Suggestions Box (Apr 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...

 #36: Make the exterior buildings acquireable

This is a fantasy of a suggestion! Has anyone ever taken much notice of the dwellings surrounding your restaurant? I know that I haven't. They're all quite nondescript as you'd expect, after all they're just the background to the main attraction. But what if we could own these buildings?

Background buildings

It would be fantastic if we could buy these exterior buildings for an extortionate price and then convert them into restaurants. Or if that's asking too much then they could be used as a second business in the services sector, selling whatever you'd expect the store to sell. So above you can see a green grocers and a florist. By buying these properties, we could diversify our investments and create an empire!

 #37: Place a chef at every host table

When I recently expanded and redecorated, I wanted my Chef to be in the kitchen. That's hardly revolutionary. But I also want a host table in my foyer section. Again hardly changing the restaurant landscape. But I have a problem - my kitchen and foyer are no longer next to each other, so I needed two host tables.

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 22/03/14 March 2014
 22/02/14 February 2014
 18/01/14 January 2014
 21/12/13 December 2013
 17/11/13 November 2013

When you have more than one host table, the Chef stands only at one of them. But no matter what I tried, I just couldn't get the Chef to stand on the host table in the kitchen. Instead he was desperate to be in the foyer, coincidently next to the Chilled Drink (ahem!) So the Lounge Lizard is overseeing the foyer and there is no host table in the kitchen, and consequently no Chef, which is disappointing.

We need the Chef to be placed at every host table. The existing rules can remain, namely that if a decoration (such as another figure) is placed behind the host table then the Chef stays away, but otherwise he needs to overseeing the slick operation of the diner.

 #38: Coats over chairs

In this week's update, the new chair came with a coat draped over its back. I think this is a great idea and led me to a suggestion. I'd like to see a range of different jackets available to put on the chair of your choice. They would be available separately, so you can choose which jacket to place with which chair, and thus create an original design.

Rainy chair from latest update including coat over back

Much like the different host tables are just listed in the tables tab of the market, the draped coats could be slotted into the chairs tab. There's incentive for TeamLava to do this: some of the coats could be gem purchases, thus increasing the chances (even if it's only very slightly) of a player spending real money.

Heck, we could even have separate tablecloths for draping on tables and counters! The possibilities are just about endless. Maybe this will be a feature of Restaurant Story 2?!

 #39: No box duplicates

This is something I've been fortunate to never suffer from, but I have read of players opening one of the boxes multiple times and getting the same item. I'd hate to spend 24 gems to receive something I already gambled a crate of gems on.

Of course this is all part of the risk with the boxes. They are a lottery, and if you make the jump then you've got to be prepared for a negative outcome. But this is a very negative outcome. Looking at the odds, it's reported that you've got a 54% chance of obtaining a fourth prize, so assuming their are four different fourth prizes that translates into a 13.5% chance of obtaining any particular fourth prize. A quick calculation (squaring 0.135) then confirms that the chances of receiving that same fourth prize consecutively are 1.8%.

That's low, but it does happen. For what it's worth, I'd like to see the game's developers eliminate the possibility of box duplicates. It wouldn't have a dramatic effect because the odds are very low anyway, but it would save on a lot of seriously disgruntled players. Only once a user has all the prizes for a certain level, should they be liable to getting doubles.

 #40: Add plain grass

I've wanted a plain grass floor tile for as long as I can remember. It would allow me to have my garden section not attached to any particular season of the year. With the recently added Dandelion Field flooring we've came closer than ever to achieving this, but it's still not plain!

Dandelion Fields in garden section of The Garlic Tree

I won't complain too much since I do like the detailed texture of this floor tile, but I still want some plain grass for coins. Even replicating the blank green of the grass surrounding the restaurant would do. It would make the in-diner grass less of a distraction from the surrounding floor decorations, which for me should be what catches the eye, not the hundreds of dandelions!