Author Topic: University Life - First Impressions  (Read 135840 times)

Offline Pam

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University Life - First Impressions
« on: March 04, 2013, 10:08:40 PM »
What are your first impressions of this new expansion pack?
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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #1 on: March 05, 2013, 12:26:25 AM »
It is amazing! I just looked at the hair, clothing and objects and there is a lot! All the new options and best of all UNIVERSITY!!!!



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Offline thelittlepakeha

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #2 on: March 05, 2013, 12:55:15 AM »
Looking forward to seeing what people think as I'm not sure whether to get this - I didn't like University in Sims 2 for various reasons (it is NOTHING like what university is here - dorms are uncommon, there's no Greek system, I wouldn't have a clue what sports teams any of the universities here even have or what their mascots might be if they have them, etc) and mostly only played it to get the extra wish/fear boxes or open one of the post-University careers. But if it gives enough cool extra content it might be worthwhile.

Offline Orange Iguana

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #3 on: March 05, 2013, 06:36:49 AM »
I come back from the dead to give some thoughts after about 5 hours of gameplay.

The first thing I decided to do was create a sim with the perfect student LTW and send him straight to university. Two terms with max credits for maximum difficulty, I chose to put him in the dorm that had the best kitchen. As expected, the other students living there were as messy as could be and would leave stacks of microwave meals in the dining room. I only made matters worse when I decided to put the deep fryer (sim store item) in the kitchen. Buy and build mode affects the entire dorm and not the room you claim.

A degree cannot be earned in one go. You need to send your sim to university a minimum of two times to earn enough credits to graduate. However, there's no cooldown moodlet like there is with traveling so you can send your sim right back to university when he's done with a term. I focused solely on the studying and largely ignored the social groups, choosing to buy my way to the top of each social group with lifetime happiness points. It takes about 12,000 to go from zero to top but if you just want the extra trait, you only need to pop 8,000 LTW. If you want to, you could even max all three but this is really unnecessary because instead of giving you another trait, it simply lets you repick the trait you earned.

When finals came, my sim managed to pass all of his exams with flying colors. I owe it all to the slot machine (sim store item) to earn money for upgrades and using the chemistry set to churn out sleeping elixirs. Because I had chosen technology as my major, boosting logic and handiness increased my GPA. The second time I sent my sim, I opted to rent out a one bedroom home and live by myself. This went much more smoothly because I also only had to attend two classes instead of three to get enough credits for graduation. Once I had finally graduated, which completed my lifetime wish, I was surprised to find that I was allowed to pick a second new trait. Now my university graduate sim had 7 traits.

So what did my experience give me? By uploading my max GPA resume, the military and the police were practically begging for me to join them, allowing him to start at career level 4. The police department were offering me $168 an hour while the military offered $235 an hour. For the police, this is more than double what a normal sim would make at that level and for the military, almost triple. My sim on the other hand, decided to go into the game designer career. It seems a little odd that one of the metrics for this career is nerd influence because you need a maxed out nerd level to even get this job to begin with. Another metric is "playing games" which I assume means your video gaming hidden skill.

After doing all that, I decided to activate a couple of cheats. The first thing I did was get my social networking to 10, which granted my sim the ability to, quite literally, change any sim's relationship to whatever he wants. Now you can instantly go from enemy to best friend without using alchemy. I also messed with the sim finder app. What this did was allow me to apply some filters (gender, age, traits, even astrological sign if you want), and it'll send a random sim who fits the filters to your home... or a specific sim if you apply super strict filters. He then proceeded to burn death after I had my sim dare him to divide by zero, which made him catch on fire.

The last thing I did before posting this was using testingcheatsenabled to give myself 50,000 lifetime happiness points to see if the honorary degree LTR is worth it. It does pretty much what it's advertised to do, gives you a degree of your choice while letting you skip university. However, the degree you receive will be a B and you'll only be able to start at level 3 instead of 4. Whether you want that A to start at level 4 or you want to skip it for a large fee, it's up to you.


So here's a quick summary.

-Four star ranking in a social group earns you a new trait.
-Graduating from university earns you another new trait, giving your sim up to 7 traits.
-If you reach 4 star ranking with another new group, you can repick the trait you earn from that. If you get another university degree, you can repick the trait you earn from that.
-Social networking at level 10 lets you instantly set yourself and any sim you want to best friend, or if you wanted, it doesn't have to be your sim. Want to make Nick Alto and Nancy Landgraab best friends? You can do that.
-Game Designer and Art Appraiser have branches. The sports one you get from jock doesn't.
-Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are rabbit hole days. Tuesdays have you use your exclusive item repeatedly in a set area (for me, it was the technology item at the comic book store) and Thursdays are an interactive lecture for two sim hours. Finals occur on a Friday, which is simply more rabbit holes.

EDIT: A few more additions

-Three new skills, all with challenges for supermaxing. Social Networking (3 challenges), Street Art (3 challenges), Science (2 challenges).
-The Cerebralizing Brain Enhancing Machine 2.0 is almost certainly going to be dynasty banned due to it being able to reselect traits to anyone who uses it, you can't reassign the social group and university traits with it though. It's a free Mid-life Crisis!

Offline simfulicious

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #4 on: March 05, 2013, 06:45:03 AM »
Thank you for that writeup...I'm downloading right now and will be able to play after work today, so this information is very helpful.

Offline RainBeau

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #5 on: March 05, 2013, 07:01:08 AM »
Seven traits! I am literally aching with envy now! No seriously, my chest hurts. I hope Origin offers a brilliant deal really soon so I can buy UL too! I'm so academic myself, I can't wait to bury my Sims in University Life!
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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #6 on: March 05, 2013, 07:04:13 AM »
Actually, I need to take back what I said about the whole "can't complete a degree in one go" statement. When I made this statement, my sim had failed the aptitude test horribly. I believe if you manage to score high on the aptitude test, you can get the degree in one go.



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Offline RainBeau

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #7 on: March 05, 2013, 07:37:32 AM »
Juliette, that does not look legit to me. I'm not sure you should link to it on the Forum. Have you read the Forum Rules yet?
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By samoht04

Offline Cas

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #8 on: March 05, 2013, 07:47:38 AM »
Those are good prices.  I wish now that I hadn't sucumbed last night and pre-ordered from Origin.  Oh well, I supose I do at least get the few extras.

Offline Ricalynn

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #9 on: March 05, 2013, 07:49:38 AM »
Orange Iguana - Welcome back!

My understanding from talking to a Dev is that with an aptitude test you can't get more than 6 credits.  So it would still be multiple term as each of the degrees is 48 credits.

Have you been able to get more than 6 credits towards a degree?


Juliette - I removed your post because that doesn't look like a legitimate link to me and we have a strict no piracy policy.  Please reread the forum rules in my signature again.

Cas - since you replied to Juliette - you can choose to keep your comment or delete it but I removed the quote.
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Offline Orange Iguana

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #10 on: March 05, 2013, 07:55:05 AM »
Orange Iguana - Welcome back!

My understanding from talking to a Dev is that with an aptitude test you can't get more than 6 credits.  So it would still be multiple term as each of the degrees is 48 credits.

Have you been able to get more than 6 credits towards a degree?

Thank you.

Having just re-purchased the university starter kit and retaking the aptitude test, I am pleased to announce that yes you can get more than 6 credits. A perfect score of 400 out of 400 will award you 18 credits for that major. Looks like I'm sending my sim back to university for a business degree, just for the heck of it.

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #11 on: March 05, 2013, 07:56:37 AM »
Thank you.

Having just re-purchased the university starter kit and retaking the aptitude test, I am pleased to announce that yes you can get more than 6 credits. A perfect score of 400 out of 400 will award you 18 credits for that major. Looks like I'm sending my sim back to university for a business degree, just for the heck of it.

But in order to get that high on the aptitude test you had to have maxed skills plus the right traits right?
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Offline Orange Iguana

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #12 on: March 05, 2013, 08:03:38 AM »
But in order to get that high on the aptitude test you had to have maxed skills plus the right traits right?

I used the technology thingy to reselect my traits into stuff that would benefit business. The seven traits I have on him now are Workaholic (university), Lucky (social group), Charismatic, Ambitious, Perceptive, Genius, and Computer Whiz. Charismatic, Perceptive, and Genius benefits business, Computer Whiz benefits technology, Ambitious affects the actual university process, and the others I didn't really read. It only tells you when you're selecting your traits.

Using a mod to speed up skilling, my sim had maxed street art, science, handiness, logic, social networking, and writing so it's safe to assume my scores were a bit inflated so to speak. He also had cooking at level 4, guitar at level 1, and gambling at level 9 (I seriously doubt that affects anything). Handiness and logic were mostly legitimate as they were needed for my technology major but the others were maxed to see what benefits they give you. Writing was only maxed because the video game developer career needs it starting at level 8.

The traits alone probably could have gotten me a good score on business at least, but he had maxed the score for technology, fine arts, and communications. My sim didn't qualify for advance credits in physical education.

Offline MarianT

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #13 on: March 05, 2013, 08:39:41 AM »
Regarding the credits -- my sim got a 400/400 in Fine Arts for 18 credits. I can't remember exactly, but she had 3 skill points each in guitar, piano, drums, and bass, about 5 points in painting, and 1 in cooking.

I've got a question -- I haven't been able to locate the Job Board. Has anyone found it yet?

I'm really enjoying this.
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Offline Orange Iguana

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Re: University Life - First Impressions
« Reply #14 on: March 05, 2013, 08:41:13 AM »
The job board was right outside the dormitory my sim stayed at for his technology major. Maybe the other two dormitories have them too?

 

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