mafia size: 499

[whocareswhatmynameis]

ever since the new quest missions were added, a new and interesting phenomenon has occurred: many players in my rival list have 499 mafia size (or close to that). i know a few in the forum have wrote about this, but i wanted to start a thread to get a sense of what forum members think about the new development and whether this really helps players from being attacked? my personal observation has been that i tend to ignore anyone with less than 500 mafia size as i go through my rival list during PvPs, so the strategy must be effective. is that the consensus of the forum?

[Dorian Gray]

I make sure I hit the 499ers at least once before I move on, just for spite. lol

I'm staying above 500. If I want to be able to find people to attack that have 500 or more, it only seems right that I leave myself out on that ledge as well. Of course I'm not getting attacked that much more, that might not be the same for others.

[helpme]

I love to rob them. Rob them off their laundromats since they are cowards.

[Babytway]

yah that 499 mafia crap is purely for suckas and cowards,

[DCjG]

I get "attacked" less having dropped one but I seem to have a lot of spite robberies these days from folks I don't recognize. They hit all my worthless 1 and 3 hour buildings despite losing half the attempts. This, of course, clogs my log so I don't seem to be doing any better with my news list.

Going to up it back up to 500. My original reason for dropping one was to have a more persistent log of robbers to revenge hit so my goal has failed. I blame my decent defense and people's general stupidity. I guess they think it pisses me off or something. In reality I just laugh at it and wonder what possesses one to be so inefficient with stamina. I suppose I robbed someone's big money building once and they persuaded all their e-thug friends to gang up on me. Too bad for them all the real money is synced up.

[schnuffler]

I make SURE I attack them if they have 499 or even just 498. If they are above the level of my current hitman goal level, I hit them till they are too beaten up to hit any more. Sure it's nice to be working on two goals at the same time, but I'm not attacking people any more than I did before the goals came up. So, 498 or 499 mafia is just like having an extra big target painted on your head!

[DCjG]

I make SURE I attack them if they have 499 or even just 498. If they are above the level of my current hitman goal level, I hit them till they are too beaten up to hit any more. Sure it's nice to be working on two goals at the same time, but I'm not attacking people any more than I did before the goals came up. So, 498 or 499 mafia is just like having an extra big target painted on your head!

My question to you is how many failures does it take before you quit? I have idiots that clearly spend an entire bar of stamina on me and get little to nothing in return. They can't pull off an attack anyway so they resort to robbing worthless buildings just to spam my log. It's quite comical really.

If I fail once... Kudos to you and I'm off to better things.

[k0de]

I'm not usually the type to involve myself in shenanigans, but anyone lame enough to do this deserves to see their plan backfire in the most epic fashion. Unintended Consequences ftw! If only I could be around to see it when the best laid plans fall apart....

[Lager]

I've never added more mafia members then I could use for the level I'm at. I just didn't see any point in adding mafia just to have them but now I'm thinking about the point Dorian made above.

I need those peeps with 500+ mafia to complete goals so even though I'm at lvl83 I guess I should add more mafia to provide the same chance that I'm looking for from others.


Yes I've seen a lot of 499 hoods lately but I'm seeing a bunch of empty hoods too. Many more then I used to see.

[G Wiz]

Yea I have also scaled down my mafia size a while back when we were talking about the high levels that were able to see you, but the whole 499 thing is pretty clever when you think about it, though cowardice.

Im pretty sure there are quests at lower levels that dont require 500 to be attacked yet, so maybe theyre still getting served?

[Lager]

I guess it depends how much attacking a player has done. Some players just aren't into attacking /robbing. You can see it in their stats and they are always the weakest players on their level.

Even though I'm only on lvl83 and can only use 415 mafia, I need those 500+ players to finish these new goals.

[schnuffler]

My question to you is how many failures does it take before you quit? I have idiots that clearly spend an entire bar of stamina on me and get little to nothing in return. They can't pull off an attack anyway so they resort to robbing worthless buildings just to spam my log. It's quite comical really.

If I fail once... Kudos to you and I'm off to better things.

Ideally, I would visit someone's hood and check out their stats before attacking them. However, I'm a bit too time-poor (or lazy) to do this, so I I tend to attack people once and see what their defence score is and whether I win or lose. If my attack is lower than their defence (say, by more than 500 or so), I move on. Otherwise I hit again, even if I have lost. Knowing that their defence is lower than my attack gives me confidence I should win. The unknown factor here is of course how many skill points they have invested in defence. If I lose three times in a row to someone whos defence is lower than my attack, I figure they must have invested more skill points in defence than I have in attack. That would be unusual given that I have 90+ attack skill points. All in all, losing a few fights when I fight 200+ fights a day is no big deal. I don't even mind the occasional person against whom I lose every second fight if it helps toward achieving a goal.

[DCjG]

Hardly cowardice when only about 5% of the population can launch a successful attack in the first place. I suppose for some it could be but you could say the same for anyone building defense or camping or anything else in this game... Its a tactical move. I say the man with 100k defense is the bigger "coward" in this respect. Sounds foolish, no?

And its hardly a well hatched plan that was foiled... I dropped a couple members and now I'll likely add a couple back. I was spammed before as I am still so it's a reactionary tactic that didn't pan out. Worth a shot to try out for a day or two though. I suspect many will mob up again after the initial rush is over in a few days.

If this game teaches anything, it's to be patient. You guys act like you should be able to complete all goals the instant they're in your log. If you're level X and underpowered perhaps you shouldn't have an easy time completing it. I haven't had any issues finding anyone up through 116 that I can hit for these goals but I'm also decently strong for my level.

Now my Econ blows but that's another topic all together.

[DCjG]

Ideally, I would visit someone's hood and check out their stats before attacking them. However, I'm a bit too time-poor (or lazy) to do this, so I I tend to attack people once and see what their defence score is and whether I win or lose. If my attack is lower than their defence (say, by more than 500 or so), I move on. Otherwise I hit again, even if I have lost. Knowing that their defence is lower than my attack gives me confidence I should win. The unknown factor here is of course how many skill points they have invested in defence. If I lose three times in a row to someone whos defence is lower than my attack, I figure they must have invested more skill points in defence than I have in attack. That would be unusual given that I have 90+ attack skill points. All in all, losing a few fights when I fight 200+ fights a day is no big deal. I don't even mind the occasional person against whom I lose every second fight if it helps toward achieving a goal.

This is logical and smart so you're definitely not the one of the idiots making a fool of themselves on my news feed.

[martMode]

it can be called a strategy... however, it would probably be a little fairer if the '499' players cannot do the Thug Life rounds as they do not have 500 to begin with.