I have a couple Sim chefs and since nothing ever happens at this restaurant I thought I'd have one of them buy it, but it's not offered. I checked to see if someone owned it and as far as I can tell no one does. There's another restaurant I think, too. I'd love my Sims to be able to go to a restaurant and eat unless they have to do it themselves) the way they go to the Arcade and rinks.
That apparently is a community lot, not a business. So, if you want that to be a business, you have to change the lot type, I forgot how to do that... :/
Well, I went back (before you answered) and evidently I scrolled too fast because it's there...it's a business. I'll have to check into the "community lot" vs.business though. I thought you could only own the businesses in Bluewater Village (or whichever business neighborhood you choose) but if you can also change lots like the clothing store in Pleasantview to a business that would be cool.
I used to have my businesses in my regular neighborhood. I never used Bluewater Village at all. From what I remember, they start off as regular community lots but you go into the property menu to buy them.
Yeah... I don't remember much about Sims 2 anymore...sorry. I only ever bought a business once, and I hated it. So, after that I only had my own business in my lot. Loved it.
I had several businesses that I owned when I played TS2. One was a restaurant. I had a family that had several Servos. Having the workers live with you so that you don't have to pay them is the best way to go. I also had a couple of businesses that were decor stores. They sold paintings, sculpture, wall hangings, rugs, table decorations and the like. That was a lot of fun, especially since again I had a whole family doing the selling. I tried doing a gym, but that was harder, possibly because I had employees. Same thing with a grocery store. I didn't like having to deal with employees. They tended to be unreliable. My last business was an in-home beauty salon. That worked great until the wife decided that she wanted to have a side business of small decor things (having to do with the beauty industry, mostly CC driven.) The wife's business overshadowed the husband's beauty salon, unfortunately. (I really loved that lot too. It had a garden full of CC flowers that didn't need to be weeded. It was gorgeous and not much work compared to the usual non-CC gardens.)
I haven't tried the business at home thing yet because I kind of dread people coming in and out of my Sims house. Another thing, I have 3 employees and when you put them on break they never use the restrooms, but the light over their head is going down to orange. How do you get them to do that? I thought of hiring people who could work in shifts, but when you call the employees you have to call all of them,so it won't help they'd be working the same hours and their stats would go down the same. I tried once using boolProp and was able to fix their stats but after that you could not manage them; even when you turned off the select option. That's interesting about having them live with you, but the Sim I have that owns the restaurant has no extra rooms, his home is sort of bulging now. Of course, so far he's not making any money :( As for hiring the family that would be cool with the wife BUT, their children are little and I don't want the social worker to come, so have to wait until they are older. I've wanted to try the beauty salon and probably will do that soon. I loved the restaurant though with people ordering and I didn't have to do any of it. Of course, one of my pregnant Sims showed up and when I looked; darned if she hadn't ordered cheesecake; so she'll be having twins lol I mainly like the business stuff so my Sims have places to go. That is cool that I could possibly run the community lot as a business. Much more interesting than having them go off to work every day and you don't see them work at all. Especially after putting them through University
The problem with following your Sim to the business is that you're stuck doing it. It can be very wearing to do that all the time. (I usually alternated with families who had no businesses and only played the business owners when I was in the mood for running the business.) As to the family members, that's where Servos are handy. Once you make them, they are "grown" and you just have to skill them up.
Have not made any servos yet. These are available with the business exp pack? I just put a robot making station at one of my Sims households, but thought it was just for toy robots. Is that how I make them?
first toy robots and then robots that clean around the house and do gardening and then you can start making servos.
I never had one that did gardening. That would have been handy. I had the cleaner bots, the food bots and the security bots.
The security bots chase the person off the lot and call the police. They aren't as useful as they sound. Like most of the smaller bots, they can go crazy and cause problems. I didn't really like them because they usually made some sort of mess. (At least when the Servos need repair they don't destroy things like the little bots do.)
The one that gardened (if I recall correctly ) only watered the plants. When they went haywire they started spraying water all over the place.
Okay the bots are different than the Servos? I can't remember which exp pack has the servos, but it must not be one I've downloaded
Yes the bots and servos look different. Servos came with Open For Business. I believe you have to have the highest skill to make a servo.
Okay, I have Open for Business, so I just haven't got that far yet, I guess. I've installed some businesses, but still learning what works and what doesn't. Still frustrating to not have much control over the employees. When you give them a break they hang around either talking with customers and making sales anyway or they go off to the available recreation and hobnob with the customers there instead of getting off their feet or using the restroom. Meanwhile the little ball over their head has gone from green to gold... But I'm learning. Slowly.