I just checked out the new version, and to be honest, there is something interesting about this update. As an old player who has been playing since the closed beta, I have to re-adapt to the environment every time the version is changed, and this time is no exception. Let's talk about the most intuitive feeling first: the newly added “customer satisfaction” mechanism directly disrupts the operational rhythm.
In the past, this game was basically just mindlessly piling up the number of dishes. As long as there were enough types of recipes, customers could handle it as they came in and ordered whatever they wanted. But it's different now. Every animal customer has their own preferred plating style and serving speed requirements. It's no use just having the food, the food must be served quickly and the dishes are presented to taste, then satisfaction will increase. This is just like having operations in KPL is not enough, you also need to have a sense of rhythm, and you have to adjust your playing style according to the opponent's lineup.
I have been testing it for the past two days and found several particularly obvious strong points of the version. The "Squirrel Customers" satisfaction bonus for nut dishes is simply outrageous. With the new Squirrel Chef skill, players who follow the nut style have a significantly higher winning rate. But this also means that the ban position is basically locked. Eight out of ten players in the rankings are competing for Squirrel Chef, which feels a bit monotonous.
On the other hand, the "seafood theme restaurant" genre that was strong in the previous version has been directly cut into the main artery. Not only has the unit price of seafood dishes been reduced, but the previous exclusive skills of seafood chefs have also weakened the attack speed. I tried a few things, but in the early and mid-term, the economy couldn't pick up at all, and the business philosophy had to be completely changed. This reminds me of a previous version of the LPL. After wild cores became rampant, they would immediately give you a balance patch, forcing you to switch to team rhythm.
There is also the new "limited time order" mechanism, which especially tests the decision-making ability within the game. Should we give priority to high-yield basic dishes to stabilize the basic market, or should we take the risk of postponement and accept a large order during the time limit to make a wave of economic overtake? This kind of trade-off at key nodes is somewhat similar to the game of whether to take the dragon first or push the tower first in a MOBA game. I currently feel that the returns of high-risk orders far exceed expectations, but the error tolerance rate is extremely low. Once the timeout is exceeded, the satisfaction of the deduction can give back all the early advantages.
Currently, the top players on the ladder list all use the "quick attack flow" style of play. They concentrate resources in the early stage to brush up on the Squirrel Chef skills, and use some high-basic income dishes to quickly snowball the economy. However, I personally feel that this style of play will be targeted in the top stages. As long as the opponent comes up with the Panda Chef lineup and uses its basic group satisfaction buff and mid-to-late stage operational advantages, it can completely delay your fast attack.
Also, I would like to mention that after the new area was opened in this version of "Cat Kitchen", the refresh position of the map resource points has also been adjusted. The old route of going directly to the southwest corner to pile up ingredients at the beginning is no longer cost-effective. The refresh logic of the new version is more random and tests the ability to adapt to the situation. Someone in the team needs to pay attention to the updates of ingredients at all times, and assign who will collect and who will stay in the cooking area. If this cooperation is not done well, the economic gap will be widened at the beginning.
Finally, let's talk about the overall evaluation of this version. Although there are still some balance issues, and the squirrel style is outstanding, it can be seen that the planners are trying to increase the strategic depth of the game. Everyone must adjust their operating ideas based on randomly emerging customer groups and resource points, rather than rigidly copying a set of formulas. I hope that subsequent versions can make some corrections to the squirrel genre and give other chef characters more opportunities to play. Before the next balance patch comes out, it is recommended that everyone practice the lineup system for mid- to late-stage operation, so as not to have to adapt from scratch when the version changes.