First order of business: if you want to post story accounts of your megahood (who marries whom, who grabs up all the businesses, who ran away from home, etc.), please post in the far more popular thread What did you do with your Megahood?

This thread is more about logistics than specific storylines.

* Why do you play a megahood?
* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
* (this spot reserved for future questions. neener.)

In the gameplay style thread, ForeverCamp mentioned holding some bin families in reserve while playing Pleasantview, to allow for genetic diversity in later generations, which got me to thinking about the megahood and the fact that I put all Sims into play from the start, which means the first generation of teens to go to Uni get to interact with all the interesting Maxis students there, but then the original Uni population graduates and future generations have a much less engaging Uni experience. So I contemplated holding the binned students in reserve for the second wave (basically the child generation: Alexander Goth, the Burb and Smith girls, the Desiderata Valley and Belladonna Cove kids), but I'm having a hard time letting go of my philosophy that the megahood is about playing everyone from day one and that holding the binned students in reserve is somehow warping simtime and space.

So, to answer my own questions: when I play a Megahood, I play all neighborhoods, with all default subhoods attached. Major hacks: ACR and inteen. (Inteen changes my gameplay in ways I'm not entirely comfortable with. I'm too aware that it's there and feel like I "should" be using it, when all I really want are the risky sneakout and miscarriage features.) I begin by placing the bin families and playing them to start the inter-neighborhood socializing. I play with aging off except for Sundays, when age advances one day. I want the generations to advance, but slowly. Since constructing a megahood breaks the story prompts, I ignore them and focus on the household stories and the Sims' wants and fears and only tap into the Sim's bio if I have no other story developing for that Sim.

Oooh, great thread! I'm currently playing a smaller merged hood (Pleasantview + Strangetown) as a break from my Megahood, but I still really love it and might do a restart of it at some point


* Why do you play a megahood?

Because pre-made neighbourhoods are fun! I love creating my own as well, but after so many years of playing, those sims are like old friends to return to. There's also pre-mades that I never really had played again, and the Megahood is a good opportunity to discover everyone out there, and even better, have them all able to interact and form relationships, and exciting new pairings.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?

I haven't left out any of the main neighbourhoods on my first go, and attached the default universities (with all their sims) as well. I didn't attach the vacation hoods, as the Megahood is huge enough as it is, and they don't contain any 'canon' sims anyway.


* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?

I started out my Megahood by doing a complete makeover of all the hoods - that included all the sims, and the neighbourhood terrains! (You can find pics on my LJ if you're interested) I didn't add in any custom Sims, as there are plenty to go around, but I did place all the bin families immediately.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?

Maxis match all the way They're Maxis sims, they've got a certain look already. I try to update that look, not completely change it.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?

I enjoy watching a neighbourhood evolve (and seeing all those kiddies running around, turning into teens, falling in love, starting families of their own...) so I definitely play with aging on. Families are played for one week, monday 9am to monday 9am the next week. One week is one season on my game, which makes it easy to check who has been played and who hasn't yet: just hover over the house to see what season a family is in.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?

I follow the Maxis pre-set storylines, as they're 'canon' in my hoods, but I do give my own twist to them. I see them as starting points for my hood story, but not as set in stone. Cassandra might get hitched to Don, but there's no reason why she can't leave him later, when she's found him sleeping with the maid.


I'm thinking the Megahood is huge enough to provide enough genetic variety. Playables and townies make for a very large pool after all, and playing the 'hood is such a slow process (so many families!) that I wouldn't run into 'everyone being related to everyone else' anytime soon.
If I were to restart, I'd probably turn the university Sims into dormies, and put down the bin families, then see which families I'm really not interested in playing (and have no family ties with other families) and turn those into extra townies. This should assure a large enough pool to draw from

The last time I've started a megahood, it was Tarlia's with BC as main 'hood and all families from the bin already placed (including the two lots coming with Pets). I've only played my own sims and the pre-mades when they "forced" me to. Vacation hoods were added when I need them (Twikii Island so far).
Started with a small house, played for about a week until the family got the third child and moved to a bigger home, put in the next family and started to play in rotations and so on. Pre-mades got makeovers when they played themselves into my families like Gabriel Gaissert who got engaged to one of my sims (my sim moved in with Gabriel and his friend), another sim moved to a big apartment and asked Goopy and some others to share it as room mates. I'm not very strict but I prefer Maxis match, my main focus is that it should match the sim's personality and/or image.
I was never very eager to play the pre-set storylines but I like to have them all around when I play, same with all the 'hoods and their community lots.
Aging works the usual way, every day at 6pm, but I have expanded life spans and my days lasts twice as long.

Since I tend to buy "lower end" computers, I have always been wary of a mega hood. I do like the idea of all hoods in one...gawd, that would reduce on the loadtime.

So, my question is how would it affect overall gameplay? If one megahood is a bit slow to load, but includes all the subhoods in one, I think it might be an option for me.

Subhoods take a while to load as well, though I'm not sure how it compares to loading up a completely different 'hood.

I recently started playing the Ultra Megahood-which is fun!
Now to the questions:

* Why do you play a megahood?
Because I like the idea of having all the sims in all the neighborhoods.

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?

I have only the main neighborhoods, but I don't use all of them in the game. I don't like playing subhoods because I forget about them, especially Uni with it's odd time-line system.

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?

What I've done is taken all of the playables out of their own neighborhoods and put them in one-PV with a complete template makeover of the neighborhood. However, I have put my self-sim into the neighborhood to see what will happen to "me". I think I have enough families to deal with now!

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Makeovers are realistic. I use realistic skintones, and default clothing replacements.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?

I'm trying to do a rotation play, but boy, is it hard with 50+ families! I never turn off aging, because if these families have babies, the parents will be the same age as the kids in about 20 Sim years! Rather disturbing.

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?

I normally don't follow any of the storylines; in fact, I just took all of them out of my own "preplanned" set up, put in my own version of a starter house, and reduced everyone's starting money to $12,000 simeoleons. I want to see who actually prospers and who doesn't-leveling the playing field is a good way to really make them work for a living!

I attached all vacation and unis. Place the bin families or make them townies depending on which family it is. Makeovers tend to be maxis match for the most part. I use the sim blender's aging options to keep certain sims around longer for strategic purposes (mainly elders who i need genetic code from for certain storylines) I play in a sequence like dominoes so whatever actions one family takes that effects another i immediately play that next family to move along the storyline on a broader sense. Storyline wise it's hit or miss depending on what i feel this version should be.

A good question to ask that you forgot is that because it's a merged hood and such alot of dead sims can be brought back that aren't available to be brought back in the regular version of the hood. So that effects storyline immensely for me if i decide to bring back a whole lot of them. I tend to do that because Bella Goth is walking around and i feel if she's got a second chance then so should some others like Skip Broke and Darleen Dreamer. Then there are some who still can only be brought back by toying in SimPE like Michael Bachelor and Lyla Grunt.

* Why do you play a megahood?

So my Sims have the ability to move to a different hood & get to know Sims from all over their world. This helps to increase genetic diversity ...

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?

I play the Uber Megahood with everything included. I mostly use Belladonna Cove & Bluewater Village just for shopping. The Sims I'm playing the most live in Pleasantville, Downtown, and Desiderata Valley, or else they're in college. I never send anybody to Sim State University, as it seems to be infested with roaches.

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?

I got rid of some premade Sims & families I didn't like. I've downloaded a few Sims & made Sims of myself, my husband, and a few famous people. I shoot for as much genetic diversity as possible. One of the Sims I downloaded evidently carries a gene for prematurely gray hair ... his son and his grandson went gray while still in their teens. His own hair never turned gray until he became an elder.

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?

My self-Sim's daughter was born in the game, I changed her hair from brown to blonde to match the way it is in real life. Other than that, I've never done makeovers.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?

I sometimes turn aging off for Sims who haven't hooked up with their baby daddy or baby mama yet. Once they do, the clock starts ticking!

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?

Well, Don Lothario was one of the Sims I got rid of so ... I had Cassandra marry Darren Dreamer. I tend to make up my own stories.

Why do you play a megahood?
I like having all the pre-mades living in one giant neighborhood and all the possible romantic matches and storylines that can come from it.

Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
I attach everything.

How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
I move all the families in and then play everybody one day at a time to do makeovers for the sims and their houses.

If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Depends on the sim. I choose whatever makes them look the way I want them to based on their personalities and aspirations.

How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
I always have aging on. I never liked it when my sims didn't age in TS1.

Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
Not usually. I try and hook them up with their triple bolt match (or double bolt if they roll a want for them). Sometimes that works with the storyline and sometimes it doesn't.

*Why do you play a megahood?*

Well, I haven't technically started playing a megahood yet, but I shall be starting to play HP's Uber-Megahood soon :-)

*Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?*

I intend to play with everything attached - all the neighbourhoods, all the universities (and probably also Mootilda's Brainania , because it's awesome), Downtown and all the Bon Voyage destinations.

*How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?*

I plan on placing all the bin families and giving everyone makeovers and making over houses during an initial 24-sim-hour rotation, then playing it with a 7-sim-day rotation 6 for the second round, to make up for the initial 24-hour rotation).

*If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?*

I use a special style called stuff-I-like style :-D If I like it, I download it, and if I download it I try to use it! I have some Maxis-matchy stuff, some more realistic.

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?*

Oh, I definitely want it to progress, so I'll certainly be playing it with aging on.

*Do you follow the known story prompts*

I sincerely doubt that I will. I intend to pair sims up with the sims they roll wants to pair up with, or sims that they have 2/3 bolts with. ACR ought to help me with that! We'll see how that goes though. If there are sims I really want to pair up, I will pair them up, regardless of whether they want to be together or are particularly attracted to each other :-)

*Other stuff that mangaroo didn't ask about but I want to mention anyway in the hope it will start discussion and give me more ideas for when I start my megahood :-)*

I plan to use some of the ideas I've mentioned/developed in other threads to help make my Uber-Megahood more like a community and less like a bunch of sims who happen to live close together. I'm working on an idea of how to hold "elections", I plan to have one or two 'titled' families who hold some power in the 'hood (definitely the Goths, not sure who else, if anyone), tax will be collected to fund community lots (as well as individual sims/families buying/owning community lots), I will be including "religion" as developed for my Brookes family legacy, I'll incorporate some of my class structure ideas from my green-skin-good 'hood, banish all families with green-skinned family members to Strangetown (idea shamelessly nicked from someone who posted in the Megahood storyline thread!) and a few other things as well. Does anyone else do anything like these things in their megahood? I plan to write up all my "rules" before I start playing, and I hope to get comments, suggestions, ideas etc from people here so I can get them how I want them before I start playing! :-)

* Why do you play a megahood?
Because I really like the maxis made hoods and families but they get kinda boring

* Do you leave out any of the main neighborhoods? Do you attach all the default vacation and uni subhoods?
Nope I add all of them I usually edit them some (ETC.my first megahood befor I had to restart everything in my game I had moved all people out of bluewater and made it where only shops could be there all people had to live in a town and all shops had to be in the shopping district

* How do you start your megahood? Do you place all the bin families, makeover your favorite families, plop down a custom Sim who will interact with the Maxis population?
I makeover all the premade famiilies with kinda maxis match but I also try and make sure not to many people have the same exact hair or outfit cause whats the possibility in that happening? For the bin families I put them in groups and roll a die to see what 2 families get added per generation and what town they live in. I dont usually add custom sims. After I put all my lot bin sims in I might make more families to put there but I havent got that far yet

* If you're doing makeovers, what's your style? Maxis match? Realistic?
Just answered above

* How do you handle time in your megahood? Do you play with aging off, so you never lose the iconic Maxis Sims, or are you eager to see what the neighborhood looks like in two to three generations with aging on?
I keep aging on because its annoying off when you try and make them have babies. I usually play them all a week at a time. When one sim ages I typically age some of his friends with him. I keep all teens in my town until the day before they turn into an adult so I can have them all go to Uni together

* Do you follow the known story prompts (i.e., Cassandra and Don's failed wedding, Vidcund Curious's alien encounter), the storylines suggested by the Sims' biographies and family (lot) stories, or make up your own?
Sometimes I follow them whil other times I completly change them

I've been writing up some "rules" for my Uber-megahood, and would love to get people's comments, suggestions etc to help me perfect it (as best I can!) before I start playing properly (I'm still doing makeovers and getting sims ready to move into their new houses).

The rules ended up kind of long, so I've attached them as a Word document. If you get the chance to read them, please let me know what you think!

I have drawn on this thread and many many others for ideas, but I'm sure there are more things I haven't thought of yet! :-)

Because otherwise I'd have to choose which neighborhood to play. This way I either play one of my own neighborhoods, which are usually set up for challenges, or I play the megahood (I play Tarlia/meetme2theriver's) This hood ships with everything except for the BV hoods attached which I do attach, on the base of Belladonna Cove. Since it is a cleaned up hood it loads faster than HP's hood, which I did play before--among other things there are fewer dead, only the PV townies and NPCs, and those with relationships with sims in other hoods. One of the things I really like about this hood is that meetme2theriver put in the time and effort to add recessive genetics that make sense, and fix various issues i.e. Peter Ottomas has a recessive blond gene that makes Sharla's blond hair possible, Brandi Broke has a recessive blond that make Dustin and Beau possible and her pregnancy is fixed.
I follow some of the prompts, but mostly dictated by the sims' own wants and fears. Vidcund usually wants to be abducted by aliens, so does Lazlo.
I don't have Don Lothario marry Cassandra Goth, but I also usually orchestrate things so that she catches him cheating and does not realize her fear of being left at the altar. Many of my weddings are dictated in part by social status of the sims--where you go to university is dictated, much like real life, by your own capabilities and by whether your family can afford it: the barrier for ALT is very high--8 scholarships, private school, and A+ at graduation or private school and 20K tuition fee payable on admission, SSU requires an A+ and four scholarships, and LFT will take anyone who managed to graduate high school. I'm still thinking about how jobs ought to be controlled by where you went to school. Politics should require ALT to reach the top level, I think, maybe business as well . . . not sure about the others. ALT students have several serious advantages--they get career rewards to skill on in their dorm, they have a maid, and since I have the no20khandout hack, they'll also have a financial advantage when they leave school thanks to the tuition/scholarship requirement if they aren't moving in with their folks. LFT I want to be an actual tech school--so thinking about how to work that. For the sciences, to reach the top level those sims will have to go to SSU or ALT, I think. Haven't quite figured that one out yet, but I've got a few uni rotations before I have to know. Also haven't figured out transfers between schools, though I think I'm going to allow them with certain conditions--maybe if you get on academic probation at ALT or SSU you transfer to LFT if you don't want to drop out, but it should be possible to move up at least one school as well, and I'm not sure under what conditions to allow it. Many of my sims roll the good grades wants, so I can't just base it on having a 4.0 or every knowledge, fortune, or family sim (or sim with those as a secondary) would end up at ALT. Having a 4.0 and being bf with an ALT alumni might work. I've determined that certain premade adults went to ALT, mainly those whose children will be attending there by virtue of having more money then any sim needs.
What jobs a sim can take are determined by where they live, and if you have any known alien blood you are required by law to live in Strangetown. Weather varies by hood.
I do kick out all the sims from the apartments in order to avoid generating the apartment townies. I don't need more townies, and my playables marry playables. Townies that exist are aged down and used for adoption as needed.
I start with everyone, getting sims sorted out, clothes and hair fixed (I use a similar style to Lauratje's--stuff Sunny likes, though I think it's more realistic than Maxis-match), some families relocated as appropriate. Most of the bin families get their own houses, but the Veronaville bin families move in with their relatives and the houses get expanded and more fortified looking (because how would you defend the Monty's house against a fly). It doesn't seem reasonable to me that either family would have family members leaving due to the feud. Stay in the family compound where you're safe. I also make over a lot of community lots, usually as I need them, for weather proofing, things for sale that shipped with later expansions (jewelry, pets, cell phones) cc things (greeting cards and parking lots).
I try to play all the Uni sims through a school year before I bring in the first high school graduates, so that I have a more realistic age assortment at uni, which starts off very loaded with freshmen. I just put in Inteen, which with the configuration I have means sims graduate high school at eighteen and if they're going to college I'm going to have them go then. This seems moderately more balanced to me--sims who don't go to college get extra days as independent teens, sims who do go to college get those days. Because I just reinstalled my OS--went from XP to 7, I'm restarting this hood as well, so I'm aging down the premade teens and their relatives when appropriate to give them a chance (Tybalt, Mercutio, Johnny, Ophelia for sure, probably some others). I suppose in a couple rotations the uni's will be somewhat depleted, but after that my own baby-boom will surely fill them right back up. Last time I had something over eighty kids born in the first rotation--which was a one season rotation. I'm apparently a bit genetics obsessed. All sims will produce at least one offspring, but I'm perfectly happy to let my family sims have their houseful.
I do play with aging on. I'm interested to see what the next generation will look like, and I don't have a problem with letting the elders die off. I do have a community lot graveyard, none of the premade ghosts are permaplat and even without the premade ghosts, I'm going to end up with a lot of ghosts.
I don't put other sims in--well, I extracted the tutorial sims once and put them in, but I don't think I'll go through the work for that again, I don't think I saved them when I reinstalled.

Oooh, I like that idea! I had planned to just use one university (probably Sim State), but this would make it more interesting, and fits in well with the social classes in my game. I do intend to charge tuition fees for all students, but maybe I'll vary them according to which university they attend, and include scholarship requirements as well, which can only be overcome if the parents donate to the university. Good idea, thanks for mentioning it! :-)



That is a good idea. I may nick this idea too :-D Or I may go with my original idea of having the main-men from my other Top 5 families (Goths, Landgraabs, DeBateaus, Montys and Capps) persuade Patrizio and Whatsisface to end their feud, for the good of the group.



Generally all my sims breed (sometimes ending up with quite a few kiddies) but in my Megahood I plan to roll a number between 1-100 to potentially designate some sims as infertile. Then they will only be able to have babies using IVF (for infertile female sims) or by using a sperm donor to get their female sim partner pregnant and being designated as the father of the resulting baby using Simblender. Both of these options will cost quite a lot, so won't be an option for poorer families, which should stop the "all sims must breed" thing that I tend to do!

When I play Megahoods, I generally play a base games 'hood with Downtown. I seldom attach any sub-hoods, unless they figure into the planned storyline. I play in a rotation, starting with the base pre-mades, who go into houses in their proper 'hoods, then the generic binned families, who go Downtown. They get money cheats, or not, in accord with their family story. The Singles don't, the Albany Capps do and the Cornwall Capps don't, but Cornwall and Regan get jobs via SimPE. I add in the housed families as their start day rolls around, counting the weekend starters at the end of the week and the Goths at the start of week two. I have a loose story plan for the overall play and work the neighborhood and lot stories supplied by Maxis within it (i.e., everyone is aware of the Capp-Monty feud even though it is secondary to the overall storyline). Because everyone gets a Welcome Wagon and the most common Wagon is Morty, Bella, and a local, the Goths become my social hub. I play with the Inge Jones aging hack (but I like your age on Sunday idea). I want to have half a seasonal rotation before anyone but babies and toddlers age so that everyone meets. The Elders slated to die within the first few days only get an extra day or two. I also use a replacement pregnancy controller by Chris Hatch that allows teen pregnancies, with parental anger added, without Inteen. I don't do makeovers, I'm a middle-aged man and could care less about the hair and clothes. I do build new community lots. The most important part is to drive the main storyline. I follow the prompts (if they still play) at the start, then see where the characters fit in from there on. Their bio provides the key: General Grunt can be the Hero in a monster outbreak, an irritating extra, or an evil enforcer in a repressive government story.

Thanks so much for sharing your rules. I forgot to tell you earlier how much I appreciate your publishing your rules on your weebly.

I'm left with some questions re: the methods you're using to accomplish some of the goals, like the random chance of miscarriage. Is there a debug option to end pregnancies? (I still want the needs-based Inteen miscarriages without having to use inteen, darnit!)

Also, if I'm reading the Uni bit correctly, I think you've come up with a really elegant solution to the problem of how Uni fits in with a neighborhood rotation. (Oh, wait, I just got bogged down with how to feed students into Uni using a rotation. GAH! I am doomed to continue syncing down to the day.)

Thank you very much for commenting on them! :-D I was starting to wonder if anyone was actually reading them. People's ideas really help me develop my ideas, which is extremely helpful! :-)

You are most welcome. I'm happy to share! :-) I have nicked, borrowed and adapted so many things from other people's ideas that I like to be able to share the resulting rules/ideas with people who may be able to use (some of) them. And of course if someone adapts my ideas and shares them with people one day I may end up adapting their adaptations :-D When I have time (stupid assignment's getting in the way of me playing Sims....) I shall post my new set of rules on the new Weebly I plan to set up for my Uber-Megahood :-) They've gotten quite a bit longer since I started the Brookes family Weebly![/QUOTE]



I muself do use Inteen, but without the needs-based miscarriage flavor pak - mainly because the first time I downloaded it I didn't read the documentation properly, didn't realise what that pak did, and was quite shocked and upset when one of my sims totally randomly (for me, at least) had a miscarriage. So I don't want that in my game. Inteen does, iirc, have the possibility to "trigger" a miscarriage even without that flavor pak installed, which is what I'll be doing for any sims who roll to miscarry. Iirc it gives them the bed memory for it as well as the drop in needs and mood, so it's different ("better"?) to/than just ending the pregnancy using Simblender or whatever.

What other methods of accomplishing goals are you wondering about (if any)?



I think I'm going to change the uni bit, as I've decided to play a 1-day rotation instead of a 1-week one. So I will send teens to uni with 1 day of teenhood remaining (my equivalent of age 18), then play with one year (2 semesters) for students = 1 day in the normal neighbourhood rotation, and then age them up by 3 days when they return to the main 'hood, so they're in effect 22 years old, and 4 years have passed for them as well as for any family and friends they have in the main 'hood. Shall see whether or not that works!

I also forgot to add a bit about supernatural 'inheritance' so shall add that bit to my rules when I have finished my assignment....

Oh, and I want to try to incorporate some of Sunbee's ideas about requirements for attending specific universities into my uni rules as well. especially the idea that different unis have different scholarship requirements and tuition fees. Good idea of Sunbee's, which I think will work well in my game when I've adapted it a bit to go with my current ideas on fees and taxes! :-)

Thanks you guys, I'm glad you like my uni set-up.
Lauratje, I just finally got around to reading your rules. I'm gonna take a wild guess that you're one of those folks who's good at organizing stuff! I couldn't keep up with something quite so complicated.
Couple things came to mind, in terms of the last section. Armand DeBateau has more wealth than the Capps or the Montys, if you want another noble family you might draft him. Why skip Mercutio over for the Monty heir? His dead father was Patrizio's oldest son, I'm pretty sure. I assume you've figured something out in regards to Kent's gender preference--that's why he doesn't get to inherit in my game: no one expects him to have kids so the house would pass to Tybalt anyway (oldest daughter's son). Then here come the aliens, but his kids still can't inherit because aliens have to live in Strangetown.
Something I do is that only certain towns recognize same sex unions. This may be too realistic for many, but suits me. Three towns allow them (Strangetown, Belladonna, Downtown), one doesn't allow them but recognizes those preformed elsewhere (Pleasantview), one's too busy dealing with their little war to consider the subject (Veronaville), and three absolutely won't allow them anytime soon (Desiderata, Bluewater, and Riverblossom).
Back to your rules. On the religion section, most religions are pretty forgiving of sins committed before converting. You might consider allowing later in life converts to be buried in the cathedral grave site if they've proven properly repentant. Also, most religious people give to their religion. You might consider a tithe (ten percent) for the cathedral. Perhaps to be buried there, for the repentant convert, they might leave all their worldly goods to the cathedral or something? It looks to me like a good portion of your financial system is designed to keep sims from being too wealthy.
Also, you're not going to have very many really working class sims to start with--particularly with the expansion packs EA was very free with the motherlodes. Most of your poor will be bin sims. This is fine, except of course that four of those families are Capps and Montys, which unless you let them be poor cuts down significantly on the working classes. When you take into account house values, for example, Gabriel Green and Chastity Gere, if I remember right, have over 70k. Just something to keep in mind. Most of the premades will be middle class, and upper middle class at that. This bugs the heck out of me in my game. Other sims that had ridiculous amounts of cash that come to mind are Geoff Rutherford and Connor Weir, who are supposedly just starting out in life, and the Greenmans. Maybe the Greenmans make sense, since plantsims don't 'need' anything, but Rose doesn't work, either.
Well, there are my thoughts, and they're probably worth what you paid for them!

I'm not remotely organized, actually, so it's going to be a challenge to keep track of everything! :-) But I'm going to give it a try - if I hate it I can always simplify things later on.

Ok, here goes. I checked the Wiki, and Patrizio's memories in game, and Claudio is actually Patrizio ad Isabella's youngest child. As his brother Antonio is the eldest son, his children get titles. Mercutio and Romeo, as sons of a non-firstborn son, will not have titles. I hadn't thought about Kent's gender preference. I see that he has a slight gender preference towards men. I shall probably make him bisexual, then, so that he can marry a woman and have children until he gets a male heir, and then possibly end up with a man, or not! If he doesn't have a male heir, the house will pass to his eldest sister's eldest son, which is actually Hal Capp, as Goneril is the eldest sibling.

I plan on having everyone living in Pleasantview to start with, with same-sex marriage legal, but depending on who gets elected I may change the laws on same sex marriages at some point.

I like the religion ideas! I may have to work out some form of repentance. Maybe something financial, or something else? Short on ideas there! And the tithing is a good idea too. I shall look into adding that.

I wrote up a list of all the household values. After the Goths, the richest household (after you sell his businesses) is Malcolm Landgraab IV. I think I'll just keep the 3 noble families though, as I want some very wealthy businessmen too, and he and Armand DeBateau fit that role quite well :-) I will redistribute wealth a bit to make the Capps and Montys a bit wealthier, especially Bianca Monty, who's going to run the orphanage. The Greenman's in my game are going to run a farm and a market stall selling fruit and vegetables, so they'll need the capital to get started! But yes, you're right, there will be a lot of middle class families, though I'm sure that'll change in future generations thanks to all my fees and taxes! :-)

Thanks for your suggestions Sunbee, they were helpful :-) Gave me some new ideas!

In my previous Megahoods, I've always fed to Uni based on the home hood, to preserve what I perceive as neighborhood coherence. Pleasantview and Desiderata Valley and Riverblossom Hills > Sim State, Strangetown > La Fiesta, Veronaville > Academie le Tour...but Belladonna Cove and Bluewater Village teens could filter to any of them, based on a social scale (ALT) and hobby interests (Tinkerer = LFT). (All of this is irrelevant to your game, where everyone is living in Pleasantview, of course.)

I really like the parameters Sunbee uses, and since a megahood is the only place where I would have more than one University attached, I think I'm going to do some preliminary analysis to see how that would shape up. (Though if I do that, LFT is going to be the MIT of my Megahood, and SSU will be the safety school.)

'tis irrelevant now, true, but may be useful for me to think about when my Megahood gets big enough for sims to start moving out to the surrounding "villages" - maybe then sims from certain areas will be more likely to go to certain universities or, I suppose, sims graduating from certain universities will be more likely to move to certain areas! It's worth bearing in mind, definitely :-)



I think I'm going to add Mootilda's Brainania as well as the three Maxis unis, and have that as my Megahood 'MIT' (though I'd say Megahood Oxbridge, I guess, as I'm from the UK!) as it's such a lovely university and have awesome facilities and stuff.

For Brainania sims will have to pay $35,000 tuition fees and have at least 7 scholarships; including an A+ and at least 2 skill based ones (ie Cooking, Cleaning, Logic etc) as I think the selection would be quite academically based. If the wannabe-Brainania student doesn't have the required grades/scholarships, they can still attend if their parents can afford to pay $75,000 instead of the normal $35,000.

Academie Le Tour will be slightly cheaper, at $30,000, and will only require 5 scholarships, including an A+ and at least 2 skill based ones.

Sim State will charge $25,000 and will only require 3 scholarships of any kind, including an A-.

La Fiesta Tech will charge $20,000 and won't require any scholarships or particular grades. If the wannabe-student is an orphan they only have to pay 50% of their tuition fees to attend here, so just $10,000.

I am still trying to work out what the requirements will be to allow students to move between universities when they are already enrolled. I think that academic probation at any of the top 3 will lead to them being shunted down to La Fiesta Tech, unless their parents are willing to pay $20,000/$10,000/$5,000 extra to allow them to remain at their current university whilst they retake the semester. No idea how students are going to earn the chance to move up a university though, but I do want it to be possible.

That might be a difference, then, in the megahoods we're using. I remember when I played HP's once, that Juliette was remembered by some of her family as being born after Hermia. I know Tarlia/meetme2theriver did a lot of clean-up work on hers, which is the one I'm playing now.
It seems a little odd to me, given that Bianca is just at the start of adulthood, and Antonio isn't much older, that Claudio would have been younger yet his kids are the oldest. The same with Goneril, where Miranda is just barely a teen, being older than Cordelia, whose kids are older. Veronaville, as shipped, is such a catastrophe memory-wise that, well, who knows? I'm going to stick with the oldest kids belonging to the oldest kids, since that's how I've been playing.

I actually looked at the sims' memories in the original neighbourhoods, as I started planning my Uber-Megahood before I actually had it - I have a very very slow internet connection so I got my Dad to download it for me and then he gave it to me on a CD when I saw him the other week. As we live in different countries we don't see each other that often, and I had a couple of weeks wait before actually getting the 'hood off him. So I checked the Veronaville sims' memories to establish who's oldest etc. You're right, they are pretty random at times, but I've gone by the 'Lord's' memories for the Capps and the Montys, as well as by what the Sims Wiki says - so my title inheritance thingies are right enough for me! :-) Sure, they don't really make much sense when you compare the children's and adults' ages, but never mind!

Since I have two weeks before I will be able to re-install my game, I'm in the midst of long-term planning out my future mega-hoods:


- Pleasantview, Sim State, Downtown (San Francisco-like)

- Strangetown, La Fiesta Tech (Area 51, Nevada-ish)

- Riverblossom Hills, Academie Le Tour, Belladonna Cove (NYC, east coast, ivy league, farm land. Plus, RBH + BC are the towns with parody families of PV, so I really don't want them to mix with PV. ).


Which leaves me struggling to decide where to best put Bluewater Village, Desiderata Valley, the 3 vacation lots, and Veronaville (which I actually don't mind leaving that one as a stand-alone, being so Shakespearan. I could use all my fancy, old-fashioned clothes and build stuff). I also wouldn't mind making a whole new subhood for the sim bin families. I'm looking for coherence and possibilities!

I always add downtown and the uni subhoods. (I don't have BV) Downtown is empty apart from townies so it might be a good place to put the bin families. I put the Ottomas and Gavigans here and the Kims and Larsons, and I moved the Newsons into the House of Fallen Trees. They're hiding out there so that the authorities don't take them and split them up.

There are way too many students, so I definitely keep the bin students in reserve, and some of the moved in students don't get played until later in the timeline either. I have a timetable for when they go in which takes me about up to day 20. The other families get moved in straight away, though. If my current students meet them then I just pretend they grew up on the same street or something and met as children rather than meeting at uni when the other ones are still supposed to be teens or children!

The three universities have different specialities, and different grade requirements. LFT is sciences and maths. You can study Maths, Physics or Biology here, needed for Game Design (replaces Gamer), Science and Medical careers respectively. You need top grades to get in here. They won't accept anybody below an A. If you want to transfer from another uni you need a GPA of 3.5 or higher. Academie La Tour is more for the rich kids. You can study History, Literature, or Political Science. These are general degrees, only History is a requirement for Law, but they give bonuses in careers such as Journalism, Education and Politics. You need a B grade to get in here or a GPA of 3 or higher to transfer. Sim State has a minimum grade of C and offers courses in Art, Drama, Philosophy, Psychology and Economics. This is the best uni for students who want to join some kind of artsy career.

Because I split up the subjects I did move some of the pre made groups around. I also split up the careers according to subhoods - there are certain careers which are based in particular areas and you can't live somewhere else and work here unless you have a car. Some areas (like Strangetown) are so far out that it would be difficult to commute. I have a randomstuff file which I use with MogHughson's job noticeboard to simulate there being different jobs available more readily in different areas.

I have slightly different seasons set up in different subhoods to create a different feel. Okay I don't see them as that far apart geographically, but I wanted some variety. I have schools set up too. Two state primary schools - Belladonna Cove (run down, cramped) which serves Bluewater and Downtown as well. Pleasantview Primary (spacious, modern, good facilities) which serves Veronaville and Desiderata too. Riverblossom has a tiny village school run by the Viejo household, the old lady who is a retired teacher teaches all the kids in the neighbourhood, very traditional, mostly farming kind of skills and a split between girl and boy activities. Strangetown is too far as well, so General Buzz runs a military type school where he reluctantly accepts Jill Smith alongside his own brood. This is also a boarding school but no sim kids or teens have been bad enough to be sent here yet! When the Curious' alien brood age up, I think there may be another boarding school set up in Strangetown with a strong science focus.

Theoretically I also have two private schools, for girls and boys, and a big secondary school (no idea where these are going yet) and a college for more vocational education set up in Downtown but I haven't built that yet. And of course children and teens can be homeschooled, or not attend school for particular reasons (e.g. the Newsons are hiding from the law and some teens ran away from home or have babies to care for)

Then there are the different kinds of "feels" of each subhood. Belladonna Cove has that divide between rich and poor, so is almost two hoods in one. The poor area is quite grimy and alternative although most people are struggling just to get by. The rich part is very prosperous and everyone is perfect and beautiful. Bluewater is an up and coming retail development area with lots of start ups. Desiderata is a kind of odd, dreamy, perfect area. All of the houses here are expensive or you can buy plots to buy your dream house. You buy a house here, it's your forever home. It's not a stepping stone. Downtown is the busiest area, you can hide easily there. There's plenty of work and you can get to everything easily. Nobody bats an eyelid at anything strange or alternative, in fact it's considered quite cool. Pleasantview is of course the suburb where you're supposed to pretend everything is perfect even if it is not. Riverblossom is very rural, very religious, the church is the cornerstone of the community and everyone goes on a Sunday. They are slightly distrustful of anyone different, and different lifestyles, although they accept plantsims. They must grow their own food to survive the winter and the McGreggor farm has a little shop. Strangetown is... Strangetown. The military base has re-opened, so there is military housing here and a military feel Anyone in the military career gets free housing for themselves, their spouse and any children. Aliens are normal but some residents are distrusting. It's quite an accepting place in general for supernaturals but might not suit all of them. Veronaville is probably the best "haven" for anyone who is a little bit magical or different. The families are so busy warring that they don't care if your skin is green with vines, glowing or purple. And of course the Summerdreams are very influential in the community.

I have put apartments into almost all of the hoods, either by converting existing buildings (most of the double houses in Veronaville) or building apartment lots in a similar style (a trailer park in Pleasantview, a taller block of those Mediterranean kind of houses) and some downloaded ones by itas84. So my sims have a range of affordable housing options, since I play with no20k handouts and no inheritance. (I will do inheritance manually but I don't like the random payout).

With regard to looks, I like a Maxis Match style anyway so I keep it like that but I change their appearance if they look stupid (to me) or I don't like their clothes/hair or I don't think it fits their personalities. I have the hair colour linked skin tones which gives me variety in skins without adding loads of custom ones which won't be used until later generations. I'm thinking of switching out eyes. I have enayla at the moment.

Timing - I play with ageing on. I need them to die off, the neighbourhood is so huge! But I do have longer lifespans modded in. I don't let everyone have children. I have a calculation of their ideal number of kids and some of them don't want any. Of course, there are still accidents, and infertility so everyone doesn't get what they want. IVF costs money. Kids removed by the social worker get fostered, during which time they could be returned if the parents clean up their act, if not, they get adopted. At the moment my only foster family are the Goodies but I might add more if needs be in the future. I also adjust personalities when kids are removed, to make them more extreme. If the foster and/or adoptive parents build up a good relationship with them then they can "encourage" them towards more acceptable limits. I've decided to treat each extreme of personality as a personality disorder or mental illness, so sims can struggle if they have a very extreme personality.