PRO TIPS for Single Player (and multiplayer if you like)

[Enigmafyv]

Quick exposition… So my youngest (12yo) decided he wanted to play the Prologue and was playing for a few days with his friends. He eventually goaded me into playing with him. I didn't think I'd care for it b/c it wasn't something I'm much into. However, it turned out to be fun to learn the game loop and work with my kids (actually 2 of them, for a 3 player game), to figure out the mechanics to optimize our performance. While playing with them and eventually playing on my own, to see if I could squeeze a bit more optimal work performance out of my play, I've discovered many ways to play even the single player game with little to no lost orders and I was able to keep up. My 12yo and I also watched a Youtuber, that my kid watches occasionally, play this game and boy did they do it all wrong, but it was a funny watch nonetheless. We were both looking at the play with fraught, as it was a show on how to do everything the wrong way. Regardless, it gave is both a good chuckle.

Please note, this game is still very much in early access and riddled with bugs, so there are things you can't help nor can avoid that will cause your game to become broken along the way. I won't go into those other than to say, if you quit a game, many of your prepared foods will be gone upon resuming from a save or in a multiplayer game, things will randomly disappear for several seconds and then reappear slowing you way down along the way.

ANYWHO, I thought I'd offer my PRO TIPS on how to improve your performance.

DON'T OPEN UNTIL YOU'RE PREPARED - TIME WILL STAND STILL

For those that don't know, your hours don't actually start until you've clicked the 'Open' sign. This means you have an infinite amount of time either at the beginning of the day or at the end of the day to do any beginning or final preparations.

IMPORTANT: PREP TIME = BEFORE OR AFTER YOUR 'OPEN' HOURS!

WHEN ORDERING FOOD

• Always order two of any food to make sure you have enough on hand
  
• Order food only during your closed hours. This means make sure you only order food either at the beginning before you open or after your work hours end, at 9pm.
  
• You can't order more food if the truck is at your location. Make sure to close the delivery truck doors as soon as you've relocated all your products so it will go away.
  
• Make use of the floor just inside the back door of the restaurant. This is especially helpful for multiplayer games so you don't collide into each other when moving product. Someone should move items from the truck to the floor, and other should move from the floor to their destinations.

COOK A BATCH OF FOOD BEFORE YOU OPEN

• All your food stays fine after it's cooked. There's no reason why you need to cook any food, during your open hours, while you're serving the restaurant, if you cook enough ahead of time.
  
• DON'T OVER COOK THOUGH !!! Depending on what game level I'm at, I usually cook up 12-18 burgers in preparation. I'll prepare 10 buns with burger patties, leaving the rest on the Burger Patty trays. Sure there may be some waste, but you'll usually still make a profit.
  
• Cook 3 bags of fries, when you reach this stage of the game. I found two is always short, and honestly 3 is always a bit too much, but you're either going to have waste or your going to have lost sales. You decide. NOTE, you can still complete a partial order even if you don't have the food item, so there's that.

KNOW WHEN FOOD'S BAD

• BURGERS: Burgers cooked over 125% are considered bad by the customer. Throw them away!
  
• FRIES: Fries are also trash if they reach 125% cooked.
  
• When handling fries, replace your oil if it's at anything higher than 85% contamination otherwise your next batch of fries will be garbage and you can't serve them.
  
• Throw poorly cooked fries away in the wire basket by pressing and holding the button on the trash can. It's not a simple click.

ALWAYS USE BINS TO PLACE FOOD DOWN WHEN POSSIBLE

I don't think most people realize that you can actually place and pickup foods with bins or trays. Use these to your advantage.

• DON'T MANUALLY MOVE ANYTHING WITH YOUR HANDS - USE THE BINS! - Unless it's just one item like a single pickle, lettuce leaf, or tomato for example.
  
• DON'T use the spatula to move food! You don't need the spatula for anything other than to flip burger patties - BUT ONLY ON THE BURGER PATTY TRAY! Sure you can flip the patties on the grill directly, but this is a 3-click move vs the 2-click move if performed while the patties rest on a tray.
  
• Place raw burger patties on the grill while holding the Burger Patty Container. This is the deep, black bin that holds one full box of patties (or two stacks of patties from the one box).
  
• Pickup cooked burgers with the metal Burger Patty Trays. These are the thin metal sheets that hold 6 cooked patties. Do this for both cooked sides. This allows you to flip the patties on the tray (instead of the grill) in two clicks; mouse l-click to pick up, then mouse r-click to place down flipped. Again, this is normally a three click process with the spatula on the grill, so this takes a bit longer. Having them on this tray also prevents the burgers from cooking any longer, so if you have to step away from them, they're not going to burn. Then place the burgers back on the grill while holding this tray. AGAIN, DON'T move the patties with the spatula.

PREPARE YOUR VEG IN BINS

• Put as many lettuce leaves, pickles or tomatoes in Ingredient Containers during your morning or evening prep times.

PUT YOUR FOODS AWAY AT THE END OF THE DAY

• Always put your lettuce, raw patties, open ketchup/catsup cans, open mayo cans, fries away in the fridges for the night
  
• Uncut Tomatoes and Pickles can stay out on the shelves
  
• Store your foods underneath the prep tables first, then on the shelf in the back.
  
• Store your containers (i.e. cups: drinks, ice cream, & fries) underneath in the cabinets below their respective stations

DESIGNATE MEAL PREP AT OPTIMAL LOCATIONS

• Prepare 6 wrapping papers on the prep table closest the dining floor, on the grill side. Optionally, put 4 more on the back prep table. (You wont need to do this optional bit once you get better at fulfilling orders.)
  
• Place buns on each of these wrapping papers
  
• Place cooked burgers on each of these buns
  
• Place the veg in the middle of your prep table, aligned with the high shelf, from left to right.
  
• Keep your wrapping paper stacks and buns on the high shelf
  
• Place several serving trays on the ordering counter, so you can place the prepared foods and drinks on them as soon as they're ready.

HOW TO QUICKLY PREPARE A MEAL

When preparing larger meals that have drinks, ice cream and fries, start with checking the monitor by the drink station for the drink and the type of ice cream, then:

• SERVING TRAY: Place a serving tray on the register counter.
  
• FRIES: Reach across the drink machine counter, from the face side of the drink machine, to collect your fries and place them on the serving tray.
  
• DRINK: Prepare the drink and leave it to fill.
  
• ICE CREAM: As the drink's filling, go prep the ice cream and leave it to fill.
  
• BURGER: As the ice cream's filling, go make the burger.
  
• NOTE THE TABLE #: While at the burger prep table, once you've wrapped the burger, pay attention to which table the order is for.
  
• Place the burger on the already prepared serving tray, then grab the drink and ice cream and place them on the tray and deliver the meal.

SERVE THE MEAL EVEN IF YOU DON'T HAVE ALL THE FOOD

• I've found that if you don't have enough fries or burgers and it's too late to make more, simply serve what you can. You'll still get some credit and money.

I'll add more as I discover any more tips.
Happy Simulating!

[pyon]

thanks