Changing University Semesters

[croiduire]

Is there a way to change the year/level of a University student? I have a dorm and a residence that I want to use exclusively for playable sims, and need the ones there to graduate in succession, to allow room for the teens I bring over from the home neighborhood without annoyance sims cluttering up the properties.

 I opened up the character files in SimPE, changed the semester, added memories, and reentered the game. It was slightly broken (the effort bar showed fully open in one case with skills yet to be mastered, and closed in another with all designated skills acquired, but the semester was correct. However, after returning from taking the final, they had reverted back and were all second semester freshmen again.

Obviously I'm missing an important step, but I have no clue what it could be. Can anyone help me?

Thanks!

[Brynne]

Pes has a Uni clock and TJ has a college adjuster. Either should do the trick. With the clock, you can synchronize the sims to each other.

[GayJohnScarritt]

Are you talking about the NPC's living in the Dorm?   From my experience, when i move a new playable sim into a dorm already full, the game will have one of those NPC's move out.   I don't think you can have those NPC's graduate, as they would have no-where to go, you'd have to make them playable, then delete them from the sim-bin. 

[RainbowTigress]

...then delete them from the sim-bin. 

Which you should never do, unless you want your game to turn into a BFBVFS.

[Gwill]

Dormies don't graduate.  They can live in the dorm for a hundred generations and still be freshmens.
Just move your playable sims in, and the dormies will leave.

[Skaven]

I know some real college students who seem to be on that track.   

[croiduire]

After dealing one semester with the whining, filthy, annoying spam sims that invaded my dorm, I moved them all in, turning them into playable sims, tweaking personalities and interests as needed in simpe and using the facelift tool to make them more attractive (I never play dorms larger than 8 rooms). Some of them have turned into fairly nice characters, actually, and once they graduate I decide then whether to play them, turn them into townies, or kill them in some non-game-breaking fashion (I lurv cowplants ^_^) And, of course, once they've been made playable, those are my only options without risking BFBVFS.

I never have eight playable sims ready for college at the same time (I'm a bit of a fanatic about keeping time consistent and maintaining the gap between siblings). However, the college adjustor (thanks, Brynne, for telling me about it and ever-blessings to TJ for making it) has solved my problem.

However, I must admit, I am still annoyed at my own total lack of technical eptitude. While I realize I'm not, and will never be, awesome, there's a huge middle-ground between awesomeness and the complete and abject blob of cluelessness that is me. My latest screw-up is in making memories. I can't get the icons to show up, I can't get the background the right color, and I can't find a tutorial that shows what I've done wrong. (Googling produces all manner of puke-worthy info on how to get Bella back, and almost nothing helpful.)

Le sigh...

[jsalemi]

Some of them have turned into fairly nice characters, actually, and once they graduate I decide then whether to play them, turn them into townies, or kill them in some non-game-breaking fashion (I lurv cowplants ^_^) And, of course, once they've been made playable, those are my only options without risking BFBVFS.

Well, no, you could turn them back into townies right then and there, using testing cheats, the insiminator (which will let you give them facelifts without ever making them playable in the first place), or Inge's Transporter Plus bush or various updated versions found here in Peasantry and elsewhere. Turning a sim into a townie at Uni returns them to the dormie pool.  I've done this many times with maxis-premade sims that I had no intention of ever playing. I put them in an empty lot, make any fixes using various tools, and then turn them loose into the dormie pool with an updated version of Inge's TP+ bush.

[croiduire]

You're right, of course, I could...but that would rather defeat my purpose of having only playable sims in my dorms. If I move them out the game will only generate new spam to replace them, and chances are the replacements would be just as bad or worse.

I cannot, and will not, tolerate the obnoxiousness of the whining twerps who populate the dorms by default, getting in the way of the sims that are trying to get a degree, making messes everywhere, gorging on the cafeteria food and hogging the bathrooms. (I despise the way the game will make a non-selected sim grab the last bowl of food, or use the toilet or shower the second the player adds that action to the selected sims queue.)

As I mentioned, I coped with that nonsense for one semester before I'd had quite enough, so I usually make them playable, run them through uni along with my sims, send them to the neighborhood bin upon graduation, move them into a vacant lot, and from there all that haven't made the "endearing" cut get reverted to townies (as near as I can tell, not dormies, since they actually have finished school.)

[Ivy]

I cannot, and will not, tolerate the obnoxiousness of the whining twerps who populate the dorms by default, getting in the way of the sims that are trying to get a degree, making messes everywhere, gorging on the cafeteria food and hogging the bathrooms. (I despise the way the game will make a non-selected sim grab the last bowl of food, or use the toilet or shower the second the player adds that action to the selected sims queue.)

I hate to ask the obvious, but why aren't you using nodormiespawns to prevent the above?


Ivy

[croiduire]

I do, but the dormies still fill come in and fill up any empty rooms. I thought that hack just kept the pool from replenishing. Is it supposed to keep them out of the dorms? Do I need to redownload?

[J. M. Pescado]

I think you just need to wait until they die off one by one, creating a haunted whorehouse.

[kutto]

I've always wanted ghosts to do something interesting. 

[RainbowTigress]

Using BUY handles the bathroom situation quite nicely.  I haven't had a lot of problems with dormies.  They go about their business, and my sims go about theirs.  The food hasn't been a problem either.  The cook always makes more food as soon as the last bowl is taken up.  I have my sims store food in their inventory that the cook prepares.  With College Rampage, they get food off the counter or take it out of their inventory.