Advice on High School Pack Please

I only bought the pack around Black Friday, and there are a lot of features that are either broken or buggy.

-Grades will not go up or down while they are in school. You have to send them to school alone for their grades to go up to a full A, B, C, D or F level.

-Grades are just glitchy in general. My "bad" sim kept skipping class and pulling pranks, and yet he was still getting good marks.

-The social media app is fun, but your sims will just message themselves for some odd reason.
The amount of notifications for it is a bit annoying too, so feel free to deactivate it.

-Certain Wants for skipping class don't go through for some reason.

-Prom is way too short, and it's hard to complete all of the goals in time.

-Sims will just randomly leave class to go talk to themselves in the mirror or eat.

-Fears are repetitive and too frequent. There are too many Wants for listening to music stations on the radio.

-The Loyal trait is buggy.

-The infamous mean bug. Sims without the mean or evil trait will be randomly unkind to other sims.

-Too many sims asking to be your best friend. If you reject them, you get a bad sentiment with them.

I'm sure other people have more to add. The pack is OK, but the pack and the update have made the game a bit too buggy for me.

I haven't looked for any mods yet, since I'm hoping the December update fixes some of these issues.

I have pretty much a mod for every bug what is not fixed regarding HSY.
Im not talking of general bugs now, only related to pack.

I never had the "Sims will just randomly leave class to go talk to themselves in the mirror or eat." bug above, no mod for it either. My sims stay seated till class ends and eat at lunch-hour or after school from vending machines. Exams are different, then my sims have got up sometimes too early.

my mods are
-for more students in school (18)
- for game to pick more likely player made teens to spawn in school than premades. ( I know there is a mod to select your school buddies, but I dont want to micromanage that much)
- longer proms
Bug fix mods:
- few tiny fixes for bugs I have not seen, but took the mods anyway, lol , not remembering now what.
- fix for the grades not rising if in active school all the time.
- no situation clothing (not actual bug, but....)


School will become boring if using default one, and just doing the school stuff.
I have add lots of objects in my own school, teens have so much to do there , often I dont have time to do all.

It was not so my thing before it was released, still is not. but I do like the world, and TOTALLY love cas/build/buy.

I used some mods for some bugs and bad/weird game design.

• When teens are doing the exam there is a bug where they just get up and leave, LittleMsSam have added a mod to fix that.
  
  
• Sims that visit the Thrift Store are wearing situational clothing that looks absolutely awful. NateTheL0ser have a mod which removes that.
  
• The Thrift Store will send a notification every day that they have updated their available clothes. Why you get it everyday I have absolutely no idea. Enkidu has a mod which removes that.
  
• Teens for some reason are most of the week wearing situational clothes in high school, not their everyday clothes. NateTheL0ser have a mod which removes that.
  

Other things that can be good to know:

• If you get expelled and then enroll again, users have said that you often get expelled right again.
  
• Teens can get an option to graduate early, but users have said that often messes things up when they want to find a job or go to university, it's often better to just graduate normally.
  
• Prom happens every week.
  
• Without mods, you can't choose which teens that will follow you to high school.
  
• Since you mentioned that you haven't updated before HSY, Maxis have added Wants and Fears and they are very repetitive and can't be disabled because of a bug, you have to disable them with mods.
  
• Maxis also caused another bug which are causing sims to be mean constantly to each other, this doesn't happen to all people (it seems to be related to Snowy Escape, if you have that pack then you probably will be fine), they have said that this will be fixed in December.
  

Here is the current list of open bugs in High School Years, from
https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/READ-FIRST-Compiled-list-of-reported-Issues/m-p/11673025#M223852


Teens randomly stop taking exams (Varasek)
Uninvited Sims entering homes to ask to be best friends (Sixpence2)
Facial and Body hair don't grow according to settings (pjmonster16)
Sims come home from after school activity when on another lot (leeb626)
Sims can't ride together (wades_wiilson)
Can’t follow teen sims to highschool (BreeJean97)
Cannot Claim a Locker (GothamSimmer)
Randomly Expelled/Teen gets expelled from daily (momomelissa)
Sim is stuck on C student despite acing all exams (DopeySims)
Teens don't attend class/White Board shows Career (Sninja96)
Clean Whiteboard not available in interactions (Wndblwz)
No option to sneak out on ground/ask permission (JaffaYogini)
NPC relationship questions targets active Sim instead of intended (forensicgeek)
NPCs ask other Sims regardless of age/rel status to become GF/BF/BFF (PositivelySIMful)
Relatives ask to marry (digitalblush)
Cannot take photo with others at Photo booth on Plumbite Pier (ranmafan)
Teens don't loose acne when aging up to YA/No way to cure (brigidnouveau)
Selfies and Take picture with not centring properly (Roseadoodle)
Cannot plan goaled events on Fridays and Saturdays with teen in household (cosumeu)
Can't 'Dance With Someone' at Prom / Can't achieve 'Gold' Event Rating (BlackHotChocol8)
High School Prom not taking place (myeolchi)
Never invited to parties (RealEstate0fMind)
Prom not appearing in calendar/Prom works anyways (redglasses004)
Romantic Relationships with all Sims/ Disregards sexual orientation (Nightside-Rush)
Graduation Not Showing on Calendar - Prom Works (jadbart)
No Judge in Chess Science/Sports Fair (Lumiasta)
Adult posting on social bunny about teen related events (s65j2f5xgtu9)
Sims sending DMs to themselves on Social Bunny (Henalexandre)
Social Bunny app stays on x minutes (kneeshlowe99)
Social Bunny No Followers/Not increasing (juicylucy73)
Social bunny won't let me add contacts (r4lnjdzsfjpd)
Still Yellow Dot on Social Bunny Notifications are turned off (crinrict)
NPCs order from Thriftea and then immediately leave (N0T_RiS)
Can't Sell on Trendi (armp10)
Can't Wear Trendi Outfits From Inventory (blushymae)
No Fashion Choice/ Outfit type filters for Trendi Outfits (crinrict)
Video game streamer career: Unable to livestream unreleased game (JaffaYogini)

I’m using mods to give me control over things that the game didn’t give me (adding more students, cafeteria worker, choosing the students that will show up at school). I stopped doing things that are glitchy or boring ( prom, graduation, career day). I ignore or remove things I find very annoying (social bunny, thrift store). There isn’t much in the pack to recommend.

I don't have a problem with High School Pack because I only play Vanilla. ;)

I’m patched up all the way. I even own HSY ‘cause shaving, however, the lads don’t seem to be able to grow back their beards, so we sort of have to “shave” them back on again. "We" as in me and the lads. Then there’s the other end of the bodyhair spectrum, the one where the ladies have this awesome ability to grow magnificent quilts of fur all over their wondersome bodies. I confess, encountering any of these ferocious females startles me at times. But sure look, I’m not here to judge and I did ask for werebeasts.

As for other bugs, I don’t know. I play very little these days…

I explored the high school feature for a bit a while back, but sadly it all turned out to be such an absolute yawnathon, I quit following teens to high school ever since.
Let’s face it kid, I am not your father, do whatever ye want.

The thrift store…hmm…the thrift store is something I keep getting notifications for but I haven’t engaged with any of that Blobba Stuff yet. Not interested. Don’t even know what the bubbla tea tastes like. Captain needs more action and less bubbly fashion.

One might wonder: why did I even get the pack? Shaving and Copperale and the BB & CAS items of course! Pity that’s all there’s to it for me. Let's call it a rather expensive kit, but I'm having kinda fun nonetheless.
I wish we could Try for Spooky Babes whilst having a blast on the Spooky Ride.

Not much of a fan of the wants and fears either. There’s somethin buggy going on with them too. Sims are obsessed with being scared to death about dyin' and we can’t seem to switch off that nonsense. They should be happy to be alive in my game!

Now, the only thing that truly sets me off - in fact, it drives me up multiple walls at multiple heights- is the idle phone situation. I ? it. I have very few mods to begin with and the only fix mod I’ve got installed is one for that idle phone ordeal.
Other than that I don’t have any problems, but as I said, I'm not in game that much.

You know what, I just realized that none of this was very helpful. :D
Looks like others have plenty more useful info to share!

My Sims were never able to graduate upon aging up to YA. Instead, despite his straight A status, he was deemed a Drop Out! I tried this twice. Then I decided to allow his younger Teen sister to graduate early and that worked great. She got the graduated early Trait and her diploma. I then allowed my Sims' next younger Teen brother to do the same Again successful. Then I allowed my Sim to do the same. He and his siblings plus his girlfriend/fiancée went to Uni together. Lived in the dorm together and graduated after three Terms. These kids are overachievers, me thinks.

** I bought this expansion on the Black Friday sale, and have been playing with it, in a new save file, off and on since.

Previously, I was playing offline with game version 1.89 (and was very happy with things the way they were) - Like you, I did not want to patch, due to the amount of bugs being reported from the patch, and held off for that reason.

--I can confirm, without Mods, that my game now has many of the bugs mentioned by others, including the Mean Bug, (which I have since patched, with BossLadyTV's Mod, because my game was completely unplayable after the patch) (Find it on Curseforge)
--I also have the glitch where the Need bars are not functioning correctly. They are going up and down, but the colors are not accurate. (For instance, a full yellow bar? o.0) - that stays yellow..
--I also have the glitch with the high school students grades not going up, despite doing class work, attending classes, taking notes, and doing homework. .

---> These things are all minor, and I have MCC installed, so I can easily cheat these things up, plus the Sims Team announced plans to address them in the upcoming patch. <---

I wanted to share tho, that NONE of these things annoy me as much as what I deem to be a GAME FEATURE. I have Seasons and High School Years. That doesn't even matter anymore, since the Calendar is now base game. With the Calendar System, Holidays and Events can be scheduled, and the player could make their own calendar, changing and canceling and rescheduling and moving things to their desire. For the life of me, I CANNOT understand, why the Sims team made Football night, Cheer Night, and Career Day, festivals that CANNOT be canceled, changed, or scheduled by the player. I play my game with aging off, with each lifestage sometimes lasting a whole Sim year (or longer depending on the lifestage) I like to schedule Summers off, school holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, vacations, etc. Yet, this expansion pack COMPLETELY takes away my ability to do this. Again, I do not see this as an "oversight" I feel the Sims team thought this was actually a good idea. There is a Prom, every single weekend. (Though, if I'm being honest, you're not required to attend, so you can just attend when you want to) - BUT... the Football and Cheer festivals, cannot be changed, removed, or scheduled by you at all. Career Day is in the middle of the Summer! (Kind of puts a complete damper on my Teen's Summer Vacation plans) Especially since I have the Summer Camp Mod, by adeepindigo, and for some of the Summer, my Teens won't even be home.


....If I'm being honest, I would NOT have bought this pack, had I known these things. I guess I just assumed, that we would be able to schedule our own events, and that Prom, Career Day, Foot ball and Cheer rallies would be events that we could schedule when we wanted, like we always have been able to do, and never looked into it before buying. I REGRET buying this pack, even though I got it at a discount. I also hate how the game doesn't recognize the age of your Sim in High School. They do not start out as Freshmen. They do not have any rank or claims to how long they have been there at all, or anything to show you how long they have left. I think this WAS an oversight for sure on their part, and a missed opportunity. As I play with each life stage for so long, Its getting difficult to keep track of how long each student has been in school without a feature like this. It also makes the High School experience mundane and tiring and routine, as I cannot see what I am working toward. I am hoping, that the Mod Community will be able to address these things in the future, as this Expansion is not eligible for the Great Game Guarantee Offer, which is a shame, as I would definitely claim it (and it would be the first time (ever) that I would claim it under a Sim title.

I'm not telling you to not buy it. I'm just letting you know what you can and cannot do with this pack, so you do not also end up disappointed like I am. IF any of these things are actual "bugs" with the patch, someone please let me know, so I can "me too" on the Bug Forum and we can get them fixed ASAP. Thanks for reading.

"elanorbreton;c-18207801" wrote:
Thanks everyone for all your input. I think it is the 'bad design' issues that worry me the most.

I am not particularly interested in following sims to high school and would purchase the pack mainly for the world, BB, CAS etc. but it sounds as though there are too many things which would impact my general play, such as the calendar rubbish ( @s_stutler )

@CAPTAIN_NXR7 what is the idle phone thing and which mod do you use? Do you find your game impacted apart from that, since you do not really play the high school aspect?

I have looked around and found the following mods, so if anyone knows of any more useful ones not listed above or below please post!

No constant phone by lazarusinashes
Stop Change Phone Color Obsession by LittleMsSam
High School Spawn Fix by Zerbu
Form Groups at School by MissyHissy
Dress Normal at Thrift Store by NateTheL0ser
Choose High School Classmates by Rex
Fashion Authority by Lot51
School tweaks by ChippedSim
No more fears by TearsofTyr

I have these in addition to the ones by Zerbu and Rex that you listed above:

Makarra - Stop T-posing please! Because it pissed me off that they made a joke out of a bug and it triggered me every time I saw the students doing it.

ksuihun - More Students and Second Cafeteria worker

Natetheloser - No HS Situation Clothes so my students would wear what I want them to wear. And Thrift Store Dress Normal so my sims won't change into insane outfits when visiting the thrift store and then wear those outfits ALL THE TIME.

I think that's it.