"@ClarionOfJoy;c-17496419" wrote:
I think a 3-tier school system might get too complicated. Two is good enough. For active schools, I really love how Zerbu set up active schools (and also active careers). In his mod, sims spend the school/work hours working on skill-building items incstead of just sitting around listening to the teacher and taking notes (although, you could do that which might come in handy if you to rest between tending to your sims' activities).
For example, one of my favorite careers is the science career. So everyone who is in that profession goes to the lot I've designated for that career. In the science building I created, I put all the skill-building objects that are in Zerbu's list for that career and all the scientists will automatically use them! Your sims also get to build real relationships with your boss and co-workers rather than watch the meter go up when they work at the rabbithole version.
I haven't done that for active schools yet, but I'm pretty sure that it will be a lot of fun! The thing is, if the children's school becomes active, I highly suggest giving the parents rabbithole careers because if they are ALL active, you will be exhausted just trying to keep up with all the activity!
So for TS5, I really want something like Zerbu's active school/careers mod which can set each one individually for active or rabbithole mode.
For TS5 schools, it would be great if they set up drama like first love, cheating and broken hearts, mean girls, bullies and overcoming all those things, with different ways to deal with each one.
For example, with the mean girls, a sim could either 1) try to become like them, following the latest trends and kissing up to them, 2) become a bully and beat them up, 3) gain their respect without following them or beating them up!
For the romance, it should be more intense than adult love, where their boo is their whole world, but much more innocent - at least that was what it seemed like to me when I was that age. I don't know how else to explain it. So when your sim's boo breaks up with them, they should be crying a lot on their best friends' shoulders and moping around, writing love-sick poems and maybe eating a lot of chocolate and ice-cream sundaes, something like that, lol!
And if they do the breaking up, that it should be according to their personality. If they're evil, they won't care how their ex-boo feels and may even cackle as their ex-boo cries and falls apart. But if they are good, that they'll feel awful about the break-up! This came to mind because I remember one time, when I was going to junior high school, I as well as the rest of the 8th and 9th grades knew this popular girl was going to break up with her boyfriend. She went out with him because when he asked her out, she didn't really like him but thought that she might. However after a short while, she had come to the conclusion that she would never feel more for him so she decided that she was going to break up with him.
Somehow, and I know this wasn't her intent AT ALL, word got around that she was going to do the dirty deed after school as they walk the 3 miles or so to home (everyone had the option to take the buses, but everyone loved to walk home from school!) So as you can guess, EVERYONE (including those who normally take the buses, lol!) decided to walk home that day, lol! All eyes were on the doomed couple as we all trekked towards our homes. I couldn't hear exactly what she said because I was walking parallel from her across the street, but she was CRYING! and then they stopped. I saw a look of disbelief on her ex-boo and then HE started crying! I couldn't hear anything, but I could read her lips saying, "I'm sorry!" as tears were pouring down both of their faces....
It was such a sight to see! Very memorable and I never forgot it to this day!
Anyway, I want drama to THAT level! Lot's of emotion and watch-worthy! We also had quite a number of fights after school that were fun to attend. Sometimes the bully won which is kind of terrifying, solidifying the need to take strategic steps to avoid said bully as much as possible in the future. But it also was a feel-good story when the good guy one. Sometimes the bully could be both good and bad. I actually knew a girl who can be very good to you if she likes you, but she was part of a gang and knew how to fight. She only fought other people in gangs so I didn't have to worry since I myself wasn't in one, but I always felt that I didn't ever want to push her to find out how far I can go before she'll lose her temper.
For the romance part, one of my most favorite movies was Some Kind of Wonderful. It was about a teenage boy, Keith, from the poor side of town who was in love with a popular girl, Amanda, who was also from the poor side of town. She however, was dating a popular boy from the rich part of town and hung out with that circle. In the meanwhile, the boy has a tomboy, Watts, for a best friend who is secretly in love with him.... *Sigh* I so love that movie. I really would like something like that in TS5.
Interesting story about the break up!
We had a few clashes at my school but it was very pecking order centric. There were guys you did not want to fall out with but they would not bother you if you kept out of their way. There were a few bullies who would try to torment us but as they got older some of them grew out of it as they were clashing with people who went to different schools and they were not interesting in us anymore. It was hard going for the girls though as some girls were very confrontational. I have Sims stories that I shared on here with influences from when I was at school.
I have not heard of that film myself but it could make an interesting gameplay for The Sims. If we had a school based EP with could have these kinds of situations which could be interesting to play out if the player wishes to do so. It does feel a bit too easy for a Sim teen to go to school, meet another teen and be friends with them and get married once they hit YA. It does not normally work out like that in the real world!
