Rotational Play and University

Thanks to all the people who are sharing their experiences so far of rotational playing. It’s super useful for me to know the best way of tackling it once the game is released on console - especially as I won’t be able to mod the game so will need a tried and tested method to make it work.
Frustrating though that the uni game mechanics have messed about so much with an otherwise pretty easy to use rotational play style!

Seconding @lauradean89's offer of thanks! I have a large rotation & had been planning --for years!--to have all the teens go to Uni together, as they did in--was it TS3?--I forget! Those particular teens didn't live long enough to go to Uni, nor did their parents, but the grandkids can go! :lol:

I find it ironic that when The Sims first came out, I initially only played one household, but the game itself taught me to play rotationally (so the other sims would have some progression!). Worked fine with TS1&2; got a little tricky with TS3's story progression until they gave us the ability to mark a household (first via NRAAS, & then Maxis gave us the option, if I remember correctly). With TS4, it has become plain that the game is primarily designed to be played with one-household per save-game. Rotational players are an afterthought. It's too bad! Maxis taught me to play rotationally! You'd think the game would be designed with that option being as important as single-household play. But that ain't the reality. /shrug /sadsmile

edited for clarity

I haven’t been able to play so much since launch but I’m playing a separate save while I figure out how to go on with my rotation.

For those of you who have, how long have you been away from your sims in college before rotating back? And what was the result?

I am just finishing up a term before switching households.

"rudolpha;c-17316833" wrote:
The way I'm playing rotationally is to have a family complete a full term before switching. When the enrollment question comes up I x it out and if in a dorm move back home. Then I can play another family. It's working out well. Uni is hard enough without leaving mid term. I'm playing each family a bit longer now but that's OK. I leave aging on and don't think it's a factor here but I'm only rotating between two families so perhaps if some rotate more families per game it will be.

Have you tried not enrolling them and leaving them in the dorm??

"ksimmies;c-17316659" wrote:
I think they need to do something about this.

I'm playing the Pleasants household and a Sim in the city rotationally. Well, the Pleasants got suspended while I was with the city sim, even though all of their homework was completed and studied on top of it. I don't know if they missed class or what.

I believe in Sims 2 the other sims got like average grades if you didn't play them. I think you should be able to pause households or something in this. The only other way I can think to play is to have all uni sims move in together. That's what I used to do in sims 2. But that defeats the purpose of being able to do uni at other world's.

In Sims 2, when you switched houses nothing happened to their grade. The sims stayed exactly where you left them and this is how it should have been with this game. I have no idea why they would add progression in an expansion with no progression in the base game.

"keekee53;c-17318373" wrote:

"ksimmies;c-17316659" wrote:
I think they need to do something about this.

I'm playing the Pleasants household and a Sim in the city rotationally. Well, the Pleasants got suspended while I was with the city sim, even though all of their homework was completed and studied on top of it. I don't know if they missed class or what.

I believe in Sims 2 the other sims got like average grades if you didn't play them. I think you should be able to pause households or something in this. The only other way I can think to play is to have all uni sims move in together. That's what I used to do in sims 2. But that defeats the purpose of being able to do uni at other world's.

In Sims 2, when you switched houses nothing happened to their grade. The sims stayed exactly where you left them and this is how it should have been with this game. I have no idea why they would add progression in an expansion with no progression in the base game.

Yes, in TS2 Sims were left in stasis when you left the lot. But that is never how it's been for TS4. It's not unique to this pack.

TS4 may not have story progression, but time does still progress when you leave the lot. It's the same reason that babies will still be born when you rotate away, and why their skills and relationships change based on how they act when they show up on public lots or social events. It's also why seasons continue to change and why holidays will still go on when you switch houses. Aging may be able to be turned on or off, but time never stops.

"calaprfy;c-17318532" wrote:

"Erja888;c-17317036" wrote:
For me - who likes to micromanagement everything - this EP is a real bummer. Especially since I am such a hugh fan of university packs for "The Sims". However, at the moment I only see one "solution": Play one household in uni and complete the whole university experience and after that switch households.

I was thinking the same. The other alternative could be having a sim attend university from home and rotate once the term has been completed but that would bypass the whole university experience.

I did no testing yet, but I planned my routine. Every year in Fall I will have a group of locals (who got accepted for Uni) form a new household. This household I will play through all terms in one go. Although all other households will be on halt, at least I might be lucky to graduate more than one sim at the time. The group will stay on Campus for 2-3 years, even if they are done with their terms, just to make it realistic for their household back home. If possible, I might play them only 1-2 terms per rotation.

I plan to have a dorm (residential lot, but need to learn how it can be organized) where basically my locals stay. If those graduated can't stay there, I will simply move them into an additional household in Britechester while they wait to return to their hometown. Residential lodging allows my students to attend both Universities. In the long run there might be years with only students for one of the universities, the I might place them in a regular dorm.

I also need to find out if students in one dorm all need to be on the same term, or if I can move in 2 students one year, and add one more student the next year, while the two first are still not graduated.

I might skip sending students every other year or so, but while the pack feels fresh I will probably enjoy spending the extra time there. I'm having a local "education program" that my locals can join to attend Uni, it's too early to see how it will work :)

Playing a test save now. Will place two sims in a Uni and rotate between the households and see how it goes.

I think switching between terms (before enrollment) is the best way to go but hopefully EA will add an option to let us freeze the progress of played sims attending university, in the same way that we can freeze aging for played sims when we are not actually playing them. Or maybe a modder can do it.