Tuesday, 10 August 2010

Ultimate Chop Shop Weekend, Future Shock 1985

As many of you have noticed, there are some strange things going on with the Chop Shop at the moment, and this weekend we will be having an "Ultimate Chop Shop Weekend".

First off, the Chop Shop is now upgradeable to level 13:


While the 85 Car Part every 24 hours is nice, the new vehicle (Day Rider 2K) is pretty weak with only 45 attack, 50 defense, and +1 attack and +1 defense. Hopefully it gets upgraded a bit soon.

What is more exciting is that starting in just a few hours (or probably will have started by the time you read this) is that the Chop Shop will be able to produce 1 car every 12 hours and there is a new, limited time car called the Future Shock 1985.

The Future Shock 1985 will only be able to be built for a limited time, has a beefy 55 attack and 45 defense, and will "provide energy, stamina, and health". Not sure how much stats it will give just yet, but we will find out within a few hours.

This event, entitled "Gone in 60 Hours", will only last 60 hours. In theory if you build things immediately, you will be able to get 5 Future Shock 1985s.

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As far as the other new things in game, as part of the "must play weekend", we are supposed to be able to get some "Vegas Chips" which will give us an "advantage" in Mafia Wars Las Vegas. Not sure what advantage that is, but anything that gives me a head-start in Mafia Wars Las Vegas is good for me.

Players will also get double job mastery and double loot on fights this weekend.

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As most of you have noticed by now, amongst all these job additions, the Top Mafia Wheelman and Top Mafia Mastermind bonuses have been stealth-nerfed to 10% (from 11%). This makes speed leveling a good bit harder.

The thing is though that the Bangkok XP:Energy job buffs were significant enough that it is still much easier to finish off Bangkok now than it was prior to the XP:Energy nerf. It makes it harder to finish off other cities though for new players.

Not sure what to think about this. The drop to 10%/10% isn't that substantial I do not think; players will still be able to speed-level with energy accounts. The only difference now is that it will be harder for players to get to level 3000+ just by spamming Settle a Beef over and over again.

I think that if the nerfs go any further (I'm sure they will), players will really feel the pinch at 9%/9% and 8%/8%. The developers have already stated they do not like the power of these Top Mafia bonuses and are looking to tone them down. It's a double-edged sword really.

Yes, speed-leveling is kind of silly, but now that everyone is already level 1000+ (if you aren't by now, you better hurry up because the chance won't last much longer), it will make it very hard for brand new players to get ahead, unless major changes to game mechanics are created.

In typical online RPG games there is a soft-reset with each expansion - the level cap is raised and players farm all new gear and get all new levels, so even brand-new players can catch up every so often. In Mafia Wars, since there is no "level cap", new players will never catch up and there will never be a true reset.

Just something to think about! At any rate, lots of new stuff is coming and there will be a few more posts soon.

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Edit: It's Friday morning @ 7 AM EST, and the Chop Shop stuff isn't in game yet. When you see the Future Shock 1985 as a car you can make, you know the event is live.

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