Yeah, that's what I thought too... Gotta be careful what you ask for.

In case you're interested: Azureland. You have to build all 470 lots up yourself. She (he?) has a couple of other worlds listed that are almost as huge.

Oh how exciting, University is one of my favourite EPs in TS2. I love that sims have little responsibility for this short period of time and can go totally wild if you want, or knuckle down and study hard. Uni is really good for making friends, meeting potential spouses, and gaining skills, and I like the boost it gives for jobs. It has loads of little features and quirks that I enjoy.

Saying that, there are definitely things about it that I hope get revised in a TS3 version. For one, I hope they don't add a new life stage and then limit students to that life stage. I would like my adults and elders to be able to study at university, as well as my young adults! Not everyone who enters higher education is 18. In addition to that, people unthread were talking about having college in a separate town; if EA decide to have a college town, I'd like to have the option between sending my sims away for college, and having them stay at home. But I'd prefer college to be part of the worlds we already have, rather than having to go to a different world to play it.

I'd also like it if postgraduate degrees were included, so sims could study for masters and PhD's. And, though I doubt EA would be likely to implement this given how they seem to like to make everything achievable for all sims, it would be cool if you couldn't progress beyond a certain level in certain jobs without a degree, like medicine or education.

I also think would be fun to have societies, like sports or games or music or drama.

I have to agree with those that say Uni could fit already made worlds. All you need is a rabbit hole for the students to go, all the other facilities they need are already in the world. The only thing new would be the Uni rabbit hole and possibly/hopefully dorms. People can still make a Uni town if they want to. The biggest problem I see with a connected world is that currently the only connected world we got are completely removed from the time/space continuum of the main world.

What we know about WA connected worlds:
*There's no real passage of time there compared to the main world. Everything in the main world stand still when you play a WA.
*You cannot play the main hood and a WA world of the same save file whether it's your chosen family or if you'd like to switch households.
*Seasons doesn't even apply to the WA which means they are completely disconnected.

The main reason University wasn't as popular as the other EPs is because it felt disconnected from the rest of this sims experience. YA were pretty much confined to the Uni world and the Uni town managed their passage of "time" differently. At least in the TS2 connected world Seasons was able to work. So unless EA changes how connected worlds behave drastically Uni would be a flop if you can only access it through a connected world. Separatism isn't fun unless if it's an escape from the burdens of the daily life like a vacation destination.

We need a new profession among many others that would fully flesh out this EP. We need a Professional Student profession. Go to classes and get a part time job as an RA or a TA, be a barrista in your local cafe/Starbucks, work as a bartender in your local dive bar, work in a bookstore, be a hacker, etc., to make money. EA also has to bring back the professional slacker ... or something like that from TS2. Would go perfect with this EP I'm thinking.

As I think I pointed out earlier on in this thread, adult and elder students may well be possible this time around if the survey describing the plans for the new University from a while back is anything to go by. I distinctly remember that it made no reference whatsoever to new life stages and explicitly mentioned both older students and the possibility for an occasional child prodigy, suggesting that this version won't be quite so limited and Young Adult-centred.

Tell me if you'd prefer me to find the exact quote for that, though.

I'm not sure about this. It could be like TS2, each major has its own schedule and sims can use moonlighting jobs to make money. Bands, performing for tips, mixology, DJ-ing... are there any others? What would be nice if students could have an "internship" in the careers already available as they'd be able to work there 3 times a week for little pay at a revised time schedule so they can combine them with their classes.

I'm not sure how it is at other universities but over here students are expected to do most of the work. As in there aren't many "contact hours" as we call it here, you don't spend much time in classes rather studying and doing assignments ate home.

I would welcome more moonlighting type jobs as you suggested such as barista ala TS2 uni. That is unless I didn't understand what you meant by "Professional Student Profession".

Whatever they do I don't want them to make the same mistake they did with generations. None of the stuff kids did during their childhood mattered in the end. The only exception was the boarding schools. What's the point in being a boy scout if it doesn't matter anymore once you grow up? They should've at least made sure they kept their interactions for ballet etc. all the way through elder. That would be a nice reward for going through the trouble of attending and make distinction from the sims who did and those who didn't.

I want uni to define my sims and make a mark for their later life. It could be anything from perks and special interactions that they have that other sims don't.



Do you have a link to that information? Oh Em Gee, YES! I was thinking the same thing. There should be an option for young prodigies! I really hope they decide to implement this.

You can find the old surveys on SimsVIP (just Google SimsVIP surveys). The exact wording was "Your teenager (or child prodigy) Sims are ready to leave home and find their own paths in life. Blah blah blah. Send your older Sims back to school to change or improve their careers."

It's mainly for the older Sims that I want to be able to have higher education available in our home worlds. It wouldn't make sense to pull them away from their current jobs and families to send them off to university. Part-time education is must (or rather, a please I hope they included) in this game or else it's just a paint-by-numbers retread of TS2.

ETA link: http://simsvip.com/2012/04/30/more-...nd-game-survey/

Aha! Thank you. Well it's easy in TS3 to make money so an adult sim probably has enough saved so they can afford to quit their job and attend classes and study while moonlighting to make ends meet as any other student would.

It would be fun ofc to have a part-time education but they might not implement it that way. Who knows maybe they have other creative ways to help your sim combine the two? I'm glad that in any case uni isn't just for YA anymore.

ETA: Found it. http://www.flickr.com/photos/simsvi...in/photostream/ It mentions dorms, part-time jobs and new professions, sending your adult sims back to school and vaguely hints and child prodigy. Yes, I'm now very hopeful and I hope they indeed release it with these features. As to how adult sims will manage work and an education? Well I'm not sure but it's gotta be doable. They don't need to keep their old jobs. It seems a better investment to me to quit their job and study to then be offered a better paying one and enter at a much higher level in the career than staying at their old job. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

I wonder when are they planning on releasing University. Is it going to be six months from Supernatural or Seasons? Or maybe they are planning more EPs in quick succession? They are releasing more surveys with OFB and BV type features. I wouldn't mind if they kept on releasing EPs and SPs instead of rushing and making TS4.

...But on the other hand, having thought about it a bit more, a separate sub-hood system would cause more problems than it's worth.
Think of it this way: It's already ultra-dumb the way that in each save game, you can only travel to the same three pre-defined holiday locales.
In uni with sub-hoods, no matter what type of hood you are playing in, mediteranean, arabic, or antarctic, you would be taken to that same old uni sub-hood, with those same, leafy green trees. That would take a huge stretch of imagination to justify those discrepancies.
Best to stick all University aspects in the main hood itself, I think. The player can choose how large they want this area to be themselves.
Otherwise...it will just get messy. I can see it.

Oh well at least I can use NRaas Traveler to switch worlds when going to university, even if it will be a hassle to get everyone I want over. Hopefully the expansion at least comes with a normal new town.

There was something in that description that caught my excitement though:

That could be a sign that they could be upgrading apartments in this expansion pack. Hopefully that's true, and they don't just intend on copying the boring system from Late Night.

At least in TS2 you could make custom sub hoods. I didn't even pause at the thought that this isn't possible with TS3. So as long as they don't drastically change how sub hoods work I really don't see them add University as a connected world.

But how are we supposed to fit the University-area things into the older towns? I've been playing a town for literally real-life years, and extremely don't want to start over. But I definitely want the University EP to simulate college life, and there isn't any undeveloped area in which I can place the Uni buildings (I expect there will be more buildings with University than with the other expansion packs). I can't be the only one like this.

The only solution (and also the best way to make it feel distinctly like a college experience, rather than a commuter college experience, which isn't as different from non-college in lifestyle) is a college town that can easily be traveled to and from. It's been a long time since WA; they can have a lot of the traveling bugs fixed.



Sorry that many people seem not to want my suggestion, but don't claim it isn't realistic or (as someone else suggested) workable. As far as it being workable, they already have the infrastructure for the friendship part with Pets: Dogs and cats increase relationships with each other only about half as fast as dogs with dogs or cats with cats, while any decrease is faster. That could be the model.

As far as it being realistic, I've been on all sides of this: As an undergrad student in a college town, it felt creepy if a 30+ year old non-student was hitting on me. As a grad student, I noticed how both we and the undergrads tended to choose to segregate ourselves from each other (although we were close enough in age and status to avoid the "creepy" thing when there was interaction; I didn't even buy into that segregation, but it happened).

As a still-under-30-for-now professional who happens to live fairly near a college, I actually have had awkwardness when interacting with students. When I'm older, or if I were lower status, it wouldn't make sense for me to even try (even as is, I doubt I will anymore).

TS3 doesn't have to be realistic in every aspect: Heck, I'm enjoying the Supernatural EP, which by its nature is unrealistic. So I can live without the discomfort in the game. But don't try to say that what I suggested was an unreal/unfair stereotype.

I don't get why nobody is wanting a new town. Uh, there's much more to university than cramming it into the corner of a town. And I for one would like a new hood, and no you wouldn't be forced to go to a new town, you could buydebug and place the buildings accordingly. But I'd like to actually achieve the University Life of leaving the boring ole town I am forced to play in 24/7 and ruin or redo my life in a University town with Playboy girls and douchebags roaming the streets.

I'd actually be really surprised if they segregated student sims in that way as they did with TS2, because I don't think it's likely, but you never know!

As for keeping college in the same world, it wouldn't have to take up space. They could make combi rabbit hole buildings as they've already done in past EPs, or use existing buildings as places to hold lectures, like the school, city hall, stadium, business tower, etc.

Thing is in TS2 there was no uni buildings.
It's hard to speculate with basically no info, but I would take the following design approach:
A uni area can be set up with a minimum of two lots. a Dorm lot, and a Uni lot. Both these lot types use 'uni markers', similar to 'public room markers' except they generate only townies who are students, and teachers. The uni gameplay plays out on a small scale this way, but if the player wants to, they can set all the lots in the town with these markers, and have the whole experience with lots like libraries, student bars, student gyms.
So it's up to you how much your town becomes a college town.
That's how I think it could be solved, anyway.

Having all the classes on one lot would dumb it down completely. And only having one dorm lot would also ruin the experience. They may as well release it as Premium Content buildings on the store at that point.

If you're so discomforted by the thought of a student fraternizing with one of the unwashed masses, you can just turn off autonomy and not have them talk to any townies. Of course considering that it's hard to tell YAs and Adults apart in the game without seeing their panel info, one can only hope that EA rightfully dresses all the townies in dirty rags befitting their low-breeding and class.

YA-Adult relationships have been around since the first University game where they actually encouraged students to sleep with their professors. Since then, once you hit the YA stage you are open for business in the romance department to all advancing age groups. They're not going to change that. Maybe there's a mod for it out there, I wouldn't know.



I think we should just be given a) unique University world(s) where we can send our Sims to have them leave their home world and have the traditional university experience and b) the tools and ability to create a university or community college in our home worlds. I would assume that if they are going to dedicate a whole world to University, that we'd actually get academic buildings for the subjects (e.g. Life Sciences and Chemistry Building, Political Science Dept, etc.) And if they're just going to be rabbit holes, then for me, there needs to be some extra aspect that would make it worth going to another world to study such as new types of venues as someone else mentioned.

A page ago I had it set in stone that I would not be happy unless the university was a sub hood. After reading everyone's posts though - I'll be devastated if it turns out that the only way our Sims can go to uni is through a sub hood. It just wouldn't make sense. It'd be fantastic if they could include a new world with the EP (providing it exists, which we can be fairly certain it does regarding the spoiler at the end of the video). I can just see it now... An area with all of the uni facilities/dorms, students living in the dorms, and also some students living in their own little homes throughout town, surviving by earning money at bars and coffee shops. The other families throughout the hood can be a variety of families with adults who have already completed uni and are living high class with great careers as a result of that, etc. So many possible story lines for the different households!

It really is a tricky situation, and EA have to be careful how they go about it. Regarding large world maps, and of course they'll need to make an option to have a separate uni town. I'm very curious as to how they will pull off trying to make everyone happy.

Is there a thread on the forums for this world?

I think it should be possible, just harder...at least if you want to be realistic about it (I've admitted realism isn't an absolute necessity). If they give college students a hidden trait, I can just play with the scoring system in Twallan's Woohooer and take care of the romance part-- not make it impossible, just harder.

Being a college undergrad (in a college town) gives a person perhaps a lower level (and differing, such that an art student is more desirable than a successful middle-aged doctor) version of the "Snob" trait during that period, one that goes away even when one becomes a grad student. One has social options that they'll never have again in their life, so one can be more picky about with whom they socialize. I'm much less picky now; if I were as picky as in college, I'd be very lonely.

It isn't just me: None of the many undergrads I knew would have dated a townie more than a few years older than them. I made friends as an undergrad with a couple of grad students, and had some good banter in bars with bartenders. But we all dated other undergrads (or occasionally "Young Adult" townies or grad students) and only hung/partied with such. Wouldn't a 40 year old-- regardless of status-- look way out of place at a real life college party?

That's reasonable. I'd still prefer the travel-to college town, but I could live all right with this. I could set up as much of a college district as I can manage from getting rid of unnecessary lots (it's nice to have parks specifically for dogs and cats, but my sims can take their pets to regular parks instead), using what open lots I have, and moving some I can move to at least allow a district that would be smaller than I'd like, but playable.

Excuse me? I am a college undergrad (in a college town,) and also an art student. I really don't appreciate you making ignorant assumptions about the kind of people my roommate and I are, or about who our friends should be. I'm not saying there aren't "snobs" on a college campus, but those people are snobs because that's just how they are; not because they're a student.

If you don't want your college sims to date (or have any kind of relationship with) a townie, then you can simply not make them do that. As for college parties, that is again up to the player. The game doesn't even force teen parties to only have teens. As for the trait, I don't think players would be happy if students were forced by the game to be snobby.

This is the best opposing response I've read, because it actually comes from experience.

It makes me want to ask, though, how would you feel if a 40 year old guy hit on you in a college bar? Wouldn't you feel he was probably a creep?

LOL, why is there even an argument going on about a relationship system that doesn't and won't exist in Sims 3. It's not even that relevant or serious to the topic of University.