Game update: 14/01/15

Anyone fancy a coffee? This week in Restaurant Story we're grabbing a quick cuppa and a fancy pastry with a coffee themed update.

Notification for coffee themed update

There's a LOT to discuss within this update, so let's get straight to it with a list of all the new content:

Tables:

• Bean Table - 4 gems
• Cash Register - 25,000 coins

Chairs:

• Bean Stool - 10,000 coins

Wall decorations:

• GranGran Logo - 9,500 coins
• Chalk Menu - 15,000 coins

Floor decorations:

• Pastry Case - 18 gems
• Expresso Bar - 30 gems
• Bean Bag - 3 gems
• Open Mic - 45 gems
• Barista Phoebe - 35,000 coins
• Gold Bean Statue - 1,000,000 coins

Wallpapers:

• Coffee Print - 1 gem

Floor tiles:

• Hardwood - 4,000 coins

Counters:

• Barista Counter - 5,000 coins

Everything listed here is available at level 8, so is accessible nice and early. That's unless you're playing on Android where the update is yet to materialise. This almost certainly means there's a new version of the app upcoming, so keep your eyes peeled for that, along with the gem reward for downloading it.

Update: 'Restaurant Story : Coffee Shop' is now available on Android devices. Click here for more.

As usual the TeamLava Blog has a preview of the new stuff.

Items from update as shown on TeamLava Blog

We just have to start with the floor decorations. Specifically the Gold Bean Statue which costs one million coins! Ridiculous! The Chocolate Fountain at 2.5 million coins is the only item ever to cost more, and at least it is 4x4 in size and mega imposing. In contrast the statue is only 2x2 and depicts... a giant coffee bean. Unless you fancy shoving it next to the Art Gallery LTO and claiming to have opened a coffee exhibit this is an extraordinarily overpriced decoration.

But we're only just getting started. Four of the other floor decorations added in this update are for gems, with two of them on the heavy side. The Open Mic appears to be a 4x4 titan, including a stage filled with musical instruments and equipment as well as a young aspiring guitarist working the crowd. It's a piece with merit, even at 45 gems. If you want to offer some entertainment in your restaurant this is well worth considering. Since I've already got the backing tracks sorted at my place courtesy of the String Quartet I'm passing.

Next up is the Pastry Case which looks excellent. There's great attention to detail with the various treats on display not only looking seriously tasty but also each having its own tiny price tag. The delicacies and stack of plates on top of the cabinet only serve to add to the attraction of the case. If my diner's layout had allowed it, I'd probably have gone for this one, and may even do so in the future.

And the high levels of praise continue with the Expresso Bar. A 2x1 work station including two coffee making facilities, this is a magnificent example of an item which really belongs in a restaurant (take that Gold Bean Statue!) Again there's plenty to feast your eyes on, and the styling of the unit the machines sit on matches the new Barista Counter so you can work the two together perfectly. The price is steep at 30 gems, but there are many worse ways to blow your gems than on this decoration.

At just 3 gems, the Bean Bag is obviously a bargain in comparison, although it's fair to say you get much less for your earnings here. It's the type of item which serves to fill out an area rather than be the star of the show, and is definitely worth thinking about if you're planning on putting together a coffee section of any sort.

Now comes the twist! There is a new collection in the Collectibles section featuring these five items!

Notification for new collectibles collection

My complete collectibles guide is now out of date!

The Gold Bean Statue is the prize for 'collecting' all four of the gem buys, meaning you can procure it without the need to part with a million coins, although you'll need to spare lots of gems instead! Note that from what I've gleaned from others, there isn't a direct correlation between an item purchased and the collectible obtained - for example purchasing the Bean Bag might drop an Expresso Bar collectible. So this may reduce the number of gems you need to spend to complete the collection, although I'd definitely suggest just saving the one million coins instead!

Solid Gold Coffee Bean collectibles collection

Overall it's a slightly bizarre concept, but I am impressed by the innovation. The Collectibles section was added in September 2011 and there has never been a new collection before in all the time since, so this is revolutionary. I definitely think there is scope for more new collections in the future, but the balance definitely needs to be altered; paying a bucketload of gems for a decoration which can be bought for one million coins is just not feasible. If say two of the four pieces needed for the collection were for coins and the prize was only purchasable for gems then it would be much more appealing. Regardless it's a thumbs up for the originality!

Rounding off the new floor decorations is Barista Phoebe. Predictably I'm cock-a-hoop at the opportunity to add another member of staff to The Garlic Tree platoon, so she's hired!

Kitchen section of The Garlic Tree including Barista Phoebe

With Captain Phoebe acting as my host, I am cheating somewhat by having a second Phoebe on show, but she has to be in there to offer Action Chef Lee a cup of coffee!

Next I'd like to draw your attention to another novelty - a Cash Register! At present all of the service points for the bots in Restaurant Story are 'host tables' so this is a first. The Cash Register has been lifted straight out of Bakery Story where they are the norm for the service point, but I've got no problem with this. Offering a till in addition to the host stands gives us more choice, and like with the Expresso Bar the styling means it can be placed alongside the Barista Counter seamlessly.

That's twice I've mentioned the new counter now, and it is a good one in my view. It's quite a simple design, and this makes it useful for lots of settings, not just a coffee shop. The only slight concern I have is with the effect of placing two of them together. There's a small gap between them on the side, and this prevents a row of them from looking like a single unit. It's very picky of me which probably indicates the quality of the update as a whole that this is the first design-related complaint I've been able to come up with!

The table and chair included in this update don't really do it for me. The Bean Table and Bean Stool are shaped like a coffee bean, and look pretty poor. With the rest of the additions being so realistic in appearance it's a shame that the table and chair are from the league of fantasy.

Parity is restored though with the two wall decorations. The GranGran Logo is almost certainly taken from the Starbucks logo which has a similar look but with a green background rather than blue. I really like this item, but struggle to know where to place it. On the other hand the Chalk Menu has gone straight into my kitchen, as can be seen in the earlier screenshot. It combines brilliantly with the Aged Brick wallpaper and Tea Cup Garland I already had in place.

And my delight at the Chalk Menu comes before I even get to the fact that it is two squares long! Like with the collectible collection and cash register before it, this is a first! Never before have we had a wall decoration stretching across two wall panels, so this is a special item! Hopefully it is the first of many as I've often criticised wall décor for being too small and there's no chance of that when pieces are stretched cross multiple panels.

Last on the agenda are the new wallpaper and floor tile. I'm not keen on the Coffee Print which like the table and chair added in this update lacks the realism that everything else is oozing with. Throw in the fact that this wallpaper is 1 gem each and I'm happy to move on. The Hardwood flooring rates much better, mostly because it's not overly complicated and can be utilised in lots of scenarios. However I still prefer the much cheaper Elegant tile.

So that concludes the first act of this update. Next up the Autumn content removal takes to the stage for its second performance.

Notification for latest Autumn content removal

Last week it was revealed that selected Autumn items were to be removed over the next fortnight, with the first batch vanishing yesterday. That didn't go without a glitch, with a syncing issue meaning that players couldn't buy any of the leavers from the market for several hours on Monday without then having their buys removed from them within seconds and the funds returned. Fortunately this hiccup was dealt with pretty promptly so disruption was minimal.

This week there are 20 more Autumn themed items being pulled from the game. This is your last chance to get hold of them, and since the gamemakers are devastated to be removing them they're all on sale at 20% off. At the time of writing they're all situated in their usual positions in the market so you'll need to do plenty of tapping to find them all. So to help out here's the full list of stuff that's going:

Item	Cost	Category
Fall Forest Table	3,480 coins	Tables
Autumn Table	64,000 coins	Tables
Red Foliage	1 gem	Chairs
Autumn Chair	2 gems	Chairs
Autumn Door	16,000 coins	Wall decorations
Autumn Lights	12 gems	Wall decorations
Fall Leaf Lamp	8 gems	Wall decorations
Fallen Tree	40,000 coins	Floor decorations
Turkey Divider	2 gems	Floor decorations
Autumn Cookies	39,600 coins	Floor decorations
Falling Leaves	4,000 coins	Wallpapers
Autumn Lanterns	2 gems	Wallpapers
Fall Ivy	1 gem	Wallpapers
Autumn Squares	400 coins	Floor tiles
Autumn Floor	4,000 coins	Floor tiles
Fall Foliage	4,800 coins	Floor tiles
Red Foliage	3 gems	Counters
Fall Counter	34,000 coins	Counters
Tree Counter	35,000 coins	Counters
Horn of Plenty	20 gems	Boxes

The 20% discounts to all of these items has already been applied.

This far from covers all the Autumn decorations in the market, and considering that last week's notification referred to removals 'over the next two weeks' it appears we're not going to lose everything Autumn themed. It'll be interesting to see if the focus moves to Halloween and Christmas from the next update.

And now we move to the penultimate point of discussion, which revolves around the Yellow Coffee Maker.

Notification for special offer on Yellow Coffee Maker recipes

Presumably because it's the only existing cooker which ties in with the coffee theme, the game's developers are offering double the income and double the XP for a limited time on this appliance's recipes. There's no mention of a specific date and time that this offer ends, except that it is only running this week. So get busy while you can! This is a cool feature which follows on from the special XP deal with the Eyeball Stew back in October.

I won't apply the recipe ratings to the three drinks, but will say that they do become unbeatable when the new numbers are considered (note that the stats shown in the appliance's cookbook are the altered numbers). In particular the Coffee now becomes the best profit per hour recipe in the game by a considerable distance, while keeping the portions constant has resulted in each of the drinks offering 8 coins per plate. This is an exceptional opportunity to rake in extra coins since the only recipes normally reaping so many coins per plate are the Roast Chicken and Apple Pies, both of which are 2 day dishes.

The very last news to report is with regards to an app update on iOS.

Restaurant Story app update on iTunes Store

There's not a whole lot to say about this update, except that it returns us to the normal thumbnail and title screen instead of the Christmas variation. The 'What's New' section within iTunes claims that there are 'bug fixes' and 'performance improvements' within version 1.7.4 so there you have it!

We're done. These update posts are getting longer and longer! The only significant negative which can be attributed to this update is that there are too many of the floor decorations are for gems, but even so they are quality pieces. When you throw in some nice coin additions, a new collectibles collection, another clearly labelled removal and a big recipe boost, this update goes down as a top drawer one!