Majors
Creating a custom major involves a lot of writing and a fair amount of creativity. As such it's a shame to let all that effort go to waste - so it's important that you ensure your upload meets the following criteria for approval; otherwise you'll just end up depriving downloaders of what may be a brilliantly written custom major due to mere technical details
Quality
- Theme : The subject matter of a custom major need not be within the realms of possibility. We have magic majors, hoodlum majors, majors on how to be a ninja... no sense of reality required. However, whatever theme you choose must make sense as a major.
- Making majors based around games, films, books, TV shows or celebrities is very popular - but it has to be done carefully. People, and sims, go to university to learn how to be or do something. They don't go to university to learn about a TV show or a celebrity. Using a TV show or a game world as a base is fine, but a sim studying your major should have some chance of learning something they might actually care about.
- The key is immersion - is anyone likely to create a sim who would want to follow this major? Someone has probably made a Buffy sim, they probably haven't made a sim who is Sarah Michelle Gellar's #1 fan. To illustrate, some acceptable and unacceptable class titles:
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- Avada Kedavra! And Other Phrases You Should Rarely Use
- Advanced Mechanics: Smack It Wiv' Yer Spanner!
- Why Stargate + Black Hole = Do not Want
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- Dumbledore Dies on Page 596!
- Is Paris Hilton Really Straight?
- The Hidden Message of the Fast Food Rockers
- Uniqueness and Grammar : Description, title, and classes must be new, unique, and inventive. They must also be double-checked for spelling and grammar.
- Clear All Languages : Make sure to hit "Clear All Languages" before you upload, or your file will not work properly with non-US English games!
- Overwriting : Unless your major is specifically intended to overwrite a Maxis major, it absolutely must have a registered custom GUID.
- Skill Requirements : If you use BCONs to alter skill requirements, test them thoroughly before you upload. Incorrectly modified BCONs can cause game crashes, so test them.
- Custom Icons : They should meet the standards laid out in this mini-tutorial - that is; be the roughly right colour (if it's a single-colour silhouette), NOT be a random photo, and have a transparent background. You may use an EA icon if it is appropriate; the main purpose of this requirement is to ensure that the UI looks neat when your major is in use.
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Screenshots
- Icon: You must include your major's icon, or a picture of it in-game.
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Information
| Title & Description
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| Give your upload a descriptive title and write a text description for your upload, describing what you're uploading. Your title and description must be in English or provide an English translation. If you are not a native English speaker, using Google Translate is okay. You can also ask for help writing your description in the Creator Feedback Forum.
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| Required Information
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- You must include in your post:
- Major title and description, and class names.
- If the major overwrites a Maxis major, you must state which major it overwrites.
- If you used BCONs to alter skill requirements, state which skills are focused on.
- The icon used for the major, as an attachment to the post. If you created your icon in a program which uses lurid pink to show transparency, put it on a white background; otherwise it just looks tacky.
- Majors require University. They are not basegame compatible. They do not require Nightlife, Seasons, or anything else. Tick the University box, and that's it!
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Additional Stuff
- If your upload is rejected or marked as changes required and you're not sure why, ask in Creator Issues.
- If you're not sure whether your neighborhood is ready for uploading, use the Creator Feedback Forum to get feedback on it.
