Suggestions Box (Feb 2014)

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...

 #26: Introduce counter management

This is a suggestion I have seen time and again. At present food is added to counters in the order they were placed in the restaurant, and only when all the counters are full and a new dish is placed do the duplicate plates get combined onto one counter.

The lack of flexibility can become problematic when players want to store a themed area which includes themed counters. If food has piled up on said counters then the player has two options: keep them meaning that out of place counters are on the go, or store them meaning that outstanding coins are thrown away.

Having done all the work to serve food, I refuse to then throw any of it away, so have been lumbered with the first of these situations a few times. And it looks awful in my opinion (but then I am a perfectionist!)

Old West section of The Garlic Tree with multiple different counters

So we need the ability to move food around. This could involve a 'fridge' which has a finite number of slots which food can be transferred in and out of, or even just a further option on the pop-up when food is double tapped. It would be worth it to the gamemakers to implement this, as it would inevitably lead to more accidental stumbles into gem traps, and thus more money spent by players recouping lost gems!

 #27: Give XP for tipping to the tipper

Here's something that's always confused me. When you go to the effort of tipping someone, you get some red stars which add to your tip rating. And that's it. When you collect tips which others have gone to the effort of leaving you, you get an XP for every individual tip as well as 20 coins. What?

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 18/01/14 January 2014
 21/12/13 December 2013
 17/11/13 November 2013
 19/10/13 October 2013
 28/09/13 September 2013

I don't like to be greedy and selfish, but why should others profit from my hard work? Maybe I'm just being grumpy, but I'd prefer if the XP gain was given to the tipper. After all they're the one who has battled through their neighbour list.

 #28: Coins to gems converter

We already have a gems to coins converter, which I'm pretty sure nobody uses.

Gems to coins converter

Gems are the valuable commodity in this game - coins can be earned in bulk over time, but gems are limited and difficult to procure. So you'd have to be mad to exchange gems for coins.

What we really need is the reverse, an ablity to swap coins for gems. The exchange rate doesn't even need to be particularly good. I'd even advocate a rate of 100,000 coins for 1 gem. It doesn't sound fruitful, but this would provide a nice balance for players looking to add to their gem bag by any means possible and the game's developers who want to keep the gem purchases for real money attractive.

 #29: Italian food theme

In the past we've had Asian, Old West, Swedish and Mexican themes. But in a restaurant the one I really want is an Italian theme. Specifically I want to see some traditional Italian food being introduced.

I've called for more pizza recipes in the past, and this request still stands, but there's a surprising shortage of pasta dishes too. We've already got Macaroni Cheese, Spaghetti and Garlic Noodles on the Basic Stove, but other than that this large branch of Italian cuisine is very underdeveloped. How about some ravioli, cannelloni and lasagne? And to join the Bruschetta on the Basic Oven we could have focaccia and panettone.

These are only a few suggestions of common Italian dishes. There's loads more out there, and I feel we're missing out on one of my favourite styles of food.

 #30: More sweepstakes

Anyone remember the Waffles sweepstake over Thanksgiving weekend in 2012? Every time you served Waffles over the period, you earned another ticket for a sweepstake in which 10 randomly selected players won 1,000 gems.

Thanksgiving 2012 sweepstakes

This was an excellent idea. Yes, those who had spent their life-savings opening up extra appliance slots had a considerable advantage, but since this event was a raffle, there was still a tiny chance for everyone. The community seemed to be brought together by this competition, so I'd love to see it happen again. The attraction of a 1,000 gem grand prize is just too much to pass up on, even if you only have a few stoves as I did at that time.

There was also a sweepstake for Thanksgiving in 2013, but it gave you an extra ticket for every dollar spent (and was limited to US players) rather than being based around cooking. The older sweepstake was definitely more appealing, and I think it would be great to get one of these much more regularly, rather than just on the odd occasion for the likes of Thanksgiving.