"New" Boss Fight?

Zynga never ceases to amaze me.  The timing of the ridiculous "New" Boss Fight with Mimi La Noir is impeccable.  Yesterday we witnessed what was probably one of the most epic fails the game has ever known.  Hundreds of items were suddenly giftable.  Some of those were stupidly made giftable (in my opinion), like gold treasure chest keys and knob wrenches. Of most interest to me were special parts and exotic animal feed (EAF), because I always need more.  But in classic Zynga fashion, they OVER corrected and took away MOST of the items' giftability.  No more gifting of special parts and EAF.  In half a day the trading community went through an entire life cycle - reincarnation, life, and death - déjà vu all over again. Coinciding with this catastrophe was the return of the family boss fight (FBF). What I find to be another FAIL is that nothing is really different.....

When rumors spread of the return of the FBF, I'd hoped there might be all new loot to fit in with the evolution of current loot stats.  But of course I was an idiot for thinking Zynga would do something rational.  With the exception of maybe a couple superior items that i don't recall seeing before, and of course the new holy grail item (the Quick Draw 203/203), nothing has changed other than the name.....Mimi La Noir (facepalm).  Even the top item is not that awesome.  With how much loot scores have shifted upward, I would have expected the top item to be higher than 203/203.  Hell, the crates in the market place offer items that are approaching 200.  Not like it matters though, since so few people have ever earned the top FBF loot item legitimately. I would only see my scores change by 65 points lol. WOW I gotta get one of those :P

In conclusion, I don't even care that the boss fights are back.  It's a big snoozefest.  I'll join the FBFs simply to hand out whatever buffs people are beggin for, but not even the 3.0 stamina/XP ratio interests me.  I'll keep using my stamina on the fightlist and my rivals.

Truly befuddled,

{ℳ} Қetąmῗиe Қῗd =Ʀ²Ƒ=

UPDATED Gifting Insanity

****UPDATE: Zynga took action, probably too much action, and made many items back to being ungiftable.  Gold Treasure Chest keys being among them, and of course the items needed for the limited time events such as mafia poker.  Some of those are good to not be giftable. UNFORTUNATELY, Special Parts and Exotic Animal Feed are also among the items that are no longer giftable.  Zynga can't get it right to save their lives.  Morons. I RECOMMEND EVERYONE CONTACT CS AND DEMAND SPECIAL PARTS AND EXOTIC FEED BE MADE GIFTABLE AGAIN!****

Well, I am stunned by this recent gifting expansion by Zynga.  It is LONG overdue.  And it's also fraught with error.  Either by oversight or apathy, Zynga has created an unfair advantage for certain players.  Gold treasure Chest Keys are giftable.  The items needed for ALL 3 current limited time events are giftable....which really leaves me scratching my head.  The knob wrenches, the parts for Ripped Rims, AND Poker Cards are giftable....this is obviously a great thing for players with multiple accounts, and an even greater thing for people who have multiple accounts that actually get played often.

I am no judge of people with minis. I have several.  I think minis are one of a few reasons the game survives - they drive the DAU number up considerably.  I'd say AT LEAST half the DAU are mini accounts, if not more than half.  My judgement, as always, is reserved for the idiots at Zynga.

I am, however, excited about the new life this has breathed into the trading community, which was all but dead.  The trading community was a special part of Mafia Wars. Maybe some people who quit playing when trading died out will come back.  I know I will be compelled to do some trading to get my hands on some of these damned treasure chest keys.  I am also pumped that special parts and exotic animal feed are now giftable.

So my final thoughts are: I am saying "Way to go, Zynga" in two very different ways at the same time. One is very sincere, one is very sarcastic.

uh,

{ℳ} Қetąmῗиe Қῗd =Ʀ²Ƒ=

Need Special Parts? Me too, and Zynga isn't helping.

Click here to send Special Parts

Apparently Zynga's idea of "fixing" something is to break other things such to the point that you forgot your original complaint. A great concept for customer retention! /sarcasm

Try again, Zynga.

Last week, the problem arose that we were ONLY getting blue mystery bags in return for gifts. To "fix" that, Zynga broke how our free gift links work. Zynga would be well-advised to remember that these actions piss off players, and when players get pissed, they think about quitting. I think Zynga needs to consider what the players want, instead of taking the attitude that since the gift links are not of Zynga's making, it doesn't matter if they're broken.

It's been reported by at least one other site that you still get the gift when clicking on free gift links, even if you get the PoPiggy. At least one person in my news feed also stated this was the case. However, I have not had any luck whatsoever with this method, despite several tests and checks; I am just not getting the parts. Clearly, Zynga can't do for one what they do for the other, not even errors and broken game features, which is pretty sh*tty.

As of their last report, Spockholm is still trying to sort out the issue on their end. It's worth noting that these gifting issues aren't the fault of the scripters. When Zynga changes things in the game, it often interferes with the scripts. And since Zynga chooses to alienate script-users, despite their being a fair portion of the player base, it remains up to the scripters to figure out a fix on their end. So many thanks to the scripters, and two middle fingers up for Zynga.

So as it stands, for at least some of us, the only way to get the items that we need is to gift them. The old-fashioned way, which means navigating Zynga's slow-loading, spinning bullet-laden pages, requiring many clicks and (on my part) sighs of frustration.

In truth, the best way to get the parts you needed was ALWAYS to send out gifts, though. Players are highly likely to return the gifts that are sent to them. I typically have only relied on posting gift links in a pinch, as usually I can get a few back quickly from my news feed.

But I'm ALWAYS short on Special Parts. After a few rounds of sending out Special Parts Zynga-style, I finally made myself a link to more-quickly load the screen to send Special Parts. These gifts sent from inside the game do allow other players to return Special Parts back to you, as evidenced by the fact that I went from 0 to over 70 Special Parts within the past couple of hours.

Use THIS LINK to send Special Parts yourself. Give to receive!

And let's hope Zynga pulls their heads out of their crannies before too long; this shite is annoying.

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.

special parts as a loot drop?

Another jaunt through Get Satisfaction, and another great idea...some days are like a treasure trove! And other days are just depressing... but I digress - check out this idea:

Michael, the OP, suggests making Special Parts either lootable or else a fight loot item. It would certainly ease some complaints about constantly having to collect crap in the game. I like the idea about special parts being a fight loot item. I can think of some friends *coughLisa* who are always in need of more special parts.

If you agree or have a similar idea. be sure to "like" Michael's thread, and click "Me Too". Those are the numbers Zynga needs to see.

special parts gone from free gift page

Special Parts, a part needed to build items in our Chop Shops, Weapons Depots, and Armories, has been bumped from the Free Gifts page on many accounts. This is likely due to the X-Men boosts currently being offered. Remember that you can still generate gift links for Special Parts using scripts like Linkanator or FBMWAddon.