I have too much free time in lockdown. I found some notes I wrote about a year ago of an idea for using the old joja supermarket to expand the amount of stuff you could do in the game (once you’ve completed the community centre, collections, got a ton of money etc). Reading through them I had so many more ideas to add that the plan turned out to be long and quite detailed (as you can probably tell by the length of this). I know nothing like this is going to happen as we already have an update which deals with old joja mart but I had so much fun planning this out that I thought I would share it - I would love to know what you guys think and if you have any ideas of your own to add to it! The basic premise is that you do-up the joja mart, and then start a business (restaurant, sushi bar, or jewellery shop), with three new areas you can go to from the bus which relate to each business. Doing up the joja mart Originally this was all going to be done with money but I loved having another bundle to do when they updated the game so I changed the plan – I just wish there had been more bundles. 4 bundles to complete – 3 initially, which when completed open up a new bus stop for each of the new areas, and then once the 3 have been done then a last one which allows for the joja mart to go on sale. Each of the bus stop bundles to have some relevant stuff – such as a gold star ancient fruit for restaurant area, legend fish for sushi bar area, pearl for jewellery shop area. I was thinking the last one to have just random rare things you might find, or get from completing secret notes etc. Completing the bundles then allows you to buy the joja mart building from Lewis (which is now just a plain building, all the joja stuff gone), maybe for about 500,000g. You can then just use the building as extra storage if you don’t want to have a business. If you want to have one of the businesses, then you can get Robin to upgrade it with money and resources – her shop would have the three different businesses in the shop as options. A standard layout of each of the three options (e.g. restaurant food tables, rotating sushi belt, jewellery display cases) but able to change colours and add decorations to certain areas where customers aren’t set up to sit/walk etc. There would be an addition shipping bin (or equivalent) at your farm which will send the items you create straight to the business. Maybe totems you can create to take you straight to the business building. New areas from bus Each area would include a little shop, with a new person who works there that you can become friends with, and an outside area with stuff you can fish/forage/mine. I will go into more detail on each business sections as the areas correspond to each business option (but all three areas available to the players whichever business they choose/not choose) Businesses general info 10 point business level, same as we have for farming, foraging, combat etc. – this can be increased but making + selling items, increased customer satisfaction (which can increase through high quality products, cleanliness of the business, variety of products), increasing employee satisfaction etc. Going up a level in business can unlock new cooking/crafting recipes, creating things of higher quality, non-village customers coming (from the bus stop). Also can unlock option to buy an upgrade from Robin for it to be bigger (but have to close for 3 days while she does it) which then increases number of employees you can have (starting off with one and going up with each Robin upgrade), and the number of customers you can have in a day. Maybe at level 3 you can hire a cleaner. Learning new things for the business – new cooking/crafting recipes from going up business level, advice from friends with businesses (Gus, Robin, Clint, Pierre, Willy etc), increasing friendship with new person in relevant area you get to with the bus After end of each day you get your general selling money breakdown (farming, fishing etc), then after that you get your business money breakdown with items you sold and with the employees’ wages deducted. New tab in Collections for creating/selling each available item for your business. Employees Can’t be villagers who have their own business or job, Vincent and Jas (they’re too young), or George and Evelyn (they’re enjoying retirement). I think it is best if the business is only open 4 hours a day to make peoples timetables easier (and maybe the weekends off). Once you’ve employed someone, there is a new 10 heart level under their friendship level for their employee satisfaction. You can increase this by: - talking to them at work where they can tell you how they’re doing, any feedback from customers (e.g. place not clean, not much variety of items), general maintenance issues with the place (e.g. broken plates that need replacing). - Paying them more. Have maybe 3 different options of pay per day (which is then deducted at end of the day from your money supply) and the more you pay them the quicker their employee satisfaction can increase - If you let them have a day off when they ask – if they send a letter to you asking for a day off you can pick yes or no. You then have to cover the shift (another reason why it’s best for the place to only be open 4 hours), if you say yes and don’t cover shift business suffers and any other employees get a decrease in employee satisfaction as they have had to cover between less people. Maybe ask you once a week, no decrease if you say no (as it’s their job) so you do not have to do this unless you want to get their employee satisfaction up (this is my alternative to the twice a week friendship gifts) Decrease caused by not talking to them (similar to not talking to villagers when trying to build friendship), having to work in bad conditions – e.g. dirty place, unhappy customers etc. If you cover a shift you get an in-game game when you enter the business. For the restaurant, I was thinking something like this: - customers are set up in seats across the restaurant. When they’re ready to order the exclamation mark pops up above their head (like when you catch a fish). - When you take their order they give you a list of up to 3 items for you to remember which you then have to go fetch the items from the kitchen window for the person. - You get points for getting the right items, and in the right order, taking orders quickly and bringing food quickly and the more points you get the more tips you get from the customers at the end. - As the time goes on more people order at the same time so (to get the most tips) you have to remember multiple peoples orders in one go. I’m not sure what to do for a game for the sushi bar as they usually just take stuff off the belt, or the jewellery shop The restaurant/shop gets dirty by then end of the day so, until you get a cleaner, you have to go there after it closes and pick up the rubbish and mop up spillages (buy a mop from one of the shops). Cleaners are cheaper than the waiters/waitresses and they only need to work for 1 hour a day but otherwise follow the same rules for employee satisfaction levels. If you leave it dirty then customer and all employee satisfaction goes down. Restaurant This option is mostly for people who like farming the most so there should only be a few fish dishes you can sell. New area from bus – shop has new seeds (maybe about 8 new types), plates (which can be crafted once you have the recipe with clay), cutlery (craftable with recipe from iron), wine glasses (craftable with recipe from quartz), general decoration items for your restaurant (e.g. candles, table cloths, flowers for tables). Surrounding area has maybe 3 new foragables. Not sure what these should be yet but I was thinking some should be herbs. Can start with some of the old recipes before you get more profitable ones as your business level increases (or friendship level etc), and can upgrade some of the dishes with certain items (e.g. adding a herb to eggplant parmesan). Any dish sold at the restaurant sells for more than it would just being put in the usual shipping bin. Wine and coffee for drinks to sell. Cooked dishes can get higher quality but higher ingredients or higher business level (higher quality dishes sell for more). Ideas for recipes: Ravioli – wheat, spinach, goats cheese Marinara sauce – tomato, onion, garlic, basil Sushi bar Mostly for people who like fishing – tried to avoid growing too much so only added one new type of seed (and rice can be bought instead of grown if wanted) New area from bus – shop has soy bean seeds (to make into soy sauce), plates and sake cups (clay), chopsticks (wood), Japanese style decoration for your sushi bar. 1 foragable in the area – wasabi. Area of sea where you can fish which has new fish/seafood. Start with selling sashimi and maki rolls before you gain more recipes. Drink you can sell are sake and green tea. If you have enough supply of soy sauce and wasabi for the sushi bar, then the price of all dishes increase in value (maybe use up 1 soy sauce and 1 wasabi per day on smallest size (not upgraded with Robin) of sushi bar). Ideas for recipes: Sake – rice in keg Sushi types – egg and rice, octopus and rice, etc Jewellery shop This is aimed at people who like mining. I wanted all of them to try and include a little of the other areas as well (farming, fishing and mining) but this is the hardest to get any of the others in. This should would produce less items + have less customers as the items are harder to get but they can sell for a lot more than food can. I’m honestly not so much in to mining so it was harder for me to think of ideas for this one. New area from bus – shop has stuff to help craft jewellery, mirrors for customers to look in (craftable with quartz maybe?), appropriate decorations for the shop. Surrounding area has mine where can get silver, and new gems/minerals. I was thinking there should be a slightly easier way of getting pearls (but still difficult and rare as they are such an expensive item). Start with some of the jewellery you can already craft from the original craft list before you get more crafting recipes as your business level goes up. I was thinking some of the craft recipes should include some on the nicer minerals (e.g. opal, fire opal, star shard, tigerseye, jasper, ocean stone etc.) as they don’t have much use at the moment except the museum. I was thinking people might put in requests for certain items – the ones that require rarer items to craft if they are not in the shop already. Craft recipe ideas Iridium watch - 1 iridium bar, 2 red quartz, 1 battery String of pearls - pearls (I was thinking this would sell for about 20,000g as pearls are rare) Creating this was just for fun while I have so much free time. If you can think of plants to grow, recipes, jewellery craftables, new foragables, or how to include a couple of farming or fishing things in the jewellery shop business, then I would love to know. Also if anyone has ideas for a game for covering your employees shift in the sushi bar or jewellery shop!
