Game update: 25/01/17

The cold weather is going nowhere, so I suggest we embrace it and hit the slopes!

Notification for snowsports themed update

The run of winter based updates continues with a snowsports themed week. There are 11 brand new items have been added to the market - eight for coins and three for gems - and you need to at level 32 to access them. Here's the complete list:

Tables:

• Toboggan Table - 2 gems

Chairs:

• Ski Lift Chair - 11,000 coins

Wall decorations:

• Winter Wall Rack - 4 gems

Floor decorations:

• Bunny Slopes - 60 gems
• Racked Snowboards - 22,000 coins
• Ski Rack - 18,000 coins
• Slalom Run - 20,000 coins

Wallpapers:

• Flurry Wallpaper - 7,000 coins

Floor tiles:

• Slalom Tile - 5,000 coins

Appliances:

• Winter Furnace - 30,000 coins

Counters:

• Chilly Counter - 13,000 coins

In truth I was hoping we may move on from winter themed stuff this week. Don't get me wrong, I've thoroughly enjoyed seeing the season getting covered comprehensively this year, but having already done my seasonal decorating I am inevitably looking forward at what's to come. Consequently my appetite for more winter content is limited, and I suspect that is the general consensus of the community on the whole.

Despite all of that I do like this sub-theme. There can be a tendency for winter decor to be quite sedate and peaceful, with the cabin theme of last week the perfect example. This isn't necessarily a bad thing of course, and indeed that cabin update was quality in my book, but sometimes a little bit of action is called for. Snowsports certainly tick that box, and now I'm already beginning to ponder how I can give a nod to the Winter Olympics come early 2018!

For a good look at all the fresh items, take a peek at this image borrowed from the Storm8 Blog:

Items from update as shown on Storm8 Blog

There are two headline pieces here, with those being the Bunny Slopes and Slalom Run. The former is 4x4 in size and unsurprisingly comes with a steep price tag (that's got to be the most well disguised pun I've ever written on here!) It's a detailed decoration, with plenty of work clearly having been put into modelling each of the kids. The pick of them has to be the poor child at the bottom who appears to have had a fall and lost their ski goggles - they're behind you!

The Slalom Run is less packed out, with just the one skier and snowboarder making their way down the slopes. You've also got a gate and a couple of flags acting as markers for the course, but it's the groovy aerodynamic helmets the riders are wearing that steal the show. For 20,000 coins it has to be seen as an excellent value item capable of making a scene. I daresay you could even position multiple copies adjacently to create a wide slope separated by those red fences.

The other floor decorations focus on the storage aspect of snowsports, with the Racked Snowboards and Ski Rack both depicting a number of the relevant equipment. The gamemakers have gone into overdrive with their colour palette here, with just about every combination tried out. In most scenarios this would be a source of criticism from me, but in this case it's spot on - having done a bit of skiing many years ago I can testify that snowboarders especially can be quite the zany type so this suits them just right!

The Winter Wall Rack continues the idea of storage, and has the nice touch of including some ski poles as well as the skis themselves. For anyone who purchased the Red Mounted Skis and Green Mounted Skis when on sale over Christmas, there's ample decor to cobble together an impressive ski hire centre.

But the weather may not be favourable for skiing! The Flurry Wallpaper does a clever job of displaying a heavy snow shower. The mixture of large white blobs and thin blue lines works really well to convey a sense of adverse weather, and it's nice to have a more wild winter wallpaper. The likes of the Snowy Scene, Ski Slope and Snowy Night are all fine wallpapers in their own right, but they are relatively tranquil, whereas the Flurry Wallpaper brings a little more turbulence.

The Slalom Tile on the other hand doesn't make any form of impression on me. The wavy white and grey strips may slalom across the tile, but otherwise this feels like a very out of place flooring. It's certainly not one I envisage using any time soon.

 Winter 2016/17

 25/01/17 Cabin goals content report
 18/01/17 Cabin goals
 18/01/17 Cabin goals update
 14/01/17 Winter goals content report
 11/01/17 Winter goals
 11/01/17 Winter goals update
 04/01/17 Box update
 30/11/16 Pre-Christmas update

On to the final standard additions, and the Toboggan Table, Ski Lift Chair and Chilly Counter are all very different in design. The table consists of a wooden toboggan mounted with a square glass surface. It doesn't look great in my view, with the inclusion of the toboggan almost feeling forced as the gamemakers desperately try to make it work.

The chair is much better, with a wiry black frame contrasting with the white seat. I envisage that we'll have some real creativity out in the community as players come up with ways to simulate a complete ski lift, possibly even with a change of elevation included. I'd love to see someone take on this challenge!

Then there's the Chilly Counter. It's quite simple in design - a white box which has ridged edges. Being a rather unassuming counter means that it may blend into winter scenes well, and sometimes this can be helpful if you're having to install additional counters to cover a higher than anticipated food output.

The last new content in this update is an appliance. The Winter Furnace is a 30,000 coin buy and requires 6 Black Kettles, 6 Iron Presses and 6 Winter Handles to construct. This is the second consecutive non-goals appliance to be added which doesn't bring with it a new part, following the Jet Black Oven right at the end of 2016. It's still too early to be sure, but it certainly appears that this is going to be a new Storm8 policy and I for one am pleased since we have more than enough parts clogging up the gift list.

And speaking of the gift list, did anyone else notice that the three constituents of the Winter Furnace were moved to the front of the gift list yesterday? It was a clear sign that they were going to be relevant to the update, and rather handy as I gifted my neighbours the Winter Handle when I almost certainly wouldn't have done without the heavy hint.

On to the three recipes on the Winter Furnace then, and quite the range of durations.

Winter Furnace recipes

Maybe this is one of those 'US things' but I'm cannot fathom for the life of me what the idea is behind calling the second dish the Snow-gasboard. Yes, it's shaped like a snowboard and that's very clever, but where does gas come into it? Apologies if I'm missing something obvious here!

Update: Turns out I am missing something but not something obvious! See DonY's comment below for details of this recipe's Swedish origins.

So far I've only seen the Skiers Soup on a counter, but must say I was very pleased to see it presented in a large bowl with a ladle. After discussing this very matter in yesterday's goals content report for the cabin themed challenge it's good to see it addressed so quickly, even if it is a total coincidence.

Now for the recipe ratings:

Skiers' Soup
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	6	5	8	7	5.4

Snow-gasboard
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
5	3	5	10	7	5.0

Slalom Salad
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
6	8	4	10	7	6.7

Unlike the cabin goal efforts these three have some pedigree. There are enough greens going around that the overall scores are higher than we typically see, with the Slalom Salad even getting into the green with its overall number.

But it's the Skiers' Soup which actually deserves the most merit. There are now 64 dishes of 3 hour length in the game, and the soup has the sixth highest overall rating. Placing in the duration's top 10 for both profit and portions plays its part in achieving this, while the XP avoids being a weak spot.

The Snow-gasboard also charts highly, bagging 11th place out of 76 candidates in the 6 hour bracket. It's more than two years since we've witnessed a better overall performer in this popular duration, and with most of those recipes placing higher being unlocked at the upper levels, this is an enticing dish on the statistical front.

Lastly the Slalom Salad becomes the 23rd recipe of 16 hour length. Only four previous entries boast a higher XP gain, with each of these added in 2011 or 2012, so this has been a long time coming. Indeed this effort along with the Homemade Ham (Homemade Oven) are the first new 16 hour entries since February 2013 - it's good to see some of the more obscure durations coming back into play.

Following that rather uplifting recipe analysis let's take in a limited time offer that accompanies this week's update.

Notification for Ski Lodge limited time offer

The Ski Lodge usually retails on the market for 65 gems but is available at 20% off for the next seven days. That brings it down to 52 gems which let's be honest is still hard to stomach. If you'd like a preview of this 4x4 decoration in a restaurant look no further than this post by yours truly from nearly three years ago.

I've never been much of a fan of interior items where there are two walls. Other than in the far corner of our diners there's not really any natural places to slot in such decor, and hence it doesn't come with much flexibility. Nevertheless it does fit perfectly with the theme which is more than can be said for some of the LTOs we've had over the years.

We're almost there but first I have to address the icon for the Chinese Celebration box which is currently above the Ski Lodge icon on the right of the screen (at least for iOS players). Given that Chinese New Year is this weekend it makes sense to include a sale on this crate, except that there is no sale! Tapping the icon brings up the Chinese Celebration within the market where it is priced, as usual, at 24 gems.

I don't know if this is a cock-up by Storm8 or just a very sneaky attempt to have players blindly open the box thinking that they're getting a good deal. Hopefully the icon will be removed before long, or better still a sale is actually applied to the box.

So is this the last winter themed update? With next Wednesday being 1st February it almost certainly has to be, especially since Valentine's Day is on the way. I realise that a large proportion of the playing population is baying for Valentine's content and has been for at least a fortnight, but I've enjoyed this extended winter period, not least because the decor has been of high quality.

But even I am beginning to grow wary, and thus will now join the masses (albeit I'll be leaving my pitchfork in the shed) in hoping for Valentine's stuff. Who knows, next week we may even get one of these shortened goal sets so that everyone can be set for the many dates stopping by our restaurants on Valentine's Day.