Around Town: New Faulkner House

As promised, I have put up a lot tour for the Faulkner’s new house.

Gameplay Notes: Laurel Crossing Higher Education

This is a continuation of my previous gameplay notes of education in the LC. Before, it was a brief look at the approved curriculum at the primary and secondary schools. This time around, it is a more in-depth look at the university level.

I have greatly modeled my hood’s education after the education system by Apple Valley, slightly because I wanted any LC residents who wanted to do an exchange between hoods they can do so without “being behind”, but mostly because her system is so awesome! So gigantic kudos to Apple Valley, where you can read up on her education series here, if you haven’t already.

How I Do It

Beside the obvious need of the Base-Hood Uni hack, I also use Squinge’s Mega College Pack, as well as Simbiology’s UNI hacks. To help with the realism of paying for college, I use the College Isn’t Free hack collection (which you can get here).

As I continue to play the LC, I’m sure I will come up with adjustments to my game play. So I will update this post as needed. Click the subtitles for more information.

Where to Attend

University of Rockport (URock): a large university set in an urban setting within the city of Rockport, my downtown. I imagine it to be like a NYU or Columbia setting, but more on the academic level as a big state university, such as University of Texas, Florida State, etc. Generally, anyone can be accepted (with some exceptions), as long as you meet the minimum requirements (see below). You can study at an undergraduate, graduate or continuing education level, with on-campus and online classes (for adult students).

Meade College: I imagine it to be an Ivy League school (thus the Academie Society angle), like Dartmouth (since it’s a small campus). Thus, the application process is significantly more competitive, meaning I will limit the total amount of playable students at any given time to three students, although I might bend this rule with an exceptional student. At this time, however, students will only be able to obtain bachelor degrees (no associates or advanced degrees). If students want graduate study, they will need to go to URock.

Studying Abroad: Students can study abroad by attending an affiliate school, such as Cahill University in Heredon Cove, Pierce University in Apply Valley, etc. Another option is the International University System. These schools offer students the opportunity to study abroad, in IU Twikki Island, Takemizu Village and Three Lakes. This will be made possible by using the in-hood university hack. Each campus will only be one 3×3 lot, within each destination. My goal is to initially build these lots CC free, so I can share them. You guys can then add the necessary hacks and enjoy. It’s on my ever-growing to-do list, so we’ll see how long that’ll take me.

Paying for College

Curious on how to pay for college? Find more information here.

Around Town: Tracy Household

To free up the somber mood from the last update, here’s a little treat: a lot tour of the Tracy household. I’ve now re-done all the hood placements and all playables have been moved into their new houses. However, not all of them have furniture yet. I figure that I will decorate each house when their update comes up. So far, I’ve completed Amelia’s and the Tracy’s houses. I’ll probably do a special tour of Amelia’s house on N99 (edit: it’s here).

Gameplay Notes: Assigning Favorite Colors

When it came to giving my residents favorite colors, I typically used Apple Valley’s method: using her database or using whatever color they transitioned into. I’ve wanting to use a more definite guideline and luckily, I have found an article on favorite colors and personalities, which is adapted from another published article.

You can find the article here, but I am listing the color-personality qualities below. This was just too good to pass up, so I had to share!

LC Redux: Progress so far

I have been working on city re-planning for Laurel Crossing for some time now. I’ve got most of everything done, including the base-hood uni. But I am completely burned out on build mode.

LC Redux: Laurel Grove Primary School…again

In my progress to reconstruct the LC, I wondered if I could build a school from scratch, instead of renovating a downloaded one. It turns out that I can!

LC Redux: Laurel Fire Station

The next tour into my rebuilding Laurel Crossing is the Laurel Fire Station.

Around Town: Goth Hall

I’ve been a build mode fool these past two weeks! The next stop on the University of Rockport tour is the final academic building: Goth Hall.

Around Town: Crumplebottom Hall

Photobucket is being a real pain right now, so not as many pictures as Landgraab Hall. The next tour on URock is Crumplebottom Hall.

Around Town: Landgraab Hall

I haven’t been doing much playtime with the household lately; I’ve been on a build-mode binge. I needed more buildings for University of Rockport, besides dorms, so I created some academic buildings. First up, Landgraab Hall.