What's your second and third impression of OFB?

[ZephyrZodiac]

How the heck do you get the management option to show up?

And how many sim days does it take for a sim to buy something?

There are some nice objects, admittedly, but setting prices is so slooooow and complicated!

I just find it totally confusing - but then, I guess I don't have a business brain!

[Motoki]

The employees have to have enough badge levels before the promote to manager option will show up. If they don't have it, have them keep practicing stock, cashier, making stuff etc etc.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Yes, I realised that, but I couldn't even let the poor guy have a break!

[Motoki]

I'm not sure what the deal with the break is. Sometimes I get the option to let them have a break and sometimes I don't.

[Sagana]

If you don't give them one, they'll take one on their own and then the option doesn't come up.

Click on the sim employee, you should have "manage" (or whatever it is, I always mess this up as I can't look at the game and post at the same time) and then options for assigning the task, changing the task they're assigned to, sending them home, firing them, or a break. If they're a cashier and you only have one register, you can also just take over the task and they'll go on break.

Hope that helps a little.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Oh, well, if that's the case, maybe it depends how low their motives are?  Guess I'll just have to play the lots a bit longer and see what happens when they've been working all day!  But I'm finding all those sims just standing around with meters over their heads while they stare at a flower arrangement for hours is just sooo boring!

Sagana, I don't see a management option at all!

[Motoki]

Doesn't the little ball above their heads show a color that indicates their motives? Like green is good, yellow so-so, red bad etc? At least I thought that's what the colors meant.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Maybe - hey, I only got the game 16 hours ago!  And I had to defrag etc. before I installed it, had to sort out my hacks so I could actually bear to play the game!  I'm still feeling my way around, but I do think it's more confusing than either Uni or NL (NL was a cinch! - apart from all the glitches....)

[Sagana]

ZZ, you should have management options. After you've hired them (by phone, or in person) and called them in to work (with the open/closed sign or by phone) did they show up and say "I'm here for my first day, don't forget to give me a task"? Then you click on the employee and have manage options - if you don't give them a task, you've paying them to always be on break :) And go on break and everything is in the same menu as giving them the task to start with.

Yeah, I think the color of their funky plumbobs lets you know if they're unhappy. My cashier will go yellow and then just leave and go off to the bathroom and sit down tho.

I kinda like selling, showing different items and trying different sales tactics, so I don't get so bored watching the sales meters fill up.... yet... but I've only had the EP since last night :)

[Karen]

Doesn't the little ball above their heads show a color that indicates their motives? Like green is good, yellow so-so, red bad etc? At least I thought that's what the colors meant.

Yes.  And you can also check the overall mood of your employees by clicking on the "employees" icon where their pictures/skills/etc are displayed.  The background color will reflect their mood, just like it does with playable Sims.

I noticed that if you work employees too hard they will refuse to come to work.  I had a pair of employees working in a home-based toy shop (one as cashier, the other making toys).  Finally sent them home around 3 a.m. after they had been working most of the day.  At 6 a.m. I tried to summon them to work again, only to get a message to the effect of "I'm too tired, I need to rest for a while."  I guess Maxis didn't want any Sim-sweatshops.....

Karen

[gynarchy]

Finally sent them home around 3 a.m. after they had been working most of the day.  At 6 a.m. I tried to summon them to work again, only to get a message to the effect of "I'm too tired, I need to rest for a while."

You have to wait at least 6 hours to call them back into work. They can still call in sick if they don't feel like coming in.

[sanmonroe]

Oh, well, if that's the case, maybe it depends how low their motives are?  Guess I'll just have to play the lots a bit longer and see what happens when they've been working all day!  But I'm finding all those sims just standing around with meters over their heads while they stare at a flower arrangement for hours is just sooo boring!

Sagana, I don't see a management option at all!

Thats bad if you get no manegement options.

Are you sure none of your hacks are interfering?

Without manegement optins there is no way to assign them to do jobs, no way to promote them, etc.

[Sandilou]

ZZ the easiest way to set the price for goods in your shop is by clicking on your till (cash register).  Then you can choose, ridiculously cheap -15%, cheap +5% , average +15%, expensive etc for all goods on the shelves.  The goods are marked up (or down) by that percentage for the original production cost of the goods. You'll see the real percentages in game (I'm not on a business lot at the moment, so I'm guessing from memory).

[Ancient Sim]

I'll reserve final judgement until I've played it a while longer, but up to now I find it extremely boring.  Sales and all that has always bored me silly anyway, but as someone else said, just watching them with those meters above their heads is worse than watching paint dry.  So far the only thing I really like is Servo.  It's early days yet, though.  I've only got a couple of playables preparing to sell from home and they haven't made enough goods to start their businesses yet, so perhaps once they get going it'll be better.  What I really want to do is get someone running an art gallery, although I haven't seen the option to paint anything any different - weren't we supposed to be able to paint original stuff and put it on the exchange so other people could buy them, or something?

What I find really silly is the fact that there are all these new townies, yet most of the time the only staff I am offered are my own playable Sims.  When Malcolm Landgrabb tried to recruit staff, he was offered 4 of my recently graduated Sims, including my Sim self.  Why on earth would someone at Level 9 in their career want to give it all up to work in a shop selling cheap stereos?  And why does it say there are 7 possible employees left but only offer 5?  What does it mean by 7 left anyway?  7 in addition to those 5, or 2 others?  It's all very confusing. 

[Wolfee]

I think I'm a complete moron at this game so far. So far all of businesses(3) have been doing pretty crappy, I'm always in the red as far a money goes.

I can't figure how to assign workers to jobs other then the cashier. I clicked on almost everything but I get no options. How do I assign workers to restock and host? I have a toy store(well sort of), flower shop, and clothing store. The toy store is the only one that I can assign  alot of workers to  different jobs because because of the crafting stations.

I have yet to figure out how to get them to actually buy anything. All they do is hangout, watch TV,chat, play kickybag,  pillow fight and play the piano.
 
So far 2 of my business made it to the 3 star level and I have no idea how I accomplished that  . I do realize it's because of the number of customers who enter the shop but still, why did they enter in the first place? What did I do right? And what can I do to get more customers?

And Finally, where the hell is the Robot? What do they mean I have to make him with a craft bench. Jeez,I have an awful feeling it's going to take a pretty long time before I ever get the chance to make a real one. So far all I have been allowed to make are toy Robots.

Overall I'm lost. I feel like I'm playing blind because I didn't buy the guide ,so I have no idea how to play this.  The guide that came with the game is worthless.
Any help will be greatly appreciated

[Sandilou]

Wolfee use the telephone to hire staff.  When you select them their skills are listed.  Many can already make the toys and robots that you want: they have bronze, silver and gold badges.  The higher the rank, the wider the range of objects that can be made.  Your playable sim need never develop any skills of his own - look at Malcolm Landgraab IV - he doesn't have any but he can still manage his two businesses.  Just hire - and fire staff.  If you think your staff deserve a reward, up their payscale.  They'll peak in performance for a while after that.  Keep them in a good mood by either giving them a break or sending them home - they'll appreciate it and come back ready to work harder the next day. (Just like real life!)

[Paperbladder]

I completely underestimated OFB.  I thought it would be a steaming pile of donkey dung, but it ended up being on the same level as Nightlife and University.  I'm just kind of surprised it only had one disk than the usual two.

The wholesale stuff is the most boring thing in the entire game.  You barely make any money from it and people constantly bitch when your sim tries to sell them something from it. Selling stuff your sim makes gives you a lot more money, and I'm still not sure how you can charge people for makeovers because If I want to give my sim a makeover I have to do it for free.

I also think it's better if you don't have about 300 townies in your game, but notownieregen might have to be updated because every once in a while a new townie spawns as a review person.  I usually hire my people in person, they're just working for you a little faster that way.

[Wolfee]

Thanks sandilou. I do use the telephone to hire staff, it's just I don't know how to assign them to different jobs except to be cashier or craftmaker. I also don't know how to give them pay raises. They say you have to click on them but when I do I don't get that option.

I didn't know that my Sims skill didn't make a difference on how well things sold.What a pity, my Sims are pretty maxed out on all their shills. oh well, at least I can hope for one of my own Sims will be available for hire but so far I haven't gotten that option.

I'm sure I'll catch on soon 

[Marg]

 Welcome to the club Wolfee.   chuckle    I bought the guide and I haven't had much chance to play my game yet.  

The guide says the employees just wander around satisfying their own needs and enjoying themselves if you don't assign them a task.  There is an Assign.......interaction menu which you use to direct an employee to perform basic tasks.   I haven't done this yet, but it looks like it is in the upper right hand corner of the playing screen.   You probably either have to click on the employee to bring it up or the object you want them to use.     You can assign employees to a service job by using the particular objects Assign job.......menu.    Specify which sim you want to man the object and the desired service begins.   When employees return to work after being sent home, they retain their job assignments from the previous day and will head directly to those posts unless reassigned.

  As far as customers buying   Customer loyalty, the stores business rank, and the simmies shopping need are all at play.  Customers with a large browsing bar head start are going to be the easiest to sell to.  I think you have to get the store employee to do a sales social.   They need to talk to them.   Presumably when you do this you will get another menu come up with different choices.    I'm not sure about that yet because I haven't actually played yet.

[Sandilou]

I don't have a Prima Guide (me too cheap) so I'm determined to muddle through it too.  Wolfee make sure that you play with sims that are ready made in Bluewater first, so that you don't affect your real game.  I'm fully prepared to wipe out everyone's fortunes in Bluewater while learning how to play. 

[Marg]

 That's one reason I haven't played very much.   I set up a new custom hood that I can delete once I get the hang of the new ep.    Only problem is I haven't had time to put houses on lots or make a few new simmies yet.   I'm a little too attached to my other neighbourhood pixel people to screw their neighbourhood up.     And knowing me I probably will.

[D_Malachi]

After the initial first impression (fantastic, my crap's broken!), uh... well, the second was trying to figure out how to generate townies, as the "debug + mailbox" combination resulted in... defective generation. It was creating things like "NPC Robot," my own sims, etc... probably a tech bit, so back on track...

After that, the third was pretty much an "Umgah" moment. By that, I mean "To Arms! To Arms!... wait a minute! Don't HAVE any arms! AIEE!! MY ARMS!!"

To make sense of myself, after inadvertently erasing all of my downloads to fix the townie creation thing, I decided to just grab a few key things and run with it. My personal experience with this game...  well, not a particular fan of either of the other two packs, so it's no real surprise that this one wasn't quite like I expected it to be. University was too boring, and Nightlife too... frankly, underwhelming, but this... I think "perplexed" almost counts, and is about as close as I can get to it right now. First three businesses of mine could only make money by cheating, which is a giant neon sign saying I need to try a bit harder to do this right, more or less.

Final summary: Uh... okay, good concept, abundantly confusing setup.

[sanmonroe]

I'll reserve final judgement until I've played it a while longer, but up to now I find it extremely boring.  Sales and all that has always bored me silly anyway, but as someone else said, just watching them with those meters above their heads is worse than watching paint dry.  So far the only thing I really like is Servo.  It's early days yet, though.  I've only got a couple of playables preparing to sell from home and they haven't made enough goods to start their businesses yet, so perhaps once they get going it'll be better.  What I really want to do is get someone running an art gallery, although I haven't seen the option to paint anything any different - weren't we supposed to be able to paint original stuff and put it on the exchange so other people could buy them, or something?

The art gallery is just the smae paintings that have always been in the game. You would think they could add a few more pieces.

You can upload custom ones in houses to the exchange. Its stupid but works. Thats probably what they meant.

What I find really silly is the fact that there are all these new townies, yet most of the time the only staff I am offered are my own playable Sims.  When Malcolm Landgrabb tried to recruit staff, he was offered 4 of my recently graduated Sims, including my Sim self.  Why on earth would someone at Level 9 in their career want to give it all up to work in a shop selling cheap stereos?  And why does it say there are 7 possible employees left but only offer 5?  What does it mean by 7 left anyway?  7 in addition to those 5, or 2 others?  It's all very confusing. 

There are only 5 potential hires per day. The list you see are the ones that you can hire that day only.

the "7 left" means you can hire 7 more total. So you can hire 5 today, then 2 more at midnight if you wanted.

And Pescado mentioned a hack is int he works to fix the stupid high level career sim taking a stockboy job.

[J. M. Pescado]

There are only 5 potential hires per day. The list you see are the ones that you can hire that day only.

If you hire exclusively from the hiring agency, yes. You can also hire in person using the hire command.

[Motoki]

Yes but that is annoying because A: you have to have some kind of relationship with them, at least 20 daily IIRC and B: You don't see what their talents are until you actually make the offer and do the hire interaction. It's true you can cancel if it you change your mind, but it's a hassle to have to go run around and spend time checking each sim, plus you can only have so many sims over at a time.

I also hate that some of the 5 are always taken up with other playable sims so you really get even less than 5 to choose from. I'm not going to use them because I have other plans for them and because it doesn't make sense for a mayor or superstar actor to quit their job and become a cashier or stockboy.

I think we need a better talent agency in town. Sheesh.