Restaurant Problems

[doren]

Getting really annoyed after sending two of my sims on a date the other day, I searched and found the restaurant fix, which covers the main problems I have with restaurants and coffee bars, mainly the endless loop of NPC sims who won't stop ordering food or coffee. But there are a few other issues (which have mentioned in various other threads) and I am not sure if they are covered by this fix (I have all main expansions, no mini packs, seasons patch installed):

Buying coffee for a sim (and don't they always want that) is impossible. As soon as a playable sim attempts to do that, an NPC gets in a way and the action drops out of queue for the ordering sim. I guess this will be fixed because there will be less sims running for the coffee bar?

While they think that there is nothing better than coffee when they are on a non-owned community lot, sims will never ever buy coffee on a community lot that is owned by another sim, even if there is a bartender (I'm talking about situations when you play the owner of the lot). I believe that there is a separate fix for that? I would like some of the clubs (with ticket machines) to offer coffee but it is pointless at the moment.

The prices for food are still varying. Since the messages of unknown sims "I have to take off now..." still pop up, I sometimes have the impression that you are paying for their food as well. It is not a big issue, I just don't like it.

The whole placing/serving routines in a restaurants appear a total mess since OFB.

- Sim is on a date and waits to be greeted. Action drops out of queue, but the sim is seated anyway (but without being placed), because you have the option to "drop the seat". If they sit down they can order, but there is no guarantee that they will be joined by their date.

- Sims are on a date and get seated outside (rain pouring down on them). They order (one sim is near starving to death), the waiter arrives, serves, food disappears at an instant and so does the plate symbol in the queue. Of course the "Oh, it's raining" action popped up at one point, but I had already cancelled it. Place: The Crypt

- Sims continue their date as an outing. They get seated, the inviting sim looks at the menu, the invited one picks up a plate from another table and heads of to eat it somewhere else. Place: 60's Diner

- Sims are on a date. The inviting sim doesn't get any food at all, the invited sim doesn't get what she ordered, but gets served a different plate twice. Place: The Hub.

In places where there is a bar and a restaurant (like the Hub and unfortunately in my case also the P.U.R.E) sims generally prefer to get seated at the counter, which means that the playable sims have to wait endlessly to get seated, because the maitre d' is constantly running (no sorry, is slouching) up and down. I absolutely hate that. I want the bars to be bars, I don't want sims blocking the seats and I don't want this time consuming restaurant routine. I also used to get the loop where sims would be greeted over and over again, although there were still table seats available (and the active sims would get the message that there are no seats available), but this might have been fixed with the seasons patch.
This happened in the Crypt, where I had replaced the tables and chairs. My sims could sit on some of the (custom) chairs without ordering first, so apparently some of these chairs and tables didn't count as part of the restaurant, which was strange because they were the same as the others that worked. It looked like this was still a problem there, when my sims visited the place recently.

Lastly, will the restaurant fix only cover the bladder problem, because sims don't drink so much coffee anymore or will it solve the nuisance that they start with a half empty bladder? I only found out about that a few days ago, but I had some dates end very abruptely ("Thanks I had a really good time and by the way, you don't seem to care about my needs at all"). I usually use InSimenator to put up the hygiene and bladder motives now, but I would like to know if it still necessary. My active sim was never affected, so it is hard to check.

[phyllis_p]

- Sims are on a date and get seated outside (rain pouring down on them). They order (one sim is near starving to death), the waiter arrives, serves, food disappears at an instant and so does the plate symbol in the queue. Of course the "Oh, it's raining" action popped up at one point, but I had already cancelled it. Place: The Crypt

I've experienced many of the same frustrations as you.  Only one I can help with is the one above.  On the tables on the back patio of the Crypt O'Night, you have to take the centerpieces off the tables (I believe they were candles - don't remember, as I removed them long ago) in order for the food not to disappear.  I don't know why that is.  But if you remove the centerpieces, the problem is solved.

[doren]

- Sims are on a date and get seated outside (rain pouring down on them). They order (one sim is near starving to death), the waiter arrives, serves, food disappears at an instant and so does the plate symbol in the queue. Of course the "Oh, it's raining" action popped up at one point, but I had already cancelled it. Place: The Crypt

I've experienced many of the same frustrations as you.  Only one I can help with is the one above.  On the tables on the back patio of the Crypt O'Night, you have to take the centerpieces off the tables (I believe they were candles - don't remember, as I removed them long ago) in order for the food not to disappear.  I don't know why that is.  But if you remove the centerpieces, the problem is solved.

I wondered if it was due to the candles (yes - candles) on the table. I removed all the tables in the back patio, because I don't want my sims to dine there anyway.

I had the chance to try out the coffee bars last night and they work much better with the fix. I didn't get the opportunity to try a restaurant, because as an unwanted side effect of not drinking coffee anymore, sims were getting in the whirlpool more (Lulu Lounge). There was a thunderstorm and my (currently not playable) sims were hit by lightning and hit by lightning again when they got out of the whirlpool. One of them died, one was saved by a friend and the other one I quickly made selectable and had her get inside as quickly as possible after being hit the first time. Big drama.

[Emma]

Yeah, you need to cover all the hot tubs with roofing or awnings, or place them inside. I did that on all my downtown community lots.

[MyPrecious]

I have custom bars and restaurants for dates and stuff and nothing really ever goes wrong at these places, but a couple of days ago on a whim I took a couple to a maxis place, and had the disappearing plates, stuff dropping out of the queue and a general cock-up all around (thank god for cheats and the fact I am a master at dating). So I'm wondering if it's the maxis lots that could hold some of the blame.

Thanks for heads up on the candles I will remove them forthwith.