Own a business, buy pets, have old guys permanently in a University town

[MutantBunny]

I'm looking for a hack that will allow a sim in a university to own their own business--a community lot or a home run business. I've searched but I can't find one. Help?

EDITed title see end of thread

[Ness]

Are you sure you need one?  I haven't tried it, but I'm looking at a uni sim with the want to buy a community lot, so it seems to me that it's already possible. 

[notveryawesome]

YA sims can own community lot businesses in the main 'hood or a non-uni subhood. They just can't run a business from any uni lot, including the one they live in.

[MutantBunny]

I have a couple of students that are bad studnets. They need to make some money, just like real students might need. When OFB first ccame out, I had one of them buy a burger joint and he was happily running it. However, when I installed pets (it may have been the OFB patch, I have so many sims to play I don't really play any of them too much, and I needed a better PC to play on, so I can't say it was Pets as it might have been the patch) and later when I went to play the burger joint, it wouldn't load. I had the same thing happen to several of my owned lots in both of my hoods so I thought it might be that it was EAxis v. CC.

But yesterday, I was playing my Uni and I have a bum living there (got him in there by placing an occupied lot) and I wanted him to buy a lot in the Uni. But he couldn't and then I went thru the steps to see if it was a hack conflict or if Pets had just broken that feature in my game. Then I started reading around and I see that no one else can own a business in Uni either. I know that I had my one bad student owning a burger joint so it IS possible--just not what EAxis wanted for the game evidently.

Surely, someone else has wanted this feature too? There's gotta be a hack riight?

[Sagana]

I want it and I don't think it can be hacked. Uni doesn't play well with anything else because of the time issues.

[J. M. Pescado]

But yesterday, I was playing my Uni and I have a bum living there (got him in there by placing an occupied lot) and I wanted him to buy a lot in the Uni. But he couldn't and then I went thru the steps to see if it was a hack conflict or if Pets had just broken that feature in my game. Then I started reading around and I see that no one else can own a business in Uni either. I know that I had my one bad student owning a burger joint so it IS possible--just not what EAxis wanted for the game evidently.

I'm almost certain that it was possible to own a business while at Uni, since I most certainly *DID* this. Have you tried the Phone or Computer's real estate options?

[Sagana]

Was your business on a Uni lot Pes? Or did you have a Uni sim own a business on a base neighborhood or downtown lot?

The 2nd I can do. The first I can't. I tried every kind of sim I could imagine to find a way to let them own a business on a Uni lot.

[Gwill]

I've owned and run businesses while in uni, but the business lot was in the main neigbourhood.

[MutantBunny]

I tried the phone which gives the option to buy dt or in the main hood, but not in the Uni which is what I'm after (the burger joint is in the Uni and I named it after my sim when he bought it so I know it WAS possible at one time and I'm not crazy...I'm not, I'm not......)

I'll look for the PC option in a few hours here and report. Hadn't thought of trying that....


EDIT: PC has same choices as the paper.

[BastDawn]

Maxis designed it that way from the beginning.  If your sim once owned a University lot, then you must have had a hack that I've never heard of to make it possible.

[MutantBunny]

 ???If I had a hack then I would still have it and I wouldn't be here looking for one.......

[BastDawn]

Personally, I think you are remembering this incorrectly.  I do not believe that it has ever been possible to own a University lot.  Your sim may have owned a lot in another sub-hood, or you might have built the lot and named it with the intention of having him buy it.  Do you still have this sim, and if so, does he have the deed to the business in his inventory?

[SaraMK]

Can you own a Uni lot if you try to buy it from the main neighborhood?

[MutantBunny]

Oh, Hulio bought the lot and worked it for several sim days (while he eyed the girls) His name is across the front of it. Both the owner sim and the burger joint lot wouldn't load after Pets. I had to move the sim to the bin, which saved them, but lost all their goods. Their lot I tried to save, moved it to the bin, then out again--but it was weird: it appeared that their stuff was still in there as I could see stuff in the yard, but I couldn't enter it. I ended up bulldozing.

Now, this may well have been just another 'Maxian fluke', but it DID happen. I want the feature back. And surely others want the feature too, right?

I see no reason that a sim CAN'T own a lot in uni. If they can own one in DT or the main hood--why should they be stopped owning one in Uni? The lot isn't going to age.... It may be that it's something to do with the transition when they graduate, maybe Maxis just couldn't figure out that coding so they shut the option out.

SaraMK, that's a good question. I'm gonna try that....

[jrd]

I see no reason for most Uni limitations. Why can't students have pets? Why can't you have a live-in Servo slave?

Uni is EAxis' abandoned stepchild. Nothing new has been done for it since the Uni EP, and I don't think something *will* in future expansions. It could and should have been tied in with the rest of the game a lot better -- it's mostly its own separate game inside TS2.
If it weren't for the other features of the EP (new careers, six slots, etc.) I'd not install it.

[MutantBunny]

I like it, but I have no idea why. I really like the six slots, and the better careers. The play is a bit tedious, but if you meet their skill up bench marks and make them write a paper, the grades are way easy. And you get all the naked streakers which with CBoys penis is lots of fun.

But, they should be able to have pets, and they should be able to live there after graduation and have Servo and all the rest. Why not?? Stupid Maxis...

[Ness]

Checked in my game - you can't purchase uni comm lots from the main hood.

[J. M. Pescado]

You can't purchase Uni comm lots, period. You can, however, purchase community lots with a sim that is at Uni, provided you are not attemting to purchase a Uni lot. No one may own lots on Uni, but Uni students may own non-Uni comm lots.

[notveryawesome]

As others have stated, this is all on purpose. I suspect it's because only YA sims can visit uni lots. Once they age to adult, they no longer have access to any uni lot; therefore, it would be a VBT to have an owned uni business that can no longer be visited once the sim grows up. If you think about it really hard, you might understand why this would be a problem, and why uni business lots are disabled by design. Why on earth would you want your YA sim to own a business that s/he no longer has access to once s/he ages to adult? It just wouldn't make sense to do something like that.

[Marhis]

I think it's mainly because of different time flow in uni lots; this should be handled by the subhood type, thus you can't have a freezed timeflow (as in community/business lots) in a uni subhood.

[J. M. Pescado]

I think it's mainly because of different time flow in uni lots; this should be handled by the subhood type, thus you can't have a freezed timeflow (as in community/business lots) in a uni subhood.

There really isn't any meaningful reason for that, either, as community lots do not have timeflow.

Uni is EAxis' abandoned stepchild. Nothing new has been done for it since the Uni EP, and I don't think something *will* in future expansions. It could and should have been tied in with the rest of the game a lot better -- it's mostly its own separate game inside TS2.
If it weren't for the other features of the EP (new careers, six slots, etc.) I'd not install it.

Yes, Uni is basically the forgotten expansion. Something tells me it was ultimately a bit of a flop, even though the 6-slot thing is a must-have. OFB was probably the most successful, as some casual tie-in is included in every new pack so far. It was also probably the most stable engine by OFBp2, with NL as the most unstable, prone to crashing for no apparently logical reason.

[Marhis]

I think it's mainly because of different time flow in uni lots; this should be handled by the subhood type, thus you can't have a freezed timeflow (as in community/business lots) in a uni subhood.

There really isn't any meaningful reason for that, either, as community lots do not have timeflow.

I meant that Uni community lots have the time flow like in residential lots, for students; timeflow freezes only in non-Uni community lots.
If in the game this feature is linked to the kind of subhood, then it makes sense, because if a student sets up a business in a Uni lot, he will have to attend classes, etc. anyway.

[notveryawesome]

When classtime arises whilst my sims are at a community lot, I cancel the action. Otherwise, they'll just have to go to class again after they've been home for awhile, and will finish the semester earlier than their housemates. Sometimes I use this to my advantage, if I decide that I want one sim to be slightly older than the others, but this is rare. The time-syncing really is set up very strangely at uni.

[MutantBunny]

I searched here and MTS2 to see if anyone else has experienced this but found no one--hope I don't bore you all.....

I thought I read someplace that Unis didn't have strays--I had a stray go by a students house today.

And then....

As I said before: I had an old guy living in my uni--he was downloaded in a house or a dorm and I placed that in my uni and that's when I found the guy living inside. He came having a golf caddy job.

When I placed the house--an apartment building, I went in and deco-ed it. I can't remember if it came as a dorm-aka an apartment building, but I think it did. I know it startedfilling up with dormies when I wasdecoing.

I never have played him--until today I basically was playing him just to see if this guy would go to work. I had a little trouble entering the lot--I had to move him to the bin, then bulldoze the lot which I replaced with one just like it. I figured that was due to it being a dorm and him not being a student--but that's just a guess I could bwe wrong, maybe it was just something wrong with the lot.

I happened to be watching the clock and I noticed he was late to work--but still had 15 minutes to get there. The car pool never came. I quick bought him a car and it allowed me to send him off to work. He went, got promoted and came home! So I kept playing ghim each day expecting him to crash the game. But he didn't carsh it, he got promoted a few times. I got one chance card. He never go warnings to go to work--I had to watch the clock to send him on time--I was afraid to let him be late for fear he'd lose his job and there was no option to get one in the newspaper. He doesn't have a PC yet as there's no room to place on.

He needed a friend to get the next promotion so I sent him to a comm lot-- I had just set up a pet store with fish, birds and womrats only since students can't have cats or dogs (and I was unsuccessful when I tried to get one student to buy a cat or dog--the cat/dog bin thingy simply never filled with a pet so no buy option was available) and I decided to send him there to see how the lot was working. When he got thee and walked thru the shop I had the thought: what if  this old guy could buy a dog since he's not a student? could the coding to make the bins work be in the character file? (I have no idea if this could be so or not.) So I went to place a bin--as I looked for the bin I remebered I had just found a nice new one at Parsimonious--has stars on it.SO I placed it. And TADA! Buy option popped up and my old guy bought a dog and the dog got in the car and they drove home (I was holding my breath waiting for the crash!) The dog got out, went in, slept, ate, peed, learned to come, chewed so furniture.

Has anything like this happened to anyone else?

Think I can breed them there? I'm going to see if I can fill the building up with a few professors and a mailman to see if they'll live there ok. I'm gonna try to marry them off and they're hopefully gonna  breed and sell kittens and puppies.

[notveryawesome]

It's probably the Victorian slum dorm by Numenor at MTS2, which comes with a caretaker. I never downloaded it for that reason. Don't you read the descriptions of the lots you're about to download? If you don't, then you might want to start.

ETA: It's my understanding that it's not a good idea to move in NPCs such as professors and mail carriers, because they often retain some of their strange behaviours even after the move-in. Why are you so hell-bent on making uni just like the regular hoods, anyway? I thought the whole idea was to have a different experience while your sims are at uni. It's not like they're there for an extremely long time.