High school years

I really like the pack, though there’s still a lot of it I haven’t explored thoroughly. Your questions have made me realise how much I don’t know as I can’t answer at all for most of them and I’m not sure about the rest. All I can say is that for me it’s given a lot more depth to teens and made their life stage a whole lot more interesting. I like the way it gives opportunities for teens to meet other teens and to hang out together. Copperdale is beautiful too.

With regard to Social Bunny popups, I only get an occasional one telling me that a lot of things have happened there lately. Those don’t bother me. Most of my sims don’t use it, mainly only my teens. But a lot more annoying are the regular popups for ThriftTea and for the after-school activities (though I can’t remember how often they appear). I’m not sure why we have to keep being told about these, like with the Henford fairs and Mt Komorebi festivals.

"FreddyFox1234;c-18321409" wrote:
I really like the pack, though there’s still a lot of it I haven’t explored thoroughly. Your questions have made me realise how much I don’t know as I can’t answer at all for most of them and I’m not sure about the rest. All I can say is that for me it’s given a lot more depth to teens and made their life stage a whole lot more interesting. I like the way it gives opportunities for teens to meet other teens and to hang out together. Copperdale is beautiful too.

With regard to Social Bunny popups, I only get an occasional one telling me that a lot of things have happened there lately. Those don’t bother me. Most of my sims don’t use it, mainly only my teens. But a lot more annoying are the regular popups for ThriftTea and for the after-school activities (though I can’t remember how often they appear). I’m not sure why we have to keep being told about these, like with the Henford fairs and Mt Komorebi festivals.

Thanks! Yes, it feels a bit weird to get notified of a festival in Mt Komorebi (Japan) if you play a family in Henford-on-Bagley (England). I would much prefer those events to list in the calendar, that should be enough. Popups for a festival taking place in the world that I'm currently playing, would be fine though.

Re teens, do you feel their life stage is improved also when you do not follow them to high school? Or will most of it connect to Copperdale?

@Simmerville

1. Unfortunately body hair grow can only be toggled in CAS individually. But I havent had any of my played female sims grow chest hair, seems to be more of a NPC problem where some get generated with that.

2. Havent seen any generated NPCs that where like females with male frame or the other way arround, most sims will still generate as the default setting, meaning they go both ways and you can decide how to approach them.

3. Dont know about the crushes, but there is a setting to turn of autonomous relationships, hich is what the prom invites and asking to be bf/gf/besty falls under, its in the pack settings.

4. They definately use more phone idles since HSY, but social bunny isnt a problem you can turn it off in the sims phone.

5. Just one highschoolin copperdake

6. Nope, not a boarding school.

7. You can go there, it is where the cheerleading and football events take place, but other than that it is pretty useless tbh, unfortunately the track is not like the hiking tracks in mt.k so sims wont autonomously follow it when running.

8. If you dont follow them, than it works just like without the pack

9. You can cheer anywhere where you placed a cheer mat, either solo or in a group depending on the mats size.
I believe the cheerleading team can only be joined by teens, but anyone can cheer on those mats.
Yes, you can join any after school activity without having to follow your teens.

10. They seem to mostly wear those outfits when on a thrift store lot.

11. Idk, they are pretty small, havent done much with the photobooth tbh

6. Although there is only one high school lot in the game, you can edit the high school to add a dormitory. I know that the game doesn't automatically kick you off the lot right at the end of the school day, not sure if it does kick you off if you stay really late, though. If you do add a dormitory and it lets your teens sleep there over night, there won't be any teens from other households staying there.

The body hair drives me crazy only because it takes so much longer to make a sim in CAS. I would have preferred to have a default of no body hair/hair growth than the way they decided to do it. All of my previously made sims have to go back into CAS to change it. Wish they started Sims out without all the accessories, makeup and outfits like in the previous sims games so when we make a new sim we can start from scratch and make them the way we want, without having to remove a ton of things.

I still very much follow my teens to school. One of the first things I did to improve my experience was replace the school that came with the pack. I also use a mod that makes it so all classmates are sims from my played households, which helps with immersion. I enjoy seeing what my sims are doing when I'm not controlling them. For example, as a classmate, my rebel teen was seriously insulting the principal and teachers. Then when I went to play his household I saw that he has a terrible relationship with all faculty members.

Before this pack playing with teens mostly involved getting them to hangout together at public venues after school. Having the added aspect of following the teenage drama to school has been such a bonus.

Don't get me wrong, this pack is my favorite when it comes to CAS (it includes one of my favorite hairs in the whole entire game) and Build Mode (lots of pretty and colorful stuff) but when it comes to the actual gameplay itself...not so much. The active school days are repetitive and there's not much to do in the high school itself other than attending class and eating lunch. Prom...I don't even understand why prom is so frequent anyways and I feel like we should have more control of scheduling prom instead of it happening on a fixed day every week.

"Simmerville;c-18321442" wrote:
Re teens, do you feel their life stage is improved also when you do not follow them to high school? Or will most of it connect to Copperdale?

I think being able to follow them to high school is definitely a main part of them feeling improved as a life stage, imo. They don’t actually spend much time in classes, but the time outside classes while still at school is good for them to socialise with other teens as well as do activities together. But I don’t follow them to school every day, so it’s not just that. Outside school but still in Copperdale I like the ThriftTea store as a place for teens to hang out, as well as the funfair. Then there are new activities like video streaming, which is great for teens. I love the BB and CAS for their teen focus. So I guess it’s a combination of everything. :)

"FreddyFox1234;c-18321650" wrote:

"Simmerville;c-18321442" wrote:
Re teens, do you feel their life stage is improved also when you do not follow them to high school? Or will most of it connect to Copperdale?

I think being able to follow them to high school is definitely a main part of them feeling improved as a life stage, imo. They don’t actually spend much time in classes, but the time outside classes while still at school is good for them to socialise with other teens as well as do activities together. But I don’t follow them to school every day, so it’s not just that. Outside school but still in Copperdale I like the ThriftTea store as a place for teens to hang out, as well as the funfair. Then there are new activities like video streaming, which is great for teens. I love the BB and CAS for their teen focus. So I guess it’s a combination of everything. :)

Thanks. But video streaming? How is it different from the video production we got with the drones (get famous pack or city living?). I don't remember seeing anything regarding video streaming on the EA page. I so wish that all features were CLEARLY listed, not wrapped up in a lot of sentences. Reminds me of the climbing wall object that came with a stuff pack, but unless you already know about it, it is impossible to spot it from that pack's presentation page.

"Simmerville;c-18321672" wrote:

"FreddyFox1234;c-18321650" wrote:

"Simmerville;c-18321442" wrote:
Re teens, do you feel their life stage is improved also when you do not follow them to high school? Or will most of it connect to Copperdale?

I think being able to follow them to high school is definitely a main part of them feeling improved as a life stage, imo. They don’t actually spend much time in classes, but the time outside classes while still at school is good for them to socialise with other teens as well as do activities together. But I don’t follow them to school every day, so it’s not just that. Outside school but still in Copperdale I like the ThriftTea store as a place for teens to hang out, as well as the funfair. Then there are new activities like video streaming, which is great for teens. I love the BB and CAS for their teen focus. So I guess it’s a combination of everything. :)

Thanks. But video streaming? How is it different from the video production we got with the drones (get famous pack or city living?). I don't remember seeing anything regarding video streaming on the EA page. I so wish that all features were CLEARLY listed, not wrapped up in a lot of sentences. Reminds me of the climbing wall object that came with a stuff pack, but unless you already know about it, it is impossible to spot it from that pack's presentation page.

I find The Sims Wiki really useful for seeing all the features in a pack: https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/The_Sims_4:_High_School_Years

Video game streamer is a part-time job. Here's the description: https://sims.fandom.com/wiki/Part-time_job#Video_Game_Streamer