Re: Owned Businesses Idea
@GridironGuy88 I think owning a bowling alley would be a fun idea! The types of business you can own and run in the game via expansion packs are:
- A vet clinic, as you know, through 'Cats & Dogs'.
- A restaurant, by owning 'Dine Out'.
- A retail store, by owning 'Get to Work'.
Personally, the option I have gotten the most mileage out of was by creatively using the retail store option. Just use your imaginateion and run with it! For example:
- A car dealership (a debug car lot with valuable cooking/selling plants on the lot and a 'Lice Cold Freezer' where I sell the produce and meals/desserts/baked goods, if I want, through the freezer - plus I can sell toy cars inside the building)...
- A bakery selling baked goods and produce (in the manner mentioned above - and when you use the Lice Cold Freezer to sell from you don't have to ring the customer up!) and items that make sense for the theme...
- A florist - selling flower arrangements (if you have the Seasons Expansion Pack), making them onsite, adding flower plants on the lot to harvest for the flower arrangements; selling death flowers/snacks or whatever fits your theme + clears a profit)...
- Selling clothes or other items from the game at a profit...
And those are just a few examples. Use your imagination and have fun with it!
With the restaurants you can do a normal restaurant, one that specializes in drinks (though you cannot use the lot type 'bar' and own it, it has to be a restaurant), coffee (though you cannot use the lot type 'café' and own it, it has to be a restaurant), seafood, or a particular type of food, etc.
You can also do the trick with a retail store or a vet clinic where you have your household live on the business lot. This is done by having them own a separate residence (or even just an empty lot, which the game considers to be their home), and you direct the household from the business lot, having them sleep, eat, etc. there. Whenever one of them leaves the lot (to go to work, school, etc.) that Sim will return to the 'home' lot, so you can click them at the bottom of your screen and you will see an option to bring them to the business lot... click to do that and they will be back on the lot. I tried this workaround once on a restaurant, but my Sim household started to be a bit buggy at one point in that case, so I'm not sure if that works well for restaurants? However, I have had it work great for retail stores and a vet clinic.
I think that the reason you can't own a business that comes with a different pack (a spa, bowling alley, gym, etc.) is because retail/business owning is attached to the Expansion Packs rather than the game packs. These types of functions are probably a more involved process to create, so they are a larger pack with a higher price tag.
Anyway, it sounds like you may enjoy one or both of these Expansion Packs as well?
