Why can't some of my townie teens go to college?

[terrakosmos]

I was all set to send a batch of teens to Uni -- a few of my playable sims along with some of their townie friends. In the Send Sims to College box, all my playable teen sims appear, but none of their townie friends. Other townies and NPCs appear just fine, but I noticed that the non-playable teens that DO appear happen to be the ones that none of my playable sims know. Ooookay...

Has anyone else encountered this problem? Or have a suggestion for a solution? This is a custom neighborhood with 222 character files... Freshly patched (NL patch #2).

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe they're not teens.

[terrakosmos]

AFAIK they most certainly are. I checked in SimPE and their age is listed as teen and everything.
The only difference between the townie teens who are not appearing in the Send Sims to College thingie is that my playable sims have interacted with them. As if my playable sim meeting a teen townie makes that townie ineligible for college.

I'll check if it's happening in other neighborhoods. I don't really play any other neighborhoods though, so it will be hard for me to remember which teens know which in the others.

[Sleepycat]

well one option to get around the problem would be to have a sim get them to move in with him/her via Inges Teleporter plus.

1, Teleport them to the Lot
2, jack their relationship up with the sim that lives there(InSim works great for this)
3, then "add to family" (using Inges teleporter plus).

You should then be able to send them off to Uni.

[MissDoh]

Take a peak before you start to play any Maxis hood at the elligible townie teens in the send a sim menu from the neighborhood view.  Either take note of them or count how many there is.

Or create another custom hood and after the game created all the townies take a peak before you start to play any household and count how many teens are available to go to school.  There should be only NPC in there if you do that before you create any Sims in CAS.

1st time I read about this kind of problem, hope you find a solution.

[simmiecal]

Do you have any un-awesome hacks in your game *cough*one with flavor packs? I have a very vague memory of a possible issue with townie teens not being "old enough" teens to send to college with a certain version and/or flavor pack.

[ZephyrZodiac]

It certainly has never happened in my game, and I'd think simmiecal's oblique reference to the kitten-killer is probably the answer.  Try removing it and see what happens!

[J. M. Pescado]

It certainly has never happened in my game, and I'd think simmiecal's oblique reference to the kitten-killer is probably the answer.  Try removing it and see what happens!

Gah, always the kitten killer. I suspect there's a reason Jase discontinued the product.

[terrakosmos]

Nope, I don't use inteen or any other unawesome mods. I don't use very many mods at all. But I'll try Sleepycat's idea. I'm usually so cautious in my playing/downloading, so I'm clueless as to why something so backasswards would happen.
Thanks, everybody!

[ZephyrZodiac]

You could use the moveinall hack from MTS2, which has a version where friendship doesn't have to be all that high, and your sims could then ask them to move in.  Then once you have them all in houses, you can move them to Uni whichever way you like.

[simmiecal]

Gah, always the kitten killer. I suspect there's a reason Jase discontinued the product.

See, it wasn't the kitten killer after all.
   I think thou dost protest too much about it.   
I suspect if the Insim site had a retardo land that he could banish the idiots to, things might be different.

[Li'l Brudder]

Maybe they're just too stupid.

[Swiftgold]

Do you have any un-awesome hacks in your game *cough*one with flavor packs? I have a very vague memory of a possible issue with townie teens not being "old enough" teens to send to college with a certain version and/or flavor pack.

The thing with the teens not being old enough doesn't count if you're sending them to college through the neighborhood view, anyway. It only makes a difference if you're trying to send them through phone/computer and you haven't disabled that option.

[ZephyrZodiac]

I've grown up downtownie kids in SimPE and sent them to college through the Students' Bin.  They arrive at a lot, still looking like kids, but they grow up fine!  And those downtownie kids have more skills than they deserve too!

[Athena]

The thing with the teens not being old enough doesn't count if you're sending them to college through the neighborhood view, anyway. It only makes a difference if you're trying to send them through phone/computer and you haven't disabled that option.

How do you disable/enable that option?  I've tried sending my teens to college by phone/computer, and it always says I have to choose a University first, when I already have a working university attached.  I end up having to send them to university through the neighborhood chooser, which is very inconvenient.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Do you have any moveout fixes apart from JM's one?  I never have any problems with moving my sims to college, or out of houses for that matter, but I did have a problem moving sims out of  a house when I had other moveout and graduation fixes installed.

[dusty]

I wanted to send the papergirl to college yesterday and neither she nor any of the other working teen NPCs (shop assistants) showed up in the list - the downtownie teens did though. I only use Awesome hacks, so I am currently at a loss.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Have you tried deleting your groups.cache file from the game folder?

[terrakosmos]

I've grown up downtownie kids in SimPE and sent them to college through the Students' Bin.  They arrive at a lot, still looking like kids, but they grow up fine!  And those downtownie kids have more skills than they deserve too!

*Slaps head* Now why haven't i thought about using good old SimPE? What do I do, check the "On Campus (Is Young Adult)" box and add them to some existing Uni household, or is it a bit more complicated?

I wanted to send the papergirl to college yesterday and neither she nor any of the other working teen NPCs (shop assistants) showed up in the list - the downtownie teens did though. I only use Awesome hacks, so I am currently at a loss.

Hm, so it's not just me, then? My paper delivery personnel are showing up, though. Have you installed NL patch #2 (assuming you have nightlife)? Because I really want to blame the patch. I enjoy blaming other people/things for my problems 

Have you tried deleting your groups.cache file from the game folder?

This is a stupid question, but is the groups.cache? I know where it is, but I don't know what it does.


Thanks for being patient with all of my questions.

[jrd]

There are some townie teens I can't send to college in my game, too. And this is without the inTeen installed.

What exactly are the criteria the game uses?

[ZephyrZodiac]

Basically, I don't know what groups.cache actually does, except that it's some kind of store of what is happening in your game.  If you delete it (and it may be quite large if you never have) then next time you load the game a new one is generated - and if you then alt/tab and check your folder, you will find it is only about 14kb - anda lot of faulty stuff is then replaced when you play your game.  A lot of people delete the groups.cache file every time they quit the game.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Jordi, I think if your game is working correctly, every teen should be able to go to college.  I've previously sent all the Downtownies with no probs - as I said before, including the kids who I just grew up in simPE first.  Theoretically, i you made a toddler townie youself, then grew it up to teen in simPE, then the toddler could go to college too.  They'd appear in the Students' bin in their original form, but as soon as you loaded them to a dorm or house, they would grow up to YA.

So if there are teens who aren't available for you to send to college, then something is not working correctly, but I have no idea what you can actually do about it except go the long route of moving them into a house.

If you move them into a house with the teleporter shrub, then use the mind control mirror to select them, (you need to move at least two in to begin with) then you can direct one of them to phone college, or use the computer, and then select move to college and the taxi should appear.  As long as you have at least two townies/downtownies on your lot you can continue to do this until the teens all decide it's time to go home!  Howver, it's worth checking their stats first, some will be very low on aspiration and if you don't do something about that first, they will grow up badly.

[Swiftgold]

I'm wondering if this is with the patch installed, too - I don't have patch #2 installed and the NPC teens show up in my list as well...

[Athena]

Do you have any moveout fixes apart from JM's one?  I never have any problems with moving my sims to college, or out of houses for that matter, but I did have a problem moving sims out of  a house when I had other moveout and graduation fixes installed.

Not sure if that was geared at me, but I don't believe so.  I have JM's fix, but that's it.  Anyway, I can move out Sims fine by telephone/computer, I just can't send them off to college that way.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I think really I was aiming it at terakosmos, since they first reported the problem.