An Apology and a Plan - Dine Out Reloaded Chefs

The Problem

I want to describe a problem a number of players have reported with Dine Out Reloaded and playing as chef. When you have NPC chefs working, it's entirely possible they will take over your chef station or cause your Sim to stop being able to cook. There are 2 separate problems here. 

The first one is my fault. The game tags chef stations as 'friends' with the NPC chefs so they will work at that station and no one else can. I apologize for this, because it's something I overlooked when making the player a chef. By not making you friends with it instead, they can take over. 

The second problem is that NPC chefs are like, really, really efficient. So when an order comes in, they will snag it before you can do anything. Worse, they may be less skilled than you and botch the meal.

The Plan to Fix It

So, let's talk about how to fix this dilemma. I am going to create a sous chef system. I want to let this function on both your Sim AND NPC chefs. This will let you mark a primary chef station. The chef who works here (either NPC or your Sim) is going to be the one to finish all meals.

Other chefs are going to knock time off the cooking time, so the main chef simply has to finalize and plate the meals by creating the platter. The way I see it, this will help you to streamline the system in your restaurant because you can select where the platters will appear and Sims can pick them up from there.

Marking your main chef station will bar it from NPC chefs if you want to play as chef, or the NPC will be considered your head chef if you do not. 

Other Issues

Guests making their own orders is a high priority for me, but since the dilemma above is a bug and not a feature, I'll be delaying this to work on the chef experience in anticipation for my Farm to Table system. 

I've worked on issues with diners complaining about time recently. IF you missed those updates, you should get them. I found a major reason Sims were not leaving and acting as if they hadn't received the very meal they're eating, and I think the fix is solid. V3.1 and 3.0 have both been patched with this fix.

Thank You

I'm very committed to this project. Dine Out and GTW are the types of packs I love with their business management systems, and I'm committed to taking DO Reloaded as far as I can to make it into a pack that transcends what was originally offered. It has so much potential I can still see, that I don't want to let great ideas rot on the vine.

You are helping me to do this by supporting me and giving me resources. I had an object counter made by the lovely Ravasheen for the next update that will show how many orders are in restaurant queues :)