Big Ambitions Beginner’s Guide

We’ve been playing Big Ambitions since the Early Alphas and we wanted to make this Guide to assist beginners as the game enters Early Access! This list will be edited as more FAQs come in! Check out our Big Ambitions Beginner’s guide without delay!

Big Ambitions Beginner’s Guide

Welcome to our Big Ambitions Beginner’s Guide. These FAQs give you basic guidelines on how things work, but not exact values. Some people want to know how to do things, but still want to figure things out on their own. We know that there are people who have a hard time finishing the Big Ambitions game. If you <aare one of those who find it difficult to finish the game, let’s take you to our Big Ambitions guide.

FAQs – General Questions

My game crashed and I forgot to save, did I lose all my progress?

• No, when you load up the game and are on the main menu, you’ll see a button ‘Load game’. Click on that and activate ‘Show recover saves’ in the top right corner. By default, this shows 3 recovery saves taken every 5 minutes of play time.

I don’t like point-and-click. How can I use a controller or WASD?

• Go to Options > Controls and set your mode to “controller” instead of “Point-and-click”.
• Controller Mode is currently a work-in-progress, though, and might not be perfect yet.

How can I change the language of the game?

• Go to Options > Others there you will have the choice to select different languages.

How can I turn off the objectives / Uncle Fred tutorial?

• If you start a new game in a “Custom Game Mode” instead of “Storymode” you will not have any tutorial or objectives.

Why am I being charged negative interest?

• Every Monday, the bank charges you a fee for having your money stored there. This is to stimulate the economy by spending the money instead of hoarding it in your bank. The best way to avoid the fee (other than being broke) is to invest in Real Estate, bank Investments and your own businesses.

What happens if I don’t pay my taxes?

• Once you start making enough money, every 60 days (1 year, in game) you are given a tax bill. You have 20 days to pay it – and if you don’t pay it within 20 days, the IRS will begin taking your stuff until they are paid back!

How do I raise my happiness?

• Play video games, watch TV, go gambling, be profitable, fulfill Persona Goals, sleep on a bench in the park, rest on your boat. Each perk only lasts for a certain length of time, so you’ll need to keep doing things to keep your happiness up.You will also lose happiness if you do things like sleep in your car.

Where is the Casino?

• Go to Pier 4 on Fridays between 18:00 and 22:00 (6pm to 10pm). You can buy a ticket for $5.000 at the ticket boot behind the Bluestone Imports building at Pier 4. If you get there early, just wait by the booth for the Casino Boat to arrive!

How can I get things delivered from the stores?

• Most of the special AI stores (Appliance Stores, Office Supply, Ika Bohag) have a person seated at a desk. If you speak to them, you can set up deliveries to any of your buildings. Once you have spoken to them the first time, their number will appear in your phone for future use.
• After placing an order for delivery, just wait for the specified delivery time. A pallet it will appear outside the business at the delivery time time containing all the boxes you ordered. Use a handtruck to quickly bring them all inside.

How to purchase a building?

• Click on the building you want to buy, there will be a button called ‘send building purchase offer’ an estimated valuation will pop up. You can now make an offer on the building. MarketInsider will have a tab Real estate, where you can filter on ‘Show only for sale’, these buildings generally have a better negotiation range when sending a lower offer then market value.

How to sell a purchased building?

• Go to Bizman > Select your real estate building > Click on the tab ‘Real Estate Settings’. You will now see a section called ‘Set for sale’, you can see what price you bought the building for and what the current market price is. You can set a sales price and mark the building up for sale. This doesn’t mean the building is sold immediately. If you take a price that is significantly above market value it might not be sold at all!

How to increase rent revenue when you purchased a building?

• Go to Bizman > Select your real estate building > Click on the tab ‘Real Estate Settings’. You will now see a section called ‘Rent Management’ you’ll see your current rent price and the level of occupancy. If your occupancy is low a decrease in rent might get you more renters and create a larger revenue.

How do you take over an AI run business?

• You click on the business and open Bizman, you’ll then see a button called ‘Send Business Overtake Offer’. When clicked on this you can make an offer to the owner, to take over their business. It will give you an estimated valuation of what the owner is expecting to get from his business, but you can negotiate! If the owner accepts your offer the business is yours! This will include, all it’s employees, furniture and appliances! It’s best to check up on the demands of the employees you take over though, there demands often aren’t met completely!

How do I repair my vehicles?

• If it’s a freight truck, the repair shop is behind the Truck store. But for everything else, you take them the repair shop next to either gas statoin in Hell’s Kitchen or Murray Hill

Do you die of old age?

• You do get older, and there is something that happens at the end if you’re rich enough, but I’ll leave out details to avoid spoilers. But essentially if you cannot reach the final goals, you eventually will die of old age! 😀

How do I fix my car?

• For normal vehicles you need to go to the repair shop next to either gas station (Murray Hill or Hell’s Kitchen). If you are completely broken and cannot drive, call the tow truck from your contacts!

How do I call a store from my phone?

• For most contacts, you must physically visit the location the first time and talk to the person. After that, they will appear in your phone. You can then click on “Contacts” and do business from wherever you are.

What does the needs and demands of my employees mean?

• Each employee will have up to 3 demands. Meeting the demands will ensure the employee is satisfied. The higher the priority of the demand, the more impact it will have on the employee’s satisfaction. There are different demands the employees can have:

• Part-time: Between 10 and 30 hours per week
• Full-time: Between 30 and 50 hours per week
• Four days week: Assigned to work 4 days a week
• Five days week: Assigned to work 5 days a week
• No morning shifts: No shifts assigned between 06:00 (6 AM) and 10:00 (10 AM)
• No evening shifts: No shifts assigned between 18:00 (6 PM) and 22:00 (10 PM)
• No night shifts: No shifts assigned between 22:00 (10 PM) and 04:00 (4 AM)
• Free Weekends: No Saturdays/Sundays shifts
• No cleaning shifts: No cleaning shifts assigned
• Peaceful work environment: Owner has a happiness of 50% or more
• Clean work environment: Building with a cleanliness of at least 80%

FAQs – Retail Stores

What businesses can I run?

Retail:

• Coffee Shop
• Fast Food
• Liquor Store
• Supermarket
• Jewelry Store
• Florist
• Gift Shop
• Clothing Store

Offices:

• Law Firm
• Web Development Agency

Miscellaneous:

• Headquarter
• Warehouse

Announced, but not yet active:

• Nightclub
• Hairdresser
• Fruit and Vegetable Store

Where do I recruit the Customer Service or Cleaning employees?

You recruit them from Anderson Recruitment Corp. You will have to contact them to recruit one of the above mentioned job titles. They are located at 16 5th Avenue

What is Traffic Index?

That number represents the foot-traffic to the building and cannot currently be changed, so it’s important to select a building with a higher traffic – otherwise it will be difficult to get customers.A building with a traffic index around 40 or more is considered very good.

How do I raise my Business Interior score?

Stand inside the building, and you will see what the customers are complaining about. They will request things things like:

Music (you can buy the speakers from Ika Bohag)

Employee Uniforms (you can set this in your Employee tab)

Upgraded Walls and Floors (Upgrade them from the Interior Design option in the store. Currently your new walls and floors must be worth at least $5.000 to make them stop complaining).

Somewhere to sit (Fast-Food or Coffee Shops only – you can buy a Booth from AJ Pederson and Son or Tables and Chairs from Ika Bohag)

• What are “Building Limit” and “Current Capacity Per Hour”?

  Each building has a maximum number of customers it can handle per hour – that is the Building Limit, and you won’t be able to exceed that. However, in order to reach that number, you need to make sure your store has enough equipment to handle that many customers. Each item you buy for the store has a customer capacity, so you might need more than one of each item to push your Current Capacity Per Hour up to your Building Limit.

• Example: Clothing Store in a building with 30 capacity

• Each stack of Shopping Baskets can service 30 customers per hour, so you need 1.
• Each Checkout counter can service 30 per hour, so you need 1.
  (The smaller cash register only services 20 per hour, so you would need 2 of those)
• Each clothing rack can service 10 customers per hour, so you would need 3.
  Keep in mind, that each clothing rack can only hold one type of clothing, so if you want all 8 types of clothing, you would need 24 (8X3) clothing racks to hit the maximum customers.

If any item does not reach your Building Limit, it will limit your entire store, so be sure to check out your Bizman >Insight page to make sure you’re reaching that limit.

• How do I raise my Customer Service score?

  Your Customer Service score on the Bizman > Insight page is directly related to your Employee skill level. To increase that score, you must train your employees.

  Note, if you as the player are working the register, you have a customer service skill of 50% (you are not able to change this number).
• Can I sell different products in my store, other then the primary products linked to my specific business type?

  You can sell any retail product in any retail store. This means you can sell flowers in your gift store or even clothing. The difference is, that your sales of those secondary items will not be that much as your primary products of the business type you selected for your store. BUT they can be a nice side income for your business and a great opportunity to maximize sales and profit.

• Can I change the sale prices of my goods/services?

  Open Bizman > Inventory & Pricing you can change prices for each individual item. Just keep an eye on your Insights page to make sure you don’t set the price too high. If you do, the customer satisfaction pricing meter in the Bizman > Insight page will start to drop and you’ll lose customers.

• How do I assign cleaners in my business?

  You will need to purchase a cleaning station from Square Appliance. After that put the station in your store, this will open up a specific ‘Cleaning station’ row on your Schedule. There you can drag your cleaners in and they will automatically keep your store clean.Note, you will not see these cleaners working, but they will keep the store clean. Your cleaners will probably only need to work a couple hours a day to keep the store clean. Just keep an eye on your Cleanliness meter in the Bizman > Insight page

• Why are my Employees resigning?

  Your employees each have demands that must be met, or they will lose satisfaction and eventually quit. Some of their demands are schedule-related, such as “Full Time” or “5-days a week”, and some demands are items they want, such as a sofa, coffee machine, or a specific desk to work at. Each demand has a rating of “high”, “medium” or “low” to indicate how important that demand is (and how much their satisfaction will change if you ignore or fulfill it).

• How do I get 100% marketing?

  The amount of marketing you’ll need depends on your building’s traffic. There are two Marketing Agencies (Mccain’s EMarketing & City Ads) you’ll have to mix and match different options to hit 100% at each building.Also, if you use City Ads, you will begin to see your businesses ads on the billboards around the city!

• How do I cancel marketing?

  Go to your company’s Bizman > Marketing page and click cancel.

• What is the difference between the Cheap Coffee Machine and the Industrial Coffee Machine?

  The industrial Machine is used to sell to customers at a Coffee Shop, the Cheap Machine is used to satisfy Office Employee Demands. You can get the Cheap machine from Mr. Scott’s Office Supplies or Ika Bohag.

• How do I buy a handtruck?

  You don’t, just grab one from any retail store (they automatically regenerate after you leave the store). You can keep it in your vehicle for safe-keeping and use it whenever you want!

• Why are my customers walking out without paying?

  When you place a cash register or checkout counter, it automatically places a “queue line”. To see and adjust this line, go to your store, open Interior Designer and click on the cash register.The issue typically is that you placed the cash register too close to the door and the queue line is going out the door. Either move the register or adjust the queue line as described above!

FAQ’s Offices, Headquarters, Warehouses

• How do I set up Wholesale deliveries?

  Go to the Wholesaler and talk to the person at the desk to set up a contract. You will need storage shelves at your store to do this.After setting up the contract, open your store’s Bizman > Deliveries page to arrange the delivery

• Where do I recruit the Drivers, Logistic manager, Purchasing Agent, Lawyer and Web developer from?

  Drivers are hired the same way as Customer Service or Cleaners from Anderson Recruitment.
  But for the others, there’s a second recruitment office in the city. Called City Workforce inc., you will have to contact them to recruit one of the above mentioned job titles. They are located at 2 1st Avenue

• Can I get cheaper prices, when buying at the importers instead of the wholesalers?

  Yes, you definitely can! It will be key to have a purchasing agent that is trained as high as possible. Because his level of skill will impact the prices he can negotiate. Meaning the higher skilled he is the lower prices he’ll be able to get.

• What is Import Price Index?

  That shows the fluctuating cost of importing goods. That index number will change slightly each day, and will impact how much it costs to buy raw inventory. You will see these prices reflected in the prices of goods when you go to the wholesalers or when you import goods with your Purchasing Agent.Note: That’s what it will do. Currently, this factor is not really implemented.

• How do I assign a delivery driver?

  First off you will need a warehouse. Purchase any vehicle and drive it to the vehicle slot in the warehouse, then assign the delivery driver to the driver slot of the vehicle in the warehouse’s Bizman.Keep in mind, to drive certain vehicles, your drivers need to have a high enough skill level. For instance, they need at least 50% to drive the freight truck.

• How can I increase the number of delivery locations my Logistics Manager can deliver to?

  A couple factors increase your delivery locations.

• Type of vehicle. A small vehicle can deliver fewer locations. The freight truck can deliver to the most locations (up to 4 locations each). And of course, if your warehouse has two vehicle slots, you can put two vehicles in there and double your locations.
• Logistics Manager skill level. The more you train your LM skill level, the more locations you can deliver to
• If the Logistics Manager is under 25% skill, a freight truck will service 4 locations.
• Under 50%, it can service 5 locations.
• Under 75%, it can service 6 locations
• Under 100%, it can service 7 locations
• At 100%, it can service 8 locations.

• Why didn’t my Purchasing Agent order the right stuff?

  First – make sure everything is set up properly. Hire the Purchasing Agent, seat them in your Headquarters, set up a contract with one of the importers along the pier, and place an order.When you place an order with your Purchasing Agent, you can either set it to be “one time” or to recur every day, 3 days, or 7 days.

• If you set it to “one time”, then the amount of inventory you selected will be the amount the Purchasing Agent orders. If you type in 1,000 paper bags, they will attempt to purchase 1,000 paper bags.
• However, if you are doing a recurring delivery, that number becomes the inventory target. That means if you type 1,000 paper bags, but currently have 600 already in the warehouse, the Purchasing Agent will only attempt to buy 400 more so you have a total of 1,000.

Now – the purchasing Agent also has a minimum purchase cost they have to hit for each order, or else they won’t make the purchase. So if your agent wants to buy 400 paper bags, that won’t cost enough money to hit the minimum purchase amount, so they won’t place the order until that number is large enough to hit the minimum purchase amount.

And finally – if your warehouse pallet shelves are full or you don’t have enough money to pay for the delivery, the delivery will not complete. But if your delivery fails, at least you won’t be charged for it!

• What’s the difference between the small and larger warehouse?

  Besides the obvious size difference meaning you can fit more pallet shelves. You also have 2 slots for vehicles, meaning a bigger warehouse can deliver up to 16 businesses instead of only 8 for the smaller warehouses.

Google Doc Cheat Sheet

This document contains several pages of “cheat sheets” if you want to look something up fast. Some people don’t want all the exact answers, so the “FAQs” will give more general guidelines rather than specific numbers.

But if you want specific numbers, this is your guide. It includes things like:

• List of all Goods
• List of all Appliances & Furniture
• List of all Vehicles
• Marketing
• Store maker
• Office maker
• Warehouse builder
• List of all Buildings
• Building Filter

Click this link for the Cheat Sheet: Google Doc