Wednesday 24 June 2015

Game update: 24/06/15

The latest update is boxed up!

Notification for Roses Crate

The Rose Crate costs 24 gems and is this week's solitary addition. Upon opening it, you'll receive one of nine possible items, some of which are more difficult to obtain than others.

The Storm8 Blog has a picture which includes some of the box's contents:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

Update: Stormie's Store now has all this stuff on show! The Rose Kitchen consists of all of the chopping girl, rug and all the cookers and counters. Quite the item for a second prize!

It's difficult to say, but I reckon that between them the notification and this image cover all the decorations hidden in the box. The only tricky deduction is with regards to the area the Rose Kitchen (named on the Storm8 Blog) is located in. There are seven individual items outside of this area, which leads me to believe that this lot corresponds to two pieces (if there are nine in total!)

Since the chopping girl appears to be standing on the pink rug, you'd assume they are all part of the same decoration. But items generally only fill rectangular spaces on the floor, meaning that the counter with rosé wine must come with the girl and rug! Yet the way the counters all merge together make this seem unlikely. So I'm left scratching my head!

As a result the following distribution list is incomplete - I've decided to leave out the indistinguishable prizes discussed above.

First Prize (1% chance)
  • Rose Garden
Second Prize (10% chance)
  • Rose Kitchen
  • Rose Tea
Third Prize (35% chance)
  • Rose Divider
  • Rose Queen
Fourth Prize (54% chance)
  • Rose Cake
  • Rose Candles
  • Rose Display

So what of the design of all this décor? This box does fit in well with the plentiful gardening based updates over the last couple of months, including the Tulip Crate released at the start of May. Perhaps there's going to be a flower themed box for each season?

Looking at individual items, the Rose Garden is a solid first prize. I'm not sure if it is supposed to resemble a wedding scene (what with the hint of romance and the large cake) but it certainly puts me in mind of the Spring Wedding floor decoration. It also has roses included, so could complement this prize well if you're lucky enough to land it and have gems leftover.

The Rose Display also reminds me of existing gardening content, none more so than the Container Garden. We've definitely got enough stuff now to really go to town with a gardening theme if you fancy it. This stand is a nice piece - I particularly like the detail of the fallen petals on the floor.

The only other addition I really favour is the one with the girl chopping. I'm not exactly sure what she's cutting up (could it be lemons?!) but regardless I do tend to enjoy items which show food preparation.

 Summer 2015
 22/06/15 Lemon goals content report
 18/06/15 Summer solstice
 13/06/15 Lemon goals
 13/06/15 Lemon update
 27/05/15 Fishing
 29/04/15 Hawaii

The Rose Queen looks good with her flowery dress, but is not worth the 24 gem investment. The same goes for several other decorations such as the Rose Tea and Rose Cake. They are the type of items which make me so wary of boxes - I'd be disappointed to receive any of these and feel that my gems are better spent on less risky stuff.

The last note I wish to make on this box is on the subject of the Rose Divider. We've had a divider included in a box a couple of times previously, and I think it's ridiculous. What use is one divider? You really need a row of them to do any dividing, and that would no doubt mean parting with hundreds of gems. Do the game's developers really believe anyone would do that? Maybe I underestimate the players - there are probably a few individuals out there who have the money do this, but it doesn't exactly curry favour with the majority of the community.

Overall I think this is an okay box. That's not close to enough for me to purchase it, but I'm sure there will be plenty of folks who do. It's got some quality prizes, but not that magical feel I require to go for it.

In the absence of any other new content, we've reached the end of the analysis! I've discussed it often enough, but it would be such an improvement if Storm8 were to include something for non-box players in these weeks, even if only a fresh recipe or two. I understand that not doing so puts all the focus on the box and may increase gem buys consequently, but it doesn't exactly satisfy a large portion of the playing population.

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