Beach Life Virtual Resort: Spring Break Guests Complaining About High Prices Fix

Beach Life is a business strategy PC game by Deep Red Games (now called DR Studios) and Eidos Interactive. It was released in 2002 and I was still young when I first played it lol. I know there are a lot of similar games but at the same time I haven't really found something quite like it so I get a hankering to play every five years or so.

I usually only play sandbox mode but I noticed that eventually guests start complaining about high prices after day 10. It's frustrating because it comes to a point where guests flat out refuse to buy so you have to keep lowering prices (or rebuild it again). I find the accommodation blocks especially INFURIATING. When guests start complaining about the accommodation blocks, chipping off $1-2 isn't enough and you have to keep on lowering it!!! I'm not really sure if you have to let them stay for free eventually because I'm usually sick with the game at this point.

I haven't figured out a way to edit most of the game files and scripts yet, but there are two things you can do to make sandbox guest stop complaining about high prices (only do one) 

First Method

Just go to where the game is installed (usually Program Files or Program Files (x86) ) then Eidos Interactive/Beach Life/Data/Scenario

You'll see all the scenario and sandbox folders. Just pick any sandbox folder and edit the .pis file

sandscenario1.pis (sandscenario2.pis sandscenario3.pis.... etc. depending on the map) file. You only need to use notepad or notepad++.

Edit line 9 where it says "data/Script/SandboxE_guests.pis" into "data/Script/Guests08.pis" 

You might get a prompt (both on Notepad++ and on the folder) that you need administrator permission etc. Just click continue or yes.

Basically, it just replaces the default sandbox guests with guests from map 8 Lotto. Guests from the Milk It scenario have a lot of money (literally one of the objectives is to earn $30000 in one day) so I figured they are less likely to complain about prices. 

Second Method

A much faster way would be to move SandboxE_Guests.ble, SandboxH_guests.ble and SandboxM_guests.ble (you can find them on the data/script folder) somewhere as backups, then make three copies of the Guests08.ble file in the same folder. Rename each copy into SandboxE_Guests.ble, SandboxH_Guests.ble and SandboxM_Guests.ble so you don't have to edit each file in every scenario sandbox folder. 

To test it, I played on number 2 - Cachet, which is a good sized medium map. You can put all buildings on it and still have some room for around 4-6 accommodation blocks.  I also used money cheats when playing with both default sandbox guests and guests08 because I wanted to build everything quickly.

I'm currently on Day 31 and I've noticed guests haven't complained about prices yet, although they stopped remarking about how cheap it is after day 10 (except for newly constructed structures). Other differences I've noticed are:

- There seems to be more women than men. With the default sandbox guests and same buildings I get a good mix of sexes but after changing it there's usually 20-40 more women so I had to change things around (demolish cocktail bar; only wet-tshirt contests; build more party boats etc.) to close the gap

- You need more scenery than usual. Default sandbox guests usually comment how good the scenery looks at around 80-100 scenery objects. I was losing my mind because I had more than 150 and they were still complaining. I put a bunch of fountains and billboards on empty spaces. It looks hideous but after 190+ guests were happy.

I was trying to get the scenery rating up quick haha

- Guests tend to complain more about litter. Litter usually becomes an issue for default sandbox guests if there's more than 50 but I'm getting complaints at around only 20-30 litter objects.

I haven't played beyond Day 31 yet, but I'll update if anything of note happens.

I'm not sure if I'll ever find a way to edit the files but there are a lot of things I want to change like more freedom in building placements, not having to maintain structures a lot, possibly update the graphics etc. so I hope someone else takes this up as a project haha!

Currently I have 15 mechanics on different shifts (I usually set 24 hour buildings and power generators with inspections every 4 hours, normal buildings every 6, then staff buildings every 12) and I still have a lot of maintenance issues! Have you found a strategy with maintaining buildings that work great?