Building apartments for roommates.

[Saltypaws]

I was getting kind of bored lately and don't even play my sims, except on the weekends.  I was trying to think of something new and different, for me that is.  I love the room mate idea, but didn't really like them in the same household, so I set out to experiment.  I plopped down a 50 x 50 lot and built four connecting units for the roommates.  Towards the back of the lot, I built the main house.  I placed a pool and other fun items in the back and gave everyone a back door.  After I was done, I allowed the room mates.  I started with four and might add a top floor with stairs for more, but I was mainly trying to see what these little sims did.  When the sims started to show up, I hovered my mouse over them to get their names and on each apartment, I designated that particular sim and set their bed with their name also.  It worked like a charm and it was really quite entertaining to watch these sims interact.  I also locked the doors on the main house, so they would not go in there.  They swam, flirted, got in hot tub, played in the water fall in the pool and I just sat back and watched.  One sim finally went into his apartment, fixed something to eat and went to bed.  Another sim went into their apartment, took a shower, read a book and went to bed. The other two spent most of the night in the pool and then the next morning, three of them went to work. I am sure someone else has probably done this, but I just wanted to share.

What a way to spend the evening.

[Aspen]

There is a concept I've been trying to make happen but I lack the skill or its just not possible with the available tools: Having sims live with me but not under my control.
I've tried turning residential lots into community ones and I've tried moving my sims into (player made) danceclubs and restaurants...in short, its doesnt work. 
Im trying to get that same uncertainty you get when you meet sims around town but on one lot, kind of like what you've got going on here- but just knowing I could control any of the other roomates whenever I wanted to takes away from the 'excitement' for lack of a better word.

[Angélique]

There is a concept I've been trying to make happen but I lack the skill or its just not possible with the available tools: Having sims live with me but not under my control.

That's exactly what you get with this new Roommate feature that came with University Life expansion. I must say it felt really weird at first, to suddenly have a bunch of total strangers running around in my single sims home, doing whatever they like all the time. Fortunately it's easy to get rid of one or all of them if/when you get tired of the whole idea.

[Saltypaws]

For the most part, I really don't pay much attention to them, but they are so funny when they are all outside, enjoying the fun things I put in there for them to do.  The funny part is, I got a notification that one of the roommates moved in with Jamie Jolina and then another roommate moved in with Gobias.  Like I said, they flirt, argue and go about their lives and I continue playing my sims in the main house and collect the rent every Friday.  I have really enjoyed it.

[Wai]

Thank you Saltypaws.

I haven't played for a while now.  I was really irritated when my lovely resort got messed up with the no maintenance staff bug that I just haven't bothered to play since. 

I like your idea, it sounds amusing,  Tomorrow, I might just start a new game (not in IP) and give this a go.  One sim and seven room-mates could be just what I need to get interested again.

PS.  If I start them in a basic home and slowly improve, do you know if their rent increases accordingly?  Is the rent worth the expenditure?

[Saltypaws]

I think the rent stays the same, no matter what you do as far as improvements.  I know for a partial week, I received almost 5,000, so not sure what a full week is.  I think it said around 11,000 for just four people.  Let me know how yours goes.

[Chuckles_82]

I like this idea. I did this with TS2 AL. I love the patio fire/fence. Where did you get that?

[Saltypaws]

I believe it came with Island Paradise. The only thing I had to do was, give my main couple the "no jealousy" reward.  They all like to flirt and I didn't want my sims to have that betrayed moodlet.  I did catch all of the roomies in the hot tub skinny dipping, so funny.

[Aspen]

That's exactly what you get with this new Roommate feature that came with University Life expansion. I must say it felt really weird at first, to suddenly have a bunch of total strangers running around in my single sims home, doing whatever they like all the time. Fortunately it's easy to get rid of one or all of them if/when you get tired of the whole idea.

Well, sounds like I need to get UL then, as I've been trying to do this for years! It just didnt look like an EP made for anyone but YAs

[Tigerskin]

I really like this idea SaltyPaws, I may give it a go once I am bored with my current family.

They had something similar to this in one of the previous sims games I think? Just without communal areas and the main house - I think the communal area is a great way to interact with other sims but not have control over them