How intrusive is High School Years?

I haven't played this pack a lot now that I realize... My answer though would be this:

• I don't know how to answer that for now unfortunately...
  
• Crushes seem to be tied to teen life stage (after all, crush stuff are most of the time referenced as TeenRelationshipDrama in the tuning files). These things randomly come up, but if you don't like it, you can have the teen try to overcome it. It's just a sentiment and it's up to players if they decide to go for it or not.
  
• Social bunny feature starts working when in the app you add friends there (then it may start messing with relationships a little). Otherwise, you can just make posts there to gain followers. You can also turn this application off if you want.
  
• Don't understand the question unfortunately.
  
• They shouldn't be able, yes. Sometimes you can find the high school in Join Career options. If your sim gets expelled/dropped out, they cannot join some careers or study a basic degree in universities (Made a list of the available and unavailable careers here if you're interested). However, you can get a high school degree from a computer (takes 24 hours, the progress is saved when you stop). Teens can also graduate early too.
  
• Here's a compiled list of bugs on Answers HQ. For now, it's acne staying for young adults if not remedied before aging up and teens being unable to join university organizations and after-school activities (soccer team and e-sports team) when they are in university due to early graduation. Oh, and the graduation ceremony ages up unplayed teens too. Not a bug, but an annoying thing for rotational players.

But yeah, as far as I can tell, no interactions from this pack affect the character values though.

1. No body hair issue unless you care about how randomized sims look I haven't noticed any of my sims getting furry without me making them so

2. yes and yes unless you turn them off which i did as I still like to pair sims myself so I don't really know

3. no turning off social bunny for everyone its by sim but i barely notice it exists until i get the " social bunny worthy things happened to sim" at which point i deactivate it for all sims in household

idk about rest since i haven't really explored either

the school festivals are pretty annoying though since those show up in all sims calendars regardless of age or world they live in

I like the world for occults since it has lowkey salem vibes (or thats what me, nordic bean never been to 'merica thinks it looks like)

and some items are cool

but yeah gameplay is kind of all over the place and nowhere to be seen if you don't play "modern" teens that much

I say modern cause my save is still in like year 2000 or something with all these ts2 sims I have and it just feels off to me to mix my current teens up with these obviously more 2020 sims

it was so weird to me to see freaking Malcolm Landgraab with these kids for example like nope pls get that guy out of there so yeah i just don't play the active school thing much yet while i have these obviously older than hsy teen sims

"Atreya33;d-1012836" wrote:
With the recent sale High School Years is 50% off. I have avoided this pack for a long time and have zero interest in teens. I personally enjoy playing supernaturals but from time to time also families (especially the younger ages). I already shortened the lifespan of teens back in the sims 2 days. I HATE how without telling us the teen lifestage was prolonged and became dis-proportionally long compared to the child lifestage when this pack was introduced . Just to nudge is into buying this pack. But here I am considering it after all. The world and Build Buy just looks so pretty. If I could get the items without the gameplay I would go for it right away.

But I have a a few questions

How bad is the body hair issue. I know there is no global on/off switch. I would have to go through every sims to disable it sim per sim. Has anyone done this? How long does it take for townies to all become hairy? If there is any mod to completely turn this off, I am willing to give it a try.

They don't. Your played sim may become harry if you turn it on, or if they age up with body hair, but I just turn it off for active sims when it comes up and I never see it again.

Crushes: how do they work. Will my played sims have crushes on others or will other sims get crushes on my sims. Are there any repercussions if I don't act on them? Will sims automatically gain love interests? I hope not. Is this only for teens?

There's a small chance that your teen sim will get a random crush, but most of the time, at least in my experience, you need to actually interact with the sim. You'll occasionally get wants related to the crush, and a few moodlets if you're arround the subject of the crush, but otherwise you can ignore them. There's also a "try to get over crush" interaction in there somewhere.

Social bunny: again no global on/off option, has to be toggled sim by sim. How intrusive is this feature. Does it mess up my sims relationships.

It can be ignored, honestly. In my experience it only "messes up" relationships in that 1) you can build relationships with it that shouldn't be possible, but that requires actively using it, and 2) you will continue to build friendhips with your social bunny circle, along with occasional relationship change icons floating around. 3) you'll occasionally get tense, angry, or embarassed moodlets from an autonomous post... but you have to have your sim actively use it at least once or twice before those hit.

Has the issue with not being able to plan holidays been resolved?

As far as I can tell, yes.

I heard teens kicked out of high school can never re-enroll, is this true?

This I don't know, as I've never tried to have it happen.

Any bugs or glitches I should be aware off?

Sims will sometimes show up at your house to ask your teen sim to prom (usually as friends) or to be best friends, or even boyfriend/girlfriend if their romance is high enough. Even if it's the middle of the day, and your teen sim is at school/work.
That's the main one that bothers me currently, though it's not as bad as it was right after the pack came out.
I'm sure there are others, but they're not intrusive enough into my play for me to take notice.

The only issue I have with body hair is that it's not possible to shave in one go both arms and legs. If your sim is hairy all over you will need to go into the shower twice. Would be nice if there was an option to shave entire body. But I read that the hair shaving got broken with For Rent EP.

1. I think all my sims have bodyhair off by default, because I never changed the setting and there's no hair growing? Most of my townies are old, I haven't really seen anyone with bodyhair.
2. Crushes feel pretty random. Afaik it's only for teens, they get a sentiment and moodlets. You don't have act upon the crush. They can crush on their friends pretty easily.
3. I disliked social bunny at the beginning, but really it's the best. Normally in rotational play sims get assigned all kind of random relationship which is annoying. I put their true friends in social bunny and the app keeps their relationships in good shape. I've learned to see it as a very useful tool.
4. I don't know this issue.
5. I don't know.
6. Nothing comes to mind, I've enjoyed the pack more than I thought I would.

1. Body hair used to be quite a problem on born-in-game NPCs aging up to teen, in that there was a really disproportionate amount of body hair on teen+ girls and women. It was a bug, reported fixed in the December patch.
2. Crushes happen randomly during friendly interactions. They are only for teens. They happen in accordance with your sim's sexual orientation (including that you can get some surprises if you have the "exploring" setting on). The pink bar doesn't appear on its own, but your sim gets sentiments about the crush. NPCs can have crushes and the accompanying sentiments too. They can also think about their crushes, or try to get over crushes. Cool thing: writing about the crush in diary (doesn't require parenthood) builds teens' writing skill really quickly :)
3. Social bunny builds green bar quite significantly over a period of a week or two, passively, with anyone you're social bunny friends with. The constant flashing light on the UI can be annoying. I've never had any major negative effects on relationships from social bunny, just small minuses from time to time (no sentiments) that are easily overcome by the constant build of the green bar. Yes, it needs to be disabled for each played sim. I usually have it on for teens (to simulate the intense bonding of teens with their friends) and then turn it off when they become young adults.
4. Planned holidays not starting? That's a new one on me. I did find a bug report here but it appears to only affect 2 players? https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/S-Scheduled-premade-Holidays-don-t-start/m-p/12279253
5. Also a new one on me, but there were other bugs related to expulsion that have been fixed.
6. Here's the current list of open HSY bugs. There are quite a few. Several of the ones marked Needs Saves are imho player misunderstandings of game features, but I can't be sure. To me the most disruptive is that NPC teen classmates of my played sims often fail to age up on their own.

Aging/Death/Urn/Gravestone
Homeless, unplayed teen sims never age up

Aspirations
Admired Icon: can't 'Make 10 teen Friends' with Incredibly Friendly

Autonomy
Teens randomly stop taking exams

Body Hair/ Acne
Facial and Body hair don't grow according to settings
Servos have interactions for body/facial hair

Career: Work From Home
Video Game Streamer: Not getting paid when working from home

CAS Asset
All but one swatches of this top is faulty
Certain outfit cause deformed Fingers/Nails
Flared Feminine-Frame Jeans Appear Warped

Excessive Use of something
Constant pop up messages asking to prom or to be bff’s

Graduation
Early graduated teen cannot join a university organisation
Graduation event dissapears after editing lot from World Map
No Diploma at Graduation, Principal Missing
Teen that graduated early can't join E-sports or Sports Teams
Teenage uni students can't tutor

High School
Can’t follow teen sims to highschool
Cannot Claim a Locker
Sim is stuck on C student despite acing all exams
Teen Sim drops out of school upon aging up instead of graduating
Teens don't attend class/White Board shows Career

Interactions: Objects
Clean Whiteboard not available in interactions

Interactions: Sims
Prom Social Interactions disapeared

Lots/Premade Houses
Loud Speaker requirement not recognized if non-default color

Moodlets
Sim without a crush keeps getting crush related moodlets
Underprepared moodlet but daily task is complete (homework)

Notifications
Team result notification appears as Fair notification

NPC Relationship Questions
Already married Sims ask another Sim to marry them
NPCs ask other Sims regardless of age/rel status to become GF/BF/BFF

NPCs/ServiceNPCs
Stand Workers Invading my house

Outfits/Appearance/Voice
NPC Sims never wear their everyday outfits at school
Teens don't loose acne when aging up to YA/No way to cure

Photobooth/ Ice Cream Vendor/ Ferris Wheel/ Vending Machine
Cannot take photo with others at Photo booth on Plumbite Pier

Photography
Selfies and Take picture with not centring properly

Prom/Graduation/NPC Invites
Can't 'Dance With Someone' at Prom / Can't achieve 'Gold' Event Rating
High School Prom not taking place
Never invited to parties
Prom not appearing in calendar/Prom works anyways
Won't Travel to Prom

Relationships
Romantic Relationships with all Sims/ Disregards sexual orientation

Science Fair/Sports Day
Graduation Not Showing on Calendar - Prom Works
No Judge in Chess Science/Sports Fair

Sentiments
Teens Enrolled in College Get Resentful About No Prom Invite Sentiment

Skills
Llama's Lair Success Giving No Reward

Sneak Out
No option to sneak out on ground/ask permission

Social Bunny
Adult posting on social bunny about teen related events
Horse/Cat/Dog Has a Social Bunny Account
Sims can send Flirty Social Bunny Messages To Teens and Relatives
Sims sending DMs to themselves on Social Bunny
Social Bunny app freezes my game
Social Bunny app stays on x minutes
Social Bunny Can’t Post
Social Bunny No Followers/Not increasing
Social Bunny only offering limited stuff to post about
Still Yellow Dot on Social Bunny Notifications are turned off

ThrifTea
NPCs order from Thriftea and don't drink/leave

Trendi
Can't Wear Trendi Outfits From Inventory
No Fashion Choice/ Outfit type filters for Trendi Outfits
Residential Rental: Tenants can't send items on Plopsy/Trendi

Video game streamer/Simfluencer
Sim won’t make lifestyle product review Simfluencer career
Video game streamer career: Unable to livestream unreleased game



from https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/READ-FIRST-Compiled-list-of-reported-Issues/m-p/11673025#M223852

I'll answer this based on my experience. I play rotationally with a lot of sim households rather than with one house or one legacy.

1. Body Hair: I have noticed it on newer sims that have been added to my game. Some of them pre-date this pack and so aren't affected so it surprised me a little bit when I would add a newer sim and suddenly, they would grow a beard or a teen girl would need to shave her legs. CAS.fulleditmode is your friend if you don't want it. I have been in there to switch it off and sometimes I just leave those sasquatches to shave in the shower. You can shave any of it with the shower or sink. You may need to edit some new sims though.
2. Crushes: These pop up during interactions with other sims and are a bit like sentiments in how they appear. You as the player do not determine the crushes but you can go into the control panel for the sim where there is a panel about their romantic orientation and preferences. You can use the settings to determine the sim's orientation. As for crushes, a sentiment pops up and the sim might feel romantic around the object of their interest but you can act on that or ignore it. Actually, they tend to get crushes on whoever they are dating which is nice. They can develop multiple crushes so getting one crush does not limit them if you want them to pair up with someone else.
3. Social Bunny: You receive notifications and you can participate or just entirely ignore it. I do have my sims use Social Bunny. They sometimes have moods about things that happened online or want to talk about it with friends. You could entirely ignore it. You can also gain new friends through Social Bunny by adding acquaintances. You can also message other sims with it.
4. Sims can plan holidays. I just added more new holidays recently to my calendar. I think this must have been resolved in terms of how it is described.
5. I have never had a sim that was kicked out of high school so I don't know this one. If a student is expelled in real life, they can't re-enroll either though so that sounds accurate. Sims with good grades can be offered early graduation which is what I've encountered.
6. I don't think I'm aware of too many bugs in HSY. I may have encountered a glitchy experience with trying to get sims to ride the carnival rides. Generally, it has worked. There was one time where it didn't seem to. I can test it again sometime because I've been playing in Copperdale lately.

Not mentioned but I do actually like Copperdale as a world so far. The high school is pretty basic but I think it's meant to be generic so you can customize it or tear it down for something new. They went with a basic style in which you could be playing in a historic time period from about the mid-century through to today. I might even like it about as much as Brindleton Bay. I just end up wishing that I had a few more lots there, but I like it. I have gotten other packs on sale for mainly the world, clothing and objects so I do not judge.

Also if you want to age teens up, go for it. I have done it but right now I'm running a chaotic boarding school to age numerous teens together simultaneously. It is fun with HSY because there is more for them to do and I can follow the group to classes.

I like the town of Copperdale. I have a sim with a horse living in one of the areas with vegetation, gave him a horse and there are areas to ride your horse around. There is a nice swimming area, and your sims can visit the little carnival. I haven’t had anyone graduate yet, but sending them to prom is fun, and you can decorate the area any way you want ( like a valentine dance etc. ). You can add picture spots and things too, infact, you can change the appearance of the whole Auditorium lot.

Teens can have after school activities, like chess and computer lab. They have activities like football and cheerleading too. You can make extra rooms for your sims at the school too, like a wood working room with the wood working bench, and.or a knitting room ( ( home ec ), that they can use at lunch, before or after school. You can put a full gym there for them to work out if you want. Sims can eat lunch in the cafeteria, or you can put vending machines for them to buy food, etc.

There are a couple of part time jobs with the pack that teens can do.

The boba shop is nice for Sims to frequent.

I love the bedroom furniture and the CAS is good.

There is also an urban legend in Copperdale.

I had many of the same worries before getting the pach this December. I played in Copperdale a bit, but continued with my regular rotation including households with and without teens. The pack does not affect gameplay much unless you actively want it to. The biggest impact is that you are asked whether you want to follow teens to school or send them alone, like active careers.

1. how bad is the body hair issue. I know there is no global on/off switch. I would have to go through every sims to disable it sim per sim. Has anyone done this? How long does it take for townies to all become hairy? If there is any mod to completely turn this off, I am willing to give it a try.

Not bad. None of my existing sims were affected by this as far as I know. I did not check every sm in CAS, but Ib should have seen it by now if existing sims got very hairy. That said, I already had a bug making some female sims hairy by default in CAS, I think it was caused by HSY patch, and not the pack itself.

2. Crushes: how do they work. Will my played sims have crushes on others or will other sims get crushes on my sims. Are there any repercussions if I don't act on them? Will sims automatically gain love interests? I hope not. Is this only for teens?

I can't say I ever noticed any crushes, maybe just once. But I play rotationally, so perhaps the game take longer to trigger these things.

3. Social bunny: again no global on/off option, has to be toggled sim by sim. How intrusive is this feature. Does it mess up my sims relationships.

I had no input from social bunny, except an occasional popup warning me that this sim "might miss out on the fun". It is less disturbing than I expected. Seems like a sim must activate a Social Bunny account to get that stuff. I never did that.

4. Has the issue with not being able to plan holidays been resolved?

Did not check. My sims rarely deserve a holiday anyway ;)

5. I heard teens kicked out of high school can never re-enroll, is this true?

Did not see this yet.

6. Any bugs or glitches I should be aware off?

I find no reason to warn about anything. Perhaps my gaming did not yet trigger the annoying stuff. World feels like a good world for occults, but leaving to others to decide whether it is worth 50% discount alone. Btw, I loike quite some BB and CAS items. I really wanted the photoboot but have not yet tested it...

If you are just buying it for the world and 'stuff' you should be okay. I have played for a while without attending high school (my teens go to the 'regular' high school) and it just plays like I didn't have the pack, except that I have all the stuff in my game and I get pop-ups in the notification area about new outfits at the thrift store, and suggesting my sim posts on social bunny (which I ignore).

I do put body hair on some of my sims but I usually disable hair growth so they keep it at the length I choose and I have only noticed it on a few random townies (not on the created ones like the Goths). Oh, I'm not sure if the walking along/looking at phone thing came with this pack but I think it's been toned down anyway. I don't notice it to an annoying degree.

It's got some great build buy stuff with it.