Water park goals content report

Many players will have by now dried off after diving into the water park themed goals released alongside last week's update. I'm actually not one of them, but soon will be as I make my way through the final step. So it's about time I delivered some thoughts on the various content accessed via the goals.

The first item unlocked in the quest is the Bite Sized Oven. A fairly dull looking appliance, this oven is one of the few which falls into the realistic category. There's no quirky colour scheme at play here - it's just a standard contraption. To build it you need 9 Springs, 9 Pieces of Foil and 9 Lifeguard Whistles, with the last of these a new part.

Lifeguard Whistle and Water Park Tickets

So 27 parts needed to construct just one appliance. It's steep, and following on from the theatre themed goals is the second consecutive quest to call for this many parts. There's been plenty of disgruntlement on the Storm8 Forum regarding this, and I can understand why. For me it's not a huge problem as I've had years to accumulate extra parts, but it still takes some time to get your hands on enough of the new addition, especially when you can only receive 20 gifts and 20 request responses per day.

As ever there are three recipes on-board the Bite Sized Oven:

Bite Sized Oven recipes

I like the theme of bites across these dishes, although struggle to fathom the connection to water parks. The bright colours used for the plate of each food suggests that these are typical snacks you may be able to purchase at a water park? Can you tell I live in a dreary part of the world where water parks are not really a thing?!

Without any further ado, here are the recipe ratings for this trio:

Corn Dog Bites
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
8	3	4	7	5	5.5

Nacho Bites
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
4	3	5	4	5	4.0

Pretzel Bites
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
3	3	4	5	5	3.5

Clearly yellow is the dominant colour which isn't exactly heartening. The pick of the numbers has to be the eight which the Corn Dog Bites garners for its 730 coins profit. This places it 10th in the 1 hour duration on this front from a pool of 86 contenders, which is quite impressive. However rocky XP and portion figures drag it down to an overall score which is not nearly as competitive.

And there's no sign here of the higher coins per plate which we've enjoyed and cherished across the last three goal sets, with all three of these efforts just yielding the usual 4 coins per plate. Nothing to write home about then!

Maybe the second cooker will make more of a splash? The Special Treat Machine provides us with another tough obstacle thanks to its demand for 9 Paint, 9 Anchor Knobs and 9 Water Park Tickets. Once more I'm against this number of parts, but ultimately it is your pass to six more mastery gems. The Water Park Tickets is a new addition, and with it's very specific name is not one I imagine we'll be seeing reused much of in the future.

Here's a good look at this threesome:

Special Treat Machine recipes

This is certainly an edgy selection, with the Churro coming in a unique tray, the Nitrogen Ice Cream steaming and the Pineapple Cotton Candy a new flavour for many of our palettes. You can't knock the gamemakers for their creativity with this bunch!

Now to the ratings:

Churro
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
5	5	3	10	5	5.1

Nitrogen Ice Cream
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
6	5	3	10	5	5.5

Pineapple Cotton Candy
Profit	XP gain	Portions	Profit per plate	Availability	Rating
8	4	3	10	5	5.9

First and foremost, it's nice to see some slightly longer recipes than is fast becoming the norm. We're well used to shorter durations featuring on the first goal appliance, but on the second too it can become hard work for players who can't access the game during the day. That's been the case of late, but the Special Treats Machine breaks the general trend. Despite this, I still managed to spoil a batch of the 7 hour cotton candies!

The big story with the ratings is the 6 coins per plate afforded by each dish, resulting in them being propelled to the top of their respective length brackets on the profit per plate front. And of course this means a re-calibration of the profit per plate scores across each duration. Will any Recipe Hall of Famers lose their place on the podium?

The Churro and Nitrogen Ice Cream may break new ground regarding profit per plate but they aren't able to affect the Biscuits and Gravy or Minestrone Soup (both Basic Stove) which remain the length leaders in the 3 and 5 hour categories in spite of the hit they take. And although the same can be said of the Pineapple Cotton Candy's effect on the 7 hour Gumbo (Basic Stove), there is a little more to discuss in this last case. That's because until now the Gumbo stood alone as the only recipe in the game with perfect tens across all the factors. Being trumped by the cotton candy for profit per plate pulls its overall rating down to 9.4 which is still the highest across all the durations, but is less admirable than when it had straight purples.

The ten which each of these new dishes attains for profit per plate plays a role in each reaching the five to six range overall, with the pick of them being the cotton candy thanks to the blue eight netted for profit. This allows it to secure seventh spot in the 7 hour pool, although given that we only have 21 such recipes, the impressiveness is certainly tempered.

The ice cream actually looks better when put into the same context - it also squeezes into seventh place within its duration, but with 56 foods of 5 hour length that puts it properly into the top tier.

Away from the recipes, there are three floor decorations awaiting the removal of their padlock in the market. First to open up is the Lifeguard, who is a 1x1 character piece. I do tend to give a thumbs up to new characters, and the Lifeguard is no exception. With her whistle to her lips and a life ring in hand, she's well placed to assist any strugglers. I can't wait to introduce her to another heavy whistler, the Train Conductor...

 Water park theme

 13/06/17 Goals
 13/06/17 Update

Next up is the Water Slide, a 3x3 sized item which could have passed for a final goal prize. It's very tall and features two bots having fun on a spiralling slide. The flow of water is fairly well designed with a number of splashes offering a high contrast with the red slide. It's a nice decoration, with my only issue being the girl's head rotated 90 degrees in an odd and slightly uncomfortable way. I can live with that though!

We finish with the final goal prize, the Wave Pool Kids. It's 4x4 and includes three youngsters playing in a small pool at the beach. The kids are well put together, with each having a unique accessory. The girl is particularly cool chilling out in her inflatable. However I can't help but feel that there's a slight disconnect with this item. Everything else in the update is focused purely on water, with no indication of surrounding terrain. Here we have the beach complete with palm trees and sandcastles, which kind of forces your hand somewhat when choosing a surrounding. I guess I'd have preferred the flexibility to decide how to implement it myself. For this reason I actually prefer the Water Slide.

There is some existing content that compliments this update's goodies really well. The likes of the Tubers and Innertube immediately spring to mind, while the Cruise Box may be a decent shout too, especially with its Indoor Flow first prize.

Overall I think we have another winning goal set. It's a strong theme which fits well with the season, and brings a bit of fun into our diners. There are some players have criticised it for being too kiddy in nature, with comparisons to some of the school themed stuff we've seen in the past. But for me that's doing it a disservice. It's kids who enjoy water parks the most so it's quite right that they are front and centre in this update.

Now I'm off to lie back on a lilo with some cotton candy of the pineapple variety!