Generating Professors

[Sagana]

Well, I've come to the conclusion that part of my problem with the University EP is that I've never really added or developed a story for the University. All the YA's have personalities, of course, and family stories and goals, but I'm treating the University years as mostly a holding pattern - they have to go through this to accomplish what I/they want so let's get it over with, kind of thing. It will, hopefully, be more fun if I add atmosphere and story lines and quit "wishing their lives away" as I already do that enough with my own and their lives are pretty short for that.

Soooo - I start thinking about literature that features University life, looking for ideas, and all I can really think of is Lovecraft and Arkham. There must be more than that... so I go on a research spree, and discover there is more than that. As a matter of fact, there's a whole genre dating back to the 1940s called "campus novels".

And... an awful lot of the plot lines revolve around professors and/or professors' affairs with (and often marriage to) students - but the profs in the novels don't bother me near as much as they do in the sims. Often (and especially in the less... problematic... kinds of things) the profs are assistant or associate professors (or even grad students) and socialize perfectly reasonably with the university kids. Who teaches freshman classes anyway? Grad students mostly or at least assoc. profs, not the real deal - they're too busy with university politics and being dept. heads and deans.

The problem is - the sims professors are too old - they're all elders. That certainly isn't necessary. So now I have some good plot ideas and a real need to figure out how to replace the University professors with younger ones of my choosing and/or letting a few students stay on after graduation and become grad students and teach classes and the like - and/or maybe professors eventually.

So any help on the easiest way to accomplish this kind of thing? Is it the same as building your own townies? (I've never done that, so please give advice in the advice to dummies kind of thing

[rohina]

I don't have any advice, but as a professor who isn't 102 years old, I appreciate your comments. Most campus novels are a lot more about the professors than the students (probably because the professors write them). One of the best is Small World by David Lodge.

[fff]

You could use the Insiminator to make the professors selectable, than age them down to adults... I do that with all my nannies, there's a lot less of the old-lady bladder complaints that way....

Don't know if that's the kind of thing you were looking for...?   

[hyperCat]

All of your professors are elders? That's odd, mine are a mix of adults and elders. Or maybe I'm the odd one?

[Sagana]

That's a start klapaucius, thanks

What I'd really like to do is make my own, similarly to the way people make their own townies so they look the way they want, but... they'd still have to teach, and I'd like to choose what they teach... I'm not sure if that's possible - or if it's too hard for me also (I've downloaded simpe several times and it's there on my computer, but I've never really learned to use it - other than to recolor a couple of objects.)

Also I'd like to allow some students to graduate and still stay on campus, to be grad students and eventually professors themselves.

Well maybe *all* elders is an exaggeration hyperCat, but the majority of them seem to be. One of my students has met 6 professors at this point and 5 of them are elders. I don't like the sucking up for grades thing, but am hoping that adding some "life" and options to the professors and campus will make it more interesting for me. I wouldn't mind a grad student falling for a student and could see them getting married and the like.

In some ways, I think Maxis did the same "this is someting you go through to get what you want" kind of thing I did. There's the secret society and greek houses, but there aren't any student groups, or dances, or sports events. There isn't any campus politics or - well it feels like a lot of what makes campus life interesting is missing. I'm thinking I can kinda give a campus a personality - with profs and workers that all have stories of their own, and make up my own student groups and the like - and then my young adults will come into a vibrant place, get involved or not as suits their personalities and desires, and it'll all be more interesting to play

Edit: Oops, I forgot to say thanks to Rohina. Thanks! And for the recommendation - I'll definately look that one up.

[windy_moon]

Sagana -

What an interesting idea! I told you that you were more creative and have more energy than I do. 

I can't help you much with techie stuff, but I can encourage you that SimPE is easy to use for the kind of Sim modifications that you are talking about.  I hang out on this board because everybody here is more awesome than I, and even I find the SimPE sim browser and checkboxes a piece of cake.  As long as you back up your neighborhoods, you're fine.

Even if you don't end up with SimPE as the solution for your professor idea, you should open up the professors in SimPE just to see how easy it is to make simple changes.  Betcha get another idea tomorrow that you'll need it for.

My personal aresenal of change tools that any less awesome person can use:

SimPE
Inge's teleporter shrub
Merola's mind control mirror
Merola's multi purpose painting
Pescado's lot debugger (for upgrade of non Uni Sims or reroll of LTW)

You can pretty much change anything in existing Sims without blowing up your game or tearing your hair out. (I haven't created anything but townies, myself, so I can't speak to how easy it is to make NPCs or how exactly you should execute your professor idea.)

Good luck, and keep us posted on your Uni drama.  I might just get interested in Uni myself.

[Ancient Sim]

Interesting concept - how do you plan on getting the students to stay behind and teach classes?  Are you intending to make them into NPC's?  I've often thought I'd like to see Lilith Dreamer and Don Lothario as trainers in the game, they'd both be perfect for the job with their maxed-out body and total fitness, not to mention their personalities (especially Lilith).  Not sure what effect it would have on the game to change them to NPC status, though.

[Sagana]

Thanks Windy Moon - I still don't think so, but I'm glad people think it's an interesting idea. I just get bored easily and tend to have lots of big ideas - if I ever actually implemented any of them, then maybe that'd be true.

Thanks for the list, I'm going to download what I don't already have and play around this weekend and see what trouble I can get into.

how do you plan on getting the students to stay behind and teach classes?

Well, I have no idea That's one of the things I was hoping for help with. But I'm going to back up my neighborhoods and spend the weekend messing around and see what happens. I don't mind testing and see where they end up if I make them NPCs or seeing if I can find a checkbox or something to make them professors... there must be some way the game tags it, and if I untag the existing ones and tag new ones (if I can figure out how), it *should* work (not counting the world between should and does).