But we start with the Mother's Day goals, which were just getting under way when I penned my last summary. This was a very different event in that it almost entirely comprised collecting a single item. Bouquets were the object on everyone's mind for a fortnight, with them popping up nearly every time you cooked a recipe. The number varied between dishes, so part of the trick was to act the detective and unearth which recipes were the biggest producers.
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| Step in Mother's Day goals |
But there were other ways to collect Bouquets too. The first was by completing side goals that simply required certain appliances to be cooked on a set number of times. Doing so would result in a Wildflower being dropped, and these were invaluable. Using Emma's Flower Stand, these could be converted into 100 Bouquets - a real boost to your progress.
Speaking of Emma, she was the special guest that came with this challenge, and visited every two hours to deposit further Bouquets. This was a great source of controversy since the number dropped depended hugely upon your level. The equation was thus: the lower the level, the more the Bouquets. And this formula only strengthened at level 56 - anyone from that rung of the ladder or higher received almost exclusively just one Bouquet from each visit.
Now a level 60 player, I suffered massively with this. The highest drop I had in two weeks was 25 Bouquets, and that only happened twice. Otherwise there was a bundle of five every so often and the rest were a measly one. I realise that those at higher levels have more resources and therefore can gather more Bouquets, but the disparity here was just astounding.
Despite this difficulty, I did manage to finish the day before the deadline, and that was with having eased off the gas in the final few days too. The prize was Emma's Cream Scones, the second entry on the Jubilee Oven, which is now clearly taking over from the Celebration Stove as the home of reward recipes.
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| Emma's Cream Scones prize in Mother's Day goals |
Overall I did enjoy this new format of event. The ability to cook freestyle throughout the fortnight without having to worry about preserving certain ingredients and following a list of objectives was liberating, and I even made the most of the respite by preparing specific dishes of particular interest to me. Many short foods were among the most potent when it came to Bouquet drops, so foods such as the Sugar Cookies and Margherita Pizza were put together much more than they usually would be at my place - this has done wonders for furthering me along the path to mastering these recipes.
There was a downside to this mass cooking exercise though, and that was a lack of counter space. If I could change just one thing about the game it may well be scrapping the limit on counters. The constant cooking meant that my counters were fit to burst throughout the duration of the goals. What had at first appeared to be an opportunity to make a wide selection of stuff for two weeks ended up with several recipes becoming the go to dishes. The likes of the Strawberry Smoothie was piling up significantly, with over 23,000 plates cramping my style.
Luckily there was a new cruise just around the corner which would give us a chance to part with some of these monster volumes. The Mad Tea Party Cruise Catering Event was the sixth straight cruise challenge to offer a gem making recipe as its final prize.
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| Notification for Mad Tea Party Cruise Catering Event |
Not since the Snowy Oven that came with the Christmas cruise have we had a fresh appliance as the end reward, and I for one am delighted at that. The gem producing dishes are so much more valuable, and give me a real sense of control over my destiny.
In this case it was the Mad Cup-o-Tea on the Jubilee Oven which we were striving to unlock, along with plenty of other content along the way. The decorations introduced with this event were quite zany, with the Kind Caterpillar and Mad Hatter's Lamp among the weird and wonderful additions. These pieces were not really my cup of tea (take a bow son!) but I know of plenty of players who do like this sort of stuff. I've seen it longed for and warmly received in both Restaurant Story and Bakery Story, although I doubt I'll ever utilise most of it.
Despite my reservations with regards to the decorations up for grabs, I did finish the cruise with ease. There wasn't even any drama to report, with a nice flow of three and four cruise coiners helping make my progress as smooth as could possibly be. Sometimes these high earners can be lacking in appearances which slows you down big time no matter how focused and attentive you are.
Slap bang in the middle of this cruise there was another feature docked in Restaurant Story 2. The Festival Stove appeared out of nowhere on the middle Friday, and promised a new generator of gems.
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| Notification for sale on new Festive Stove |
Intially costing 800 gems, it was revealed on the Storm8 Forum that this was only the introductory price, which was 50% off! Sure enough, this stove now markets at a whopping 1,600 gems. So is it worth it? Well, there is only one recipe within, that being the Five Spice Chicken. But unlike any food before it, this chicken earns gems without requiring a special ingredient to be delivered by a guest.
Just Chicken and Cheese is needed, but excruciatingly this is a 24 hour recipe. And it's gem drops are either one or ten, with nothing in-between. To date very few players appear to have parted with their gem stash, and as a result we can't really draw any conclusions on the rate of gem flow. If the split was relatively even then you'd be looking at a return on investment of almost five months (assuming you bought the Festive Stove at the discounted price!)
That's a fair result if you're a long-time player and plan to continue to be. Plus there's always scope for more treats to be added to the stove in the future. But I didn't take the chance. I have more than enough gems (in fact I've nearly got enough to buy one at full price!) but it's just too much. I doubt the split is as equal as I postulated above, and it wouldn't take much of a swing towards the 1 gem drop for the return on investment to rise substantially.
And there's one final point as well - the 24 hour cooking time leaves no margin for error. Inevitably you'll suffer a lag over time, and will occasionally miss a day's collection. So in reality you won't get that gem(s) banked every day of the year! That's what makes the 22 hour 'day' in Restaurant Story so compelling - you don't have to return to your game at exactly the same moment the next day to serve your food. Clocking in a little early won't count against you.
Enough of that though. Let's trundle on with the goal set that followed the Mad Tea Party cruise. The Crepe goals are just over halfway through at the time of writing, and are among the more simple event formats we've had.
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| Message in crepe goals |
It's not quite as simple as collecting Bouquets, but with the visiting special character not being all that crucial to success, it all comes down to cooking crepes. Pierre is kind enough to pop by every 90 minutes or so, but all he does is deliver one or two bags of Buckwheat Flour. The reason this isn't too important is that this flour can be bought at the General Store. For someone like me who has the maximum of six on the reload, this makes Pierre's contribution paltry.
The Commercial Range and Chateau Stove are where the magic happens, with the Crepe Batter on the former particularly influential. This is where your Buckwheat Flour comes in, and the batter is then used as a feeder ingredient for four different crepe recipes. The first two are the Simple Breakfast Crepe and Chicken Curry Crepe, both on the Commercial Range.
Having these on the same cooker as the Crepe Batter is obviously a cruel move by the gamemakers, but it does add to the challenge. Throw in the fact that the Chicken Curry Crepe requires four Potatoes to make and you've got yourself plenty to think about.
RS2 News
07/05/16 May 2016
02/04/16 April 2016
05/03/16 March 2016
06/02/16 February 2016
09/01/16 January 2016
02/04/16 April 2016
05/03/16 March 2016
06/02/16 February 2016
09/01/16 January 2016
But that's just the beginning! The Chateau Stove houses the Ultimate Breakfast Crepe and Mushroom Crepe, with the related goal strand for these only available to those at level 35 and above. For the first time in a standard event, Storm8 have given us a real challenge with some of their choices of ingredients. Not only is the Crepe Batter required but also Butter, Mushrooms, Onions and Mayonnaise. Each of these has a long reload time - especially the Butter and Mushrooms. It's in situations like these where a large Street Market would be extremely handy!
And yet behind all this trickiness is a relatively simple goal set. Just two appliances involved, just one feeder ingredient and just one source outside of the General Store for getting hold of the new basic ingredient. Sometimes I feel that the game's developers really overdo the events, with too many factors to take into account. You do wonder how players who don't frequent the Storm8 Forum could cope! But this particular challenge was nice and streamlined, and the same could mostly be said for the Mother's Day event too.
So all in all it's been a good month in Restaurant Story 2. Well, almost. Before I depart I'm obliged to show you the latest revamp I've done to my diner, The Onion Bush:
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| Zoo theme at The Onion Bush |
With so many animals having cropped up as rewards for completing various goals in recent months I felt there was enough to have a go at making a zoo theme. Doing it completely on the hoof, I can't say I'm that happy with the outcome. It's all a bit higglety-pigglety with not much organisation. And that shows with my customer flow - having not initially given much thought to the position of tables and chairs, I ended up only managing to wedge in 11, and they're not all accessible. This has had a noticeable effect on the rate my counters empty at, and also mean I have to wait much longer for all the special visitors to put in an appearance when first opening the game. A trip back to the drawing board is required!
That's enough for this month's report - it's amazing home time crepes up on you!
(I've provided some truly dreadful puns on here over the years but this probably tops the lot!)
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