Butler randomly changing, visitor management not working

[SimGuruNick]

We're still looking for save files to help us reproduce this issue, thank you! https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/INFORMATION-How-to-Send-User-Files-to-The-Sims-4-Team/m-p/6065...

[Druindo]

Hi there, I just found this while searching around online, so I thought I'd chime in with my experience so far.

Some background:

I wanted to have multiple customized butlers, so I figured out a workaround to get my created sims into the Butler queue. (If this becomes relevant, I have my process written down.)

Long story short I get the sim(s) I want into the Butler queue.

I do use mods, but the glitch is persistent regardless of which mods I add or remove.

When I come back to my house, the Butler doesn't always remember what he was doing, the only exception being if the Butler was asleep. If the Butler was not sleeping, then there's a chance that I'll have a new butler, or that the old butler will not be there, and spawn a few seconds later in the street. When the butler is spontaneously replaced, the new butler spawns in the street. Sometimes the new butlers will idle at the spawn point until they despawn and another butler is spawned in their place. Until the butler stops idling at the spawn, this will continue to cycle through all of the butlers that the game currently knows of; no new butlers are added to the list. (This is most easily done by setting your lot up so there are no chores for the butler, then having all of your sims sleep, but don't have the butler go to sleep. I'll see if I can get a savestate of this and I'll see if it happens with nannies, I'll even try to get this with a mod-free file; mods do make the process of creation of custom butlers much, much easier, though.)

This can happen whenever I visit any lot that unloads my home lot. It can also happen whenever I load the savegame, and each time I load the savegame, a different butler may spawn (so if my household rolls the wrong butler, I can just reload until I get the correct one). It seems to happen less often if all of the butlers in the game have been hired by various households, and it also seems less likely to occur if you have developed a strong friendship or romance with the butler, but in both cases it can still happen. The only thing that seems to keep my butler the same 100% of the time when loading saves, is if the butler was asleep in their assigned bed when I left the lot.

My best guess as to what is happening: Butlers aren't assigned Households or Lots that the are hired to. The game just says that Household or Lot X has the Butler service. It may be worth noting that I've never successfully made a butler go into the Butler queue properly unless I added the butler career while they were instantiated in the same lot as the sim who hires them.

If there's any more info I can give, I'd be more than happy to help

[Hyperion_Rail]

This has happened to me twice and if it helps, both times were right after I threw a party on my home lot. Almost as if the game considers my butler a "hired staff" for parties and dismissed her when it wrapped. But then the game says, "hey, wait, they have a butler in this house" and sends me a replacement. Both times this has happened to me it's been the exact same story. One was a Kava Party and the other a Dinner Party. But yes immediately after the party wraps, my butler is nowhere to be found and moments later a new one enters from the street. And I should note the butler was active throughout the party. I know cuz I gave them a gift as it was a Winterfest Party.

Edit: I should also note that I believe those are the ONLY two parties I threw since getting a butler as both parties were intentionally based around the Butler, which I only downloaded the pack a few days ago so I wanted to see how well they clean up after a messy party. In other words in my game, this has so far had a 100% track record.

2nd Edit: I should also note I reloaded an old save after I lost my butler the first time. The second time I wasn't willing to lose all that progress again so I saved and closed the game (as on top of losing my Butler...Patchy also turned into a human(????) and was lagging so hard I felt maybe my computer just needed a break. 

Also, on Mac and uses basic mods.

[AyomiVendethiel]

If anyone is curious how / why this happens or if EA is looking for how to reproduce this issue in order to test and fix it all you have to do is the following.

1. Start a new game with a Sim in a house and hire a butler.

2. Decide you do not like the butler and fire said butler.

3. Hire a new butler.

4. Repeat steps 2-3 three more times (your world should now have 4 butlers, but only the most recent one works at your house)

5. Leave your lot by going to an event or doing something at another Sims house with your Sim.

6. Return to your lot after said event.

This should cause the butler to randomly revert back to one of the previous butlers you hired.

If it does not repeat steps 5 and 6 until it does. The game seems to have a chance to randomly pick a butler from the list of all butlers in the world when returning to your lot so sometimes you get your butler, sometimes you get one you've fired.

(I have no mods installed)

One possible solution, if you wish to keep the same butler, is to only hire one butler per world. That way every time you return to your lot you will always have the same butler. However, this also means that all households will share the same butler.

[PoptartJuniper]

This happened on PS4. My sims hired a Butler, he appeared and then they went to a birthday party. When returning, there was a new butler on the lot and his name was Baby Shaver. What kind of name is that anyway?

Edit: So after several butlers and firing and deleting new butler's to get my old one back after I travel. It seems to be happening because the game uses my butler as a random npc on the lot I travel to. If the butler isn't on the lot when I leave to go home, my butler stays the same. If I leave with the butler on the lot to go home, I get a new butler. At least that's how it appears. 

Edit2: @SimGuruNick Here's my save.

Attached screens. My butler showed up this last time to the geek con, and then was dressed in a shirt and his underwear because geek con people always are in their underwear, which I am sure is another matter entirely. Then, he stayed in the tee and underwear back at home. He wandered around the house in his weird geek con attire and never went back to his butler outfit.

Also attached a screen of the weird butler that showed up once when my original disappeared named "Baby Shaver"

[crinrict]

Since they fixed so many butler issues, could I get some feedback if this one is also fixed ?

[Zagalo21]

@SimGuruNick People have this problem since 2018, its almost the end of 2019 and its still not fixed. I play on PlayStation 4 and have this problem everytime I leave my house. It’s annoying, ruins the gameplay experience and needs to be fixed. Not to mention that the buttler is something that people actually pay extra money for since its an add on and not in the base game.

@crinrict Its not...

[Zagalo21]

@crinrict Its not...

[crinrict]

@Zagalo21 Since you're on playstation, you didn't get the big patch with all the butler fixes yet.

[Zagalo21]

@crinrict Big patch? There’s still people reporting this problem and they’re on pc. And PlayStation did get a recent patch, 1.20, that in the details mentioned some buttler fixes, so why not also fix this glitch that people been reporting since 2018?

[crinrict]

@Zagalo21 Where did you see them report ? The patch for PC was last Thursday.

EDIT: Would you be able to share your save: https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/INFORMATION-How-to-Send-User-Files-to-The-Sims-4-Team/m-p/6065... ?