#miss sims universe

[fifiarx]

Miss Sims Colombia! Lucia Salgado

[plumbogs]

Making Sims 2 University Fun: my personal guide

I've noticed that while it's probably one of the most utilized of the expansions, TS2's university is generally seen as a slog. Which makes sense. It has a completely different gameplay loop than the rest of the game. But it's very handy to send your sims to college, especially if you use any of the various mods that limit careers based on education. So here's my big guide to making university an actual fun experience to play through (to me, at least).

The university expansion is, uh, very tailored to the 2000s college party time animal-house tropes. the pack becomes more fun when you treat it that way and let your sims be stupid young adults who streak and fool around on campus and throw parties. which, by default, is tricky because of the gameplay that requires so much skill building and assignments. which the rest of this guide will also deal with.

Note: I make some pretty big changes to normal university gameplay, to the point that it does require a bit of modding and at least one instance of fooling with simpe. there's probably also easier ways to do it, and of course everything is optional. maybe you do like keeping sims in dorms for the entire time and just three-speeding trough it all.

*mods: there are a few absolute must-have mods to me.:

TwoJeff's College Adjuster. It's basically an all-in-one controller to adjust semester timing, change semesters, plus a bunch of other features. The semester timing is the most important to me.

Active Classes is still in testing, but it almost completely changes how I play college sims. Once again, I'll detail gameplay later, but actually sending your sims to class makes for a much more fun campus experience.

No College Time Progression On Community Lots: this goes hand-in-hand with the previous mod.

Community Time: IIRC you have to do a little editing in SimPE to make it work right with University - this post explains what to edit. I don't know if I'm allowed to share the exact edit I made as a download. This might seem redundant after the last mod, but there's a reason for the madness: while one group of sims are in their active classes, the other students can do things on the home lot.

Instant Pledge for Greek Houses: This one is important for greek house gameplay, which is later.

SimBlender: There's like, 500 different edits of the SimBlender, and I think all of them have the main function needed for my college gameplay, which is teleportation. You can use a comparable teleporter if you fancy.

Simlogical's University Break is another important one for me, but it's not really necessary if you don't want it. I usually give the sims one break day per season - more on that later.

Autonomous Casual Romance is not required, but it sure adds a lot of fun to your college experience. You can also do any number of professor-limiting, custom degrees, etc mods and fixes you want.

*mods i do not use: there are mods to change the number of/length of semesters, but I seem to run into issues with them so I use the college adjuster to do the same things. I also don't really use any major overhauls, or mods that make term papers faster. I did have the tuition mod for a bit but grew tired of using it.

*general timing changes: I do seven-day seasons with longer lifespans for all sims and play rotations each day. These are the things I do specifically for university:

Four semesters: I only do semesters 2, 4, 6, and 8. Every time a new semester starts, I just use the College Adjuster to set the correct semester for each sim. I use the default length of 72 hours.

Synchronized finals: I use the College adjuster to reset the timer so the finals are all around 6-8am, and synchronized for each sim on a lot. This makes it easier to keep track of timing and skills. Also, all sims in university run on the same 3-day semester. Finals are the same day for the entire college each round. Once again, that just makes it easier for me to keep track of college-wide events for gameplay reasons.

Because this means there's 3 days per school year, and two school years per season week, it syncs better if they get a day off every Sunday using the University break mod.

Teens are sent to college on the same schedule. I send teens to school when they have 14 days or so left, with maybe an extra day or two if the college is currently in the middle of the semester.

*Gameplay: living situations: Here's where the meat begins. Now all your sims are on the same college schedule, they're all being sent to school, and now they need to actually move into college. I follow a real rule a number of colleges use: Every student spends a year in the dorms. Just their freshman year, then they have to move somewhere else. I find that this gives them a chance to meet dormies, adapt to being on college, and sorta figure out what kind of young adults they are. Plus, this gives them time for joining greek houses, which will be talked about later.

I do this because I like seeing sims as their own little characters with arcs and whatever and it forces me to think about what exactly they would be doing in college. Some sims get so frustrated with the constant mess of a dorm, some sims thrive by making friends with every dormie. Sometimes they start new drama with the others they came from high school with. Nothing quite like losing your high school sweetheart to some stinky dormie, after all.

After freshmen year, the students are kicked out of the dorms. They can get an apartment, they can rent a house, they can move into a greek house if they join one. Either way, they need to live somewhere. You can let them stay in the dorms, but I prefer somewhat smaller college households and divide them accordingly. Which gets into that whole greek house situation:

*Gameplay: greek houses. I gamify the Greek houses. I play SSU in my megahood, which comes with a fraternity and sorority, and you can do whatever setup you like there if you dislike gendered houses. Or abandon them all together and ignore this section. There are a few important elements:

Freshmen cannot live in Greek houses. They can, however, pledge while living in the dorms and move in right after their finals end. This includes dormies. There are benefits to the dorm, such as free housing, more social opportunities, usually more money per household since I cheat to make the greek houses actually nice to live in with things like pools and comfortable furniture, etc.

The Greeks have to be recruiting consistently. To keep the house going, they need to constantly be bringing in new members, either playable OR dormies.

Any recruited dormies are required to move in. You can townify them after graduation if you don't really get attached to them, but every member of the house is moved in. I use the instant pledge mod to get rid of that annoying requirement where they have to hang out on the lot so long before moving in. That, and they also move in after finals. You can teleport or invite them on and just ask them to move in. Whatever you want. Then, you must set them to be sophomores. Beyond that you can do whatever. They're playable now. Have fun.

You gotta let the Greeks party. Throw toga parties all the time and use a teleporter to maximize guests. Generally, ALL members of ALL greek houses are teleported to a party by default. Add more dormies, any friends, anybody in the dorms - the kids need to recruit and the easiest way is by forcing everyone on one lot. If you have autonomy mods or realistic alcohol, sit back and watch the madness unfold.

I don't really play wants-based, so playables that join greek houses is more based on vibes or friendship with existing greek members than wants.

*Gameplay: what do you mean we have to study??? Yeah. I made it this far before even bringing up the whole point of college. This is also where it gets a little more complicated and changed up, so bear with me.

I don't do wants-based, again, so I generally just try to make sure sims are at least passing by default. Whether they go beyond a C is up to whatever. I usually try to get knowledge sims to their 4.0s or sims that just seem like they'd take it seriously to max GPA.

ACTIVE CLASSES ARE SUCH A LIFESAVER. You can use the pre-made lecture hall or make your own. Put some skill-building objects in there, and if you like flavor theme the lecture halls around majors. I have a business/gen ed building, a science lot, and an arts lot, each with two classrooms (plus the library contains a classroom). I do believe I made an edit to the mod to make the class performance go higher with active classes, as well, so attending class every day is the bare minimum to get a passing grade.

The active class lots also contain career reward skill-building objects. These are nice because your sims can request to be taught by other sims on the lot. If you have a mod that allows non-students to visit uni lots, this helps even more with faster skill-building.

Every day, I send groups of sims with similar majors to their class. If there's a mixed-major group, each sim group gets one day in active class per semester. (So if there's an economics major, a bio major, and an art major, each one attends class on a separate rotation and the others do the normal autonomous go-to-class where they leave the lot and disappear). They attend one or both of the lectures and otherwise exist on the college lot to skill-build, socialize, eat, etc.

Outside of class, sims will usually research if they're not doing great. I honestly barely bother with assignments or term papers unless the sim actually wants to do them or are aiming for a high GPA. Maybe they go hang out at the lounge or downtown to fool around. Maybe they just fester at home. Whatever they want.

*other gameplay/storytelling things: I usually will take advantage of the aspiration change after their sophomore year if I realize that their aspiration just doesn't really jive with how they act. It's realistic to me. They had many years since being like, 13 when they first had their aspiration selected. I'd like to implement more in the way of holidays/events, personally, but that's not really relevant either. I usually give them an outfit change as well, and I like to go hard with the idea that they're going through a bunch of weird fashion phases. You know you want to give them a mohawk, just for a few days, don't you? Dye their hair red? Shave it all off? Have fun with it.

All of these things combine for me, at least, to make the college years a lot more engaging/interesting and less of a slow "move to a dorm -> study -> read books -> meet needs -> graduate" loop. There's a lot more storyline development that comes from sims being able to enjoy their time as young adults, too, such as the regular polycule jealousy explosions and party fights. It serves to break up anything they had going on as teens and give them a little direction to enter adulthood with. This concludes my little mini-guide, feel free to steal all my gameplay style or just take inspiration if you please. Or ignore it all and shake your head and call me an idiot. do whatever you want forever.

[miss-may-i]

The third (AND FINAL) part of my University Life let's play is now LIVE. This may be the end of Richie in university, but this is not the end of his story. Stick around for my future Generations let's play!

[whathasangramainyudonewrong]

Wrong #871

Nearly took his freaking eye out

He has to wear an eyepatch for a bit now, and of course with the number of pirates here, he’s not getting a proper medical one

He seems far too pleased with himself given circumstances

[cakepoppresent]

Fun Fact!! Veronica was diagnosed with insomnia. She's been dealing with it since high school

[ofmdee]

81 pics in my part 30 folder, 38 made it into the chapter itself 😂

i might cut down the sexy stuff, idk, the chapter is 7.2k words before editing lmfao, and when i edit i usually add more to each scene

but also who is gonna complain about a longer sex scene? 😂

much 2 ponder

gonna try to get this edited over the weekend!!! 😤

catch up before the next chapter drops~!

[lime1991]

List of sims 2 premades who are people of color

(university, dead, and binned sims not listed. If I missed anyone else, let me know!)

Strangetown

Circe Beaker - 1/2 Greek, 1/4 Black 1/4 White

Nervous Subject - African Ancestry (Black)

Curious Brothers - 1/2 Black, 1/4 Not White 1/4 White

Jenny Smith - 1/2 Black, 1/4 Not White 1/4 White

Jill Smith - 1/2 Alien, 1/4 Black 1/8 Not White 1/8 White

(Note: In real life, Jill wouldn’t be considered a poc but because she looks exactly like Jenny, who should look black, she should also look black. Also Not White is my go-to when I can’t tell the intention behind their grandparents’ designs. Some read Kitty Curious as wasian or half native, I personally see her as half white and half black.)

Lola & Chloe Singles - Aliens with a black father

Olive Specter - African (Maiden name is Swahili)

Ophelia Nigmos - African Ancestry (Black)

(Note: When I say “African Ancestry” I mean there’s a degree of separation between the sim and the place their ancestors are from, Ophelia and Nervous are both black and have direct ties to specific places in Africa. I just mean that they themselves did not come from Africa and nor did their parents.)

Pleasantview

Daniel Pleasant - 1/2 Black, 1/2 Not White

Mary-Sue Pleasant - Fully Asian, Adopted

Angela & Lilith - 1/2 Asian, 1/4 Black 1/4 Not White

Bella Goth - 1/2 Black, 1/4 Hispanic 1/4 Not White

Cassandra Goth - 1/2 White, 1/4 Black 2/8 Other

(Note: Cassandra looks more like Bella, which is why she’s on the list. In real life, people would not consider her a person of color if she had lighter skin.)

Dina & Nina Caliente - 1/2 Hispanic, 1/2 Egyptian Arab

Don Lothario - Spicy White (Italian) (felt worth mentioning)

Dreamer Family - Black (obviously)

Brandi Broke - White, but with Not White ancestry

Veronaville

Monty Family - Confusing

Oberon Summerdream - Black

Bottom Summerdream - Black

Titania Summerdream - 1/2 Asian, 1/2 White

Belladonna Cove

Benjamin Baldwin - 1/2 Black, 1/2 Arab

Isabel Baldwin - Black, possibly something else too

Sofia & Marcus Baldwin - Black

Carlos Contender - Black

Vivian Cho - Mixed Ancestry Asian

Etsu Cho - Mixed Ancestry Asian

Timothy Riley - 1/2 Irish, 1/2 Indian

Sally Riley - Mostly white, 1/4 Indian 1/4 Native

Chastity Gere - 1/2 Black, 1/2 White

Gabriel Green - Hispanic

Jessica Peterson - White but maybe Not White

Patel Family - Indian (duh)

Geoff Rutherford - White but 1/4 Black

Connor Weir - 1/2 Black, 1/2 White

Desiderata Valley

Una-Aspir Families - Russian? Mongolian, maybe?

Bell-Wirth Family - Black

Edward Contrary - Black-ish

Opal Contrary - Asian

Rick Contrary - Blasian-ish

Marcel Jocque - White but 1/4 Black and tan skin

Violet Jocque - White but 1/8 Black with tan skin

(Note: I’m only mentioning them bc they have non-white ancestry and it shows.)

John Mole - 1/2 Asian, 1/4 Black 1/4 White

Riverblossom Hills

Jason Greenman - White but 1/4 Black

Gabe O’Mackey - White but 1/4 Black and tan

Morty Roth - Black(?)

(Note: His father is black with an afro and his mother has cornrows which imply she’s black but neither grandparents look black? His mom’s dad might be? His dad’s dad is named Tyronne which is a stereotypically black name? I don’t know man.)

Sandra & Xander Roth - Questionably 1/2 Black

Patrica Wan - 1/2 Chinese, 1/2 Japanese

Cleo Shikibu - 1/2 Japanese, 1/2 White

Andrew & Jacob Martin - Hispanic

[theslowpath]

Everyone stfu and look at my best friends

[hazelpuff]

So I took a break from posting here since May due to the fact that -again - I had a problem making my Cudlow hood playable (whenever I entered the hood I got pink flashig). So I guess I would had to restart most of it AGAIN. I tried various solutions and nothing worked so propably next time I have to include even less cc, especially when it comes to decorating hood. Till now I don't really know how to do that while being happy with how my custom hood would turn out. I just wanted to play so I moved to TS4 for a while, since I didn't focus on every aspect of my gameplay and just created some sims (I just go to TS4 whenever I'm burned out on TS2 - mainly performence-wise). I played it for about 2 months and now I'm back to playing Sims 2, but taking it easy for a time being. I downloaded a mystery/drama-filled custom hood Jeans Shaker Oasis by Sokisims. It's packed with a lot of sims. It's really a well-made hood, I'm just starting playing it but I wanted to recommand it since I want to post some random pics of my gameplay from time to time here :D. As as I can see, it's still getting some updates but I think it's good to go when it comes to playability.

I want to go back to Cudlow (I spend too much time on sims/build-making to let it all go to waste), but for now I just want to enjoy Sims 2 again and be somewhat active on Tumblr ^^.

[cecexoxo]

The Iceberg Lounge!

So much ice

restaurant

apartment for Jason

jail cell behind the fish tank in the office for Penguin

"Iceberg Lounge" on the gallery username @/SyrsaSissa

[aheathen-conceivably]

Just a modern Zelda appreciation post, because I’ve never known a sim to look so lost and dreamy at the same time. Even when she’s happy it looks like she’s thinking about how the sunflowers can’t bloom forever, or how the trees will never touch the sky, and she’s somehow both peaceful and melancholy at the same time🌻

[fifiarx]

Lucia Salgado, Miss Sims Colombia, wins Miss Sims Universe

Plus a little after-party

[introvertedfox]

Grades for the last semester are in! A+ to no one's surprise. xD

[diwns]

[sieglinde-freud]

i miss the fates cast so bad i just dont have the brain power to PLAY fates… i need a spinoff where its like. idk. elise opens a bakery in the nohrian underground area and u can hire the cast to manage different areas. wouldnt that be cute. do not put niles in any position to interact with the customers

[melien]