Suggestions Box (Dec 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...

 #76: Unlock remaining Christmas recipes

A couple of weeks ago we got a really nice surprise when two of the long locked recipes on the Basic Oven were made available for a few days, and they've been brought back again this week since it was impossible to master both in the original time-frame. But why have only two of the padlocked dishes been re-released?

Locked Christmas recipes which are still to be re-released

There are five recipes from the Christmas 2011 goals which those of us who weren't around back then have looked at with longing for up to three years. The Fruitcake and Holiday Ham are also Basic Oven foods, while the Apple Cider is found on the Drink Machine but suffers with the same lack of availability.

It would be fantastic if TeamLava could offer these old goal dishes for a limited time like they've done with the Prime Rib and Stuffing. Moreover, it would be lovely to get some of the completely removed foods brought back. I'm thinking here of recipes like the Gingerbread House and appliances such as the Holiday Drink Machine. I've dealt with most of these, but there are plenty of players who haven't!

 #77: Remove neighbour visit window

Thanks to Erdmännchen for coming up with this suggestion!

Every time you visit a neighbour for the first time that day, there's a window pops up with a little bonus for taking the time to travel to a pal.

Neighbour visit bonus window

This might seem a cool touch by the gamemakers, but when visiting a lot of neighbours back-to-back the window does become irritating as it needs to be dismissed every time. There are a few ways this gripe could be remedied without stopping the bonuses. One option is to only have a bonus after a certain number of neighbours are visited, with that bonus being bigger to counterbalance the lower frequency. Or we could have a small pop up at the top or bottom of the screen indicating the bonus but which doesn't need to be dismissed.

Sorting this out would make the process of doing the neighbour rounds so much smoother!

 #78: Provide a counter for gifts accepted each day

You can only receive 20 gifts per day, so when you've reached the limit no further gifts will come your way. This is an issue for me, as I find some part gifts more useful than food and would like to be selective.

A counter somewhere showing the number of gifts you've accepted so far in the day (or conversely the number of gifts you can still accept) would be much appreciated. I'm too lazy to keep a running total myself, so this counter would provide a good indicator of whether I can afford to accept a food gift a couple of hours before bedtime. If I've still got a few gift slots open then I'll accept; if I've only got one slot remaining then I'll reject in hope of a part gift coming in before the day is out.

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 15/11/14 November 2014
 18/10/14 October 2014
 20/09/14 September 2014
 23/08/14 August 2014
 26/07/14 July 2014

This feature would really pay off at times like right now when goals are in progress. If there are two parts involved in the goals with one I need more at that moment, and the one which is less critical is gifted to me, what should I do? With the counter I can assess whether I can afford to accept the less important part and still have adequate slots available for the more important one. The Snowflakes and Holly Screwdriver have driven me up the wall this week!

 #79: Alter effect of placing removed and box items

When a removed item or a box item is brought out of storage and placed in you restaurant, the market resets to the start of the relevant tab. This is a nasty bug, and should be addressed.

It's a problem which only really gets on my nerves when placing multiples of the same decoration (usually tables, chairs or counters). Having to tap through the market repeatedly to return to the item again is a pain, and is totally unnecessary. There's obviously a hole in the coding for the game that is causing the reset, and I'm sure it wouldn't require a lot of work to get that fixed.

This issue has made decorating for Christmas (for which I have lots of removed content) a lot harder work than it needs to be!

 #80: Provide a special sale at New Year

I didn't originally plan to discuss this, but the Black Friday fiasco forced my hand. Last month's big weekend of sales for Thanksgiving was a complete mess, with the timer on the Black Friday items being displayed incorrectly and the range of content not satisfying a lot of players.

Autumn Cupcake Stand limited time offer
showing incorrect timer

I urge TeamLava to demonstrate that they care about their customers by providing another sale heading into the New Year. Maybe a 2014 rewind on New Year's Eve? I would have requested it on Boxing Day or earlier, but fear this would mean another sale skewed toward Christmas content. I'd like to see a wide range of stuff being offered which will see us decorating with glee well into 2015.

Is this too much to ask for? I don't think it is. There was a similar sale in the week of Christmas in 2012 so there is a tiny chance. Ultimately I'm probably begging in vein here, but having witnessed a lot of fury (some justified and some outright embarrassing) since the Black Friday mayhem, I think a New Year sale could go a long way to repairing some of the damage that has been inflicted.

Plus the game's developers should think about all those iTunes and Google Play gift cards everyone will be finding in their stocking on Christmas morning!