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Tipps & Tricks for success!

By eXeZ|Gamer433

In this guide, I will tell you the little tipps and tricks of this game, to make more profit and for more understandings of the game mechanics.

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Created by

eXeZ|Gamer433
In-Game
Center Station Simulator

Category: Gameplay Basics, Loot, Maps or Levels, Secrets, Story or Lore, Trading, Walkthroughs

Languages: German

Posted

Updated

19 Dec, 2024 @ 12:45pm

12 Apr @ 10:55am

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Guide Index

Overview

EXP (or XP)

Customer Reviews, Decorations and Speakers

Money, Money, Money!

Customers (Quantity and Behaviours)

Employees

Online Orders

General Tipps

Comments

EXP (or XP)

One of the most asked questions, is to make more EXP for faster progress.
This affects your EXP:

Amount of EXP

Description

+10-25

For customer reviews. (Depends on review scores of the customers) *

+15

For a completed online order. **

+5-10

For a paying customer at the checkout.***

For every cleaned dirty spot (you or your janitor).

+XX¹

For hitting a thief with a mop or bat. (¹ Amount of EXP can vary) ****

+XX²

For subscribing a contract (² Amount of EXP increases with contract levels)

-1

If customer dont found a free slot in checkout queue (each checkout can have 4 waiting customers).

-1

If the price of the wanted item is too high.

-1

If the wanted item is not available.

-1

If the shop is too dirty.

For more informaions, check the section "Customer Reviews, Decorations and Speakers" further below.

The amount on online orders depending on your shop level (with level 22 you get the third online order at 5 pm, e. g.) and the amount on co-op players. The more players, the more online orders.

***

This depends on your shop level. With shop level 1-5 you get 5 EXP per customer. 6-10 = 10 EXP, 11-15 = 7 EXP, 16-20 = 8 EXP, 21-25 = 9 EXP and level 26 (and above) brings 10 EXP per customer.

****

You and your guard can attack a thief at same time and getting the EXP. This also works in muliplayer for each player. (You + guard + 3 other players = 5 x EXP for hitting ONE thief). The amount of EXP for hitting a thief, depends on your shop level and the bat you are using for that. The mop brings no bonus, but the lowest bat brings +1 EXP and the highest bat +6 EXP. This means, that every new class of bat brings addditional +1 EXP.

Special info about EXP:

If you terminate a contract (and paying a lot of money), you can subcribe this contract again and getting again the EXP. If you dont know where to bury your Millions, but you need badly a lot of EXP, this is your trick.

Important note:

To get the cleaning EXP and thief beating EXP, you must activate these features in the options menu beforehand!!

Customer Reviews, Decorations and Speakers

With Patch 0.1.018 a customer review system was implemented. This update give decorations and speakers a totally new sense.
When a customer paid at a checkout (or self-checkout), he/she will leave a feedback for you and your store, a review. Here you can read all about the review feature:

At the end of the day, all customer reviews will be evaluated. The average of all reviews will give the final score of the day.
On the daily report screen, you can see your score and the amount of EXP you got for this day.
When you got at least a score of 4.00 (4 stars), you will earn +10 EXP. The best score is 5.00 (5 stars) what means +25 EXP. Everything else between this both (minimum and maximum) is possible.
Every day the score is reset and you will get a new final score of the day, when the day ends.

Do this to avoid DECREASING the customer reviews:

Avoid long checkout queues
Keep the store clean
Set product prices by considering the recommended prices
Let your customers find all products in the store racks
Place some decorations to provide a beautiful atmosphere
Place some speakers and let your customers listen to some relaxing music in your store

Further informations of decorations and speakers:

Customers like to see different decorations. Place them, where they walk along. Best place are the cash registers (or self-checkouts) and/or at the entrance.
Speakers are also important! (But you dont have to play music there, if you dont like it. The effect on customers is the same.)
Dont block the customer paths. Especially, when they cant reach the shelves!
Dont forget: You can place decorations above wall racks to save space.
All decorations have the same "power". So, decorations of higher level are not "better" than cheaper decorations.
Wallpapers and floor designs dont have impact on customer reviews.
Color changings of employee uniforms and customer bags dont affect the reviews either.
Shop level and shop size dont affect it too.

Money, Money, Money!

What is those kind of game without making money?
Here are some tipps on how to do this more efficiently:

Dont buy storage shelves, floor and wall paintings, bag and employee colors in the beginning or too early!
Wall racks costs more money than other shelves you have to place on floor, both have same effect on customers.
Dont buy the smaller storage shelves, they larger ones are better (price -> space relation).
Always set your prices to the recommended prices. You COULD take more, but its not recommended (because, the more profit is too low and you will risk of losing EXP).
Subscribe every contract as early as possible, but only, when you have money for a shelf or enough space in shelves, to offer your new products.
Avoid running out of an item! You waste money AND EXP.
Complete each online order. Dont care about how much money this brings. It IS extra money and you dont want to miss the EXP.
Expand your shop and your storage ONLY, when you need the space! A larger store and larger storage space mean higher rental costs, but neither brings in more customers.
Automated checkouts are very expensive, but dont have daily costs (like a cashier). But only buy it if you really have the money to spare!
Trained employees wanting more salary! But in the very most cases, you need this extra boost.
You COULD save money by working the checkout and stocking the shelves yourself, but that can be very stressful. Btw: A restocker or cashier in pause still costs salary.
Think one or two steps in the future. Do you need the money you want to spent next day for subscribing a contract and buying the new unlocked items?

Customers (Quantity and Behaviours)

Your customers means everything for your shop, for sure.
With these tipps, you will understand their behaviours:

The higher your shop level, the more customers will come per day.
The higher your shop level, the more items a customer can buy at once.
Cheaper products attract more customers. So don't ban cheap products from your shop!
A customer will prefer a checkout with fewer customers.
When the clock reached 10pm, no customer can enter your shop anymore, but all customers in your shop can still buy items. So, dont close your shop when you have customers in there! Customers kicked out in this way keep the products they took while shopping without paying for them!
A customer will complain, when he/she dont find a free slot at the checkout or when the prices are too high. Also dirty floor and when they dont find their products, will all reduce the expected EXP (and review score) from this customer.
If a customer is waiting too long in a checkout queue, his review score will decrease.
Decorations and speakers (for music) will increase customer satisfying and their score.

Employees

At some point, you will need help keeping your busy business under control.
Here are some informations about your employees:

Cashier:

A cashier will work at the checkout and will take a free checkout automatically. If a checkout is closed, no cashier can work there.
A cashier (also a self-checkout) can have 4 customers in the queue, more customers who wants to go to full checkout will complain.
If no checkout is avaiable, your cashier(s) will stand outside (in front of the shop) and waiting for a free/opened checkout.
The cashier training only brings 20% speed, but before you can hire a second cashier, its better than nothing.

Restockers:

A restocker will fill up your shop shelves and racks. He is not very fast, but even you could do this job by yourself way better, you will want them very early!
In order for the restocker to work, he needs storage shelves with placed item boxes and these items must also be in your shop shelves/racks. When the shop shelf is not full, the restocker will take the box from the storage shelf and fill up the shop shelf until its fill or the box is empty.
You can choose (in the employees menu) how the restockers should work. Consider this before hiring a restocker, to avoid chaos.
Ordered boxes, laying on the ground of the delivery area, will be picked up by your restockers, if there is enough space in the storage shelves.
You can also lay boxes on the ground of your shop, if you need a free hand. The restocker will pick is up also.
Note: When you purchase items for your online orders, the restockers don't know about it and could pick up those boxes in the delivery area!
If you want to rebuilt your shop, the restockers can be very annoying. Send them to break in the employee menu (upper button). They stay there until you click this button again. They still cost salary, when you end the day and they are still on pause.
When the restockers stand still behind the delivery area, means, that there is no item to fill up anymore. A good sign for checking if all items are in stock.
The restocker trainings are only 10% movement and 25% faster restocking, but you want this upgrades as soon as possible, I bet!

Security Guards

This little fellow fight against thieves for you.
If he hits a thief, you also get the EXP.
You, your security guard and every other player (in multiplayer) can hit the thieves. Everyone is creating full EXP!
Sometimes two thieves are robbing you at same time. Keep an eye on it, because, the security guard may not handle both!
There is no point in hiring a security guard if you have thieves disabled in the options menu.

Janitor

She will clean the dirt on the ground, caused by customers.
You will get 1 EXP for each cleaned spot. It doesnt matter if you or your janitor is doing this. Same EXP.
When a customer is stepping on dirt, he/she can complain what costs 1 EXP. If you see that there is more to do than your janitor can handle, help her to dont lose much EXP.
There is no point in hiring a janitor if you have dirt disabled in the options menu.

Online Orders

A great additional income (of money AND EXP) is online orders.
All you need to know about it:

The higher your shop level, the more online orders you will get.
The higher your shop level, the more items may get ordered at once.
By completing an online order you will not only receive money, but also 15 EXP.
To do this, you have to accept the online order and carry the boxes with the wanted items to the post office and put the items in the box on the counter (like you would fill up a shop shelf).
You will get only the money and the exp, when you brought ALL asked items. If you end the day, any brought items will be lost, if you dont completed the online order!
Online orders have fixed times. For example: 10 am, 2 pm and 5 pm.
You can wait until the end of the day to complete your online orders, but note: you will no longer be able to order items after 10 pm. And any online order you haven't fulfilled will be lost when you end the day.
Ending a day will remove all active online orders.
Dont miss the pin function to make your online order visible in your HUD for better plannings.

General Tipps

Here are some general tipps & tricks to know:

To maximize your customers quantity, you should save your game in the morning, after you filled up your shelves and then load your game. Go to your "open"-sign and click it, when a customer is very close to enter. This time saved can be useful so that the last customers manage to enter the store at the end of the day. This can bring 1-3 customers more per day.
My testing of serving customers as quickly as possible did not result in more customers. It seems, that the amount of customers per day are fixed (by shop level). I'm not 100% sure about that. Further tests will show.
You should always have an additional (closed) checkout. So you can open it quickly, when you want to help your cashiers to avoid EXP loss of complaining customers.
NEVER end a day, when there are still customers in your shop! They will bring money, but when you end the day, all items they took meanwhile are lost.
You should have at least 16 (better 20) items of every kind in your shop to dont go empty during the day.
in most cases, its enough to have one box of each item in your storage. Only item boxes with very little content are needed to storage more.
The best way to check if you have everything in storage, is to click on your computer on "inventory" and then on "in storage". Every item with a zero (0) at the end is empty. You can add them easily to the cart.
Check your prices daily and always use the recommendes prices. You can easily click on the computer on "set prices" and then in upper drop-down menu "products with price changes" and then click on every item the recommended price. Quick and easy.
If you accidentally throw something in the green trash bin, don't worry, you can take it back. But be careful! If you throw another box (if empty or not) after that in the bin, the previous trashed box can be lost!
You dont need a free box to take items from a shelf. Just have a free hand and click right mouse button on the items in the shelf.
You can add items not only to fill up your shelf, but on other boxes on the ground or the storage shelf.
Wall and floor designs, color of customers bag or color of employees clothes have no effect on customers behavior, their quantity or their review score.
Different shelves and wall racks dont affect customers (different furniture dont have more/less attraction for items).
Bigger shop (or storage) DONT affect customers quanitity. Only your shop level and quantity of different items do (so, dont ban cheap products from your shop!).
When you sell a piece of furniture (or a mop), you get 100% of the original cost back. Ideal for testing without having to worry about wasting money.
To sell a furniture, you have to take it (look at it and holding left mouse button) and pack it in a box.
Attention! When you sell a furniture with items in it, they are lost. You will NOT get money for them.
You can disable dirt and thieves in the options menu. But note: Hitting thieves (with a mop or by security guards) and cleaning dirt (by you or your janitor) earns EXP!
Dont forget to buy alarm systems and also dont forget, that when you open warehouse 2, the alarm system of warehouse 1 dont protect 2 (and vice versa). Additionally: The third alarm upgrade protects the boxes on the ground in your delivery are. Both alarms of warehouse 1 and 2 DONT alarm, when thieves taking boxes from the ground of the delivery area!
You can buy a tablet at the computer ($5000). If you did this, you can sell the computer to get free space.
Taking loans dont cost any taxes or interest charges. You pay back exactly what you took. Feel free to use them.
If you created a singleplayer game, but you want to play it in multiplayer, you can change that, when you (save and) load your game.

12 Comments

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eXeZ|Gamer433 [author] 26 Jun @ 5:56pm

@Schploopus
You are welcome.

Schploopus 26 Jun @ 2:50pm

Thanks for the guide! It's very helpful.

Your Majesty Padded Gamer 16 Mar @ 3:01pm

It's based on a percentage similar to other games, most likely made with similar coding. But not identical. When you don't have any decor, 23 is usually the best number because they will dip below their target happiness to give you a perfect score and ignore the slight price gouging. Think of it as a BS meter.

When you get decor later on, nobody will complain, in fact I believe I might be able to raise the prices to 30 cents above market. I'll have to test it for sure. And in the beginning, only one to two people will complain. I get 5.0s every day.

And I have tested it extensively. I need to do more but it seems to work fine on expensive items.

It's worth the time to go through every single price. After that, only five products a day roughly speaking will change, so this really only takes up maybe a minute or two of your time depending on if you use a calculator, or do it all mentally. I'm sure speed runners could use this trick.

eXeZ|Gamer433 [author] 16 Mar @ 2:42pm

By the way: With my play style, I have to do NOTHING (except online orders) per day and everything went smooth. Not a single complaiment of a customer (like "dont found item").

eXeZ|Gamer433 [author] 16 Mar @ 2:41pm

"that explains how these games work down to the programming"
No game is like the other. Each programmer decides for himself, how the game mechanics are. I am also a programmer (Unity), by the way.
I read in a forum post your $0.25 strategy, but you wasnt sure if $0.23 is the better way.
I'm asking two things here: 1. Does this count for every item? More expensive items are getting the same addition than low price ones? 2. I don't know if I'd really want to change all my prices.

Your Majesty Padded Gamer 16 Mar @ 2:33pm

25 cents above the market price recommendation* sorry my english isn't the best either and I'm american, lmao.

Your Majesty Padded Gamer 16 Mar @ 2:30pm

Another key difference in our play styles is you like to hord too many items. 16-20 is total overkill. I make sure I have ten items a day. This makes it so you can keep expense down.

Not trying to start an argument, just letting you know some tricks you can apply and maybe include in this guide. Heck I might start my own guide on this game once I have enough hours.

And yeah, I just save up capital until I have enough for contracts. It's usually the best pacing throughout the game or at least the one I like.

Your Majesty Padded Gamer 16 Mar @ 2:30pm

My "trick" if you will, is I charge exactly 25 cents to each and every single customer. There's a guide for TCG simulator that explains how these games work down to the programming. But basically you can make 25 cents more per item. This makes it so you are printing out a quarter every single time you make a transaction. And no customers will complain.

This makes it so that I can afford to spend a thousand or two thousand dollars a day and just make 2K every day.

Also, if you have enough customers in a day, you can run out of items on a shelf. When this happens, everyone in the shop will complain and your review score takes a hit. You never ever want to run out.

eXeZ|Gamer433 [author] 16 Mar @ 1:50pm

I don't see any particular advantage in this, to be honest. Because overstocked stuff is dead money and later when you gain a level up, you dont have enough money to subscribe all new contracts.
With my tacttic, I never run out of items and when an online order comes in, its rally no stress to order this few items (if needed!).

You have your play style, I have my. Both are happy with that. Nothing wrong here. ;)

Your Majesty Padded Gamer 16 Mar @ 12:11pm

You more so use the extra slot as an overflow bin when you have three items in one box and need to order more. Keeping extra stuff around makes it easier to simply complete online orders throughout the day without having to order more product throughout the day which is time consuming. If I wait for a box to empty, then I'm not going to have everything I need to make those deliveries.

Furthermore, its a good thing to be overstocked, because then the next day you won't have to buy as much.

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