Graduation Party Memory Fix

[vecki]

Downloading, although I currently have an issue with Grad parties (meh, I hardly ever bother with any parties anymore, anyway).

Most of my sims go through Uni in batches of 4 or so students, and tend to stay in some sort of time sync all the way through courtesy of the college clock.  When they all graduate though, no one gets an option to throw a grad party until at least one sim has returned to the home neighbourhood.  So at least one sim will miss out on that last shindig.

Also (although for all I know this one's already been fixed), when I first got Uni, every time I had a group of students graduate, and (prior to the lack of grad party option problem) throw a party, only the sim throwing the party will put on the grad cap and gown, then age up and leave at the end of the party.  I thought sims they were friends with were also meant to put on the cap and gown and actually 'graduate' together.

Does that make sense?

[J. M. Pescado]

Also (although for all I know this one's already been fixed), when I first got Uni, every time I had a group of students graduate, and (prior to the lack of grad party option problem) throw a party, only the sim throwing the party will put on the grad cap and gown, then age up and leave at the end of the party.  I thought sims they were friends with were also meant to put on the cap and gown and actually 'graduate' together.

This appears to be by-design, as opposed to a bug. Graduation parties graduate sims one at a time, a rather annoying feature which greatly detracts from the value of graduation parties, since it's only feasible to throw them if one or two people are graduating, since otherwise it will take FOREVER to throw 8 parties given that you might be able to fit in maybe one or two a day before it's too late to party.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I suppose they did it that way because of the limit on guests.  I tend to throw the party for the sim who wants to party, not for those who don't.  And often, if I'm graduating an engaged couple who share a house, I throw the party for one, move him or her back to the home neighbourhood, then get the fiance/fiancee to phone for a cab to take them back too.

[RainbowTigress]

Maxoid Tom said at first that it should graduate all sims who had eligible at one time when you threw the party, then when someone pointed out that this wasn't happening, he went and asked and came back and said this was apparently as designed.   

In my game, I have noticed that NPCs such as the cheerleader or mascot will change into cap and gown if they are friends with the graduate, but not any of my playable sims regardless of how high their relationship is.  I had gotten so used to it not happening that I was surprised when the cheerleader showed up in cap and gown at one of my sims parties.  I realized that is what was happening later when the llama mascot did the same thing.  Weird.

[vecki]

Well that's just ... dumb and stuff.

Even if multiple sims can't age transition at the same time at the party, why should the mascot and cheerleader get special privileges and change into the cap and gown when their best friend, who they've known since they were toddlers (ok, children) can't?

[RainbowTigress]

Good question, Vecki!

[vecki]

I know, Captain Obvious at work again

[syberspunk]

Well that's just ... dumb and stuff.

Even if multiple sims can't age transition at the same time at the party, why should the mascot and cheerleader get special privileges and change into the cap and gown when their best friend, who they've known since they were toddlers (ok, children) can't?

I concur, with the being dumb and stuff. Despite being Obvious, something must be obscuring Maxian vision. Yeah, I know we/I bitch about it. I still love the game, and without Maxis/EA, the game wouldn't exist in the first place. But we/I also love to bitch and complain too.

Anyways, I wouldn't think that it should be that hard to have parties be a collective thing. Like those damned Sports Party wants. If you're all living in the same household, wouldn't it make sense that, having a party in that household should satisfy all of those sims wants? It can't be that hard to do, can it? Why does the party only have to count for the sim that does the inviting?

And, as for the multiple Age Transitioning, well... if you have twins (or trips or quads for that matter), you can have multiple age transitions at a Birthday Party. So why can't they have more than one during a Grad Party? Bleh.

If I'm super bored (I always am) and have time (I never do, well I really shouldn't ) and feel masochistic (modding is such a pain in the ass, but I don't which is more painful, modding or playing the game when you feel like things should be corrected ) maybe I'll try and take a look at this. Perhaps I can start simple and see if I can get all party wants to be satisfied. That shouldn't be that hard to do. Then see about this graduating thing.

Can someone describe to me, what exactly happens in a grad party anyways? Do the sims auto Age Transition at the end? Are there any special event movies for them? If so, is the Age Transition and/or movies only for the Sim who initiated the Party i.e. invited the party goers? Is the party immediately followed up by an Age Transition and/or Move Out? If that's the case, it probably would be a pain to have to deal with a dialog box for moving out each individual sim at the time. That is probably why they handle sims individually.

Ste

[RainbowTigress]

Can someone describe to me, what exactly happens in a grad party anyways? Do the sims auto Age Transition at the end? Are there any special event movies for them? If so, is the Age Transition and/or movies only for the Sim who initiated the Party i.e. invited the party goers? Is the party immediately followed up by an Age Transition and/or Move Out? If that's the case, it probably would be a pain to have to deal with a dialog box for moving out each individual sim at the time. That is probably why they handle sims individually.

Yes.  I believe there is a cinematic, but I haven't seen it.  After the sim gets the party score rating box, they get an icon in their queue that has a graduation cap and says "Graduate," which pretty much interrupts whatever they are doing--eating, sleeping, woohooing, etc.--and they come to a standstill.  Then they age transition.  If you have JM's clothing mod globals, this is when it kicks in and you pick all the adult everyday, formal, undies, etc. you want them to wear, and change appearance.  Then the message comes up that a taxi has arrived to take so-and-so back to the home neighborhood.  The sim then makes the final walk to the cab, gets in, and disappears (although they still appear to be on the lot with Merola's mirror or Inge's teleporter until you save and reload the lot, for some reason. )  Then you get a message saying so-and-so has returned to the home neighborhood, and you can find them in the sim bin and move them in blah blah.  That's pretty much it. 

You're probably right about it being too complicated for the game to handle multiple transitions and moving them back to the neighborhood.  But it still sucks. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

It's like when you move your sim to college in the first place - if you send a group together, only one gets seen off by a parent, the others just get out of the taxi, parent leaves, other teens transition and that pretty much it!  And if you send just one and move them into an inhabited house or dorm, they don't get seen off either!  Now, wouldn't you think, if Dustin's living in the house and Brandi arrives to say goodbye to Beau, that she'd pop in to say hallo to Dustin?

[RainbowTigress]

Well, the same thing would go for any of them, not just Brandi.

[ZephyrZodiac]

True, that was just an example, which came to mind because, unless she gets married again and has a new family, she's forever calling round uninvited - frequently at midnight!

[Ruann]

True, that was just an example, which came to mind because, unless she gets married again and has a new family, she's forever calling round uninvited - frequently at midnight!

She showed up at Darren Dreamer's place at 2 am wanting to be let in, then promptly going home after he greeted her.

They got married the next day.   

[Emma]

I have had a few parties in uni (just sports ones) and even if the party is a disaster my sim gets a 'had a great party' memory. I'm not sure if it is to do with this hack, but I must say I've never noticed it doing that before. If the party sucked-they got a memory that it sucked.