Suggestions Box (Mar 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...

 #31: Clarity over mastery of recipes

When the mastery meter on a recipe gets really close to the end at level four, it can be a real pain to try and work out whether it's actually at the end or if there's still a tiny gap. Obviously if you recall earning the second mastery gem then there's nothing to worry about, but if you are forgetful like me, then it's very easy to cook a dish more times than necessary thinking it needs one last push to obtain that second gem.

So the game's developers need to use something as a clear indicator of a recipe being mastered. Here's some ideas:

Ideas for mastery of recipes indicator

There's nothing flashy here, but each of these designs does the job of clarifying that the recipe is mastered. I also think this would add to the urge to master everything, in order to obtain that gold bar, gold star or whatever across the board.

 #32: Connected themes

Recently we had a 70's theme. It was a decent enough update, but I couldn't help feeling that TeamLava could have done a little more. Why not follow it up the next week with an 80's theme? And then a 90's theme? Much like with the 70's, there are lots of possibilities, so it could have been cool to have the continuity of themes with a loose connection.

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 22/02/14 February 2014
 18/01/14 January 2014
 21/12/13 December 2013
 17/11/13 November 2013
 19/10/13 October 2013

Another idea for connected themes is different nations. In the past we've had Swedish, Mexican and Asian themes among others, but they've been sporadic and very much disconnected. Only this week an Italian theme was all the rage, but the Facebook and Twitter teasers for the next update confirm that we're moving on to Spring straightaway.

I'd love to see a month or two of different cultures featured every week as there would surely be something to please everyone. It could be Gran-Gran's round-the-world trip!

 #33: Add corner dividers

This is something which has always caused me problems. Because I make liberal use of dividers to partition different sections of my restaurant, there are several cases where dividers should intersect. But of course they can't, which means I have to stealthily place a floor decoration to plug the gap. Here's an example:

Barrel being used at intersection of dividers

What we need are corner dividers which can fit flush with the converging dividers. This isn't something that's revolutionary: over in Farm Story 2, there are corner fences of three types - L-shaped, T-shaped and X-shaped. If such dividers were added in Restaurant Story (even for gems) I'd be a very happy camper.

 #34: Select all option for gifting

This is a popular one. Some players are kind enough to gift their neighbours back what they've received. I must admit that I'm too lazy to do that. I'm in the bracket of those who 'mass gift' their neighbours. If you haven't sent a request by the end of the day then I'll be sending you the basic part of my choosing.

Neighbours selected for sending a gift

Now for me this isn't hard work because I only have 50 odd neighbours, but for those with hundreds, it must be a real chore to select everyone when mass gifting. So a select all button would be nice. It could sit alongside the select button and wouldn't take half a lifetime to code.

 #35: Introduce takeaways

Here's an addition that would take a heck of a lot of work! Once you get to the upper echelons and have a full compliment of appliances, it becomes very easy to keep the counters stocked, and sometimes things can get too busy. There have been numerous occasions when I've had to throw away the remnants of a dish so that I can serve a food before it spoils.

So let's get a takeaway service on the go. For a lower fee, we can sell a dish to a customer as a takeaway, meaning that it doesn't need to find a clear counter. It goes straight out the door. The only issue I see here is that there might not be much of a market for Boiled Lobster takeaways!