Author Topic: Rotational Play?  (Read 6869 times)

Offline craterdweller

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Rotational Play?
« on: November 16, 2019, 05:26:18 PM »
Any others out there that like to play in a rotation? I was hoping to be able to play a term (since it is 7 days) then rotate to the next lot and pick up the next term when their turn came up in rotation again, but after the first term, a dialog box came up stating that if I didn't enroll for the next semester I might lose some scholarships. I chickened out and enrolled for another term but I think I will test to see what happens after this term if I don't enroll. I wonder if I'll have to move my Sim back to her brother's house in Willow Creek or if she will stay in the dorm.

Anyone currently playing DU in a rotation? Would love to hear your thoughts ...

BTW- my settings are:
Sim Lifespan: Long
Auto Age (Played Sims): Only Active Household
Auto Age (Unplayed Sims): Checked (because I have no idea how to regenerate townies in the Sims 4 lol - I just have to be decisive on whom I move in so they don't age/die too soon)
Fill Empty Homes: unchecked
Season length: 28 days

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Offline Playalot

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Re: Rotational Play?
« Reply #1 on: November 16, 2019, 07:18:43 PM »
You can reapply for scholarships I think. I haven't tested this but I just assumed so as the option is available on letterboxes etc when you are rotating between the households.

I think it's probably better to not have any rotated away from households actually enrolled in uni as they will only do averagely well and you can not replay a semester or a degree once it is completed. So unless you are ok with not getting an GPA A+ then only have actively played sims in uni.

If you are playing one sim through multiple semesters it is better/easier to enroll when the prompt comes as I chose no and thought I'd enroll later but the game play is really funky with that option. I ended up having to move my sim into a normal residential lot as I just couldn't get moving back into a dorm when re-enrolling, which was really buggy.

So for me I've found it best to only have the one household enrolled at uni and play them until the end of a semester then move them back to their old home and then rotate to the next household. I have aging off as I particularly dislike my game and worlds changing in any way unless I have made the change happen myself. So I micromanage every aspect of my game. lol  I can't stand any sort of progression of any sim, townie or not. When I want sims to age or marry etc I will either make the changes through Manage Worlds and CAS with cheats or play them briefly to organize the townies how I want them mark them as unplayed again.

To regenerate townies you can make some yourself in CAS and then drop them onto an empty lot then evict them. That way they will go into the pool of NPC's that are 'Not In The World' and the game will use them for the various NPC roles, vendors, roommates etc. or you can do the same but instead of making them just download sims of the Gallery.

If you have the 'Fill Empty Homes' checked then the game will generate townies/NPC's to move into those houses which is another way to regen your worlds.  :)
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Offline craterdweller

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Re: Rotational Play?
« Reply #2 on: November 16, 2019, 07:39:26 PM »
@Playalot - Thanks so much for the detailed reply!

I like to empty all the neighborhoods and bulldoze the lots (I've learned to save a copy with a single sim named Place Holder so I don't have to keep bulldozing each time), but never thought to delete/populate the evicted sims! Not sure why it never occurred to me. I also like to randomize just about everything: number of starting families, ages, looks, etc (if you are familiar with the Prosperity Challenge from the Sims 2.) The save game I am currently testing with started off a little borked as I didn't know that in order to preserve the story mode you can't move the family to the library before placing.

Sigh - I'd prefer that my sims not do random university coursework so I will have to either turn off aging altogether or modify my spreadsheet to account for the number of "skips" the household will take to make up for the extra turns during university.

Offline oshizu

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Re: Rotational Play?
« Reply #3 on: November 17, 2019, 12:31:58 PM »
@craterdweller
I have been reading a "Legacy in Rotation" story by @MarianT which she's named The Wise Woman of Forgotten Hollow.
She's planning to play 10 households for 10 generations and is now playing Gen2.
Anyway, she's mentioned that she'll be sending her heirs to uni (but I'm not sure which generation), so I'm looking to her story to learn ways to combine Discover Uni with rotational gameplay.
You also might enjoy seeing rotational DU in practice.
Just a thought.

Offline MarianT

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Re: Rotational Play?
« Reply #4 on: November 17, 2019, 01:04:03 PM »
@oshizu, thanks for the mention!

I'm not sure yet how to handle Discover University. I enrolled one teen, but the other is still too young to attend. A third Sim, a young adult, couldn't enroll yet. I think the semester starts when your first Sim enrolls, which would explain why I couldn't enroll the 3rd Sim over the weekend.

I don't know how things will work when my heirs get old enough to go. I may have to play each one through all 12 credits before switching to the next.
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Offline craterdweller

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Re: Rotational Play?
« Reply #5 on: November 17, 2019, 01:22:06 PM »
@oshizu - Thanks for the pointer! I will definitely check it out!

I'm still in the middle of testing but I sent my one sim home (to move in with the brother) after her second term -- cancelling out of the re-enroll option. So far it shows her as having completed 4 units (she was only taking 2 classes per term- 1 core and 1 elective) and her overall GPA is A.

Her brother - whom I chose the "withdraw from term" option when I realized there was a possible issue with rotational play, shows 0 credits of 12 and no GPA. He also shows the re-enroll option. If not for his 2 dogs, I suppose I could try and move the brother and sister into an off-campus house and see if they could then attend their separate universities at the same time as they'd be a single household ... Or I could try and have them both attending from home - same test results I imagine ...

My thoughts on the dorms - they don't have the same "feel" as they did in earlier games. I mean, my sim still interacts with the dormies, but the dorms lack a lot of the fun items. And for the love of everything Sim - I really wish they'd stop eating spoiled food! Even my own sim wound up taking home a platter of roast chicken in her inventory without my notice and was choosing to eat the spoiled food over cooking something for herself at home   ???