A few days ago Simmers from the EA Game Changers program were asked to send in their questions regarding The Sims 4 Discover University Expansion Pack to the development team!
The dev team was quick to respond to all of our burning questions regarding the pack. Considering that there’s many questions, facts and information shared from the team we’ve posted the compilation of answers provided by the lovely Ashaife!
Getting In
- Distinguished degrees will require more skill & higher school grades to get accepted into. They will also give greater career rewards when acquired.
- Sims can start applying to universities about a week before they age up to a YA.
- Every application goes to both universities and you may choose which university and which degree to pursue once your Sim gets their acceptance letter.
- Sims with higher skill levels will have an easier time getting accepted into certain degree programs.
- Sims may re-apply to university some short time after their first application. Re-applying with better skills may admit your Sim into the distinguished degree and your Sim can change schools (although they’ll lose some credits).
Scholarships
- There are several different types of scholarships: those your Sim gets for being a strong applicant and those that they apply to before enrolling to get a chance to win them.
- Sims may be offered scholarships they didn’t apply for if they are accepted into enough distinguished degrees.
- Scholarships Sims apply for are awarded based on things like household funds/lot value, skills, and where a Sim lives (i.e. the Willow Creek Grant).
- A number of scholarships are only available to Teen & YA Sims.
Loans
- Paying for university is done as a lump sum in the beginning.
- If you choose to take out a loan, payments will not be due until after you are no longer enrolled.
- You can get a jump start on paying off the loan while in uni.
- Loans are only accrued through student debt at this time.
- There is no reasonable limit on loans.
- The amount of loans you receive is dependant on how many classes you take & the type of housing you select.
- Loans are saved per Sim, though the funds come out of the household funds when paying.
- When loans are due, if you are late the repo man will come to collect after a few warnings by taking an object that most closely reflects the price of the minimum payment due from your Sim, similar to how they have in the past. Afterwards, the cycle will refresh and if you don’t pay, they’ll come back.
Classes
- A Sim earns a degree after passing 12 university classes. Sims can take 1-4 classes each term, so it may take between 3 & 12 terms to earn a degree.1
- The game does not classify students as full or part-time.
- Sims can fail classes & need to retake them.
- If a Sim does poorly enough across all classes they may face academic probation or suspension.
- Sims may take time off between terms, but this will cause them to lose any scholarships they’ve been awarded.
- There are no scheduled active classes or labs, but activities that help their course grades like homework, papers, studying, are of course performed in gameplay.
- Although gaining skill with skill items will help your course grades, there are no direct assignments for them.
- There are no additional hacking opportunities, so Sims cannot hack their grades.
- Homework for all classes is similar to high school homework.
- Each class will have a final requirement – either a final exam (taken in class), a final paper (written on the computer), or a final presentation (created on the new presentation board object).
- Most assignments will be identical for classes, but the presentations will look different according to your Sim’s degree.
- Sims can only pursue one degree simultaneously, but they can re-enroll for a different degree as soon as they’re done.
- Sims can switch degrees between terms, but they will lose some credits.
- Courses cannot be taken online.
Britechester
- University Housing
- There are a few options for roommates such as Male, Female, or No Gender Restrictions. They can also be associated with an Organization from Discover University.
- UH is a new venue type like a Library or Restaurant and can be placed in any world.
- There are 4 new penthouse styled lots that function similarly to the CL penthouses.
- Sims choose their dorm room by claiming their bed, not their room.
- Fridges, mini-fridges, microwaves, & other visual kitchen items may be used, but stoves, grills, and other fire hazards are disallowed for the UH venue (even with cheats).
- While Sims are living in housing, you cannot enter Build Buy on those lots (unless you use the cheat).
- Any premade UH lot can be changed to another lot type, once any residents have been evicted.
- A Sim cannot attend one university and live in the other university’s housing. You can build Foxbury housing in the Britechester neighborhood and vise versa as you will designate which university the Housing is for.
- 3 Neighborhoods: UBrite, Foxbury, and Gibbs Hill (Town Area).
- There is a new library in Gibbs Hill between the two universities.
- 2There are two new Lot Traits.
- Study Spot: helps your Sims gain skills faster.
- University Student Hangout: encourages University Students to hang out there and the drinks and food are often cheaper there.
- You can place any type of lot in the University World, but there are no apartment lots.
- You can only use elevators on penthouse lots, the same as in CL.
- There are open world swimming areas in all three neighborhoods.
- Britechester is inspired by the UK & Europe. The weather is similar.3
- There is not a gym in the world, but you can create one or edit lots to include one.
- Each university has its own Student Commons venue with unique behavior & events. You can build on or customize these lots, or create a commons venue on a different lot entirely.
- Food stalls will appear around campus and the student commons. Sometimes roommates will bring home food too.
- Each neighborhood has different seasonal objects.
University Life
- There are several university organizations that have scheduled events that include working on robotics or studying together in the commons.
- The study and study together interactions bring Sims together to all study from their textbooks.
- There are no premade Sororities or Fraternities, but through University Housing you should be able to tell this story.
- Sims can have a full-time career or other jobs while going to university, but won’t have the freedom to choose their specific class times to work around it.
- Sims YA or older that are enrolled in university as students are allowed to participate in the Soccer after school activity.
- Sims can live in any world while attending University.
- University Organizations
- The Debate Guild belongs to UBrite.
- The Bot Savants belongs to Foxbury.
- Secret Societies
- The secret society robes (3 variants) are unlocked at the 3 different levels of the secret society organization.
- Soccer Teams & Esports Teams
- Students can join either teams.
- Practice is on weekdays, home & away matches are Fridays & Saturdays as rabbithole matches at each University’s arena.
- The two Unis always compete for each other, not against anyone else.
- Decisions you make during a game will influence which team wins.
- As a student, you can hang banners on your university’s arena in support of your team or visit the other university’s arena and prank it by hanging your team’s banners on their building. You can also purchase tickets to team games.
- Art Society Figure Painting Organization
- This has an event that leverages an NPC Painting Model and the new Figure Painting category.
- The NPC Painting Model will wear a form-fitting, neutral garment.
Social Life
- As professors are Sims that exist in the world, your Sims can do all the normal things you could do with any other Sim.
- Having a good relationship with your professor (friendly or otherwise) will make success easier on certain things you may ask them for, like extra credit.
- Sims with kids or pets cannot live in University Housing, but they can live on campus in a residential lot.
After Graduation
- No careers are locked behind degrees.
- Having a degree will help a Sim enter a career at a much higher level (past the branch for the careers that branch). It also gives them higher pay, a signing bonus, faster PTO gain, and better work performance.
- Sims will not gain an extra trait slot after graduation.
- A Sim cannot return to university for the same degree (or the other version) that they graduated with.
- Alumni can continue any relationships they forged while at school and can show their school pride by trying to start up a round of their school’s cheer.
Roommates
- Roommates are automatically assigned for University Housing and are randomly generated.
- Sims on residential lots can place ads for roommates.
- After placing an ad, potential roommates will show up to your Sims house and the player can choose which Sims to accept as a roommate.
- The household limit including roommates is 10 Sims (including pets) per household.
- If you have 2 playable Sims, the game will allow you to have 8 roommates as long as you have enough beds for everyone.
- A full household (8 Sims/pets) will allow for 2 roommates.
- All roommates have special personality quirks. Some are very annoying, others are super helpful!
- Any household can have roommates, not just student ones.
- Roommates give your Sims household rent just in time to help with the bills.
- Roommates act as NPCs.
Gameplay
- Two Sims from the same household can attend at the same time.
- Each must enroll separately, but can continue to be played together once they’ve signed up for classes.
- Sims will age normally while enrolled in university.
- Term length does not scale with lifespan lengths.
- Your Sims can get pregnant while at University. If you are living in University Housing, you will be encouraged to move somewhere that you can better care for your child.
- Student pregnancy will not kick you out of classes. You will still be enrolled and can enroll again after the term ends or take time off.
- Anyone YA or older can attend University whenever they like after being accepted.
- Sims can woohoo in most showers except a few that aren’t private enough.
- There are 4 premade households and a premade ghost that floats around UBrite.
- Most of the Sims from the trailer live in the world.
- Sims life will continue like normal gameplay – if you split the households for a Sim to go to uni, they will behave like two different households because they are. However, time will continue normally if your Sim lives at home.
- Unplayed Sims will finished their university term and re-enroll, eventually graduating.
- Played Sims will finish their term but wait to re-enroll until the player enrolls them.
- Sims progressing this way will earn an “average” grade.
- Sims living in the same household but attending two different universities but U Housing is restricted to one university at a time, so Sims will not be able to live in U Housing & go to two separate universities.
- Professors cannot get fired. (Of course, Sims in the education career can.)
- You cannot play a professor at the university. Professors are only NPCs.
- Going through CAS story choices will not give your Sim a degree.
Non-Students
- No Sim will be restricted from visiting the university where events will be running from time to time.
- Non-student Sims are able to attend skill classes at the classroom buildings.
- Prospective students may visit the campus and all buildings, but there are no specific open campus or recruitment events for them.
- Sims can live in the new world even if they don’t attend University.
New Stuff
- Skills (and skill books):
- Research & Debate (single skill, not two separate skills)
- Robots
- No new radio station or TV channels.
- Everyone but toddlers can juggle the soccer ball or kick it around with other Sims.
- Bicycles
- You must own DU for your Sims to have access to bicycles.
- Routing for bikes is similar to the routing for running, but you can use them intentionally wherever you like, as long as there is enough room.
- Bikes are automatically put into your inventory when dismounting, but can also be Live Dragged from your inventory and used when in the world.
- Kids and toddlers cannot use bikes.
- Bikes can be used in all worlds.
- Cafeteria Station
- Located on each University in the respective Student Commons.
- While on these lots or Uni Housing, students can eat for free.
- Only open certain times of the day.
- Can be placed on a home lot like a market stall and be staffed for any other lots.
- There is a variety of meals on a set schedule while at University, but on other lots you can choose the menu for a small price.
- Figure Painting: a new painting category.
- New Careers
- Engineering, Education, & Law
- These are work from home careers where you may rabbit hole to work or work from home and perform tasks to increase your progress.
- Education Career: This career will have a professor path, but your Sim won’t actively play at the university campus.
- Mini Fridge
- Quick meals and canned drinks in housing, fully functioning on residential lots.
- Do not go under counters.
- Two different models with multiple color options.
- Can place microwaves, coffee makers, and decorations.
- New Quick Meals: cereal, instant noodles, pizza rolls, and burritos.
- Completed degrees are stored as traits, and should be cheatable the same way as other reward traits.
- Robots
- When Servo is activated, they are added to your household and will take up a household slot.
- Your Sim can date, marry, woohoo with, and divorce Servos. They cannot procreate.
- Sims can woohoo with Servo in the shower, but make sure your Sim has sufficient handiness to repair rusting Servos exposed to water.
- If a Servo dies from woohooing in the shower, it suffers a water death, not a woohoo death.
- Robotics is a skill available to Teen, YA, Adult, & Elders. They can learn the skill by reading skill books or using the Robotics Workstation.
- The Robo-Arm is not a prosthetic, but a robotic wearable tech that Sims can make at the Robotics Workstation. It helps them craft faster & protects them from injuries while working at the table.
- The ExoMech suit and helmet help your Sims gain certain skills faster & allows them to enable a hover mode walk style.
- Utili-Bots: mini robots that help Sims around the house by cleaning, gardening, repairing objects, playing music, and serving food at parties.
- RC Quadcopters: toys that Sims can fly around & play with.
General Game Updates
- The hip hop station introduced in Get Famous has been adjusted so it’s Base Game. Tracks from GF remain exclusive to that pack, but new tracks have been added.
- Multi-story Columns will come with the pre-release patch. Some old columns will be restricted due to textures & shape.
CAS
- There is not a lobster suit for children.
- Academic Aspiration: revolves around attending University and landing a career after.
- All new piercings are the same size.
Not Included
- No technophobe or anti-robot traits.
- Hidden neighborhoods.
- Pillow fight interaction.
- Vending machine.
Guru Faves:
- GrimSuruDoi: For me, it was both balancing the academic rigor of university to provide a good challenge and also writing 312 class names and descriptions.
- SimGuruYeet: I like the quirkier things like odd robotics interactions, secret soci—- nvm, and the mascots. Team Larry
- SimGuruMorgan: CAS! It’s beauteous. And piercings are exciting to me. AND roommates! I’ve had a lot of fun with them, and I think they add a lot of gameplay possibility even outside of university play.
- SimGuruLakshmi: Hearing people exchange different stories about their Sim’s experience at university. e.g. Roommates they loved or hated. Getting straight As or struggling to keep their job and pass 2 classes.