Rotational Players - How do you handle Uni?

[simnights]

This question goes out to all you BACC, Prosperity, and other whole-hood players who play in "rounds."

How do you handle Uni?

I'm on round 2 of Pleasantview, which means that several of the pre-mades have left for college! I'm thinking that a Uni round (I started regular rounds at 7 days, now they are 4/1 season) will be 2 full years, but I'm trying to figure it out. I don't want a college round to be 4 years of Uni personally because I want to stagger a little bit more so not all of my sims are the exact same age.

Example: Dustin, Angela, and Lillith are all at Uni right now, but Dirk has not gotten to his final day of teen-hood yet, so he's still back in the main hood as a teen. He will come to college next round, but I don't want him to be the same age as, say, Alexander, Lucy, and Beau, because he's slightly older but just ever-so-slightly younger than the other teens. My proposed solution was the play 1/2 of the degree in one round.

Also, since i added the pre-made Uni, I have a ton more sim bin sims and college student households to potentially add to the rotation now I don't think I'm going to do that, though, unless they marry into an already-playable family. They'll probably just act as top-tier townies: they actually get a home!

I'm curious to see how other folks handle Uni in their round systems.

[simsterlyrock]

I still haven't found a way that works perfectly, but right now I just play all of uni at the end of the rotation. I have a mod that makes each semester last 2 days because the standard length is WAY too long for me. I like all the ages to stay matched up though, so playing a large group of teens through uni all at the same time means they'll all come out at the same age, even if Dustin and Beau aren't supposed to be the same age (to use Pleasantview sims as an example).

I tend to use SimPE to adjust ages so that the age gap between the Pleasant twins and Dustin and Dirk still reflects their ages as teens, but it's such a hassle. Sometimes I just age them straight to adults and use the Bat Box to give them the degree I would have made them get, and then there's no worry about weird aging problems.

[Little White Comet]

I have a mod in that makes each semester 48 hours which helps a lot. When it comes to my own Pleasantview Playthrough I've been sending my teens to Uni if they have rolled the want when their 2-day birthday alert comes in.

To keep the different ages I used the college adjuster to make some Sims be at college for more time so that they would graduate first and keep the age difference between the Sims. I keep track of what day the Sim left for college and what season, that way I can them give them appropriate jump in time to keep the same age gap.
I kept Angela, Lilith, Dustin and Dirk all the same age so they all graduated at the same time, but Alexander and Lucy was a semester ahead of Beau so they graduated first.

When it comes to actual play I do it by the seasons. So I have another mod that makes it so the seasons last for the entire week and it's with that I know how long I need to play a dorm for. One season equals a week. So my Sims spend maybe 2 and half seasons in Uni.

Did that make sense? My way of playing is complicated to me sometimes so I'm sorry if that was confusing!

[simsterlyrock]

So does that way of doing things keep the ages fairly in sync with the teens who don't go to uni? That's always my big problem is that the kids who don't do uni may end up older than an older sibling who DID go to uni. That's why I always play college all at once but it's so long and repetitive that I'm eager for a way to mix things up, haha.

[Little White Comet]

I've got two that didn't go to Uni and to keep them on track I just don't play them.

Susan Burb's twin brother Peter went to Uni so when he graduates I know I can put her back in the rotation and play her again.
Izar Curious was the other one who didn't go, I had to work out who he was the same age as and when that Sim graduates then I can play him again.

At the moment I've moved them into an apartment where they will stay until I can play them again.
It's not that easiest way to do things but it's the way that works for me

[simsterlyrock]

It makes sense though! Luckily I don't have a university unlocked in my BACC yet so I still have some time to figure out how I'm going to handle university.

[Little White Comet]

I'm glad it does, when you do unluck university I hope it goes well for you

[simsterlyrock]

Haha, thanks! I'm hoping to be able to unlock it soon since my second generation of kids are becoming adults now and some of them have wants to graduate kids from college, so I'm hoping I can unlock it by the time gen 3 is ready for college.

[Seera]

What I plan on doing is having a house or series of houses in the main neighborhood for Sims that don't go to college. They'll spend the equivalent number of rotations at that lot as they would have at University. Those houses will be played with aging off and they'll be able to work on their skills and making friends and finding who they want to spend the rest of their lives with.

[simsterlyrock]

What I plan on doing is having a house or series of houses in the main neighborhood for Sims that don't go to college. They'll spend the equivalent number of rotations at that lot as they would have at University. Those houses will be played with aging off and they'll be able to work on their skills and making friends and finding who they want to spend the rest of their lives with.

Oooh, that's a good idea!

[simnights]

Hmm, I'm thinking in the end I may do soemthing akin to what you do, Comet - though I am still a bit confused about what you mean exactly to be honest

My thought was initially to play 2 years of college all together, but it's tiresome and long that way. This past round was soooooo loooong - 4 semesters. Those of you who use 48-hour semester mod: do you find that makes it more challenging too? All my kids have 4.0's and it's way too easy.

I think I may do a combo of 2 day semesters, staggering start dates, and playing it all in one go! So just a mishmash of almost every idea presented here

This is the way I'm seeing it: Playing 2-day long semesters, if Alexander came to college on day 1 of the round, and Lucy on day 4, Alex would play through 3 semesters (because YA sims don't age normally, the fact that the semester is 2 days is irrelevant. I would probably stick to the 1 day = 1 semester timeline) before Lucy gets added to the dorm. Then, adding them back to the main hood, Alexander would start off on day 1 of the round and Lucy would only be played starting on day 4 (if they're in different households by themselves, I'll just change the weekday and play a shorter/longer round depending on circumstance).

Of course, my current sims will have to adjust. I'll tinker with it. Thanks for the ideas!

[heatherfeather]

I really want to try a rotational neighborhood so this is really interesting! I do like Seera's idea. I think for me I wouldn't mind too much if ages were not perfect, but the seasons getting out of wack between households would annoy me more.

[Rex]

If it's a for fun neighbourhood (i.e. playing through the pre-made neighbourhoods), I'll sometimes use the college adjuster mod just to speed through it.

In my BaCC, I stagger the university rotation. I have two different styles of play for university. The first, which is what I currently use, is where 1 semester is the equivalent of 1 sim day. This means my teenage sims leave home with 9 days left in their age bar. Once my rotations are over and I know how much time is left for each sim at university or in their teenage years, I plan accordingly. If they are moving back home after university, I will play their home lot the correct number of days to represent any remaining semesters and then move them in. If they're moving to a new lot, I will use the sethour cheat to make their first day the correct day of the week instead of Monday and play from there.

The other option is to have 1 sim day equal 1 year and move them to university with 5 days remaining. That way they can spend more time as teenagers.

I feel that because so many of us are used to playing legacy style (going to university once per generation and having a placeholder at a Greek House), it puts us at a disadvantage because we aren't used to playing rotation style.

[Little White Comet]

The 48-semester mod definitely makes things harder because as well as getting their grades up you've also got to keep their needs up too. It makes University a lot more interesting that's for sure.

[Seera]

I should also note that I don't keep ages between those who get sent to University in the same round separated. So if you get sent to Uni on day 1 of teen with someone who went on their last day possible, they'd come out as the same age. I play seasonally, but I will send a Sim early if it will mean that non-twin siblings don't end up in the same dorm.

But in real life a younger sibling might outlive an older sibling even if both die of old age so I don't fret too much over it if I can't split up siblings.

[simnights]

Yeah, I did just realize that the 48 hour semester mod makes it a lot harder to do anything but study! :/

I honestly don't want my sims to do nothing but study all through Uni, but I also don't want to spend 4 days a semester going through the motions.... I'm not quite sure what to do about that.

[Little White Comet]

I hadn't planned on what I was going to do with my Sims when they graduate to keep the age differences when I first answered this but now that my Sims are at that stage I've finally thought of something that works with what I've been doing with University.
I record the day the Sim in question Graduates, (I work this out by how many days are left in the season) and then go on with the graduation. When they move into their home I change the day is to what day it was when they graduate and also edit the season to the right amount of days. I then proceed to play them through the rest of the week, thus making all the Sims different ages.