No more freeloading at the dorms plus more expensive bills

[Morague]

Hi

This mod bills $300 for each playable sim in a dorm. If you have 8 playable sims in the dorm, then your bill is $2400, if you have 2 sims then it's $600, etc.

It has always bothered me that once a dorm is played through one generation the stuff is depreciated so much that there isn't a billable amount so the sims get to live there for free. I have 2 boys in college - nothing is free! Besides, sims get way too much money anyway.

This will conflict with Pescado's dormbillfix. The dormbillfix corrected a divide by zero problem when there weren't any Myne doors on the lots. This mod doesn't depend on counting the doors so that part is removed, therefore there isn't an opportunity to get the error.

You can change the amount that is being billed by changing the literal value in line 18 - in case you want to make it more or less.

You need University installed. I have everything, up to & including Seasons/Celebrations & it works great. It's been tested by me so I am not expecting any problems, but if you do run into anything please let me know. This should work with any expansion or combination from Uni on.

Morague

Added 27 jun 2007 - dorm billing plus more expensive bills.

Both of these maintain the $300 dorm billing but also inccrease other billing by either 3 or 5 times. I am using the x3 version in my game & it seems to be about the right amount, but I've included x5 for those who want even more :0 You can also change this amount by modifying the literal value in line 8 - whatever literal amount you put i there is what the normal bills will be multiplied by. This is a modification of Squinge's original "increased bills" with my dorm billing added in. Posted with permission.

You can have only one installed at a time & this will conflict with JM's dormbillfix - so you have to decide which one you want.

[J. M. Pescado]

$300 dorm bill seems almost purpose defeating considering that private housing doesn't cost that much, and dorms are supposed to be cheaper!

[Morague]

Yeah - I know. I'm going to change how the other stuff is calculated, too. It's just ridiculous how much money they come away from college with - even with the no 20K handouts. I think I'll change how it calculates the regular bills, too. Everything depreciates so fast that it becomes almost worthless right away & the bills are based on the depreciated amout, then they divide the total amout by 1000 & apply some further reductions to come up with the billed amount. Changing it to divide by 500 rather than 1000 would effectively double the bills.

The only time there's any monetary challenge is in the first few days on a home lot. I want it to cost more - I'm tired of getting hundreds of thousands without trying. Anythng that makes them pay more is good

[J. M. Pescado]

If you want it to be hard, don't give 'em NICE career tracks with advancement. Give 'em shitty, dead end OFB jobs paying minimum wage. Otherwise it's naturally easy. Like in real life, once your income outstrips your living expenses, you're not likely to run out of money unless you have some really stupid spending habits, which obviously misers like myself don't.

[Kyna]

I periodically hit my sims with a wealth tax using the familyfunds cheat.

So far I've only been taxing the sims going for 5 x lvl 10 businesses.  They get hit with a sales tax when they sell the business, based on a percentage of their total profit from the business.  The percentage increases with each business they've raised to level 10, so the first business for a starting out sim might get taxed 10% upon sale, but the 5th business gets taxed a heck of a lot more.

I think I'll extend my wealth tax to sims who bring home a bonus from a chance card, and add an inheritance tax for families who inherit a deceased sim's property.  In both cases I'll use Hook's randomiser to come up with a percentage (between 10% and 60%), and apply the wealth tax to the famly's gross cash.

I also split a family's cash up when a sim dies, according to degree of the blood relationship of the heirs.  In my Legacy style neighbourhood this works well, as each generation in the main house has an heir, a spare, and an alien child.  The spare, alien child, and their spawn siphon off money from the main house each generation.  Adding real inheritance also makes for interesting storylines.  Lilith Pleasant sued for her fair share of her parents' estates, and won, with some of the money going to lawyer's fees (i.e. family funded out of the game).  Tara Katt left no money for her offspring - it all went to a home for cats (i.e. out of the game), and the would-be heirs lost money to the lawyers when they contested the will.

[AuKestrel]

--snip --
I also split a family's cash up when a sim dies, according to degree of the blood relationship of the heirs.  In my Legacy style neighbourhood this works well, as each generation in the main house has an heir, a spare, and an alien child.  The spare, alien child, and their spawn siphon off money from the main house each generation.  Adding real inheritance also makes for interesting storylines.  Lilith Pleasant sued for her fair share of her parents' estates, and won, with some of the money going to lawyer's fees (i.e. family funded out of the game).  Tara Katt left no money for her offspring - it all went to a home for cats (i.e. out of the game), and the would-be heirs lost money to the lawyers when they contested the will.

You are not talking about the life insurance money, right? So e.g. after the Sim dies, you have $400,000 and an heir, a spare, and an alien child (in the house?). So at that point do you move out the spare & the alien child? Or do you assign $$ to them in a spreadsheet to keep track of it, then give it to them if/when they move out?

(I am actually getting so fed up with all the children my Sims want to have that I have gone China on their asses and instituted a strict one-child policy in my Legacy neighbourhood. Maybe if I penalise them monetarily they'll be less anxious to make babies, esp. those late-in-life last-minute-before-elder babies. Argh.)

[Hook]

I've found a use for spare cash.  Donate it to a university and name a dorm after the Sim who donated.

To find out how much a dorm is worth, use the "changelotzoning residential" cheat, then click the icon in the upper left to get the value.  This will be the Uni residential value, not the full value of the dorm.  To get the full value, divide this amount by 0.22, then use "changelotzoning dorm" to change it back to a dorm.  If you don't change the zoning, the value will always show zero.

Rename the dorm, then deduct the full amount from the family who donated the cash.

Hook

[syberspunk]

I don't know about you, but so far, none of my graduating sims have been able to afford to live on their own.  They all pretty much have to find roommates, as none can even buy an empty lot alone.  I really wish there was a way to combine households or sims in the simbin before picking a lot to move them into. 

Ste

[Kyna]

Aukestrel, you're right.  I'm not talking about the life insurance money, I divide the cash the household has between the offspring.

My current elder has 3 adult kids (heir, spare, alien).  The heir has 2 kids so far.  The spare and alien have one each (only the main household gets more than one child in this neighbourhood).  So that's 7 descendants.  I split off the money to the other households via Pescado's money order hack.  If the dying sim had townie lovers (this one wasn't a romance sim, so didn't) and is still friends with them then I might also familyfund some of the cash away as bequests to them.

I used to move the non-heirs back into the main house after graduation then move them out with a share of the household wealth.  But there's a glitch that reduces their summa cum laude degree when you do that, besides I like having them start off broke and do it tough for a while until their parents kick the bucket.  This way, the sims also get an inheritance for deaths other than old age.

[jrd]

Ditto, Ste.
I use loan paintings (modelled after Inge's shrubs) to lower the lot value until my piss-poor students can afford it, then move in a group, and repay the loan if possible.

Still even without 20k handouts after a generation or two Sims are extremely rich.

[syberspunk]

I actually don't mind it so much.  For ones that started off in households prior to Uni, they could always move back home.  Poor sad sacks.  Hee. 

The others, well they will just have to move in with some of the Maxis pre-mades.  Maybe then, I'll actually play them.  Should be kinda interesting storywise.

Two of my first Uni CAS born grads had to move in with Chester Gieke (I think that's his name).  I haven't played that household yet, as I'm still rotating some more grads through Uni first.

Maybe when that household builds up enough loot, I can move the other sims out to their own homes.

I just wish I could pre-group sims as they graduate.  I don't know if there is a way to do that?  Probably not.  Lord knows this may become an issue when I finish rotating this one dorm (that has 12 playable sims expected to graduate at the same time).  I'm sure that will be tons of fun to play.


Ste

[Zazazu]

(I am actually getting so fed up with all the children my Sims want to have that I have gone China on their asses and instituted a strict one-child policy in my Legacy neighbourhood. Maybe if I penalise them monetarily they'll be less anxious to make babies, esp. those late-in-life last-minute-before-elder babies. Argh.)

This is most of what the Oversoul (alter-ego) does in my game, other than Grilled Cheese Zombification as needed. I use ACR now. I "roll" for maximum number of kids, and they aren't to go over it, excepting to fulfill LTWs. After that maximum number of kids is met, for every extra baby they spawn, someone must die. My one exception was in the B generation of my Alphabet family, which got five kids (three pregnancies) only because all but the nasty little one were ugly and I was trying for a visually appealing heir. I settled for silly-looking. My neighborhood is very small, but I don't like a huge sim population since I play one family exclusively.

Still even without 20k handouts after a generation or two Sims are extremely rich.

I move mine every generation. That way I can build houses, which I love. I give them pocket money equal to the depriciated value of the old home and their in-hand money right before moving (often I don't move the whole family, hence the need for calculation). All that money, within a thousand simoleans, must be spent on the new home. If for some reason the home I'm building just won't cost that much furnished, I send them on a clothes shopping spree. Theoretically that makes it harder for the next generation, since the more expensive home means higher bills and they are starting out with little pocket money and the same low-level jobs.

[jrd]

(I am actually getting so fed up with all the children my Sims want to have that I have gone China on their asses and instituted a strict one-child policy in my Legacy neighbourhood. Maybe if I penalise them monetarily they'll be less anxious to make babies, esp. those late-in-life last-minute-before-elder babies. Argh.)

I modded the 10 children want down to 5, and the 20 grandchildren to 10 (if the grandparent has 2 children). Far less huge-families-wants.

[Chienne]

I've found a use for spare cash.  Donate it to a university and name a dorm after the Sim who donated.

Ooooh!  I like that.

[Li'l Brudder]

Know what'd really make Uni hard?

Pes' HarderUni hack.

How's that coming, Pes? ;-)

[J. M. Pescado]

I don't know about you, but so far, none of my graduating sims have been able to afford to live on their own.  They all pretty much have to find roommates, as none can even buy an empty lot alone.  I really wish there was a way to combine households or sims in the simbin before picking a lot to move them into. 

Graduating sims unable to get an EMPTY LOT? But the smallest empty lot is $900. That's one Semester's worth of cash for one sim. Surely you can afford to drop them onto the tiniest of empty lots and then quit without saving and merge everyone in. Otherwise how do you expect roommates, all of which have $0, since apparently none can afford even the smallest empty lot, to be able to afford a place?

[AuKestrel]

(I am actually getting so fed up with all the children my Sims want to have that I have gone China on their asses and instituted a strict one-child policy in my Legacy neighbourhood. Maybe if I penalise them monetarily they'll be less anxious to make babies, esp. those late-in-life last-minute-before-elder babies. Argh.)

I modded the 10 children want down to 5, and the 20 grandchildren to 10 (if the grandparent has 2 children). Far less huge-families-wants.

Oh my God you did! How did I miss this? Okay, this is not a thank you post. This is a "I will have your babies for this mod!" post (but only if your want is >10).

Now tell me not to suddenly develop a terrible nonspecified illness so I can go home and install this RIGHT NOW. Because that would be terribly irresponsible and almost as immature as checking MATY at work.

Aukestrel, you're right.  I'm not talking about the life insurance money, I divide the cash the household has between the offspring.

My current elder has 3 adult kids (heir, spare, alien).  The heir has 2 kids so far.  The spare and alien have one each (only the main household gets more than one child in this neighbourhood).  So that's 7 descendants.  I split off the money to the other households via Pescado's money order hack.  If the dying sim had townie lovers (this one wasn't a romance sim, so didn't) and is still friends with them then I might also familyfund some of the cash away as bequests to them.

I used to move the non-heirs back into the main house after graduation then move them out with a share of the household wealth.  But there's a glitch that reduces their summa cum laude degree when you do that, besides I like having them start off broke and do it tough for a while until their parents kick the bucket.  This way, the sims also get an inheritance for deaths other than old age.

I have just started experimenting with the money order and I'm enjoying the flexibility that it brings the game. Up til now I'd been moving the Sims back in after Uni - I had no idea there was a glitch! - and using the no-handouts to make sure they got a "fair" share after they moved out (also liked the unpredictability of what they might end up with). I think I was on the right track except for the moving back home thing - the last time I did this, I moved the two girls home, then moved them out to their own lots and installed their money orders, then went back and sent them "their" money, which was enough to fund a little house and some furniture without having to move them into a 2x2 "starter" lot, which I hate, because then I have to move them again, esp. with Seasons.

You have given me more pointers for game play in two posts than a dozen Prima guides (which unfortunately I haven't read, as you can probably tell). I really appreciate your willingness to share/explain.

This is most of what the Oversoul (alter-ego) does in my game, other than Grilled Cheese Zombification as needed. I use ACR now. I "roll" for maximum number of kids, and they aren't to go over it, excepting to fulfill LTWs. After that maximum number of kids is met, for every extra baby they spawn, someone must die. My one exception was in the B generation of my Alphabet family, which got five kids (three pregnancies) only because all but the nasty little one were ugly and I was trying for a visually appealing heir. I settled for silly-looking. My neighborhood is very small, but I don't like a huge sim population since I play one family exclusively.

Oh, I see. And if you work in the inheritance type thing like Kyna you don't have to worry about Sims not getting a bequest because there was an unfortunate accident with the broken dishwasher. *koffkoff*

And because I am so not awesome I never thought of using the Grilled Cheese aspiration to keep the not-very-crucial Sims from breeding like rabbits and overpopulating the neighbourhood. You so rock!

I move mine every generation. That way I can build houses, which I love. I give them pocket money equal to the depriciated value of the old home and their in-hand money right before moving (often I don't move the whole family, hence the need for calculation).

I'm just leaving this in to say I am in awe. It takes me 2-3 generations to get the house the way I like it. In one forgettable instance I sent everyone to the pond and razed the whole thing, but it was because the design of the house had become so unwieldy that I was spending more time finding the Sims than playing the game - in other words, I had to be desperate! Do you have a basic house you use or do you just wing it every time? I suppose my problem is really lack of imagination, now that I think about it!

[syberspunk]

Graduating sims unable to get an EMPTY LOT? But the smallest empty lot is $900. That's one Semester's worth of cash for one sim.

Heh. Yep.  Some of the latest grads ended up with less than $500 simoleons.  Keep in mind, my sims don't get straight A's/4.0's every semester.  Also, I actually use that money to buy objects, like instruments, bubble blowers, telescopes, and furniture (depending on wants, and whether or not I have any Fortune sims, since they tend to roll up wants to buy random crap).

So, in many dormlots, my sims have just enough to pay their dorm bills.  Well... in some dorm lots, I actually hired a maid, which can get pricey thanks to expensivenpcs.  In one of my dorm lots, the maid actually had to take a bookcase because they couldn't afford to pay her for the day. lol. That was actually funny, cuz my sim rolled up a want to hire a maid again, and she wouldn't come back cuz she was still pissed.

Surely you can afford to drop them onto the tiniest of empty lots and then quit without saving and merge everyone in.

Wait... so if I dropped them onto an empty lot... I can quit without saving and they will still be on that lot (and not back in the sim bin)?  So... if I merge them this way, then I can move a group of them onto a bigger lot I suppose?

The point is a bit moot tho... since they can't even afford the $900 tiniest lot to begin with.   Uni isn't a time for my sims to make money.  They're there to gain skills and earn a degree (oh, and socialize, make friends, and potentially meet mates).

Otherwise how do you expect roommates, all of which have $0, since apparently none can afford even the smallest empty lot, to be able to afford a place?

Well... I will just merge some of them with existing sims, like the Maxis EA playables.  Don could stand to have a roommate, even if it cramps his style.   Then I'd be forced to play them too, I guess.  At least to the point where they collectively earn enough loot that my playable sims can move out on their own.

Ste

[Tina G]

I don't know about you, but so far, none of my graduating sims have been able to afford to live on their own.  They all pretty much have to find roommates, as none can even buy an empty lot alone.  I really wish there was a way to combine households or sims in the simbin before picking a lot to move them into. 

Ste

In cases like this, I usually move one sim back to the neighborhood then get one of his college roomies to send him most of the money that's left using the money order. Then he can afford to buy a house for himself and his other college mates to start out in.

[syberspunk]

In cases like this, I usually move one sim back to the neighborhood then get one of his college roomies to send him most of the money that's left using the money order. Then he can afford to buy a house for himself and his other college mates to start out in.

Good idea!  I forgot about the money order.  I hardly never use it.  Heh.  Still... I believe in life being a bitch, then you get raped by wild boars, and then you die, possibly struck by lightning or hit by a satellite, and maybe you get resurrected as a zombie.

Maybe I'll use the money order next time tho. Hee hee.

Ste

[Kyna]

I'm just leaving this in to say I am in awe. It takes me 2-3 generations to get the house the way I like it. In one forgettable instance I sent everyone to the pond and razed the whole thing, but it was because the design of the house had become so unwieldy that I was spending more time finding the Sims than playing the game - in other words, I had to be desperate! Do you have a basic house you use or do you just wing it every time? I suppose my problem is really lack of imagination, now that I think about it!

Personally, I'm fond of Nec's entry in the building contest of awesomeness..  I've had neighbourhoods that I think of as "company towns" with this house repeated a lot.

There's a more awesome house spec floating about too, that I use for guidance when building lots.  I prefer not to build since I suck at it, but I sometimes play a challenge that requires it.

[J. M. Pescado]

Heh. Yep.  Some of the latest grads ended up with less than $500 simoleons.  Keep in mind, my sims don't get straight A's/4.0's every semester.  Also, I actually use that money to buy objects, like instruments, bubble blowers, telescopes, and furniture (depending on wants, and whether or not I have any Fortune sims, since they tend to roll up wants to buy random crap).

Maybe if you planned ahead a little better, you wouldn't end up stuck.

The point is a bit moot tho... since they can't even afford the $900 tiniest lot to begin with.   Uni isn't a time for my sims to make money.  They're there to gain skills and earn a degree (oh, and socialize, make friends, and potentially meet mates).

And apparently, they get to move back in with their parents, like the TOTAL AND UTTER LOSERS they are.

[Zazazu]

Do you have a basic house you use or do you just wing it every time? I suppose my problem is really lack of imagination, now that I think about it!

I used to wing it, but found I'd fall into a bit of a rut that way. I love house building, though, and hate rebuilding or remodeling, so it's new homes all the way, all the time. I started using Architectural House Plans, recommended in an earlier thread as a good place for ideas. My current home I'm playing (pre yardwork and furnishing) is this:

Unfortunately I don't have any aerial views, but it basically has a huge master suite on the right, two smaller bedrooms on the far left with a shared bathroom. The kitchen is that small jutted-out portion with the two central windows, and the dining/living room is behind it.

Basically, just look at as many player-created houses out there as you can. Not the Maxis ones, they are inefficient ugly crap. Download your favorites and play them a bit. Then try building a few. By seeing the possibilities, you can start to find what you like.

[fwiffo]

Heh. Yep.  Some of the latest grads ended up with less than $500 simoleons.

Heh, I don't even know how I'd go about making my sims that poor...  The ones that attend my Legacy family's greek house typically leave college with like $40-50 thousand.  How do you even spend all your money at college?  After a few generations all the dorm residences that I use are pretty well pimped out...

[syberspunk]

Maybe if you planned ahead a little better, you wouldn't end up stuck.

And apparently, they get to move back in with their parents, like the TOTAL AND UTTER LOSERS they are.

Heh... well... that's actually kinda the point.  I want my sims to start off poor anyways, because it's so damned easy to make money as adults later.  I know I could spend time trying to earn money doing odd jobs, busking, selling novels or paintings... but the majority of my YAs are CAStudent born, and don't start off with no skills or scholarship loot.  And the way I play, they only learn the skills they need to get by.  So, the YAs rarely ever max out skills like creativity.  Plus, I play many of them as a slave to their wants, so they only accomplish whatever they want, or at least, the wants that I feel like satisfying.

So yeah... many of them will end up dirt po' upon graduation.  The way I look at it, it's sort of fitting.  Since most people tend to graduate in debt, with loans to pay off and what not.  The only problem is... since many of my YAs started off as YAs, they don't have parents to move back in with.  It should make for some interesting living situations.

Heh, I don't even know how I'd go about making my sims that poor...  The ones that attend my Legacy family's greek house typically leave college with like $40-50 thousand.  How do you even spend all your money at college?  After a few generations all the dorm residences that I use are pretty well pimped out...

Well... see... that's the other thing.  I play sssssssuuuuuuuuper ssssssssssssssloooooooooowwwwwww...   I haven't really gone through a 2nd generation yet.  The majority of my sims are all CAS made.  I think I have had only one in-game birth so far... and that was an accident via Risky Woohoo.  Heheh.  That sim is still a baby too.  I have tons of YA sims that I want to rotate through Uni first... and then get back to the main 'hood to play some families.

As for spending... well, again, like I said, many of my sims aren't getting A's,4.0's.  Some of them only get the amount for C's and B's.  Money goes to dorm bills, purchasing crap, and to the expensive maids (for some households).  This one dorm lot I was playing last night has two sims in their final senior semester.  The household funds are about $2000 simoleons and they are a 3.5 and 2.0 students.  One is a fortune sim, so I've bought a bunch of chairs, couches, a guitar, a double bed, a photo booth, and other random crap.  No maid in this household, but still, a lot of junk.  They might be able to squeak by and afford some lots on their own.  I will have to see.

Ste