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Dine out is it still bugged or worth buying?

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Thinking of buying Dine out but know it's reputation :# , is it still bugged in 2021? Is it glitchy if you just use it to visit restaurants, eat out, birthdays or dates , or only glitchy if you run restaurants?

Comments

  • SimmerGeorgeSimmerGeorge Posts: 2,724 Member
    Glitchy for me. Sims don't stay seated, food takes too long to arrive or simply never arrives and I have to order again, people constantly start chatting with you when you are on a date or with a group, my sims eat their food only half-way and never finish it.

    That's just my experience though. I personally love restaurants so I was excited for this. After some time I stopped using it as often cause of its glitchiness but if it worked I'm sure it would be one of the better packs.
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  • Akl500PAkl500P Posts: 2,986 Member
    Still glitchy. I know it’s worse if you own a restaurant though. Issues when going to one can be annoying but to me at least not game breaking. The worst is it takes so much effort to get them to stay seated. Food can come out fast or slow just depends on the day tbh and the restaurants routing.
  • haisinhaisin Posts: 948 Member
    edited March 2021
    A bit glitchy, but not that bad. The sims I play stay seated just fine, but the other restaurant guests sometimes don't. Once my sim didn't get his order, but I think it was because something (maybe a table decoration) was bloking the waiter from delivering it to him. I have heard it is good to have two chefs, so the food comes faster, but I'm not sure. I haven't paid attention to it myself, because usually I only go to a restaurant when my sims have a lot of time, so I'm never in a hurry to receive the food or leave.

    The biggest issue I have faced is that there have been times when a sim I don't control only finishes their drink and doesn't touch their food at all which is a bit meh, but it doesn't happen every time.

    I bought Dine Out some time ago as a part of a bundle, though initially I wasn't interested in getting it. I think it has been worth it :smile: I haven't tried running a restaurant and I'm not that interested in it.
    Post edited by haisin on
  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    edited March 2021
    I send my sims to eat at restaurants quite frequently, and I have done so very recently. I have these observations:

    If there is a source of music on the lot (radio or stereo) sims will go and dance to it. This includes both the customers and the employees (who will dance instead of doing their job). This problem can be solved by not having music.

    If there is a bar on the lot, customers waiting for food will often go hang out at the bar until their meal comes. But employees will ignore it. So whether or not you have a bar at the restaurant should depend on whether or not you want this behavior. The bar is not required.

    There is a glitch now (started several patches back) where player controlled sims will stop drinking their drink if they finish eating their food first, or vice versa if they finish their drink first. This doesn't seem to affect sims that are not in the active household, so while I find it slightly annoying, it isn't stopping me from sending my sims to the restaurant. I just tell them to finish their drink/food once they stop.

    There was a glitch (when I first got the pack a few years ago) that would cause food to never be brought to the table if the sims were drawing on their placemats. I don't know if this glitch is still happening because I never let them draw on their placemats anymore.

    The game mostly uses randomly generated sims to fill the employee roles (although occasionally I have seen premades used) and sometimes the sims have traits that interfere with the restaurant experience going smoothly. The worst one is the "clumsy" trait. These sims will drop the food nearly every time they try to serve it if they are selected as waiters. I have solved this problem by going into Manage Households and deleting them (if they are random and I don't care about them). The game will generate a new waiter to take their place, and usually that sim has a different set of traits. Clumsy is the main trait that I've seen cause a problem. Other traits might make the sim angry or sad or whatever, but they still get the food served.

    If you have Seasons, you may want to remove outdoor seating during the hottest and coldest parts of the year (or just not have any outdoor seating at all). Sims will get seated out there even when its a heatwave or freezing, and because of the lot's special dress code, they won't be wearing the right clothes for the weather.

    If I want to make sure my sims stay seated the whole time I make sure other needs besides hunger (especially bladder and sleep) are well in the green before booking a table, and I temporarily turn off autonomy. They sit and happily chat while waiting for their food.

    Because the sim day goes by so fast, it will take several sim hours to complete the ordering, waiting, and eating. Even though in reality, they get served pretty quickly once they order. It's just that the day is designed too short for detailed tasks and events like this. If I want my sims to have dinner at a restaurant, I send them there around 3:00 pm and they'll finish up around 9:00 pm, so plan on about six hours.

    When placing or building a restaurant lot, I always make sure there are at least two waiter stations. And if possible, two chef stations. More staff makes the food arrive quicker, just like in a real restaurant. But the staff also count toward the lot's sim limit, so there's a tradeoff obviously if you also want the place to not feel empty. I find two waiters usually makes it satisfactory for me.

    I have never owned and run a restaurant so I can't speak about that. I only use it as a place for my sims to go.

    I really enjoy the pack and it's still one of my favorite game packs.
    Post edited by GlacierSnow on
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  • Calico45Calico45 Posts: 2,038 Member
    edited March 2021
    Definitely still bugged, but I like restaurants and the recipes they bring. It can be annoying as both a guest and an owner (odd guest behaviours and I flat out have had staff ignore whenever I open), but I still dot them around my worlds and design them. I like the idea behind Dine Out, but the execution was fairly poor in my opinion. It really depends on how much you want restaurants in your game.
  • EternalSunshineEternalSunshine Posts: 339 Member
    I send my sims to eat at restaurants quite frequently, and I have done so very recently. I have these observations:

    If there is a source of music on the lot (radio or stereo) sims will go and dance to it. This includes both the customers and the employees (who will dance instead of doing their job). This problem can be solved by not having music.

    If there is a bar on the lot, customers waiting for food will often go hang out at the bar until their meal comes. But employees will ignore it. So whether or not you have a bar at the restaurant should depend on whether or not you want this behavior. The bar is not required.

    There is a glitch now (started several patches back) where player controlled sims will stop drinking their drink if they finish eating their food first, or vice versa if they finish their drink first. This doesn't seem to affect sims that are not in the active household, so while I find it slightly annoying, it isn't stopping me from sending my sims to the restaurant. I just tell them to finish their drink/food once they stop.

    There was a glitch (when I first got the pack a few years ago) that would cause food to never be brought to the table if the sims were drawing on their placemats. I don't know if this glitch is still happening because I never let them draw on their placemats anymore.

    The game mostly uses randomly generated sims to fill the employee roles (although occasionally I have seen premades used) and sometimes the sims have traits that interfere with the restaurant experience going smoothly. The worst one is the "clumsy" trait. These sims will drop the food nearly every time they try to serve it if they are selected as waiters. I have solved this problem by going into Manage Households and deleting them (if they are random and I don't care about them). The game will generate a new waiter to take their place, and usually that sim has a different set of traits. Clumsy is the main trait that I've seen cause a problem. Other traits might make the sim angry or sad or whatever, but they still get the food served.

    If you have Seasons, you may want to remove outdoor seating during the hottest and coldest parts of the year (or just not have any outdoor seating at all). Sims will get seated out there even when its a heatwave or freezing, and because of the lot's special dress code, they won't be wearing the right clothes for the weather.

    If I want to make sure my sims stay seated the whole time I make sure other needs besides hunger (especially bladder and sleep) are well in the green before booking a table, and I temporarily turn off autonomy. They sit and happily chat while waiting for their food.

    Because the sim day goes by so fast, it will take several sim hours to complete the ordering, waiting, and eating. Even though in reality, they get served pretty quickly once they order. It's just that the day is designed too short for detailed tasks and events like this. If I want my sims to have dinner at a restaurant, I send them there around 3:00 pm and they'll finish up around 9:00 pm, but I usually also have them sit and talk after eating for a bit as well.

    When placing or building a restaurant lot, I always make sure there are at least two waiter stations. And if possible, two chef stations. More staff makes the food arrive quicker, just like in a real restaurant. But the staff also count toward the lot's sim limit, so there's a tradeoff obviously if you also want the place to not feel empty. I find two waiters usually makes it satisfactory for me.

    All of this is why I no longer send my Sims to official restaurants when I want them to go out for a meal. Instead, I build/place retail cafes/cafeterias with Get to Work & I send my Sims there to eat. It is a much smoother & less time consuming experience. I wish that Dine Out worked better b/c I like the idea of the pack, but the implementation is flawed.

  • br00kie1br00kie1 Posts: 119 Member
    Thanks for your insight here
    I send my sims to eat at restaurants quite frequently, and I have done so very recently. I have these observations:

    If there is a source of music on the lot (radio or stereo) sims will go and dance to it. This includes both the customers and the employees (who will dance instead of doing their job). This problem can be solved by not having music.

    If there is a bar on the lot, customers waiting for food will often go hang out at the bar until their meal comes. But employees will ignore it. So whether or not you have a bar at the restaurant should depend on whether or not you want this behavior. The bar is not required.

    There is a glitch now (started several patches back) where player controlled sims will stop drinking their drink if they finish eating their food first, or vice versa if they finish their drink first. This doesn't seem to affect sims that are not in the active household, so while I find it slightly annoying, it isn't stopping me from sending my sims to the restaurant. I just tell them to finish their drink/food once they stop.

    There was a glitch (when I first got the pack a few years ago) that would cause food to never be brought to the table if the sims were drawing on their placemats. I don't know if this glitch is still happening because I never let them draw on their placemats anymore.

    The game mostly uses randomly generated sims to fill the employee roles (although occasionally I have seen premades used) and sometimes the sims have traits that interfere with the restaurant experience going smoothly. The worst one is the "clumsy" trait. These sims will drop the food nearly every time they try to serve it if they are selected as waiters. I have solved this problem by going into Manage Households and deleting them (if they are random and I don't care about them). The game will generate a new waiter to take their place, and usually that sim has a different set of traits. Clumsy is the main trait that I've seen cause a problem. Other traits might make the sim angry or sad or whatever, but they still get the food served.

    If you have Seasons, you may want to remove outdoor seating during the hottest and coldest parts of the year (or just not have any outdoor seating at all). Sims will get seated out there even when its a heatwave or freezing, and because of the lot's special dress code, they won't be wearing the right clothes for the weather.

    If I want to make sure my sims stay seated the whole time I make sure other needs besides hunger (especially bladder and sleep) are well in the green before booking a table, and I temporarily turn off autonomy. They sit and happily chat while waiting for their food.

    Because the sim day goes by so fast, it will take several sim hours to complete the ordering, waiting, and eating. Even though in reality, they get served pretty quickly once they order. It's just that the day is designed too short for detailed tasks and events like this. If I want my sims to have dinner at a restaurant, I send them there around 3:00 pm and they'll finish up around 9:00 pm, so plan on about six hours.

    When placing or building a restaurant lot, I always make sure there are at least two waiter stations. And if possible, two chef stations. More staff makes the food arrive quicker, just like in a real restaurant. But the staff also count toward the lot's sim limit, so there's a tradeoff obviously if you also want the place to not feel empty. I find two waiters usually makes it satisfactory for me.

    I have never owned and run a restaurant so I can't speak about that. I only use it as a place for my sims to go.

    I really enjoy the pack and it's still one of my favorite game packs.

  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    edited March 2021
    I send my sims to eat at restaurants quite frequently, and I have done so very recently. I have these observations:

    If there is a source of music on the lot (radio or stereo) sims will go and dance to it. This includes both the customers and the employees (who will dance instead of doing their job). This problem can be solved by not having music.

    If there is a bar on the lot, customers waiting for food will often go hang out at the bar until their meal comes. But employees will ignore it. So whether or not you have a bar at the restaurant should depend on whether or not you want this behavior. The bar is not required.

    There is a glitch now (started several patches back) where player controlled sims will stop drinking their drink if they finish eating their food first, or vice versa if they finish their drink first. This doesn't seem to affect sims that are not in the active household, so while I find it slightly annoying, it isn't stopping me from sending my sims to the restaurant. I just tell them to finish their drink/food once they stop.

    There was a glitch (when I first got the pack a few years ago) that would cause food to never be brought to the table if the sims were drawing on their placemats. I don't know if this glitch is still happening because I never let them draw on their placemats anymore.

    The game mostly uses randomly generated sims to fill the employee roles (although occasionally I have seen premades used) and sometimes the sims have traits that interfere with the restaurant experience going smoothly. The worst one is the "clumsy" trait. These sims will drop the food nearly every time they try to serve it if they are selected as waiters. I have solved this problem by going into Manage Households and deleting them (if they are random and I don't care about them). The game will generate a new waiter to take their place, and usually that sim has a different set of traits. Clumsy is the main trait that I've seen cause a problem. Other traits might make the sim angry or sad or whatever, but they still get the food served.

    If you have Seasons, you may want to remove outdoor seating during the hottest and coldest parts of the year (or just not have any outdoor seating at all). Sims will get seated out there even when its a heatwave or freezing, and because of the lot's special dress code, they won't be wearing the right clothes for the weather.

    If I want to make sure my sims stay seated the whole time I make sure other needs besides hunger (especially bladder and sleep) are well in the green before booking a table, and I temporarily turn off autonomy. They sit and happily chat while waiting for their food.

    Because the sim day goes by so fast, it will take several sim hours to complete the ordering, waiting, and eating. Even though in reality, they get served pretty quickly once they order. It's just that the day is designed too short for detailed tasks and events like this. If I want my sims to have dinner at a restaurant, I send them there around 3:00 pm and they'll finish up around 9:00 pm, but I usually also have them sit and talk after eating for a bit as well.

    When placing or building a restaurant lot, I always make sure there are at least two waiter stations. And if possible, two chef stations. More staff makes the food arrive quicker, just like in a real restaurant. But the staff also count toward the lot's sim limit, so there's a tradeoff obviously if you also want the place to not feel empty. I find two waiters usually makes it satisfactory for me.

    All of this is why I no longer send my Sims to official restaurants when I want them to go out for a meal. Instead, I build/place retail cafes/cafeterias with Get to Work & I send my Sims there to eat. It is a much smoother & less time consuming experience. I wish that Dine Out worked better b/c I like the idea of the pack, but the implementation is flawed.

    It's certainly a personal choice. :smile: For me, having an actual restaurant with waiters where you place the order and the food is brought to the table was something I'd wanted since I first started playing with sims (back when I was playing sims 3). So I find it well worth the few issues (all of which are solvable) and the time that it takes. But that's just me. I think many people have found it too much trouble.
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  • br00kie1br00kie1 Posts: 119 Member
    edited March 2021
    Thanks everyone for your advice and the info, its been helpful to know what the existing issues are. Dine out is a great idea (reminds me of hot date S1). Already have routing problems esp with Uni , i think my sims may have amuse themselves with vending machines and food trucks for a while yet :)

    I hope these issues get fixed in a later patch for everyone who has the game pack
  • crocobauracrocobaura Posts: 7,342 Member

    I made this restaurant last week and as you can see from this picture everyone is seated at their tables, the waiters are attending tables and the cooks are cooking. This was with game generated personnel. It certainly helps to have more than one cook and one waiter and like others have said sometimes a waiter is clumsy or lazy and they will drop your food or forget dirty dishes where they shouldn't but it's not much of an issue. If they drop the food they will bring a new one soon. If you play the restaurant for a bit, you can hire personnel with better skills or train them so that also helps. I enjoy this pack very much and the fact that you can customize the uniforms and the menu and can have either a fancy restaurant or a pizzeria or a hamburger place. Lot traits also matter so you need to make sure you don't add any that will cause your sims to behave inappropriately.


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  • MareahMareah Posts: 792 Member
    Most of the times dine outs worked ok but there were one or two outings where things got buggy. It could get frustrating but i still use resturants anyway. I dont want to recommend buying in case it gets even more buggy for you though.
  • netney52netney52 Posts: 1,214 Member
    It is not too bad in my game my only main issue is it takes ages for food to be delivered to a table and if you go with sims outside your household they don’t eat the meal. I’ve never had my sims run a restaurant so cannot comment on that aspect. It’s glitchy but not unplayable for me that honour goes to Realm of magic which is unplayable with the bugs and glitches my game has from that pack.
  • Pamtastic72Pamtastic72 Posts: 4,545 Member
    I don’t run into a lot of the problems many people do with bugs and lag. I think because I don’t download player built restaurants anymore. I just use the Maxis created ones and then redecorate them while keeping the same floor plan and number of tables, minimal clutter etc. because, when I download player created restaurants that’s when I run into problems. Lag, bottlenecks, queue drops, and I think it’s due to there being too many tables, and not enough routing space, too much clutter etc. Sure the builds look fabulous a lot of the time but they really tend to make the restaurant difficult to play.
  • SimsLady2000SimsLady2000 Posts: 1,236 Member
    edited March 2021
    I love the pack. I love building restaurants and sending my sims there. As @GlacierSnow pointed out in their very informative post, don't add speakers. Your playable sims can't control them as a guest so it can be quite annoying because you can't turn them off or change the music or anything. I have outdoor seating of sorts. I create rooms that use open-style windows and a roof or the posts and spandrels. This gives you the feeling that the room is outside but is still essentially inside so avoiding the weather issues. I always have a bar in my restaurants. Patrons visiting the bar autonomously is not a glitch and it's a feature I actually like because it's very realistic. I don't have an issue with the time it takes to prepare and serve food. I don't think this is a glitch. When building a restaurant, I always have at least two chef stations and two waiter stations. And although my builds tend to be boring, pathing is very important so make sure you have plenty of space between the tables. I have not had issues with sims not completing their meal, not finishing their drinks, or not staying seated (unless I was silly enough to put a video game or computer on the lot somewhere). All my dates are always gold so I can't complain. I would like to add that I do use mods and CC but not in my commercial builds, no CC build items or traits.
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  • calaprfycalaprfy Posts: 3,927 Member
    I like sending my sims to restaurants as they get allocated a table and sit there. If only this could happen in bars as I hate seeing empty chairs and tables in bars and sims all gathered at the bar. It's good for relationship building but there is currently a bug that causes sims to not finish their meals. I like the details too, how a waiter will take an order, give it to the chef who leaves meals for waiters to distribute. Rather that than meals magically appearing on tables.
  • SimsLady2000SimsLady2000 Posts: 1,236 Member
    calaprfy wrote: »
    ... but there is currently a bug that causes sims to not finish their meals.

    I have never had this happen in hundreds of visits to restaurants. I wonder what the cause is? @calaprfy do you play on PC or console?

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  • calaprfycalaprfy Posts: 3,927 Member
    calaprfy wrote: »
    ... but there is currently a bug that causes sims to not finish their meals.

    I have never had this happen in hundreds of visits to restaurants. I wonder what the cause is? @calaprfy do you play on PC or console?

    I play on a gaming PC with no mods/cc. Sims finish their drinks then stop, leaving their meals untouched. It's been happening a while now, but I did notice that the patch that introduced sentiments fixed it but the next patch broke it again.
  • GlacierSnowGlacierSnow Posts: 2,301 Member
    calaprfy wrote: »
    calaprfy wrote: »
    ... but there is currently a bug that causes sims to not finish their meals.

    I have never had this happen in hundreds of visits to restaurants. I wonder what the cause is? @calaprfy do you play on PC or console?

    I play on a gaming PC with no mods/cc. Sims finish their drinks then stop, leaving their meals untouched. It's been happening a while now, but I did notice that the patch that introduced sentiments fixed it but the next patch broke it again.

    Yeah, this is what I was talking about in my post as well. Sims finish one item (drink or meal) and then stop consuming the other. But for me it seems to only be happening with the sims I'm playing. As far as I can tell the other sims are either finishing both or the staff is able to clean up all items even if not finished. So it hasn't been a big. problem, only a minor annoyance.
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  • CelSimsCelSims Posts: 2,270 Member
    There is a bug at the moment where if you order multiple courses, only one will actually arrive. That's the only bug I see regularly. I do use a restaurant without music, a tv or any other item I find sims want to use obsessively.
  • EnkiSchmidtEnkiSchmidt Posts: 5,334 Member
    edited March 2021
    I don't run into problems when I send my sims to restaurants. Occasionally one will forget to eat, but then I tell them to and all is well again.

    However, I run a little food cart and experience problems with sims not staying seated there. After getting greeted they will take a seat half of the time or remain standing. If they sit down, often they will get up again before I can "check table". After the food arrives, half of the time the sims will sit down to eat, the other half they will eat standing upright. It's immersive for this one restaurant type, fast food cart, but in a normal restaurant it would be terrible.

    Space is not a problem, they have plenty. Food arrives in time. I made the mistake to place a loudspeaker, but the visitors don't even dance or listen to the music. They ignore the music and chat, chat, chat. (And did so already several days before the loudspeaker was present).
  • EllupelluelluEllupelluellu Posts: 6,777 Member
    I have been lucky at my restaurants , I suppose.

    Unplayed sims currently always finish their meal and drinks. ( I did that food stealing bug at sometime last year)

    For played sims , not always. But it is pretty easy to click the dish and make them to eat :)

    I also avoid all things like stereos or what ever sims might like better.. and routing issues I always make sure there is none.

    Not too many tables and not too close to each others.
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  • OldeseadoggeOldeseadogge Posts: 4,973 Member
    Agree with the others that meals take a long time to arrive. Controlled sims finish drink fairly quickly and then ignore meal until i tell them to eat it. Same goes for uncontrolled sims except that I can't tell them to eat. One way to get a packed lunch though. In addition to no music, no swimming pools. Wait staff prefer to swim and float than serve food. Have had no issues with bars other than can have only 1 at a time. If you put in 2, only 1 will be staffed. If you have other rooms, say a game room or the bar is separate, the wait staff will go there from time to time to check on things.
  • OnverserOnverser Posts: 3,364 Member
    edited March 2021
    I've played with it a ton and it usually works fine for owning restaurants, there's some bugs of sims just not leaving which is annoying and getting up too often but other than that it works well enough and I love playing with the restaurant system. It helps to avoid adding things like mirrors in bathrooms, reachable stereos, seats away from the tables, instruments, etc as they can cause sims to get up.

    As for visiting restaurants they're more temperamental. Once I sent my sim to a restaurant and the game just didn't spawn a waiter, so I couldn't order food or do anything but it was fixed just by reloading the lot, there usually won't be many other guests and when there is they walk around a lot but they sit when their food arrives. It works fine with the sims you're playing it's just the other sims that can't sit still.

    It has its issues, but it's not "broken" and unusable like many claim. I think it's a fun pack and I've enjoyed playing with it
  • DevSims91DevSims91 Posts: 469 Member
    edited March 2021
    I actually wished I played it so far I just use the build buy and cas items... I bought during a sale to catch my game up in the hopes of making it more fun... Dine Out a pack deal cheeper, and that was years ago. I’ve have enjoyed a few of the other packs I bought with it.
  • PalgoonsPalgoons Posts: 20 Member
    I've just started to play this pack and it's really fun to create a restaurant :D
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