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Marketplace (Eco) question- also a question about food stall vendors
mightysprite
Posts: 5,889 Member
So I'm building a lot intended as a Marketplace, one of the Eco Lifestyle community space options.
I filled it with sales tables from City Living and Eco Lifestyle, food stalls from various packs including the Eco coffee trailer, 3 street art gallery objects (City Living), and one flower stall (from My Wedding Stories).
On playtesting, 3 sales table vendors showed up along with 2 art vendors. The sales table vendors staffed the three tables closest to the entrance, 2 of which were from City and 1 from Eco. All 3 staffed sales tables were selling fizzy juices. All the other sales tables remained vacant, as did all of the food stalls, the remaining art gallery object and the flower stall. There was not the option to hire a vendor for S100 on the stalls, as there often is on public lots that don't automatically provide them.
The art vendors soon became distracted by NAP autonomy and did pushups and drew on illustration tablets. At that point they stopped being art vendors. One additional art vendor came to staff one of the abandoned art gallery objects. The original vendor's name was still on the painting.
The dumpster and recycler on the lot got a lot of NPC interaction. They are quite near the entrance.
My first question is about people's experience with building Marketplaces. Is this in general what happens? 3 sales tables are staffed with fizzy juices only, up to 2 art gallery objects are staffed, no other vendors?
My second question is about which lots do and don't come with food stall vendors. I'd looked up a list online and saw Marketplaces were supposed to have food stall vendors, but I guess that list was wrong.
Or perhaps I'm running into some sort of cap on the percentage of sims on the lot who can be vendors? I wonder if I put out so many vendor-able objects on the lot that the cap for total sims on the lot may have interfered somehow.
I filled it with sales tables from City Living and Eco Lifestyle, food stalls from various packs including the Eco coffee trailer, 3 street art gallery objects (City Living), and one flower stall (from My Wedding Stories).
On playtesting, 3 sales table vendors showed up along with 2 art vendors. The sales table vendors staffed the three tables closest to the entrance, 2 of which were from City and 1 from Eco. All 3 staffed sales tables were selling fizzy juices. All the other sales tables remained vacant, as did all of the food stalls, the remaining art gallery object and the flower stall. There was not the option to hire a vendor for S100 on the stalls, as there often is on public lots that don't automatically provide them.
The art vendors soon became distracted by NAP autonomy and did pushups and drew on illustration tablets. At that point they stopped being art vendors. One additional art vendor came to staff one of the abandoned art gallery objects. The original vendor's name was still on the painting.
The dumpster and recycler on the lot got a lot of NPC interaction. They are quite near the entrance.
My first question is about people's experience with building Marketplaces. Is this in general what happens? 3 sales tables are staffed with fizzy juices only, up to 2 art gallery objects are staffed, no other vendors?
My second question is about which lots do and don't come with food stall vendors. I'd looked up a list online and saw Marketplaces were supposed to have food stall vendors, but I guess that list was wrong.
Or perhaps I'm running into some sort of cap on the percentage of sims on the lot who can be vendors? I wonder if I put out so many vendor-able objects on the lot that the cap for total sims on the lot may have interfered somehow.
2
Comments
Food stall vendors are supposed to be there, but it's been a while since I played a marketplace. Also, if there is a cap on the number of vendors for a lot, then it should be quite high for a marketplace because it requires a lot of vendors.
Have you tried putting the food stalls nearer to the entrance? Maybe that'll help?
Hi @mightysprite first if you want to enjoy Eco Pack turn off the NAPs autonomy and repeal the ones are already active in your game! Eco Pack is good, the Community Lots are one of the best Lot Types of Sims 4... but the NAPs were really bad executed
When you create any lot you need to remember that there is a Sims limit (20) at any lot (counting those outside the lot, walking down the street, chatting, etc.). So the more npcs you need to use the stalls, the sales tables, etc... the fewer sims for other activities are available. For this reason there is a limit for how many npcs will arrive to your lot.
Also not all the stalls work at any lot: usually they are coded for certain venues or worlds. It is better to use Stalls from the build catalogue, NO from the debug stuff.
In my experience only the stall from Eco Pack, any bar, any sales table and the Street Gallery works at a Marketplace.
I built and play my own Marketplace: I created it for my gameplay, I like busy lots so I try to minimize the use of npcs. I'm a rotational player, so I want to see my own played sims doing activities. I always build with functionality as a goal:
Here are some photos of my Marketplace, it works great for me. BTW the tables sales vendors are different everytime I go to the lot: sometimes they sell candles, fizzy drinks or collectables:
They are sims everywhere. Lots as the one from Eco Pack are coded to run manly the Eco gameplay. If you found a good layout and balance of activities you really can enjoy it
Here is the gallery link of my Marketplace, hope it can help you to built what you want (no CC): Port Promise Marketplace
for more take a look at my showcase:
https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/918679/emere-osiazul-showcase-new-steampunk-karaoke#latest
https://www.ea.com/games/the-sims/the-sims-4/pc/gallery/11D7941DB8A711EA84ED9BE9EBD29134?category=all&searchtype=ea_origin_id&sortby=newest&time=all&searchquery=crocobaura&max=50&maxis=false
As a rule, food stalls all work with this lot type, but some vendors may not show up if you have too many sims on the lot. Also, some food stalls have working hours and the seasonal ones I think only work during their specific season so they won't be open at certain times.
The university cafeteria also works and will summon a vendor on this lot type.
The sales table will summon all kinds of vendors, some will sell just one type of merchandise, like the MySims figures, candles, fizzy juice, or some will have a mix of everything like seed packets, candles, fruits, etc.
The painting displays will summon vendors, you can still buy paintings even if the vendor is not on the lot.
NPC sims will only tend to plants in planters, so if you want to use it as a garden center you need to add planters.
My suggestion is to add maybe 5 or 6 vendor type attractions on the lot at most if you want them to be all open at the same time. Even then some may not be open if there are too many sims on the lot, so you need to check what other attractions you have on the lot, wood working tables, fizzy stations, candle stations, garden planters, etc. as they also attract sims and a mentor.
As my Sims spend a lot of time on Community Lots, I’ve observed how the tables work.
I only have the Eco lifestyle sales tables. Usually three, sometimes four.
I have edited Magnolia Blossom and Desert Bloom to be community lots with sales tables as well as the three lots in Evergreen Harbor.
Things I’ve noticed about the AI. During normal operating hours there is a change of shift at the tables whenever the active Sims arrives on the lot.
The people manning the tables are the first lot of the new arrivals to enter lot.
What they stock on their tables is totally random and has no link with their real inventory, nor does anything they are seen to buy. Similar to Unplayed Sims shopping at retail stores. Items they purchase do not show up in their inventory.
I’ve tried manning the tables myself on these lots, but that never seems to work. I get inventory overstocked even with adding only one item.
I find the best use of the Sales table is for buying Eco upgrade parts and the odd plant. And for building influence points early in the game. Lots of friendly interactions and if you need to build up social, they’re a captive audience.
If I make food and leave it in fridge on community lots, the vendors seem to be the only Sims who help themselves to servings from the refrigerator. They also sleep in beds provided (sometimes), leave their posts to play computers if nearby. In fact of all the non played characters in community lots, they’re the most interesting to watch.
My community lots are super busy, even in the early hours of the morning when children are still busy experimenting on the science stations with no parents in sight.
Just before 5am is the magic time to be there as any gardens produce harvestables then.
The crafting tables, candles, easels and fabricators all get used, but as soon as your Sim leaves the lot, whatever other Sims we’re doing gets left. Hence you need to enter edit mode and “sell” the items by dragging them to sell section. You could have the Sim go around scrapping everything, but going into edit mode is quicker. Unfinished fabrications have to be scrapped manually.
At first I found this frustrating, but now I see it as a way of ensuring that piece of equipment is available for use when my Sim wants it.
Items the non played Sims create do go into their household inventories and their skill levels rise.
I’ve started playing an unplayed Sim (needs to be in the world) and discovered beds, wardrobes, dining tables etc etc.
As I said, my Sims use the Community Lots a lot.
I can provide links if you like.
Adding a top of the line bed and bunks is a great way for my Freegan Sims to survive.
Even the mess Sims Woohooing in dumpsters leave behind can be dragged into my sleeping Sims inventory. Then added to dumpster when arriving at lot next time for an immediate access to the wonders inside.
Such fun!
I will check out those gallery links and try your suggestions.
Much appreciated
I made a community space of the salt house….. I gave each lot (market place, community garden, and the maker space) the same items, I wasn’t quite sure how the spaces functioned, if you got to pick which one to show up or if they were voted on or what. I noticed when playing that people show up to do all of the stuff, stalls, garden and use other items. I only put 3 market stalls there, and 1 food vendor, but I read that you could have two. I didn’t try using any art vendors. But I was pleasantly surprised how the sales tables were filled. One of the table was filled with dyes and wax and stuff, the other tables had other things.
I tested them both out in my game today, and actually I encountered the same behavior. Between 3-5 vendors showed up to staff sales tables (and one of the art galleries in the build that had them). None of the food stalls were staffed, and also the option to click and hire staff did not appear. Vendors could become distracted by computers or other actions and then did not return to the vendor role after that.
If you have time would you mind checking in your own game to see if you get the same behavior or not? I'm most interested in how to get the food stalls to have staff. But if it works in your game but not mine, maybe I have a bug of some sort or there's some interference from another pack or something.
thank you
I placed one of your builds in Newcrest instead, and the food vendors did show up, as did art and sales table vendors.
Now I think the San Myshuno vendors who show up to work the stalls in the plaza (neighborhood terrain) may interfere with the food stalls on-lot at the marketplace.
I haven't played since before the werewolves came out. I have to go back and set Evergreen Harbor up again.
> I have found if I put one single food/buying stall on the lot it will be staffed, but if I put 2 or 3, none of them will be staffed. With the vendors, no matter how many tables I put out only 3 of them will be vendor staffed and the items on the tables will be left on the tables and sill there when another set of vendors come the next day and add inventory. Everyone that goes on lot will use a coffee machine, tea pot, microwave, sink, oven, fridge, or vending machine. They will also occasionally use a grill. I've not seen anyone buy anything from the vendor or stalls though unless I'm controlling them.
I notice this too. I kept the coffee stall and added a pizza stall to feed sims, but the pizza stall is never staffed. Guess I will put fridge and stove instead.
I believe the vendor tables work more like stalls, rather than flea market tables in City Living. But it feels quite odd that two of the three tables in my game are selling the same stuff.