After a lot of time (hours) working out how to use the baked goods with this new mod I finally got it working, I hope.
I decided to use the biggest and most complicated build I have made to test the mod. I usually try to push my computer to beyond its limits and tend to do that with just about anything to do with computing.
The lot I chose to use is, in its original form, available in my studio on the Exchange if anyone would like a challenge.
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=8400389
This build has the ground floor of the main building devoted to a large, decorated dining room and two kitchens a wrap around veranda and toilets. The two upstairs levels of the main building make up the residential area. I'd like to keep customers and staff out of this area. Still haven't worked out how to do that successfully. I've got the barrier to entry system in play as well as locking regular doors to everyone but My Household.
Next to the main house is another large building which has multiple purposes. On the ground floor it has a garage for the car, a stable for horses. Upstairs are two levels full of various skilling objects.
Behind the main house is a waterwheel (from the Old Mill set) and a large greenhouse/garden. The garden was used to make preserves in one of the kitchens on the ground floor. Preserves are sold in the shop by using the mod to set them for sale. Previously they seemed to be mostly used for decorative purposes only. Sims from town did purchase a large number of the preserves during the brief time I had to business working. I managed to make the one employee become the store manager and she went about the task of restocking things that had sold.
Behind the barn is a paddock for the horses to run around. The gates are locked to pets because there is a scarecrow in the garden and I need to keep the horses away from the scarecrow as they get the Panicked moodlet from seeing a scarecrow.
There is a cow shed at the back corner of the lot. The cow will provide milk. I said this lot is complicated. I don't seem to have added the chicken coop for some reason. Maybe they can afford to buy their eggs for cooking.
Since this build is so complicated the bills are huge so I made sure Alfina has the no bills ever lifetime reward or she'd have soon lost everything to the repo man.
Firstly, I discovered it is essential to do the lessons provided. I didn't know they were there at first and wasted a huge amount of time trying to work out how to get a business started.
It took me a while to realise I could get the business started using a computer. Fortunately there is a computer upstairs in the residence.
https://i.postimg.cc/xC7WX9hJ/Alfinas-Computer.jpg
Then I went on a hunt for the Sim State Cash Register. I finally found it once I had discovered there were lessons and read them.
https://i.postimg.cc/15KJT9BG/Cash-Registers.jpg
The Sim State cash register is on the right and the other cash register is the savvy seller register. I got rid of the bakery cash register that comes with the build when it's downloaded from the Exchange.
I added funds to the business after opening it. I did this on the computer. Then I used the Sim State cash register to hire an employee and I also hired a sales attendant for the Savvy Seller register. This is fortunate as the sim manning the savvy seller register stays there and it looks as if someone is alert and working behind the counter. The employee I hired never seemed to appear. I did finally track her down upstairs in the residence chatting to Alfina, the owner of the shop. I made the employee the store manager and she did come down and do some restocking at one point.
Now, I am not generally interested in running a business in the sims game for the purposes of making a profit. I just get a but of fun out of seeing the customers turn up and buying stuff. If you want to seriously use this as a business you probably don't want Savvy Seller and other complications added to it. However, I worked as a contract computer programmer for over 20 years and I know from experience users will find ways to do something unexpected and for which the program was not designed to cope. It breaks and time is required to find ways to make the program still work regardless. On my final contract I got a request that stumped me. I knew I could theoretically work around the issue but it still would have most likely have crashed. The request was to make it possible add \ inside file names. They were using Windows software and I was only using VBA. So that's my excuse for using this build and leaving it still set up for Savvy Seller and Cupcake mod while testing for myself.
My initial issue with the bakery displays was after day 1 everything was putrid. I'm used to my Cupcake mod taking care of all of that. And the bakery set is supposed to delete all of the baked goods each night and Cupcake mod replaces them.
For a couple of Sim days I had fly infested and smoking baked goods that I couldn't get rid of. Even going into buy mode the game wouldn't let me delete them. The only thing I could do was get my sim to buy them all. I got her to do that with a few of them but thought there has to be a better way. I have other NRAAS mods and that NRAAS menu choice was there when I clicked onto the displays. But the only mod it gave me access to was Debug Enabler. There was nothing useful in that mod. After several futile attempts I finally chose to 'Fix Invisible Sims' with Debug Enabler. Then, lo and behold, not only did it fix invisible sims but it now presented me with a second menu choice and that was Cupcake. I found I could Clear the Display. So I did that and got rid of all the rotten putrid food. I thought Cupcake must have been there all the time and I just didn't notice so I clicked on a second display. Again I only got offered Debug Enabler so I knew what to do this time, I told it to Fix Invisible Sims. Then Once again Cupcake became available. I managed to clear all of the putrid food in each of the 6 bakery displays I had in the shop.
Next problem I had empty bakery displays. Alfina, my shop owner, was not a genie. I found Cupcake didn't restock during the night. So next morning I was faced with a problem. No bakery stock and no genie to quickly summon all the food required.
I investigated the menu options under Cupcake. I found I could add food to the individual slots or to all slots at once. I chose to do them individually. There are two similar menu choices available - 1. 'Set Display Settings' 2. 'Reset Display Settings'
I chose Set Display Settings and worked at adding the types of foods for about 10 of the slots and this took me a significant amount of time. Then I accidentally clicked on 'Reset Display Settings'. Now I had all slots vacant again. I started again. I made some progress before hitting 'Reset Display Settings' again. I was not happy. I was ready to give up on this whole idea and just go to bed as it was getting very late an night by then and I'd started looking at this in the early afternoon thinking it wouldn't take long as I had other things I had to do before going to sleep. Well I decided to persevere and I tend to be determined to do what I set out to do. I started saving after I'd set up about 8 or so slots and that was fortunate as I still hit reset a few more times but eventually seemed to get the hang of it. By about 2 am my real life time I had all 6 bakery displays set up. The bit I liked about his option as I could have different types of food appearing in different displays. And it could be random as it was possible to add a few different choices to each slot and the mod would randomly stock with something from that list each time it restocked. There is a menu option under cupcake to restock. It does nothing until the slots have items assigned to them.
There is a lot of decor items around the shop. They were just decor until I used the Sim State cash register to set them for sale. After the first few days I had a look to see if anything had sold. I was surprised that a few decor items had sold and lots of the preserves had sold and needed restocking. I'm not sure what's happening with the baked goods. Maybe I ought to put the bakery register back as it will tell me what's happening there.
The Savvy Seller register is probably tracking things sold from the mats and shelves that are all around the place in that huge room. But I'm not really interested in using the business as a way of my sim making money. She'll probably join the gardening career and start gardening soon and selling her harvestables at the greenhouse where I've added four humble harvest stands. That's what I usually do for my sims to make money.
Here are some pics of my baker displays, and a couple of customers. When I managed to advertise I got lots of customers.
https://i.postimg.cc/k4xxbchQ/Bakery-Displays001.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/HxGwnK3W/Bakery-Displays002.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/5yb8qCZZ/Bakery-Displays003.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/cLHMbfrW/Customer001.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/9fwPWVdN/Customer002.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/GhMvG9z5/Decor-And-Preserves-For-Sale.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/KcDPc0TF/Decor-And-Preserves-For-Sale002.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/7YPg5S1z/Decor-Items-For-Sale.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/qMQxw1BQ/Preserves-On-End-Tables.jpg
Sims seem to enjoy having tea with the tea set. I don't think the business makes any money out of this but they look good and it's fun to see them in use.
https://i.postimg.cc/FHBg51LL/Teaset001.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/HnzXSLmj/Verandah.jpg
So that's what I've done with this mod so far. I'll probably keep using it. I have couple of bakeries with a residence above and I'll see how it works with them. They are much smaller and less complicated than this one.
I did notice that, as expected, no waiter was generated for the food synthesiser but the customers helped themselves to it's contents. I don't imagine any money was generated by the business from having it on the lot. I think I ought to test this again with the lot as a community lot. I have it on a residential lot as that's the only way I can get sims to live on site.
Since I'm using a fairy she doesn't use the residence except as a place to keep her employees away from doing their job. She sleeps in the fairy house out in the garden and eats food from the shop.
Happy Simming.
EDIT: I won't be upgrading this build to suit this mod and loading it to the Exchange. As it is on the Exchange it uses Savvy Seller. There is an item you can get that'll lure customers to the shop. I tried it once and get the settings wrong and had the entire town trying to get inside all at once. It took an entire sim night to get them all out of there and lots of taxis were used in the process. So I don't usually play with this build. Now we have this new mod I might dust it off and see what I can do with it at some point.
