• Hardware Specifications & Operating System:
Windows 11 Home 64-bit (10.0.26200)
CPU: Intel Core i5-10400F @ 2.90 GHz
RAM: 32 GB
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060
NVIDIA Driver: 616.56 (August 26, 2026)
DirectX 12
Restaurant customers sometimes fail to order or eat their food
I have noticed a problem with customer AI in my restaurant, especially when there are no employees and I have to manage the restaurant myself.
The problem seems to be related to how customers behave after they are seated.
A customer is seated at a table and receives the menu. The waiter then leaves to do another task. Instead of remaining seated and waiting for the waiter, the customer gets up and starts walking around the restaurant. Customers can walk around the whole restaurant, even outside around the building, look at things and talk to each other. This part of their behaviour is actually nice and makes the restaurant feel more alive.
The problem is that they sometimes do this when they are supposed to be ordering or eating.
For example:
- The customer sits down and receives the menu.
- The waiter leaves to do another task.
- The customer gets up and starts walking around.
- After some time, the customer sits down again and the icon appears that they want to order.
- The waiter goes to the table to take the order.
- Before the waiter reaches the customer, the customer gets up again.
- The “take order” interaction disappears.
- The waiter continues with another task.
- The customer sits down again and wants to order again.
- The same thing happens again.
I have seen this happen around eight times with the same customer, making it extremely difficult to complete the order.
When I manually control the waiter, I can eventually get the order taken, but it requires a lot of micromanagement. I have to pause the game, watch for the customer to sit down and request an order, keep the waiter close to the table, cancel whatever task his AI has chosen, and repeatedly send him back to the customer.
This becomes even more difficult when two characters are working in the restaurant. I cannot manually control both characters at the same time. For example, Salma may eventually abandon the waiting customer and start doing another task such as cleaning.
There is another related problem: sometimes the customer’s food is already on the table, while the customer has a red hunger icon above them, but they still do not sit down and eat. They continue walking around the restaurant instead.
This can cause customers to leave without paying or with their food still sitting on the table. In one recent day, I observed at least four customers who did not complete their visits in this way. They had arrived approximately 2–3 hours before closing, so this was not simply because they arrived too late.
I think the simplest solution would be to give customers a clearer priority system for their restaurant visit:
Sit down → order → wait for food → eat → pay → leave.
Customers could still walk around the restaurant, look at things and talk to each other, but these activities should have a lower priority.
For example:
- After being seated and receiving the menu, the customer should remain at the table until the order is taken.
- After ordering, the customer should remain at the table while waiting for the food.
- Once the food arrives, the customer should sit down and eat instead of continuing to walk around.
- After finishing the meal and paying, the customer could freely walk around again before leaving.
This would also make the behaviour feel much more natural. In a real restaurant, if I sit down and receive a menu, I normally remain at the table until the waiter comes to take my order. I don’t walk around the restaurant for an hour and then sit down for ten seconds, only to get up again before the waiter reaches me.
The customers’ ability to explore the restaurant and interact with each other is a nice feature. I don’t think that behaviour should be removed — it just needs to happen at the appropriate point during their visit.
Food is already on the table / waiting, but the customer keeps walking around instead of eating.
