Suggestions Box (Aug 2016)

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...

 #176: Make final goal prizes for coins

Over the last few months many players, including blog regular Nibbles and Noms, have expressed their displeasure at additional copies of the final prize in goal sets costing gems. Although historically there have been a few exceptions, the climactic prize is generally available for coins. But in recent months this has been turned upside down, with the last five quests ending with a floor decoration which is marketed for gems.

Recent final goal prizes - all for gems

The game's developers really need to reconsider this change of tact. Unlike your typical item, goal prizes have to be worked for, and thus it's not really fair to expect players to cough up premium currency in order to purchase multiples. Especially when we're talking high numbers of gems.

In many cases only one of a prize is really necessary (such as with the Beekeeper Cafe) whereas in other cases multiples might be very useful (such as with the Camp Tent) but this is all besides the point. On principle Storm8 should not be looking to profit from players' hard work to complete goals.

 #177: Bypass stored items when buying

When buying content in the market that you've nabbed before, you have to place all the already purchased copies before being able to pick up new editions. That's usually a fair system, but there are occasions when I become very exasperated. I am of course talking about times when I already have tens of a piece but want to pick up another.

So the gamemakers should consider introducing an additional selection to be made before an item can be placed repeatedly. This should be between buying new or placing existing decor. So much finger tapping action could be prevented!

 #178: Expand text boxes on walls

This is something of a follow-up on the suggestion I made last month regarding extending the text box on the wall to fill the width of the window. Even with such a measure implemented, there would still be many an occasion where overflowing the box becomes an issue. Therefore I'm calling for Storm8 to increase the height of the text box when tapped on to type.

Artist's impression of expanded text box on wall

Above is an artist's impression (me, an artist?!) of what the wall could look like with a larger text box. With two lines of space for drumming out your inspirational messages to neighbours, this would deal with a lot of frustration when the start of posts disappears due to overflow. I can't imagine it would be that difficult to execute either.

 #179: Allow goal prizes to be gifted

This is yet another suggestion offered up by Ms Beanz. The opportunity to swap decorations is not a new concept and indeed I daresay has been pondered in the Suggestions Box at some point over the years. But if this is too much of a game changer from the gamemakers' perspective then how about we just allow goal prizes to be gifted to neighbours.

 Previous Suggestion Box posts

 16/07/16 July 2016
 26/06/16 June 2016
 14/05/16 May 2016
 16/04/16 April 2016
 26/03/16 March 2016
 20/02/16 February 2016

Not being able to access past goal prizes is one the biggest quibbles that players have, and this would be a way around that without essentially re-releasing entire goal sets of yesteryear. Plus I've always thought that allowing decor to be exchanged would be excellent for bringing the community together. So such a feature would have long term benefits to the game in keeping players active and engaged.

 #180: Introduce garden areas

This is a rather ambitious one! Many of us like to have at least some outdoor component to our diners. This is something of a mainstay for me, with a strip of my available space always devoted to the great outdoors.

Summer barbecue section of The Garlic Tree

But look at the blank stretches of green beyond the reach of the restaurant. It would be fantastic to put this empty space to use, so my idea is to allow expansions into the greenery, not to extend the structure of the diner itself, but to introduce a garden area for it. It would be nice to view the garden as more of an extension of the main rectangular structure rather than having to be incorporated into it. Many real life restaurants do have an outdoor element, so this is not an unreasonable concept in my mind, although admittedly it is one of the more cumbersome for the game's developers to put into practice!