Halloween 2014 goals content report

Last Wednesday not only saw the first Halloween update of October, but also a fresh goal set for your playing pleasure. Within the goals there were a range of decorations, appliances and recipes to uncover, and here I shall inspect each of them.

We begin this probing with the final goal prize, the Trick or Treater. This is a 4x4 item, and stands tall in my outdoor section:

Trick or Treater in The Garlic Tree

I'm not sure what to make of this decoration. The characters in their variety of costumes are cute, the large tree is good, and the flying bats are clever. But I'm not too fond of the mailbox, nor the white fencing. These serve to restrict the scope of how you can realistically place the item as it effectively renders it a product of the front garden. I'd rather have it without the mailbox and fencing - then we could have it situated in any outdoor set-up.

Taking this a little further, wouldn't it have been cool to have each of the components of the Trick or Treater as a separate goal prize? So each of the bots would be a goal prize of their own along with the tree and the bats. Then we'd feel like we were putting together a jigsaw as we worked through the goals, plus we'd be able to place the variety of items wherever we fancied rather than having them all fixed together. Just my take!

To be positive, I do give TeamLava credit for not including a flooring attached to the Trick or Treater. This is something which has ruined some of the goal content in the past, but has been absent in the last two final goal prizes (with previous one being the Pizza Toss).

 Halloween 2014

 08/10/14 Goals

 08/10/14 Intial update

Also shown in the above image is the Cemetery Archway. This piece is nice, with the colouring giving an impression that the brickwork is weathered and rotting. All good for a cemetery entrance. It looks particularly pleasing when aligned with the recently added Wall Hedge. As has been the way previously with arches, the negative point comes from the customers not being able to walk under it. But then again, why would they want to!

A slightly less obvious downer I'd like to flag up with the archway is it being 2x1. A strange complaint you may think. But the problem here is that I have to have two rows of flooring in my path going under the archway instead of one, otherwise the archway would be off to one side. It's no biggie, but it does make the path look a bit chunky.

On a more general note, the Cemetery Archway serves to heighten my existing frustration when it comes to graveyard themed content. A cemetery is pretty much the ultimate Halloween-style theme for an outdoor area, so is what I'd love to set up with. But this archway is the only addition which really falls into the category, leaving me struggling to populate my garden zone.

There was actually a graveyard collection in one of the Halloween updates last year, so I guess I should have invested while I could, but then again I didn't have a dedicated outdoor section at that time so wouldn't have ever thought to stock up. Plus that update was on the expensive side, so it's not exactly surprising that I didn't make any purchases. But if the Graveyard Table or Tombstone Counter were to return I'd be first in the queue (hope you're listening TeamLava!)

Getting back on track, the last of the floor decorations unlockable in the goals is the Vampire Waiter. I've got absolutely no bones to pick here! Figurines are always welcomed at The Garlic Tree, even if they've got a dark side! This one is a stereotypical vampire, except he's holding a tray of cocktails (I wouldn't dare try them!) If you've got the Zombie Waiter from previous Halloweens then these two make quite a pair.

Now we reach the two new appliances. The first to become accessible is the Haunted Oven. It's not the most inspired of titles, but never mind. Indeed it's not the most aesthetically pleasing of cookers either, with it basically consisting of a haunted house with a grill slapped on top. The Witch's Cauldron is much more creative, although there was a very similar appliance of the same name in Bakery Story in 2013! That's a different game though, and I have argued in favour of having relevant content from Bakery making its way to Restaurant Story in the past, so it's fine with me.

All that remains now are the six dishes found on the two appliances. We start with the Haunted Oven's offerings:

Haunted Oven recipes

Here are the associated recipe ratings:

Pumpkin Pepper
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
1	7	1	7	5	3.6

Franken-Pepper
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	7	1	10	5	4.3

Monster Pepper
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	3	2	10	5	3.6

As is the norm with goal foods, the numbers don't generally make for pleasant reading. All three recipes perform really badly for profit and portions, with only the XP gain being notable. The Pumpkin Pepper is actually the fourth best XP maker among 2 hour dishes, and the Franken-Pepper is ninth among 4 hour efforts (from 60 candidates).

At least these three all look good. For the average theme I'd be complaining about the use of bright colour and lack of refinement, but for Halloween it's no problem. I particularly like the bizarre faces displayed by the Monster Pepper. And the purple plates are a clever touch - again the bold colour is ideal for Halloween fun, and goes particularly well with the orange on the foods.

We now move on to the Witch's Cauldron:

Witch's Cauldron recipes

And with a strong stench of inevitability, here are the recipe ratings:

Spider Cider
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	7	1	10	5	4.3

Candy Corn Slushies
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	3	1	10	5	3.1

Pumpkin Punch
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	7	1	10	5	4.3

Before I drop some negatives, allow me to eulogise about the addition of a slushie! To think that we've not had a slushie previously and it's taken this long to get one is shocking, but at least we're sorted now! And this time the drinks are placed on purple napkins. Initially I thought this was a new feature, but a quick check indicates that the Sphinx Fountain's drinks from the Ancient Egyptian goals also had napkins included. But because they were white they didn't show up on the white background too well!

Statistically it's thumbs down again. Indeed the Spider Cider is almost identical to the Franken-Pepper. This makes it a decent XP provider if nothing else, and the Pumpkin Punch is likewise a solid XP recipe, with the seventh best from a pool of 53 dishes of 8 hour length. The Candy Corn Slushies would also have been in the green for XP if it weren't for the total domination by the Technicolor Cake (Basic Oven) when it comes to the 6 hour duration. The same reasoning applies for the Monster Pepper.

There you go then. The countdown to Halloween 2014 is very much on, and we've got a real mix of the good, the bad, and the downright spooky to play with. Hopefully there will be lots more to come in the next two or three updates, including a re-release of some of the delights which have adorned previous Halloweens. Especially the Haunted House, which I and other are desperate to pick up!