Reading through the strategies, I did many things similar to
@GlazeyLady and
@HelenP, and some I did differently.
I apologize for the lengthy post; I miss some words in English, so I sometimes have to go around and use a longer explanation.
2 key points in the overall strategy:
- have Sims up and running as much as possible = no sleeping, no eating, etc
- with the restaurant and clinic, ideally all ratings need to be 5 star right from the beginning
Now, onto chronology.
Sims: both cheerful, loves the outdoor and family-oriented, and I made them spouses in hopes it would give them additional buff from being around a family member. Bonus trait was quick learner from knowledge aspiration.
Retail / restaurant stageI bought the Pebblestone Burrow as their residential lot and as soon as I was in a game, I paused and switched both to Fabulously Wealthy aspiration to get some points from owning cash. Next thing, Maura bought a restaurant (a small lot in Newcrest) and both Sims got another couple of points from as if earning the money that was transferred to the business. Lot traits: convivial, homey, chef`s kitchen. Bought just the most basic equipment necessary to complete the lot (sink and toilet on a green grass, just like that), made some basic menu, and hired all the staff. Travelled back to the home lot, opened the restaurant from there, travelled back with both Sims. Some patrons were already seated, and I disallowed new customers immediately. I sent Renee to socialize with guests, and Maura to give each employee a training, and to praise and socialize with the waiter and the host, until they appeared in her relationship panel. Then I closed without serving customers, not caring about those 3-star ratings I would inevitably get, and payed attention to catch the chef before she left, socialized with her a bit, too. I didn`t even try to run the restaurant with low-skilled staff; in my testing, it would hurt the ratings more than not serving.
Next thing, I bought a retail store on the adjacent lot. Lot traits: convivial, homey. It was called Garage Sale and that is what it looked like - goods just laying on the ground randomly. For selling, I bought the Knight of the Octagon Statue, grand piano, the most expensive standing mirror, and the most expensive piece of electronics I still had money for. I also made a small fenced and gated area with a bookshelf and 3 seats. I sold all the books from the bookshelf, and bought 3x Charisma 1, which I left in the bookshelf, and 1x Gourmet Cooking 1, which I hid in my Sim`s inventory.
Then I switched both Sims to Leader of the pack aspiration, and had them both join random clubs, spend their 100 points, and then quit. This was to get rid of the first tier of the aspiration. I intended to make my own club and get RTT eventually, plus I had other intentions with the club. So Maura created the club, invited Renee and all the three restaurant employees (this was the reason I wanted her to socialize with them first, so that she could invite them). I didn`t intend to complete any of those aspirations, this was merely to get enough points for later purchases of moodlet solvers.
This was done by 10AM Sunday. Then I locked the gate to the reading area, allowed access only to club members, set the club activities to reading and started the club gathering, plus opened the store. While my Sims focused on customers, I waited for the restaurant staff to take their places and start to read, and then I stole the seat from under the chef in bb mode, to make her stand up and drop the book; I took the charisma book away and sold it, and put the gourmet cooking book in the shelf, which she then picked up.
Once everyone was seated, reading the appropriate book, I added friendly socials to club activities to rake in perk points faster. Customer algorithm was: 1-2 charisma raising friendly socials, followed by 2-3 retail socials. By 10PM, I had enough club points to buy the RTT club perk, and both Sims had completed the second tier of LOTP aspiration (upon which I switched back to FW). By midnight, I switched the books the staff were reading (again using some hand of the watcher tricks to get everyone reading what they should; Comedy 1 for the host, Fitness 1 for the waiter, and GC 2 for the chef). I closed the retail at 10AM Monday, RTTed twice to make sure my employees were fresh for the first proper shift in the restaurant, then ended the gathering.
Set the statue, the mirror and the piano to not for sale, put them in my inventory, and travelled to the restaurant lot to finish it off. All it ended up being was just a small bathroom and a small kitchen, with an open air fenced area for dining, with the cheapest tables, really drab (to save money and make use of my Sims` traits), but it had the statue standing in the middle. Nothing else specific. I always used the trick of opening the restaurant from another lot. As soon as I arrived, I had one Sim run the floor, and the other one hire the pianist, and then skill up on charisma at the mirror. The managing Sim would always praise, promote, and pay for training with the chef first, so that I could upgrade the menu immediately (always had just 3 most expensive dishes of the corresponding level in each category), then welcome guests, praise + promote + pay for training the host and the waiter, cater to guests some more. My employees` skills went up really quickly. In my testing it seemed that the additional informal training I provided on the retail lot stacked with the formal one.
The Monday shift in the restaurant was really glitchy though. One thing, my waiter felt like it was highly professional to go jogging in the middle of the shift. Couldn`t get him back, unless I travelled away, and then returned. So I locked the gate to prevent him from doing it again, and just kept an eye on leaving/arriving guests. Simultaneously, about half of the guests never got served - the waiter would bring the food, but it did not appear on the table, so they couldn`t eat; I could not prioritize their food, because the game thought they had already got it, neither could I do anything else apart from checking on, so they ended up leaving with 1 star. Plus, Gheeta Rasoya must have a theme, because she chose to die in my restaurant, too (moodlet solver solution, and back to work). I closed at 10PM, and then opened the retail again. Fortunately, the latter glitch never came back.
I continued the same until Thursday - restaurant opening hours were 10AM-10PM, in between, I worked on the retail, plus skilled my employees. I ran the club nonstop. Later, I had chef mixing drinks, which I sold, and the waiter exercise (again, a lot of micromanaging and pausing to get everyone do the correct thing, but it worked).
My restaurant employees were almost maxed and fully promoted on Wednesday. Since then, I had only level 4 dishes on the menu, and had the chef on quick cooking. Bought the restaurant rush and Platinum advertisement, and got lucky to get 2 critics.
On Wednesday, while in the restaurant, I replaced homey lot trait with science lair, bought the vet lab table (forgot what is it called like), bought strongest happy vibe and vet skill boost, and had Maura make calming agents (a few for the exam table, a lot for the surgery station), later Renee.
I fulfilled the retail criteria on Thursday around noon, and the restaurant rating was maxed on Thursday late afternoon (some 50+ reviews). I wanted to knock down these two first, because the restaurant was the only business where I actually needed employees, so it could not be opened nonstop, and the retail is kind of flexible.
Vet clinic stageI put the statue in my inventory and bought the vet clinic. I wanted to 5-star within one shift, and that I managed on Saturday morning (the clinic was open for 38 hours). This was to prevent losing time from interrupting the flow of patients. For the same reason, I didn`t bother with employees, just had my 2 Sims treating nonstop, so that I didn`t have to close.
Five important points to get 5 stars from the very beginning:
1. Ambiance - the hardest one to get right. Specific layout - I, too, locked the pets out of the waiting room, and gave them their own, which was accessible only through pet doors. The waiting room itself had the cheapest linoleum, etc, but the most comfortable chairs and the Knight of the Octagon Table statue. Once a patient came and spent some time in the waiting room, I waited for them to form the first impression, and only then I went to greet them. I didn`t have the vacuum cleaners because, just like vets, they proved to be inefficient in cleaning. Instead, I ran my club constantly, and added cleaning as the sole activity when the exam room got messy (and switched to watching TV when I wanted the club members out of the way).
2. Waiting times - allowing / disallowing patients method - I came up with the same formula as others: 2 patients being treated, 2 in the waiting room, soaking impressions. I did have vet rush, just to be able to cover some gaps in my attention, when I remembered too late to allow new patients.
3. Being great with pets - I found out that calling a good pet after treatment was not necessary if you could use Greet warmly instead of just Greet; by the time I opened the vet clinic, my Sims had high enough charisma for that. Stress levels - until I had enough perk points to buy Reduced pet stress perk, I always applied a calming agent first; after that, I did so only when the pet was visibly stressed.
4. Prices - markup 85% proved enough to impress. I did have the quality of supply set to maximum, no problems there.
5. Treating - I treated only with a vet skill level 5 and higher, and on a surgical station by default (had 2 of them, when one broke, I just replaced it). When I opened, Maura was already lvl 5 from making agents, so she was the only one treating, while Renee was making calming agents until she was lvl 5, too. They both maxed the vet skill by the end of the shift. After greeting a patient, I cancelled the automatic interaction to go to the exam table, and directed them to the surgery station instead. Calming the pet takes an immediate effect there, if you have the agent, and diagnosing is much quicker; applying surgeries seems to be slower than treating on the exam table, but for that, I would have to transfer to the exam table, and still lose time that way; so I kept everything to the surgery station.
If I did all of the above, I would always get 5 stars. If I lost concentration and messed up, I would get less. I needed about 60 reviews, almost all of them 5 star, to max out the rating.
I actually completed the criteria about an hour sooner than the time I stated, but I wanted to finish treating the patients I still had in the clinic. I also finally hired a vet, left the clinic open, went to open the retail, and opened the restaurant from there as well, so that technically, I had all the 3 business open at the moment I officially finished.
Congrats and hats off to all participants.
