A Few Questions ....

[hodorf]

Only started playing this a few weeks ago while stuck on holiday in the middle of nowhere. Some things still puzzle me, despite my intensive use of the search option. So maybe someone here can help and maybe this information might also be of use to someone else.

What is the purpose of levelling up your s**** level on a food - apart from the rewards? Does a greater s**** level increase the number of servings or the xp or reduce the cooking time? If there is no benefit why did I just spend half of last night cooking bacon and eggs for just a gem and a bit of cash?

Why do the appliances you put the most effort into getting (sushi counter, nacho machine etc) only produce a very few food items? In the case of the nacho machine only nachos.

Are foods unlocked at higher levels any better than those at lower ones in terms of xp or money they produce?

Is there a maximum number of neighbours you can have and/or max level in the game? If there is a max level then what is the max number of appliances any one player can have out at one time?

Why (please!) are there no options for mass gift sending, mass tipping and mass requesting of materials? To be a good, social player you need lots of neighbours. Now I have lots of neighbours I feel bad when I can't get round to tip them all every day. Would not a tip jar make more sense than leaving it all on tables which means only a limited number of tips can be collected?

Could there please be an option for disabling pop ups from 'tasks' you have already completed? Anyone else find this really annoying? From time to time mine cycles through every task I have previously completed.

Also does anyone else find that candy game really, really creepy?

Thank you for your time.

[CuteTali]

I will try to answer your questions here the best I can.

1. The purpose of leveling up each food item is to master that item. When you play a little while longer, you will start to notice how hard gems are to come by. Sure, you can cook whatever dish you like, but once you have 10+ appliances out at a time, you will begin to notice that mastery bar moving more rapidly as you can cook up more of the same dish at the same time. The gems are usually used for decorating your shop, especially at higher levels, you will unlock more and more decor items and many of the tables and chairs cost gems too, so gems are rather important in this game.

At lower levels though, I would suggest focusing on cooking the dishes required for finishing up goals rather than cooking the same dish to get your gems. Those beginner goals are a great introduction to the game, they really help you learn how to play it better and have more fun, while exploring all the various aspects of the game. Another advantage with the beginner quests is the fact that they award you with some pretty nice decor items as well as seating options for really low prices (tables, chairs, small decor items) or completely free (the final prize item from each goal set), as long as you complete such goals. So that makes it possible even for a new player level 10 or so to own a beautiful 4x4 dance display for instance, which didn't use to be possible before they added these goals. I think it's more motivational for the player to see something that's eye pleasing and special at those crucial low levels, when they try to make their mind up about the game.

2. Generally and for the most part, xp as well as coin earnings and number of servings do go up with higher level recipes. So yes, the higher level recipes do indeed produce more food/coins/xp just as you thought. It's not related to the mastery level of each item, just to the main level of your restaurant.

3. The effort you put into building appliances actually does not relate to how useful they are. Just like you mentioned yourself, the nacho machine takes many parts to build and only has 1 recipe (and that recipe takes 22 real life hours to cook!). These special appliances are pretty much there for all those players who have already finished all the recipes on the regular/easy appliances and want some new recipes and appliances to play with and also the opportunity to earn a few more gems. I think they made them this way on purpose with the idea of slowing down veteran players who want those extra dishes. Though if you're new to the game, I'd suggest sticking to the regular/easy appliances, as you have a lot more recipes to play with and various different hours to fit your schedule better, so that your food doesn't spoil.

4. The game's max level is 99, but most items and appliance slots open much before that, I would say at around level 68-72 you will have a great amount of items and recipes to work with and all your appliance slots will be open. The maximum number of appliances you can have out at a time is 18 at the highest level. Also notice that if you're not using a current appliance, you can simply store it for later use and pull out a different appliance. This is very very useful when, for instance, you have a goal that asks you to cook 5 dishes on the stove, then the next goal asking you to cook 5 dishes on the oven and let's say you only have 5 open appliance slots at the moment. So when you're finished cooking your 5 dishes on the 5 stoves you have, you store those stoves and pull out 5 ovens to bake your next dishes in.

5. There is a maximum number of neighbours one can have, but that number is ridiculously high (something around 2000 neighbours!), so not to worry, you can invite all your friends to play and all their friends and you still won't run out of friend space.

One thing to keep in mind though, you can only send out 20 requests per day and only receive 20 gifts per day. Anything beyond that won't count and your requests might actually get stuck/lag several days if you try to send out too many the same day. However, you can send out gifts to all your neighbours in this game.

6. I would personaly absolutely LOVE for an on/off trigger of mass gifting/tipping/requesting for/from all my neighbours, as this is what takes me the most time in the game, which pretty much prevents me from playing on busy days, there's no quick way around this. If you're short on time, you can just skip the tipping alltogether, it'll save a lot of time and you'll still be able to play the game just fine (except for goals that specifically send you to tip neighbours/community members).

7. The recycled goals pop ups. This is something that has been around since I can remember, but you don't have to put up with it. To avoid it completely, just make sure to completely exit out of the game and not leave it running in the background. This also ensures keeping game progress more reliably and not losing any important game data. When you open the game back up again to play, your game will be freshly synced and you won't get any unnecessary pop ups. This is especially true if you left your app running when Pacific Day Time changes, then you will get all kinds of pop ups and won't be able to gift neighbours until you close the app and re-open it. Closing the app when you're done cooking/decorating/tipping etc. also helps your device run faster/smoother, so all the better.

8. As for the candy game, I just tried Cupcake Mania for the past few weeks, to complete a goal for another game, and yes, it weirds me out. I don't like how the cakes jiggle and wiggle, but what bothered me the most about that game (other than the fact that it was really had to get to the required level for receiving gems in games I do like) was Bruno the Bear shaking his bottom anytime he wanted to diturb my play and then proceed to empty out a doughnut, which almost seems like it came out of the shaking bottom. I found that feature to be so disturbing, it irritates me to play this game.

Well I hope I was able to answer your questions. Once you get the hang of things, gameplay will feel more fluid, to the point that you'll open the app and know exactly what you're supposed to do and want to do.

[hodorf]

Many many thanks for your lengthy and informative answer. I'm about level 31 at the moment I think. About 65 neighbours. Would be doing better except there is rarely working wi fi at lunchtime where I work .... (on a nexus 7) - that makes cooking two and 4 hour recipes for goals a pain as they go off before I can serve them.

[CuteTali]

You could do 6-8 hour recipes for work and then do the 2-4 hr recipes when you get back home. I try not to use short recipes unless I'm home and can pick them up before they spoil. It is slower finishing up goals this way, but safer than wasting all those hours for food that I can't serve.

[LavaRain8]

Many many thanks for your lengthy and informative answer. I'm about level 31 at the moment I think. About 65 neighbours. Would be doing better except there is rarely working wi fi at lunchtime where I work .... (on a nexus 7) - that makes cooking two and 4 hour recipes for goals a pain as they go off before I can serve them.

Also remember that you have that same amount of time to serve the item before spoiling. So for 2 hrs, you have another 2 hrs, so 4 total. For 4 hrs, you have 8 hrs. So you can sometimes get them to where you could quickly go in and serve them before then on a break if you'd have one around that time and have a moment to open up the game. Usually pretty quick for me to "reset" them before they expire.