RS2 News (Aug 2015)

As ever it has been a busy month in Restaurant Story 2, with a number of events and goal sets keeping everyone well engaged. So let's have a review of the latest act.

We start with the Wedding Cruise Catering Event, which was released shortly before my last update. This was the fourth cruise event, and with my resources stronger than ever I felt confident of a slightly less bumpy ride this time.

Notification for Wedding Cruise Catering Event

And it looked to be running quite smoothly early doors, as I made it through the first half of the event relatively unscathed. I was even able hold back several four cruise coin dishes such as Stew and Ginger Tea for convenient moments, thus working with just two slots at a time.

But things got tricky on days six and seven with one primary cause. I found that the orders which popped up were mainly worth one or two cruise coins, which just isn't enough. I generally try to fulfil all orders as they do add up (as opposed to unprogressive refreshes), but the absence of any higher scoring foods meant I just wasn't moving the meter enough. Having read of the woes of others on the Storm8 Forum, it appears I wasn't alone, with many players finding an unfavourable lie of the land at this stage of proceedings. A coincidence? Or a sneaky nugget of misfortune from the gamemakers? Hmm.

By the final day I was becoming 'gaming fatigued'. A constant source of gem production was at stake, but my inattentiveness and incompetence led me down a dangerous path which could have been calamitous. Both Quiche and Antipasto Platter were taken on when I clearly didn't have enough Peppers in reserve, and this led to many unproductive hours of waiting.

Something else which made things harder for me was the shortage of ingredient based orders. They were less prevalent than usual in this event, and consequently stashes of the likes of Mayonnaise and Salmon were taking up valuable space in my Pantry which it turned out would have been better utilised for other ingredients.

Despite my struggles, I did finish the event on the final evening, although 31 Quick Serves did need to be sacrificed in the process. I'm finding that Quick Serves are easy to accumulate since I don't use them at any other time, so this wasn't too much of a loss.

The reward for those of us who made it to the end was the Wedding Cake recipe which is based on the Celebration Stove.

Unlocking of Wedding Cake

With eight Cake Toppers needed to cook it and Alejandro the Groom only stopping by with one or two every few hours, it's a slow operation. But I have received 15 gems for serving the cake a couple of times, meaning it's definitely worth the wait.

Having survived the stress of the cruise event, our next task was the Christmas in July goals. I've seen so many folks suggest such a theme for the original game over the years, so it was satisfying to see it included in the sequel.

Introduction to Christmas in July goals

However I'm not all that impressed by the decorations which were up for grabs. For Christmas in July I hope for a twist on the festive stuff, such as Santa at the beach. Instead it was standard Christmas content being stirred up, and some of it was actually re-released from last Christmas when the game was first on the go.

To add to the indifference, the recipe added for these goals wasn't exactly of the festive variety - the Chicken Quesadilla was found on the Commercial Range and required Tortillas and Seasoning as ingredients. The Tortilla needed 3 Flour and 6 Eggs to prep on the Diner Stove (the first time that six of an ingredient has been needed for anything) while the Seasoning was dropped from serving water to customers.

So the procedure for the Quesadilla was lengthy, and its inclusion on the Commercial Range also posed a challenge. There were two limited time recipes - the Appetizer Plate and Steak Madeira - which were added alongside the cruise event, and both were also on the Commercial Range. So to master both of those and complete the Christmas in July goals was a challenge.

 RS2 News

 18/07/15 July 2015
 20/06/15 June 2015
 02/05/15 May 2015
 11/04/15 April 2015

One bonus for many players was a broken mastery counter in the goals. As you'd expect, the Chicken Quesadilla needed to be mastered to all three levels, but the relevant parts in the goals were auto-completed, meaning mastery was not necessary! This was soon remedied and so those like myself who hadn't been quick enough still had to complete the goals the long way round.

Another plus point with this goal set was the lack of Sugar required. Sugar seems to have been in high demand for the numerous tasks we've had, so it was a pleasant change to be able to utilise it for other recipes, particularly the gem earners.

After several days of rest, Christmas in July was followed up by the Bon Festival goals. A Japanese tradition, these goals gave everyone the opportunity to get hold of some really pretty Far Eastern decorations via two separate strands.

A new feature in these goals was limited time ingredients which were placed in the Market. The Butcher and Seafood Shop both had special ingredients which didn't count towards your Pantry capacity.

Seafood Shop with limited time ingredients

This was both a sensible and convenient decision by the game's developers, and saved us from an extra stressful experience!

Four new proper recipes were involved in the goals across the Diner Stove and Salad Bar. I believe this is the first time the Salad Bar has been involved in goals, reflecting the higher level needed to make progress. Indeed I think the goals were designed so that the higher level was only necessary for one of the strands - the other could be completed without the Salad Bar or Seafood Shop.

The bots were still involved to some extent, with Kyoko dropping by with generous helpings of Soy Sauce and Wasabi Roots which were needed for two new basic dishes which themselves fed into the proper recipes. Normal service was resumed with Sugar in high demand, while Ginger was also significant. This last fact proved a stumbling block for many with their Garden not producing enough of it. As a result Storm8 stepped in and armed Kyoko with Ginger on occasion when she visited.

The end of this goal set was reached quite easily for me, and that was without using much Mastery Spice either. Building my second Salad Bar during the quest certainly helped things along! Reaching the climax meant two more permanent recipes in the shape of the Ramen and California Roll. As much as I enjoy earning new dishes, it is a little frustrating that all those involved in the goals are removed when the timer runs out. Surely it wouldn't be that much to ask to leave them around (even if we have mastered them) - after all I'm sure plenty of time and effort was put in to designing them.

Those Japanese goals expired a couple of days ago, and at the time of writing there's been nothing else other than a number of goal strands designed for those working up through the levels and learning recipes. These don't have a time limit attached so there's nothing to worry about with them. However I am on holiday at present so it could be that it's all kicking off right now and I wouldn't know! Whatever the case I'll be rounding it all up in another news post next month!