November 2019
I get that living in a dorm isn't always easy, but living in a dorm in Sims 4 University is really awkward. The worst part technical part is that getting to class takes forever, at least from the dorms in Foxbury Institute. Unless the sim chooses by themselves to go to class an hour early it seems impossible to get good attendance.
As for immersion, I think the way food works in dorms is worse. You can go to the commons hall to eat during the day, but in the evening there are two equally unrealistic options: 1: The sim can order pizza, which is fine, but very strange to do from a dorm every night.
2: The sim can wait for roommates to magically conjure up turkey or lobster from the shower and bathroom area. What the heck is up with that?
Bonus annoyance, that could probably counted as a bug: If you control two sims as a "family" in the dorm, let one sim enters a class, and make the other sim travel from the Commons lot to dorm lot, then the sim who was in the class returns from class immediately and receives a terrible score for that class.
All in all, I'm not happy with the dorm experience, and I'm considering moving my sim to an off campus location. Would that make my university experience better?
November 2019
@Draumkvad, I have only played this game in the dorms so far, so I can't say for certain if living off campus is easier or a better experience... however, my guess is that it is. In playing the University packs for TS2 and TS3, living off campus was easier. My guess is that it is the same with TS4. And maybe even more so because with Discover University, some people are having problems getting stuck in or locked out of dorms. While I have played 2 saves in the dorms one in each Uni, and have had no problems so far, others have had problems! I would definitely give living off-campus a try and stay away from the dorms until certain issues are resolved! :
And yes, bathroom lobster sounds revolting!
November 2019
While I haven't had 2 sims in the dorms going to college I have 2 sims living off campus and when they "go to class" it becomes a rabbit hole just like how children and teens disappear for school. When I did have one of my sims living in the dorms one of the things that stopped the spawning of the chicken and lobster was that I redid the dorms and included a small cafeteria in there. also for class times when I was on campus I had to be on top of when classes are at what time. they seemed to leave for class 30 minutes before and then sometimes they would not make it on time. the bike seemed to help a little but this was at britechester.
November 2019
@lyntle Yes, a lot of people are redoing the dorms to include a cafeteria. The free lobster and roast chicken, omelets, cookies, and even Monte Cristo sandwiches don't bother me so much as I just pretend they are having a food delivery service bring them! And I just live-drag the spoiled food into the trash chute, along with the piles of garbage the dormmates leave around, so that isn't a problem for me.. But then again, I never noticed that the food was coming out of the bathroom!
Bikes do work better at UBrite and not so well as Foxbury. And thank you for confirming that Off Campus housing works like a job or school from the rest of the game. I thought it might do that, but haven't tried it yet. It seems to work differently in the dorms.
November 2019
It really does. now at honeydew fields I found a bug for building but gameplay works fine that I am aware of. There is a thread that has been started about that lot's issues and I wasn't the only one either.
November 2019
November 2019
I agree that Foxbury is a pain. I.e. when between ending class and new class is only 5 Min and they are in different buildings there is no way you can make it to be on time except you live outside where your sim then just return to your building and then direct go again.
December 2019
I know I’m a bit late, but...
I’m playing my first go-around in Uni (was waiting for my teen to age up) and she’s in the art history program at UBrite. She doesn’t live in the dorms - that didn’t really fit in to her story in my head, so she lives in the small trailer in StrangerVille with her military high school sweetheart (yes I’m just now playing the SV storyline too).
So on her first day of class, I traveled to the UBrite commons... she finished her homework, and then went to class. I figured I’d switch back to her boyfriend and get the “work from home” task done while she was in class - NOPE. Can’t switch sims, or your student sim will immediately leave class and get scolded for attendance. Thankfully that one incident didn’t kill her grade.
So, this is what I’ve been doing now... for my military sim, I either send him to work or work from home depending on his girl’s class/work schedule (she’s also a barista from 5a-7a). For my Uni sim... depending on her class schedule, I either travel to the commons and spend several hours there or I send her to class from home. If she only has one class that day, I’m likely to just stay home and she goes to class like she would go to work. If she has a couple classes - she goes to work, comes home... replenishes her needs, and then we travel to the commons. I’m a big micromanager, so I pay close attention to her class times and what buildings she goes to (especially if she’s studying or finishing up homework at the last minute) - and if I cancel the “go to class early” interaction, I’ll have her stop whatever she’s doing about 25-20 minutes before class and have her jog over to the building, and sit on the nearest bench. She’ll do some last min fun stuff like play on her phone or listen to her earbuds. Or study if she’s about to take an exam. When class is over, we go back over to the commons... she eats, works out (I added a small basement gym), or does more homework and term paper stuff. 20 or so minutes before her next class starts, we jog back over to the building.
So, even though she doesn’t live in the dorms, she still spends a lot of time on campus (also for the art society), which is good because I still get that “college feel” even though she lives in StrangerVille. Her younger sister is still a teen, but she’ll be the one to get the full dorm/uni experience when she ages up and attends Foxbury for biology (future doctor).
I know, it’s a lot of extra steps... but like I said I micromanage like crazy and play with autonomy off, and it took me a term to get that system down but it seems to work well... the latest she has been to class is maybe 5 minutes and it didn’t effect her grades or anything.
Oh and... I also usually send her to class with her earbuds still on, and her fun doesn’t seem to plummet either even when taking notes or listening.
Apologies for that being so long... but I hope something in all that helps someone. 😊
April 2021
How did you change the dorms when you play. I’m unable to edit the room I’m
in.
thanks in advance
April 2021
Hi @Blah2000_1 ! You won't be able to edit the dorms when you have sims already living in them without using cheats. Note that if you're on console, enabling cheats may disable achievements. If you're on PC or Mac, you can select ctrl+shift+C to open the console then type or paste testingcheats on and hit enter. Then type or paste bb.enablefreebuild and hit enter to edit the dorms. Otherwise, if you use BB from manage worlds with no sims living in the dorms, you can edit them without cheats.