(UPDATE 19-JUL-2016) Choose Your Resort Buffet Foods

Updates

19-JUL-2016: Sims who have paid to use a buffet table at a resort can now use the tables and and chairs on the lot to eat without checking in. (EDIT: If you also use the Eat Outside Restaurants mod make sure to get the latest version as previous versions will block this feature) The interactions to add/remove an ingredient from a dish have been renamed for better clarity.

28-MAR-2016: Update for players that use resort buffet tables on lots with the Seasonal Lot Marker

• Sims will no longer be able to grab food from tables that aren't on the lot during the current season.
• The mod should now stop resort buffet table foods from disappearing or shifting when the seasons change. (For existing resort buffet tables you have to manually reselect the foods on these tables or replace the table itself for this to take effect. You only need to do this on lots with the Seasonal Lot Marker that have resort buffet tables in seasons other than "Common")

Mod Description

So you're running a tropical island themed resort, set up perfect buffet spreads to cover your guests breakfast, lunch and dinner needs... and one of your phantom guests that you never see around decides to troll you with a negative review saying they didn't like their stay because your perfect little island paradise doesn't serve DimSum. Err.. excuse me??

Okay so I've never actually encountered this scenario (never actually run a resort), but basically I wanted the freedom to choose what goes on those resort buffet tables, so I threw together this mod that allows you to do just that - choose specifically what dishes to serve on resort buffet tables without being restricted by the default food categories

How To Use

Put the mod in your packages folder as usual. The mod replaces the default Set Food Type interaction with a custom version that lets you change the individual servings with recipes of your choice. The interaction can be found as usual by CTRL-Shift-Clicking on a Resort Buffet Table in Build/Buy mode OR clicking the table normally in live mode if your active sim owns the lot.



1. Click on Set Food Types...
2. Select the Current Food Type (If no food is currently being served, choose any one type and let the game serve the randomly chosen default foods from the category first)
3. The names of the 4 currently served foods will appear. Choose the one you want to change.
4. A menu with all the available foods to choose from should appear. this includes all of the games default recipes that have group servings enabled (so no Ambrosia or food stall foods unfortunately). There are separate tabs for Sushi and Pancakes and Cobbler where you can choose what type of fish Sushi or fruit Cobbler etc you want. Find and choose the recipe you want and it will replace the current dish.



5. You also get the option to name name the dish of food something fancy to go with your resort if you wish.
6. Voila! Rinse and repeat for the other plates that you want to change.

With the mod you can now change the Food Type of the table to anything else at any time without changing the foods currently on the table. Your phantom guests will still treat the table as serving foods from the Food Type specified regardless of what you actually chose to serve, so you can have a whole table of desserts and have the Food Type as Sushi or DimSum and the trolls reviewers will still believe the Food Type you set. If you're feeling lazy, just choose None to clear the table and then choose the Food Type you want to let the game serve the default foods from the category for you.

The mod also replaces the Set Food Quality... and the Refresh Food interaction used by the resort maintenance staff with versions that will preserve the table's current food choices, since the default interactions will rechoose default recipes from the current food types and replace the ones on the table with them. It also fixes the silly glitch where food that should be served in bowls are served in silver platters instead when the buffet table's quality is set to High (ironically resulting in phantom bowls for your phantom guests):

Left: Default buffet table at High quality without the mod. Right: With mod, after reselecting Fruit Parfait.

Other Features

• In Live mode, if your sim own the lot OR you've typed testingcheatsenabled true in the cheats console (CTRL+Shift+C), you have these extra options when clicking on the individual plates of food on the table:

• Ingredients...
  Lets you 'add' certain ingredients to the dish (the ingredients aren't actually added, only their effects on the food are activated/deactivated with the options).
  You have the choice of:
  
  • Flame Fruit: Adding will activate the Baked Angel Food Cake flame effects on the food (purely visual)
  • Plasma Fruit (requires Late night or Supernatural): Makes the food vampire friendly (replenishes Thirst) but non-vampires will become nauseous from it.
  • Herb (requires University Life): Choose any herb to add to the dish.
  • Kelp: Makes the dish "mermaid friendly" i.e. replenishes the regular amount of mermaid hunger instead of the default reduced amount ONLY if you use the Increased Mermaid Hunger from Kelp/Fish Meals mod
  • Honey (requires Supernatural): Gives the sim eating the dish the "Life Is Sweet" moodlet so long as the quality of the meal is at least Neutral
  
  If an ingredient has already been "added" with this option to the food, the added effect from the ingredient will remain on the food even after being refreshed by the staff. You can "remove" the ingredient (or rather its effect) by clicking the option again.
• The option to change the served recipe can also be accessed on the individual plates as well (select the option with the name of the food).

• Vampires can now dine at resort buffet tables, provided there is at least one vampire friendly dish served.

• Smarter food choosing: Instead of choosing which food to eat purely randomly, sims will now know to avoid "unsuitable" foods (i.e. Vegetarians will not choose non-vegetarian dishes, Vampires will only choose vampire friendly dishes, etc)

• Unlocked the Grab a serving of... interaction on the individual plates on the table so you can direct your sim to eat a specific dish instead of letting them choose randomly (if they're still hungry after they're done though, they'll still randomly choose a new dish to take though unless you stop them)

• (28-MAR-2016 update onwards) If your resort or lot has different resort buffet tables for different seasons using the Seasonal Lot marker, you may notice that after one seasonal cycle that the food that was on a table for a certain season tends to disappear or get ejected off the table when the same season rolls back again.The mod should now stops this from happening as long as the food has been selected using the mod at least once OR the table has been refreshed by resort staff with the mod installed..(You only need to care about this if you have a lot with the Seasonal Lot Marker that has resort buffet tables in seasons other than "Common". Yes, highly situational I know, but the feature is there nonetheless)

Bonus Feature: Pay Buffet

You may have noticed in one of the last screenshots that a price is quoted next to the Dine option on the resort buffet table. Frankly, since I've never actually run a resort there's absolutely nothing for my sims to do in they have to check in to use the amenities (but really why would I check my sims in a resort when they just live down the road??)

So inspired by real life hotel buffets where you don't have to be a guest to dine in (just willing to pay the exorbitant prices), I've unlocked the dining option to sims who are NOT checked in as guests - for a price (which depends on the highest quality of the food served on the resort buffet tables on the lot, and the Star rating of the resort if the lot has one). Once you click on the option your sim is charged and has 90 sim minutes to eat as much as they want from any of the resort buffet tables on the lot (they will be automatically stopped at the end of the 90 minutes) sims who are checked into the resort eat for free as usual (as do sims with the Discount Diner lifetime reward)

Also all these features are still available on ALL community lots, not just resorts. I've included an optional package which lets you buy the Resort Buffet Table on any community lot if you wish to do so.


End Notes

Built and tested on patch 1.67 (Should still work on lower ones down till the Island Paradise one. Should work on patch 1.69 as well)

Requires Island Paradise



Additional Credits:
Thanks to the Jones' for S3PE, and to Inge whose Pay Buffet mod partially inspired this Also of course to to all the script modders out there who've either written a script modding tutorial or answered one of my questions whose contributions made my modding possible.