Thursday, March 1, 2012

Logic and Cashiering.

Tuesday morning, Genya shot hoops before school,

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and Derek socialized with customers in the bowling alley before leaving for the hospital.

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Once the butler arrived for the day, Yulia headed for her store and called in her employees. She got a message that Troy couldn’t come in.

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Yulia figured she could move Shelby (who had already had a Gold restocking badge when Yulia hired her) from register duty to restocking duty to replace Troy, but didn’t think she could get by with just Bruce as cashier. She got on the phone and tried to hire someone with a cashier badge, but no one with relevant experience was available. Her friend Komei Tellerman at least had 2 Silver badges (though in unrelated skills), so she hired him.

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“Thanks so much for helping me out!” she greeted Komei when he showed up.

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She put him in a slightly different uniform than the one Bruce wore, because the two men looked so similar, especially from the back.

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With Shelby restocking one half of the store, and Bruce restocking the other half, and Komei on the register (and Christian making snapdragons in the back), Yulia figured she could get by for the day.

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But soon there were too many customers waiting to be rung up,

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so Yulia switched Komei and Shelby. Troy eventually did come into work, and was disappointed not to be able to work on his cashier skills.

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“Maybe once Shelby gets the line down to a manageable number of customers,” Yulia told him.

Bruce earned a Bronze restocking badge, so Yulia immediately gave him a raise.

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Shelby was getting tired, so Yulia gave Troy a “Motivational Speech”, told Shelby to take a break, and put Troy on the register. Shelby got into one of the tents to take a nap.

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Before too long, though, the line at the register was once again unmanageable, so Shelby gave up her nap and resumed her cashier duties.

Though Yulia needed only 5 more customer loyalty stars to get her store to Rank 9,

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she had learned her lesson from Sunday, and suspected that pushing on through to get the next rank might again end in disaster. So, she closed the store and sent all her employees home. Just at that moment, Komei got his Bronze register badge, so Yulia gave him a raise before dismissing him for the day.

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Yulia also promoted Komei to Manager (since, with the 2 Silver badges he’d already had, plus the Bronze register badge he’d just earned, he had a total of 5 badge talent points).

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NOTES FROM THE AUTHOR:

Derek’s rocking that shirtless look, isn’t he?

I’m still trying to figure out under what conditions employees don’t show up for work. Sunday, Yulia kept the store open till early a.m. Monday, and Troy—who had used the Energizer, so wasn’t that tired—was the last employee there with Yulia. Yulia went to the store Monday a.m., called in her employees, got the same message that Troy was too tired to come in. (WTF?—Counting from Yulia’s home-lot clock, Troy hadn’t been at work for about 30 hours! What the heck is this guy doing in his spare time???) Yulia went to the phone and tried to hire someone decent as an extra worker, but there was NO ONE worth hiring on Monday. So, I had her just go home, and didn’t write it into the story.

So, now it’s Tuesday, Yulia goes to her store, calls in her employees, and gets the same message—that Troy is too tired to come in. This time, though, Komei Tellerman was hirable, has 2 Silver badges, and is a good friend of Yulia’s (from all the time he spends hanging out at the bowling alley). So, I was resigned to not having Troy for the day. And then he showed up! An hour or two late, but he showed up. More empirical research is needed!

For a couple Sim days now, Yulia’s been rolling a want to get a Logic skill point. I think the game was trying to tell me something—that she needs to be high in Logic so that she won’t be useless on the cash register. Here’s a link to a concise explanation of the skills/badges relationship.

http://forums.electronicarts.co.uk/sims-2/280706-sims-2-open-business-frequently-asked-questions.html#post4613864

Tuesday evening at the store was another disaster—once Yulia sent Shelby on break, I made Shelby “Get In” to a tent and then “Sleep” (remember, you have to do them BOTH, although Christian Love always goes to sleep autonomously (which is good, because he’s not controllable)), and put Troy on register to increase his cashiering skill. The line got long, and he QUIT!!! (Though he was in Gold aspiration, and his needs weren’t bad--he was yellow Energy, but not orange.) I exited without saving and tried again, having Yulia take over the register and having Troy use the Energizer. Yulia’s still a disaster at the register, so customers threw their shopping bags down in disgust. Again, I exited without saving, and tried yet another approach.

Shelby’s Energy had recovered enough that I had her get out of the tent and run to the register, and I exed Troy out of the register. Shelby was able to take over immediately (because she was right near the register) and saved the day with her superior skills.

Re Yulia’s need to increase her Logic skill to achieve proficiency on the cash register, I tried adding a chessboard to the store, before remembering that Sims can’t skill on community lots. Troy couldn’t add any Logic points, Shelby couldn’t gain the one skill point of any kind that she wanted, and even Yulia didn’t get any Logic points from the chessboard. So that’s why Yulia closed the store for the day and went home, to buy a chessboard there.

3 comments:

  1. Not sure how you feel about mods in your game, but MATY has a mod that will let your sims skill on community lots. I use it, not to cheat, but because I feel like "what IS the purpose of having a gym if my sim can't gain athletic there?"

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  2. It's a real shame you can't Influence Sims to use the Energizer eh?! Still, Komei did a good job until Troy showed up. Could you not have 2 cash registers to help the queue time? Your business is obviously so popular it may warrant it, :)
    Also, isn't it annoying that employees can earn skill badges and yet not skills?

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  3. I took SirenPrincess's advice and downloaded the MATY mod, so now Yulia and her employees can skill at the store. Perhaps I will try 2 cash registers tomorrow; thanks for the suggestion.

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