Part 16: Carnival!
Episode 15: Carnival!
So I hear you're coming out with a book now Armand. How's that going for you?
It's going well enough. It's a coffee table book about my exciting culinary adventures around the world. You're going to have to give me an advanced copy of that Armand. I'm hoping to get the author to sign my copy. Well, I'm not doing you any favors Klaus. You'll have to fall in line just like everybody else. I figured as much. Always knew that Armand Lebouf was a no-good arrogant egomaniac… Haha, very funny Klaus.Yeah, what the fuck has Klaus ever done for you, eh, Armand?
Sooo… about that restaurant in Munich that we've been planning. What about it? We're going forward with the plan then. Yes. I want to make sure we acquire Richard and his group's services first before anyone has the chance to steal them from us. You sure seem tough on getting these guys… what's going on with you lately? Well, you kept reminding me that we should be more aggressive in our franchising efforts. This is me being aggressive Klaus. It's all I wanted to hear.
All right, back at the Rain and Forest Grill! Although, hang on. Why are we in Munich?
Actually, it turns out that Armand was SO SET on getting those clowns for his rainforest-themed restaurant that he built an identical second rainforest-themed restaurant in Munich, just so he could convince the circus troupe to work there!
Let's take a look inside.
Holy shit.
Well, I'll be damned! The game developers actually made a proper, high-effort, rainforest-themed restaurant for us!
It's not a very efficient layout, but to be honest, I don't even want to touch this. This is a good, goofy restaurant!
Now let's check out our other rainforest restaurant…
…where it's time for carnival!
Every booth surrounded by a bevy of beautiful dancers, frozen in time by a mysterious Aztec curse!
Some say that the dancers are still watching. Listening. Judging you for your menu choices and cringing at your jokes. Whatever the truth, it's clear that the carnival never ends at the Rain and Forest Grill!
Unless, of course, you are seated on the other side of the restaurant.
Although we value all of our guests at the Rain and Forest Grill highly and equally, some of our guests are less equal than others. These guests have the privilege of a more rustic dining experience, sitting on rocks without any distracting decorations or carnival dancers.
I open the restaurants for the day. I soon get called over to our new rainforest restaurant, The Congo Flame.
I was intrigued by your call, Armand. I honestly didn't expect you to get back to me this quickly after our first meeting. Early bird gets the worm they always say. So Richard, what do you think of the place? I can assure you that everything has been done to accommodate you and your group. Tell me anything that concerns you my friend, my assurances not withstanding, you can never be too sure. Haha, I guess not. But that won't be necessary Armand. I'm already impressed by the place as it is. But what's more impressive to me is how you treat your employees and your business associates. You've got class, Armand.
It's how my mother raised me. You've got yourself a show Mr. Lebouf. And my gut tells me that this place is going to be something special.
Yes, everything has been done to accommodate Richard's troupe. Not the smallest thing is missing. Now that we have Richard's agreement, they can just get up on that stage right now and start performing!
…
Armand forgot to build a stage, didn't he?
What makes it worse is that the performers need a rather large stage, and there is absolutely no room for it anywhere in the restaurant. This is unfortunate, because it means I'll have to do some pretty major remodelling if I want to fit in a stage to let the circus perform at the Congo Flame. And of course we want the circus to perform!
I move the kitchen from the centre towards the back of the restaurant and fit in this gigantic stage. This circus had better be the most amazing performance ever.
Six o'clock rolls around and we finally find out what the circus performance is. "The Lion Whisperer" takes the stage! You know, that's a very strange lion he has there.
The guests seem pretty angry. Uh oh.
Well, who cares! We technically have our rainforest/circus-themed restaurant. Bread and circuses for the people! Per the threads advice, I have changed the menu for our new restaurant to bread soup and nothing else. We also serve wine, since that seemed appropriate for the period that we are emulating.
No, I didn't change the price of the bread soup, that's the default.
Unfortunately, our bread soup actually isn't very good, and our guests are getting really mad about it. Let's go back to the Rain and Forest Grill before they start breaking tables.
The carnival is jumping! I discovered that I had the contact details for a group of performers called Le Carnaval Aztec, and it seemed incredibly appropriate, so I hired them! Two of the performers are currently doing their amazing double act, "breathe fire and juggle simultaneously while clipped into each other"!
Customers in the special section were sneaking peeks at the performance, so I had to put up this trellis wall. Bad customers! Bad!
The next day, the riotous atmosphere at The Congo Flame has calmed down a little, and it should be safe to return.
Our most challenging mission objective this time around is that we have to raise The Congo Flame's environment rating to 4.5, or four and a half stars. We are currently at only 3.05.
Our environment rating is the product of our decoration, comfort, exterior and live performance ratings, as shown at the bottom of this menu. Our live performance rating will increase gradually as long as we have regular live performances until it peaks at the quality level of the performers. The leopard show at The Congo Flame is very high quality, so we should be all right when it comes to live performance. Our exterior rating is very poor, though, so let's redo the façade!
Before.
And after! Now we just have to wait for the live performance rating to peak, and we should have it.
Except not. The next month I check the rating again, and although our live performance rating has peaked at 90%, our environment rating is still only at 4.25.
This mission is a little obnoxious. Even with the circus performers that the game gives you and the best exteriors decoration, we're still not at the target rating. I can't even add more decorations, because the environment score you get from those eventually caps, and we've already reached that cap. Instead, I'll try removing the table sets that the game gives you by default with this restaurant and replacing them with the best available.
I delete the default trap tables and replace them with the highest quality ivory tusk benches, but it barely makes any difference, only pushing our score up from 4.25 to 4.28. What else is there to do?
Ah-HA! Got you! This restaurant gives you super low quality toilet stalls by default. Let me try replacing these.
There we go! Luxury mahogany toilet stalls and marble sinks. Now is the restaurant good enough?
No. 4.30 environment score. We'll have to take additional measures.
Lion Whisperer, you're fired!
Early in this LP, I said that it was important not to neglect signing on new live performers. Richard's troupe is a live performance with a four and a half star quality rating, and that is not enough. Luckily, I managed to sign on another group of performers, the "Dreaming Maya", who are five-star performers.
Tribal dancers. Normally, I'm not sure I'd be totally comfortable signing on these guys, but the situation is desperate. If this doesn't get us over the target environment rating, the next live performance will be a blood sacrifice.
Fortunately, it doesn't come to that. We manage to get the restaurant up to an impressive 4.80 environment rating. We should be all set for the mission now! Time to go home and put our feet up.
Hey sweetheart. How was your day today.
Oh it was very good, you know… How about you?
Very tiring actually. I had to shuffle some of the sous chefs around today, train some of the less experienced staff, reprimand a couple of the bus boys, yadda yadda yadda… Oh and I had to hire these entertainers that were… Okay, okay, ok… so aren't you gonna ask me how my day went? I… just asked about your day a minute ago… Ask me about my day again! I… just asked about your day a minute ago… Oh shush Armand! Well… today I went to the coffee shop around nine, worked there until five, went grocery shopping around five thirty, got home close to six. Prepared dinner for you sometime around seven… … And did I mention that I got one of those pregnancy test thingies at the grocery. Tried that and guess what? TWO BANDS! We're having a baby sweetie! … … Sweetie? I'm gonna be a father… I'm gonna be a father. Yes you are sweetie. You're gonna be a daddy.