The Sims of Shangriquama

Tips and Tricks

Ok, I know the collection is small, but I hope it'll grow with time. So, here are some things for making the playing of The Sims 2 a bit easier for you!

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Running a succesfull restaurant
Tips from Swan Cafe

I have experienced, that running a cafe/restaurant/diner is much harder than running a shop or a pay per time lot, so I thought I should give you some tips.

Employees
If there are at least 3 adults or teens in your family, then there's no need to hire employees, since you have to pay them more than you earn.

Once your sim purchases a community lot with a dining place, let him/her travel to it and invite two or more household members to the lot so they could do the following:
> Sim 1: Be the host(ess);
> Sim 2: Be the server;
> Sim 3: Be the chef and sell (basic sell, dazzle, etc).

> You don't actually need a bartender, since customers won't buy much drinks (they didn't buy any at Swan Cafe!).
> You also don't need anyone to tidy up, since the server will do it.

> Tip: If the server lives in the same household, all the tips given will be added to the family funds!

Selling
> If you opened a dining place, then don't sell any objects there, even cakes, because the customers will buy them, but they won't order food from the kitchen!
> As long as your selling sim can't dazzle, all prices should be average. Once your sim learns how to dazzle, you can make the prices higher.
> If the seller is the chef, make sure he/she has made a dish and put it on the restaurant stove before he/she goes selling.
> Plan the menu, because if the chef doesn't have enough skill to make some foods, but someone orders it, it'll be burned and most likely, you'll lose a customer loyality star.

That's it for now, but with time, when my business grows, I'll add some more tips! Don't forget to build a toilet for your sims! Also, a shower or a bath is quite handy!

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Running a succesful cafe
Tips from Seagull's Eye

This is a tutorial for poor families of one person wanting to own a restaurant to earn some money. Believe me, you CAN run a restaurant with only a single sim working!

Working
This time, you only have a single sim working at the business. After purchasing a community lot, travel to the lot and and make sure, the business is closed. Click on the restaurant podium and choose "Plan Menu" so you could remove the foods that require more skill than your sim has. Then click on the restaurant stove and let your sim be the chef. After he or she has finished making a dish (he/she puts it on the empty side of the stove), go on and open your business, your sim can be a host for a while. When the customers read the menu, you can easily sell to them. When you have seated the sim(s), click on the podium again, ad choose "Be Server". Your sim brings the food to the customers and can go and make another dish. Then return and be the host. Then a server, achef, a host, a server, a chef and so on. It may look silly and exhausting, but Seagull's Eye, which works exactly like this has , has already earned The Best-of-the-Best Award, so only try to tell me it's pointless!!!

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How to make a cheap starter-home look good?
A small trick with Homecrafter Plus

At first, download The Sims 2 Homecrafter Plus if you don't already have it. You don't actually need to make anything new (if you don't want to). Just clone some of the existing walls and floors you like, and change the price to 0 Simoleons. Silly? Nope, now you can easily decorate the houses and give them the best look without giving out any money at all There is a tutorial on my SimPage, if you want to know the rest. Read it by clicking here.

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Clone weeds
With "MoveObjects"

It may happen, that you make a story, a movie or something else in The Sims 2 and need the whole yard to be full of weeds. It's easy! Once you have at least a single weed growing on the lot, open the cheatbox by holding down Ctrl, Shift and C at the same time. Type "moveobjects on" into the white box that appears (but without the quotes) and hit Enter on your keybord. Then choose the hand tool, pick the weeds up, hold down Shift and place them as much as you want! To unactivate the cheat, "moveobjects off" into the cheatbox (but again, without the quotes!). This small trick should also work with some other accesories in the game but not with all (coffee cups, etc).

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After a while, I'll add more of course, so keep on visiting in a while!