I last posted on this subject at the start of the Summer, when I'd already completed my mission on the Basic Stove and had made a start on the Basic Oven. Now I'm pretty much done, with both the Basic Oven and Basic Grill's meters topped up!
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| Cookbook for Basic Oven |
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| Cookbook for Basic Grill |
However my mastery tactic means that I've not actually picked up the level four mastery gems for any of the standard foods. I covered this strategy in the last progress report, but the meat and bones of it are as follows...
I cook each recipe one at a time (as opposed to large batches of a single dish) so that the mastery meter is always around the same point across the board. But the key aspect of my masterplan is to apply what I'm dubbing as the 'minus one' rule - I don't technically master any of the recipes, but rather go within one execution of doing so. This method leaves me with fewer gems in the bank, but also fewer opportunities to lose out to a gem trap. If I need extra gems then I can top up by mastering a few dishes quite easily. The exception is any new recipes added to the Basic appliances - these get fully mastered just in case they are removed in the future.
At present, I've got my eyes firmly set on the chaos of Black Friday, where we could well see box prizes, past limited time offers and removed content made available for one weekend only. Last year I saved up for several months and reaped the benefits on the big day, and this time I've got a massive haul of gems within my reach for blowing on special items. I've done a quick count, and reckon that I have 99 recipes sitting at the 'minus one' position. That means over the course of two or three days I could earn an extra 99 gems on top of the rather large collection I already have in my bag!
I have to say that I didn't expect to complete my quest quite so quickly, as the Basic Oven includes so many long dishes. However I made good use of my two-week break in June to focus my efforts on the longer durations. Then I managed to blast through the Basic Grill thanks to the generally short lengths of recipe. The problem now is, what next?
My kitchen section is seeing some action right now as a result of the Pizza goals, but there are one or two dormant appliances all the same. I'm slightly disorientated by the lack of any urgency to get food cooking! Beyond the mastering of goal recipes and any new dishes which are introduced, I need to think up what I'm going to do. For now I'm relaxing a little and letting some of the huge piles of food on counters be scoffed, but before long there's going to be a famine in The Garlic Tree.
Then there's the issue of not actually needing the profit from cooking. I've surpassed the 15 million coins necessary for the final expansion, and am simply biding my time right now, so there's no great rush to increase my bank balance. Likewise I'm already at level 99, so the XP boosts from preparing dishes are irrelevant to me.
It seems that being on the edge of mastery is not such a thrilling feeling after all! However I'm not exactly down in the dumps right now as I'm perfectly poised for some major spending come Black Friday, along with the seasonal themes sure to come our way.
Congratulations!! That's quite some cooking effort. I've been working on just mastery level 2 for all dishes lately, and even that seems to have taken some time. But I agree that once I completed all the 2 day dishes (to level 4), not meaning to state the obvious here; gem collection became much easier... :P
ReplyDeleteMy restaurant layout isn't ideal for storing lots of dishes though, so once I deem there to be too many counters full of food, I break for some longer dishes to give the rest a chance to clear.
I also have a habit, that if I cook any dish that doesn't yield $4 per plate, I immediately throw it away once cooked. I like to see maximum income in my restaurant - although I realise that in the long run, I am losing money by throwing food away, I still don't like to have my hourly turnover effected by low profit-plate dishes. It's also why at the moment I have all the $5 per plate dishes (Stew, Glazed Ham and Creme Brûlée) and some famous Roast Chicken available.
I've realised that's also how you're able to so easily swap counters for redecorating at The Garlic Tree - because you're doing one dish at a time, any one counter won't have more than a day's worth of food sitting on it, where as the more common way of cooking a dish until it's completely mastered leaves you with sometimes hundreds of thousands of plates on one counter (this is the case with a few of my counters). I've come to agree that the 'dish-at-a-time' method is better. I think I may start adopting it at Black Pepper.
It's great that you've mastered nearly everything, I wouldn't be so worried that you've got nothing to do though. With so many options for redecorating, especially with the upcoming holidays, I'll bet you'll keep yourself busy and cooking! Speaking of redecorating, one player I've been particularly impressed with, who you are also neighbours with, is Garden Party. They create such wonderful scenes, and redecorate so often, it's incredible!
Always enjoy your posts, thanks :)
HI Black Pepper :D Garden Party here.
DeleteOne way I can easily switch counters for decorating is to always have about 5 plain white ones (or brown or whatever is your default style) that are the "old" counters where, when I combine food, they pile up on those instead of the most recent counters. This means that generally when I am ready to redecorate, I just combine all the dishes, and am able to store the ones I brought out most recently. As long as I never accidentally store the oldest ones (happens occasionally) then I can always pull out some that match my current theme. It's not perfect of course, but I find myself much too impatient to master recipes slowly.
Not to mention, because of my rampant re-decorating, I never ever have enough coins or gems to go around....so while I'd like to wait and save my mastered dish gems for black Friday, there's always something I feel I "have" to have for the current theme. It's a problem...
Hey Garden Party! So glad you read this :) thanks for the suggestion, that could help out heaps.
DeleteI also read your below post, I love the idea of cooking dishes of only one theme! I do something like that on a smaller scale - I always like to have a dish or two in my small themed areas which match.. That means I have to control which dishes go on which counters though..
Thanks so much for the reply :)
Black Pepper, how could you ever throw out food?! :D
DeleteI have chucked stuff out before, but not as readily as you seem to. I understand how it benefits you in the short term, but ultimately you are throwing coins away! I couldn't do it as part of my strategy!
In some ways counters are a real pain. For me they seem to get in the way of designing a nice section, although with no mastering to do now I might be able to cut down on the number of them I house.
It's a problem which increases tenfold over in Bakery due to the slow sale of food, so there I have a large area for counters only. It's not good from an aesthetic standpoint, but if I want to have a chance of mastering recipes simultaneously before the end of this century then there's no choice! :)
I suppose.. but I look at the dishes I don't keep as sort of an investment for gems only.. Kind of 'paying' for gems with no profit involved.
DeleteI began playing Bakery Story only a month ago, but lasted only a few weeks before I decided to focus all my energy on RS so as not to have too many 'Stories' happening at once :P
Hi Garlic Tree.
ReplyDeleteWhat a genius idea to not have a pile of gems sitting around ready to disappear in one mis-tap! Like many players, I've fallen into my fair share. And it never gives you something you want - ever-. You never get the first prize out of a box you like, or accidentally buy a lovely LTO; it always seems you waste them turning them into coins, finishing a dish that was minutes away from completion, or getting the hideous 4th prize in a box you'd never go for anyways.
As smart as it is, it is too late for me. I am close to mastery on almost everything, but I generally devote most of my appliances to a single dish until completed. I rarely ever make it over 24 gems, either due to gem traps or my decorating sickness. Oh how I wish there was a confirmation button. Or a vault.
I've made it a point to never spend real money on this game from the start. I did receive the $20 package twice as a gift from my husband. That means however, that come Black Friday, I will likely only be able to buy one thing, if anything at all!! It's a tragedy. Last BF, I bought two more gold columns and that was it. I'm hesitant to start spending money buying gems though, because I could easily go broke. :/
And though mastery may not seem as thrilling as the idea of it was back at level 20, there IS something else you could do. Since the beginning I've always wanted to get to a point where I didn't need gems or coins or had mastered all the dishes. and could cook according to the season or theme. Like nothing but Christmas dishes at Christmas, or nothing but Italian food for my current theme! But alas, I have my stoves for coin profit, and my goals ones I'm racing to mastery for the gems...leaves nothing free for spaghetti, gnocchi, lovely bruschetta, or the delightful tiramisu... Just a thought!
Have a good day!
Funnily enough in the early days I did try to cook recipes relevant to the time of year and the surroundings! I remember at Christmas in 2012 I tried to set-up a Christmas dinner of sorts, with starters, main courses, desserts and drinks all in separate areas!
DeleteIt's something I may well do again at some point, although it does take a lot of work and requires good timing to have everything served together. Blocking the door can simplify this of course, but I'm not keen to do that as it has been known to upset the system.
On a totally different subject I'd like to again compliment you on your current layout - that raised balcony in particular is a joy to behold. I've seen many a player attempt 3D scenes with a range of results - this is probably the best I've seen yet! :)
It does take a lot of work, and it would likely have to be for your own enjoyment since most visitors wouldn't notice that level of detail. If you ever decide to though, food gifts from your neighbors for a few days prior and that can help build your stock of carefully selected food without worry over running out or blocking the door. I generally don't throw out food ever either, but if it's gifted food at least I don't feel like I lost my investment. Even so I would never throw out stew, chicken or eggs, so you could use those to keep profits up, and then toss any lower earners when all your courses were ready! I think this is something I may try for the next big holiday since I've always wanted to. With consistent goals now, I dont think I'll ever reach the point where there isnt something to master, so waiting for that to happen is probably pointless for me, right?
DeleteAlso, that's very nice of you - thank you! Some days I think I only play this game for my wonderful neighbors who make me feel so talented. It makes me real-life happy to have compliments on my game creativity, for some reason.
I'm a big fan of the stair illusion that many people use now, but I've always wondered if there were more illusions possible. I've tried to do balconies before, but I think what makes this one "work" visually is the recent riverboat railing. Before, I used dividers and columns, and because the top of the column was visible, it never seemed to trick the eye as well. The railing just kind of makes it seamless. It was a lucky discovery, and I enjoy the result!
Thoroughly enough I've got 32,000 plates of Stew saved up (the maximum I believe) so will probably take your advice and give the aesthetic food idea a go. It can wait a while yet though as there are still mountains of the longer Basic Grill recipes stacked from my mastery quest as well as those less than appetising 9 Ball Cookies! :)
DeleteHello IglooMan,
ReplyDeleteI am having a hard time telling the difference between recipes I've mastered and those which require one more batch to achieve mastery. Sometimes the meter looks as though there is still a sliver of white at the end, so I cook another batch only to realize that the recipe had already been mastered.
As you can imagine, this is very annoying and a total waste of cooking time. Could you tell me if there's some way to check your mastery level more precisely or some trick to reading the meter more accurately?
I really appreciate your help. Thanks!
There's no bona fide way to check your mastery level unfortunately. It's just a case of observing the meter and making a decision. I tend to be quite conservative - if it turns out I'm two short of mastery then it's no big deal, I'd rather that than go over and earn the mastery gem unintentionally.
DeleteI've actually discussed the ambiguity of the mastery meter in the Suggestions Box before - I think it was one of the earlier entries. It's definitely something which could do with some work! :)