No business income or decay

[MistyBlue]

I haven't played the OFB part of the game in a while, but today I set up a communications and water works lot to gererate some "city revenue". I had the mayor go to both lots and I made sure that there was a profit and manager. I sent mayor home and had him check in the next day and I got the regular message that everything was fine. Night rolled around and I waited to see the "your business made $" message, but it never popped up.

I took out Pescados anti business decay and repeated, them all hacks and repeated...I am not getting any income. Does anyone know what the problem can be or did I mess something up somewhere?

[jsalemi]

I think just going one day isn't enough -- the remote business controller uses an average of the last couple of sessions (5, maybe?) to compute the average that the owner will get paid when he/she checks in.  So you have to have the owner go to the business for a couple of sessions to establish a base income first.

[MistyBlue]

Oh! Weird because I don't remember ever doing that before...Thanks!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Maybe before you had to get the business up to a certain level, and then you employed your manager? 

Do you use mods for energy etc. while at your business?  I do, and my sims often stay there from when they buy the business until they get it up to level 10, which is a fair number of days.

The other thing you will find is that if sims move neighbourhoods (not sure if this also applies to moving house within a hood) when they first call their business they will be told they've never ever been there!  (Jimmy Cash used to go once per semester!)  You have to send them to the business before the game will recognize them as the owner.

[MistyBlue]

Well, he's been there for a whole sim week and I still didn't get anything. I'm gonna blame it on the patch and call it a night because I'm so furious that I might throw my computer out the window!!

[ZephyrZodiac]

Did he tell the manager to "mind the store" before he left?

[J. M. Pescado]

The other thing you will find is that if sims move neighbourhoods (not sure if this also applies to moving house within a hood) when they first call their business they will be told they've never ever been there!  (Jimmy Cash used to go once per semester!)  You have to send them to the business before the game will recognize them as the owner.

I can't substantiate this result at all. The reason it gives you that message is if you try to check in all and you've already done so prior to moving: The businesses remain checked in until the next day elapses on your new lot, and if you try to check in all, there aren't any businesses to check in.

Did he tell the manager to "mind the store" before he left?

That does nothing. Near as I can tell, pushing that "mind the store" button is a good way to get everyone reassigned at random. It's one of those "never touch this button" things.

Well, he's been there for a whole sim week and I still didn't get anything. I'm gonna blame it on the patch and call it a night because I'm so furious that I might throw my computer out the window!!

You usually don't get income on a day you physically visit the store, far as I can tell, because, well, you already visited it and GOT your income! Try waiting a day on your "home" lot, and the income should appear the next day.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Quote from: ZephyrZodiac on June 16, 2006, 08:11:12 PM
The other thing you will find is that if sims move neighbourhoods (not sure if this also applies to moving house within a hood) when they first call their business they will be told they've never ever been there!  (Jimmy Cash used to go once per semester!)  You have to send them to the business before the game will recognize them as the owner.
I can't substantiate this result at all. The reason it gives you that message is if you try to check in all and you've already done so prior to moving: The businesses remain checked in until the next day elapses on your new lot, and if you try to check in all, there aren't any businesses to check in.

Maybe you can't substantiate it - have you tried moving a student with a business back home?  or, for that matter, from home to college?  In every case, I've had to have them visit the businell first, and the message they get is different from the message they get if they've already checked in.

Already checked in:  "Why are you calling us again?"

Moved to Uni or back home, and often haven't checked in for a couple of days: "You've never even been to Cash Machines."  (or whatever).

[J. M. Pescado]

Maybe you can't substantiate it - have you tried moving a student with a business back home?  or, for that matter, from home to college?  In every case, I've had to have them visit the businell first, and the message they get is different from the message they get if they've already checked in.

Never had this problem, and yes, I have done this.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Odd, then, that it happens differently in some games than in others.  Maybe it was a fault that was corrected in the first patch, which I never installed?

[MistyBlue]

Hmmm...Lets see, I sent him there plenty of times already, then kept him there for a whole week. I even hired more unnecessary workers to make sure that all things were covered. In total, I'd say he's been there a total of 20 sim days. I left him home for 3 sim days after he went home each time to be absolutely sure he wasn't receiving any money.

Maybe you can't substantiate it - have you tried moving a student with a business back home?  or, for that matter, from home to college?  In every case, I've had to have them visit the businell first, and the message they get is different from the message they get if they've already checked in.

That is the only family I have, an adult male and his wife.

Did he tell the manager to "mind the store" before he left?

As far as I know, telling the manager to mind the store, then cueing to go home still makes the sim run through the store like a mad-man flailing his arms and shooing people out. He makes his employees leave, that's what he did in my game. I guess I have to create a new sim and make him go to the store...I'll see what happens.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Quote
Maybe you can't substantiate it - have you tried moving a student with a business back home?  or, for that matter, from home to college?  In every case, I've had to have them visit the business first, and the message they get is different from the message they get if they've already checked in.

This was really in reply to Pescado's comment about my suggestion.

Can I suggest that you simply sell that business and buy another, and see if that one works?  He'll still have the memory of that business, and if it reached Level 10, it should still count towards his score of 5.

Was the business the Ramirez furniture store, by any chance?  Because in my game that lot was totally buggy, there were flying floor tiles all over the place!  I sold it, bulldozed it and rebuilt it, then they bought it back and it's fine. 

[cwykes]

Don't suppose I can help, but the prima guide bumf on how the income is calculated is here
http://www.moreawesomethanyou.com/smf/index.php?topic=3733.0
If it was a new business, the average income over 5 days would be low as you'd have bought stock, but sounds like you know the easy stuff.

[blubug]

Sorry to bring up this thread after a long time, but I'm having a problem similar to this. I have a guy with 3 businesses, I promoted 2 townies to managers in 2 of them but the businesses are still level 3 or 4. I went to these lots 2-3 times in one regular sim day and stayed for days. But when I got home, I tried to check in on a business but it says none of my businesses have managers. Is this because I haven't played the lots for more than 5 times?
I told the managers to mind the store and unnassigned them from what they were doing. I have businessrunsyou, dma teleport and simwardrobe's customer limit adjuster on these lots. I've updated all 3 recently, and thus have no conflict as I had before. I never had a problem like this before the 2nd patch, but then again, I only had 2 managers in different lots with different owners. Am I doing something wrong? Both managers are teenagers, by the way. Could that be buggering the game up? The adult townies don't have any badges, that's why I can't make them managers until after a loong time of training.
How does this manager thing actually work? Is there an online tip on a forum perhaps. They don't sell the prima guide here.

[cwykes]

I didn't think you could make teenagers into managers.  I tried and couldn't this week.  Maybe it's that...

[blubug]

Yes, I kinda figured that out too, seeing all my other businesses were doing well. But that option to make a teen worker a manager shouldn't have even come up

[J. M. Pescado]

I didn't think you could make teenagers into managers.  I tried and couldn't this week.  Maybe it's that...

You can. Don't see why you couldn't, they have a manager level in the job track.

[blubug]

Then why does my friggin business show up as having no managers on the phone? Maybe I should try changing managers and changing them back to see what happens-next week. Off to my vacation now