Thanksgiving 2016 goals content report

At the time of writing it is now six days since the Thanksgiving 2016 goals were dropped into Restaurant Story. Since then players have been working hard to progress through all of the various tasks in order to unlock content only available via the goals. Here is where I discuss these exclusive unlockables.

But before we get to that some brief thoughts on the goals structure. This is the fourth month of the 'new age' format where some recipes need to be cooked in more than one step and there's also the possibility of preparing food in readiness for the next goal. The steps are pretty much identical each time, which makes for a repetitive experience. I'd like to see Storm8 be a little more innovative with their quests, but I've asked for that so many times down the years without success that I've given up all hope.

Instead let's just focus on the goodies which can be harvested in this goal set. And we start with the first of the appliances, the Thankful Stove, which requires no construction. It holds three recipes waiting for your tapping pleasure.

Thankful Stove recipes

The most notable thing with these dishes was the XP gain, which was non-existent, at least until very recently. In the last day or two the gamemakers have fixed their error which saw a blank box next to the XP star within the recipe list (as shown above). But for it to take as long as it did for the situation to be resolved is pretty poor, and of course we weren't able to accumulate any XP for our efforts during that time.

Time to balance out my whinging with regards to the XP issues by praising the recipe designs. All three of these foods have some satisfying quality - the Soulful Stuffing and Velvet Potatoes are presented to customers in unique bowls and the Squash Soup has some subtle steam rising from it.

Now we take in the recipe ratings:

Soulful Stuffing
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
5	2	3	8	5	4.0

Velvet Potatoes
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	3	3	7	5	3.2

Squash Soup
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	2	2	10	5	3.3

Orange is the new, well orange. In fact the word 'new' couldn't be more out of place, since these three dishes mirror the three offerings on the Wicked Oven released with the Halloween goals last month number for number. Consequently I'm not going to waste my fingers breaking these down.

It's on to some floor decorations next, with two of the items which are obtained in the 'sidestep' goals. The Thankful Centerpiece comes first, and features a 2x2 sized table which has been decorated with a candle surrounded by a flowery wreath. The choice of the blue tablecloth is slightly queer given the lack of a connection to the Autumn and Thanksgiving theme, but it does aid the cause when it comes to making this item flexible.

It may not be all that good a fit for your warm and glowing Thanksgiving surroundings, but this table could prove handy in other environments. The only real clue that we're dealing with an item put together with this season in mind are the Autumn leaves discreetly included close to the candle. Overall I'm definitely giving a thumbs up here.

The Carved-Wood Turkey loses its padlock upon completion of the following goal, and although I haven't actually unlocked it yet (I know, what a slacker!) it looks less than impressive. I recall reading one player pondering whether this was a chocolate sculpture, and you can see where they were coming from. There's not a great variety in the brown tone of the turkey, which leaves me feeling that Storm8 didn't do as good a job with the feathery texture as they're capable of.

So hit or miss there then. Which category will the Gratitude Oven fall into? The second cooker to appear in the goals, this oven requires 4 Humble Hammers, 4 Shared Screwdrivers and 6 Apple Pie Knobs to build. As you'd expect the Humble Hammer and Shared Screwdriver are both new parts introduced with the goals update.

Humble Hammer and Shared Screwdriver

The Apple Pie Knob is the existing part to put in an appearance, and a rare appearance it is. This is only the third appliance for which this knob is called for, with the previous two being the goal appliances from the 2015 Autumn quest. It's interesting to see just how few of this part many players had accumulated, either because they weren't playing a year ago or just didn't wish to have excessive parts kicking around.

Anyway, there are three more recipes to peruse once you get the Gratitude Oven constructed.

Gratitude Oven recipes

I'm not lavishing the praise quite so much with this trio - the Green Bean Casserole has an unconvincing finish, while the Thankful Ham looks like some deformed rainbow when you're not looking properly. That's mostly due to the pineapple slices on top which could have done with being reduced in size just a tad.

Let's take in the ratings:

Thankful Turkey
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	3	3	7	5	3.5

Green Bean Casserole
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
2	4	2	10	5	3.6

Thankful Ham
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	3	3	10	5	4.2

It's like Storm8 know that I get wound up by copycating! On this occasion the three dishes are statistical twins to the Dark Drink Maker entries. So that means that all of this month's goal recipes are identical to last month's! That's really disappointing and makes any further analysis in this section rather redundant.

So we'll move swiftly on to the climax of the quest, where the Kids' Thanks Table is awaiting. As with the Carved-Wood Turkey earlier, I've not actually gained access to this yet (resources are heavily stretched given that I'm trying to gather some late Black Friday mastery gems!) but at a glance it looks decent. Like with the Thankful Centerpiece there's a distinct lack of 'Autumness' about it, but I don't tend to take that as necessarily bad news.

With three kids gathered around a table which is lit by a wacky multi-coloured candle arrangement, this is a fun piece which has its place in the game. I feel like we do have decorations of a similar style already, but also feel like they are typically quite expensive. It's nice to get one that's given for free.

 Autumn 2016

 09/11/16 Thanksgiving goals
 09/11/16 Thanksgiving goals update
 02/11/16 Second harvest themed update
 03/10/16 Autumn 2016 goals
 03/10/16 First harvest themed update

And that closes out this goals content report. It was certainly the case that the decor unlocked in this year's Thanksgiving goals didn't necessarily have a Thanksgiving feel to them, but I'm okay with that. However you're listening to a player who is enjoying their fifth Autumn period in Restaurant Story and has thus gathered quite the collection of seasonal stuff over the years which can be used instead.

For newer players it's maybe a bit more frustrating, but then again we've had a couple of other Autumn themed updates beyond the goals already, and don't forget the two epic sales. So intentionally or not, I feel the gamemakers have stumbled across a good balance. It's just a shame they're so intent on riling me up when it comes to the recipe repeats!