Mafia Wars from a Player's Perspective

Mafia Wars from a Player's Perspective

UnlockedMW for Mafia Wars is recommended by Mistyfied Mafia Wars.
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Saturday, July 30, 2011

GuessX Reloaded: INeed Inventory Tool

There's a new inventory tool in town, from a name that might be familiar to some ;) Go HERE to access GuessX Reloaded, where you can find the INeed inventory tool. This helpful script will help you better see what items you are using and still need by category.

 As with many bookmarklets, the first click will initiate a Facebook unframe, if necessary. Click it a second time to launch the script.

 
If you notice the drag marks in the lower right corner, you'll see that you can resize the script display box. You can also move the script box to relocate it elsewhere on the screen.

Click on the Analyze button, and the message in the script box will say "Loading inventory info. Please Wait".

When it finishes loading, you'll see that you can view different categories of loot and find where gains can be made in your inventory. In my case, that's probably a lot because I don't focus much on loot. But then again, I haven't had a Misty-friendly inventory analyzer for awhile :0)

It even includes Rewardville loot - something I often forget about. Looks like I have a lot of work to do!

I hesitate to call this an analyzer, simply because you think of pages and pages of information from using those tool. However I find this inventory tool easier to use, easier to navigate, and easier to understand, and I think many of you guys will too.

Many thanks for the tip ;)

The Inconvenient Raven on Get Satisfaction

The Raven is nothing but a headache! As I first wrote a few days ago, the stupid Raven keeps showing for a boss fight when I'm getting ready to go to bed :-/ It seemed to me that we should be able to start the Raven when we're good and darn ready!

I'm very happy to find out that I'm not the only person with the same thoughts.

Leo wrote me earlier today about a Get Satisfaction thread about exactly that, and it already had over 80 "likes" by the time I checked it again! Zynga has been looking increasingly for feedback from Get Satisfaction, so the more "likes" and "Me Toos" a thread has, the more likely it is to get Zynga's attention.

80 likes is a good start, but it will take a lot more people taking the time to show that they agree before Zynga will take notice. Please go to the Get Satisfaction thread and click "like" and "Me Too" - I already did :0)

Friday, July 29, 2011

This and Next Week 7/29

This week's edition of This & Next Week seems to contain a bit more info than they gave us last week. A new addition is coming to Missions--mission boosts...? Great, something else to collect. The new mission event will be called Wild Things and will involve...robbing from zoos? Alright then. It'll be interesting to see what the Family Level Ups will entail, and the Union Hall property collector sounds useful. 


Coming Next Week*
*As far as currently scheduled, but things can change.

  • Mission Mania
A new addition is coming to Missions. Use Mission boosts to help you finish your tasks more quickly and efficiently.

  • New Mission Event: Wild Things
You'll need to steal from Private Zoos to build up your illegal exotic animals business. Take care of your pet felines and you'll be rewarded with the Golden Tiger (63 attack, 153 defense).

  • Level Up Your Family
Socialism is making a comeback. Do jobs, fight, and more to earn Family experience points and level up as a Family. You will all be rewarded for working together.

  • Union Hall
Collect, upgrade, and build from all your Properties in one central location.

Wiseguy Weekend in Vegas

In conjunction with the Farmers Insurance loot event, Farmers Insurance has decided to sweeten the pot for everyone with a chance to win a weekend trip to Vegas.

Go to THIS FARMERS INSURANCE FACEBOOK PAGE and give them a like to view the entry form.

"Your information will not be used for anything other than contacting the winner" ~ coming from Farmers Insurance, that's probably a decent guarantee that they aren't going to secretly sign you up for a dozen mailing lists.


However, be sure to read the fine print. Eligibility requirement (b) be a legal resident of the United States of America;

They should probably make that more obvious. That really sucks, because America is a drop in the worldwide bucket of Mafia Wars players :(

Special Event - State Farm Looting


Just in time for the weekend we will have the chance to stash some cool mayhem themed loot.

For those not in the US... State Farm Insurance Company has had a cute advertisement campaign running based on "training" agents by showing them over the top scenarios... including the Auto-Boat-Home mash up... which now makes it's way into job loot!

This is pretty much exactly like the X-men event, only we didn't get a fun code to break. You can share spare items, items over 10 will disappear within a short period of time, and there are 2 boosts you can send /receive to help your odds of grabbing more loot.


Home Page

The run down is available through the "?" pop up from the Home Page Banner:


The Mission Bar and Home Page Banner are almost identical to X-Men...


When you get 1 of each item the bronze Airship will be deposited in your inventory...


If you go to the home page and look at the Event Banner you will see the collect button:

But you already have the item... so no worries if you never click it :-)!

Yes, the mastery Airship in the Mission Bar and on the Home Page Banner stay ruby... no matter what.

Starter Kit

Click the Farmers Icon in the Banner:

You can generate a cute little Farmers Insurance icon to your feed, and your friends may get some Thieves to get them started:


Brazil Loot Hunting

No, you will not get double in Brazil with crew help.

The helipad job was really good for me during the Ruby Loot event... this time around I received State Farm loot ~ 2 out of 3 clicks.

No, this loot does not drop more often in Brazil fighting!

Getting Boosted

Lightning Boost for Job Loot


Protection Boost for Fight Loot

Boosts show up in the ZMC (Zynga Message Center) or Facebook Gift Center just like other gifting items:


I have not seen icons for either of these boosts (even though I have both in my inventory) while doing jobs or fighting... hope they are working!

Sharing with Family

Have more than 10 of some items? Time to share with your family...


Here is what it looks like in the Feed:


I haven't managed to score one from the feed yet... they go super fast!

Prizes and Loot


Grand Prize


Bronze 1 of each 121 A 75 D
Silver 2 of each 130 A 80 D
Gold 3 of each 140 A 85 D
Ruby 4 of each 150 A 90 D

The following items are giftable... so load up your wishlist and head to your mystery bags if all else fails... can't wait to test that option out :-)!

FIGHT LOOT


JOB LOOT


Hey! Did they steal that storm chaser from The Weather Channel? Too funny!

Too bad they put a limit of 10 on each of these or we would have moved into the era of the 70's across all the categories now!

I like the idea of having something new dropping while everyone is trying to finish Bangkok... and hopefully it's easier to come by than Italy loot!

How are you liking this X-Men-2.0? Have you found an item to be Rare-er-er than the rest? That is what I am on the hunt for!

Wolverine collector's edition item available

Earlier this morning, 2000 of these wolverines went up for grabs for a cost. If the Zyngons stick to schedule, you should see another 5000 of these going up at 9am Pacific - about now.

more info on War Loot Rollbacks

Late yesterday, the Mafia Wars blog posted a quiet little update about the upcoming war loot rollbacks. The original public announcement was made two days ago during Mafia Wars Live. This blog post does supply some additional information, such as that these rollbacks will be occurring "over the next few weeks" and that it will only affect tier 2 high-end war loot and above. Here's what they say:
Declaring war and helping your friends out with their wars is a great way to collect some awesome loot. Because the war loot is so awesome, we limit how much of it can be collected in a day to maintain game balance.

We have discovered that some of you have collected more than you should have. We will be reclaiming this extra war loot over the next few weeks. This will only effect non-giftable, tier 2, high-end war loot and above.

So, to recap: If you have collected more high-end loot from wars than you should have, we will be adjusting your quantity of that loot to what you should have earned within the appropriate limits.

Ice Season 03 - Fan Page Survey

Compliments of the Mafia Wars Fan Page there is another quick survey to get a short say in the Ice Season underway:

Ice mobsters in weekly Ice Seasons to earn reputation badges & cool rewards!

http://zyn.ga/8JO
<-- Take a quick survey about this event.


It will only take a second for the 3 questions...


Well yes... this feature is hard to miss... the 2x Mastery & 2x Loot boost? That is something that snuck up on me in the middle of the night... but Ice Seasons? Might have noticed :-)!


For someone who doesn't enjoy the fight list full of dead bodies... this has given me a reason not to rob to "get through" all the stamina.

NOW that I am typing this I remember that I should have complained about there not being a way to see past week's badges... like the Achievement list? Maybe with the icon for the Grand Prize from that week?

I don't want to be accused of stuffing the ballot box with perky, happy thoughts so early (for me) in the morning... oh well... hopefully they will have one of these for each week!!

Mind Your Loot - Bangkok Boost Rat

All I was trying to do was burn off some energy gathering the "Iron and Silk" item being offered for Jobs and Fights as part of the Bangkok shut down.

I have mastered all of the cities... every last job... even AC Zero! I didn't think that was a problem... until I saw this...


No 5x the Baht... or the XP... or anything... just the slow sucking sound of all my 2x Mastery Boosts being tossed out a window...

I was going to head to sleep... I wasn't going to worry about it... but it nagged at me... Misty found other people with problems so I was off to the races with another round of Customer Service Chat Roulette.

Well it seems that the barrels were loaded and the ball jumped the fence... rolled past a craps table... and into the poker room.... choose your Roulette metaphor... gun or game... both apply!

Passing over repeating my attempt to explain what was wrong... chatting with the agent about the "Empire and Allies Fever" that has taken over their office... 20+ minutes to get to the "fix":

Agent T.: Actually Nancy, please tell me. Do you get 10x loot instead of 2x? I mean, right now there is a 5x loot in Bangkok.

Nancy: I was not getting any multiplier on loot. I can send you a screen shot... all I was showing was my 2x mastery being used up

Agent T.: Ok! Done! I completed Task: 4 - Collect from your Ammo Trading Camp 2 times. Also, awarded 30 2X Mastery Boost. Please let me know if you got that.

Nancy: ??? I didn't have any problem with the mission.

Agent T.: I completed it for you as a compensation for what you've been going through.
& that was it... no explanation... no developers are working on it... no indication that this was a known issue... I could have pushed... but it's after midnight my time...

I am still in a bit of a shock about my Mission being finished... all I had to do was collect from Trading Camp tomorrow afternoon... nothing difficult... days and days and days to forget... remember... panic... then collect...


So no farming in Bangkok for me... no jobs to complete... just some icing and waiting for the State Farm blimp to take me away!

Have you noticed any problems while in Bangkok this week? Did you get your mission finished for you?

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Bangkok Mastery problems

Feature Contributor Nancy Ann Babyak started noticing that the 5x mastery icon was no longer showing up when she was doing jobs in Bangkok. Furthermore, notice that the job is actually mastered, but the game still used up one of her 2x Mastery Boosts!

It's still working fine for me, but I know of at least 3 other people that are experiencing this problem right now besides Nancy.

Reward Point purchase "rewards"

I don't even know what to say to this, I can't stop laughing.

OMG, even the "grand prize", the thing you only have a chance of winning - is only a million baht!! DO THEY EVEN PLAY THIS GAME?! If they want me to spend money on this game (which ain't gonna happen right now anyway because my husband lost his job), they are going to have to offer up something better than these stupendously small amounts of baht.

That's just funny.

send unlimited free gifts

I sent out a few batches of gifts a little while ago (yes, I still take the time to do that) and I noticed some additional text on the screen. The confirmation closes quickly, so I sent some more gifts - this time with my finger ready over the PrtScr button.

Hey! Did you know that you can send more requests? Yes Zynga, we know :0)

The limit is from Facebook, but for a long time now they have only limited us to batches of a certain number. We've been able to send technically unlimited gifts for quite a long time, actually. And now Zynga wants to be sure you know that! So send 26, then send 26 more, of a different gift if you want, then 26 more, etc., etc.

old boss fights

My thoughts on one of the answers given during last night's Mafia Wars Live broadcast:
LeoWong asked: Is it possible to have events like Beat the Feds, San Juan Boss Fight back again? I kind of liking them and of course using Stamina like the old way. No Ammo on this one please.

We have gotten a lot of feedback for the return of stamina based boss fights. We are currently developing a system that incorperates both consumables and stamina attack options so players can pick how they want to play.
As  you may have guessed, I really don't like Zynga's response to this question. I haven't heard a single person say "It'd be really swell if Zynga redesigned the old boss fights!" . . . all I've heard is some of us asking for some of those old boss fights back.

One of the things I really dislike about how Zynga handles our feedback is they don't really listen to us. They just try and squish our feedback into their business vision. But who plays the game? You can have all the business vision you want, but at this point in Mafia Wars, shouldn't they be more focused on player retention? You know, actually listening to us, instead of trying to fit us into their business plan?

Mafia Wars Live: Episode 7 (Recap)


Percues asked: Why are the loot drops in Italy so bad? Roman Legions may be giftable, but it is almost impossible to loot them from Italy and even worse when trying to get it from, a Mystery Bag.

All loot is not created equal. Some of the more powerful loot are made with a lower drop rate than the less powerful items.

Igtenos asked: How concerned are you about the power creep -- the phenomenon where loot values increase over time?

Power creep is something that we are actively monitoring. We have everything on a slow steady track. Part of monitoring power creep is to also creep giftable item power.

Don JImbo asked: Can you re-design the fight results page to display the defensive items that we used in a fight where we lost?

I dont think it fits there, when im attacking, i will always want to see my attack items, but i agree we should be a way to see those items other than asking a friend to attack you. Perhaps an option on the inventory page.

SmashedEngineer asked: One of my mafia members quit the game because you guys did nothing about the war glitches and script users. He is, was, a great player. Is that enough motivation for some steps or should I wait for my mafia members to thin more?

The declare war bug should be fixed tomorrow.

LeoWong asked: Is it possible to have events like Beat the Feds, San Juan Boss Fight back again? I kind of liking them and of course using Stamina like the old way. No Ammo on this one please.

We have gotten a lot of feedback for the return of stamina based boss fights. We are currently developing a system that incorperates both consumables and stamina attack options so players can pick how they want to play.

Markall42 asked: Why do the Stamina Packs not have a timer like the Energy Packs?

This was a beta test and we will be changing that up when and if we make it permanent.

Julez Antoine asked: Can the next stop be Australia? Melbourne and Sydney would be great... and then have mafia New Zealand.

We’ll keep it under consideration for the next challenge mission event.

BP1435 asked: Why has nothing been done with the Crime Spree? Once you hit level 10 the thing is basically useless except for the Stamina/Energy you get for helping.

Crime spree is a feature that I would like to see removed from the game. Players do like the energy/stamina buffs from it though, so untill we can find a place for that functionality, it will likely live on as is.

Miki077 asked: Can we remove items from profile pages? Whenever I view mine or someone elses, my computer freezes for a few seconds.

The profile page is in sore need of an update. I’ll see if we cant make the item lists into expandable lists that you can open and close; our UI people might be mad at me now, though.

Tstsharp asked: Would it be possible to ditch the ....send free gifts/open gifts pop ups at log on? Many times when I log on, I can see "war declared" in the background, but by the time the windows finally load and I can close them, I can't even ask for help before the war has ended.

I dont think it will go away, but i can look into having it blocked when loading in from a time sensitive link.

Lespoot asked: I thought the new Ice Season was fun. That is until it was almost impossible to fight. As soon as the screen refreshes everybody is iced. So it is almost impossible to ice a few players. Is there anything we can do about that?

We are currently testing some changes to the fight list that should make it more likely for you to find live targets which should help with the issue.

OneofOneZ asked: Why the emphasis on fighting now?

We want mafia wars to be a super fun, super social game. Between fighting and jobbing, fighting is a more fun/social part of the game, so we have been trying to make meaningful improvements to fighting.

Jennifer P asked: Are we going to get new Brazil Collections? We were told on June 17th via a Customer Support doc that 3 new collections would be added to Brazil. This information was removed from the Brazil FAQ on June 20th. There has been no official word on the status of these collections. Some players have been waiting to further master Brazil until the collections are out and it would be nice to know if we are waiting for something that isn't going to happen.

We are looking into why this happened and apologize that you were not notified

Eluniumman asked: When will Cuba and Moscow be back?

Cuba, Moscow, and soon to be Bangkok will be closed until we can give them a proper overhaul and re-release them, if we do so at all. one thing we don’t want to do is have 20 options in the travel menu, making it more difficult to collect all your properties, build all your properties, and so on. Only having 3 or 4 options seems a bit more reasonable.

JMWJ asked: Is there any way for us to be notified when Skill Point Reallocation is going on?

That seems like a good idea. Would an opt in email make sense?

Moogle asked: Since we are limited to 5 war loots per day, could an option to decline the loot be added? It's wrong that it hurts a player's build when they help their mafia in the lower tier wars.

Agreed. I’ll look into it

Brighty asked: What is Zyngas main aim in the next 6 months?

Doubling down of families. Making features that highlight and award your most active friends, more of the same.

BlackBolt1 asked: When will Loyalty Point Loot be updated?

No time soon. It will likely be part of a bigger reworking.

Mark_K555 asked: Is there any intention of making more items giftable that players are still using, or can use, that would reinvogorate the trading community?

We recently added several hundred items to the giftable list and are planning on rolling more out on a regular basis.

TheMightyOne asked: When is this loot design contest and can it be held on the forums?

Coming in August! Glad to see some excitement already building .

August Collector's Edition items


Tuesday, 8/2:
Solar Glider (70,131)

Friday, 8/5:
Pink Lady (71,132)


Tuesday, 8/9:
Egyptian Guard (133,71)

Friday, 8/12:
Tiglon (72,134)


Tuesday, 8/16:
Dragon's Wings (134,75)

Friday, 8/19:
Dragon's Might
(135,75)

Tuesday, 8/23:
Dragon's Defense
(76,135)

Friday, 8/26:
Painted Wolf
(136,76)

Tuesday, 8/30:
R21 Violent
(77,136)
Remember, it should be 2,000 at 2am Pacific and 5,000 at 9am Pacific on the stated dates.