John's Mafia Tools: working Link-a-nator alternative

UPDATE: Spockholm has updated Link-a-nator.

Many players are wondering how the heck a few other players are still posting gift links, with the main scripts temporarily down for the count due to the change in how free gifts are accepted. I showed you a new beta version of FBMWAddon earlier. Spockholm has been working on an update, and knowing them, we won't have to wait long.

When I saw Mimi J. posting Spock gift links though, I had to ask how she was doing it, since my Linkanator still wasn't working. She pointed me in the direction of John's Mafia Tools, where a version of Spock's Link-a-nator has already been updated to handle the gifting changes.

I did a quick check to verify that it does work. It appears and posts pretty much exactly the same as the original Link-a-nator.

There are some other script mods and backups to be found, but I haven't poked through them as of yet. Although, I was amused and flattered to see a copy of our Mr. Wizard's One bookmarklet there. I'll have to be sure and show that to Mr. Wizard :0)

Thanks again Mimi for sharing the info!

Zynga won't let you request Special Parts unless you speed build

If you've ever wondered why it seems like you never have the option to request Special Parts, you're not alone. The problem seemed to begin when we started getting these new limited time properties, and it was perhaps for that reason that many eventually stopped wondering about it. After all, we were requesting New York property parts constantly for whatever the new property was, so maybe that's why the option to request Special Parts wasn't there.

It was around that time, however, that the property build screen was given a facelift, and there simply IS no option to request for Special Parts on that new property layout.

All of my properties are fully upgraded, so I've requested no build parts lately. Yesterday, when I went to build from my properties, it was within an hour of my free build, so I went ahead and paid RP to speed up the build option. Once I paid the RP, the screen flipped, and I found myself looking at the OLD property build layout--and there was the Ask for Special Parts button!

I was in a hurry, so it warranted no more than a HMMM from me at that time. But later yesterday, a Family member of mine asked the now-familiar question: Why can't I request Special Parts? That finally prompted some testing on my part, and the results were the same as what I'd noticed yesterday morning: the option to request Special Parts wasn't on the normal build screen, but after paying reward points to speed up a build, the build screen reverts to the old layout, and you could then request Special Parts.

So in other words, you have to spend RP in order to request Special Parts through the game. MAYBE this was an oversight on Zynga's part, maybe not.

It seems your best bet is to SEND special parts from the free gift page; people are more likely to return whatever gifts you send to them.

For a quick fix, I recommend the FBMWAddon, specifically its "Gifts Page (Short Links)" feature.

Using that will generate a pretty graphical post to your news feed. Frankly, I've found that people respond to posts with graphics and icons faster than they respond to plain gift links.

Within minutes, you'll already have a few Special Parts in your ZMC (Zynga Message Center). Collect those first.

Then go to your Facebook requests page and collect them again :0)

You can find FBMWAddon HERE.

Alternatively, you can also use Spockholm's Linkanator to generate and post free gift links.

How Many Casa Grande Reservations Do You Need?

Casa Grande Reservations have been floating around for a few days now, if you knew where to look. As expected, these are the required consumable for the new Secret District in Brazil: Leticia, Colombia. Which is a little silly, as Colombia is a not-so-secret Republic in its own right, and Brazil is one of its neighbors. Leticia is the capital city of its 'department' (i.e., similar to what you may think of as a state or province within a country) Amazonas.

So, last night, the new Secret District landed on our Mafia Wars home page. Exactly how many Casa Grande Reservations will you need? 208, according to the Mafia Wars Wiki. I'm sure this may be affected by the double mastery boosts we can use in Brazil. Credits to the Mafia Wars Wiki. And to my Family member, Omar, for asking the question and finding the answer :0)

Job Name	Required				Total Required
Infiltrate A Political Rally	15	15	15	15	60
Rush The Casa Grande	17	17	17	17	68
Locate The Hidden Stash	20	20	20	20	80
Total	52	52	52	52	208

Casa Grande Reservations are now in Linkanator so that you can post gift links. You can also send them as Free Gifts from the Mafia Wars homepage, or by visiting THIS POST.

Secret Drop gift link Issue with Link-a-Nator

So there is a recurring issue after 3 days with Secret Drops shortened links when generated using Spockholm's Link-a-Nator. Anyone who is claiming them will be getting Blue Mystery Bags instead of the expected Secret Drop.

As you can see from the screenshot above, from the Link-a-Nator, what should be a Secret Drop is listed as a Blue Mystery Bag in the raw link form. In other words it is not matching and therefore one would get a Blue Mystery Bag.

Pulling the raw link from Gift ID #400 manually, you can see from the screenshot below that this link when shortened will produce a true Secret Drop when clicked.

So until Spockholm can get a fix on this, please be aware that when you are trying to get your daily 5 Secret Drops may get you a Blue Mystery Bag instead (if the link producer used Link-a-Nator) which will go against your daily 200 gift limit. On the bright side, those that know how to manually extract a link or are using MWADDOn will not have this issue and their shorten Secret Drop links will be valid.