Eat at my virtual restaurant!

It has been 1 year since I last wrote about my virtual restaurant in Restaurant City. Amazing that I am still playing this game… only part time.. <yawn> … I did stop for quite a while.. like 6 months.. then I am back again.

There has been quite afew changes. For me, the changes made it easier to cope. Now, I dun have to click on each of my stressed employee to resuscitate them. They dont lie on the ground no more 🙂 … If they are unhappy, which they do get if you dont visit within 24hrs, only need to click on 1 of them and pay 300 coins that they demand. No biggie.

New restaurant opening hours.

Another great change is the restaurant opening hours. I can choose from 30mins up to 24hrs. 30mins does not cost any coins, 1hr is cheap, 2hr is fine, 4hr is more expensive, 6hrs is terrible, 8hrs and you hardly make any, 12hrs if you really have to and 24hrs if you absolutely have no choice. The trick here is, after each period that is selected, the same period is given for me to revisit my restaurant to collect a 2000 points bonus. If you are trying very hard to level up, 30mins would be the way to go! And when sleeping, I choose 6hrs… as I sleep 6hrs usually anyway… in the morning, I choose 12hrs, cos thats what I spent going and coming from work.

Customers at my sushi bar and cocktail lounge

Getting new counters are fun and they generate more coins. There inflation in this virtual world too! Ingredients are costing more these days 😉 So I have the Coke machine, Sushi bar, Cocktail lounge, Coffee counter that is not yet serving cakes because I have not enuf staff to run the cake counter… I need to level up somemore on dishes to get another staff.

I am happy with this layout! It works.

I used to run 2 separate dining areas, but with the intro of the coffee lounge, I find this combined arrangement best. I get my popularity up to 84 all the time with this and good amount of coins contribution from serving coffee. Only problem is, the coffee lady got quite a distance to cover and she dun walk very fast… but in this arrangement, all the waiters will take turns at serving coffee. My configuration now is 4 cooks, 5 waiters, 1 bartender.

More staff (I think max 11) are available now to run the restaurant. Its always fun seeing your friends slog away at your joint 🙂 … But I think its a waste of resources to assign 1 staff to cleaning and maintenance of the place. I prefer to DIM on picking trash and cleaning the loo (yes yes, imagine me cleaning the loo!) , or just leave them dirty and dont watch 🙂 What I dun see dun hurt me! As in, my popularity level doesnt drop (or increase) if I dun hang around and watch the hands up or down signs.

My newest Facebook game addiction, Social City

Hahaha.. so whats new… Lets play Social City!

Screenshot of my budding little men city!

Like the cute graphics, but I think it does take alot of memory to run okay..

Here is abit about this game. You need to have a balance of residential properties to produce workers, industrial to produce goods and businesses to keep the little people happy. 

When you start this game, you will be given 3 houses that will produce 10 people every 8 minutes, and 2 factories. The starting tutorial will guide you thru the beginning, but your progress in the game will need some creativity from you. More creativity and effort, faster progress. Less creativity or effort, slow growth.

Whos ready to work?

Lets start with the little people. You should have a good production of them to grow your city population rapidly and will need to keep them happy with toys or recreational places to go to.

When the residentials produces new supply of little people, a yellow sign will appear on the housing. Click on it to add them to your city. 

Just added 25 to my city and gained 2XP. Yippee!

The game is designed so that you will go back regularly to “harvest” your population right.. surely you have already figure that one out. Optimum growth can be achieved if you harvest your crop as soon as they are ready. For the people production, they do not “spoil” or go away when you are not able to attend to them, but your city will not grow either.

I am at level 6! Muaahaahaahaa!

As the mayor of a growing city, you will be getting gifts when your population hits certain milestones that are set by the game developers. And the XP that you get for each harvesting click will go towards the point system to get to the next level. Each higher level will release a residential, building, factory or recreational facility.

Building tab, selecting a residential property

Heres a tip, real estate is PRECIOUS. You need friends to be your neighbours for growing your city space, otherwise it will cost “city dollars” that are hard to earn unless you pay for it with real dollars.. 🙂     Anyway, you want to have a mix of residential property types. The basic cottage is the quickest way to grow your city, if you are going to harvest them every 8m… but I believe you will sleep at some point in time, so have a few nice hotel producing 60 in 60m and some log cabins (prefered over log huts) producing 125 in 6hrs.

Choose the highest happy face value that you can afford

And to keep them little people happy, build some recreational facilities. Choose the best that you can afford! Cheap hangout places take up PRECIOUS real estate.

Oh yes, the recreational facilities will have to be cleaned sometimes. When the cleaning sign appears above the facility, it will not produce the “happy face value”, and you may have an unhappy population. … ie CLEAN THE FACILITIES!! like maintaining the LOOs.

Have to stop here. In my next update, I will give tips on factories. Stay tuned!

I am still playing Restaurant City on FB!

How many months has it been? Maybe 6 months of playing RC.. I’ve past the addiction stage for sure. With all those new changes … I dont seem to be that interested to follow it as closely as I did before… but I still check in daily for the free ingredient and passing on to friends who needs something. .. since I have reached my personal goal of achieving 20 level 10 dishes!

Al'fresco dining at Lang's Seafood.

Currently, I am at level 40… I seen people at level 64! I am not headed that way purposefully… but just maybe I will crawl towards it.. very slowly I think.. why not, since I am checking in daily, there would be still some moving towards that..

I like the outdoor feature that was recently added. I am making mine Al’ Fresco. 🙂 How do you like this sitting arrangement..

Generous gourmet King! Long Live the King!

Those game machines look too cheapy for my restaurant, so I absolutely refuse to have them. How about adding computers for entertainment for my waiting guest! They could be playing RC at my RC restaurant! :O That will be so cool!

BTW, there is a gourmet King wondering around, and if you see him, be sure to click on him. I found him twice picniking on the grass near the plants, and once walking by the ingredient sellers’ stall.

Publish, so that your friends can share your luck!

Its not often that you will find this guy, so when you do get something out of him, try to share with your friends… BTW, Blackmama has raisins in stock too… Check out her blog http://blackmamacat.wordpress.com

Level 32 on Restaurant City!

Yippee! I did it again! At the max level on Restaurant City on Facebook. And my thots this time round? Hmm.. I wonder if there will be another big enhancement to the game… like add animal husbandry or something..

Just yesterday, I notice new dishes and some new graphics .. but a big change to the buying ingredients system. If you paid US$4.99, you will get 25 “cashcoins”, which you could choose to buy 3 ingredients at 8 “cashcoins” each. That is a major improvement. Afterall, if you paid any money, you would want to be able to choose and buy something, just like going to the supermarket. .. Another way of getting ingredients is through swapping with your friends if they have what you need, and dont need it themselves… or for US$2.49, you could swap stuff with Blackmama on BlackMarket. .. 🙂 Details at http://blackmama.wordpress.com ..

Shake tree, get coins?

All my hours devoted to this game would seem like time wasting to most.. even myself.. I should probably join some facebook addiction anonymous..

BTW, I did find some hidden secrets.. Have you ever wondered about the trees in your backyard. .. Was there a saying, money dont grow on trees? In RC, it sometime does. Go shake it and see for yourself.. I get 1 for every 4 to 5 trees that I shookup.. The smaller restaurants have more trees, so start with them. Note, only 1 coin per tree and no points.

Another discovery. Trash is gold!… and points too. Visit your friends restaurants and pick up any trash you. You probably know that already.. but did you know, if your friend left the trash uncleared, then you get to clear them? Otherwise, there will be no trash. For example, I go into my restaurant after 8hrs of not checking on my guys, and finding them stuck to the ground. I close the restaurant and turn them in to bed. I can choose to clear the trash or not. If I cleared it, my friends wont get to pick trash from visiting my restaurant later. If I left 10 trash items, there will be 10 for them to pick. You get the idea? It means you have to agree amongst your friends to leave trash uncleared till they are ready to operate the restaurant again.

Trashy cash.

The other thing to note is, that the longer operating hours the restaurant did, the more trash will be present when you check in again. Even if the restaurant was not operating, trash will also be generated.. but it needs the restaurant owner to check in and save to exit without picking trash, for the friends to pick up when they visit later. One more tip, if your friend’s restaurant is full of trash, you could come back over and over again to pick up trash, but each time you would have to return to your own place, save and exit, check in again and go over to your friends’. I do this alot when my guys are resting or not very productive…

I have till date picked up over 8000 trash ( as shown in the “Awards” page), that means I have used 8000 coins to purchase some ingredient.. and also that 8000 points that I got, helped me move a little quicker up the levels. I guess it depends on how desperate you are to move up eh..?

Restaurant City, advance level tips

My best seating arrangement so far.

Just when I thot what to do after reaching the old max level 27 on RC, the game has now new levels and new game features. … er.. ok.. what is the new highest level? 32? I think it is 32… so far thats the highest I see among people with 10x my points. Thats right! 10x! Just how do you get 3,000,000 points! Go figure!

The new drinks feature is good, IMHO. Some people didnt like it, cause it destroy their previous hardwork in calculating the optimize layout and ratios of cooks/waiters. .. Thats what life is about! CHANGE for the better! CHANGE and BE BETTER! I am happily embracing this new twist to the game. Check out my new layout. 4 stoves, 4 waiters, 2 dispensers, 22 tables, 6 waiting chairs.

My popularity is always above 48, even when I dont clean the bathrooms, and even when my little peoples energy drops to as low as 60%. At 50% energy, my pop rating drops to about 40. I think thats not bad at all. Definately way better than before the drinks, where my pop drops after 80%.

The seedlings

Anyway, I am level 31 now.. and I am enjoying the new planting feature very much. The mystery of planting a seed not knowing what it is.. why would anyone like that? .. I guess you just dont get everything you need in life, so just plant and hope for the best.

Taking shape now.

Here I am, trying to be a RC botanist and this is my records for growing plants. Lets begin with the seedlings. It cost 2ooo coins to plant each one. Click on a vacant plot and it will ask if you want to plant a seed. Click on the plot again to water it. You can only water it up to 9 hrs, so if you come back into the game in 9hrs, your plot dries and crackup and your plant will stop growing until it is water again. After 9hrs, the seed will germinate. Another 12hrs will pass before the seedling grows another 2 leaves. At this stage, we still couldnot tell what harvest we’ll get.

Grown in my yard

Only after a seed has past 28hrs, it will show signs of what it will become. Not that it makes a difference anyway… since nothing can be done to change it, if its not what you need.. Well, at least you get a new ingredient in 48hrs, for 2000 coins only and its something you could swap with your neighbours. Not a bad deal.. I suppose.

These 11 plants have been grown in my yard… Coriander, Bayleaf, Garlic, Sugar, Tea, Coffee, Vanilla, Oregano, Basil,  Wasabi, Ginger, Saffron…

I wonder why there isnt strawberry, onion, potato.. etc… or fruits like banana, apple or orange..? Orange would be a great new ingredient! Wish I could serve my favorite drink, the good ol’ orange juice at Langs’ Seafood…

… now wondering… whats after level 32 and what new features are we gonna get… waiting (with high hopes) that we might see yet another great addition to the game.. how about animal husbandry! A little farm to produce eggs and poultry from chicken, milk and beef from cow, pork and bacon from pigs… thats possible isnt it.. 🙂

New development on Restaurant City! Planting!?

Barely 24hrs from the time that I stumbled upon these new features, I am so excited about the new fun that is to be had on the new Restaurant City features, that I am writing this post with the limited information that I have. I suppose if I joined the fan club, consult with people close to the developers, I would know more about these exciting new features… but then I think it will spoil the fun of discovering it as I go along.. 

My plots, 3 planted, 4 waiting to be planted and 2 unavailable till I get to level 32.

On my 1st login to RC this morning, SG time 8am, I was given my free ingredient and a popup informing me of my level up to 28 ( :O I thot it all ended at 27! ) and my new plot. What new plot? Then moving around and found that I have some planting soil plots outside the restaurant, on the right side.

Watering the plots...

Now, being level 28, I have 7 plantable plots and 2 to be discovered at level 32.. Intuitively I click on the plot, and it ask if I would like to plant a seed for 2000 coins. Sure I would, new feature right, how else could I discover more about the new planting features of this game?

So what else to do after seeding? When the mouse hovers on the plot, there is a display of some sort.. which I could figure out what it meant at 1st. .. but later, I learn that the top number is the time to watering again and I guess the bottom is time to harvesting. I dont know that for sure, cos 48hrs is not yet up. I will update this post again as soon as I have the answers. 

Later in the day, I check back in, to find that my plots were completely dried up and cracked ground, in which case the growth pauses … Click on the plot and that will watered it.. then the counter resumes and the seedling continues to grow… Also found that multiple watering can happen too, I just dont know if it will drown the seeds if I watered it too much at 1 go.. more to discover.. later.

4 plots ready to harvest

Updates! 31Aug. My plants have grown up! Finally! There is no way to know ahead of time, what crop is planted. It seems to be completely ramdon. Here I have 2 parsley, 1 bayleaf (bottom left) and 1 wasabi (topleft) .

Harvest at last!

Click on the ready to harvest crop and viola! A new ingredient. What a great way to get more ingredients! But need to pay 2000 for the seed.. hmm… oh well. Planting is fun and anticipation of your crop is a interesting feeling.. 😉

FarmTown, my other facebook addiction.

At this present moment, I am addicted to 4 facebook games. Restaurant City, Scramble, Word Twist and FarmTown… Its tough having to split my time among the 4 games… and wait a minute.. arent I suppose to be working on something else… like new sticker decals..

Everyday, I tell myself that I need to work on something productive and meaningful.. and so I fail everyday, to remove myself from the clutches of these social interactive games.. sigh… 

Thats me trying out a checker field..

So anyway, this post is about FarmTown. Here I am, level 30. Only 4 levels to reach the peak. It does take some determination to really do it till the end. It is a bit tedious and like real farming… gets a little boring.. but I want to buy the mansion and have a trophy farm .. 🙂

There have been some new crops and new farming features that are great. I like growing pineapples and the peppers field are pretty. Raspberry and Blueberries are nice crops too. I have been trying out patterns on my fields.. dont seem to work out for me.. havent got any pattern that I am happy with..

Its a maze!

Sometimes, there are surprises. Like I was at the marketplace, looking to hire some harvesters and got hired myself.. turns out that this very nice gal had a really cute farm!

This other side of her farm.. it took awhile to finish harvesting.

Its so refreshing to see another gamer that is out to have fun! Just like me… its not about winning. I keep telling people that.

Yes, .. I almost couldnt finish the harvesting and plowing… I got dizzy.. but seeing this field really made my day!

Restaurant City, level 27 and beyond

Look, I reached the highest level in Restaurant City afew weeks ago, so one may wonder why am I still playing it? Is it that fun after getting to level 27?

I may not be as actively playing this game as I use to when I was eagerly gaining points to up my levels. Nowadays, I am slowly working towards getting some of the awards. Like the super cook award, the socialite title.. and even the trash picker queen award! What good is that to anybody? dunno… but why not?

There had been afew new game features added just recently. Instead of serving only 1 dish per category, now we get to serve 3. Meaning, 9 golden dishes needed. Now that we can serve drinks at our restaurant, that is yet another set of dishes to work on. Which is to say 9 golden dishes and 3 golden drinks. And new ingredients for drink making are added too. Ice, water, tea leaves, coffee and peach.

My very successful layout

I am pretty happy with my new layout which now serves drinks. I find that my restaurant popularity is always between 48 to 50, even when my guys are down to 75% energy level. Personally, I find no reason to clean the loo… 🙂 4 cooks and 4 waiters work perfectly for me in this setup. I used to have 5 cooks and 3 waiters, but now that people are ordering drinks too, I could cut down 1 stove and put in 2 drinks dispenser. The waiters are now busier 🙂 Not a moment of idling, unlike the 5 cooks who couldnt cook fast enough.. 😀

And BTW, my cats are still running their little ingredients swap business… I am happy to see them “gainfully” employed in anyway.. 🙂 Pls support them and their cause. Visit blackmama blog to learn more. http://www.blackmama.wordpress.com ! They run a promo sometimes.. 🙂

The ultimate 27 in Restaurant City!

Finally! 5weeks! Thats what it took for me to reach the highest level in Restaurant City on Facebook. All that time that it took me to reach this ultimate goal! Phew! The hardship is finally over.

Showing off my level 27 and some awards. Note the silver fork and spoon medal. That was pretty hard to get!

Did you know? To gain points in this game, you would have to be online and check on your staff every 45mins? Unattended staff will poop out after 3hrs and your popularity will drop to some really low level. A very undesirable situation as you will get only very few customers, and it takes a long time to built it up to some decent level again. I will always try to feed my crew every 45 mins, or else close shop.

Another tip… I usually stay on RC while my staff energy level are above 80. When they drop below 78, thats when popularity starts dropping, and thats when I do a save and close the game with the staff running the operations. I wont get any points for that, but after an hour or so, I log back in and will get about 2000 coins. The plus side of it is that I wont lose any popularity points while gaining the extra coins. Free coins right? Then let the guys rest. Every 15mins, they recover 25% of their energy. That means, they need only 1hr to completely recharge. .. 1/2hr if they were only 50% tired.. 🙂 now now, dont overwork those little guys ok..

Alright now.. I am really thinking … whats my next target.. ?

Another great FB game: FarmTown!

As a matter of fact, I dont sleep very much… which is why I have time for all these games. .. could I use it more productively? .. 🙂 I wished!. .. I didnt think that I would be spending so much time on it when I started, but once started, just cant stop.. Be warned! FB games side effects, less sleep, less focus on more important stuff… and a tendency to pick up other bad habits… 😉

Lang's home in FarmTown. Cotton balls ready to harvest.

Another facebook game that I think is not bad, FarmTown. Fancy yourself a farmer? This is the game for you. Graphics is simple and thats attractive to me. Content and concept of the game is interesting. Kudos to the developers, for thinking out of the box, in creating this game concept that is totally not in this world. In the real world, you would have to pay to get workers, but here in this game, you dont. In addition to that, your harvest is worth more if its harvested by a friend or anybody from the market. This is a great way to encourage teamwork among friends to help each other move up the game ladder. As I have said before, facebook games are not about winning. I really enjoy playing games like these with people that are not so hung up about winning, and for those that are, I wont play it with them.

Thats me on around my crops.

Aside from the concept, this game is similar to most other RPG games. You start small, have limited choices of seeds and things to buy. You are required to plow and plant and wait for harvest. Then you hire your friends (if they are online and playing FT too), or hire someone from the market to harvest. You could do your own harvest if you really want too… remember there are incentives to hire someone to do it. Finally, you sell the stuff in storage and use the money to plow and plant again. If your harvest died and you’re outa money, you can wait to be hired by going to the marketplace. Just drop a polite note to the crowd, that you are looking for work. Spammers gets nowhere with me. If someone irritates you, click on him/her, and click on ignore.

Just afew tips from me. You get points for plowing (1) and planting (2). In general, you want gain points for moving up the levels, which means you plant something quick growing so that you can harvest and plant again. For that, you wont get alot of money. If you wont be around for 4hrs or more, do not plant grapes or raspberries, cos they will wilt before you could harvest, which means no money. If you are eying the house or some building, it might seem like they cost alot, so you want to go for a crop that pays. Onions and peppers, are my favorite crops for getting steady income. I like to look at pumpkins and rice fields when they are ready to harvest, so I plant them, but they dont yield as much. Since I am not in it to win, I just plant it for decorating my farm.

Flowers and animals wont gain anything for ya, and they take up space. .. but I like to have them around. So anyway, its really up to you.

So anyway, you work your way up the levels and reward yourself with a nice home, flowers on the frontyard and pool at the back. After achieving the ultimate goal, which is to buy a mansion at level 34, you wonder whats next in life on facebook.. 🙂