Shared Work, Pausing and Collection

Staff can leave food at a shared station and continue it later, or let another active employee continue. The work belongs to that restaurant and game world. Food still in a player's hands follows the carry rules described below.

Leave, discard and undo are different actions#

During a timed action, wait for it to finish; normal Escape and X controls are unavailable. A restart or forced interruption can still stop it. Some waiting views, such as Coffee, offer their own leave and discard controls. Follow the instructions on screen.

What is actually retained#

An accepted checkpoint¹ is a completed step, such as adding an ingredient, finishing rolling or making the required cuts. Moving a preview or starting a gesture does not save that step.

Reopening shows the completed food steps and remaining timers. You still need to finish and collect the product before it appears in inventory. Leaving clears personal carried food according to its product rules; completed shared-station steps can remain.

Another employee can continue fixed-station work#

Another active employee can continue retained work at a nearby fixed station if their hands and inventory allow it. Once they take over, the previous employee cannot keep editing that preparation. If access is denied, the current employee keeps working.

Inventory transfer in progress and cart relocation cannot be taken over. Personal mobile work is restricted to its instance owner, even if another employee can see it.

Attended methods and unattended devices#

Attended custom work pauses when you leave. It occupies the point until completed, explicitly discarded or reset. Another recipe cannot overwrite that accepted work.

An unattended device batch² keeps cooking after its operator leaves. When ready, any eligible active staff member in that world instance can collect it. Loading consumes the original published inputs; collection grants the original batch outputs. A new recipe selection does not change a loaded batch.

One custom point handles one batch at a time in each game world. Add separate points for parallel work. Ready recipes can have several slots, such as an oven or griddle.

Collection failures#

A definite inventory-capacity or verified transfer rejection retains retryable preparation under its inactivity deadline. Make room, confirm the failure and try the matching retained food again.

An uncertain outcome³ means the item may have reached inventory without a confirmation. Collection is blocked to avoid duplicates. Check inventory and ask an administrator to review the original transfer before giving a replacement.

Inactivity and restart#

Completing a new preparation step renews the inactivity deadline⁴. Opening the view, hovering or taking over does not. Timed work keeps its normal duration; the collection timeout starts when the food is ready. Custom cooking devices use their configured collection time.

When the inactivity time expires, the unfinished food disappears and active staff receive a notice. The installed station and finished inventory products remain. Publishing a kitchen change, disabling or deleting the restaurant, or restarting also clears temporary preparation without returning ingredients.

Use the specific Product Guide for burn behavior, parking, serving sides and undo. Use Recovery when the provider result is uncertain.

Try the complete custom example#

Use Your First Custom Production to apply these rules to one Supply point, a Cutting recipe, a Cooking recipe and their exact ingredient quantities.