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Scholar
Original Poster
#1 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 9:33 AM
Default What would you consider the essential (and minimal) community lots for a University?
My hood is loosely based on BACCand recently earned its first University. (heavy taxes, Mwhahaha )

I prefer to use small terrain for subhoods so I used the maxi's Takemizu and added 24 college dorms to it. Only my rich sims go to this college so that amount should sufficient, but because I usually play YA in the main hood with Squinge college pack, I rarely play the actual university subhoods, and not sure what else I could add to it.

What would you consider being the minimal/essential when it comes community lots in an University?

I play 36hour semesters so the time they are staying there are 12 days (4 years, 3 per year) which isnt that long, but still they should at least have some fun occasionally, don't they?

Attached the subhood below (sucks at geography/building though... ) . As you can see, its very small so I dont have that much space to add community lots and need to be careful with what I will add and I plan to build them on the side roads. But WHAT kinds? I dunno...
Screenshots
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Test Subject
#2 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 10:00 AM
It heavily depends on your playstyle. Sims I play in dorms usually don't even leave the lot. But, if you really want some community lots, I believe you should focus on skilling lots: gym, library, music stage/art studio... In addition, if you don't allow deliveries, your sims will need a place to buy groceries and clothes, and you'll need a lot where sims can socialize.

On top of everything, you can combine these aspects in a single lot. For example:
1. A gym with a clothes shop and a cafe
2. A library with an area for artists
3. A park with a music stage behind a grocery store


By the way, just how many students you get each round if you need 24 dorms?
Scholar
Original Poster
#3 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 10:10 AM
My hood is very large. I started off with 50 couples who had 4-10 kids each (but half of them can enroll IF they have aford it). Addition to the subhoods, 24 more sims as added as YA's. But not all my sims go to this college, only those who are wealthy and want to focus on the uni specific careers and careers that realisically would require diplomas so actually, Im not sure.

I rather prefer having too many dorms than too few. But probably at the most 100 students (I only play max 4 students per dorm).
This is my biggest hood and have about 500 character files (20 are non-playable and handful are diseased).
Field Researcher
#4 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 11:28 AM
I usually get away with a couple of dorms, a private residence and a park - then I add lots based on wants. Want to go swimming? Now I'll build a swimming hole, etcetera and so forth.
Mad Poster
#5 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 11:46 AM Last edited by simmer22 : 21st Jul 2016 at 12:01 PM.
I rarely use community lots, and find they're mostly useless in university hoods, so I'd say zero. It's quicker to just put a book shelf and some gym equipment on the lot. For music skilling, just pick an instrument and put that on their lot.

If you absolutely want one, why don't just make one with a small gym (1-3 gym equipment items), a small library (a book shelf and some chairs), a stage, and a mini swimming pool? Would save you the trouble of having to go to several different lots. If the lot is small, you can make a gym on one floor, a library in another, and a small dance floor/stage in a third, and put a swimming pool otutside. Maybe even a grocery store with a tiny area for shopping clothes (one clothing rack and one changing room) on a fourth floor.
Mad Poster
#6 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 1:29 PM Last edited by gazania : 21st Jul 2016 at 6:04 PM.
Theoretically, I don't believe you need any other lots, particularly if you have the mod that allows Uni students to go to main hoods. Your Sims can work out at the dorm via jogging, once they've upped their fitness interest or via the TV. The NPC cook gives them meals. They can birdwatch outside the dorms.

But I really like university lots. I find them fun to make. And in a real college town (my college did not have one), there are plenty of things to do within easy walking distance from campus.

I am echoing some of the things posters such as FreemTariphe wrote already. Please excuse the repetition.

I should add that I use the Sim State campus now, which has the library and park, so I got a little lazy and didn't make either there (though I did make a library for my community college). But some of the buildings I've made do duplicate some of the actions in the Sim State buildings. I guess my Sims have two or more choices. And I have made custom campuses in the past.

I have a coffee shop. More than one. Caffeine is the lifeblood of students! (At least for me, it was, I shudder when I'd remember how much I'd chug down during an all-nighter.) Maxis does have a place for students to drink copious amounts of caffeine, but one is never enough for me. For campuses with space issues, perhaps use the tiny community lots, or put in a tiny shop on a larger lot.

A gym. Yeah, students can work out in front of the TV, but Uni is also a good way to socialize.

Various classroom buildings. The Vocational Education mod from Paladin's Place or the Sophie-David lecterns (still not sure whether you can have both in a Downloads folder ... I have the lecterns) work great here. Hire someone to teach students. I made art, music, dance, and culinary arts buildings, and there is a small room for dance practice in my auditorium. Since space is an issue, you could just switch the subjects out in a single classroom.

An abandoned lot for ... err ... frisky Sims. (Not exactly essential, though!)

A classroom for computer sciences. Sims never seem to be able to stay away from computers!

An auditorium for Sims to perform and attend performances. There are places on Sim State. But I like more of an official auditorium.

If you are including classes that are less-traditionally academic, as in some community colleges, you can create sewing, floral arrangement and technology (robotics) classrooms, or add them to the subjects taught in that single classroom. The Paladin Palace fashion show mod can allow fashion shows on stage.

Club rooms, such as ones for video games and nature appreciation.

Bars and other entertainment venues, such as a small movie theater. Also places to eat. I put those outside of the campus building area because I'm trying to simulate a college town. I was probably one of the more-squeaky-clean college students you'd ever meet, and even I enjoyed a few moments to have a little fun. (Fortunately, there was no Facebook back then, and I have discrete friends!)

Sims like more than one place to shop, so clothing stores. I do have the mod that allows you to buy clothing on non-owned community lot stores.

Oh, and you probably need the mod for community lot skilling. I've had that for so long that I've forgotten about it.

I make multi-story buildings on smaller campuses to accommodate different functions/interests. And if you have the mod that allows Uni students to visit the main hood, you could put some buildings on the main hood or a sub-hood. Colleges often have different campuses in different areas.

Before I did all this, I used to cheat like mad to get my students through school. Now, I find, time can go by TOO quickly with so much stuff to do on and near campus!

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Mad Poster
#7 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 2:30 PM
You don't need the mod for community skilling in a University subhood! Skilling is already enabled. As is buying clothes on a non-owned community lot!

Community lots useless on campus? I bet you complain about Uni going on too long, too, simmer 22! Community lots are great for meeting people, skilling, and making the semester go faster, if nothing else.

LGU showcases the lots I feel are important. Minimum, you need one dorm, a gym, a library, a store, a performance space, a date location, a cafeteria, a Secret Society lot, and a coffeeshop. Student residences and Greek Houses are nice but not essential if you enjoy dorm play. Some of these can double up - most community lots on campus should have a small cafeteria and caffeine for those occasions when you want to eat up semester hours and simulate the college experience by making students stay out all night. Woohoo locations should also be provided as this is an important part of education, and it's always nice to have plausible classroom buildings that are also entertaining to visit. Many of them can justifiably by duplicated - LGU has three performance spaces (the Hipster Quad, the Just Off Campus Lounge, and Just Off Campus Coffee) that are also student leisure hang-outs, and an arts building with practice rooms for the performing arts and studios for the plastic arts; two physical education spaces (the Gym and the Swim Center); multiple stores selling groceries, clothing, electronics, magazines, and games in different combinations; a Liberal Arts building devoted to charisma building and general study; and woohoo locations ranging from "Fanny's Private Tutoring" (a den of vice on the opposite side of the river from campus) to the hot tub element of the Fluid Dynamics Lab on top of the Science Building and the changing booths in the Big Box store (for students who have absolutely no sense of style at all!).

The important consideration is: Fun places to skill and connect with other students. Because those three things - fun, skill, social connections - are what University's all about.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Mad Poster
#8 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 3:22 PM
I need all of them, since my Sims don't have fancy dorms - they only sleep and sometimes eat at the dorm; and have their graduation party there - all skills have to be gained at community lots. Of course they will probably arrive at Uni with some skills.
Social interactions are the most important part of Uni to me, but I intensely dislike the Greek house thing (perhaps because we don't have those over here, but mostly because - pizza). I also dislike students staying in rented houses (another personal thing, I know).
So my dorms are really plain; but my other lots are, I think, relatively nice to visit.All of them have cafeterias and proper bathrooms. Then I also have student club lots - nature, film and literature, etc. and my students hang out there quite a lot
Mad Poster
#9 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 4:13 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
Community lots useless on campus? I bet you complain about Uni going on too long, too, simmer 22! Community lots are great for meeting people, skilling, and making the semester go faster, if nothing else.


I actually loved playing Uni back in the days. Had some of my most interesting families starting from there, and most of my sims then went to college, about 95-99% going out with an A and lots of new skill points. But I've never been a fan of the community lots in general because they save the game in places I don't want them to save, plus my game spent far too long loading them, so I skipped them wherever I could.

Basically it's just a habit I've taken with me from my early days of simming (looooooong loading times on a crappy laptop), and later because I hated that it saved residential lots (awful for the kind of storytelling I do, so all my story lots are residential).

In Uni, random sims come by anyway, and since all skilling can take place on the home lot if there's enough money to go around, I never saw much reason to use community lots there.

Also, from the tiny space available on the lot in the picture above, having an all-in-one community lot would be a great spacesaver (and timesaver, with less loading).
Instructor
#10 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 4:29 PM
Being as I just graduated High School, I completed a ton of tours and what not of prospective colleges over the past few years. (Also the fact that I live in a city with SIX universities!)

As many have said, I guess it depends on your play style. Although Peni was right when the whole 'purpose' is for socializing your YA sims and getting them ready for their adult lives. (Making all those friends and building those skills really does make climbing the career ladder a LOT easier, as I've found out.) Of course if you play with certain mods, this isn't really the case.
For one of my universities, I have a space sectioned off with just community lots. I'll usually take a wider sized lot, (a 5-by-2 or a 5-by-3) and just create a strip of shops and places. There's a lounge/bar, a boutique, and a restaurant as well. Again, it's however creative you'd like to make your Uni 'hood. Not all colleges are the same in terms of atmosphere, so I prefer to mix it up. Maybe a small campus with a little shopping village, or perhaps a university in the midst of a bustling downtown. I play with the Inteen Flavor Pak that allows grads to continue to live on campus, so sometimes I'll add some residential lots on the side if I'd like the school to be surrounded by an actual town as well.

I usually have a few spots for socializing, because for me I get bored of sending sims to the same place on campus all the time just to talk to people. A lounge or a bar, restaurant, and then I'll add a Student Center, which features fun activities and a place to sit and talk. Student Centers are an easy way to pack a lot of things into one- You can socialize, build fun, and skills all within the same building. Throw in a few comfy chairs, a television, a bookshelf, and some separate rooms for other activities and you've got everything you need!
I also usually include places to shop (a "Campus Bookstore," or a quick convenience store,) a gym/pool, (The campus' "Athletic Center,") a park or field of some sort, a coffee shop (easy date location, or a good spot to do some assignments,) and a cafeteria option, which is super easy to make without a ton of hassle. Put in a ton of plastic tables and chairs and a kitchen.

Honestly, it all depends. I prefer Universities to be fully immersive to allow YA sims to get away from their doldrum lives back home, and to experience certain things they otherwise wouldn't have time for with a full-time job or family. I embrace the YA stage, yet I play with 36 hour semesters too. If it's not your thing, that's OK. Just plop down a few community lots that you feel would be necessary for the way you play, or the theme you're going for in your College Town.
Mad Poster
#11 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 4:48 PM
The lots in the shipped universities are all Way Too Big. I hardly ever go to those, myself. They take too long to load, they're badly laid out, and by the time the active sim can walk over to the person he wants to greet, that person's already left the lot. The parks are all right (poor LFT, no park!), but pretty much everything else that came with the game just needs to be bulldozed and replaced. But that's not a consideration when building your own university.

That's why the lots on LGU max at 3x3 and are laid out to have clear concentrations of activity and What's This objects close to the portal. It's true there's not much space left in Florentzina's neighborhood after putting down 24 dorms (which seems like Way Too Many to me, but we have wildly different playstyles so my opinion is invalid), but it's amazing what you can fit on a fairly small lot and doubling up so that the coffeeshop is also a performance venue is also a date venue is also a store could get everything onto that map.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
Scholar
Original Poster
#12 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 4:49 PM Last edited by Florentzina : 21st Jul 2016 at 5:01 PM.
I wanted to have a few community lot because I wanted my sims to socialize and sometimes study OUTSIDE dorm and without going to the main hood or squeezed into the dorms. (which I use plop down maxi ones, I dont play greekhouses nor residental). But I can't go too small on the lots as this is a large hood with up to 20 visitors on a lot. So all function squeezed in a small lot or a wide spaced lot wont work. My laptop cannot handle lots over 3x3 and thats with the graphicrulermaker. The lots get laggy and flickering if going TOO big, while too small get a bit cramped. Managing sims are easier than lots for for the laptop.

I think I have place for 8 community lots at most at 2x2 or vertical 2x3 lots or four 3x3 lots. (Dont like when everything is too cramped).

(PS: I have never studyied college so Im not so familiare with it other than from movies/dramas. I did live in a dorm, but it was more a boarding home for people with diagnoses like autism/aspberger to prepare for "real life" with the "teachers" guiding. Not really much studying there and I quitted withing a half year due to personal reasons. )

Peni Griffin:
Well, Ive many sims and dont play 8 student in one dorm, so I prefer concentrate on dorms than community lots. The cas earned from the BAC twist took 25% of the available spots. (For my founders I tweaked bacc for my own taste. I borrowed the Cas for 100sims as my hood dont have townies). .
Mad Poster
#13 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 4:57 PM
I once made a tiny university campus on an island. The idea was that it was the only place to go to study after a huge flood had destroyed most of SimNation/the world. It only offered two majors - Medicine and Education - and it was very expensive to study there, and sims had o pay travel costs as well as tuition fees and living costs.

As far as lots were concerned, it had two small dorms (one for each major), a small lecture hall (I don't like not having at least one lot that YA's could conceivably be going to when they go to class) and a tiny park, with trees/shrubs and a fallen log bench. The main point of the park was that it was a convenient woohoo location (with ACR sims can woohoo on sofas/benches) and it was a place to go during dates to reroll wants, if required.
Mad Poster
#14 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 5:05 PM
Yeah, 8 lots should be plenty. Coffee shop/performance venue easily fits on a 2 x 3 lot. A two-story Student Union with a store below (selling everything and therefore having changing rooms to woohoo in) and a cafeteria and some arcade games above would fit on a two-by-two lot. The library can also be multi-story and have a computer lab, chess club room, and classroom space. A gym can have a swimming pool, showers, and hot tub on the bottom floor and exercise machines on the top; even basketball on the roof if you get a high fence around it. For outdoor relaxation, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of tiny (1 x 3) lots with hot tub, fishing pond, grill, and a restroom building; on a 2x2 lot you'd have room for chess and a telescope.

I've been thinking in terms of things from the University EP specifically, but later expansions also have good items for college, and custom content like the Sun and Moon crafting stations are also suitable for college. Budding entrepreneurs could take Vocational Education and built stock and badges - if you only have a single sample of each crafting station, and have multi-story buildings, that wouldn't take up much space either. Items made on a community lot like this go into the maker's inventory normally - I've tried this at Drama Acres with the robot station, and I bet it works with the Sun and Moon stations, too.

Ugly is in the heart of the beholder.
(My simblr isSim Media Res . Widespot,Widespot RFD: The Subhood, and Land Grant University are all available here. In case you care.)
The Great AntiJen
retired moderator
#15 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 5:13 PM
Both Redbrick and Metropolitan are custom built because I wanted a particular look and feel for each one. What you need depends on what you want to do. Personally, I like community lots and both Little Carping's unversities have plenty. I usually have a main building with a shop, refectory (cafeteria for our US cousins), coffee shop, a study area with computers, phone booth (to buy a mobile) and various other things appropriate for somewhere like that. I have a swimming pool and gym and library (both with coffee shops), a shopping street (Redbrick) or centre/mall (Metropolitan) with a clothes shop, grocery, electronics shop (games), newsagent, cafe and internet cafe (a favourite thing). I also add a laundrette/laundry - non-functional but in my own student life, I spent a significant amount of time in laundrettes so it just seems right to me. I suspect most universities provide washing machines nowadays - I know ours does. You only really need a grocery if your sims are living independently because they'll need to stock up on food. I mostly play in dorms/halls of residence now so that's not typically necessary. Night clubs and bars are necessary and Redbrick has a nice little church.

Both universities also have a student union building (refectory, bar, games, music practice space, dance space) and my personal quirk I think - an accommodation office. I use these for a specific purpose when moving sims to university (I change their clothes and appearance and set up various bits and pieces) and I wrote a tutorial for those over in the tutorial section here. I also added a science and arts faculty to each university with skilling objects and lecture halls.

I no longer come over to MTS very often but if you would like to ask me a question then you can find me on tumblr or my own site tflc. TFLC has an archive of all my CC downloads.
I'm here on tumblr and my site, tflc
Mad Poster
#16 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 6:10 PM Last edited by gazania : 21st Jul 2016 at 6:46 PM.
Quote: Originally posted by Peni Griffin
You don't need the mod for community skilling in a University subhood! Skilling is already enabled. As is buying clothes on a non-owned community lot!

Community lots useless on campus? I bet you complain about Uni going on too long, too, simmer 22! Community lots are great for meeting people, skilling, and making the semester go faster, if nothing else.

LGU showcases the lots I feel are important. Minimum, you need one dorm, a gym, a library, a store, a performance space, a date location, a cafeteria, a Secret Society lot, and a coffeeshop. Student residences and Greek Houses are nice but not essential if you enjoy dorm play. Some of these can double up - most community lots on campus should have a small cafeteria and caffeine for those occasions when you want to eat up semester hours and simulate the college experience by making students stay out all night. Woohoo locations should also be provided as this is an important part of education, and it's always nice to have plausible classroom buildings that are also entertaining to visit. Many of them can justifiably by duplicated - LGU has three performance spaces (the Hipster Quad, the Just Off Campus Lounge, and Just Off Campus Coffee) that are also student leisure hang-outs, and an arts building with practice rooms for the performing arts and studios for the plastic arts; two physical education spaces (the Gym and the Swim Center); multiple stores selling groceries, clothing, electronics, magazines, and games in different combinations; a Liberal Arts building devoted to charisma building and general study; and woohoo locations ranging from "Fanny's Private Tutoring" (a den of vice on the opposite side of the river from campus) to the hot tub element of the Fluid Dynamics Lab on top of the Science Building and the changing booths in the Big Box store (for students who have absolutely no sense of style at all!).

The important consideration is: Fun places to skill and connect with other students. Because those three things - fun, skill, social connections - are what University's all about.


Ooh ... that den of vice. Beau Broke made quite a bit of money owning one in his last year or so at Uni ... didn't even break a sweat over tuition, and he lived in one of my nicest custom dorms, with all sorts of custom amenities college students could only dream of. Sims just couldn't resist going to his business for their woo-hoo needs. (I do have ACR, though.)

Before I had some fun with community lots, I thought that Uni was boring as anything, too. I got inspired by going to my kids' real-life college town areas after I dropped them off. (They did not board on campus due to money issues, and we shared a car, which I'd use for various transactions in the area, working around my kids' schedules. That was one thing I missed once my son got his car while he was still in college. There are some nifty places in these towns.) Perhaps those considering college town amenities can also do the same ... Google some college towns, using either your local Uni or a well-known one in an area, and see what businesses open there.

Thanks to ALL free-site creators, admins and mods.

RIP Sunni ... truly a ray of light.
Forum Resident
#17 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 6:23 PM
This thread would pop up after I decided to completely renovate Sim State University...

For my physical health, I can't eat cheesecake everyday.
For my mental health, I imagine eating cheesecake everyday.
It's a delicate balance.
Mad Poster
#18 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 8:50 PM Last edited by simmer22 : 24th Jul 2016 at 12:21 AM.
Maybe I'm just so used to a different college/university/school setup. On my school everything was in one building - you went to the lecture halls or class rooms, group rooms, computer rooms, school library, or just hung about in the cafeteria area, or (at evenings, though I never did) a student-run bar in the basement. If I wanted to work out (not that I ever did), or go to the movies, or go shopping, I had to go to the regular town center. I know some of the larger cities have university areas with whateveritis aside from lecture halls, but I've never visited them so I have no clue how they're set up.

Aside from that - my sims had plenty of fun and socializing, even if they mostly stayed in their uni-home. I usually sent off a bunch of teenagers, stuck them in a dorm or small house, and watched the chaos unfold (as long as they also got their grades, that is).
Lab Assistant
#19 Old 21st Jul 2016 at 9:03 PM
My sim college has none since I speed up college. But as I'm a real life university student, too, I definitly need a library (or more since at my university they are topic specific) and the cantine. Since sim college is a little different than what I'm used to, I would also build a supermarket and a cloth store (or combining them). My university also offers free sport programs, so maybe a gym or swimming hall (or both combined).
If I would be good at building and wanted some art/culture activities, I would also build the castle which is the main building of my university. If your sim students don't go to your downtown what about a bar? Students and alcohol are basically twins seperated at birth :D
Top Secret Researcher
#20 Old 22nd Jul 2016 at 2:03 AM
maxon, I love your idea of an accommodation office. One of the first things I do is change their clothes and hair.
On one of my university lots I have the student union building, where they can, theoretically, meet potential partners and secret society members, and it includes somewhere to eat, play bowls, play music and have coffee. Also at that university I have a park which includes a skating rink. Most of my Sims, however, tend to stay in the dorms.
On another university lot I have schools of art and sport where likeminded Sim students can indulge in their interests.
Instructor
#21 Old 22nd Jul 2016 at 2:13 AM
Quote: Originally posted by lauratje86
As far as lots were concerned...a small lecture hall (I don't like not having at least one lot that YA's could conceivably be going to when they go to class)

I was hoping I wasn't the only one who did this!!
Makes the campus look more like a campus, in my opinion.
Lab Assistant
#22 Old 22nd Jul 2016 at 3:15 AM
I used to despise playing uni, I was terrified of entering college and didn't want to be reminded of that anxiety whenever I played. But now that it's a part of my real life it's now a part of my simmies as well. (Tho I still don't have my sims pay for tuition, cause that is an anxiety I will never get over). So now I base my sims college experience with my own. No greek houses. Smaller scaled replicas of dorms around campus. Same hang out areas (pub, gym, study cafe, library). I haven't gotten around to building anything, but I should really get on that considering I only have 2 rounds before I have my first college student lol
Scholar
#23 Old 22nd Jul 2016 at 4:14 AM
My smallest college is the Duality map that you can choose when creating a custom 'hood. It has like 2 five room dorms and a few buildings for recreation.

"Oh look, my grandchild is now an elder. They grow up so fast. Gee, I wonder when I'll finally graduate college." Sims 2
Forum Resident
#24 Old 22nd Jul 2016 at 4:42 AM
Quote: Originally posted by deadhead_kay
(Tho I still don't have my sims pay for tuition, cause that is an anxiety I will never get over).


Oh, sorry, pardon me, could you repeat that? I couldn't quite catch that, what with the abhorrent sound of me coughing up my kidney so I could afford university.

Nah, but really, I feel you. My Sims don't have to pay a thing for their pixel educations either, otherwise I think I'd need therapy... It's just... no... Bad place, no thank you.

"God created dinosaurs. God destroyed dinosaurs. God created Man. Man destroyed God. Man created dinosaurs.

Dinosaurs eat man...Woman inherits the earth."

- Michael Crichton, Jurassic Park


My Simblr | Hadi Family Tree
Inventor
#25 Old 22nd Jul 2016 at 6:30 AM Last edited by music2ologist : 22nd Jul 2016 at 6:46 AM.
When I was a student (many years ago) under a Labour government university tuition was free. My local authority paid a grant that covered my board and lodging on campus, so I just needed holiday jobs for pocket money and to pay my book bill. Happy days!

Anyway, I too am opposed to making things rough for my pixels. When a sim first arrives at university he claims his dorm room, locks his door, plays with creativity items - musical instruments or easels - eats lunch and goes to his first lecture. Then it's off to the coffee shop to buy his mobile phone, greet the secret society member standing by the portal, and try out his sexual alignment on other students. Home for dinner, any necessary bookwork, and bed.

The second day he will normally visit the sports field, where there is a log-rolling pit for making fast friends, an axe-throwing target for building strength, and a tai-chi vase on a pedestal for restoring lost comfort and energy. If his lecture happens during that visit, he can have the same lecture again back at the dorm, which saves having to write term papers.

The third day will normally be a visit to the university library, which is a place to stay all day, as it has loos and showers and a cafeteria with a Shiny-Time stove, so a cook will turn up and provide free food. Here he can study, use computers, play chess or mah-jong, and generally socialise. In the evening he might visit the pub, which has music and a restaurant, and a bedroom out the back - a good place for a date.

That's about it, really - four community lots, all small. The library and the coffee shop are both 2 x 2, the pub and the sports field are 3 x 3. There is no point in having a graveyard for dead students, because the Hood Checker will move all graves to the main neighborhood graveyard. There will be dead students, partly because I have a habit of locking up cow pranksters till they starve, and because there is a cowplant at the secret society. My secret society is modified to include all the really useful career rewards - the bookcase, the putting course, the punch bag, the guitar, the golden idol, the Gugenheim award. That is the fifth community lot, for popularity sims who can get there. For the others, my dorms are very luxurious. No-one has to queue for the bathroom, as each room has an en-suite bathroom. There is a swimming pool out back, for working off the blues after writing a term paper. My students have a good time.
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