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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#26 Old 16th Jan 2021 at 8:58 PM
Enroll some of the kids in Flexi-School so they can take part in the Welcome Wagon. I can't imagine Lilith is gaining much from school. And Dustin can stay home and help with the expected new baby.

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
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Top Secret Researcher
#27 Old 17th Jan 2021 at 6:56 PM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
In Sims 1 the welcome wagon used to bring fruit cake, chocolates or flowers, which was quite nice.


As far as I know, only friends visiting after being invited would bring gifts like that. The welcome wagon never came with any gifts, but it had a larger significance in The Sims 1 before House Party, since it was one of the only ways to meet Sims around the neighbourhood. If you missed the welcome wagon, the only way to meet new Sims and get the friends needed for promotions was to greet random walkbys when they appeared. With House Party, it was possible to use the "Throw Party" interaction to quickly fill up the house, and with Hot Date and later, Sims could meet their neighbours and other townies on community lots. The welcome wagon's importance has diminished since Sims can now just meet other Sims on community lots, but it still remains a crucial part of the "onboarding" process for new households. And really, it's something that we humans should do more: making people part of the community that they've moved into. Sims are incredibly social creatures—at a community lot, there are no strangers, and Sims happily play pool with random people they've never met before—which is one of the reasons why I enjoy the game so much.
Mad Poster
#28 Old 17th Jan 2021 at 8:19 PM
I rather like having the Welcome Wagon be elders, once everyone's moved in and sorted out. It's like my neighbors driving by midday and hollering at us from their pickups. These are the folks who keep everyone in touch, because they have time to. (We live in one of those neighborhoods, well, the nearest house is a quarter mile away, and our house is known by the name of the builders, even though we've lived here longer than they did.)

AndrewGloria, my Lilith is far too ambitious--she's in private school. That girl is more like her mother than either would ever admit, and I hope she finds a healthier motivation than proving her parents and sister wrong someday.

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Mad Poster
#29 Old 18th Jan 2021 at 3:43 AM
Quote: Originally posted by simsample
In Sims 1 the welcome wagon used to bring fruit cake, chocolates or flowers, which was quite nice.
Any Sim that brought me fruit cake got death by pool ladder. I ain't playing that game.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Mad Poster
#30 Old 18th Jan 2021 at 5:07 AM
Quote: Originally posted by AndrewGloria
Enroll some of the kids in Flexi-School so they can take part in the Welcome Wagon. I can't imagine Lilith is gaining much from school. And Dustin can stay home and help with the expected new baby.


I'm a little concerned at how little importance you put on education for your sims. Learning is important!
Mad Poster
#31 Old 18th Jan 2021 at 7:25 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Charity
I'm a little concerned at how little importance you put on education for your sims. Learning is important!

Not for Dustin Broke. He's a lost cause.

Because the earth is standing still, and the truth becomes a lie
A choice profound is bittersweet, no one hears Cassandra Goth cry

Mad Poster
#32 Old 21st Jan 2021 at 4:51 AM
Hey, some kids get more out of home schooling! I mean, how much do your sim kids actually learn that applies to their future lives in school? They don't even teach stop, drop and roll!

Pics from my game: Sunbee's Simblr Sunbee's Livejournal
"English is a marvelous edged weapon if you know how to wield it." C.J. Cherryh
Mad Poster
#33 Old 21st Jan 2021 at 7:12 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Sunbee
Hey, some kids get more out of home schooling! I mean, how much do your sim kids actually learn that applies to their future lives in school? They don't even teach stop, drop and roll!


I'm pretty sure AndrewGloria doesn't home school his teens though. They're more likely to be out partying all day. XD
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#34 Old 1st Feb 2021 at 12:08 AM
I induced four more CAS townies into the game by letting them stay for a day at the Veronaville Changing Hut. The first two were adult Felix Busley and teen Maurice Busley. I left them related as father and son. (Inspired by the Tricou teens, I like to have some of my townies related to each other -- it makes things more interesting.) Their Welcome Wagon consisted of three Veronaville playable adults who all live quite nearby: Martin Moltke, a police officer from 100 Via Veronaville, Titania Summerdream from 71 Bard Boulevard, and Goneril Capp from "Cappland", which stands across the road from Capp Manor, between the Market and St. Simeon's Parish Church. All were available: Martin has a Monday rest day, Titania is working nightshift, and Goneril is technically unemployed. (She runs a bookshop in Bluewater.) The second pair of townies to be induced were Sylvia Manderton (adult - Popularity) and Kayleigh Laing (child). They got almost the same Welcome Wagon as Felix and Maurice, except that Albany Capp took Goneril's place. Albany is a stay-at-home father (at least until Arial starts school), so he met the availability criteria too.

The Veronaville Changing Hut stands on a bit of lightly wooded ground near the bridge on the "English" side of the canal. One of the nearest houses to it is 19 Chorus Court, where, since the double wedding, Gloria, Garry, Andrew and Julian all now live. Now, Andrew and Julian are currently off school, having just got married, so they are eligible for the Welcome Wagon. So I was rather hoping the game might select them for it. But no, the game selected three available adults, who certainly live quite near, but not as near as Andrew and Julian. So I'm sure the game has some sort of algorithm to decide whom to send, but it's quite beyond me to fathom it out.

Mention of Andrew and Julian being off school brings me to the subject of education. Andrew and Julian will be going back to school soon, even though they're now married. They enjoy school, and eventually they'll go on to University, which no doubt they'll enjoy even more. But let's face it, not everyone enjoys school. And I'm not convinced that those who hate school are gaining much from it. Especially as they grow older. I think (hope!) I really believe in lifelong learning rather than try to cram everything in at the beginning.

I was a teenager in the 1960s. But without the sex, without the drugs, and really almost without the rock 'n' roll too. Instead I had over three hours a night of homework. By the time I left school a few months before my 18th birthday, I'd really had had enough of education. I wanted to get a job, get paid, and finally start living instead of endlessly preparing for life. The school I went to for 13 years was really a bit of an anomaly: part of the state system, but fee-paying, selective, and frankly rather snobbish. Charging fees for their best schools was a way for local authorities to boost their revenue. As was expected of me, I tried to go university after school, but my heart wasn't in it. Away from home for the first time I became homesick. After only a couple of months I left, officially for medical reasons. I then worked (on the railways) for over 12 years. After that time my thirst for learning was rekindled, and I applied for university in the city I was living in. Before going I did two "Highers" (school-level exams) at night-school as the university wanted evidence that I could still do academic work. This time I enjoyed university enormously, both academically and socially. On the other hand it did nothing for me financially; I think I'd have been better off if I'd stayed on the railway. But then I'm definitely not a Fortune Sim. Once I have enough for the essentials plus a few little luxuries (like a computer to play The Sims on), I just don't get the wants to earn more money or get promotions. When I was a teen, the school leaving age was 15. Most teens did leave at that age and got jobs. A comparatively smaller number stayed on to get qualifications. For those like myself who did stay on, school got better. For a start the teachers knew we were there out of choice, and they treated us better. And the ones who didn't want to stay left at 15, so they were no longer there to disrupt things.

It's this element of compulsion that I don't like in school. But, whatever else my school did for me, it taught me to read well. By the time I was eight, I could read almost as well as I can now. I recently came across some magazines that I read at that age, and I'm rather impressed. I honestly think, if I'd had to leave school at that age, I'd have managed to educate myself by reading. I recall reading quite advanced books about astronomy. True, I couldn't understand what a "parsec" was, but then I still can't understand it. My father left school at 13, when he moved with his family to Brazil. He seems to have had a successful career there with Shell, the oil company. During the Second World War he returned to the UK and joined the Royal Air Force, leaving at the end of the War with the rank of Warrant Officer. There is little doubt he would have got a full commission if he'd stayed on there. Instead he stayed in Scotland and became a minister in the church. Leaving school at a young age didn't make his life a failure.

There's a definite utopian edge to my Sims 2 game. I try to make it like Real Life, but a little bit better. It's more important to me that my Sims are happy than that they are conventionally successful. If I feel my teens would be happier out of school, then I'll let them leave. After all, they're at the beginning of their lives, and time is still on their side (especially as I play with aging off!). If I think that's what they want, I'm sure I'll find a way to provide adult education for them. (Perhaps age them down to YA's and send them to uni.) After all it worked for me.

In a sense we all experience life-long learning -- at least until senile dementia takes away our ability to learn. Fortunately Sims don't have to worry about that. The first Sim in my game to stop going to school was Romance teen Jack Gill. Once he got his grade up to A+, he didn't see the point of going to school any more. He reckoned he'd learned just about everything he was going to learn in school. He didn't enjoy school, and there were other things he enjoyed a lot more. Jack doesn't think he's stopped learning -- he's just stopped being bored in school. Famously he says that he and his live-in boyfriend Ravi Bertino are "students at the University of Life". Despite doing his homework every night, Ravi couldn't get his school grade above C. Jack wanted him to leave school too so they could go out together all day. Ravi said he would leave if he could get his grade up to A+. So we made enquiries about Inge's homework table. Somebody here (I think it was sweetbaby160) said it would work but it was a bit "cheaty". Jack said, "Great!!" and bought it. So Ravi sat down at it and started to work. A few hours later his grade had gone up to A+. Jack said, "Now you can leave school!" Perhaps with a hint of reluctance Ravi agreed. Ravi really loves Jack, and would do just about anything to please him. I think that's the nearest we've got to home schooling in my game. Ravi (originally a Downtownie -- he's the son of Jon Smith Tricou) has kept his teen job in the business career to try to keep a toehold in the real world, even though the §98 a day he earns there is insignificant compared to what the boys get from the four money trees they grow in their bedroom. And I have to say that, even though they've left school, the boys haven't stopped learning. When they're at home Jack and Ravi often play chess and paint pictures (mainly of each other) because these are pastimes that they enjoy. And, just in the course of their day-to-day lives, they are continuing to slowly develop their mechanical, cleaning and cooking skills. Ravi is a Virgo and he actually likes cleaning, and the boys regularly cook meals for house-guests (most of whom they take to bed).

At primary/elementary school we really are learning skills for life -- the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic. At secondary / high school (and even at university and college) we're mainly just learning to pass exams. In many cases you can forget the whole lot the minute you walk out of the exam room. So generally in my game children do go to school. Teens can go if they want to. The one child in my game who never goes to school is Othello Moore. His dad Scott says that he needs both Othello and his teenage brother Ross to help in the grocer's shop he runs. I get the impression that both boys would like to go to school if they could persuade their father to let them go. Both are good-natured and fairly unassertive. Unfortunately Ross has made himself almost indispensable by being much better at operating the shop till than his father. Othello can't work the till (though he's learning) but he can help with cleaning and tidying up the shop, and, when the customers get restive, he can try to cheer them up by telling them jokes. I do hope the day will dawn when Scott's shop becomes sufficiently profitable that he can take on paid staff and let his poor kids go to school.

Two more teens who rarely attend school are Ginger and Gavin Newson. They're not out having fun like Jack and Ravi; they're working flat out looking after the younger kids. Gavin never goes to school, but he does get out of the house most days to go to his teen job in the medical career, which brings in the only regular income to come into the Newson household. Ginger occasionally goes to school on Gavin's rest days from work. Bitter memories of their treatment before they arrived in Veronaville have left Ginger and Gavin profoundly distrustful of adult "help", but I believe that Veronaville townie Regina Tsvirkunov's gentle good nature is slowly breaking their resistance down; I think Ginger will let let Regina move in and help with childcare.And then Ginger and Gavin might actually get to school. (They're both enrolled in Flexi-school so their grades don't drop and Gavin doesn't lose his job.)

Other teens and children occasionally get time off school for holidays and other special occasions, but they generally go back again afterwards. I nearly always use Inge's Flexi-School for such Sims so they don't loose grades when out of school.

------------------------------------------- ooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo -------------------------------------------

Well, sorry for such a long of-topic post. But I thought I'd better say something about my odd views on education. As so often, what I do in my game reflects what I think ought to be done in real life. With my Sims' help,I think I've succeeded in turning Veronaville into a place I'd be happy to live in. I like to think they're happy too.

And at least it's my own thread I've derailed this time!

----------------------------------------------
Well, to return briefly to the thread topic, I induced three more CAS townies from the Sim Bin into the game. This time I built a new changing hut in Monopolis (beside the Monopoly "In Jail" square) and moved them into it to make final changes to them, and let them meet some of the Sims in the 'hood. They got all playable adults for their Welcome Wagon. They got local Monopolis Sims Winifred McArdell and Joe Stout (both of whom are unemployed full-time parents), but the third member of the Welcome team was Tom Cornton from downtown Veronaville. Tom is now a professional party guest who only works three nights a week, so it does indeed look like the game only sends Sims who are available at 12:30 on Mondays. Incidentally Ravi Bertino was also a guest in the hut, having been invited in when he was walking by at about 10 in the morning.

Sorry again for the length of this post -- it took me days to write this post -- taking short breaks to actually play!

All Sims are beautiful -- even the ugly ones.
My Simblr ~~ My LJ
Sims' lives matter!
The Veronaville kids are alright.
Forum Resident
#35 Old 1st Feb 2021 at 5:45 PM
I got my first ever teen only welcome wagon in one of my more corrupt hoods a few days ago. Elizabeth Ashford, Tiffany Oldie (extracted from my Pleasantview), and one of many Fricorith Tricous that exist in this hood. That's what deleting and re-adding Downtown does

The household they just so happened to be welcoming also had a Fricorith Tricou, so... that made things weird. Fortunately, the guest Fricorith was still in his work uniform, so I could tell who was who.

Usually, the welcome wagon in this hood is the Estrange household, a family of adults... that don't look like adults. A toddler who walks in the air, a child who walks in the air, and a teenager who... also behaves like an adult, but she doesn't float. I always get startled without fail when they're the welcome wagon.

When a game is predictable, it's boring.
That goes for any medium that isn't life.
That's why The Sims 2 is my favourite sims game.
It has elements of unpredictability and everything feels more involved.
The Sims 4 is another story altogether...
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