Lemon goals content report

With the fruity update of two weeks ago came a new set of goals, complete with a number of items only attainable by working through them.

Before we get to those items, I'd like to express a couple of thoughts on the goals themselves. Firstly, I noticed that the pricing was a little steeper than may typically be expected for goals. For the Phoebe's Bike and two of the Lemon Trees (as was required in the quest) you were looking at an outlay of 70,000 coins, and that's before we get to the two appliances at 25,000 and 20,000 coins respectively.

With the Yard Sale and Cashier Lee also being costly (even if not part of the goals) this makes for some hard work for newer players. Having been at level 99 for a long time I do generally neglect to think of the difficulties that rookies encounter, but the expensive content this time round did make me look up and take notice.

Another observation is with regards to the structure of the goals. For the first time in my experience, there were no 'sidesteps' in the quest. In other words, the goals were completely linear, with no situations arising where there were two goals active at any one time. To be honest I prefer this style as it reduces the amount of confusion and makes the journey to success more transparent.

Having got those points off my chest let's make a start with the two fresh appliances. The Sour Oven is the first encountered, and rather unusually does not start out behind a padlock. It is available to buy without finishing the opening goal. What is less unusual is that this oven holds three recipes, all of which are lemon based.

Sour Oven recipes

The Lemon Meringue really resonates with me - while I was on holiday I had a slice of lemon meringue pie one night which was larger than any dessert I have ever seen! But I still finished it!

I'm a little confused by the Lemon Blueberry. The title suggests a lemon flavoured blueberry! It could really do with the word 'cake' in its name - as it is it kind of looks awkward. However it does look tasty and that's what matters most!

To the recipe ratings, and it's the usual story...

Lemon Meringue
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	2	3	8	5	3.3

Lemon Cookies
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
7	2	3	8	5	4.7

Lemon Blueberry
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	2	3	10	5	3.9

None of these dishes are noteworthy on any level really. The only aspect worth mentioning at all is the Lemon Cookies' decent profit score - it comes in at 7th best for profit out of all 60 foods of 1 hour duration.

Otherwise there's not much to discuss, except the fact that each recipe is actually identical statistically to one from the previous goal set. The meringue matches the Lentil Soup (Stormy Stove), the cookies mirror the Beef Pho (Stormy Stove) and the cake is a clone of the Choc Oat Cookies (Windy Oven). Come on Storm8, use your imagination!

To the second new appliance, the Tart Fountain. Here's another odd name choice - there are no tarts to be found on this cooker! Only drinks and icicles are present, so it's another weird decision by the gamemakers there.

Tart Fountain recipes

The recipes are nicely designed again, although I do have niggles about the Lemonade Pops. The fruits printed on the icicles are a little unnecessary in my opinion and don't make the pops look any more appealing. Indeed I actually think they're over the top and take away from the overall appearance somewhat.

Credit where its due though - the other two are quality and continue a trend of well put together drinks. The inclusion of straws and assorted decorations on the side do add an extra dimension which is very much welcomed.

Ratings time, anyone want to guess what's coming?!

Lemonade Pops
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	2	2	10	5	3.3

Lemon Ices
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
5	3	2	8	5	4.1

Tart Berry Fizzes
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
5	3	2	8	5	4.1

That's right, more mediocrity! All three bomb, and again there's copycatting on show. The Lemonade Pops are identical to the Turkey Leg (Carnival Stove) on all the numbers, while the Lemon Ices and Tart Berry Fizzes go one step further - they both share exactly the same yields! The game's developers have gone the extra mile to be even more lazy! Surely it wouldn't have been asking for much to give the two drinks slightly differing stats?!

Even the durations of the two are the same, and moreover the recipe lengths are generally unorthodox throughout this goal set. In the past we've had something along the lines of 1/2/4 hours for the first appliance and 4/6/8 hours for the second. But in the derby day goals and these there's been an element of randomness to proceedings. The dishes haven't been arriving in ascending order of duration, nor has there been lots of variety. Of the six recipes in this collection three were of 1 hour length, resulting in some difficulty for busy players. It all looks rather messy and doesn't appear to improve the game experience, nor give the game's developers any gains.

Away from the appliances we have a very rare case of a chair unlocked in the goals, with the Lemon Barrel. The infamous glossy glass pane is in action here, although I do still quite like this stool. With the lemons packed inside I think there's scope for using this chair as a decoration in a kitchen section. Alternatively you could pretend the lemons are nuggets of gold and use it for decking out for St Patrick's Day!

The penultimate item to be uncovered is the Lemonade Sign. The rough and readiness of this floor decoration is satisfying - it goes along with the idea of a youngster setting up a lemonade stand. The use of a half lemon along the top is also a good idea, and gives the sign a unique trait.

 Summer 2015

 18/06/15 Summer solstice

 13/06/15 Lemon goals

 13/06/15 Lemon update

 27/05/15 Fishing

 29/04/15 Hawaii

Lastly is the Lemonade Stand. A 4x4 colossus, the stand features Phoebe waving to the customers to try and tempt them in for an invigorating glass of lemonade and something sweet to eat. This is a superb final prize which Storm8 have clearly taken lots of time to get right. With the assortment of cakes, buckets of lemons, colourful bunting and handwritten 'LEMONADE' sign, this is a quality decoration which I suspect will find a home in a large portion of the community's restaurants throughout the Summer.

Overall I think this goal theme was a real winner. Since Summer is covered in the game every year you do fear that the gamemakers may run out of ideas eventually, but between them the Hawaiian, fishing, and lemon updates have all offered something original and interesting. Here's hoping there's lots more winning updates to come before the Summer's out!