What do you look for in a Waitress?

[Didz]

I got hooked on Tavern Keeper by watching Skye Stormes videos and he is absolutely obsessed by how much a waitress can carry. Always opting for the waitress who can carry 8 drinks. But as I've been playing the game myself I'm beginning to doubt this strategy.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2950561368
There seems to be little point hiring a waitress that can carry a lot if she dawdles and takes ages to deliver them.

Also I've noticed that regardless of how many drinks a waitress claims to be able to carry they don't actually take the maximum every time they visit the bar anyway.

So, more recently I've been hiring the waitresses that already have their carrying capacity maxed. e.g. 5/5 drinks and have a reasonable turn of speed.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2950561665

The point being that now you only get 1 increase per level a Level 8 waitress with the ability to carry 8 drinks but currently only carrying 5 is never going to be able to reach 8 drinks anyway and if she is also slow on her feet you really want to pump improvements into her speed.

[Arkhne]

Lately, I've been gravitating towards the 20% slower mood reduction trait, at least in my early hires, since this makes them cheaper during the expansion stage, and then I can replace them later when level matters.

From what I have seen, you are right, maximum carry amount is not that important, the AI will gather the drinks for an area, up to their max, but it is frequently far less.

I feel like the 8 drinks is a wasted trait in most circumstances. I had almost 200 seats and 2 bars on one level during one of my taverns, and even with them packed that tightly, it was very rare for them to carry that much.

In the end, the same applies to the mood penalty reduction traits, too. Money becomes almost meaningless in the end, so a small difference in wages also makes no difference. The tip increase is also nice in the mid-game, but again, the money becomes almost meaningless, so even this doesn't do anything.

None of this is a bad thing, the traits have their own niche benefits, but none of them is so gamechanging that it's a "must have" at any point in the game.

[Joe Coffee]

IDK, mostly I prefer looking for a waitress that can increase carry capacity first.

[Didz]

Originally posted by The Jerker:

IDK, mostly I prefer looking for a waitress that can increase carry capacity first.

That was what I was doing at first and then i realised that its a waste of time.

If a waitress can carry 8 drinks, then that seems brilliant. But if she carries them twice as slow as a waitress who can carry 5 drinks then over the course of a days work the later will deliver 25% more drinks than the waitress who can deliver 8. Because she is just so slow.

Also as noted even if a waitress can carry 8 drinks, she doesn't necessarily do so. I've watched them walk up to a bar full of undelivered drinks and simply walk off if 1 or 2 rather than a tray full. (I'm assuming in the absence of any other explanation that waitresses collect all the drinks required for a certain group of tables, and so will ignore drinks already assigned to other tables or waitresses.)

Finally, if you hire a Level 8 waitress who has the ability to carry 8 drinks but currently can only carry 6, then basically you are committed to spend all her upgrades just to realise her drink carrying potential and everything else about her will remain unchanged.

So, NOW i tend to look at waitresses somewhat differently and hire the ones who have a decent balance of skills and where spending 2 upgrade points will make them really useful,

[Bohemian Rap City]

Here is a simple rule of thumb.

The goal is where she will be when she reaches her maximum skill level.

EVERY WAITRESS has the same number of slots for EVERY SKILL.

EXCEPT for number of drinks carried, that is.

When all is said and done, a level 9 waitress has 19 slots filled. If she has an 8-drink maximum she will grow into 10 more slots. If she has any other skills, she will grow into 7 more slots.

Granted, you will be paying her for those extra slots, but she has the room to grow to match any other waitress on speed, but they will never be able to carry more drinks.

[Didz]

Originally posted by Bohemian Rap City:

Here is a simple rule of thumb.

I'm not really sure what point you are trying to make here.

As far as I can see every waitress has exactly the same number of Skill Points.

e.g 10+1 per level. So a Level 8 waitress has 18 x Skill Points and the maximum she will ever receive is 20.

Likewise every Waitress has a fixed number of Skill Slots.

• Drinks 5 (+3 for waitresses with the 8 Drinks ability)
  
• Speed Not Carrying 7
  
• Speed Carrying 7
  
• Stairs 4
  
• Tips 3

So, the number of Skill Slots a waitress has can vary between 25 and 28.
But the number of Skill Points they can earn is fixed at 20

So, a waitress who has used 8 skill points to maximise her carrying capacity will inevitably be 3 skill points short elsewhere. Giving her more slots achieves nothing unless the three skill points can be spared.

[Bohemian Rap City]

Not having gotten a waitress past that level I did not know that exp was capped. Knowing that, I still see my 8-drink waitresses level up faster, since they are displayed in order from date of hire. The newer hires (at the bottom of my list) are still leveling faster than my original waitresses.

While there is a downside to leveling faster (since you pay higher wages with each level), it is far outweighed by the added drink sales. If she takes 15 sec more to deliver an order, but gets 3 extra orders delivered on each trip, I still prefer that model.

[Didz]

It looks as though the staff upgrades were nerfed at some point as I notice that in SkyStorm's videos he gets to assign 2 skill points for every level up, whyereas now you only get 1. That means that given the maximum skill level possible is 10, one only gets 10 skill points to assign in total. But as most staff are recruited at level 8 that only leaves 2 points available,

[Pegasus]

Everyone seems to be missing the point that you can reassign skill points. Hire your waitress, then hit the little recycle arrow in the upper right corner ... and assign skill points wherever you want them.

[Joe Coffee]

IDC, I usually hire the ones that can carry the most drinks from the start. If none are available later, I hire those that already earn tips, caus that +1 gold helps.

[Kara]

Originally posted by Pegasus:

Everyone seems to be missing the point that you can reassign skill points. Hire your waitress, then hit the little recycle arrow in the upper right corner ... and assign skill points wherever you want them.

This right here.
In the beginning I've been picking ones that give a bonus to the customer population. This saves me money and space on decorations. I tried allocating one to be fast and focused on cleaning and one focused on serving drinks. That didn't really feel more efficient than having two average girls doing everything.

I also don't know if drink carry amount applies to empty cup piles. I think they pick up one plate at a time and that's annoying. There should be a dishes collection attribute instead on stairs speed.

I did have 3 chefs and make them each only good at one food type and just do that food type. That did speed up my cooking and waiting times.

Not sure what is best for bar tenders. For the small two keg bar I tried low movement but high carry and fill speed. He slowly walked back and forth between the two kegs instead of filling 3-4 water and then 3-4 beer. So I made him only carry one drink and that solved him. I came here looking to see how people build their workers lol.

[Spaz]

+1

Originally posted by Pegasus:

Everyone seems to be missing the point that you can reassign skill points. Hire your waitress, then hit the little recycle arrow in the upper right corner ... and assign skill points wherever you want them.

[Shas'O O'Kais]

I specialized my waitresses. For drinks, I max out tips first, then carry capacity, then speed while carrying.
I always reroll for the trait for +1 to tips for drinks.

Drinks make very little money in the first place. Most only generate 2 gold of profit, with only wine and mead generating 3. Those bonuses to tips bring everything to 4-6 profit each or 5-7 each for wine/mead. That is more important than anything.

Next most important is carry capacity. It doesn't matter if they walk half as fast if they can carry 5 times as many drinks. Always max it out second.

Next is speed while carrying. They walk from the bar, with a full tray of drinks, to multiple different locations to deliver drinks, then go STRAIGHT back to the bar. This means they spend more of their time walking while carrying than not. So it's much better to boost that speed rather than the other. Same logic for walking up stairs, they don't spend enough time walking up and down stairs to justify boosting it.