You can analyse these recipes using my recipe list located here.
Let's kick off with the Cocoa Maker...
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| Recipes on Cocoa Maker |
Firstly, I have to say that it's great to finally get some more drink recipes. Other than the Condiment Lab from Halloween (which obviously didn't have realistic drinks!) we haven't seen refreshing drinks added for a long time. Moreover, all three of these cocoas look visually great.
Starting with the Peppermint Cocoa, it is the latest in a long list of uninspiring 1 hour recipes. Here are the last five of this duration to be added, including the cocoa:
| Recipe | Profit | Portions | XP Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Peppermint Cocoa (Cocoa Maker) | 480 | 175 | 26 |
| Holiday Light Cookies (Basic Oven) | 540 | 200 | 19 |
| Thick Cut Bacon (Old West Oven) | 480 | 175 | 61 |
| Kettle Corn (Popcorn Maker) | 480 | 175 | 26 |
| Pretzel Dog (Birthday Party Oven) | 540 | 200 | 22 |
As you can see, these recipes are much of a muchness, with the exception of just one number. The 61 XP gain for the Thick Cut Bacon is exceptional, and makes it the best recipe in the game in terms of XP per hour when we exclude dishes under 1 hour in duration.
So basically the Peppermint Cocoa is nothing to write home about.
Moving on to the Cinnamon Cocoa, things don't improve. Indeed, this drink gives lower profits, portions and XP per hour than the Peppermint Cocoa. Consequently it's hardly surprising that it is an unexciting recipe when grouped with its fellow 4 hour delicacies. It is slightly below average, with a large number of better options such as Garlic Noodles (Basic Stove) and Smores (Basic Oven). Basically the usual suspects!
Last on the Cocoa Maker is the Snowflake Cocoa. I'm disappointed to announce it's another poor one. Only eight recipes of the same duration yield less XP. Meanwhile the portions (and thus profit) are mediocre. The last seven goal recipes of 8 hour length have had portions ranging from 600 to 750 coins. This is right towards the lower end of the spectrum, which is frustrating. Couldn't TeamLava be a little more generous with the stats, especially considering these are recipes we have to do some work to gain access to?
Nevermind, let's shift the focus to the Christmas Feast Oven...
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| Recipes on Christmas Feast Oven |
The Brown Butter Carrots may sound tasty, but they've not got appetising numbers. Having said that, it's difficult to study the carrots alongside the other 3 hour dishes because there aren't that many, plus those we do have are overall quite rubbish. My suggestion is to look at the 2 and 4 hour recipes instead if you're looking for lots of bang for your buck. For example, let's compare the carrots with the NY Strip Steak:
| Recipe | Profit | Portions | XP Gain |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brown Butter Carrots (Christmas Feast Oven) | 1,100 | 400 | 41 |
| NY Strip Steak (Basic Grill) | 2,130 | 775 | 51 |
Clearly the steak is the far superior dish in every way. Yet it's a 2 hour recipe! So there really is no reason to carry on cooking the carrots beyond the mastery gems.
Next is the Mashed Potato Trees. A quick internet search reveals to me that such a model of mash already exists - an excellent idea which may just find it's way into my house this Christmas!
As for the stats, we've got another dud. The 64 XP is around half of what you can get from Escargot (Basic Stove) for the same time duration, while Kiwi & Cake (Basic Oven) offers close to four times the amount of portions.
We close out with the Roast Pheasant. And at last a recipe which has some quality! The Pheasant ties for 4th worst on portions and 3rd worst on profit of current 12 hour dishes, but it does have a superb XP gain. The 104 XP for half a day's work makes it one of just six active recipes of this duration to earn into treble figures. And that's with 22 dishes of 12 hour length currently in the game.
So in summary, we've been delivered some really inefficient recipes in the goals with the exception of the XP rating for the Roast Pheasant. It's beginning to get quite irritating that we have so many average dishes, especially those coming from the goals. So often they've got close to the same statistics every time - where's the unpredictability that keeps things interesting?
While I can understand your disappointment, I'm mostly just glad to have food that clears off my counters quickly! I'm still trying to finish off the rest of your list of dishes that may be removed and all I have left is high level, long cook time recipes, so I'm getting just piles of food at this point that won't go away. So at least the terrible carrots clear out fast! I can't wait for the removal, tbh; I'm going to cook nothing but roast chicken for the entire month of January. :P
ReplyDeleteI suspect the actual problem here is that they don't want to allow low level players to have access to "good" recipes, but it definitely takes away the incentive for high level players to use these recipes for anything other than the two mastery gems.
In all honesty I kind of agree with you. I tend to put equal emphasis on portions, profit and XP gain when writing these reports, but you do get to a point where portions is no longer relevant because you've got so much food stacked up.
DeleteCome January I think I'll take a break from cooking and let the counters run down. I once did this in Bakery (where the situation was even more extreme!) and it took around three months to all clear! :)
Well, one fix might be to have more foods that aren't normalized at 4 coins. It would incentivize higher level players, who'd love to see more profits/hour, and help control "counter explosion". Would be nice since most of the high profit/plate are very old recipes.
DeleteAnd yah, bakery is definitely worse that RS; it feels like you need to dedicate about 25% of your floor space to counters, which is crazy!
Yes, an improvement on coins per serving would certainly boost cashflow - I presume you are proposing that this is done by lowering the number of portions and keeping profit margin the same.
DeleteFor anyone reading this who isn't aware, nearly every recipe in Restaurant Story gives 4 coins per serving sold. Only a handful give more (a few give less too) with nearly all of those being original recipes.
The best are Apple Pies and Roast Chicken which give 8 coins per serving. :)
Yes, exactly. I just think it's a way to keep older players involved, wanting to cook the new recipes, while not having them too "good", stats-wise, since TL doesn't seem to want lower level players to have access to better recipes. A compromise, perhaps. :)
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