HACK REQUEST: more want variety for teens and uni students

[Swiftgold]

The "wanting everyone else to tag their freelader asses along" effect is clamped down a bit by some of the anti-obsession hacks, but the actual Go To College want itself defies any attempt to cap it. Thus the "limping along on 3 want slots" effect persists. College is effectively the new teen, since the teen stage is now so badly crippled that you just end it quickly. Which is just as well, since it's extremel overlong otherwise.

I'm very glad for the anti-obsession hacks... too bad the go to college one won't be squished. It would make so much more sense if it came up during the middle of the teen age period! They made it hugely long anyway, so at least they could 'let' us play as teens for a while before throwing the college want at us. I usually turn the testingcheats on and shift-click fulfil the go to college want anyway, because, yeah. It rolls up the moment they're teens, the other two slots usually end up being sneak out with Sim and go out with Same Sim and then probably something else I don't want to fulfil. So, yeah. Since they're usually gonna go anyway, they get the points for going early and I don't have to deal with the want.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Yes, it would make sense if the want only appeared at around mid-teen!  How many 13-year-olds really think that far ahead?  For the parent to spin the want is one thing, but the child, unless perhaps they have the knowledge aspiration, it's a different matter!  Most teens really would be more concerned with the

1 Get a Job - fortune

2 Have first Kiss - romance/family

3 Meet someone new - popularity

As for pleasure - jump on couch?

[BeckerCheez]

All my Family Sims who have gone through college struggled.  Yet all of the kids I've sent through college (with the exception of a few Popularity Sims...darn you Pepe and Wakka!) have made 3.5's and up.

I'm sure you just suck at it. Family sims are no worse than any other sims in college. Even if they do spend their time losing ASP because there's absolutely nothing family-related they can do.

 

Boring, yes.  Managing 10 kids at a time, very challenging.   

In the sense of "putting your neighborhood back together from the smoking wreckage after it explodes sometime after the third generation", maybe. Run the numbers: 10 kids -> 100 grandkids -> 1000 great grandchildren -> 10000 great-great-grandchildren = BFBVFS. 10 kids is not a behavior that your neighborhood can survive. To actually play out a family sim to that extent is a policy that will eventually render your neighborhood unplayable. Zero population growth pretty much has to be the key.

I probably do suck at it.  Yet I keep trying anyway.  I finally resorted to putting those Family Sims on a stern regiment to keep them occupied.

I definitely know this neighborhood is going to implode on itself.  I made the mistake of fulfilling the "Marry 6 Kids Off" LTW, and now those kids have married and are having kids of their own.  Not to mention that there are three different "clans" in that neighborhood...I have about 70-80 playable Sims in my neighborhood, and I've attempted to keep the "notownieregen" mod in the ol' downloads file to slow down the population increase.  Unfortunately I did not delete the townies out of my neighborhood before creating all these damn people...so yeah...my neighborhood is going to implode, and I've had it since I bought the base game in October 2004.  At least I've limited it down to one baby per couple.  

[ZephyrZodiac]

For starters, use SimPE to check the relations of your townies.  Any that have no relationships at all can just be deleted.  Those that have relationships can be deleted, but you need first to edit the memories of all your playable sims for either memories of having met, made best friends ets. with that townies, and for invisible memories owned by other sims of having met him/her etc.  then you need to delete the relationship itself.  When the relationahip panel is finally blank, you can delete the townie.

Alternatively, you can kill them!

[Dark Trepie]

Yes, it would make sense if the want only appeared at around mid-teen!  How many 13-year-olds really think that far ahead?  For the parent to spin the want is one thing, but the child, unless perhaps they have the knowledge aspiration, it's a different matter!

I've noticed something that makes even less sense.  Teens are obssessed with going to college throughout that age period.  But when they get close to their birthday, like 4 or 5 days away from being an adult, they start spinning up the fear "Be Uneducated".

Strange how we want the college wants to work is exactly what the college fears are doing.  I guess its nice to know that one aspect of the whole college thing seems to work right...

[ZephyrZodiac]

Shows how little notice I take of the fears - I'd never noticed that one!

[Sagana]

I want to thank you all for this thread. I realized reading through it how "stuck in a rut" by the game mechanics I was making uni... every student finishing every assignment and writing a term paper right away, all graduating with 4.0s. Not only unrealistic, but boring and the game doesn't really make me do it that way - I was doing it myself. It so happened I had a pleasure sim just starting college Yeah he rerolled the want, and his mom the scholarships, all through hs, but I was going to send him anyways (that rut thing) even tho his LTW is to be top of the slacker career and there's no need for it. So I figured I'd send him and only do as much work as he wanted to do - if he flunks out, oh well, being as his mom cares more about him graduating than he does. He's rolled up a want to do his assignment once (and it immediately rolled away before I could fill it), the want for his hs sweetie and his brother to come to Uni with him, an almost continuous join the Greek house want (tho he's in the Uni where there isn't one and I'd really rather not have him start one, but may have to :p). I've got the hack in that keeps influence wants down (I think or something), so he's just now rolling a few of those (he's almost through his second year) including influencing someone to do his assignment. And I sent him to class and finals as he does that autonomously so I counted that as "wanting" to. So, point being, attending 2 classes and a final gives him a C+ average - nothing bad happens to him, and he's having a great time, and I'm less bored. It's perfect for this underachiever.

(I don't use college rampage - not that I couldn't do it perfectly myself, but probably I couldn't... humans get bored and tired and make mistakes, 'least I do. 'Bots only make mistakes if the people that coded them did it wrong, and I'm pretty sure you didn't ;) My mistakes and "I'm bored and not doing this anymore" moods add to the game for me, even if they're sometimes frustrating. Not that I *wouldn't* use it if I really wanted to rampage through and max it out for some reason tho. I'm happy to add whatever works for me in play whether it makes it easier or not.)

[Sleepycat]

an almost continuous join the Greek house want (tho he's in the Uni where there isn't one and I'd really rather not have him start one, but may have to :p).

I suggest -  "nogreekmadness"  it nukes that stupid want, you may need to get the wants to roll for it to disappear totaly after adding this hack.

http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/ffs/nl/hacks/

 

[Sandilou]

Sagana - chuck that sim into a Greek house.  Just get him to move out and take a friend with him.  Phone to set up the Greek House.  After that it'll be parties and pizzas all the way.  Make sure that he invites his Professors, just being friends with them will get him well past the minimum pass mark.  After that he'll have fun networking.  He need never do an assignment again - if he pledges others they'll do it for him. Think of all the extra household objects he'd earn from increasing the number of pledges.  He can take them all back to the base neighbourhood when he graduates.  Plus, needs decrease more slowly on a Greek lot and it's easier to stay platinum.   It's a different game completely in a Greek House.  Less of the tedium, much more of the fun - your slowly killing that Pleasure Sim!.

[J. M. Pescado]

So, point being, attending 2 classes and a final gives him a C+ average - nothing bad happens to him, and he's having a great time, and I'm less bored. It's perfect for this underachiever.

Heh. Lately I'm finding my amusing quirk is to play with a small dose of MATY sims, only instead of playing them all entirely by myself, as I'd do with my own sims, I go and bug them for what they'd like their sims to be doing, and then try to follow along with what they said. It gives a somewhat better plot, I find. Like the entire ongoing Bluesoup/Kewian thing.

(I don't use college rampage - not that I couldn't do it perfectly myself, but probably I couldn't... humans get bored and tired and make mistakes, 'least I do. 'Bots only make mistakes if the people that coded them did it wrong, and I'm pretty sure you didn't My mistakes and "I'm bored and not doing this anymore" moods add to the game for me, even if they're sometimes frustrating. Not that I *wouldn't* use it if I really wanted to rampage through and max it out for some reason tho. I'm happy to add whatever works for me in play whether it makes it easier or not.)

Heh, well, I don't get tired, and I'm much too anal-retentive for mistakes like this. Some people have implied I'm not human, though.

[Oddysey]

Implied? Pfffsh. This from a man who claims his diet is primarily made up of raw meat? I think we're way past "implied."

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, at least it's not raw worms and bloodwine - or is it?

[Sagana]

I believe I'll take your advice sandilou (I don't believe I'm killing him tho <hmph> :) Next year when his brother comes, I'll let them and his best friend make the house into a Greek house and see how it goes.

Heh. Lately I'm finding my amusing quirk is to play with a small dose of MATY sims, only instead of playing them all entirely by myself, as I'd do with my own sims, I go and bug them for what they'd like their sims to be doing, and then try to follow along with what they said. It gives a somewhat better plot, I find. Like the entire ongoing Bluesoup/Kewian thing.

<L> It's fun to do it differently now and then. All the MATY threads are lots of fun - I'm enjoying reading them.

Heh, well, I don't get tired, and I'm much too anal-retentive for mistakes like this. Some people have implied I'm not human, though.

I definately make mistakes. I fed one of my first (and well-loved) sims elixir when she was an elder and green. Not that I didn't know any better - I just forgot she'd recently dropped from gold. She died early and left her teen son alone. I let her die... it was hard tho.

Not human? I thought you said you were a real vampire, which is different from a traditional vampire... I guess real vampires don't get tired or make mistakes ;)

PS: I'm not letting him befriend his profs unless he rolls up a want or they show up and he talks to them or something tho. So far, he's shown absolutely no interest in them at all. If he doesn't care about "minimum" marks, why should I?

[Sagana]

Speaking of making mistakes (even if I'm the only one doing it) thank you, thank you, thank  you for "phone harassment is bad, mmmkay". Apparently my sims have the same problem with time that I do, for some reason ;)

Time? What's that?

[anyeone]

LOL. It's funny how our personal philosophies in life seep even into our make-believe gameplay.

Not I!  I get a perverse pleasure out of making my characters whores and breeders, and I am neither.

I will admit to using the Sims to satisfy wild lesbian fantasies but that's another story