Advice on High School Pack Please

@s_stutler - The height differences mod sounds good for you. I play vanilla and am currently only worrying about the families I play while they're in HS (unless someone amazing comes along for one of them, who I will move into played households). I have older and younger siblings and so can dress them according to their ages, so could at least have a couple different HS age groups in different-colored letter jackets and try to keep them together.

"CAPTAIN_NXR7;c-18208811" wrote:
Please do let us know by next year. You’ve got roughly 3.5 weeks to decide.

Arrrgh! The pressure, the pressure!

I couldn't take the pressure anymore, it was leading to sleepless nights and pacing my room during the day... I submitted and bought it. AND updated my game...

If it completely ruins my game, I'm holding you personally responsible. I will be sailing over to the lovely Ireland in my chunkiest boots to kick your wonky strawberries. Now, if you could just message me your full address, including postcode...

"elanorbreton;c-18209011" wrote:

"CAPTAIN_NXR7;c-18208811" wrote:
Please do let us know by next year. You’ve got roughly 3.5 weeks to decide.

Arrrgh! The pressure, the pressure!

I couldn't take the pressure anymore, it was leading to sleepless nights and pacing my room during the day... I submitted and bought it. AND updated my game...

If it completely ruins my game, I'm holding you personally responsible. I will be sailing over to the lovely Ireland in my chunkiest boots to kick your wonky strawberries. Now, if you could just message me your full address, including postcode...

Wonderful! Wonderful!
Look, I never meant to put you under this much stress, but I’m glad you’ve come to a decision. Was it a wise decision? I do not know. I do not know. Only time can tell. So YES, I take full responsibility, but please keep my wonky strawberries out of it. They’ve been exceptionally brave this year. They’ve grown so much already, it would be extremely sad to see them turn into conserve, or worse, jam - prematurely. If that happens, I will never be the same person.

You can find instructions on how to find me under the spoiler tab below. It won't be easy, but it will be worth it.
Do bring friends, and more importantly, gifts <3 .

First, you must travel to the following location: 53° 35' 51.9" N, 6° 00' 16.7" W . Make sure to be there at sunrise. Starting from there, sail 7 times around the island of Ireland, CLOCKWISE. Return to the exact same spot and take a lunch break.

Sail 7 times around the island of Ireland COUNTER CLOCKWISE . Return to starting point and take a break to grab a bite. No dawdling now, you'd want keep the momentum going.

Sail west by taking the fastest route to this location: 54°04'01.1"N 10°19'12.9"W. You will find a solar powered light house sitting on a black rock. It's painted white, you can't miss it. Go in and climb up. There will be hot scones and tea waiting for you. Enjoy the view for 7 years until you hear 7 knocks on the light house door during a full blood moon. Tell whoever is outside to enter.

You will meet one of my 7 Great Great Grandfathers. He will tell you where to go next. If it’s Great Great Grandpa Toothless you may have to wait for another 7 years. Great Great Grandpa Toothless might seem a bit useless for he doesn't speak, although he's a high skilled fiddle player and he's sure to keep you entertained with his music while you wait. For 7 years. Not so useless after all!

My other Great Great Grandfathers are all Captains, some sailors & brave aeronauts, most of them Other World explorers, every single one of them extremely handsome. One of them will tell you where I live, although by that time you may have forgotten why you needed to see me.

I haven't played every single feature yet, but all I can say is, if you download a HS from the Gallery make sure it doesn't have any clay mold toys on the lot. I did this and my sim got up twice during the exam to go play with it so I had to remove them all mid-gameplay to get her to stop :D In all honesty- this pack needs a refresh haha. I know it just came out, but it lacks so many things. So so many missed opportunities.

Many thanks to all those who chipped in with advice and mod details <3

I played a little test out of the high school today! Here is my test sim arriving at the school (modelled on my rl high school):
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/7x8ci50cjiwk7m5/12-12-22_2-24-29%C2%A0PM.png?dl=0

It was a little alarming that sims kept half disappearing into the lockers lol.
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/wa65zxtf8n3s1e3/12-12-22_2-33-17%C2%A0PM.png?dl=0

I tested out the Fashion Authority mod to give them uniforms. For some reason, one sim did not wear a uniform, but that was also a random sim I did not select to attend the high school through the Choose Your Classmates mod. No idea who she was.
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/13m4z6v65w06vlw/12-12-22_2-45-52%C2%A0PM.png?dl=0
I don't think I will bother with school uniform, I much prefer to see lots of colourful outfits. I have now added in a mod for more students (9 per class), so my classes should be full in future. I wish I could get the one by nexus, but I cannot register at the site as I never get a code come to my email address :'(

I'm not sure how much I will bother attending high school, it seems pretty boring. I was pleased that they at least took notes during class (sometimes) but it's about as exciting as I always thought a school pack would be (ie. it does beat watching paint dry, but not by much). But, never mind, I do like all the stuff that came in the pack and the new world, which is really what I ended up buying it for anyway. Armed with all the anti-annoyance mods I shall hopefully be able to continue with my usual rotational gameplay.

"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 use the the No Fear All mod. That ended the aggravation of having even my Sims' father freaking out because of a thunderstorm. Or the fear of not fulfilling wants. I use the Wants now, just as I did the Whims, when the occasion pops up to fulfill them. This allows me to continue playing the game the way I did before the Wants/Fears system dropped on us.

Pack wise I have not had any major issues but I stopped playing in the school and the school events. There was an issue with the update where CC beds were not placeable from build mode. The only way to fix is to redownload, this will only work if the CC creator fixed the bed on their part.

I haven’t really had a lot of problems with the pack.

I haven't had any issues, but I usually don't.

@logion thank you for saying who has made the mods you use, this is very helpful for me to know where to look.

Does anyone know if there is a mod to stop the best friend requests?

If you deactivate the social media app, does that stop it across the game for all households?

Is there a mod to choose prom day instead of it being every week? If not, does it stop you having events on the same day as prom?