Suggestions Box (May 2015)

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...

 #101: Unlock past goals for newer players

Here's a suggestion I've read many a time, and with both Zia Obi and Laura Beth leaving comments about it recently, I felt now was the time to cover it here. It would be great if Storm8 were to give re-release entire goal sets for players who either missed them or hadn't started playing at that time.

I think this is a concept which can be successful for all parties. Essentially there are three groups here who need fulfilment - the players who missed a batch of goals being re-released, the players who didn't, and the gamemakers. Clearly the first of these groups would be pleased to be given a chance to get hold of cherished goal items of the past, so that's them ticked off!

Then there are the players who slaved their way through the goals at the time of their release. I don't think most would begrudge newbies from getting a shot at the prizes, and at least they'd have to put the work in unlock everything, unlike with the recent offering of the Spring 2014 goals content.

However there are a few players who like the fact that they have exclusive items not attainable for players only now starting out. I understand this point of view, even if many do not. So this is where the third group I mentioned earlier come in - there could be a small charge for buying a goal set which would mean that the game's developers would be making something out of it, and veteran players would be able to sleep in comfort knowing that they didn't have to fork out gems for any of the content. I'm only talking of a small fee here (maybe around 10 gems) which would be reasonable for those partaking and still supplement Storm8's income.

 #102: Offer multiple tiers of a bundle

I realise that the bundles are still currently only available on iOS, but that doesn't mean I can't voice some thoughts about them! They are very expensive and consequently out of reach for a large chunk of the playing population. So I'm calling for multiple tiers to a bundle which allow everyone to consider a purchase.

Blossom Bundle

There could be three different tiers - a small collection for 20 gems which contains only a few bits and pieces, a moderate collection for 40 gems which contains a good range of items, and then the full hog for 80 gem.

I do think this could be good from a business perspective for the gamemakers. At present it's really all or nothing and although that will encourage a few to spend real money to capture the bundle, there are many more who just shrug their shoulders and move on. Offering multiple tiers would allow Storm8 to reel in a greater proportion of the community and probably make more bucks.

 #103: More recipes on Basic Grill

There's been quite a lot of talk recently on the Storm8 Forum about the lack of additions to the Basic Grill. This hadn't escaped my attention either, and after bloopbloop01 left a comment about it a short while ago, I thought I'd address it!

The Basic Grill seems to have become the neglected appliance of Restaurant Story, with no new dishes added to it since the Ribeye Steak way back in November 2013! That in itself is shocking, but wait for the next factoid: I reckon there have been 60 recipes added to the other standard appliances since the last Basic Grill addition! Ridiculous!

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 25/04/15 April 2015
 28/03/15 March 2015
 21/02/15 February 2015
 24/01/15 January 2015
 13/12/14 December 2014

I have no idea why the game's developers would choose to overlook the grill, especially when there are some of those 60 dishes would have fitted it nicely. With Summer on the way I'm definitely hoping for some new foods to pop up on the Basic Grill!

 #104: Add 'outdoor' doors

The credit for this one goes to Garden Party! Isn't it annoying when the entrance to your place is situated in an outdoor setting, meaning that your door looks completely out of place? So to deal with this we need some new 'outdoor' doors which don't look out of place in the middle of a field!

There are lots of different designs the gamemakers could put together. Here are the ones suggested by Garden Party:

A picket fence gate, or a tall ornate iron gate, or heck, even swinging saloon doors.

I'm definitely giving a hearty thumbs up to these! Some of the doors in the market at present are nice, but they don't really stand out and help make your diner special. I think that these fancy doors would do that.

 #105: More carpeted floor tiles

Once again I've got to thank a reader (and neighbour) for this suggestion - metal food came up with this one, and it stems from an excellent observation. Have you ever noticed how few carpeted floor tiles there are in the game? In fact right now there's only one, the Red Carpet, and it costs gems.

Pool section of The Garlic Tree including Red Carpet floor tile

We could really do with some additional carpets, even if they just consist of the Red Carpet repeated with different colours. I don't know if it's just because of the lovely red tone, but the Red Carpet does wonders for my pool section, and I would definitely consider other colours of carpet if available for some of my other themed zones. The preference would be for these to be up for coins of course, but releasing them for gems would be better than not having any at all!