Valentine's Day 2016 goals content report

Valentine's Day is now behind us, but that doesn't mean love can't continue to flourish for a little longer! This is the goals content report for last week's lovey-dovey goal set, and begins with some comment on the quest itself.

The most striking aspect of the goals was probably the unusual timings on the recipes. The general formula is for the first appliance to give three shorter dishes (say 1, 2 and 4 hours) and the second appliance to give three longer dishes (say 3, 6 and 9 hours). But on this occasion it was the first cooker which gave the most time consuming recipe, with there being an 8 hour offering on the Cupid's Oven.

It's interesting how the playing community seem to be very split on whether longer foods are a good thing. Some will say that it means less chance of dishes spoiling, while others will say that it takes much longer to finish the goals. I guess it comes down to your playing style, but I certainly side with the latter argument - I tend to be pretty attentive with the game so flies don't pay me a visit all that often. However I can certainly see the reasoning for favouring longer durations.

Getting specific on these two appliances, there are another pair of new parts need to be accumulated if you are to construct them.

Pink Heart Knob and Yellow Heart Knob

The Pink Heart Knob and Yellow Heart Knob are the latest additions to the knob family. Storm8's lack of creativity on the parts front became tiring to discuss a good while ago, but that doesn't stop me reeling off the fact that 17 of the last 19 new parts have been some form of knob, and most of them are primitive in design, at least in my opinion.

Something which is a little more unorthodox is the inclusion of the Feather Fan Knob as one of the required parts. This is the second time it has put in a random appearance this year after being involved in the Winter goals update. Perhaps it is going to be a staple of quests from now on? It's certainly worth stocking up I reckon.

The Cupid's Oven is the first of the appliances to unlock, so let's peruse the recipes it contains.

Cupid's Oven recipes

Sadly this is another case of the game's developers producing dishes fit for a bakery. We're now approaching 600 recipes in the game's history but I find it hard to believe that we've truly exhausted all the cuisine in the world! I get the feeling that there's not a lot of thought going into the brainstorming sessions for the recipes these days, and that's pretty shocking given that they are the epicentre of the game.

Getting to the aesthetics I am a little more positive. The Heart Cake looks great with its bright pink icing. It's a distinctive effort and one which the bots won't be able to take their eyes off! And although the Kiss Cookies are served on a plain baking tray, the Love Buns more than make up for that. They are delivered as a batch inside a glass box which looks so elegant. Undoubtedly these are high-end buns (if there is such a thing!)

But which end do they land up on when it comes to the ratings?

Heart Cake
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
1	6	1	7	5	3.3

Kiss Cookies
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	7	1	10	5	4.3

Love Buns
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	6	2	10	5	4.5

It doesn't look particularly good, with a good few reds and oranges pulling these recipes down. The Heart Cake is the worst of them, and that's because within the 2 hour duration it ties for fourth worst in each of the profit and portion categories. And in a pool of 60 candidates that's dire. It's a shame because the XP score is actually quite good, but when you bomb in two of the three main factors it's a lost cause.

The Kiss Cookies and Love Buns also place closer to the bottom than the top of their respective recipe lengths, meaning we have three rather underwhelming dishes here. Incidentally the cake and cookies are identical statistically to the Caesar Salad and Italian Salad respectively, both recipes on the Salad Station. In case your wondering about the third Salad Station comparison, the Pomegranate Salad is slightly weaker than the buns, but it's two hours shorter in duration so that's to be expected! On a per hour basis the buns are well beaten.

There's not much love going around here at the moment, but maybe the Cupid's Fountain can remedy that?! Once again there are three recipes for us to pour over.

I'm just about salivating at the sight of these! I love how they are dense enough to be considered as desserts rather than drinks. There's a very strawberry, raspberry and cherry feel to them, and I can just imagine a sense of refreshment after gulping down any of them. The First Kiss Sip would be more of a messy smooch at the rate I'd down it!

Love Shake
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	4	2	7	5	3.3

First Kiss Sip
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	4	2	10	5	3.9

Pink Hot Cocoa
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	2	2	10	5	3.3

This is one of those occasions when we can make direct comparisons between dishes from the same goals update since the Love Shake and First Kiss Sip are both of the same length as their compatriots on the Cupid's Oven. And side-by-side the outlook is favourable for the drinks, although that's not difficult given how miserably the Cupid's Oven efforts performed.

Standalone, these dishes don't deserve much of a write-up, not just because of the prevalent shades of orange but also because the first two mirror existing recipes number for number. The Love Shake is identical in every way to the July Cupcakes (July Oven) while the First Kiss Sip is one of four with the same stats. That's just the height of laziness from Storm8, but it's nothing new!

So far this Valentine's date has done down like a lead balloon, but there are still a trio of floor decorations unlocked in the goals which could save it. The first you'll discover is the V-Day Bouquet, which is a tiny 1x1 sized vase of flowers. At first this may sound like a damning indictment, but I actually really like this piece. To demonstrate why, consider the following image of it alongside one of the Potted Plants which have been in the game since day one.

V-Day Bouquet compared with Potted Plant

Here you see how far the gamemakers have come in the past five years. You can blast them for dodgy designs as much as you like, but when you see comparisons such as this it does put things into perspective. This bouquet is so intricate, with several different types of flower nested among some lushly coloured leaves. Lots of effort has gone into putting this item together, and I for one really appreciate it.

Then there's the Sweetheart Basket which sees a batch of bright and sparkly hearts piled into a woven basket, complete with a pink bow. I assume the hearts are supposed to be biscuits, although the glint and the lurid colour scheme is rather off-putting. So I'm not quite so impressed with this decoration, although it's still a decent prize.

Lastly we have the Sweetheart Cafe, which is the final reward. As is to be expected with the final prize, this is a 4x4 item, and what an item at that. There's a huge white cabinet decked with hearts, and a built-in counter attached. In addition to this there's a cash register being manned by a gentleman who may well be holding a sparkly ring in one hand. Is he about to hide it in the food on the dining guy's orders to give the girl the thrill of her life?!

 Valentine's Day 2016

 14/02/16 Showcase
 13/02/16 The Garlic Tree celebrates
 10/02/16 Goals
 10/02/16 Goals update
 03/02/16 Love boats update

Indeed the happy couple enjoying a bite to eat serves to top what is a sensational decoration. It's so rich with detail and is definitely one I'll be installing for Valentine's next year if we're still in business! What might be the best thing about it is the lack of a floor attached - how often over the years have items like this one had a floor tile included? By avoiding this Storm8 have given us the freedom to make our own call on what flooring to use, and that's really good.

So the Valentine's goals stood us up with regards to the recipes, but the décor to be unlocked means this love affair gets another chance. I'd say that the quality of the content so far this year across all the updates has been high, and that's reassuring at a time when speculation is around every corner about the future of the game (I may have contributed to that!) Now we just need the game's developers to sort out the fatal glitch from the recent app update which is still preventing me from being able to play on my iPad!