A brief history of crime city

[Silvio]

As I was cleaning up my wall, I noted that I had comments on the wall that were 700 days old. So I thought back and yup, I started playing this game around Xmas time, so must have been December 2011. Before you tell me my life is pathetic (although I would like tend to agree), I though my reflection on what the game was, and how it has changed may have been interesting. So, here goes -a brief history of crime city.

In the beginning . . . .

The game was about accomplishing goals, doing jobs and following the storyline. Then it changed, as we began to realize that this levelled you up too fast and exposed you to stronger players. Gold was for energy replacement and buying weapons. There were no events.

Then a guy named Trampstamp came along, and did a whole lot of analysis on the economics side of the game - he's the one that coined the type A and B monikers. He even identified the mathematical sequence series the increases followed. This was a revolution, as many in the game slowed down the levelling and began ignoring the goals. Economies began to be the focus, and trampstamp at level 23 had level 8 lofts, and level 10 movie theatres. He was an economic god. Funzio also banned him from this forum multiple times for various infractions. Strong economies allowed you to buy you strength with in game cash. Gold was for buying weapons. There were no events.

Then someone discovered a bug in the system. You could farm M4A1s at the shooting game in boardwalk. A 20/22 weapon, one of the strongest in the game. I myself farmed 223 of them before they shut it down and replaced it with a 7/9 rusty M4A1. Those that farmed had an incredible advantage over those that didn't. Gold was still for buying weapons, and there were no events, and no multipliers.

Then non consumable weapons came into the game, and there was a big analysis (and associated farming spreadsheets) about where the best places to farm them were. Some based it on Atk/energy, some on Atk/xp, it was a big debate. The big goal was to replace all your consumable explosives with non consumable explosives. Many used their RP for this - then night vision goggles and then chain whip were universally considered the best use of your RP spend. Gold was still for buying weapons, and there were no events or multipliers.

Around this time, it was calculated that the maximum Atk/def was around 53k. Everyone used spreadsheets to identify their lowest item, and target stats increase accordingly. This was possible because the item inventory was relatively static.

Then the events started. I don't recall them all, but the diamond sig was one -less than 200atk/def per. Basically it was a case event. This was the first time you used gold for anything other than buying weapons.

Then syndicates were introduced, and the multipliers began to play a much bigger role in the game.

It took a while, but the events we see now started around one per month, until funzio sold to gree. That's when the stats went haywire. Up until this time, a strong economy could insulate you against a need to spend gold. Once the stats inflation began strategy and economy took a back seat to simple clicking and spending.

I think all users on this board have a good handle on where we are now. You should know that similar outrages have occurred before - the M1A1 nuke was a good example. A lot of people quit over that one, and funzio had to find a way to inflate all stats to make the 22/20 weapon less of an advantage to those that didn't have them.

Anyway, just a little looking into the past. Hope you enjoyed my reflection.

[holy]

Nice reading the documentary channel bro :)

[John Hannibal Smith]

Thanks for the good read and putting your time in to post. Memory Lane, lol

[Silvio]

More wistful actually, as the strategy component of the game that originally brought me in is now completely gone.

[1Shot]

What are the highest stats people have nowadays? Back then it seems like they used to be very low.

[evilbeef54]

Yup, started about the same time, lurked on here for a while before joining to post, this game used to be based upon strategy and research, now it is all about buying stats with gold, you used to be able to finish ltq and ltb with out gold IF you set timers were active and planned correctly, gold was incase you missed a timer or wanted a but of an advantage, not the standard it is now. Now we have reached a time where we are given false info about the end date of events so we spend more gold (mw RB this weekend)

[Silvio]

Well, I started my own syndicate to get back to the strategy of the game. Got 5 members, simple - I treat it like golf now. No stress, get better. The simple way to beat Gree is to cut off their funding. . . ., which I have done. A strong economy still gets you 10% multipliers on the LTB.

[sister morphine]

Good read, although you missed out several things - the introduction of epic bosses (and Billionaire's guide to beating them) and crates, and the holiday explosives & big PvP contests. Funzio were long gone by then too.

Syndicates were a scheme to make cash from things players were doing already with in-game gang rivalries.

[Silvio]

Good read, although you missed out several things - the introduction of epic bosses (and Billionaire's guide to beating them) and crates, and the holiday explosives & big PvP contests. Funzio were long gone by then too.

Syndicates were a scheme to make cash from things players were doing already with in-game gang rivalries.

Agreed - I generally considered that stuff post funzio, and didn't go into that much detail. I guess my point is that I've seen some similar unrest, this recent stuff resulting in the free 20 gold to me was eerily similar to the M4A1 nerf.

[DavidtheBoo]

Yes I remember the times without events..... At least a little bit of stretegy was involved then....

And don't forget the Indians and their bullying and camping in your hood.

[Nighteg]

Also worth mentioning the first LTQ, which had both energy and stamina missions.
Then gree realized that they're making more money from pure energy refills, so the robbing goals were abandoned.

[sister morphine]

Yes I remember the times without events..... At least a little bit of stretegy was involved then....

And don't forget the Indians and their bullying and camping in your hood.
We still do that, although it's service with a smile from me ;)

[sister morphine]

Also worth mentioning the first LTQ, which had both energy and stamina missions.
Then gree realized that they're making more money from pure energy refills, so the robbing goals were abandoned.
True. There was a colossal amount of complaining from players unable to track down the necessary buildings as well.

[PedroPimples]

We still do that, although it's service with a smile from me ;)


No they don't, any Indians that had the ability and strength to bully are long since gone.
Now it's two small time second string members trying to recruit off of there name.

I know you wasn't an Indian sis, and are just in there old guild shell now.

[I love tacos]

Yep, the game was fantastic in 20011/2012. Funzio was on top. It was about building iph/stats so you wouldn't get pummeled. Now it's all about the gold demand. After spending a few hundred and joining the crappy gold program I realized that Gree has taken a lot from the game. Needless to say I open CC 3x per day. I open coc and dead trigger 2 a lot more.

[Ares2]

Ahhh, back in the day. I recently re downloaded crime city on my ipod and to my surprise, my old accoult was on it. Lets just say gone are the days of a lvl 50 with 9k attack calling himself strong...

[Max Power]

Everything changed with the M4 nerf. It was the beginning of a whole new deal.

This forum was also filled with game play discussion and strategy, instead of syndicate smack talk. Since there is little strategy left, I suppose that is fair.

[Morgz]

I wish OP (or someone) would expand a bit on the topic of consumable explosives, buying weapons with RP, etc. I'm a FNG, and really appreciate the read. I know absolutely NOTHING about the strategy of explosives, consumables, and buying objects with RP.

[therealbengie]

good read, been here long before events, consumable explosives and anything other than level up to get that casino. LOL at the guys saying about back in the day regarding LTB's, they are so new it isn't funny.

60K stats were a dream to most players and now I have individual weapons worth nearly 200k.

[cditti]

The strategy now is buy gold.. End

[t12pm]

I wish OP (or someone) would expand a bit on the topic of consumable explosives, buying weapons with RP, etc. I'm a FNG, and really appreciate the read. I know absolutely NOTHING about the strategy of explosives, consumables, and buying objects with RP.

They were used to up your strength quick, but as the name implies when attacked they disappear slowly, use to be able to watch people's stats fall as you pounded them in war. They are useless now, same with rp items the two were pretty strong items back then. Strategy was great, you could level slow and if done right almost no one could touch you, now it is just buy your way to stronger rivals

[Sandukan]

The first bit of steroids were the consumable big stat triple digit explosives. The turkey, snowball etc
A little guy got the taste of the big leagues if only for a few days lol

[Silvio]

I completely forgot about the turkeys and snowballs!! At 500 Atk/def, we went crazy trying to acquire them. Short 2-3 stat boost that tripled or quadrupled your stats.

[ballzini]

You also forgot to mention the first LTQ... The Hit list. Each level alternated between attacking NPC Characters and robbing specific building from others in the game. Very tough to complete, but i was able to complete it and Gree had me hooked....

[CCKallDAY]

Yep, the game was fantastic in 20011/2012. Funzio was on top. It was about building iph/stats so you wouldn't get pummeled. Now it's all about the gold demand. After spending a few hundred and joining the crappy gold program I realized that Gree has taken a lot from the game. Needless to say I open CC 3x per day. I open coc and dead trigger 2 a lot more.Lol typo - we never lived in 20011

[CCKallDAY]

I completely forgot about the turkeys and snowballs!! At 500 Atk/def, we went crazy trying to acquire them. Short 2-3 stat boost that tripled or quadrupled your stats.
and footballs, toilet paper rolls

[CCKallDAY]

What happened to Payam??

[Max Power]

There was a time when we didnt even have explosives.

[mxz]

I think the rivals list change deserves a spot of its own in the history since it effectively nerfed the entire need/desire/game behind increasing your stats.

[Silvio]

I think the rivals list change deserves a spot of its own in the history since it effectively nerfed the entire need/desire/game behind increasing your stats.

Another instance proving the death of strategy. . .

And camping at level 160 to avoid the shark tank.

[sister morphine]

What happened to Payam??
Retired ages ago, along with his false Noodles alter ego ;)

[Forever Infamous]

Ahh yes those were the days,, forming our own groups prior to syndicates starting , I was one of the founders of IFM, I'll never forget those fun days of hunting down MWWM & smashing Big Shotty LOL , oh what a rivalry!
'FOREVER INFAMOUS!'

[scottmac112]

Fun look at the past.... Probably my most fond memory was the free high-stat weapons debacle last summer (don't remember which month). I almost gave myself carpal tunnel buying so many, and it shot my stats into the ten millions for the night! (At the time, I was under a million att/def if I remember right)

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

Q:
How many old school Crime City players does it take to screw in a light bulb?

A:
20

One to screw in the bulb,
one to complain about how many more lumens the bulbs used to put out,
one to complain about how much bigger the bulbs used to be,
one to complain about how much longer the bulbs used to last
one to complain about how many more bulbs you used to buy for today's bulb price
one to complain about how much prettier the color of light used to be
one to complain about how the bulbs never used to burn you when touched
one to complain about how the filaments were more durable
one to complain about how much less electricity the bulbs used to require
one to complain about how the old glass never used to break
one to complain about how much smoother the old bulbs used to be
one to complain about how much quieter the old bulbs were
one to complain about how much faster the old bulbs were to power up
one to complain about how much more energy efficient the old bulbs were
one to complain about how more compact the old bulbs used to be
one to complain about how many more sockets the old bulbs used to fit in
one to complain about how many more people are ditching these bulbs and buying other brands
one to complain about how the manufactuer takes its customers for granted
one to complain about how the manufacturer ships defective bulbs
one to complain about how good things used to be when the bulb company was owned by someone else

[Morgz]

They were used to up your strength quick, but as the name implies when attacked they disappear slowly, use to be able to watch people's stats fall as you pounded them in war. They are useless now, same with rp items the two were pretty strong items back then. Strategy was great, you could level slow and if done right almost no one could touch you, now it is just buy your way to stronger rivalsThanks for this too. Man I wish I had found this game earlier. Hopefully all these changes will morph the game back into greatness at some point. I really enjoy it now, but love the idea of purchasing different types of weapons for different strategies.

[Canoehead]

This is good stuff. Makes me smile. Checked my inventory only to find 294 last call explosives, which I painstakingly farmed. Stats of those were 25/18. Played almost a year before my stats got to 100k

[Silvio]

Lol. I farmed 500 of them.

[DangerKillski]

one thing that didn't get mentioned is when they updated LTQs so instead of using default built-in characters on the maps, to using new characters for each ltq, so you couldn't prestage hits.

Much of the gree history is a battle between players figuring out clever ways to exploit different aspects of the game to gain an advantage, and gree, who tries to subsequently squeltch those exploits in an effort to force you to buy/spend as much gold as possible. For the player, the best time is when you discover some advantage you can take, however temporarily and wallop your opponents. Now it's little more than a contest between who is willing to spend more.

Stat inflation hits and it takes 8 months just to update the scratch-it with non worthless items. The store isn't updated because nobody spends gold there. In their style of game development, first priority is revenue, and second is player experience.

worst part is, the most long lived players and most loyal to the game brand are stuck now. we raced to highest level possible as quick as possible without knowing that would make you a target. Stat points were spent on attack and defense that do absolutely nothing. Now what can you do? Ditch your character and start at 0? For many this becomes the end of the line, because no longer can you get an advantage over anyone without spending $, and that's exactly the way they want it.

my 2 cents

[iteachem]

No they don't, any Indians that had the ability and strength to bully are long since gone.
Now it's two small time second string members trying to recruit off of there name.

I know you wasn't an Indian sis, and are just in there old guild shell now.


What would he do if he couldn't complain about the Indians.. lol.. many of the original bullies are still with us.. Oh and if I am a second string member take that up with noodles.. he gave me my spot

[Dipstik]

What happened to Payam??

His ship went down in a storm, but he survived and discovered the lost city of Atlantis. Now he dwells in that immortal golden land with the rest of the Heroes.

[iteachem]

I completely forgot about the turkeys and snowballs!! At 500 Atk/def, we went crazy trying to acquire them. Short 2-3 stat boost that tripled or quadrupled your stats.


was surprised how long some folks kept them. I know Char and Vicious V destroyed a ton of them

[iteachem]

This is good stuff. Makes me smile. Checked my inventory only to find 294 last call explosives, which I painstakingly farmed. Stats of those were 25/18. Played almost a year before my stats got to 100k

spent a lot of time farming ECBs and Explosives.. I think I got like 7 of the m4 before nerf..

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

His ship went down in a storm, but he survived and discovered the lost city of Atlantis. Now he dwells in that immortal golden land with the rest of the Heroes.what the?! This ain't the real dipstick. We all know he retired long ago. Everyone knows this is PedroPimples posting now.

[1Shot]

I just want the shop updated.

[Sleazy_P_Martini]

I just want the shop updated.

So did mw players and look what happened there overnight.

[String-Girl]

His ship went down in a storm, but he survived and discovered the lost city of Atlantis. Now he dwells in that immortal golden land with the rest of the Heroes.

I don't spend nearly as much time around here as I used to, just happened by and saw the nostalgia thread.

And the long awaited 5,001st post.

Welcome home (such as it is), Dippy.

[CCKallDAY]

You do have to make mention of the cheaters. Man there was a ton of them back then. Energy and money most popular and easy to do back then. Could always spot them though roll up in a hood with 5 Atlas statue and you knew you had a cheater. You could really work and build stats and be unbeatable back then. Was a top ten grossing game then I think GREE paid 210m for funzio and the good days died.
Haha yeah in the beginning, there was a guy in CN (cosa nostra if you haven't heard about them) i had a ton in my mafia, but there was this one guy with 10k stats!! That was amazing, since he was on like level 20 when funzio was still around. He spent a lot of gold and camped for a rly long time

[CCKallDAY]

spent a lot of time farming ECBs and Explosives.. I think I got like 7 of the m4 before nerf..I got a ton of "The Delivery", 28 and 15 i think

[Alice]

what if, there is a private server running classical CC, without any events, just like back in the 2011.

[CCKallDAY]

what if, there is a private server running classical CC, without any events, just like back in the 2011.

There were still the lockbox events like once every month

[sister morphine]

There were still the lockbox events like once every month
Not until 2012 :)

[therealbengie]

Not until 2012 :)

I was about to reply saying there weren't events like that at first.

[therealbengie]

Fun look at the past.... Probably my most fond memory was the free high-stat weapons debacle last summer (don't remember which month). I almost gave myself carpal tunnel buying so many, and it shot my stats into the ten millions for the night! (At the time, I was under a million att/def if I remember right)

so you admit to cheating and you still have horrible stats? good work.

mine are rubbish but at least I never cheated to get them.

[Mcockbur]

What are the highest stats people have nowadays? Back then it seems like they used to be very low.

Not sure but found a dl today with 66M defense.. So i guess top syndicates should have 100M...

[therealbengie]

tam has 410Mil last I saw

[sister morphine]

tam has 410Mil last I saw
Defence? Was 210mil when we "fought" them on Saturday :rolleyes:

[Vile Lynn]

I miss being able to do box events for days and days and days in OT, then getting 10/10 (or crashing) and finally being able to call everybody back.

499'ers? nobody cares anymore :cool:

Wanting those M4A1's is what brought me to the forum in the very early months of CC... I got 429 M4A1s before I didn't need anymore; I had great stats, too, for a free player!
It was a sad day when they went rusty on players who were still farming them.

good memories but I've been playing too long! :p

[Vile Lynn]

so you admit to cheating and you still have horrible stats? good work.
mine are rubbish but at least I never cheated to get them.

it was not really cheating... GREE goofed and forgot to put a gold price on those weapons.... many players tapped as many as they could get! it was fun! Then GREE removed them and everything was the same in the end.

[Steve0]

Wow just downloaded CC just to see what my stats were after 6 months of not playing. Surprised to see Sister M, dip, mxz, and Sand still here.

[mxz]

Wow just downloaded CC just to see what my stats were after 6 months of not playing. Surprised to see Sister M, dip, mxz, and Sand still here.The best entertainment is free, my friend.

[sister morphine]

The best entertainment is free, my friend.
Amen to that.

Hi Steve :)