Homeworld University UL-style apartments for Homeworld University?

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crashley1784
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UL-style apartments for Homeworld University?

Post by crashley1784 » March 26th, 2018, 1:06 am

Should I even bother making an apartment building for my college student sims to live in while attending the homeworld university I'm going to create in the world I'm building? I've never really played the University aspects of the game, mainly because I hate the stinking university world so much!

I know a little bit about how the apartments work from reading posts, but I wasn't sure how they would act in a "home" world setting. Would there be a way (with or without mods) to control who the roommates are? Can they be limited to only other sims attending the HWU? Are there "student housing" alternatives I should look at to use instead?

Sorry for the general questions - just trying to get some intel before I launch into a massive building project. Thank you!

yuk75
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Post by yuk75 » March 26th, 2018, 1:34 am

If they are going to uni on a home world why would you need apartments? They are already at home?

crashley1784
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Post by crashley1784 » March 26th, 2018, 1:39 am

Well say a teen ages up to YA and wants to enroll at the homeworld university (community college) - he or she is living at home with parents, but wants to move to an inexpensive apartment while attending school. Essentially, the answer to your question is housing options. I'm building this world with the intent to share, so I'm trying to think of how other people might like to play it as well.

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igazor
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Post by igazor » March 26th, 2018, 2:02 am

You don't want the Uni Apartment lot type, at least not without an apartment mod that changes the nature of the lot type. While that is the homeworld equivalent of a Dormitory, what it does is switch on the town's roommate system for the maximum number of NPC Roommates, not the ones you can have any control over, and there is no way to switch it off again. The NPC Roommates will not be Uni students.

You could SP Lot Options restrict a living unit by career so that only registered Uni students can live in it. But each building would be all one large household, are you sure this is what you want? And that wouldn't necessarily force them to move into it for what I think would be one and two sim week Uni terms. That would also put a burden on others using your creations to have SP and understand caste lot restrictions for it to work as you intended.

I would probably start out managing this manually, build out the Uni housing type of structure if you really want that, and then figure out who gets to live in it and when. But yes, one of the points of Homeworld Uni is for sims to be able to attend without having to leave their homes, even if as just aged up YAs they were probably ready to set out for themselves anyway.

But another option is that you might consider pjsutton's apartment mod and what it does for the lot type I just said not to use, since what you are after is something along the lines of what he created -- economical rentals for sims not quite ready to purchase their own houses yet.
http://modthesims.info/download.php?t=554197

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Post by yuk75 » March 26th, 2018, 7:56 am

Ahh yes that does make sense Crashley I didn't really think of that. Here in Aus people usually study from home (as in live in their home and travel to uni), however, some do move closer to their uni of choice in communal housing. I guess I sort of pictured the homeworld uni a bit differently. Igazor kind of points out what I was thinking too - the point was not having to move or travel, so you could stay with family. I guess if you want them to move out you could just move them into a local appt block or have them travel to uni lol.

That mod is really great! I have used it when I accidentally moved into an appt and meant for it to be just me LOL.

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Post by igazor » March 26th, 2018, 9:31 am

The idea of the move-ins and outs happening somewhat automatically should also probably be given some thought. Not every uni student will be a single just aged up, not very experienced in life YA. An already life-partnered sim, parent of small children, sole caretaker of six animals, middle-aged adult already owning their own home planning for a career change or second degree, an elder looking to learn something new all wouldn't necessarily want to be separated from their home environments, be split from their partners, or in the case of single homeowners, have to sell their property. The reason Uni World works for these sims is that time stands still at home while they are away, so in the overall progression of things they never really "left" their homeworld households.

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Post by crashley1784 » March 26th, 2018, 10:20 am

Oh I didn't mean for the moveouts to happen automatically. Absolutely not! I'll probably just use the late night style apartment system and build "quads." Ok, riddle me this... how does the rental house system work? (Note to self... I really need to spend more time actually - playing - the game rather than just building worlds for it, lol). So Sims can own multiple homes - can they rent them out? So, maybe I have a sim who invested in a piece of land near the college and built student cottages (one on each small lot) that students could rent during their term? How is rent cost determined? Any mod recommendations? Really I just want my campus area to feel fleshed out and give sims (and players) the option to live somewhere near campus that is affordable. The world I'm building is not geared to have a lot of "low cost" housing throughout the world. There will be a few "fixer upper" beach houses that players could move into cheaply and improve.

And thank you everyone for your input and suggestions!

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Post by crashley1784 » March 26th, 2018, 10:26 am

Also, I'm a technical writer so I'll be writing a comprehensive manual / website to go with the world, with appropriate explanations of each lot and which mods are required to make certain things work the way they were designed, etc. I'm not really aiming for the "base game / no cc / no mods" crowd.

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Post by igazor » March 26th, 2018, 11:30 am

Yes, but you are assuming your customers are technical readers. :)

Or maybe what you really want to provide is an IP Resort. Guests check out a while later with a makeover, pedicure, well massaged and relaxed, with a new suntan and a Uni degree in hand. (just kidding on both counts of course, although there are some I've known who regard Uni as a substitute for the latter)

Under SP, with the SP Money add-on module required, sims can own and rent out property. The landlord pays the property tax on the unfinished portion of the lot, with Unified Billing in play the tenant pays some kind of property tax on the furnishings only plus rent to the landlord. So if the tenant has a super expensive hot tub or car in play, the ongoing expenses are on them and not the landlord. This is better explained on the FAQ page. I can't say it works perfectly, around twice I've seen sims I actually play in rotation have their homes bought out from under them and for some kooky reason they were charged negative rent values so essentially they got charged rather than reimbursed for what was once their own property and then got paid ongoing for the privilege of continuing to live there at the expense of the landlord. Or something like that. I may not have understood exactly what was happening, but got so confused by it that I shut down the rentable property options for "my" sims' lots by way of caste settings and it stopped happening.

I've never used pjsutton's mod, many others here have though. I believe the point of that one is more about multiple sims sharing these rentable living spaces without being regarded as all one household or having to be NPC Roommates, but I could be confusing his mod with Ani's <a href="http://nraas.wikispaces.com/Apartment%20Mod">Apartment Mod</a> which is yet another way to go. Both mods are pretty well documented, though. They aren't intended to be used together.

From a customer/downloader's perspective, perhaps the best thing would be to document the many options they have and let them decide how to use your creations in ways the best suit their playstyles?

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Post by yuk75 » March 26th, 2018, 11:19 pm

I ignore documentation that comes with worlds for this very reason, I play how I want to play ha ha. I'd just make affordable housing intended for students, make it with one bed in it, like make an actual dorm block with a single room...most sims won't live there. Also you can say anyone who is living there is a professor or RA or staff (janitor, cook, security, handyman, gardener, etc etc) or something so it's not unimersive.

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