Suggestions Box (May 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...

 #41: More sales on special items

I've never been more excited about the game than on Black Friday in 2013. With 21 items on sale, including first prizes from boxes, past limited time offers and content previously removed, it was a very special event.

Notification for Black Friday 2013 sales

The result of such generosity on Thanksgiving weekend is a surge in gem purchases by players as everyone looks to bag a quality item. We're around halfway between Black Fridays right now, and so still have a long time to wait before the next special sale. I'd like to see these sales appear more regularly.

Such a move would be of benefit to everyone - there'd be more opportunities for players to grab those rare items, while the gamemakers would earn more revenue from the frantic purchasing of gems which is now a Black Friday tradition. TeamLava might refute this by claiming that regular special sales would reduce the incentive to spend big, but I'd argue in return that there would be no need to offer these sales too often. Even if it was only one or two more times a year at least it would spice things up!

 #42: Stop requests from carrying over

The game limits you to having 20 requests accepted each day. If you send out more than 20 requests then only the first 20 which are accepted go through, with the others being carried over to the next day. And if you do the same on game two, then the queue soon mounts up.

Why is the app set up to carry over requests? I'd like to see any leftover requests be deleted at the end of the day rather than carried over. It's always quite irritating when you get a request which is magically two days old - will the neighbour think you've been slow in accepting the request or will they be aware that they've brought it on themselves? Hmm.

 #43: More animation

Restaurant Story 2 may remedy this, but the one major aspect of the game which is lacking is the shortage of animation. Other than the customers toddling around the diner there's very little in the way of motion, which is quite surprising considering that this is a 21st Century game!

So I'm calling on the game's developers to add some animation. It could be greater variety to customer movement - maybe a thumbs up if they've enjoyed their stay?! It could be some simple animations of certain items such as fountains and musicians. Ultimately I'd love to have my Bowling Alley and Ping Pong Table come to life, but that really is a pipe dream!

 #44: More consistent content removals

The term 'content removal' has become something of a nightmare to Restaurant Story players. Every so often, TeamLava give us a notification informing that some seasonal items are going to be removed from the market on a certain date.

Notification for Christmas 2013 content removal

Now I'm not about to slag off the gamemakers for carrying out such removals, since they're probably necessary to free up space for future updates, plus there's a novelty to having removed items on display that newer players can never get hold of! I'm not even going to spout about the lack of clarity over what will be removed (I'll save that one for another rainy day!)

My issue is with the total lack of consistency with these removals. The last two occasions for the pulling of content have been in the aftermath of Christmas 2013, and a while after Halloween 2013. Yet Thanksgiving 2013, New Year 2014, Chinese New Year 2014 and Valentine's Day 2014 have all escaped the dreaded drop. It seems that TeamLava just carry out a removal on seasonal content whenever they can be bothered rather than to a structured routine.

I'd like to know well in advance what seasonal themes are going to have their content removed shortly afterwards so I can make sure to buy up any goods and chattles I fancy and master the relevant recipes before they get wiped.

 #45: Where do the customers come from?

At present, when the bots enter the restaurant, they do so from some mystical portal situated at the door. This isn't very realistic as I haven't encountered many mystical portals at restaurant doors in the real world.

So as an extension to #43, let's get the customers arriving in style. A romantic couple may arrive on foot, a harassed businessman may arrive by chauffeur, and a family from the countryside may arrive by tractor(!) Taking things further, we could have a restaurant car park with gems required to buy more spaces which would in turn increase the turnover of customers and thus improve sales. Go on TeamLava, if you can't be bothered to add this excellent idea to this game, at least launch Car Park Story!