YOU GUYS!!!!!! HAVE YOU SEEN THE PATCH NOTES TODAY??? I'm so happy I could cry!
Dine Out
Thank you, @SimGuruNick!
Are you ever going to fix this? Along with other modifications since this pack I now dread my Sims eating at all. I stopped playing this game for months due to the length of time to eat and the fact I paid for this ex pack and found the chefs are useless no matter what training they have. Please fix, as the moment this pack is not fit for the purpose purchased.
Workaround Update: I tried having my chefs cook carefully, and used the organic ingredients (10%) rather than fresh GMO ((25%) in order to save costs and it still works! Also put paintings in the kitchen which gave an inspired moodlet, and have the perks which cause sims to buy more expensive food, all the discount perks, and patient diners perk. Chefs seem to be quicker at cooking carefully than they were last time I played. Was able to turn a 1500 simoleon profit. Fully skilled chefs are now producing a mixture of excellent and normal food across skill levels 3 -5. However, it is definitely a lot more difficult than it has been in the past, plus i noticed a few other bugs :
Excellent! I'll have to try the 10% although I'm not having trouble returning a profit at 25% even though it still only generates normal quality food. It's funny how drinks are not affected. My chef my excellent drinks.
Oddly enough though, all but one of my employees are now satisfied and I have no idea why. The only one who isn't is the chef. I'll have to try the inspired moodlet thing and see if she changes. The only other thing I've experienced that you mentioned was the customers talking to each other instead of being seated. Some of them never actually get a table, but because of that they never get impatient so...no skin off my nose lol. One of my waiters went for a jog upon my Sim's arrival to the lot. When he got back, he got to work in his regular clothes.
One other thing I've noticed is that opening the restaurant while my Sims are not on the lot behaves differently now. Previously, I'd open an hour or two early and then go to the lot so there would be a restaurant full of diners and sometimes have already made a profit. However, now everyone shows up when my Sims show up. The employees have just arrived, and a whole herd or diners bum rush the doors and immediately sit down. This is a problem because if this persists, none of your other restaurants will ever be profitable because you still have to pay the employees even though they aren't there, and the restaurant will never make money. I think I'll raise a separate issue on this.
Chef's do not produce Excellent food or drinks past difficulty level 3. I have used the best ingredients, the slowest cooking speed, the Inspirational Speech perk, and 3 Inspiration boosting kitchen/bar items from the Culinary career line for each station. All my menu items are difficulty levels 4 and 5 and over the course of many shifts the Chefs have never prepared a single dish or drink that is higher than Normal (nor have they ever produced one that is Poor). Further to that, the Inspiration boosting items do not appear to have any impact as I have also operated multiple shifts with them deactivated with the exact same results, Normal food only, nothing Excellent and nothing Poor. Whatever is negating the influence of the Chef's Cooking and Mixology level 10 on food and drinks may also be negating the impact of being in an Inspired mood (or the Chef's may not be affected by the items when on shift as there is no way to engage them in dialogue to reveal their mood).
I thought about it after I posted my message to Nick here, but I didn't. I'll do it now.
