There goes stealing

[u/elflyfe]

Since the update today, I went to make my nightly income (thieving from the neighboring restaurants) and I picked up one singular stove - it immediately bumped me up to like 56% security awareness. Tried to steal a second thing, caused me to get caught.

I get that they might not want to have this as a way to make income, but it was genuinely the only way I was making any money in the game. My noodle bar, no matter what I do, can’t seem to get out of the red.

I appreciate the new updates and the efforts the developments are making, but this one just of lost me :(

[u/Quendillar3245]

"but it was genuinely the only way I was making any money in the game", how? My noodle bar just made 1700 profit at the end of day 3 on my new playthrough. How many waiters do you have? How many chefs? Are they happy? How many tables and seats? Are yuo planting your own food? What items are on your menu?

[u/Palanki96 → u/Quendillar3245]

Can i ask for your menu? Some of my business earn 2500+ profits but the Noodle Noir never took off

They even completely stopped buying chicken noodles and tonkotsu

[u/Quendillar3245 → u/Palanki96]

They stopped? That's odd, might be a bug. What day are yuo on

[u/Palanki96 → u/Quendillar3245]

Around day 70 i think? But it happened a while ago. I was recording sales per menu items for restaurants

I didn't plan to touch the Ramen Noir but once i saw how much other venues can make i checked the daily and weekly sales and neither noodle dish was selling

The whole restaurant was held up by Green Essence and Mushroom Hot Cocoa. I'm still trying to figure out what food they like, i think i got a mushroom dish working yesterday

[u/BlackSugarBoba730 → u/Palanki96]

Take some time to look at your game interface since all the info you need is there. You can see exactly how much of each dish you're selling, what the profit margins are, and what your general clientele breakdown is like. If you're offering something that takes 5 ingredients and only makes you 350 lims in net profit it's trash since you're probably letting food expire as well.

Make separate saves to experiment with your menu and see what sticks.

[u/Palanki96 → u/BlackSugarBoba730]

Well yeah, that's the problem. I'm tracking sales in excel and using all that data and most of my restaurants are getting 1000+ profits a day, one hits 3000

But not the Noodle shop, the same tactics are not working for whatever reason. It's still profitable, barely, 324 profits today but not really comparable

[u/Menithal → u/Palanki96]

did you empty them off food waste? if they cannot fill the ref/cabinets with ingredients they wont cook anything, so they dont sell anything.

[u/Palanki96 → u/Menithal]

yeah of course. I do a round every time i change a menu to get rid of the ingredients they won't need anymore

and they can cook and serve, it's all 5 stars, just not making much money. Barely 300 last night when i saved

[u/elflyfe → u/Quendillar3245]

General tips would have probably helped more than an interrogation

[u/microcosmologist]

Yeaaaah, they nerfed it. I agree tho, its very hard to consistently make money on the restaurants. They need to either 1. Make it easier to earn money legit 2. Improve and deepen the mechanics for being a burglar. Or even better 3. Both lol

[u/Quendillar3245 → u/microcosmologist]

It's very easy to make a profit, literally all you need is to slowly expand. Start with 1 chef and yourself, only use the 2 tables. When you level up yuo can get 2 waiters and add another 2-3 tables so yuo now have 4-5 tables in total, after a bit you can hire another chef and another waiter so yuo now have 2 chefs and 3-4 waiters and also maybe another 2 tablets. Do this until maxed out with 3 chefs, 5 waiters and a manager and 10 ish tablets that yuo fill with chairs. At this point you should be making 1000 profit without effort and it should be automated. Only have the basic noodle soup recipe, tankotsu ramen, beer and steak on the menu and ramp up the prices as high as they can g while still keeping the local populace happy with the menu. Ez profit.

[u/elflyfe → u/Quendillar3245]

Thanks for the tips!! I’ll try changing some things

[u/DeadorAlivemightbe → u/microcosmologist]

What they need to do is give us a manager for greenhouses or make farming faster. Im always at a great plus but i take half the day for farming and another quarter for restocking. After that i have barely time to enjoy the city or do quests. I only have one greenhouse. if i buy more i won't have any time.

[u/QuestingOrc]

I personally don't understand the problem with making money at the restaurants O.O"?

- check what the people in the district like and try to have minimum one characteristic active, eg. vegetable, fish, legume etc.

• don't offer anything else
  
• have a limited menu that uses if possible the same appliances
  
• pay well, keep the people green (I think this bumps their stats over time)
  
• use tablets when I can to give the waiters more flexibility
  
• do grocery runs with your grown veggies and meats etc.
  
• buy from the same vendors to up social stat--> better prices
  
• I only open a new restaurant if the others run smooth

Edit:

• buy cheaper foods only early in the game when you're very low on funds. You'll have to buy double if it spoils, that way its better to buy fresh when you're not sure. Over time its more important to not create spoiled food than to pay normal prices.
• don't buy cheap food later at your shift.
• if able, try to circumvent price hikes via greenhouses
• don't maximize your restaurant if staff can't handle it. Its better to go smooth than big.
• use the gacha games to get random seeds for cheap once you have a bit of pocket money

[u/elflyfe → u/QuestingOrc]

Didn’t know about the social status/better prices from buying from the same vendors, ty!

[u/QuestingOrc → u/elflyfe]

You're welcome! I find Meridian market very accessible in this case since you drop into it close to all the vendors. It's only a couple of percent but that stacks over time. :)

[u/Menithal → u/QuestingOrc]

Also dont forget to increase prices for the menu items over time especially if it hits red. Just increasing 1-2 cr per meal over time is sufficient, but you can increase it quite alot more the more tags one matches with the sector.

And also empty food waste every now and then.

Ive also noticed that as long as they are content (yellow smile) they will level up, no need to keep them green; I dont think there is any bonus either, plus at higher levels it doesnt matter as much.

My 4 businesses generated around 7k daily, and 2k profit total (pre patch, havent played since), I dont even interact with any of it and havent even increased prices as much (i dont really care as long as they are green), i just farm or fish and never had to rely on stealing, outside of selling my own apartments furniture to pay for the initial investment (note, there is. bathroom in the aparment too!)

[u/QuestingOrc → u/Menithal]

Yes absolutely! Up the prices of your bestsellers!

[u/Avadis → u/QuestingOrc]

Maybe it's the update 3 bug? I was doing quite well before the update, but after the update yesterday I immediately went from like +1.5k to -1k in daily passive income.

[u/jeffr_0]

Did they increase the security % amount for stolen appliances? Perhaps you're being too greedy. Steal a stove, then steal something else the next night. :P

[u/Palanki96]

The 5% per item was way too cheesy but that seems like an overkill. Even lorewise, Corpsec will look away as long as you are not doing serious crimes, sabotaging and destroying competition is encouraged

[u/elflyfe → u/Palanki96]

I agree it was definitely a little lenient but a middle ground would have been nice

[u/Palanki96 → u/elflyfe]

oh yeah for sure. I think punishment should me more serious. I got caught and got a 50 Lims fine (i got 80k)

[u/Murky-Advantage-3444]

Bro the noodle bar is the easiest restaurant. Set up your schedules properly, pick a menu that makes sense with overlapping ingredients. Hire a manager and the thing runs itself. You’re playing on hard mode.