Big Fat Ostrich

I truly, honestly, really was not going to write about Mafia Wars anymore. I swear. In fact, I was starting to distance myself from the game since I’d seen just about all there was to see once I got to level 90. But they’re crafty over there at Zynga, oh yes they are, and they just keep reeling you in. So welcome to a little post about the latest Mafia Wars expansion: Cuba

After doing most of the jobs in the original New York tier, many of us started to wonder what would be next. After all, you can’t just do the same old jobs over and over again. There isn’t a lot of fun in just getting experience. The fun is in how you get there. So, like most role playing games, an expansion was in order. Mafia Wars has had occasional add ons, like Robbing, and special loot. With Cuba, this is the biggest expansion I’ve seen in my time playing the game. It’s like, Mafia Wars x 2.

Without going into a huge amount of detail (yeah, I know 4 blogs on the subject already), let’s just say that Cuba offers a whole new range of jobs to do, new Cuba-centric weapons and loot, as well as new collections like tropical drinks, fruit, and beards! Yes, I said beards. There really is a Beards collection which is perfectly logical since cool beards go hand in hand with revolutionaries and badasses. I mean, just saying the word ‘Cuba’ conjures up images of Fidel pensively stroking his pubic beard while sucking on a Perfecto.

Mafia Wars Cuba also offers Businesses to ‘take over’, which you’ll need in order to generate some income. The income in Cuba is in Cuban Pesos too, which are kept in a separate bank from your Yankee dollars.

These businesses function differently from the New York properties in that they produce a product, whether it’s Sugar Cane, or Tobacco. Once you take over a business, you can invest in it so that it produces more output, which you can then cash out into cold hard worthless pesos. Like New York, you’ll need the cash to buy items for jobs. The jobs in Cuba require items not found in New York, so save your pesos for that CM Venga.

With this expansion, I think that interest in the game is somewhat renewed. I can only guess at future expansions like Mafia Wars Monaco, Las Vegas, Italy (Sicily), or Japan. Hmm…Yakuza Wars anyone? Zynga should totally hire me as an idea man.

P.S. Since this was first posted, Mafia Wars expansions have included Moscow and Bangkok (get your passport now!) with Las Vegas coming in 2010. New collections to vault have been added as well, including the ever elusive Money Laundering collection. Money Laundering is available in the New York tier and is dropped rarely. You’ll need to ask your Facebook friends for help looting it. Good luck. Or you can cheat and use one of the many greasemonkey scripts.

Update – Achievements in Bangkok: When you fight against either the Yakuza or Triad factions, your status will increase with one, but decrease against the other. Now there are 3 new achievements related to this: Dead or Alive, Hard Boiled, and Bangkok Dangerous. You only need to concentrate on Bangkok Dangerous which is to gain Allied Status in both factions at the same time. Here’s a tip on how to get it:

When fighting, see saw your attacks between Yakuza and Triad. Since each attack is based on the simple formula of +2 points for the attacker and -1 point for the defender, simply alternate your faction attacks and your status will increase in parallel with both factions. Eventually, you’ll hit Allied Status for both Yakuza and Triad, at the same time. This way, you can get all three achievements around the same time.

This is my last post about Zynga’s Mafia Wars on Facebook. You can check them all out here if you want. But man, there’s a lot to say on the subject. Hopefully with this post, I think I’ve covered it all, for now (note the non-committal tone).

Ah…the good old Mafia Wars Hitlist: the sole place where fighting match-ups are at their most unfair. Where else but the Hitlist can you (under normal gameplay) pit a level 15 Street Thug against a level 327 Master Boss? That place is indeed The Hitlist.

I love The Hitlist and I’ll tell you why in a minute. It’s true that there are a couple of reasons to hate it, but honestly, the worst thing is a bruised ego. But it’s a game, so even that should be a minor point.

Why it may suck to be on the hitlist:

• You’re at a low level and someone keeps putting you there, where you die.
• You lose uh…6 experience.

Like I said in my previous Mafia Wars post you’ll end up on the hitlist if you attack somebody over and over again, day after day. One word of advice here: If someone puts you on the hitlist, the best way to retaliate is to do nothing. Ignore them and eventually, they’ll move on. Sure, they might be persistent and keep at you, but as you grow stronger (be patient, it will happen), you’ll soon be winning more fights than you lose, and the Hitlist will actually become a blessing in disguise.

Why you WANT to be put on the hitlist:

• To gain extra experience
• To get some extra cash

True story and ongoing saga.

A few weeks ago, I was playing my Mafia Wars dude, leveling up, doing some fights, etc. After you’ve done a few thousand fights, you kind of stop looking at your opponent’s name. You check out their level, and mafia size, attack them and move on.

Well I guess Don Copeland got insulted. It’s possible that I killed him in the fight, but I really don’t remember. All of a sudden, I’m being attacked. Over and over again, Don Copeland is putting me on the hitlist, where indeed, I die.  Remember: no matter how strong you get, there’ll always be someone bigger and stronger than you. If you’re on the hitlist, sooner or later, someone will claim the bounty.

Anyway, at first I was annoyed. Then I started counting how many people were attacking me each time a hit was put out on me. I was losing in the end, but overall, I was winning some of the fights before someone finally took me down. In Mafia Wars, you gain experience when you win a fight, and you lose 6 experience when you die.

Overall, I would lose 6 experience for dying on the hitlist, but gain around 8 for winning some of the fights. The difference is +2 experience, so I ended up coming out ahead. And since this is ongoing, being put on the hitlist starts being beneficial over time.  And at level 73, it also becomes easier and easier to win fights.

Counting up the day’s hitlist stats, what do we see? (Don Copeland put me on the list 4 times)

Experience lost: -24 (6 XP  x 4 times)
Experience gained: +41
Difference: +17
Money earned: $317,000
Cost to Don Copeland: $32,000 ($8,000 per bounty. I guess I’m not worth more than that )

So thanks, Don C! Highly generous of you for taking the time to remember me and prompt people to fight me. Maybe I’ll return the favor someday, but for now, I’ll take the free ride.

Coming soon: Thoughts and tips on the new Beta expansion – Mafia Wars Cuba!

My previous Mafia Wars gaming post was getting way too long, so here are some nicely contained tips for y’all:

*Super Hot Mafia Wars Game Playing Tips*

Like any role playing game, your character gets stronger each time you level up. What should you do with those hard earned skill points?

Defense: I cannot stress this enough. Whether you’re buying armor, weapons or vehicles, think about defense before attack. As well, whenever you level up, use your skill points to increase your defense before anything else. As a rule of thumb, I increase 2 defense for every 1 attack. The rest gets spread over Energy, Stamina and Health.

Attack: Attack is very important as well, but since you should be putting most of your skill points into defense, back up your attack by having good weapons. So buy Chain Guns and Town Cars. You’ll notice that they get used in your fights often because they are among your strongest items, aside from items collected into your loot.

Godfather Points: Godfather points are used to buy extra skill points, mafia members, mystery loot as well as topping up your stamina, health and energy. Since they are hard to come buy, I’d recommend using them to buy skill points and pad your defense and attack. Don’t waste your godfather points on changing your name. If you’re just starting out, choose a name you’ll be happy with. For originality (and privacy), stay away from using your real name as your character name.

Loot: Loot is acquired through Jobs and Fights. The more jobs and fights you do, the more loot you have the chance of getting, which will increase your ability to win more fights in the future and level up faster. So fight often!

Limited Edition Loot: These items are offered by the game on a weekly basis. Usually the item has some significance related to a current event or holiday. For example, a recent one was an Indy Racer as a nod to the 93rd annual Indy 500. It’s a good idea to buy a lot of these whenever they come out since they offer a good attack/defense ratio, but there’s a catch: You can only buy 1 for every 2 friends you have. So you’ll have to go get some more friends if you want to beef up on these special items. Which brings us to…

Getting a bigger mafia: Ok, I said it before. Facebook sucks, but dammit, I have a mafia to run, so let’s add some “friends” who are even lower on the totem pole than John McClendon from my grade 3 second period finger painting class who made me eat glue that one time. There are two ways to do this:

• Spam your real friends: This is the worst way in my opinion. If your real friends haven’t joined your mafia by now, give it a rest. They ain’t joining. And if they do, there’s a good chance that they won’t play the game actively anyway. Leave them be.

• Add friends from the Mafia Wars Forums: If you want to increase your mafia size, this is the way to do it. Go to the Mafia Wars Add Me thread in the Forums, and simply add some friends by clicking on people’s ‘Add as Friend‘ link. As good etiquette, include a note stating “mafia wars” or something so they know how you found them. After they have joined your mafia, you can delete them as Facebook friends if you want. Just know that they will not be able to help you out on a job if they aren’t friends with you.

Fighting other players: If you’re being attacked over and over, don’t sweat it. First, build on your defense. As you get stronger, people will start leaving you alone. If, on the other hand, you attack indiscriminately (attacking the same people over and over again, day after day), you’ll get a bad rep and you’ll end up on the Hitlist. A lot. But even that isn’t such a big deal.

Super tip: When you fight other players, you become more visible. If you attack often, prepare to have to defend yourself.

Properties and getting robbed: We all get greedy sometimes, and buying a lot of Mega Casinos is a good way to generate cash. But be careful: overextending yourself will leave you with damaged property, with little to defend with. Only build what you can afford, and build a lot if you have the defense to back it up. You need to have a strong mafia, good armor and weapons, and nicely padded profile points. If you’re still getting robbed, don’t repair and collect the 30% that you’ll get anyway until you’re at a higher level.

In the end, there’s not a lot you can do to stop attacks since that’s a major part of the game anyway. But, you can choose your fights and know when to walk away from one. What would you do in the real world?

There are also a couple of other nice ways to beef up you character:

• Collections: When doing jobs in each level (or tier), you can randomly get items to complete various collections such as Billiard Balls, Poker Chips, Cigars, etc. Once you’ve completed a collection, you can Vault it. Doing so will give you a bonus for your character. There’s not much to think about here as getting the items are based on luck of the draw. You can always swap items with fellow mafia members.

• Gifting: You can gift items from your loot or your collections to any of your mafia family. My aim here is to try to give my team something that they need. I know, I know, we like holding onto those strong items. but to be fair, I feel bad sending people junk, like the Brass Knuckles. If you’re like me, you have too many to count. I do try to see what a mafia member might be missing, and if I can, I try to give them something useful. If you’re lucky, and they’re nice, they’ll help you out too. They may even help you complete a collection! It happened to me, it really did

• Achievements: Achievements are relatively new to the game and earning them will award you with a pretty small bonus (like 1 skill point for the most part). They range from the easy to the more challenging. Easy being the Giver achievement, which is awarded by giving 10 gifts to your mafia. Some of the more challenging ones include completing 9 collections, or helping out 200 mafia members on jobs. It’s tough, but one day… one day…

Now sit back, grow your mafia and get stronger. Trust me. You’ll get there with patience. I’m not aware of any cheats or bots for easy leveling, but I would strongly advise against installing any extra software on your machine since that’s a quick way to get viruses. Play fair and you’ll have more fun.

Current City Update: A lot of people have been asking me how to defeat Enzo Casazza in Italy. Well he’s VERY hard to beat, but totally doable. You can even beat him without using any consumables, but it takes a very long time. The main thing is to have around 500 Stamina points. Then, go into the fight, stun, attack, shiv or grenade, attack, die, then leave the fight and heal in Moscow or wherever. Repeat this, and you will beat Enzo Casazza and get the Enzo’s Monocle. Trust me, it takes a long time, but be patient. Try doing this job when you’re getting ready to level up. That way you’ll get your stamina refill if you need it.

Brazil Update: Well it looks like you need a lot of cash (Real) in Brazil. Similar to Bangkok, you can sell city items from completed levels. The only difference is that it’s hard to tell what items are needed for each level. In Brazil, I did my best to figure out the number of items required in the following districts:

Rio de Janeiro: Centro
Belem
Manaus
Sao Paolo: Heliopolis
Recife

In the end, it’s really not clear and I think Zynga is doing this on purpose to make it more challenging. But, if you’re on Sao Paolo or Recife, you’re going to need more cash. You can usually sell off the items required for Rio de Janeiro, Belem and Manaus. That should give you enough Real to get through these levels.

Another strategy is to balance your jobs between districts and buy a few required items at a time before banking your cash.

Also, three more districts will be added to Brazil soon.

God I hate this game.

If you’re looking for Mafia Wars strategy tips, check out my other post here.

I hate Facebook and I swore I’d never join. But once I did join about 18 months ago, the reasons why I didn’t want to join in the first place were confirmed: status updates (which basically all say “pay attention to me!”) and being hounded by people I wasn’t friends with the first time around. I know, I know. I’m not the first one to bitch about it.

So why the hell am I still on Facebook?

Obviously, if you found this post, then you know why. Mafia Wars.

Mafia Wars is another highly addictive online RPG by Zynga, creators of tons of Facebook games like Street Racing, Scramble and too many to mention here. And, thanks to Facebook (sigh) there’s a huge player base with over 10 million people playing. The principle is simple: create a mafia dude and make him better by fighting other mafia dudes, mafias, and doing various jobs to earn cash so you can buy weapons and property.  Like any RPG, each subsequent level gets tougher and you need more experience to advance which means you need more weapons, more property, more money, more everything. It’s an endless cycle really, and in the end, highly predictable in the sense that once you’ve done 1 level, you’ve done them all.

THEN WHY AM I STILL PLAYING??

Because Mafia Wars is really well put together. There’s no real storyline, just you doing the same jobs that everyone else is doing. As you get better, you reach higher tiers and get rewarded with special weapons and loot. You begin as a lowly Street Thug and make your way up the ranks, towards the Boss levels. The game is ever evolving, so you just have to keep playing to see where it goes.

There’s just something pleasing about the game that keeps me coming back for more. It might be the stats. I like stats. Stats make me giddy. You can watch your stats grow as you rise up the ranks in your own mafia. There’s also a global leaderboard, so you can get an idea just how long you’ll be playing this thing (level 1057 anyone?), if the addiction holds. So far I’m a Level 56 Hitman and I still can’t get enough.

A few things that I really appreciate about Mafia Wars:

1. Players are not searchable. This removes a certain level of harassment from the game, so most people can play for fun.

2. Mostly fair fighting and robbing: You can only fight other players who are reasonably close to your level of experience (under normal circumstances). That way a Level 217 can’t attack a Level 3. Unless you’re on the Hitlist.

3. Limited animation. With text and static images, the game play is faster (fine, the revolver lags at times). The images of weaponry and loot are slick and pleasing to the eye. Personally, I think overt animation would detract from the game itself, so kudos to Zynga for keeping it simple.

4. No chat feature. Need i say more?  After all, you’re whacking other players, who will no doubt get pissed when you fight them and win. Better to let the gun do the talking.

With these great features, and others, there are less ways for people to cheat, so most players can just play and enjoy. Plus, you can now play Mafia wars on the iPhone as well. The iPhone version of Mafia wars will import your mafia from the Facebook version, but your gangster will have to start from the beginning since your Facebook mafia stats are not imported.

That’s it. Time to fight some more, punk!

P.S. I still hate you, Facebook!