Suggestions Box (Nov 2013)

Every month I list five things I'd like to see added, altered or abolished from the game. Because even though my long time of playing Restaurant Story clearly shows I love it, that doesn't mean it's perfect. Some of the ideas I'll air will be significant game changers while others will be low-key and irrelevant in the eyes of many of you readers.

In no particular order, here are this month's entries...

 #11: Sticky posts for walls

Admittedly this is not a suggestion of my own creation, but I think it's brilliant. Some players like to post their Storm ID on their wall along with their personal preferences regarding gifts and the like. But when others post, the restaurant owner's information is soon lost among the usual 'full' lines.

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 19/10/13 October 2013
 28/09/13 September 2013

It would be nice to have an option to create one or two sticky posts which remain at the top of your wall at all times. Then other players could see your ID immediately or take on board preferences more easily.

And what would make this feature extra useful, is that you could use it to alert neighbours if you're having a break from the game for any reason. This would reduce the number of occasions when players mistakenly take a neighbour's inactivity for having quit the game when they might just be having a timeout.

 #12: Make collectibles more obtainable

In over a year of playing the game, I've not made what you'd call roaring progress with regards to the collectibles. Found off the main menu, this section contains five sets of objects which can be obtained through various methods.

Collectibles section

Now I'm proud to say that I mastered the second of these sets - the 'Cooking Tools' - some time ago, and hence gained three gems for doing so (one for mastering at level 2 and two for mastering at level 4). That's because the four objects in this particular set are obtainable quite readily through tipping, which I do plenty of.

But the other sets are much more difficult to master. Indeed, the 'Floral Bouquet' is horrendous - so far I've managed to gain only two of those Flower Trophies. Which is a rubbish return for so much loyalty to the game.

So TeamLava need to get their act together and make the collectibles easier to obtain. At present I could play for ten lifetimes and never master the 'Floral Bouquet', so what's the point?

 #13: Gem safe

The very first suggestion in the box was for a gem spend confirmation button. This remains my number one hope (even if it'll never happen). So a variant on this is a gem safe. This feature would allow a player to deposit their gems under lock and key, so that they cannot be used for purchases unless manually removed from the safe.

Again this idea is never going to be implemented as it wouldn't enhance Teamlava's profitability (it would probably diminish it) but I can still dream.

It could even have a limited capacity which increases as you move through the levels. For example to start with there might be a limit of 20 gems allowed to be stuck in the safe, with that number rising by one every five levels. Then by the time you get to level 99 there would be enough space for up to 40 gems. This would help keep users regularly playing the same - an extra motivation to play up to level 99. Surely the gamemakers couldn't complain about that!?

 #14: Expansion clarity

There are two requirements which need to be fulfilled in order to expand your restaurant. The first of these is the price. The expansions can be payed for in coins or gems, with the early expansions very affordable compared to the many millions for the later ones. The second criteria is a number of neighbours which must be attained before the expansion can be executed.

Requirements for expansion to 23x26
(cost in coins not shown)

So why is this a problem? Well there's a lack of clarity in the game which leads to no end of queries from confused players on the TeamLava Forum. The two primary questions which come to mind are:

Can I skip expansions if I have enough coins to do so?
I have the number of neighbours required to expand, so why can't I?

The answers to these questions are quite simple. Every expansion must be made in ascending order so you can't skip any, and the neighbour count is only a prerequisite for an expansion, as I covered above.

There needs to be better clarity within the game about the expansions, much like there is with the little icon to provide extra info about constructable appliances. It's the little things.

 #15: More pizza recipes

I like pizzas. They can be cheese, cheese and ham, cheese and ham and chicken, cheese and ham and chicken and pepperoni... okay, you get the picture. And I know for a fact that I'm not the only one.

So why are there so few pizza recipes in the game?. At present we've got Pepperoni Pizza and Heart Pizza on the Basic Oven, Star Pizza on the Food Replicator and Hi-Hat Pizza on the Drum Set Oven. This hardly covers the spectrum of pizza possibilities.

Examples of current pizza recipes

So I'd like to see more pizza dishes added. Heck, we could even have a pizza oven appliance which churns out a wide selection. Get to work!