Mafia Wars gifting scripts

I was contacted today by someone wanting to know what gifting script I used to send the weapon parts out when we do weapon parts giveaways for Mafia Wars players. Obviously I don't send out thousands of weapon parts manually; I want my wrists to make it another few years, at least.

Since the original Chucker hasn't been updated in awhile that I'm aware of, I've been using Scruffy's mod of Chucker, linked HERE. I'm not sure how often it's updated, as I've been using it mostly just for sending weapon parts, but it's certainly more up to date than the original. It also features stats such as how many of the items you own, how many you are actively using, and how many you can gift away.

Spockholm also has one called the Gift-a-Nator that I've used a few times, you may want to check it out. It can be found on their Beta page, linked HERE.

The Don's Gift: Gift #7, Tibetan Sand Fox

The seventh gift from The Don is now available on your Mafia Wars home page banner or your Free Gifts page. The Tibetan Sand Fox can be collected, 3 from your own news feed post, and 2 by clicking on the news feed posts of your friends.

The Don's Gift

Today is your lucky day. The Don chooses to reward you. Spread the news of the Don's generosity and post a feed to earn up to three items. Click on a feed to earn up to two more.

12/17 FAN BLAST - ENERGY POINT

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Family Properties and Lost Mafia Strength

The official Mafia Wars has a word or three about the topic of fluctuating mafia strengths. As I suspected, this doesn't result from an actual decrease in your mafia strength, but is a fluctuation in the bonus received from your Family's property--which is over and above your actual mafia strength. At least in most cases. As they mention here, this could also be because you put active loot items into your Family property.

Maybe it would be easier to understand if they differentiated your actual mafia strength from the bonus, and displayed "bonus" mafia strength separately? Just a thought. Here's what they say:

A number of players are reporting that they've recently noticed sizeable reductions in their Mafia Attack & Defense strength. We wanted to assure you that your stats are not disappearing. In fact, they’re probably better than they used to be, even if they may fluctuate a bit more day-to-day. We hope the following explanation will put all of your minds at ease.

There are 2 reasons your Mafia Attack & Defense strength may be fluctuating:

1) Because any items you add to your Family Properties are removed from your personal inventory, their Attack & Defense strength is no longer applied to you personally, but to your Family Property instead (so choose those items carefully). Read our Family Property blog post for more details.

2) Building the first Family Property, the Artillery Station, grants you a Family Property Bonus of 1,000 Mafia Attack Points, but only when its health is at 100%. The Family Property Bonus you receive is reduced when the property is damaged as the result of rival families robbing from it, so you'll want to repair it to keep its health (and the Family Property Bonus) at 100%. Also, 1,000 Mafia Attack Points is just the bonus for a Level 1 Artillery Station; you can increase the maximum possible Family Property Bonus awarded by each property by upgrading them to higher levels.

We hope this explains what the recent shifts in your Mafia Attack & Defense strength. In reality, the biggest changes are likely from a rival-family robbing your Artillery Station and reducing your family bonus. Be sure to read our Family Property blog post for more details, and head to your family page to upgrade, defend, and repair your family’s Artillery Station to receive the maximum possible Mafia Attack strength Family Property Bonus from it!

The Don's Gift: Gift #6, Tokay Gecko

The latest Don's Gift item is here, you probably noticed from your news feed. The Tokay Gecko has stats of 102 attack and 65 defense. It's the usual drill: generate a news feed post from either your Mafia Wars home page banner, or the Free Gifts page. You can get three that way, and another 2 by clicking on these posts from your friends.

Today is your lucky day. The Don chooses to reward you. Spread the news of the Don's generosity and post a feed to earn up to three items. Click on a feed to earn up to two more.

Mafia Wars Addiction

Mafia Wars can be powerfully addicting for many people, and that addiction manifests itself in many ways. If that sounds silly, maybe it is, but it is very true. You occasionally hear horror stories of Mafia Wars widows, and kids running up crazy amounts of reward point purchases on their parent's credit cards. I think we all know lots of people who take this game too seriously and let it go to their heads in unsavory ways. My name is Misty, and I, too, am a Mafia Wars addict.

But one Maine woman takes the cake in the category of sad little Mafia Wars addicts. You hear of crackheads and meth heads committing burglaries and thieving to support their habits, and this woman will remind you of them. Yesterday she pleaded guilty to embezzlement of $166,000 from the Maine Trial Lawyers Association. And where did much of those funds go? YoVille and Mafia Wars. Yep. One citation states that she spent over $4000 on the games in February of 2010 alone.


Wow.

Read the story HERE. Thanks to Carrie N. for sharing this with us on the fan page.

3x mastery in Brazil starts now!

It was never a secret that this mastery event for Brazil was coming to Mafia Wars players, as Zynga announced it a week ago. The only difference is it was initially announced as "double mastery", but it was later corrected, and it is indeed 3x mastery in our game, just like the 3x mastery event we had in Italy last week. Some players have already finished Brazil, but many of us have been looking forward to this as a way to further ourselves in Brazil, or maybe even complete it! Haha, I know I won't complete it, but I will make use of the extra mastery. I like these extra mastery events, I hope Zynga does them more often! So get crackin'--you've got through December 20th Pacific time to take advantage of it.

As with the previous Italy mastery event, you'll be able to loot a special event item during this Brazil mastery event, the Standing Jet Ski.

Activate your Strategist crew member in Brazil for even more mastery. Have fun!

Zynga Family Properties SURVEY

With all the player surveys Zynga has been handing out lately, I was waiting for this one: a survey about the Family Properties.

This should be fun. What will you have to say? Click HERE to take the survey now.

more on Family Properties

Last night the official Mafia Wars blog posted--FINALLY--about the Family Properties. I had a good laugh over the opening sentence: "we're excited about all the attention the new Family Properties feature has been getting" --what world do they live in?????

The outpouring of sentiment from Mafia Wars players hasn't been in the least bit positive. I have yet to personally see a single positive comment about this feature. It's confusing as hell, complicated, and seems to require a lot of effort for not a lot of payoff. Players everywhere have been complaining, or simply confused. So much so that it's impossible to put a positive spin on it, yet somehow Zynga managed to do so. ::giggle:: But thanks for the laugh, Zynga.

So this isn't a typical property in the sense that we are normally accustomed to; you don't build anything from it. Rather, its level and health provide and affect additional mafia attack strength, over and above what you personally have. I think, anyway. 

We're excited about all the attention the new Family Properties feature has been getting and are working hard to iron out the last remaining bugs. (Be sure to let us know in the Bugs & Support forum if you're experiencing any.) There has been some confusion regarding how Family Properties work; we're going to try to clear that up here. (SOME???)

Let’s start with explaining why it's a good idea to build and defend Family Properties: for the Family Property Bonus! The reason to build the first Family Property, the Artillery Station, for example, is that it nets you a 1,000 point bonus to your Mafia attack (when its health is at 100%).(Ah, so that explains the fluctuating mafia attack scores players were noticing. So it shouldn't affect your actual numbers, only the "bonus" received.)

There are 10 levels to each Family Property and, in the case of the Artillery Station, each level grants a 1,000 point Mafia attack bonus. A Level 10 Artillery Station, then, will grant you a 10,000 point bonus to your Mafia attack! (Again, that's when the Artillery Station is at 100% health.)

As rival families rob from your Family Property, its health decreases and the Family Property Bonus you receive is reduced. Keep your Family Property fully repaired and maximally defended to maintain 100% of the bonus its level can grant you.

Once you've built a Family Property, there are 3 main things you can do to it:

1) Upgrade it. This increases the max Family Property Bonus the property can grant you. Upgrades are performed with consumable parts, which are available from robbing rival families' properties (max. 30/day) and from requests & gifts (max. 20/day). Note: Damaged properties cannot be upgraded until they are fully repaired. Read on to learn more about repairing your Family Properties.

2) Defend it. This makes it harder for rival families to reduce the Family Property Bonus the property is granting you. Each family member can add up to 5 items to a Family Property (higher defense stats = higher property health), but be sure to choose carefully, as the items you select will be removed from your personal inventory and cannot be recovered, even if you decide to better equip the Family Property later on. Items of all classes may be contributed; try combinations to earn a bonus!

3) Repair it. Restoring your Family Property's health recovers any Family Property Bonus reductions resulting from rival families robbing the property. Family Properties do not heal themselves; repairs, like upgrades, are performed with consumable parts, which are available from robbing rival families' properties (max. 30/day) and from requests & gifts (max. 20/day).

Now that you know how Family Properties work, head to your family page to upgrade, defend, and repair your family’s Artillery Station and rob from those of your rival families! (You can also rob the Family Properties of a rival family by going to the “Properties” tab on their Family Page.)

Zynga goes public at $11 per share

Zynga stocks began their foray into public trading this morning, at even more than the projected $10, but rather at $11. I had to kind of roll my eyes at that. Sounds like someone decided they wanted just a teensy-bit bigger of a pie piece. Granted, it hasn't been live that long so it's too soon to tell what will happen with the stock, but it looks like traders are hinging on that $10 price per share mark. Just since I've woken up today, the stock has fluctuated between $10.50 and $9.70. It'll be interesting to see how it closes today. I used to be a bit of a penny trader, so I'm interested...slightly. You can check the stock price real time HERE. Most players probably don't even care or aren't even aware of this, but I still wonder what this means for the company and ultimately the game we all love to hate.

12/16 FAN BLAST - HEALTH POINT

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Zynga's IPO: would you buy?

Zynga plans to go public tomorrow at about 10 dollars a share, the upper end of its amended planned price range. Would you buy any stocks? I sure wouldn't but then again, I'm poor, lol. As things stand, Zynga should rename itself "BubbleVille", because all the games are bubbles waiting to burst. Mafia Wars is one of its few games that doesn't fit the cookie cutter mold of all their other games, of which we either have no interest or lose interest in very quickly.

Check out Google for news about Zynga's IPO. I have to wonder what changes will come now that shareholders will have some semblance of an actual say in part of the company.

Inventory item changes for The Don's Gift

Oh hai! I've been in the habit of running the Inventory History script at least a couple times a day, which usually turns up new inventory items that have been added to the Mafia Wars general inventory. Inventory changes don't turn up very often, but tonight's run turned up some changes in the stats of the Don's Gift items.

These items were originally put into inventory back on the 6th of this month, and as you can see, each item's high stat has been increased between 8-12 points each. These items thus far have been met with lackluster reviews, as most serious players recognized the stats as less than stellar.

This might not be a huge gesture on the part of Zynga, but I have to say I appreciate this. They don't do many things that the players truly like, and it's really nice to see changes in our favor for once.

The Don's Gift: Gift #5, Solar Glide Drone

Please once again try to contain your excitement, but The Don has bestowed us with another gift: the Solar Glide Drone.

The Solar Glide Drone has stats of 68 attack and 102 defense; you can locate this at the top of the Free Gift page, or this time also on your Mafia Wars home page. . From there you can generate a news feed post to collect 3, and you can collect 2 additional ones by clicking on these news feed posts from your friends.

Mafia Wars: will we be able to accept more than 200 gifts a day now? It's possible!

The Mafia Wars blog has addressed something that many of us were wondering today when we figured out that the number of gifts held by the ZMC had been raised: will we be able to accept more than 200 gifts a day now? Personally, I really hope they raise it to at least match what the ZMC can hold now. I really liked Ann's idea, though: "if we have to have 501 in our mafia then at least let us give and collect that many gifts per 24 hours." Word.

We've heard your feedback and increased the capacity of the ZMC from 100 to 250 items! This alleviates the issue that saw gifts 101-250 fall into a black hole if your ZMC had already reached the previous cap of 100.

We already know what you want to ask: "Will the number of gifts one can accept each day be increased to match the new capacity of the ZMC?" We are looking into that, but we first need to understand the effect that a 250-item ZMC has on the game. We appreciate your patience and understanding while we carefully make changes to improve your Mafia Wars experience.

Now that everyone’s ZMC can hold 250 gifts, can you fill your Mafia’s up?

- The Mafia Wars Team

7 Days of Holidays: NOT a deal

 Um. Oh boy? This looks lame and costly. Kinda funny how it's the "7 Days of Holidays" and not "Christmas". I guess Zynga is trying to be politically correct. Which in this case is fine by me. We know what those "Special Event" items were for.

A holiday offer you cannot resist... (um, yes I can. and will)

The don is helping you to unlock a better deal every day

DAY 1 DEAL

1 Exotic Dancer

DEALS BOUGHT: 0

150 96 OWN 0

Yeah, Zynga? That's NOT a deal. And I will NOT be purchasing. I really don't recommend you do, either. This isn't an event, this is a gimmick getting you to spend stupid amounts of reward points for loot that isn't worth it.

How the Deals work

1. The Don's giving you a chance to unlock a better deal each day, for the next seven days.

2. Each deal offers you more items for the same price.

3. Once unlocked, you can purchase a deal as many times as you want as long as you have more numbers of the previous deal.

4. This event will end on 25th December at 23:59 PM (PST).

• DAY 2 DEAL

  2 Ice Climber's Axes

  DEALS BOUGHT: 0

  95 149 OWN 0

  

  Unlocks 22:47:31
• DAY 3 DEAL

  3 Virgos

  DEALS BOUGHT: 0

  151 96 OWN 0

  

  Unlocks 12/17
• DAY 4 DEAL

  4 Flip Vests

  DEALS BOUGHT: 0

  97 148 OWN 0

  

  Unlocks 12/18
• DAY 5 DEAL

  5 Whale Sharks

  DEALS BOUGHT: 0

  149 95 OWN 0

  

  Unlocks 12/19
• DAY 6 DEAL

  6 Card Magicians

  DEALS BOUGHT: 0

  96 150 OWN 0

  

  Unlocks 12/20
• DAY 7 DEAL

  7 Slang 450s

  DEALS BOUGHT: 0

  148 96 OWN 0

  

  Unlocks 12/21

Conspiracy Mission Event: mission #10 Bonus mission, "Challenge Mission: Second Round"

Oh man, I'm glad to be done with this thing. In general, I like the idea of a bonus/challenge mission, but this was the icing on an already rotten cake, in this case.

Admittedly, I probably could have finished this a bit sooner, had I been more diligent about using stamina packs and declaring wars and collecting my properties. But I was flat-out outta steam by the time I got to this mission. This whole mission event was a terrible waste of energy and stamina in my opinion, and directly conflicted with other events going on in the game such as the Ice Seasons and mastery events. I highly dislike fighting in Chicago because of the increased stamina costs, especially when I would much rather have been working on the Ice Seasons. I REALLY hated blowing so many thousands of energy on this thing, when there was a mastery event in Italy that I could have/would rather have made much more use of.

You can collect from your Distillery every 8 hours, and you can declare a war every 8 hours, so if you were more on top of things than I was, you'd have finished this faster than I did. The icing was the hardest part for me to complete.

CHALLENGE MISSION: Second Round

Joe Castellano

You handled all that pretty easy. You want a real challenge now?

Objectives

• 0/5 COLLECT FROM YOUR DISTILLERY 5 TIMES.

  With some extra supervision, your Distillery might perform that much better.
  

  
  

• 0/75 ICE 75 OPPONENTS IN CHICAGO.

  Get rid of those fellas snooping around.
  

  
  

• 0/8 WIN 8 WARS.

  Good business is like fighting a war...
  

  
  

 Conspiracy Mission Event
Mission #1: Moonshine 101
Mission #2: Tis the Season
Mission #3: Winter Wonderlands
Mission #4: Literal Poison 
Mission #5: Fermenting 
Mission #6: Distillery 
Mission #7: Purification 
Mission #8: Packaging 
Mission #9: Bottom's Up
Mission #10: Challenge mission: Second Round

FHEL8 : here and kinda Meh!

Today along with introduction of another Secret District, ongoing confusion with Family Property, a limited time Mission to complete, we get some new FHEL, FHEL8 for lack of a better designation. There is a new Weapon, Vehicle, Henchman, and Animal.  We are missing an Armour.

WEAPONS	Att	Def	Loc	Adj
Chuck Pistol	82	102	War6	-1
Wintermute	48	101	FHEL8	0
ATR 7	47	100	FHEL7	+1

Newest Weapon is the Wintermute and according to chart above makes +1 adjustment to your overall Def scores from the previous Def weapon, the ATR 7 from FHEL7 and is -1 from the highest Def weapon which is the Chuck Pistol from War Tier6 (which might not mean much as most people are already on War Tier8 and have little chance to get more Chuck Pistols as drops).

VEHICLES	Att	Def	Loc	Adj
Mortis	82	107	War8	-7
Troller	42	100	FHEL8	0
Slipstream	44	78	FHEL5	+22
Reed Runner	65	99	FightClub	+1

The Troller offers a slight improvement as the last Def vehicle was the Slipstream in FHEL5 and is a +22 improvement BUT you could have bought loads of Reed Runner from the Fight Club in which case the Troller is only a +1 adjustment to your overall Def score.

HENCHMEN	Att	Def	Loc	Adj
Garbage Man	110	48	SE	-7
Traceur	103	45	FHEL8	0
Fellow Zombie	100	42	FHEL7	+3

The Traceur(or wanna-be parkour) give a +3 over the FHEL7 Fellow Zombie but still not higher than the Garbage Man that was dropping in that Henchmen Special Events back in Sept 2011.

ANIMALS	Att	Def	Loc	Adj
Ounce	104	48	FHEL8	0
Armadillo	101	77	War8	+3
Goblin Shark	100	46	FHEL7	+4

Lastly, the Ounce seems to offer the best of the bunch at +4 from previous FHEL7 Goblin Shark and even beats the highest War8 animal, the Armadillo at +3.

So as a group FHEL8, is kinda meh and will incrementally increase your MAS + MDS by smallish amounts especially moreso for those that have been hitting the Boss Fights hard.  So looks like I could probably max out on these in less than 2 weeks with little effort.  So how well will you do?