A few months later, do you think High School Years enhanced your gameplay?

I tried the follow Sims to school, but it's lacking a lot, I'm afraid. However, you can send the Sims to school without you, just as the careers from Get to Work offers. Teens can graduate early, which gives them a special Trait, and they are able to attend UNI. As for other aspects, they do make Teens more like teens. They get crushes and then get all bent (angry) if their crush waves at another person, etc. Or they get all nervous if they are in the same room as their crush. It's pretty hysterical. Also, if the boyfriend or girlfriend doesn't invite the other to the Prom, they can get pretty miffed, to the point of a festering grudge.

Not, to worry, thankfully there is a cheat that can remove it. Phew. I use MCCC and it allows for teens to become engaged. This couple, along with three of his siblings attended uni together even living in the very same dorm (it's easier allowing me to control all of them). Since, the fiancé, out of high school no longer had the ability to create a Promposal sign, and there didn't seem to be a way to have him ask his fiancée to the Prom, he was in hot-water with her. Boy, was she ever angry. Nearly derailed their relationship. The following week (yes Proms happen every Saturday), he just brought her along with him to the Prom. He was in trouble for that, too. "Why didn't you ask me if I wanted to go?" (or words to that effect). Poor kid couldn't win for losing. Made for some interesting game play, I must say.

I love the pack, but that's because I love to come with my teens to school and play their whole day. I often let them stay behind after the school day is finished the days they don't have clubs to hang out, do homework or practice skills for said clubs. The school has become the place where a lot of their social life happens, both during lunch and after school.

That being said, if you don't want to play at school with them, I don't really think the pack has much that can't be achieved with mods. I like the popups where they can go to hang out with friends, but there are mods for that. Prom's fun, but there are probably some prom mods out there that are still functional. The pier is nice, but it's only got three rides and some food stalls, so that gets old pretty quickly. The world is nice, but honestly not *that* different from other worlds we have. The fear system (I don't remember if it was a base game update, or came with the pack) is fun, but not for that price imo. I haven't really played much with Trendi, so can't say how worth it that is.

If you like the cas and build assets, maybe if you could get it cheap at a sale at some point. Teens really are the main focus of the pack though.

I think if you are not going to follow your teen at all, it's not worth full price. Maybe on sale.

I love CAS and B/B. It really helps with making my teens look the part and also giving their rooms personality.

I enjoy the teen aspirations and the new traits.

I like my teens to use social bunny. They are the only life stage I use it with in my game because it can be annoying.

Having more afterschool activities is nice. But they are mostly just a rabbit hole.

I don't follow all my teens to school. When I do it's only for a week, before they are due to age up. That's also the only time they attend prom. So it doesn't get repetitive. The new lot type is pretty cool.

The world is just okay to me. I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities with it. The pier is fun though.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the photo booth

But in general it feels like a game pack instead of an expansion. I would miss CAS and BB more than the Gameplay if I didn't have it.

"Evilyn_1007;c-18232597" wrote:
I think if you are not going to follow your teen at all, it's not worth full price. Maybe on sale.

I love CAS and B/B. It really helps with making my teens look the part and also giving their rooms personality.

I enjoy the teen aspirations and the new traits.

I like my teens to use social bunny. They are the only life stage I use it with in my game because it can be annoying.

Having more afterschool activities is nice. But they are mostly just a rabbit hole.

I don't follow all my teens to school. When I do it's only for a week, before they are due to age up. That's also the only time they attend prom. So it doesn't get repetitive. The new lot type is pretty cool.

The world is just okay to me. I feel like there was a lot of missed opportunities with it. The pier is fun though.

LOVE LOVE LOVE the photo booth

But in general it feels like a game pack instead of an expansion. I would miss CAS and BB more than the Gameplay if I didn't have it.

I would second all of this.

I don't regret buying mostly because I'm a realistic legacy player and the teen specific aspirations, BB and CAS help create a more rounded out teen experience.

But I only send my teen to school a few times a week, sometimes only once a week. The reason for this is manifold:

1) I miss out on the school projects if I send them in every day, or can't focus on other sims/active careers/etc
2)The gameplay at the school is laggy, especially if you have a robust lot and
3) You build skills by going to class, similar to working on a project. So going every day can create an OP sim, especially if you then go to University and then pile more skill points on top of that. I usually go just enough days to get 1 to 2 skill points for my Sims "lesser" skills, and I have a storyline in mind for them (maybe they are an aspiring writer) they'll go more days on the day that class is scheduled.

Without active school, Social Bunny, and the styling app/rack this is really just a great teen stuff pack. And of the three main features I just mentioned, I only use active school and even then it's only a few times a week. So even though I don't regret buying it full price, I don't know that I'd recommend that for anyone else.

I bought the High School pack for the CAS and Build/Buy items and never expected to visit the high school. But teen werewolves are hysterical to me and I have used more and more of the gameplay and world than I ever expected. Playing as a teen werewolf is quite different than playing as a young adult werewolf. Some things are easier and harder both ways. I am still figuring this all out.

I have a human teen that befriended Greg and he gave her a hug! The teen pack is my biggest surprise. Now I will just buy everything, even if I think I won't use it. This pack showed me that I don't know what I want as much as I thought I did. I didn't think I wanted infants either. Until someone said they wanted to put the baby carrier on a vampire. Someone else mentioned decorating a bowling alley for Halloween. One of my favorite things has become mixing things that seem incompatible and waiting to see what happens.

I can answer that. I don't play with teens too much.

Creating outfits and selling them is the best non-teen thing they added. There's also an entreprenuership skill which pops up all the time. That, nice too. I think you can make a lot of money with selling outfits.

You'll also have access to social bunny app on the phone, where you can chat with people. I find it a bit basic/dull after playing with it a few times.

I wouldn't pay full price for it

As someone who actually does think teens in this game need more attentention, no. This pack didn't really enhance my game all that much. Just like active careers, following my sims to school got old real fast. This was pretty much another pack that I got just for the world and build/buy stuff.

I don't feel it's worth it if you aren't interested in playing teens.
The pack is pretty much about them and might be more annoying for your adult sims obsessing over their phones.

Teens are a big point of my game play because University is a major part of my game play, and I prep my teens for Uni.
I like to go to school with them because before High School Years they spent most of their time off the lot at the high school rabbit hole and then came home to do homework and build skills, leaving only weekends and vacation days to socialize with other teens.

The school game play is a bit underwhelming since clubs are just more rabbit hole game play, the game attracts mainly generic townies to be NPC students, and the active classroom is a bit boring. I try to make the most of the time spent between classes and the few hours after school.
And I like sending them the Bobatea shop after school as it attracts other teens.

I used a mod to set sims that I play in rotation as NPC students.
That helped a lot.

"CK213;c-18232652" wrote:
I don't feel it's worth it if you aren't interested in playing teens.
The pack is pretty much about them and might be more annoying for your adult sims obsessing over their phones.

Teens are a big point of my game play because University is a major part of my game play, and I prep my teens for Uni.
I like to go to school with them because before High School Years they spent most of their time off the lot at the high school rabbit hole and then came home to do homework and build skills, leaving only weekends and vacation days to socialize with other teens.

The school game play is a bit underwhelming since clubs are just more rabbit hole game play, the game attracts mainly generic townies to be NPC students, and the active classroom is a bit boring. I try to make the most of the time spent between classes and the few hours after school.
And I like sending them the Bobatea shop after school as it attracts other teens.

I used a mod to set sims that I play in rotation as NPC students.
That helped a lot.

What is this mod you speak of? :)

I've found it a little bit of a bummer that the same students are there. The way I have got around the problem is to use MCCC controller to summon sims to the lot that I want my sim to hang with. However, they're not technically attending HS.

"nasch_katze;d-1006675" wrote:
Hello,

I haven't played Sims 4 since werewolves and wanted to get back into it. I haven't bought High School Years because I don't play with teen Sims that much and wasn't that interested in the active school days thing that is actually the big feature of the EP.
But it does come with many other features.

So, for someone who don't plan on using the active high school days feature, are there other notorious gameplay aspects that enhance the game as a whole? What are they? How do you play with them?

I actually haven’t played the high school part since Cassandra Goth got expelled. Thats was months ago. I just had other things going on and I’m in no rush to go back to high school. Any other teens get ‘send alone’.

I love the world of Copperdale. I do wish there were more lots!

I’m resting Sims 4 for a bit whilst I have a think about things.