Game update: 18/11/15

Thanksgiving is a week tomorrow, and you can get ready for it with this latest update.

With eight new items added, there's plenty to get our teeth stuck into, all of which is available at level 22. Let's have one of those traditional lists...

Tables:

• Hay Bale - 6,000 coins

Chairs:

• Acorn Stool - 4 gems

Wall decorations:

• Colorful Corn - 4,600 coins

Floor decorations:

• Cookin' Mama - 30 gems
• Turkey Apron - 10 gems
• Rustic Turkey - 18,000 coins
• Family Feast - 50,000 coins

Appliances:

• Antique Oven - 45,000 coins

I have to say I was fully expecting a box this week, so to open the game up and find a regular update is a pleasant surprise. It means we're going to have five consecutive weeks without a box, which hasn't happened since the great box drought of the first half of 2015. You'd expect this to change next Wednesday, but considering next week is Black Friday week, I doubt many will be too worried about that!

So what do we have? Well, once again is feels like only half an update, with no wallpaper or flooring added. This doesn't bother me too much on this occasion since I've got a decent selection of Autumn and Thanksgiving wallpapers and floor tiles in storage. But there are plenty of newer players who are not so fortunate, and it would have been nice to have had something for them.

For a good look at everything in this update, check out this image from the Storm8 Blog:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

At least there are four floor decorations have been introduced. And the biggest of them is for coins! The Family Feast comes at 50,000 coins and features four bots tucking into a big Thanksgiving meal. What I love most about this item is that it seems to actually be based in a restaurant: there's a waitress in apron offering up bread, and there's a trolley on the side with bottles and cans of fizzy drink.

Most of the feast based décor we've had has been the same rectangular format rehashed over and over, and don't actually tie into a diner. The Family Feast does though, and it has some great details to go with it. Apart from the waitress and trolley already mentioned, each bot is sipping away at a glass of juice, and there's even a box of tissues on the table. Now that's detail!

And yet I'm not going to utilise this item. The fact it has an orange flooring attached does it no favours, but ultimately the reason for my shunning is down to the Thanksgiving Feast. A goal prize from last year, this is also a 4x4 piece, and although it follows the style of the standard meal around a table, it does have all the right colours to blend in with my chosen surroundings. So the Family Feast misses out - that doesn't mean I haven't bought it with 2016 in mind though!

 Autumn 2015

 18/11/15 Goals content report
 11/11/15 Goals
 11/11/15 Goals update
 04/11/15 Leafy update
 16/09/15 Fall Harvest box update

Now to the other end of the pricing spectrum. The addition I was most looking forward to based on the teaser was Cookin' Mama. It's so refreshing to get a new character who isn't simply Phoebe modelling a new outfit, and this girl looks nice. She's got (by Restaurant Story standards) an intricate hairstyle, and is carrying the roast turkey in a tray. Complete with her Autumn apron, she looks thoroughly chuffed with her efforts in the kitchen.

But in reality she's just delighted to be valued at 30 gems. Excuse me, 30 gems?! Yep, you heard it right. Thirty gems for a 1x1 item which alone won't be able to make your restaurant the envy of the world. We had a similar situation earlier in the year when Key West Gran-Gran was released for 20 gems, but that was a little different as we were finally getting hold of a key figure in the game after years of waiting. There's no way I'd part with 30 gems for a diminutive decoration like the Cookin' Mama, no matter how good her cooking is.

But hey, if you like the Cookin' Mama's apron you can always buy it separately! The Turkey Apron is another gem buy at 10 gems. It's obviously a follow-up to the Apple Apron added last week, and with them together you can start assembling a shop front. Not sure how that's useful in a restaurant, but there you have it. Again I don't think this decoration represents value, especially when it'll be so hard to fit in.

The last of the floor decorations introduced this week is the Rustic Turkey, and mercifully it's available for coins. However I'm not all that impressed. For some reason Storm8 have decided to give it a grey body and stand it on a grey plinth. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be a statue rather than a living creature, but I don't like it. Why could they not have just let it be traditional colours? It wasn't difficult to achieve in Bakery Story...

Thankful Turkeys in Bakery Story

Above is the Thankful Turkey which was added to the sister game last week. It's exactly what you'd expect from a turkey decoration, and doesn't include the unnecessary base the Rustic Turkey has to stand on. Wow, I'm in a foul mood!

Luckily the Hay Bale table will cheer me up. This table is shaped like a hay bale and has many Autumn leaves scattered on and around it. It looks more like a hay bale than a table, and that leaves me kind of wishing it was a floor decoration. But that doesn't mean it can't be used for decorative purposes, and I'm sure many players will be adding it to their arsenal. I've not got a space for it right now but, like with the Family Feast, can envisage utilising it in the future.

Sadly the chair that goes with the table essentially doesn't. The Acorn Stool ties a few other chairs as the most expensive in the game at 4 gems each, and doesn't exactly steal the scene. The seat itself is shaped like an acorn, and apart from that it really doesn't offer much. Something more connected to the Hay Bale table would have been preferred.

The new wall decoration is the Colorful Corn, and consists of three corns tied with a red bow and hung on the wall. It's quite simple in design, but looks decent enough. I like how the gamemakers decided to have the withered strands at the top curling over. A nice touch which makes this piece all the more realistic. I can certainly see myself using the Colorful Corn in the gardening style theme I'm planning in the Spring.

All that remains now is the new appliance. The Antique Oven is thankfully much cheaper than the Autumn Oven was a fortnight ago, but it still requires a new part.

Feather Fan Knob

You need 5 Brass Diverters, 5 Feather Fan Knobs and 5 Apple Pie Knobs to build this oven, with the second of these a new part. It goes without saying that I'm sick of getting so many new parts, and it's especially true when it's one so specialised as this - I doubt we'll be needing Feather Fan Knobs again any time soon! However at least the Apple Pie Knob is being called for again, and there's no Mallet in sight!

I really like the appearance of this appliance. It's got a traditional feel to it with the old-fashioned wood burner, and definitely looks better than some of the garish cookers we already have (oh Granny your stoves are so green!)

There are three fresh recipes waiting to be discovered on the Antique Oven:

Antique Oven recipes

I really like the ramekin the Cranberry Sauce is served up in. The grooves on the side bring me back to the Crème Brûlée on the Basic Stove which I haven't cooked for a very long time. As for the Spiral Ham, I had to consult the world wide web for info - it turns out it gets its name from the way it is cut, in one continuous spiral. I'm always learning!

Let's have some ratings for these dishes:

Cranberry Sauce
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	4	3	10	8	4.6

Mash Sweet Potatoes
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	5	4	10	8	5.1

Spiral Ham
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	2	4	10	8	4.2

First and foremost, the game's developers have again successfully came up with three recipes each with unique statistics. Following on from the goal dishes, this is definite progress, and I hope it continues.

All three foods perform okay, but nothing more. They don't completely bomb on profit and portions, nor do they struggle on the XP front (the Spiral Ham's score suffers from being in the same duration as the exceptional Technicolor Cake). Yet at the same time none of them stand out either, with their mediocre scores reflecting this.

And so we reach the end of this Autumn adventure. Generally I think this Autumn has been fairly good in Restaurant Story, with four updates sandwiching Halloween. That's more than we had last year, and with a decent box, that wonderful Leaves floor tile and a content heavy goals update, I reckon we've done pretty well. Let's just hope that it's capped in style next week...