Alcoholic Butlers and Random Roomates

[Aspen]

omg, this is why you cant have nice drinks and a butler around. I dont know what it is, but I like bars, every house I own always has one- they provide nice buffs and they add atmosphere at parties. Problem is *the minute* I make a fresh batch, its like the drinking bell just rang all across my house- any/every butler I've ever hired since Late Night bee lines for the them and proceeds to drink every last one. House could be roach infested and new life forms taking shape in my fridge, but rest assured those drinks will NOT be left alone as long as my butler is awake.
Any fix for this?  would look ridiculous to put a gate around the bar in my living room

Also, when you enable roomates, can you then go and local townies if they want to move in?  I enabled the feature, then my couple went out on the town- when they came back home there were 2 strangers in the pool and another two playing video games upstairs, which was really fast but also crazy cause these werent even people from around town. So ideally if I could get all my self-created sims to hang out while I focus on this couple it would be great (via invite or conversation), can that be?

[Angélique]

Also, when you enable roomates, can you then go and local townies if they want to move in?  I enabled the feature, then my couple went out on the town- when they came back home there were 2 strangers in the pool and another two playing video games upstairs, which was really fast but also crazy cause these werent even people from around town. So ideally if I could get all my self-created sims to hang out while I focus on this couple it would be great (via invite or conversation), can that be?

Yes, it seems perfectly possible, at least in my game. I had my single sim ask other sims to be roommates, both when she was on a community lot, and when she called and invited them home, and all but one accepted, and moved in.

As a little experiment I decided to try evicting the whole household, and then put them back together in another house, just to see what happened. That made them change into normal playable sims, and they had their little portraits on the left side of the screen, and were controllable as usual. So if you want your roommates to stay roommates, it seems like a bad idea to evict the household and put them back in the same or another house.

[Aspen]

Really good news thanks for that, cant wait to try this tonight.  I dont feel as lucky with the butlers, maybe a mod might help...but I dont know any mod that can change sim personalities towards, drinks.

[m.sato]

....would look ridiculous to put a gate around the bar in my living room

I guess it depends on your point of view.

Guest: Great idea to fence the bar to keep the kids away.
Host: The kids are great, it's James I worry. (butterfly tie figure across the room whispering "booze! booze!! booze!!!")

[Aspen]

there must not be alot of bar owners with butlers, Im suprised no one else has experienced this? I mean its almost comical how fast they drop everything for the drinks...its like zombies and brains...oh well, I guess I'll drop this one since it only seems to be me that this is an issue for.

[dragonsim]

I had a house with a butler and keg.  The butler drank juice day and night.

[DanBrunetu]

The Juice Keg has a high autonomy so it attracts the sims to use it very often. That's the reason why your butler drinks a lot of juice .

[Randox]

It's funny to me, because no one in my family will autonomously drink a thing , though I'm guessing if all my drinks weren't coffee, that might change. I guess if I ever get a bar, I should keep it in the garage with the spare alchemy supplies and potions. On the other hand, maybe a butler would drink all my coffee for me so that it's not sitting around the house for a week because I keep forgetting to have people drink it at breakfast.

It's also funny for the obvious reasons, though marginally less so if I were the one paying him to drink my house dry.

[Janna]

It happens with Boney's also (Bonehilda, the maid from SN).  I gave up on having a bar with her as all she did was drink, pee on the floor, mop it up, drink, pee on the floor, mop it up, drink, pee on the floor, you get the idea.  Just out of curiosity I waited to see if she would stop when the house got dirty and things broke down.  She didn't, she just kept right on drinking, peeing and moping. 

Got rid of the bar. 

I guess you could build a nice room for the bar, or have a half wall around most of it, leave a section for a door and then lock it to only household, that may keep the butler, or a Boney, away from the bars.

Have never tried it to see if it works. 

[Aspen]

I thought about building a bar room, I've always found it easier to slip them in in between the living room / dining room.  Just seems like huge work around to a simple problem. I guess I'll just go back to making drinks *after* the maid service leaves. Thanks all- one last question- that plant on the gardening channel- was that the omni plant from sims 2?  Cause the sims 3 omni plant is very boring looking

[Angélique]

Thanks all- one last question- that plant on the gardening channel- was that the omni plant from sims 2?  Cause the sims 3 omni plant is very boring looking

No, it's not the Omni plant, it's that horrible deadly cow plant from Sims 2! The Omni plant is a small plant, is looks the same as bell pepper, life fruit, tomato and so on, and it's completely harmless and well behaved. It reproduces all the things that you feed it with. I think you must have got them mixed up somehow?

Anyway, I thought about buying the Sims 3 cow plant a while ago, but in the end I chickened out, because I think that potted plants should be nice and friendly, and not wanting to devour my poor little defenseless sims!

[lonelygoddess42]

So far the roommates I have had become normal controllable Sims after saving and reloading. What's up with that?
 

[Angélique]

So far the roommates I have had become normal controllable Sims after saving and reloading. What's up with that?

The roommate feature is very buggy and unpredictable. If you go to Edit town and then return to game, they become normal controllable household members too. And if you want to move to another house in game, you can't take your roommates with you to the new home, you must get rid of them first. So I would say that this feature still leaves a lot to be desired. Maybe some of it will be corrected in the next patch, maybe not. Who knows with this game?

[HughCharisma]

there must not be alot of bar owners with butlers, Im suprised no one else has experienced this? I mean its almost comical how fast they drop everything for the drinks...its like zombies and brains...oh well, I guess I'll drop this one since it only seems to be me that this is an issue for.

You're not alone, every butler I've hired will consume every drink I make as quickly as possible. I've even had them wake up from a sound sleep just to do so. It's really annoying if like me, you rely on the learning buff from a skill gain drink to accelerate skill mastery. A tray could yield up to 24 hours (assuming you're a master of mood), but with a butler or even maid service, I'm lucky if I get to drink more than one.

Another thing I learned is to avoid making your butler (or maid) a woohoo partner. I play my Sims with high autonomy, and it seems like every time I don't pay attention they end up having an argument with the butler and upsetting them. Last time that happened, the butler, who up to that point had kicked every burglar's butt and held them for the cops, got the dagger thought bubble and just let the burglar get away. LOL - That'll teach me to mix business and pleasure...