I've started a new legacy (actually a triple legacy with 3 families in a custom hood) and this is the first time I've been using a time syncer to play the families equal days.

Now I'm starting to have my first teens who want to go to college.

I wonder how other players incorporate the college time into the main neighborhood time. After how many days do you send your teens to college, and how many days do you play the main neighborhood before you let the former college student return after graduation.

And maybe someone has experience with other time-syncing issues I might not have encountered yet, but should keep my eyes on? I also haven't used the community-lot time syncer yet, anyone any experience with that? Because it does add to realistic passing of time I am quite curious about it.

Last edited by appelsapgodin : 18th Nov 2009 at 10:29 PM.

I tend to play each lot in my 'hood for a Sim week, Monday to Monday. When a Sim is going to go to college, I only let them be teens for usually five days, then I send them to Uni. Once they move out to Uni, they become a separate "household," and they go to the bottom of the rotation list. When I get down to playing them, I play their freshman and sophomore years in one stretch, then move on to the next lot in the rotation. When the Uni kid comes up again, I play their junior and senior years in one stretch, then graduate them and move them back to the Sim bin. When they come up again in the rotation, they move in wherever I have them planned to live in the main 'hood.

This seems to keep the ages pretty much in sync. I sometimes run into a problem where a non-college-bound teen sibling of a Uni kid is ready to transition to adult before their older sibling graduates. Usually, I'll just age back the teen sibling (Using Insim's feature to add days to a life stage) a bit so that he/she won't become an adult until the Uni sibling is back home or in his/her new household as an adult. Or sometimes I'll play the Uni sibling a bit longer so that he/she gets back to the main 'hood a rotation faster, whichever works better in the particular situation.

When I send my Sim to college, I finish off with them the same day, thanks to this hack. Four real time days in Uni becomes four hours.

For rigorously synchronized neighborhoods, most time-related questions are best answered by the twin test: if you send one twin to Uni, how many days will it take for the twin left behind to reach adulthood?

In my custom neighborhood, I send my teens to Uni when they have 5 days left 'til adulthood, and play the neighborhood 5 days before they can return...even if they're dropouts. In the Megahood, I send them for 4 days (with 4 days left 'til adulthood).

Mangaroo, you're smart. I hadn't looked at it like that yet. I usually play my families 4 days in a row, but your method would indeed work seamlessly. The twin test, I like that term too.

iCad, thanks for the tip on the younger siblings.. I must indeed keep an eye on that.

Starmeat: You know I actually like playing college. It's the place my sims usually meet their future wifes/ husbands and usually have the first romantic interactions. If I want to skip-time I usually use InSim to shorten their semesters.

Personally, if I have situation where, say, one twin went to college and one didn't, then all time spent at college is equal to however many days the twin who didn't go has until s/he ages to an adult. Otherwise, college happens in a time warp, and therefore only takes a single day at most. Then again, I'm not all that strict about synchronization; I mostly just don't want someone's great-grandmother to end up younger than them.

I personally set one college year = one day in the main 'hood. I play both semesters of Freshman year, and then semesters 4, 6, and 8. With my Prosperity 'hood I set so each year lasts three sim days, Cresdale (a story-telling, 'hood) they stay in college as long as I need them to be there for (InTeen + Residential Graduates is also useful when I've got a sim who's graduated and I'm not sure if I'm going to need any college pictures in the immediate future), whereas general playing I speed to the final exam if I've gotten bored.

This is why I'm getting Sims 3. Then you won't have to worry about it because the game does it for you. Right?

I synchronize by season. Every household is played for one full season and rotated in turn of age. From oldest to youngest so they'll age appropriately. As for teens going to uni, I always wait till they're one day from adult. I pack up their entire bedroom and use the stuff for quick cash or to decorate their dorm. I use storytelling tool in the game to make notes and use snapshots to keep up with everyone and what they did last. Like relationships, pregnancy, marriage, and jobs.

I usually play until I loose my stride, dynamics or interest in the family- then I play their siblings, friends and lovers (or future lovers) until they reach the age I last left the first sim on. I also type every major change, story development and what I am supposed to toy with in the household description but I might start doing it in the sim description box.

Some people play with Sims, other people play with pudding.

QFT