Difference between revisions of "McSweeney Restaurant jobs"

Revision as of 03:09, 11 January 2013

This page is about a source of missions / jobs.

McSweeney Restaurants in Ankh-Morpork and Genua offer jobs in the fast food industry. [1]

Jobs are divided into three types: cleaning, kitchen, and counter.

A help file is available in the restaurant. To join, use the following syntax:

join [staff] in {cleaning|kitchen|counter}         Join the staff of McSweeney's Restaurant for
                                                   one shift.
join [staff]                                       Join the staff of McSweeney's Restaurant for
                                                   one shift.

Upon joining to a job, the player will be taken to the manager's office, where s/he will be presented with a badge and uniform. They must be taken from the desk.

<l badge>
A rectangular clip-on McSweeney's Restaurants staff badge, it is bright red and has the
company logo printed in one corner.  Everyone employed by the chain is expected to wear one of
these badges whenever they're working for them.
It has two empty holes and one golden star on it.
It appears to have something written on it.

<r badge>
Written in chunky blank lettering on a white strip, above the words "Have a nice day!":
Name: [NAME]

<l uniform>
What passes for a uniform in McSweeney's restaurants is basically a sickly brown
jumpsuit with the company logo printed onto it in several obvious places.
One size fits none.
It is in excellent condition.

Both badge and uniform must be worn before the manager will allow the player to begin a job. At the end of a job, all job-related items, except the badge, will be taken from the inventory. The badge can be retained by the player.

Once badge and uniform are worn, the player will be taken to the job area and provided with additional instruction. The player can "shake" their head to have the instructions repeated, else "nod" to begin the shift. Each work shift is 30 Discworld minutes long.

Additionally, if too many players have attempted a given job, it will be unavailable until the next shift starts.

Note that if a player eats any of the prepared McSweeney food while working at a counter or kitchen shift, the manager will immediately stop the mission (with no reward). The manager will then refuse to allow the player to attempt any job for at least one shift.

Reward

The reward includes experience, money, and a star (bronze, silver, gold) for the badge. The amount of experience and type of star is based upon performance, with experience dropping if too many jobs are (re)attempted in too short a time research. The amount of money also appears to be tied to performance, with the maximum able to be earned A$31. If a performance is bad enough, one will not receive anything; and if at the end of the shift the player performs at least two grades less than current star in badge, that star will be downgraded. For instance, if one has a gold star and performs at a bronze-rank, then the star will be downgraded to a silver. Each of the three holes in the badge correspond to a gold star in the three jobs.

• Bronze star experience: X to Y
• Silver star experience: X to Y
• Gold star experience: X to Y

Use of Aliases - General Strategy

Due to the complexity of the McSweeney Restaurant jobs, the use of aliases is encouraged to allow the player to achieve a gold star rating for each job. HOWEVER, as noted in each help file, the use of automated scripts and triggers is not permitted (see the Discworld 'help automation'). That said, players may need to undertake several work shifts at a given job to develop efficient aliases.

Cleaning

Several items, provided by the restaurant, are required for a successful cleaning shift. Before the shift begins, the player is able to take the tools - bucket, mop, broom, and cloth - from the cupboard. The items only need to be in inventory to be used, and there is no need to equip/unequip anything.

Within the section, there are eight tables ('table 1' through 'table 8') to oversee. Customers will sit down at a table, eat, then leave. Once gone, there will be one to four trays to remove, as well as the potential for dirty tables or trash underneath. Tables may need to be wiped more than once to be considered clean. Trash swept out from under the tables has to be picked up and put into the bin, which itself is required to be emptied when it is full (trash bags are kept in the cupboard). Finally, the floor needs to be kept mopped, with up to three mop cycles necessary to achieve an appropriate level of cleanliness.

There are two extra things to note which may not be self-evident to the newbie McSweeney cleaner, neither explained in the help files nor by the manager. First, if there is trash on the floor, mopping will be unsuccessful. Similarly, if there are trays on the table, then wiping will not work.

The McSweeney customers are picky! If they see an overly dirty floor (trash or needs mopping), the only empty table is uncleaned, or a too-full garbage, they will go sit elsewhere. Too many customer rejections presumably lowers the final amount of experience received by the player. Oddly, for all their fussiness, customers will sometimes sit at an empty table even if it has not been fully wiped off.

McSweeney Restaurant - Discworld player help - Cleaning Tables

Name
Section of Tables

Description
     Your job is to keep the section clean and tidy, the cupboard contains everything you'll      
     need.  There are a number of tables in your section, and most will be occupied when you
     start your shift.  When a group has finished their meal they will get up and leave the
     section, you must work out which table they've vacated and then clean the table ready
     for new customers. 

     The number of customers that choose to sit down and eat in your section will help to         
     determine how well Mr O.L. Harribal judges your performance.  He will also take into
     consideration any complaints about your conduct and the number of customers that decide
     they'd rather sit elsewhere.

Syntax

Strategy
     As with any job, there are always certain strategies that will be more effective than others.
     There are also shortcuts that can be taken to help speed up tasks, these can be identifed by
     experienced workers.  On Discworld MUD there is the opportunity to make use of aliases to
     combine multiple commands into one and shorten the length of commands.  McSweeneys would
     encourage you to make use of such aliases to enhance your productivity.  Without using such
     measures you will find it much harder to achieve gold-star rating.  Having said that, the use
     of aliases should not lead to any job being trivialised, if you find any aliases that have
     this affect, please file a bug report.
     
     Note that automated scripts and triggers are not permitted on Discworld MUD in any context,
     see help automation.
  

Kitchen

<insert something here>

<multiple appliances; 4 vats (no need to use vat 1 - 4 as 'vat' alone will get items from appropriate vat; vats can hold multiple servings; fetching items from pantry has a delay; and cooking also has a delay (while things cook), so that makes building aliases tricky; orders come quickly; grill can only hold two items at a time; fryer can only hold three items at a time; vat items not require additional prep (except if to fry rice/noodles) and boxes can immediately be put into chute; prawn does not require more prep, and sleeves can immediately be put into chute>

Prior to beginning a kitchen work shift, the manager will provide additional instructions via chats:

Mr. O.L. Harribal says: The vats are fairly simple, they boil up multiple servings of the
     ingredients placed in them.  So when you put in rice, noodles, chopsuey, or crunchy bits in
     orange sauce, remember that you'll be able to get more than one meal's worth before you have
     to fetch more.
Mr. O.L. Harribal says: Any boiled rice and boiled noodles you cook in the vats can be used as an
     ingredient for making fried rice and fried noodles on the griddle.  The griddle is also used
     to cook chowmein.
Mr. O.L. Harribal says: Our duck, porker and prawn balls all get put into the deep fat fryer.
Mr. O.L. Harribal says: All other meals are cooked on the flame grill.  That would be our
     BigDibbler burger patties, our rats, our ribs, and our klatchian kebabs.
Mr. O.L. Harribal says: Don't let any food burn, I really don't like waste!  Look at the
     appliances to keep on eye on how the food is cooking.
Mr. O.L. Harribal says: Many of our foods require special preparation after being cooked.  There's
     a preparation surface right by the chutes you can use, don't leave packaged food lying around
     on there, get it onto the chutes fast.
Mr. O.L. Harribal says: It is vital that you waste as little food as possible.  Any food dropped
     on the floor cannot be used as an ingredient.  Nor can it be sent for service, same as for
     burned meals.  Bin any waste you do create.

Note on cooking fried rice/noodles: once have a box of rice/noodles, just 'put <ingredient> on griddle'. The box will be automatically opened up, emptied, and thrown away. DO NOT try to open the box or get rice from the box - such an action counts as eating the dish, and the player will be kicked out of the kitchen.

McSweeney Restaurant - Discworld player help - Kitchen

Name
A Busy Kitchen

Description
     Your job is to cook the meals for every order while keeping waste to a minimum.  Orders      
     will be clipped to the line periodically when taken from customers.  Customers have
     limited patience and will abandon their orders if you take too long.  Each order will
     contain a number of meals and also some drinks, the drinks are not your responsibility,
     only the food items.
     
     Every meal has a single ingredient and is cooked in or on one of the four appliances, a
     deep fat fryer, hot griddle, flame grill or in a water vat.  Most ingredients can be
     fetched from the pantry.  There are two special cases however, fried noodles and rice,
     for which the ingredients are obtained by cooking boiled noodles or rice first.
     
     All the appliances are operated with the get and put commands.  Some meals may require
     further preparation once cooked, others can be packaged up straight away, ready for
     passing to the customer services staff.
     
     The manager is very keen on both food hygiene and on keeping wastage in the kitchen low,
     he will take these factors into consideration along with how well you served food up for
     the customer orders when judging your performance. 

Syntax

Strategy
     As with any job, there are always certain strategies that will be more effective than others.
     There are also shortcuts that can be taken to help speed up tasks, these can be identifed by
     experienced workers.  On Discworld MUD there is the opportunity to make use of aliases to
     combine multiple commands into one and shorten the length of commands.  McSweeneys would
     encourage you to make use of such aliases to enhance your productivity.  Without using such
     measures you will find it much harder to achieve gold-star rating.  Having said that, the use
     of aliases should not lead to any job being trivialised, if you find any aliases that have
     this affect, please file a bug report.
     
     Note that automated scripts and triggers are not permitted on Discworld MUD in any context,
     see help automation.
  

Counter

As member of the counter staff you take orders, check the prices of the items ordered, add them up via the till, charge the customer, refund money, prepare drinks and serve drinks and food stuffs from the kitchen.

To make it more challenging, the manager will change prices of the menu items prior to beginning of every shift which can make it difficult to preload aliases with prices. Making refunds is a pain, too. Watch out for the menu deals because customers will complain if you accidentally ring up items separately when they could come as a meal deal.

Charging the customer will tell him automatically the sum of all items you have added via the till previously. If the sum is higher than expected (for example because of a meal deal with noodles that has been overlooked) the customer will complain, this gives you an option to reset the till and start over. If the sum is lower than expected (for example because of a typo) the customer smiles briefly, but pays the amount without further discussions. In this case it is not possible to reset the till.

You will get a similar reaction for refunds: If you refund too little the customer will even tell you how much you owe him, whereas if you refund too much he will quietly pocket the additional change.

McSweeney Restaurant - Discworld player help - Counter

Name
Customer Service Counter

Description
     Your job is to take orders from and serve meals to a queue of customers.  You can have       
     as many orders open at once as you like, but customers will not hang around forever so
     you should manage your time accordingly.  The job breaks down into a few basic tasks:
     Start taking an order, add the cost of the order to the till (subtract costs if
     required), charge the customer and refund them their change, make the drinks for orders
     using the imp-powered drinks machine and serve the order, first getting the drinks from
     the machine and the dishes from the chute. 

     The number of orders you take and serve, along with the number of mistakes you make and      
     food you waste will determine how Mr O.L Harribal judges your performance. 

Simple example
     Note that some of the output below has been shortened or omitted for clarity.
     > take order
     The man says: A McSlice Porker and a McCola please.
     > list porker
     McSlice Porker ............................... $2.98
     > add 2.98
     > list cola
     McCola ....................................... $2.77
     > add 2.77
     > charge customer
     You say: The total comes to five dollars and seventy-five pence.
     The man hands you six dollars which you place in the register.
     > refund 25
     You clip order #48 onto the line.
     > check 48
     1x McSlice Porker
     1x McCola
     > press cola button
     An imp drops an empty cup onto the recessed well under the McCola spigot.
     
     ( Time passes, the McSlice Porker and the McCola are now prepared )
     
     > get porker from chute
     > get cola from machine
     > serve 48
     You get a new tray and place a McSlice Porker and a McCola on it.
     You hand the tray to the man.

Syntax

Strategy
     As with any job, there are always certain strategies that will be more effective than others.
     There are also shortcuts that can be taken to help speed up tasks, these can be identifed by
     experienced workers.  On Discworld MUD there is the opportunity to make use of aliases to
     combine multiple commands into one and shorten the length of commands.  McSweeneys would
     encourage you to make use of such aliases to enhance your productivity.  Without using such
     measures you will find it much harder to achieve gold-star rating.  Having said that, the use
     of aliases should not lead to any job being trivialised, if you find any aliases that have
     this affect, please file a bug report.
     
     Note that automated scripts and triggers are not permitted on Discworld MUD in any context,
     see help automation.