Food platters disappear when waiters queue social interaction

by overcast204
Reply

Original Post

Accepted Solution

[ARCHIVED] [DO] Restaurant Problems

[ Edited ]
Hero

Dine Out has a few problems that are hard to separate, so I've decided to merge. Also some might just be design choices

 

Below you'll find a list of known issues and a few things to consider when building a restaurant. They are taken from my blog article here: [Dine Out] Issues and Workarounds

 

I'll be merging all of these issues in here.

 

  1. The Chefs never cook anything: The chef will act as if he cooks but no dish ever occurs on the tray/window of the cooking station.
  2. Food is not being served: The waiters don't actually serve the food. They either never get it from the tray/window or they get it and drop it on the floor.
  3. Sims never get seated: Sims just stand around the podium and are never seated. They just talk and talk. If there's a bar, they stand next to the bar and talk.
  4. Sims don't eat their food: Sims sit in front of a full plate but never eat it. They do consume their drinks.
  5. Sims get up to drink: Once served Sims get up to drink their drink and then either never sit back down or sit down but never touch their food. --> FIxed in Patch 1.24.102
  6. Sims get up to mingle with other guests: Sims get up a lot and just go over to other tables to chat. Sometimes they take their food with, sometimes they just leave their food. I also see them eating on benches or on the dance floor
  7. Single Sims join already seated groups/groups join other single Sims: Sometimes a Sim or a group of Sims will join an already seated group that has possibly already ordered. This leads to food not being eaten or Sims never leaving. They look like late-comers but it's hard to tell.
  8. Sims never leave: Sims have eaten but then never leave and hence never pay.
  9. Employees don't show up: My employees are still employed yet they don't show up for work or just stand outside without coming in.
  10. Sims are not seated in a logical matter: Some of the tables are always empty and sometimes smaller groups are seated at big tables although there's smaller ones available. This leads to larger groups being split up. Sometimes farther away tables are preferred towards closer ones.
  11. Restaurant is only loosing money when opened while not on the lot: Soon after opening the restaurant while not on the lot, I get a message that my restaurant is loosing money.
  12. Booth don't snap into place or disappear: When I try to place a booth, it just disappears or doesn't snap to the table.
  13. Eating at the restaurant takes forever: When I go to a restaurant with my active Sim, it takes hours until they finish their meal.
  14. Only one course gets served: I've ordered a few courses but only one gets served.
  15. Routing Issues with praising/criticizing: When trying to interact with the staff, they often stand at a completely different space to react
  16. Resetting on cleaning dishes: Waiters reset when trying to clean up the same plate
  17. Employees are very hard to please: My employees are constantly unsatisfied
  18. Meals take a long time to finish: Going to dinner takes a long time.
  19. Employees don't wear assigned outfit
  20. Guests go jogging/dance or do other stuff instead of staying and waiting for their order

The following tips should help with a few of the above issues although it's all still a bit inconclusive.

 

  • Make sure that the chief station windows and trays are free. This means, don't place any tables/plants near the window/tray and do not use moveObjects or the ALT key to place decoration around it. Please see Food not being server/cooked for details.
  • Make sure your employees are happy. Praise them and give them raises on a regular basis. Also pay for training. It might be costly at the beginning but it will pay off.
  • Don't let your employees work to long. If you're getting a message that they are getting tired, disallow new guest and then close your restaurant.
  • Move around your tables and kitchen if you have lots of Sims gathering in weird places. The bar and aquarium are a place for them to mingle so if it gets annoying, remove those
  • Don't place a bar close to the podium. Find another space for it.
  • Make sure you have room for the employees to roam about. Don't make the seating too tight.
  • If you use the restaurant mostly to own and not go out with large groups yourself, build more smaller tables instead. I've never seen a group larger then 4 Sims visiting my restaurant.
  • Make sure you use the right boot for the right table. The long booth fits any 2x1 table (except the bar height table) and the corner booth fits any 1x1 table. It's also not possible to place two booth opposite of each other with one table.
  • To avoid the initial seating madness in your own restaurant, open the restaurant from home and then travel there. Once you arrive the guests will be already seated.
  • You get a message you're restaurant is loosing money right away as the costs are higher than what you earn before they actually pay for their food. Wait a bit and check the financial report if the Sims are actually paying and if it gets better after a while before traveling there. Also make sure your employees are not angry at you.
  • I think the length of the meal has to do with general clock issues. As long as you don't have to wait for hours (in which case food will never come anyways), I would say, that is normal.
  • You can only order one course at the time. Once that is being served, you can order the next one. Ordering them at the same time, overwrites the first order.
  • If you see food being dropped to the ground as well as glasses being dropped and you're using MC Command Center, try if it gets better if you turn of the Put away books fix.
  • If your guests are not being served, check if you can offer them free food/drinks or prioritize their meals.
  • Wait with welcoming the guests until they are seated. In my experience, it distracts them from being seated properly
  • Be patient. Sometimes they like to talk first before going up to the host.Most jams at the host station will clear up eventually.
  • Lock doors to your kitchen. Build a fence and a gate if you don't want to have it closed. If you have microwave and coffee machine, the Sims will just waltz into your kitchen and stay there forever.
  • Make sure to put your trash can into a closed room/fenced off area as well. Angry Sims will otherwise kick them all the time or foodies go rummage in them.
  • Only put one piece of decoration on your tables. Even the big ones.

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 171 of 287 (145,467 Views)

Accepted Solution

Re: Fix Time

Hero

This thread has become a bit of a mess .. many issues are fixed and I don't know if anything was address in the patch 1.36 that's not in the notes.

 

At this point, I think it's better to have separate threads for restaurant issues which is why I'm going to lock this thread.

 

Please open separate threads for any issues still occurring for restaurants.

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


View in thread

Message 287 of 287 (135,278 Views)

All Replies

[MORE INFO NEEDED] [DO] Illogical seating pattern

[ Edited ]
★ Guide

I updated an old diner with the Dine Out content and I just spent about THREE HOURS trying to figure out why the host was leading guests into the kitchen and doing the "no route" animation, essentially making the guests bug out because they then become un-servable/un-seatable.

 

Turns out the host was trying to seat the guests at the outdoor seating... Before I added a door leading outside from the kitchen room, I kept getting routing failures because the host would not use the front door to lead guests outside, but try to do it through the kitchen, which of course did not have any doors leading outside, because why on earth would it. There are obviously plenty of available booths, chairs and bar stools inside the venue, yet the game prioritizes outdoor seating that's the furthest from the host station? Seems like a weird oversight (and a massive inconvenience).

 

stop it.png

 

 

Message 1 of 287 (145,518 Views)

Re: Dine Out seating issue..

Hero

Do you have this build in the gallery ? If not, could you please upload ?

 

Tagging @BryonyRae to see if she's seen something similar.

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 2 of 287 (145,508 Views)

Re: Dine Out seating issue..

[ Edited ]
★ Guide

Not yet. I really dislike having sims sit outside when I worked hard on the interior, plus they look stupid eating in complete darkness during evening and night time, so I think the finished venue I'm going to upload I'm going to disable outdoor seating (probably replace chairs with loveseats so sims can't sit but the outdoor seating will remain for aesthetics).

 

I can upload the tray files of this version if you'd like.

 

ETA: I've done a bit more testing and it appears that the booths are "reserved" for larger groups of sims. Basically any 1 or 2 sims who came to dine will 99% be directed to the outdoor seating, whereas groups of 3 and 4 will be seated in the booths with ease. Another thing - when I as an owner try to be seated, I'm sat in the booth too.

 

P.P.S. Yap, as soon as I disabled those chairs outside (I manually replaced them so that they're there, but not actually connected to the tables, thus not usable), sims are seated in the booths without issues, however, they only seem to sit on the chairs, not the booth seats.

 

06-08-16_8-02-28 PM.png

Message 3 of 287 (145,489 Views)

Re: Dine Out seating issue..

Hero

Are those connected ?

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 4 of 287 (145,478 Views)

Food platters disappear when waiters queue social interaction

★ Novice

I'm having an issue where the chef completes a table's order and places it at the window, the waiter picks it up, and then the waiter queues a social interaction with my active Sim. When the social interaction becomes active, the waiter does an animation that looks like they're dropping the platter on the ground and it disappears forever.

 

The trouble is that the customers' food never gets re-ordered or re-made -- I've watched a table experiencing this sit for several hours getting more and more angry about the wait times while people who came in after them are properly served. The only option to avoid a negative review in this case is to close the restaurant early once I notice it.

Message 5 of 287 (145,191 Views)

Sims 4 dine out staff bug issue

★★★ Newbie
In sims 4 dine out sometimes the waitresses will stand outside of restaurant or inside restaurant and not do their job. The customers will be waiting for food or for their order to be taken but the waitresses won't move they just stand for hours while other staff members are working and customers are waiting. I tried debugging the waitresses but they still stand in one place forever like they don't have a job to do
Message 6 of 287 (145,732 Views)

Re: Food platters disappear when waiters queue social interaction

Hero

Are you using any mods in your game like MC Command Center ?

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 7 of 287 (145,177 Views)

Re: Dine Out seating issue..

★ Guide

Yeah, as I said, groups of 3 and 4 use the booths fine.

 

06-08-16_5-01-43 PM.png

 

Just not when they're alone, or in a group of 2. I can see why they'd do that, however, having play-tested the venue for about 10 hours all in all so far I can say that 90% of guests come in groups of 1 and 2, which means my venue is empty on the inside 90% of the time because they're being seated outside...

Message 8 of 287 (145,459 Views)

Re: Dine Out seating issue..

Hero

Can you go on a date and see if they rather use the bench then ?

Good Luck
Crin

Trennlinie

I don't work or have any association with EA. I give advice to the best of my knowledge and cannot be held responsible for any damage done to your computer/game.
Please only contact me via PM when asked to do so.



Important Threads


Message 9 of 287 (145,448 Views)