I started a new save at Christmas because I got so many new packs and just wanted to experience them in a fresh save. The first thing I did was renovate the world. Being the lazy person I am I did this by bringing in a lot of lots from the gallery, including about 9 restaurants (spread across all the worlds).
I'm finding, however, now that as I play them almost all of the restaurants from the gallery have the same issue. That being that the tables are so beautifully decorated with candles, flours, napkins etc. that the slots where food is supposed to be served aren't available and when the waiter brings food it immediately gets dumped as a mess onto the floor.
I'm going through all of the restaurants now and fixing this by rearranging, sometimes shrinking, and deleting if necessary the clutter decor at each table. I'm also testing each with plates from bb.showhiddenobjects to be sure I got it fixed.
As I get close to completion it occurred to me though...if I just turn on bb.moveobjects when eating at a restaurant, could they just still serve the food even if the slots aren't available? Or does that cheat code only help when I, the player, am placing things?
This post will be edited by StormKeep at some point.The Winters family Tree ---
My Mods 2
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I wish I'd thought of testing it out before I was nearly done with going through and adjusting every restaurant. I'm also curious, I'll probably put some clutter back in one of them and try it if no one already knows the for-sure answer here within a day.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
So shelves are also a big no, no in restaurants.
Even the center slot interferes if the item placed there is too large; which a few of the downloaded restaurants I had experienced. There's also a few offset slots to the side that do not interfere with serving food if, and only if, the item in those slots isn't too large. That's why I used the *debug* plates from BB to test the tables after I adjusted things. So I could keep as much of the visual appeal as possible, while still leaving things open for serving.
But yah, I had one restaurant where the tables had a lot of clutter, but the person who did it didn't use the actual slots on the table at all for most of them. So for those, it wasn't a problem.
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
I usually place a small vase, or the small candle in a round jar, or the restaurant menus on single tile tables and I've never had issues with food serving. But you are right, too much or too big clutter can be problematic. Also lazy or slob waiters, sometimes will leave piles of dirty dishes on your table and interfere with food serving. 🤣
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
Once in a great while food will get dropped on the floor, but that is simply gameplay as in not all servers are up to par. Mostly, the food arrives, and all is well.
I don't know what other lot builders have done. I do have the renovated Chez Llama in my game. Still don't recall having the problems you've cited. Yes, the place has flowers in the center of the tables, but my Sims don't lose their order. It almost sounds like a bug.
I agree with @crocobaura small things in the center of the tables don't or shouldn't upset the placing of plates.
Best of luck @Stormkeep I hope you get it sorted out (please don't mind the little punly).
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/
Yah, I got it all sorted. I just had to go through every restaurant and fix the table decor. I had a total of 11 restaurants from the gallery in my game and of those 8 of them had issues where the tables just had too much, or too large, decor on them.
For 2 it was that the centerpiece was too large; both used the same centerpiece which was a rather large, fat vase with flower arrangement. I replaced them with a thinner vase centerpiece and all was good. For the rest, the issue was that the creators put a bunch of things on the table, We're talking a flower vase and the stand up menu and the napkin holder all on the same small table.
It's pretty easy to see if a setup can hold served food or not...you can place food from the debug menu when in build mode. If you can't place it from build mode than the slot won't be available in live mode either. When I build a restaurant I actually put the food plates down first. Then decorative clutter won't even let you place it anywhere that it would interfere with serving (unless you use bb.moveobjects on).
The Winters family Tree --- My Mods
http://www.getfreeebooks.com/star-trek-original-series-fan-fiction-trilogy/