Suggestions Box (Nov 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.

You can share your own suggestions too via the comments. If I like them, I may even include them in the next instalment!

In no particular order, here are this month's entries...

 #131: Improve yields on longer recipes

There's plenty I could complain about when it comes to recipes, but on this occasion I want to focus on the disparity between duration and yield. It has always been the case that the longer the dish the poorer it becomes statistically, in terms of profit, portions and XP gain.

In some ways this makes a bit of sense. After all shorter dishes need to be monitored more closely due to their shorter window of opportunity to serve up before going rotten. And ultimately it's in Storm8's interests to keep you logging in more regularly.

But for me that isn't enough to overcome the main problem: a longer recipe hogs your appliance for longer, and so shouldn't be significantly inferior. The more patience you display the more you should be rewarded. If anything the longer foods should have the more appealing numbers. Unless you're out of town what's the point of cooking a lengthy recipe beyond mastery if it's not going to provide at least the same goodness as a short option?

Take the example of the Bruschetta and Peking Duck on the Basic Oven. Both are unlocked at level 31, and are of 3 hour and 46 hour length respectively. Here's the comparison of their yields per hour:

Bruschetta		Peking Duck
667	Profit per hour	259
15.3	XP per hour	7.4
242	Portions per hour	80

Why oh why would you ever choose to cook the duck when life allows either choice? Whether it involves altering existing recipe stats or a change of tact with new additions, the gamemakers really need to take a look at this.

 #132: Introduce half floor tiles

One of the sections in my restaurant at Halloween has formed around the use of several different floor tiles.

Crime scene section of The Garlic Tree

Although I was very happy with the outcome, it's not what I'd describe as perfection. That's because the pool of blood in the corner has a jagged edge. This is an undesirable result of the tiles being square in shape.

What I'd like to see are half floor tiles, which only cover a diagonal half of the floor. This would allow us to form more curved shapes, and prevent the rather 'digital' border I've got above. I could imagine this being very popular, and it wouldn't necessarily require a whole new range of flooring in the market. There could be a simple toggle to switch between full and half tiles, making it nice and easy to switch between the two.

 #133: Stop adding knob parts

I've vented about this in update posts, and now it's time to let rip in the Suggestions Box! Over the course of this year there have been 15 new parts added which are a form of knob, and that includes each of the last eight.

Knob parts added in 2015

That's way too many and gives a real sense of laziness on the part of the game's developers. And when you look at some of the designs the weariness only grows. The perfect example is the McIntosh Knob which is essentially made up of an apple attached to a knob. I mean, come on!

There are enough very well designed parts in the game for us to know that Storm8 are capable of coming up with interesting parts, so they should really go back to the drawing board and apply some innovation.

 #134: Allow all items to be fully rotated

This suggestion comes from the almighty Laura Beth. At present the only items in the game which can be rotated in all four directions are chairs and selected appliances and counters. At times this can be quite debilitating as we are left unable to position items exactly how we want to.

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 31/10/15 October 2015
 26/09/15 September 2015
 29/08/15 August 2015
 25/07/15 July 2015
 29/06/15 June 2015

Take the combination of the Trick-or-Treaters and Haunted House that so many players used this past Halloween. Laura was among them and thinks it would be great to be able to rotate the Trick-or-Treaters so that they're heading towards the Haunted House rather than away from it. I completely agree - little alterations like that can completely change the dynamic of a scene and open up new possibilities.

So I ask Storm8 to start thinking about full rotation capability when they begin the process of producing an item for the game. I understand that this would require more work from the design team, but it would certainly earn many votes of approval from around the community.

 #135: Add a different tree for each season

This one came to me while I was writing the post for the goals update a couple of weeks ago. Right now there's only one proper full blown tree has been in the market, that being the Fallen Tree. From what I've seen it's a very popular decoration, and is currently being utilised considerably at my place.

Forest section of The Garlic Tree including Fallen Trees

But what would be really cool is a new tree with every season. And it could just be the same tree again and again but with smart alterations to make it relevant to the time of year. So next month the tree could be heaving with the weight of coloured lights and bobbles for Christmas. Then into next year there could be snow accumulating on branches. Come Spring there would be the beautiful blossoming and in Summer a rich tree with all manner of creatures and fruits making it home.

There are literally scores of ways to present a tree, and I strongly urge Storm8 to consider such a concept. There could even be a version of the tree which has fresh cloves of garlic hanging from it!