2/25/2010

Mafia Wars Marketplace Now Live

So, the Mafia Wars Marketplace that has been mentioned over the last few days was just added into the game.


Essentially, the Godfather store has become flash-based. Note the menu bar on the side - you can scroll through for a variety of items of different sorts. This effectively lets Zynga sell more items in the Godfather store without making the page look cluttered.

There is no real significant changes except that now you can buy practically every type of boost and a large variety of limited edition loot pieces.

One of the more noticeable changes actually has nothing to do with the new interface, but rather the fact that there are now limited edition loot pieces which have a decent stat advantage over best-in-slot loot pieces.

Example of a few items you can buy:

Widowmaker (weapon; 27 attack, 52 defense)

Twin AK 47's (weapon; 52 attack, 26 defense)

Twin Garza 9s (weapon; 53 attack, 24 defense)

Love Birds (weapon; 26 attack, 53 defense)

Armed Doorman (armor; 51 attack, 24 defense)

Motorcycle Jacket (25 attack, 50 defense)

Mountain Goat (vehicle; 22 attack, 52 defense)

Crop Duster (vehicle; 52 attack, 28 defense)


While it was about time they made limited edition loot pieces worth while, the thing is that these higher end items now cost 35 godfather points. Ouch!

That seems like all with the Marketplace.. just expect 5-15 new limited edition loot pieces each week rather than the normal 3 pieces.

2/24/2010

Class Changes Now Available!

After many months of pleading, players are now able to change classes for 15 godfather points! You can pick this your class change in the godfather tab:



Additionally, Fearless and Mogul accounts have been improved. Fearless characters now regenerate stamina in 2 minutes less time (so 1 stamina every 2 min 30 sec for those with the Chainsaw Bayonet). Mogul characters now receive +40% bonus payout from this.

Now, note that there is no cooldown for this, so players are freely able to swap between classes. Need money for Bangkok? Switch to a mogul for a few days, spend all your energy, and then switch back to Fearless or Maniac. Same thing could be done for finishing content - when you still have content to clear, you can be a maniac, but as soon as you finish that, you can go back to Fearless to fight more often.

Additionally, many of you know that Fearless is my favorite class, so the fact that they now regenerate stamina, in my opinion, leads me to believe that Fearless is now the best class in the game in the vast majority of situations. Before, most players picked Maniac, but now, I see no reason not to pick fearless.

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Oh, and there's 3 new property achievements in game (all are easy to get), will post them up later!

2/21/2010

Chop Shop New York Property

For the first time in well over a year, there is a new property available in New York, the Chop Shop!


However, you can't buy it. You have to "build" it with free gifts:


Essentially, there are 5 different item types that you will need to pick up 10 of each from your friends (50 total items). The only thing is that each person only has access to 2 of the Chop Shop items, so you will need to collect from at least 3 different friends! To send these items to your Mafia Friends, simply go to the free gifts page and look for the items labeled "Chop Shop".


Here are the 5 items required to build your shop:

Acetylene Torches
Cement Blocks
Power Tools
Car Lift
Shipping Containers

You will need 10 of each! Alternatively, you can buy pieces for one godfather point.


Once completed, your Chop Shop is a standalone building that produces 1 random vehicle each day. The quality of the vehicle seems to be completely random as noted by the info in game - you can end up coming back for the day to collect a completely worthless vehicle or a good one. I see it as more of an incentive for people to check out this developing properties page.

Respect Gift Safe House

Looks like the Valentine's Day gift safe house has been replaced with the "Respect" Gift Safehouse.

The idea is generally the same as the previous gift safe houses - you ask your friend for gifts, and if they accept, you will get a gift in your safehouse. Additionally, the "Love Meter" concept has stayed (if friends send you a positive gift you get 10%), so when you get 10 good gifts, you will get a reward.

The difference is that there appears to be different levels of respect - you start off at 0, and when you open 10 gifts, your "respect level" will rise to 1 in addition to getting a reward.


The reward for hitting level 1 is a switchblade (weapon; 14 attack, 16 defense):

Thanks Jeremy for the picture!

..which is pretty poor. However, in theory, the rewards could increase in value as you level up. I will keep an updated list - if you happen to hit some of the higher levels that haven't been updated, leave a comment or send an e-mail, and I will update accordingly. Here is the list so far (items are awarded upon reaching level):


Level 1: Switchblade (weapon; 14 attack, 16 defense)

Level 2: Grach (weapon; 20 attack, 10 defense)

Level 3: Puggio (weapon; 17 attack, 23 defense)

Level 4: Zip Gun (weapon; 24 attack, 16 defense)

Level 5: Samurai Helmet (armor; 12 attack, 28 defense)

Level 6: Ma Barker's Machine Gun (weapon; 30 attack, 20 defense)

Level 7: Ghillie Suit (armor; 16 attack, 42 defense)


So it appears that the items are indeed increasing in quality as levels rise. It seems like quite a bit of work though to send out all those gift requests and get them all answered for an item that only has 42 defense.

Reaching level 7 is the cap at the moment - hopefully it will rise soon? Not sure what to think about such lousy rewards.

2/19/2010

Free Mystery Bags and Chinese New Year Collection

The gift safe house is finally gone now been replaced by mystery bags, which are a free gift you can receive from your friends.

Rather than making requests for mystery bags, you can send them out to your friends and accept them in the Facebook friend request tab.

In addition to loot pieces, you can also get a collection and even get free godfather points!


There are a variety of pieces you can get for a new Chinese New Year Collection, such as the Baoding Balls:


Unfortunately, the entire collection vaults into String of Firecrackers, which is a pretty weak weapon at 28 attack and 36 defense (thanks Yogesh for the info).


Gift Options (thanks to everyone for contributing):

- 5x of an item off of your wishlist (assuming you have an item on your wishlist that is not the lotto collection)
- +10 free skill points (best IMO)
- 1 free godfather point
- Huey (new limited edition vehicle with 47 attack and 20 defense)
- Chinese New Year collection pieces
- other random loot pieces of all sorts, including collection items and boosts