Game update: 09/07/14

It's goals time again! And these goals revolve around a trip on a riverboat.

Notification for Riverboat update

Of course lots of the new content can only be unlocked via the goals, but here is the obligatory list nevertheless:

Tables:

• Riverboat - locked by goal

Chairs:

• Riverboat Stool - 3,500 coins

Wall decorations:

• Fresh Catch Sign - 9,500 coins

Floor decorations:

• Riverboat Railing - 13,200 coins
• Captain Phoebe - locked by goal
• Riverboat Ride - locked by goal

Wallpapers:

• Riverside - 9,800 coins

Floor tiles:

• River Lily - 1,410 coins

Appliances:

• Riverboat Oven - locked by goal
• Fish Stand - locked by goal

Counters:

• Riverboat Counter - 8,400 coins

This is a good choice of theme in my opinion. It follows on from the beach theme of last month's goals nicely, meaning we can combine items from both into a quality restaurant on the coast. I guess you could criticise the similarity to the Cruise theme from last summer, but it's not exactly the same - again I feel this is more of a good compliment for the previous content.

I'll do a goal content report at some point to analyse all of the goal items in more depth, but there is an image on the TeamLava Blog which gives a glimpse of some of the new stuff:

Items from latest update as shown on TeamLava Blog

It's pretty clear that the Riverboat Ride is the final goal prize - it's so tall! And I'm pleased to see Phoebe finally being included, even if she is dressed up as a sailor in the form of Captain Phoebe. Meanwhile the Fresh Catch Sign has gone straight into my kitchen section for a stay, and the Riverside wallpaper is a picturesque addition.

On the downside I'm not too enthused by the Riverboat table or Riverboat Stool. Neither display much innovation, although I guess they might look good in an environment full of wooden textures.

The River Lily flooring is fine enough, although I'm tempted to say that the blue is a bit too light, especially since the new wallpaper has a darker shade for the water at the bottom.

Lastly for now, the Riverboat Railing is an unusual addition. I've not tried putting several of them together yet, but they do look a bit garish. Plus unlike a divider, it is positioned at the side of the square, and thus you can't place something directly in front of it. This could be problematic, and puts me in mind of the Pirate Ship Wall from Bakery Story, which suffers with the same issue.

So the goals are at the centre of this update.

Introduction to Riverboat goals

All the necessary information to complete them and gain access to the locked items can be found here.

Now beyond this update, I have an apology to make. Yesterday in my returning post I claimed that the Technicolor Cake doesn't yield the 258 XP which is displayed in the recipe list. In some ways this is true - it earns you only 123 XP when you serve it up. However today I discovered that there is 135 XP awarded for preparing the cake! So you do get the full whack of XP!

This is incredible. Although this change doesn't alter the recipe ratings of the cake, it does make it the best XP dish in the game by a long way. You get 43 XP per hour which can only be bettered by recipes of much shorter duration. And unlike the shorter dishes, you can cook this one overnight, meaning it is the perfect choice for fast levelling up. The only problem is that it isn't unlocked until level 73 anyway, by which time moving up the ladder is less important.

That is the standard analysis. But as I mentioned, you get more than half of the Technicolor Cake's XP just for preparing it. This means you could tap through to prepare it on all your ovens, swap out for Bagels, and repeat. This would result in massive XP gains, although you'd obviously be losing coins in the process. Has level 100 just moved back onto the radar?! I'm going to have a proper look at the numbers and deliver a verdict over the weekend...

In the mean time let's help Captain Phoebe get this riverboat rolling through the waters!