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| Notification for latest Spring update |
It's not the biggest update of the age, but here's a list anyway:
Tables:
- Umbrella - 2 gems
- Rainy - 25,000 coins
- April Showers - 28,000 coins
- Drizzly Bear - 15 gems
- Rainy Day - 1 gem
- Umbrella - 53,000 coins
In addition to these items, there are two fresh recipes on the Basic Stove, which will be covered shortly. All of the content unlocks at level 68, with thanks to Fat Bear for providing this important detail.
I can't say I'm too excited by this update. It's better than last week's box only effort, but it doesn't include much of note in my eyes. I'd prefer the brighter Spring stuff which we had for a couple of weeks earlier on in the season than the dreary things here, but I guess April showers are all part of Spring. Even another Easter update would have been nice, since this is Easter week and we've only had a box thus far.
The Drizzly Bear was TeamLava's teaser this week. Here's a preview of the soggy bear in all its (wet) glory:
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| Preview of Drizzly Bear |
Considering it's 1x1 in size, it's actually quite tall. It would look quite good next to my Umbrella Stand at the entrance door, but for 15 gems I'm not convinced it's worth the investment. It just looks too sad!
Elsewhere, the Rainy chair is almost a triumph. I love the idea of having a coat draped over the back, but the chair itself is a bit rickety looking and the back is on the small side. It's such a shame because it's a fine idea. If implemented correctly, we could have ourselves an excellent addition and I've got some thoughts on how to use this feature, but will save them for a Suggestions Box entry!
The accompanying table is the Umbrella. Technically that should be plural as there are four umbrellas in use, making up the legs of the table, which itself is glass. It's nothing special for me, and at 2 gems each is being left out in the rain. The Umbrella counter doesn't rate much better - it has two umbrellas sitting inside a glass box and it's the fourth most expensive counter actively available. It's not the first time we've had a counter of this general design, and again I don't get it! Since when did a counter become a display?
Let's move on to the April Showers wall decoration. It's basically a painting on a thick canvas of a couple in the rain and (inevitably) under another darn umbrella. At least this piece has a touch of elegance. It doesn't fit in with my restaurant's themes at present, but I'd certainly consider it as a generic item to fill out the walls in the future if the colour scheme matches.
There's something quite trendy about the Rainy Day wallpaper. It's quite simple, with a solid black umbrella and a few white lines for rain. But I expect some of my imaginative neighbours to find clever ways of incorporating this wallpaper, even at 1 gem a time.
So in truth I was having to work hard to extract some positives from the new content. How will the two recipes fair?
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| New recipes on Basic Stove |
However the Chocolate Drizzle measures up, it will go down in history as the first new recipe to be dissected using my swanky recipe ratings! And as it is, it does itself proud:
| Chocolate Drizzle | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit | XP gain | Portions | Profit per plate | Availability | Rating |
| 9 | 7 | 9 | 7 | 4 | 8.0 |
The Chocolate Drizzle is the fourth best 2 hour recipe for profit and ties for third best with regards to portions. Its XP rating is a touch lower despite being the joint second best in the duration. This is because the top dish in this category, the Disco Fries (Basic Stove), offers a massive 78 XP which is well higher than the drizzle. There are 11 active 2 hour recipes which yield more profit per plate, but none of those are as strong as the drizzle in the other categories, which means that it lands joint second for its overall rating, an excellent result.
To start with I was very confused by the name of the second dish, Chance of Meatballs. I'd rather not be served up a meal in which there is only a 'chance' of getting some meatballs. But a quick search informs me that the name's been nicked from a film called 'Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs' which is itself adapted from a book of the same name by Judi and Ron Barrett. So there.
On to its statistics, and this time it's not such an encouraging sight:
| Chance of Meatballs | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Profit | XP gain | Portions | Profit per plate | Availability | Rating |
| 6 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 4 | 5.4 |
The 10 rating for profit per plate is misleading because most of the recipes of 6 hour length have a perfect score because they all have very similar numbers. Regardless, the profit per plate can't compensate for the mediocre ratings among the higher rated factors. The XP is particularly poor, but the profit and portions are actually not that bad. The meatballs are fifth best in the category for profit and sixth best for portions. But the leaders for each of these factors, for example Kiwi & Cake (Basic Oven), are just so much better. The average ratings result in the meatballs placing tenth among 6 hour dishes overall. No disgrace, but nowhere near the elite recipes in the duration.
So the April showers have brought some content of questionable quality, but also an excellent recipe to kick off the recipe ratings era!
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