Sims 3 University Life Announcement Breakdown (In Progress)

           

   
            We now know that the next expansion for the Sims 3, University Life, is coming March 5th. But just what is coming with this ninth expansion for our little virtual puppets? Check past the break to get a complete rundown of what we know so far!

New/Core Mechanics

The University:

         The namesake addition of the exansion, University Life will come with a new world centered around the new academic institution of the Sims's universe, creatively dubbed the Sims University. According the announcement, players will not be able to place their own university in established worlds, so players will have to ship off their Sims to the one and only university world in order for them to obtain higher education and experience the college, well...experience. This function appears to be similar to the vacation words of World Adventures. While your Sims are away from their home worlds, it looks like their family will not age while players are in the university world, so hopefully no Sim will ever have to come home to find their dog (or their parents) buried in the backyard.
           It looks like players will not be able to jump back and forth between university and home world, and players will also not be able to send Sims to university without controlling them, so when players send a Sim to college they will be playing in the university world until a degree is obtained.
          The main university building appears to rabbit hole, although the Sims team said that players will be able to see their Sims in some classes, so expect a mix of interactive and non-interactivity when it comes to academics. It has been mentioned that lectures will be held in the non-rabbit-hole student union, so players will be able to see those. Additionally, each major will give students a unique object that lets them study and make academic progress outside of the classroom.

Classes & Majors

          As mentioned above, classes will likely be a mix of rabbit holes and non-rabbit hole activities, while it appears Sims will also be able to participate in study groups and group science projects. The majors mentioned so far include Business, Technology, Science & Medicine, Fine Arts, Communications, and Physical Education. Once a major is obtained, your Sim will be able to enter a respective career of that degree at a higher level, earn promotions faster, and possibly get a boost to income. As mentioned above, all majors will have unique objects related to the field, such the slightly-creepy animated skeleton-thingy for the medicine/science major seen in the trailer, that will allow students to improve their academics.

Dormitories

 Of course, no college would  be complete without a crammed sardine can for students to live and mingle in, and the university of the Sims world certainly is no exception. A relativity spacious dorm building got shown off in the announcement event, and it was made clear that players will be able to build their own in the university world.  In the live stream, each Sim  had his/her own bedroom, but presumably multiple Sims will be able to share the same room to save space and give the whole experience more of an authentic feel. During the livestream, the host where able to click on a bed and bring up a menu to set bed ownership from a list of several sims living in the building, even some the host weren't directly controlling. It has been confirmed by SimGuruBritt  that players will be able to build dorms in all worlds to emulate a little bit of Apartment Life functionality (along with a bit of careful door-locking to make sure everybody stays where they are supposed to, of course). There will also be sorotories and fraternities, which are dorms with occupied by a single gender.

Room Rental/Roommates

              While your student Sim can live in dorm, they will also have the option of renting a house for a reoccurring set fee, which will certainly be a nice alternative to the high upfront cost of jumping into full-fledged home ownership early on. Also, if your Sim/family has an extra room that is going unused, players will be able to place an advertisement and rent it out to a random NPC, or ask a close friend to become a roommate, all of which will also help recreating apartment buildings.

Social Groups 

          You'll find a mix of three different social archetypes hanging around the university: Jocks, Nerds, and Rebels (which appears to the label slapped over a melting pot of outspoken protesters, coffee drinkers, hipsters, and mellow art students -- kudos to EA for making things oh so simple). There will apparently be some sort of measurable relations system with each group, and once your Sim reaches a certian reputation level with one of the social groups, they could gain access to one of University Life's three new careers: video game developer for the Nerds, sports agent for the Jocks, and art appraiser for the Rebels. It's also been mentioned that getting cozy enough with one of the social groups could give your Sim a coveted extra trait slot.

New skills, Smart Phones & Social Media

            Once University Life is installed, all Sims will get upgrade to modern smartphones. These new devices will let Sims, in addition to all the functionality of the old phones, to take photos, view video, study, text (see romantic interactions), and also use the new social media interfacing like blogging and posting videos. Social networking looks to be tied into developing relations with the three new social groups, and will also be one of the three new skills introduced in the expansion, the others being street art, allowing your Sim to paint up a graffiti art on walls, and science, which will come with its own set of activities and perks.

New Traits.

           Three new traits will come with UL, consisting of Socially awkward, Avant Garde, and Irresistable.   

New Interactions

Parties Galore

          EA/Maxis was dedicated to recreating the wild times so closely associated with the college life, and it seems players will find quite a few recreations of the shenanigans we are know take place on campuses (or at least, euphemism-infused variations of the stuff able to pass in a T-rated game ). Starting with the tamer stuff, Sims can now have bonfire parties to evoke the classic mood of socializing while watching things burn. Dorm parties will also be added. Moving on down the list, Sims will be able to test their skill in a round of "juice" pong (because we all know that's the go-to beverage among college students), or get really juiced at the "juice" keg (see what we did there?), which looks to have some fun interactions, like having a friend hoist up a Sim in the air to start chugging down. There has also been mention of new woohoo related additions, including a Murphy bed.

(A lot of) Other Interactions

          To add a bit of kink to your game, Sims will be now be able strip off their clothes and streak wildly, but whether the influence of juice is necessary to do so isn't certain at this point. Sims can now plop down on the ground to sketch or use a laptop. Sims can also snap a photo of themselves or with a friend using the new smartphones. In the trailer, we saw a rebel Sim spray painting a mural on a building, as well as a Sim posing au naturel for a nude portrait. We also saw a Sim interviewing another for the radio broadcast that is part of the communications major. Your Sims will be able to toss around a frisbee out on a the quad (or any other place they fancy), and play hacky-sack. Politically active Sims can now express their concern and/or outrage with a good old-fashion protest.

New Romance (& woohoo) additions

         Three new kisses, heat of the moment kiss, for showing affection without the lengthy flirtation process, juiced kiss, and cinnamon kiss, for adding a bit more spice to a relationship, have been added. Sim's can also manage their relationships with the new smartphones through texting, allowing them to fire off a flirty message to someone they admire, an insulting text to those who they don't, and, for those extra dastardly types, a break-up text to give your once-significant other the boot with as little effort and dignity as possible. As mentioned before, the Murphy bed is new addition as is it's accommodation of woohoo. 

New Interactive Objects & Venues

Coffee bars and Coffeehouses

           Sure,"juice" might be the primary beverage for some college students (in both real life and the Sims alike--you know who you are), but for others the more caffeinated type of liquid constitutes a primary fluid intake. So, sure to delight mocha maniacs everywhere, is a new coffee bar object that first got shown off the university student union during the livestream, but also was spotted in a screenshot of what appeared to be a coffee shop interior.

  
Bowling

                 If you Sims should strike out with that certain someone they have their eyes on, they can now go and (hopefully) strike out in a good sense at the new B’s Bowlarama venue. Yes indeed, bowling, last seen in the Sims 2 Nightlife, finally makes a return to the Sims franchise with University Life. Of course, its only reasonable to presume the bowling alley will be a object players will be able to place themselves, so hopefully we have another awesome way to fill up the despicably massive basements of our mega-mansions.

Hobby Shop

                There is a new venue in the University World called Keith's Comics, which appears to be a new type of venue called Hobby Shop. It looks like this lot will be a non-rabbit hole store, somewhat similar to the consignment store in Ambitions,that will sell comics, figurines and other nerd-related paraphernalia. 

This post will be expanded more in the coming days as time allows and updated as fresh info is revealed, so be sure to check back for updates!

 

Find the full recording of the livestream here.