Tips for getting Smogley's first Star, please.

[IzzyFlames]

What tips would you give somebody specifically related to Smogley's hospital and the first Star?

I've realised now that it may be impossible to stay afloat in Smogley without ramping up the prices to at least 50%+. I hate to do that to these fictional patients (I'm a smelly hippie), but needs must. I let the game run on its own for a year or so to see what kind of money that would make. I think I should be able to manage to play it properly like that if I go very slowly after I restart.

Specific question(s), actually: should I hold off training up staff until I've built up to a stable point? I'm not going to be able to fulfil the other 1 Star requirements while struggling against the rapid influx of patients anyway. Even though many people are coming in, they seem to be people with Ward diseases that don't generate lots of cash. If I were to use marketing, that wouldn't necessarily override that issue, would it? I'd just get other patients on top of them, right? Then I'd be up to my eyeballs again.

P.S. if you are going to laugh at me, kindly don't. I love management games, yet I always struggle with them. I have a mild learning disability to do with not only basic mathematics but also with other similar concepts. This puts me at a disadvantage for several key components of these simulations. If Smogley was easy for you, rock on with your bad self!

[ebrumby]

When I have problems, I'll watch Blarla's YouTubes for that hospital.

[IzzyFlames]

Those videos are probably pretty in-depth. Or am I wrong? I'm currently trying to avoid full walkthroughs. I just need a few ideas at the moment.

I didn't put everything to 50%+ after all, and instead customised the pricing scheme. Treatments are at 60%, diagnoses range from 0% to 30%, and I dropped the extras like food down to 0% from 10% to 20%. With VIP visits and emergencies, I manage to stay at a good reputation. But it's so slow going. I've gone back to Mitton for now just to do research.

[arottweiler]

I had problems with Smogley because I was used to the steady income from pharmacy patients at previous hospitals but there are no pharmacy patients so I quickly overspent and had to restart. I've found wards to be lucrative at any hospital because of the constant diagnosis and cure income so I have a large ward with 5-6 beds and when I have enough staff will assign two nurses to it. It keeps the queue low and should ensure a small but frequent income stream from all the patients. I'm not sure if marketing replaces visitors or adds to the visitor count so would be interested to know and if there is a penalty for rage quits such as a reduction in reputation. There will be a constant stream of surgery patients at Smogley so the sooner you have a surgery the better. Hire doctors with no training and only positive traits and train them them in surgery as soon as possible. Only hire staff with no previous training because this makes them cheaper and a lot more flexible for training.

I'm not sure exactly how it works but I've read that some traits like 'nasty' can affect staff and patient happiness because that member of staff will spread negative vibes wherever they go ( like that smelly hippie, Neil Pye ;) ) Since then I've never hired anyone with a negative trait and it seems to work with keeping up moral.

Hiring untrained staff with positive traits and no negative traits can take a long time because they rarely come up as a candidate but it's worth the patience as it really helps keep the monthly salary hit as low as possible and a good atmos among patients and staff. Something I noticed only after starting the Croquembouche level is you can quicksave the game a few days before the new candidate list appears so if there is no-one suitable you can reload and it will be a different candidate list. Maybe too cheaty for some but when you have someone with a blank slate it's a lot easier to specialise them. Only hiring untrained staff has also made me a lot more careful about expanding and only buying rooms when the illnesses list shows they are needed.

[Jet City Gambler]

I had to restart Smogley a few times, it's definitely not one of the easier ones. I usually don't mess with prices at all. At first, concentrate on setting up a few GPs, some diagnostics, and a ward.

I like wards, they're my cash cows, they're useful because they do both diagnostic and treatment. Don't build too quickly at first and get a training room up and running. Use student doctors and train them in straight GP (and later, surgery).

One trick you can do for any scenario once you have research is jump back to a previous hospital with a big research room, get the $$ research almost to the tipping point, then jump back. The research carries over and you'll get the money in no time.

[IzzyFlames]

I'd been hiring staff with a little bit of experience because I thought I needed them to deal with what the level was throwing at me. Part of my reasoning was probably also that I thought it would be more expensive to hire a teacher every time I need a new skill, but that's daft. It costs more to have a trained up staff member from the get go since you pay them each month. The teacher is a one-time expense. Wow, why did I not realise that before! Probably because it means thinking vaguely about numbers. Either way, I'll stick to newbie staff members this time (restarting again).

Might keep prices up for a while just in an attempt to keep the amount of patients down at first. I stress out if I feel too swamped and I don't like having to give in and send lots of people home.

I might try the cash research trick if it gets too annoying since I have two 'Research V' docs in Mitton now.

Thank you for the tips. :)

[IzzyFlames]

Argh. I screwed up the last attempt because I became impatient. I definitely took too long building the surgery, I was in the fourth or fifth year. It's like I'm too afraid to spend money now, so I sit there grubbing it wherever I can instead of playing. This isn't fun anymore but I need to get at least the first star. I want to see the rest of the missions.

[glyntowen]

I'd try and prioritise your diagnostics, if you can get good GP's and nurses in Fluid Analysis then you can be processing patients at a decent rate. You can go down the Xray \ Mega route as well, I do find Xray good as it is quick, sometimes it can be hard getting the right staff.

you do need a couple of treatments to bring in cash, first time I played Smogley I automatically built a pharmacy without realising I didn't need one so had to restart.

I'd build a couple of GP offices, Fluid Analysis and a Ward at the start, maybe add Psychiatry as you will get Mock Star patients. I take out the 150,000 loans and build a training room costing about 100,000 with 3 desks, this means you can train people fairly quickly.

Ideally you want 3 GP's, 2-3 diag nurses and 2 Ward Management nurses, get a psychiatrist or two if a good one shows up. try and get all of these to 3 skills, I will sometimes take a skilled doctor and use them just for training if they have a good range of skills

regarding treatment, I keep a tally chart of illnesses that I don't have rooms for, once it hits 5 I build that room if I can afford it, it can be annoying being asked for new room, you build it but only see one patient with that illness.

Unless you get a really good candidate for a Surgeon, I wouldn't worry about Surgery until you are at least 1 start, more liking nearer 2. Surgery makes good money but is slow, you can end up with huge queues and patients with low health.

[IzzyFlames]

Curing 15 patients in Surgery is part of the requisite for gaining the first Star. But knowing it is reasonable to leave it for last is useful because I won't feel like I'm lagging behind.

Thank you for that rundown. I was making the mistake of doing my usual with diagnostics and going for General Diagnosis and Cardiogram. I'll go for Fluid Analysis and X-Ray this time. It makes much more sense. ^_^

[KickAir8P]

I'm a play-it-slow-and-enjoy type so I don't know how much this tip will help, but: build a small research room (3x4, at least 3 Prestige but 4 if you can afford it, you want your researchers happy). Then hire no-qualification doctors (they seem to pop up regularly in Smogley) with good traits, turn off all their job assignments, and train them in Research I. Set the Research Room to churn for money (or whatever, the important thing is the doctors are getting more experienced). When these doctors are ready for promotion, promote them but DON'T train them! Keep each one in Research until they're ready for their NEXT promotion. You then have doctors with effectively TWO empty training slots!

Train them in two rounds of whatever you need at that point -- you'll tick your train-staff box for the star, and have cheap well-trained doctors for Surgery or whatever.

Assigning untrained nurses to Surgery can work similarly -- nurses qualifications mean nothing to Surgery success, but they gain experience. Please note that this method is only effective with untrained hires -- it works with higher-qualified staff but takes too long getting the later qualification slots.

[IzzyFlames]

I did it! Thank you so much for the tips, everyone. I had to adjust the advice a little bit for my own stubbornness in how I play, but I've got that first Star.

[glyntowen]

i've been playing for a while and I'm still trying different ways, I've nearly completed 2 full saves, just last hospital of the latest DLC to complete.

I've recently been trying doctor only diagnosis via MegaScan, Xray with Psychiatry ( I do have nurses for a ward) as a few people on the reddit page were saying it works well.

I'm still not convinced but it does make training less of an issue

[IzzyFlames]

My noobish thoughts on how I played the level for anybody who might be interested:

I'm pretty sure it was my switch to choosing Fluid Analysis first before moving onto the X-Ray and M.E.G.A. Scanner that saved me. That and the fact I kept sending patients who needed new rooms home until I was able to build 2 Surgeries, which was soon after the first patients with Spinal Bap started showing up.

Once those 2 Surgeries were up and running, the hospital started to run itself. The 'fancier' diagnostics and the 3 G.P.'s offices* in the first building kept the cash flow going in between surgeries. I plonked down the third Surgery, then started going through my rooms, adding in extra items (I made sure only to put in what was necessary when I first built them). I trained a couple of additional doctors in Surgery and then was able to take turns training them up. I'd already hit the 1 Star mark before I started putting down Nurse-run treatment rooms and their other diagnostic rooms. I probably should have gone with another X-Ray or M.E.G.A Scanner instead, but I did have a few nurses floating about who I wanted to keep busy. Traffic to the Ward had dropped.

The Laxative Drinks Machine and the Absorbent Snack Machine were pretty useful. They helped out my patients who were waiting for Surgery. That meant the third Surgery room wasn't instantly necessary to cope with the number of patients showing up, though I did still micromanage the queues for a bit.

I didn't necessarily keep to only hiring very inexperienced staff, but I still didn't have too much of an issue in training them to be capable enough. Also, I didn't change the hospital's prices, but I did avoid giving higher-than-requested wages until staff were unhappy. Waiting for my staff with the perfect set of traits or reloading every time would have irritated me far too much. I would often settle for someone slightly undesirable instead and figure out how to offset that, or I'd just wait it out until the next staff shuffle.

Walkthroughs online that I eventually looked up said to do this, that, and the next thing, but they all seemed to have a completely different strategy. In the end, I didn't have to min-max to succeed. I was able to keep my rooms looking normal and didn't need to pack them full of Servers or Encyclopedia bookcases or anything else. I didn't have to sacrifice my joy of building in an aesthetically pleasing way to win (and to then achieve the second Star without even trying). Yes, it would have been faster if I gave up on that side of it, but I had fun watching the hospital move forward once I was confident it would work out. If I'd forced myself to pack rooms full of buffing items or build the rooms huge, I would have been frustrated until I was able to edit them back to something that looked tidy.

*I eventually built a fourth G.P's office, but by that time I had been able to buy other buildings and so could reorganise my hospital.

[arottweiler]

The xray and Mega rooms are great for the money they make and if there are no other diagnosis rooms available patients will use them. I'm on the last level and counted 15 mega rooms most of which are grouped together but some are dotted around. I have so many because of the demand as I have a constant 247 patient count in the hospital which I've seen go as high as 253. I think the cap is 250 as it always hovers around that figure. Even after a few culls I have 100 staff and am constantly running surgery marketing campaigns to keep them busy. I just see £ symbols when I see a patient having surgery.