University Life - First Impressions

[Saltypaws]

I think the only thing I am not real crazy about, is the whole social networking, after the sims return home.  I suppose that is the way it is suppose to function, but I think it should be limited to the university town, but that is my opinion.  I do have master controller and I am always getting messages, that so and so is climbing up the social ladder and so and so is level whatever in a certain social group, but I guess that is the way the game is coded, not a game breaker, just not one of my favorite things about it, but on the whole, I have enjoyed playing it.

[Turoskel]

I've found it vaguely amusing the social groups townie sims seem to end up in, none seem to fit with my idea of their personality.

I've also noticed the odd teenager with a degree, ruined my plans slightly with one of them as I'd planned to move them in after they aged up and send them with my sim but they'd already got the business degree I'd planned to enroll them in.

I have slightly mixed feelings about this ep at the moment, I've not fully explored it all yet, some of that is not having time with classes to really look about and experience the university town, but I do like the look of it all, I grew up near Cambridge in England and I really like the rabbit holes they made for the class buildings, they have a nice familiarity about them.

I didn't have any of the motive problems some have mentioned, a lot of sims seem to be hungry and tired a lot of the time but nobody starved in my game, that I know off, my sim had gone to a party and the host died a couple of days later but what from I don't know, If it wasn't for the fact I had memories on because I'd been practicing the challenge I'd never have known.

From the broadcasts I expected the parties to be better, so far I've not had any absent hosts but even so the parties are really lame, nobody does anything, a bonfire party with no bonfire, a kegger party where nobody drinks, seriously I've found the elder population of Riverview to get more juiced than the uni students, I'm guessing that is another glitch but after seeing Rayna Kaminski and Flo Broke making out and then Henry McGlum leaping into Bennie Deans arms I think those guys are having far more fun than the uni lot.

[Dextra2]

From the broadcasts I expected the parties to be better, so far I've not had any absent hosts but even so the parties are really lame, nobody does anything, a bonfire party with no bonfire, a kegger party where nobody drinks, seriously I've found the elder population of Riverview to get more juiced than the uni students, I'm guessing that is another glitch but after seeing Rayna Kaminski and Flo Broke making out and then Henry McGlum leaping into Bennie Deans arms I think those guys are having far more fun than the uni lot.

*falls over laughing* The sad thing is, I can see Flo doing that.

[Alverdine]

I think the game is overall pretty interesting. I enjoy trying to get in with all of the groups, and the protest topics are hilarious!

Did anyone else notice the strange routing for Sims entering the Busche School of Science? They all run to the SIDE of the building and then turn around and run to the entrance. I wonder what's going on with that. 

Posted this in another thread about the routing, but here you go! -I fixed it by editing the lot and setting the entrance side of the building as front of the lot. Seems the short side was set as the front and so sims would automatically go there first (I'm assuming that's how it works). You can do it by going into edit town mode, entering that lot and then ctrl+shift+click near the path to the front doors and choose "set front of lot". You can also do it from live mode with "testingcheatsenabled true" on and then ctrl+shift clicking "build on this lot"

[SecretSanta]

From the University Life videos, there may be another death type, "Death by Vending Machine", although I haven't been able to do this successfully.

My sim has just died from the vending machine when she went to the meet and greet. It wasn't intentional, I got a wish to get some free candy from the machine so I shook and then shake both machines and died. I didn't even realise this could happen.

[JessieJJJ]

I have noticed something, because my sims are addicted to computer games, my family are all high ranked nerds

[blackforest0]

I've loved University so far! With my over-achiever Sim, I managed to get all 6 degrees for her. After she got the first one, the time it took to get the subsequent degrees went from a two-week, full on schedule to only a one-week full on schedule. (I make her needs static while at the university. Her fun meter tanked hard, and it took forever to get it back up. She was in such a horrible mood.)
Also, sims get a wish to complete X amount of degrees each time you go. My sim's wish for a 6th degree was worth 32,000 lifetime happiness points! That's basically a lifetime wish right there. 
I didn't really like living in the dorms though. My dorm-mates wanted to party all the time, and while it didn't affect me, it was kind of...disappointing to see them not going to sleep until 3 or so in the morning. And the amount of times my sim got the Disgusted moodlet from being near them was more than I would like. (Also, they apparently can't clean...at all. I avoided the kitchen.)
And another thing I noticed. Dorm-mates think that a clean, upgraded shower/toilet/sink/stove is just fascinating. It made me laugh every time I upgraded something because they would go look at whatever object it was and just stare at it. XD

[Korva]

I played a brief one-off test game at the university and rather enjoyed it. The rabbit hole lessons annoy me, as rabbit hole stuff always does, so during the second week I just decided to skip them and have my gals study by themselves. This worked just fine. The "interactive" lecture and the class activity were something of a letdown -- I wish there were some humorous text popups for the lecture at least.

The biggest blast I had was when I gave in to my Rebel fairy's wish to stage a protest. She looked and sounded so into it, and really got the crowd worked up too, I couldn't help but laugh. Especially when I saw her professor was among her audience.

Speaking of Rebels, the social group aspect looks fun but I didn't go too deeply into it, partly because my two test characters weren't really designed with a social group in mind. I absolutely want to try a supernerd and superrebel, though! Jocks look more bland on paper.

The three new skills look like fun, too, but I haven't worked on them much yet.

Dorm life is ... messy, if amusing. I can only recommend buying a Bonehilda ASAP if you have Supernatural, she's absolutely priceless at keeping the place liveable. Though I swear she spends more time at the juice keg than any student does! With all the hard work cleaning up, she does deserve some fun too, mind.

The job board spices things up a bit, I just need to remember to actually check it. 

One curious thing was that the same Sim (from one of the co-ed dorms) thew a party literally EVERY DAY after the first. No one else did except for one of the sorority gals on the first day. And most of the time, the host wasn't even around when the party began. I really wish the coding for NPC-hosted parties wasn't so shoddy overall.

All in all, university is an experience I think I'll give most of my Sims even though I avoid rabbit hole careers almost like the plague. The fact that a degree lets you start at a higher level and with better pay is much, much needed though. As always, I overworked my poor Sims and barely gave them time to kick back, explore town and have fun. Gotta work on being less OCD with them.

[Turoskel]

I've been to Uni a few times now, the routine is getting easier once you get more used to it and a full two week load for a degree doesn't seem so hard, the last time I sent a sim was before I had Supernatural but I found the sleep potion from the chemistry lab a great help and getting a spa package before she went was great for any stress as even when fun tanked she just kept working hard, this time I have them using vials of bliss to stay happy between classes so they can work hard.

For the first time since I got Uni I just sent a sim to the library there, mainly for skilling but once more I find there are no skill books, I don't understand why EA keep doing that, it's a library, at a university no less, a place of learning and yet you cannot learn in it 

I also found a forbidden fruit seed and got all excited till I realised I couldn't pick it up, so all in all a disappointing play so far today.

I must admit I still don't find university to be fantastic fun but it's okay, I think it will be an as needed thing in my games rather than a must do thing depending on lifetime wishes and if it will help those. Having extra traits is okay but not vital most of the time, unlike in sims 2 when I always sent them to uni for those extra wish slots, besides nerds seem to infest my games so I get extra traits that way instead 

[Shawn]

I guess I have been lurking long enough and gotten enough out of here that I should finally break down and give my thoughts. Just a quick note, totally off-topic, i like to play as close to realism as possible in this fantasy world.

I am truly enjoying playing University. My first time through, I took 18 credits and felt very frustrated about all the pigeonholing that goes on MWF, but Tuesday and Thursdays are fun as I actually do whatever I want.

I have read through this entire thread and without qouting anyone I will give some food for thought:

1. If you want to socialize and have fun...take 6 or 12 credits for 1 or 2 weeks. I did this...my alter ego didn't age a day and has a degree in Medicine and I basically did whatever the Sim wanted to do.

2.Routing issues are a problem, I have an old computer so that might be an issue, and I haven't tried out the testingcheatsenabled to try and change entrances...will try this and get back to you. Thanks Alverdine for the heads up on this.

3.Nerds have the most fun! (i.e. the easiest to level) My sim has maxed all three the old fashioned way. No LHP spent on it.

4.Dorms are horrible places to live. Rent that cheap little house across the street from the Uni and I never had problems getting to class.

5.My Sim runs everywhere...he will not use a scooter or a car but will use a bicycle.

6.You can make oodles and oodles of money while at the Uni. Between Selling yerself for the good of science, getting good grades and begging for more funds from the Financial Aid office in the adiministration, cloning, and if you don't mind, what I deem cheating, selling everything from a lot in Buy/Build mode.(Upgrading is ok )

7.You can earn your degree without ever going to class with an A average if you study a bunch and do a lot of work on the skills in the field you are in.

8.I haven't had a sim earn a full ride yet, but I believe the only way to get that is from a sim you raised as a baby and don't send him/her off to boarding school. Not sure, just a thought.

9. I had a lot of fires my first run through, which was in the dorms, but fixed that by makin' my oven fireproof, and then never ever stepping foot inside a dorm except  to visit the girlfriend.

10. The Smart Phone is so much fun but such a pain in the bum as it never shuts up, and then sometimes I get the phone ringing glitch/bug, but it does go away after an annoying amount of time.

Well, that's it for now. Can't wait for my new GF to take a trip China and start breaking meteors so I can clone Tiberium. That's Simoleans in the bank!!!

Cheers,

Shawn

[pusheen]

I was just wondering if this EP is worth buying, at first glances I wasn't all that impressed, but now, reading everyone's comments, It's making me want to go out and buy it!

[jestina]

I got this on sale and it was such a letdown. TS2 college experience was way better. Everything in TS3's Uni expansion is dumbed down and boring. In TS2 you couldn't just plop yourself down into a frat/sorority, you had to earn your way in by making a certain number of friends. TS3 didn't give us the ability to create and run our own sorority/frats like TS2 did. The secret society was left out of TS3 too I guess. Overall this ep is just very bland.

[Dellena]

Probably the best bit about University is the extra trait from getting a degree.  Although I like the kegger parties.   There's also a lot of good items in this EP.  For some, you really have to work at getting the top grade.  Your grades at the end of your degree determine what level you start your career off at.  The maximum being level 4.  I've personally enjoyed it so far.

[Snufflesxx]

I only just got University Life when I saw it cheaper in my local games shop. So far, I love it! I actually like it a lot more than I thought I would. There's a great range of new CAS items (my favourite being the Beanie Hat for the men  ) and I love the new gameplay. The whole credit/degree/general University setup is a bit confusing for me but I think I'll understand soon.

[sawadaWiz]

I love the Ul better than another EP, but the life is too short here. My sims just go to study and hardly have time to party while pursuing good GPA, but I love the party a lot. The best way to get good GPA is to befriend the professor and beg for good grade at exam, I think.