Functional schools

It would be amazing if one day, the schools would open up and provide deep, meaningful gameplay. Each city would have a school “grounds”, and the grounds would be divided into 3 areas: elementary/primary school for the kids, middle school for preteens, and high/secondary school for teens.

The school schedule will be 2 classes, followed by recess, followed by 2 classes, followed by study hall.
Each class will slowly increase corresponding skills/values and will have class tasks that must be completed before the end of class to get the full grades for the day for that classroom. The daily scored would tally into a daily average, and that avarage performance would influence the performance meter.

There will be 3 regular classes a day (so, students sit at a desk and study with the board) followed by a “special” class. Special classes would require specialized classrooms, and they will include classes such as art, music, science, sports, swimming, ect. There will be a different special class every day to add to the variety.
During lunch, students could get lunch at the school cafeteria to eat and play around the school grounds.

Study hall will be shorter than regular classes and will give zois the chance to catch up on school work/homework instead of having to do it at home.

Each “grade” level will have its own, unique gameplay:

-elementary school: the objective of these years is learning how to play with others, making friends, learning to sit through class and improving childhood skills. This is also when bullying starts, although there’s a lowest chance. Consistently showing up to school smelly/in dirty clothes/having bad grades might make other kids bully your zoi. Bullying would involve name calling and just being mean. Kids could also pull pranks on the school, but getting caught would send them to detention (more on that in next section).

-middle school: this is when zois would start to develop their own interests. They’ll be able to form cliques based on their interests or not befriend anybody and will just become loners. Bullying will also become more severe and could resort to becoming physical. Of course, your zoi themselves could become a bully and steal lunch money from other students. At this age, zois will need to start focusing on developing their skills and improving their grades. High grades could nominate them for school awards that you can hang around in your home. Getting caught bullying/low grades would send them to detention and they’ll have to stay after school/during lunch in a classroom and complete detention objectives. At this age, preteens will also start developing crashes on other preteens and could include cute interactions like holding hands, confessing, play pretend weddings, hand holding, kissing on the cheek, giving small gifts, ect. Every 3 detentions will negatively impact grades. This is also the age zois can join after school clubs. Those clubs could include music club, art club, chess club, debate club, basketball club, soccer club, ect. Clubs will compete in tournaments once a week and the tournament outcome will depend on how the zois perform in their club/skill levels. Every Friday, there’s a chance there’ll be a school dance instead of the last 2 classes which will take place at the gym. Preteens could invite their crashes to dance, dance alone and eat the refreshments that are provided. Performing well in middle school will make you zoi take “accelarated” classes in hughschool (more on that later).

-high school: everything included in middle school, with more added. Zois could spread rumors about another zoi, there could be clique drama (so if the goth clique and preppy clique are at “war”, zois of that clique would be more inclined to be mean to members of the other clique). There will also be trends. So teen zois would often want to follow trends. So there’s a chance that a certain item/movie/game is trending, and teen zois would get a big desire to participate in that trend. High school will also introduce a popularity system which is influences by the amount of friends a zoi has,how “trendy” they are and their grades. The more popular a zoi is, the more parties/hangouts they’ll be invited to. Grades at this age become particularly important. Having high grades and high skill level in a certain skill will grant them scholarships for university to help cover costs in fields related to those skills/classes. Consistently winning club tournaments or having high grades/skills across all subjects could qualify zois for a full ride scholarship that will make university free for that specific zoi. Perfect grades in all accelerated classes + high skills will also make a zoi eligible to graduate early and be able to get into university as a teen to get a head start. At this stage they’ll also have weekly exams. In order to do well on the exams, zois must have high grades across all their classes as well as studying. Doing well will boost grades while doing poorly will tank them. If zois have low grades, they might get expelled (or they can voluntarily withdraw). If they get expelled/withdraw, zois wont get their high school diploma and wont be able to attend university. Of course, they could obtain a diploma online for a fee + a lot of studying later on as young adults. School dances are replaced with “prom”, which takes place after school. Dating will also take priority, and being “friendly” towards a zoi could spread rumors that you are dating and even start school scandals. Getting caught kissing by the teachers would land the zois at detention. Preteens that performed well during middle school will attend “accelerated” high school classes. The objectives/honework will be harder than regular classes, but accelerated classes will increase skills/values more quickly and be eligible to graduate early and have higher chances of receiving university scholarships.

Zois will get homework daily which they must complete. Then, once a week, zois will get a special project they must complete within the week. This special project could include anything. like, delivering a metal, painting a painting, improving a skill, ect.

Also, every Friday there’s a chance that instead of regular classes on Monday will be “cancelled” and instead of attending normal classes, students will go on a field trip to one of the venues in town. Students will get tasks they can complete during the field trip and have a chance of getting venue specific exclusive souvenirs.

A misbehaving zoi/prankster/bully will get called to a principle’s office, and theres a chance the parents would be called. Bad offenses could also cause a zoi go be suspended, in which case they’ll stay home and they’ll get grounded by the parents. Parents can also bribe the teachers to give their kids higher grades/better club positions. The gugher the bribe, the higher the chance of success.

On the last day of a teenager’s lifestage, there will be a graduation ceremony. If it happens during the school day, school will be canceled for that day. Basically, there’ll be a graduation ceremony where a qualified teen will get their high school diploma and thus finish highschool. Before the graduation ceremony, there will be a final exam instead of regukar school hours. This final exam is extremely important and is basically a university engrance exam.each university degree has a required “entrance exam grades” that will determine a zoi’s eligibility for a certain degree. Perfrominh poorly will disqualify a zoi from attending university (though, they may pay a fee and attend online classes for a week and try again). Teens who graduated early will get the entrance exam + graduation ceremony the day after. If the teen is dating anyone, there could be cute interactions like “cry over missing them”, “promise to wait”, “give flowers”, ect and less cute ones like “outgrow eachother”. If 2 dating teenage zois “promise to wait”, the yonger zoi will have 7 days to age up, and once they age up, their relationship will continue like normal. If they don’t age up within that time limit, the zois will have a break up scenario.

If you have any other ideas to add, comment below!

8 Likes

This is such a detailed and thoughtful school system, and I love how each stage has its own goals and drama instead of repeating the same loop. The mix of grades, cliques, clubs, dances, field trips, and consequences like detention really brings everything to life.

It would also be cute if the graduation ceremony let teens earn or customize grad stoles based on their achievements or clubs—they’d feel like a final reward for all that work.

Overall, amazing concept!