What triggers how many waiters you will have on a community lot?

[MissDoh]

I am still clueless on this one.  On some downtown community lots I made with not many table I have 2 waiters.  On some other I only have 1 and there are more tables there.

What triggers the game to have either 1 or 2 waiters?  Do I need to put more sink like in Sims 1? Is it trashcan?  What am I not doing correctly so 2 waiters will appear?  Is it the size of the lot?

I am tired of seing my poor waiter runing all over the place to satisfy customers need.

Your knowledge in this would be very much appreciated.

[Emma]

1 server works seven tables, if for example you add an eighth table you will have 2 servers. If space is limited consider adding a second podium because it adds a second server (and host of course) to the lot regardless of the number of tables. note, however, that the increase in efficency might reduce your games performance because having more servers increases the number of NPC's on the lot

Quoted from the nightlife prima guide.

[DrBeast]

I had the same question, and I thought the answer was in the tables as well. But either that's more Prima bullshit or islands are not considered as tables, because I made a diner at a 3x3 lot with 6 tables and 4 island counters and only had one waiter. I'll try and replace the 2x1 tables with 1x1 and see if I get a second one.

Edited to add: I had three sinks.

[Ruann]

Fairly certain that Islands don't count as tables, even though the Host will seat people at them.

[MissDoh]

Thanks Emma and Dr. Beast for your answers. 

The lot that bothers me the more is the crypt-o-night club, it is a good example of having only 1 waiter trying to serve everybody.

Why does the Maitre D' insist on sitting Sims at the bar counters which is far away?  Is there a type of island counter I can place next to the bar so the Maitre D' will not consider sitting Sims there?  I want seperate sections but the game do not consider that and on some lots the maitre D' will go from 2nd to 1st floor to sit Sims at the counter (The Hub is an example of that)    I did try in the past to change the counters and I think by placing butcher blocks counter type the maitre d' ignored them but I am not 100% sure.  For sure that waiter is in great shape! 

[Ruann]

My recommendation would be to kill the barstools at the bar.  That'd keep them from being seated. 

[nikita]

I think it's based on the counters.  I once made the mistake of downloading a community restaurant.  It couldn't have had more than 14 tables, if even.  Unfortunately the person who made the lot filled the upstairs kitchen with counters.  When I played the lot, there were at least 8 waiters all bumping into each other in the upstairs kitchen!

I quickly had my Sims exit that lot and then bulldozed it but the files of those extra and now useless npcs are still in my game.

[MissDoh]

Well I will try to put butcher blocks again next to the bar cart and see if the Maitre D' will sit Sims there.  I will do a few test with different ones and report the results.

[Regina]

I try to build small kitchens, so they don't end up with more than 4 to 6 counters and it's always seemed like the amount of waiters was based on the tables.

I've re-arranged more restaurant areas to fix it so the host wasn't walking 16 miles just to seat guests at the bar.  It would be nice if a bar could be designated for food seating or drink seating.

[MissDoh]

After further thinking, I notice some barstool only appear in the restaurant section and other only the store section. 

So I am putting store barstool next to island bar counters to see if the Maitre D' will sit Sims there or not.  If this works, I will be so happy and of course will let you know.

[Regina]

Hmmm.  I don't think that will necessarily work, although I can't be sure.

Those bar stools could always be found in NL, you just had to dig for them, like in Misc>Seating instead of Restaurants(or whatever)>Seating.  I'd have to figure out which restaurants I've built using which stools and well, that's just one thing I'm too lazy to do at the moment.

[MissDoh]

Regina thanks, since I am at creating a cc hood and just added all the sections in the game I just change all the barstool in the lots I did not want the Maitre D' to sit Sims, if that does not work, I will change the counters too, so you can be as lazy as you wish lol 

[Regina]

Ah, sounds like fun! LOL  Pre-NL I built and re-built so many lots.  Now I build a few templates and do the ker-plunk and redecorate a little now and then, change services or whatever.  Once in a while the mood strikes and I build something completely new.  Then it goes straight into the Lot Bin before it's ever used! LOL

[MissDoh]

Believe me when I know it works packaging will be my best friends! 

I build a few business lots last weekend and happily, I packaged them all (I know myself).  I am at resetting things all the time.  Did I mention I reset the hoods completely 2 days ago and just added neighborhood N004 in my game.    Good thing is that the 3 Maxis hoods are completely untouch (thank god).  Oh and I just did a back-up of all this so I won't have to redo it if it works. 

I spent more time in the last month redoing and building things than actually playing the game.... shame one me! 

[Regina]

The farthest I ever got in my game was six generations, and that was with my original Legacy family, and the only reason I got so far with them was because I played them exclusively for months!

Every other neighborhood I've played has gone by the wayside within a short time of making it.  Then a few months back I made a sim-me family, with me and hubby, and put us in Strangetown.  It's so much like where we really live that it seemed so perfect!  And then I decided I really hate where I live and there's no way I wanted to live in Strangetown so I decided to move us all (by this time there was sim-me, sim-hubby, our six kids and assorted in-laws) to a brand new neighborhood.  Well, after two or three days of working on that I decided it wasn't going to work out, so I'd best take another route.

So, I made a new sim-me and sim-hubby and cheated our way through college (again, brand new hood) and started our life.  We had three kids this time instead of the earlier six, and I was really happier about that because I figured it gave me so much more flexibility in the game (I don't like playing with too many families).  The whole family was going really well and then I got to missing that original family so much I decided to put my old Strangetown back in my game and set us all back up using SimPE and who knows how many hacked objects.

Now, we are all living happily in Wibbleton, and doing our level best to take over the whole community before Helgin VanHelgin (a sim I made before I moved my family in) does.

My oldest sim-daughter is married to an ex-Downtownie and they live in a boat-house, and have a baby girl.  He's an architect (or soon will be) and she's a self-employed artist.  She sells her paintings from the deck on their boat.

Second daughter is married to a college dude, Matthew Hart.  She'll be working on opening a bakery or restaurant (so much like she wants to do in RL--her real self is 16).

Her twin brother, James, is one of the homeliest sims I've ever met, soon to be married (or not at the rate they're going) to his college sweetheart--one Emily Riley--just as homely as he is!  They're both money sims so if they ever end up married it'll only be because I push them into it (sim-me's LTW is to marry off six children).

Next is Wally!  Yet another almost homely sim, his future bride is the lovely used-to-be-BellaGoth, with a make-over and some brainwashing!  They're going to be farmers (I don't think Belle knows this yet, LOL).

Then there's Cara-Berri!  She's actually an alien daughter, but since I managed to re-make the family in-game, I set both adults as her parents.  She's a sharp little Knowledge sim who managed to snag the absolutely ONLIEST Townie Teen in the ENTIRE 'hood and has drug him off to college with her!

Oh, last but not least--Cassie is just now a teen.  I don't have any firm plans for her yet, just to make her help her parents out in their at-home store.

It really is the darndest thing.  I don't normally get so attached to sims, but I really love these guys!  One of these times I'm going to take some screen shots so everyone can see just how homely of a family they really are! LOL

At any rate, you shouldn't feel badly about toasting your hoods because I think we've all been there, done that too many times for our own liking.  (Oh, and the in-game hoods?  With the exception of Strangetown, they've been deleted like, ummm, forever!)

[MissDoh]

Oh please post pictures!  This story sound so interesting. 

6th generation!  Nah in my game if they get to 3rd they are lucky lol 

I added myself Sim to motivate me from playing a hood for more than 1 week and will gradually add MATY Sims in that hood, not all at once like I did in the past since something new is always welcome in a hood you are getting bored with.  Believe it or not, in my game I have not got any vampires yet!  I did have 1 zombie since I was curious of how they look but that made me reset my game, I had plenty of aliens since I like them.  So many things I read about and did not tried yet I MUST FOR ONCE STICK TO A CC HOOD AND PLAY IT INSTEAD OF JUST ADDING SIMS IN IT AND DESIGN THEIR HOUSE!!!!

Ahhhhh there I said it.. I feel better now    When the game came out, I had no idea how to reset a hood, but I went on many Sims 2 site and unfortunately learn how to reset it.  That period was the time I played the longest the same hood, I loved Pleasantview and one day will get back to it.  Strangetown is fun too.  No interest in Veronaville, too many Sims hate each other and that is not how I like my hood to be set.

So, keep that hood, don't flush it even if you get tired of it, create another new one instead that you can delete if you don't like!

Every time I start a cc hood I always have a deja-vue impression lol

EDIT:  In all this exciment I forgot to mention that having butcher block and store barstool in crypt'onight club did not work... the Maitre D' did sit Sims there... arggggggggg!

[Regina]

Well, that figures it didn't work!  It's too bad, too.

When I want to do something else, I switch to another neighborhood (or even play another game for a while), with sort of a Legacy-ish family in it.  It was one I made just before OFB so I managed to use the Memory Manager plug-in that's uploaded here in Peasantry and kept original Townies and NPCs I wanted to keep and got rid of ones I wanted to go.

I know what you mean about not playing with features.  I don't really like the whole vampire and zombie thing.  I do like the aliens and robots.  I guess it stands to reason--I've never really liked horror, but love sci-fi! LOL

Maybe tomorrow I'll work on getting the screenshots.  One of my favorites is Barbie.  She's so funny-looking, and unless I fix her up just right looks absolutely ghastly!  But with a little make-up and the right hairstyle she's almost strikingly beautiful.  It's so very bizarre.

[Dark Trepie]

I was always under the impression that the number of waiters you have in your restaurants was determined by the number of sinks you had in the kitchen.

[Regina]

Trepie, I thought so too--at first.  After all, it was that way in TS1.

So, I started out a restaurant and put in two sinks.  Went there and there was one waiter.  The number of tables was around 6.

I built another restaurant, this time with one sink, went there and there were two waiters.  I don't recall the exact number of tables but it was somewhere between 8 and 12.

[MissDoh]

Well the moment you add an eight table another waiter will just pop-up!  Just like Emma said.  I did check that 

You could also try the 2nd podium which, according to prima guide and Emma (well she did quote it) will bring-in another waiter too.

I will find out if there is a combination we can make so Maitre D' will avoid sitting sims to bar.  Unless someone make, as already resqested, a mod that will tell the game: "this section is ok to have customer sitting for dinner but not this one"  Or maybe simply make a nice island counter that is spefically and only usable with bars so no sims can dine there.