Suggestions Box (Jan 2017)

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...

 #201: Stop serving food on cookware

This is the first of two suggestions in this edition provided by Nibble and Noms, and it's one which has been echoed by many around the community. It's high time that Storm8 stopped serving up food on counters using cookware. Be it pots of soup in large pans or cookies on a metal tray, such displays take away from what are often wonderfully designed recipes.

In truth there's nothing wrong with the appearance of these pots and pans in isolation, but they are out of place when presented on a counter in our restaurants in full sight of the visiting punters. They are fine in the kitchen with their industrial look but have no place on the counters, where they look like they're still cooking.

And the gamemakers do have some form for getting it right, with the most recent example being the Skiers' Soup on the Winter Furnace released just this week. Rather than shoving the ready soup in an ugly silver pot, it is in a large bowl complete with a ladle. Storm8 know how to get it right and I don't even mind better receptacles for food being used repeatedly. Just get rid of the cookware!

 #202: Introduce tables for coins

Of late there have been far too many newly introduced tables for gems. Of course in the perfect world everything would be for coins and nothing for gems, but I think in the real world the ideal situation would be the coin-gem split being shifted around. That has not been the case of late, with 13 of the last 14 tables to be added coming with a gem price tag, the only exception being the Cabin Table from a fortnight ago (and I could go back further to make the statistic worse if I really wanted to!)

Recently added tables for gems

This needs addressing, especially since tables can be considered part of a three-piece with chairs and counters. If a table is available for gems then that may put a player off purchasing the accompanying chair and counter too. And on a minor note, when you first open up the market the tables tab is the one which pops up - there's nothing less enthusing than having your weekly excitement of opening the market punctured by the sight of a table for gems.

 #203: Add a featured tab in market

I'm every critical of the sequel game, Restaurant Story 2, these days, but there are aspects of it which the original title could do with looking at closely. One such example is the featured tab in the market. It has not been used very effectively in RS2 recently, but when it was you would see any new content placed not only in the relevant tab of the market, but also within the featured tab.

Market in Restaurant Story 2 including featured tab

For Restaurant Story this would be a blessing. One of the most common queries when players are working through goal sets is along the lines of 'where can I find the [insert goal prize of your choice] in the market?' The answer typically is 'near the end of the floor decorations tab'. A featured tab could include not only freely available stuff but also those unlocked prizes, thus resulting in one less frequently asked question as well as a reduced risk of a repetitive strain injury from incessant tapping.

There's also the potential for including on-sale content in this new tab too, which would solve the occasional problem of not being able to locate (or indeed not even being aware of) marked down items, particularly when they haven't been flagged as reduced.

 #204: Stop adding picnic based items

This is Nibble's second entry, and one heartily endorsed by me. There are too many picnic based decorations being added to the game, to the point where they've lost their spark. From a brief flick through the market I identified the Central Picnic, Parisian Picnic Park Party, Hot Air Picnic Scene and Ranch Picnic all as picnic themed items, and there are many others which could probably fall under this banner too.

And to make things worse these are often the headline addition in an update. I'm calling on the game's developers to showcase some imagination and break away from these types of items, instead producing content which is original and eye-catching. In many cases these picnics are well put together, but there's only so many different variations which we the players can take. It's time for a change, and so any further picnics, particularly as the main attraction for an update, will be met with disgruntlement from me.

 #205: Add more transparent content

This idea came to me after the recent winter themed update which revolved around ice. In my own words the Ice Table and Ice Chair yielded some 'excellent colour choice and reflection effects' and that is a statement I stand by. But why not go the whole hog and give them a transparency?

 Previous Suggestions Box posts

 10/12/16 December 2016
 19/11/16 November 2016
 15/10/16 October 2016
 10/09/16 September 2016
 13/08/16 August 2016

This is not a completely alien concept to Restaurant Story. There are plenty of tables which come with a glass top which is see-through. But beyond those glass surfaces the gamemakers have veered clear of the transparent effect which is a shame. And I'm not just talking about tables and chairs here - there's scope to see some transparency where relevant for all manner of decor, with the Trick or Treat Ghost the case at the forefront of my mind - imagine if he was translucent to some extent? That would take him to the next level, and I daresay there are no shortage of other existing items which could benefit greatly from a more liberal use of the transparency button.