Dormitory

Dormitories are a special type of residential lots that can only be found in college sub-neighborhoods.

The Sims 2: University
Dormitory housing is one of the two types of housing available to all young adult Sims. Unlike renting a house on campus, there is no cost to move into a dormitory, so dorm housing is available to even the poorest students.

When in a college sub-neighborhood, the Specialty Lots section of the Lots and Houses Bin will contain pre-made dormitories of various sizes and designs. Also, each pre-made college has three or four dormitories.

Editing and building dormitories
Dormitories can be edited, but some Buy and Build mode tools, and most Build mode categories, will be unavailable unless the cheat code  is set to. In addition, Buy mode will be disabled unless the cheat code is used or the dorm is occupied. Even when using the cheat code, pre-placed doors and windows in premade dormitories may remain uneditable.

Players can also create dormitories. To make a dormitory, create a residential lot, then using the appropriate cheat code to zone it as a dormitory. This rezoning should be done before any Sims have moved into the lot.

Required and optional features
When building or modifying a dormitory, each Myne Door must be placed so the picture area faces outward, and there should only be one door leading into a dorm room. This means that multiple-occupancy rooms are not possible, nor are "suites" in which two dorm rooms share a bathroom.

A dormitory must have a cafeteria with a ShinyTyme Cooktop, counter islands, and a sink or dishwasher. Since the cafeteria worker can burn food and will occasionally start a fire, there should be a Skimmer Securities Ceiling Sprinkler above the cooktop. The cafeterias in the pre-made dormitories all have refrigerators, but that is not required. If a refrigerator is present, the cafeteria worker will not use it when making food, but dorm residents will be able to take food from it.

Dormitories may also have mini-fridges and microwaves. Some premade dormitories have coffeemakers. Dormitories should also have bathrooms with showers. Many dorms use communal bathrooms with toilet stalls and several Strut Your Stuff communal showers, but some use ordinary bathrooms. Most dormitories will have at least one bookcase and computer, and some pre-made dorms have one or two rooms which have a computer. Most dormitories will also have have items for building creativity and logic, recreational items, and areas for lounging or doing class assignments.

All dorm rooms should have a bed. While the Dormies do not actually get into the beds in their rooms when they sleep, the quality of the bed in a Dormie's room determines how quickly he or she regains comfort and energy while sleeping. The premade dormitories will generally use the Craftmeister's Pine Bed or Caress of Teak Bed from the base game or the Flowin' Protozoan Single Bed from the University expansion pack.

Dorm life
While living in a dormitory, playable Sims live with young adult Townies, who are often referred to as "Dormies". Even though only playable Sims receive bills, it is assumed that all students in the dorm are billed the same, so the Dormies reduce the amount of the playable household's bills. However, Dormies cannot be asked to join the household, and playable Sims moving out of the dorm cannot have Dormies move out with them. Individual Dormies living in a dorm will come and go at random; the player has no control over this.

Dormitory rooms use the Myne Door. This door is able to be "claimed" by a single Sim, making a room his/hers and giving him/her the ability to restrict access to the room. After a Sim has claimed a room, his or her picture will appear on the door. This picture will not change if the Sim's appearance is changed, but the player can update the picture by having the Sim unclaim and reclaim the room. Dormies that move into the dorm also claim rooms; players are given a slight head-start (about an hour of game time) to claim the rooms they want the playable Sims to have. A Dormie's door will be locked if the Dormie is asleep or out of the dorm, but will be unlocked at other times. It the Dormie is in the room and the door is locked, the player may tell a playable Sim to knock on the door. Playable Sims will not lock or unlock their doors unless directed to by the player.

To maximize frame rate, rooms claimed by Dormies appear empty unless a playable Sim walks into them. This also creates a "What's going on in there!?" effect, which adds realism. However, it also means that Sims in a Dormie's room cannot be interacted with unless a playable Sim enters the room. A playable Sim can enter a Dormie's unlocked room, but cannot use "Call Over" to ask the Dormie to come out of it. as The contents of these rooms, and any Sims that are in them, become visible if the player enters Buy mode.

If playable Sims are merged into a dorm household, an equivalent number of Dormies will move out. The player has no control over which ones move out.

Once a Dormie claims a room in a dorm, it appears that he or she becomes associated with that dorm, and will not move into another. If there are more unclaimed rooms than there are "unassociated" Dormies to claim them, the game will generate new Dormies to claim those rooms.

If a Dormie is moved into a playable household, either on or off campus, his or her room will become unclaimed, and the game will generate a new Dormie to take his or her place. However, the Dormie may still remain in the dorm for a while, unless a playable Sim says goodbye to him/her.

Advantages of dorm life
There are two main advantages to dorm life. One is that it's cheap. There is no cost to move into a dorm, and bills are low. While the cafeteria has a limited selection, the food is free, plentiful, and available at almost all hours. Of course, Sims can still cook their own food in the kitchen whenever they wish, as long as there is a refrigerator.

The other is social. The Dormies are a ready-made pool of Sims for the playable Sims in the dorm to interact with and make friends with. Of course, the player has no control over which Dormies will be in the dorm at any given time, but there will always be some. It's also likely that some of the Dormies will be members of the secret society.

Plumbing, appliances, and electronics never break on dormitory lots, even if heavily used. Also, even shy Sims do not object to doing their private activities in front of others, even if they would be unhappy to use a public toilet on other lots.

Disadvantages of dorm life
Dorm life does have its disadvantages, which mostly center around the Dormies.

Dormies will do assignments very often, and frequently leave unfinished assignments on desks and cafeteria tables. They may come back to finish them, but have been known to start new ones even if they have unfinished ones lying around. (Unfinished assignments can be moved or deleted in Buy mode.) They may have a tendency to do research, and do not always put the books away. If a bookcase is near a television set, chess table, computer, etc., seats in front of those items may be monopolized by Dormies doing research. Dormies will not always shower when they need to, and will rarely, if ever, clean a toilet stall, shower, or bathroom sink without being influenced to clean, regardless of how high their Neatness score is. If a dorm household has some spare cash, hiring a maid may be worth their while.

Another disadvantage is that when a Sim throws a party or invites other Sims over, the guests often disappear into Dormies' rooms for hours at a time, even if they have no relationships with the Dormies. Guests cannot be interacted with while in Dormies' rooms, nor can they be stopped from going there (as soon as they start walking toward a dorm room, there are no options to interact with them). This can make it difficult to throw a successful party at a dorm. It may also make joining a Greek house while on a dorm lot a challenge, since the members of the Greek house who arrive to "check out" the prospective member need to be socialized with, but often make themselves totally unavailable.

Another issue is that the Dormies consider items such as desks, computers, etc. in a playable Sim's room to be publicly available, unless the door is locked.

Also, tables will occasionally get "stuck", so that they're considered to be in use even though they're not being used, which can be annoying if a Sim is very hungry.

The Sims 3: University Life
Unlike the dorms in The Sims 2: University, dorms in The Sims 3: University Life are fully customizable in by using Build/Buy mode. Also, Sims will no longer claim doors, but it will be possible to click on a bed and reserve it for a specific Sim.