Cafe World Tips - 10: Low Buzz Rating & Slow Game

Let's explore the various reasons that you might possibly have a low buzz rating. As I peruse the message boards on Cafe World, this is one of the biggest issues that people seem to have when complaining about that game, yet, if you have everything set up correctly in your cafe, buzz rating won't be an issue and you WILL have a 105 rating all or mostly all of the time regardless.

First off, let me share something with you that I found simply by clicking on the buzz rating in my Cafe itself. It simply says that if you have a low buzz rating, try redecorating your cafe.

I found that interesting because this is coming from Zynga, not some player who is trying to sell you his guide to playing the game. Much of what I have read from players is that the deco in your cafe has nothing to do with buzz rating, yet here is Zynga themselves saying, apparently, that it DOES affect it.

Look, if a person comes into your cafe and has to wait too long - which isn't very long btw, they leave, your buzz rating goes down. If they sit down at the table and have to wait too long to get their food, they leave - buzz rating goes down. The objective is to minimize wait time and maximize the use of your waiters and waitresses.

To do this, the layout of your cafe is EVER so important. Many layouts incorporate the use of a giant square or U-shaped of tables all next to each other with the counters in the middle. This works well and is the way I have my Cafe set up. You must make sure that your servers are able to access all of the tables they are trying to serve, if they cannot, whichever tables are inaccessible are going to have customers lowering your buzz rating because, of course, they are not being served.

Try tweaking things in your cafe. If you have more than one door, get rid of them and only use 1. Some players swear that putting 2 doors side by side improve buzz rating. I didn't notice in my cafe that that accomplished anything. I have doors at opposite corners of my cafe. Try rearranging your tables. Google Cafe World Layouts and see some setups - or just get a bunch of neighbors and go to all of their cafes and see how they have theirs set up. Make sure you keep your serving counters as close to the tables as possible.

And again, try redecorating your cafe, if Zynga says that's a solution, then by golly it must have some merit to it.

Onto slow speed. Cafe World is a beta application. The more things you have in your Cafe that the beta has to "remember" and keep running, the more resources it's going to us in your computer. I currently have 12 counters and 18 ovens. When I added 4 counters and 2 ovens a few days ago, I noticed the speed slowed even more - starting up the game and getting it running. That's the simple point. If your computer doesn't have enough memory to be able to keep up with too much, take some of the counters and stoves OUT and see if that doesn't help. It's less for the beta app to have to deal with.

Tweak your computer. I'm referring to Windows XP - but the same should be true of any Windows application. Go into control panel, find System. Click on Advanced, then click on Performance settings. Under Visual Effects, click on the field that says "Adjust For Best Performance". Note that you will have to restart your computer for it to apply the new settings. Don't worry, your computer isn't going to crash because you are changing this particular thing.

Now, click on Advanced on the same window - a tab at the stop. It will take you to a screen that has on it, with other things: Virtual Memory. You want to make sure you have that set at the highest possible setting your computer will allow. My max is 2046 MB. I simply put in a large number, the computer faulted and told me to put in a value no greater than 2046 and that's where I applied it. Yours might be different. This will greatly affect the quality of your game.

You may also want to change the resolution. A little less clarity might not be such a bad tradeoff for a faster playing game.

To do this, go back into your control panel, find the Display icon and click on that. Click on the Settings tab. It will take you to a screen for resolution. Try setting it to less resolution and lower color quality. Go back to your Cafe game and see if it helps any. It did for me, but that's just me. If it doesn't do anything, you can always set it back to the higher resolution and color quality you had it at before.

The other standard tips I have already covered in another entry, but I'll go over it again here. Always clear your cache/history before starting the game. Shut off any other programs you are running when you are going to start up Cafe World. Downloading programs; having software running - anything is going to negatively effect the speed of the game, trust me, it will. Also, do a defrag on your computer frequently. It takes time but you can still use the computer while it's doing the defrag. Compress old files that are taking up space and not being used for anything. All of this can be done through the control panel.

If you try everything concerning your buzz rating and you still can't fix it, please leave a comment on here - we can become Cafe World Neighbors and I can take a look at what's going on in your cafe, how you have it set up and perhaps some tips to help you get it running smoothly.

Happy Cooking!