAs are fully capable of getting knocked up again!

Thanks, I will give it a try.  Funny, I do actually have the Sim Blender in my game, but it must be an earlier version because I didn't see that "have baby with" option.  Hope it works!

ETA: Nope, unfortunately that didn't work.  The pregnancy part of the menu wouldn't show up for anyone but adults. 

I'm wondering if maybe this is a new change in one of the recent EPs, or if it's maybe a mod conflict I have in my own game.  I've been using the TL&D since forever to knock up my YAs, and now I'm finding that it doesn't work anymore.  And I'm not talking about a stuck pregnancy, there is just NO pregnancy.  No baby-chimes.  ACR's pregnancy scanner doesn't show up.

It still works for adults though.  I even tried aging the girl down to teen, up to adult, got her pregnant, back down to teen, back to YA, and she lost the pregnancy somewhere between teen and YA.  So that method obviously doesn't work. 

Has anyone else tried "simulate genetic merger" with YAs recently?  Or is anyone feeling adventurous enough to try to knock up one of your YAs momentarily, just to see if it's just my game?  Or can anyone suggest any mods (non-kitten-killing) that might do the trick?

Nope, the inventories aren't accessible on hotel lots.  Wish they were though.  Then they could bring already cooked meals on vacation too  

Thanks!  That looks perfect!


I didn't try the college clock.  I'll try that next.  The in-game semester tester didn't have any option to advance to the final exam. 

Ah ha!  Visitor controller for the mascots!  Why didn't I think of that?

I don't have a problem with them on my normal college campus, but I don't think I want to have llamas and cheerleaders visiting what is going to be a very small and studious private academy in Takemizu Village, lol.  VC will work just fine for that though.


Right, but I wasn't able to find it in the catalog where it should be.  Because I guess some things are available from residential lots only?  I'm sure I could probably get one there, with some work-arounds.  Build the hotel in residential mode first, move out with a things-stay-shrub, change lot zoning to hotel... or something.  I'll figure it out

 

Agreed!