The Hit Lists: Progress Log

[bald zeemer]

I didn't pay a jot of notice - it's simply not relevant to me, sorry.
Bala's figure seems ballpark.

[THE JACK]

Thank i stuck at finding unrobbed electronics store i found few this morning but i was doing barbshop one.

I always find what I was just looking for. Getting frustrated.

[BigMoney]

Thank i stuck at finding unrobbed electronics store i found few this morning but i was doing barbshop one.

I have a little sticky note on my desk and have written down names/levels of people with buildings that are next on my list (credit to bald zeemer for letting me know which buildings those were). Then it just because a matter of hunting down those players again by refreshing the rival's list a thousand times (hoping they aren't too beat up). Also, players with low mafia are more likely to have the crappy buildings IMO.

Edit: also bala, I'm at 105 now but I have most of the buildings in my hood. If you need a couple of the upcoming buildings, let me know on my wall and I'll tell you the timer for it.

[bald zeemer]

I'm glad it worked for you mate. I couldn't get the guys to turn up on my RL, and now elec is causing me all sorts of headaches - even though it was close to my easiest on the first run.

Oh well, it is what it is.

[zwiswoo]

Okay, with the info from Shirley Manson and Bala/Zeemer it is clear that finishing this in normal mode is going to give you ~7000 attack points (and lots of respect and bricks) for 40000 (!!) xp points. More if you've got points for hitman/thug life type goals in the pipeline.

To me it seems this is atrocious value for anyone who isn't in the last boss tier: you get basically the same number of points as a boss event for nine times as much experience. It's a good thing for high level players obviously since boss events are so unfair/skewed. But I should have thought the way to fix boss events is to fix boss events (one or two more tiers, or improving weapons with tier etc) not to create one more skewed event. Anyways. Good to know we're talking 40k points - that would almost get me to the end of tier 3.

[Spartacus18888]

im not as keen on this event now......its getting boring......

[teo]

I'm positive that the cumulative stats of finishing first time through is better than a boss event.
Stats start jumping rapidly near the end (and keep going in the second run through, after a brief dip).

Depending on how well boss turned out for ya, difference is ~ 1-2K better than latest boss

[BigMoney]

I'm glad it worked for you mate. I couldn't get the guys to turn up on my RL, and now elec is causing me all sorts of headaches - even though it was close to my easiest on the first run.

Oh well, it is what it is.

Part of me is a little suspicious that it's intentional too. I know it could be observation bias, but it seemed like every single time I was looking for X building, I'd visit every single rival that would show up on my rivals list and never find it, and then eventually when I did get it and had to start looking for Y building, all of a sudden there are unrobbed X buildings all over the place.

Mainly I might have got a little lucky in finding a few "good" hoods-- my hood would be one of them, for instance, meaning I have a defense that puts me out of the range of 95% of players so I don't get robbed much, but if you can rob/attack me, I have one of almost every one of those buildings on the list. I would stalk me if I were someone else. I also had one guy on my newsfeed I've stalking for his likely time-traveled NCs, but he has two of almost every other building too.

Edit 2: I didn't use the same guy for all the jobs, but he was a huge help finishing off the Souvenir Shop one since barely anyone I found even has those awful buildings.

[bald zeemer]

Okay, with the info from Shirley Manson and Bala/Zeemer it is clear that finishing this in normal mode is going to give you ~7000 attack points (and lots of respect and bricks) for 40000 (!!) xp points. More if you've got points for hitman/thug life type goals in the pipeline.

To me it seems this is atrocious value for anyone who isn't in the last boss tier: you get basically the same number of points as a boss event for nine times as much experience. It's a good thing for high level players obviously since boss events are so unfair/skewed. But I should have thought the way to fix boss events is to fix boss events (one or two more tiers, or improving weapons with tier etc) not to create one more skewed event. Anyways. Good to know we're talking 40k points - that would almost get me to the end of tier 3.

The important thing to remember is that the existence of this event changes the whole approach. Yes, it will massively reduce the ability to take low tier bosses - but failing to take part now has a cost in forgone stats.

Once you hit level 101, xp is no longer the be-all and end-all it previously was, so the issue is how many bosses could you take from your current level vs how many LTQ's you'll pass up in doing those bosses. Since it is highly likely there'll be 1 boss event and 1 LTQ event per cycle, total stats become significantly more important. It is impossible to do more boss events than LTQs. The reasons to camp now become:
a) You are high stat for your tier, and can push through boss 50 far enough to mitigate the stat differential
b) You have misallocated skill points into attack and defense, and cannot get good results from LTQ.
c) You are heinously scared of losing fights in general play, to anybody.

If a or b happen to be true, then keep on camping. If c is true, then re-examine which game you chose to play, or else you'll end up with a hood full of defense buildings and the most losses in the game anyway.

[BigMoney]

Bala, Hit List 33:

Map: Junkyard
Jobs: Joe the Scrapmaster, The Chemist, Hannibal Cooke, Mean Machine Cooke
Reward: Boss' Limo (290/440), 165XP

HL34: 85 rivals, 5 seafood restaurants

[teo]

The important thing to remember is that the existence of this event changes the whole approach. Yes, it will massively reduce the ability to take low tier bosses - but failing to take part now has a cost in forgone stats.

Once you hit level 101, xp is no longer the be-all and end-all it previously was, so the issue is how many bosses could you take from your current level vs how many LTQ's you'll pass up in doing those bosses. Since it is highly likely there'll be 1 boss event and 1 LTQ event per cycle, total stats become significantly more important. It is impossible to do more boss events than LTQs. The reasons to camp now become:
a) You are high stat for your tier, and can push through boss 50 far enough to mitigate the stat differential
b) You have misallocated skill points into attack and defense, and cannot get good results from LTQ.
c) You are heinously scared of losing fights in general play, to anybody.

If a or b happen to be true, then keep on camping. If c is true, then re-examine which game you chose to play, or else you'll end up with a hood full of defense buildings and the most losses in the game anyway.

I would say you are basically correct. I would also say that is isn't as solidly a point as it may seem.

To a large extent LTQ is 'boss event' for high level. For the vast majority that does not spend gold it comes down to getting one or the other. You can't have both. Low level can complete boss, and take the low hanging fruit of ltq, high level can complete ltq (and level further) while still get the early level bosses. Overall with bit of advantage to high level/ltq approach, but not so much of an advantage that it is a one way only or lose out.

If they don't change anything else (ha) This just may be the re-balancing needed so free players at higher level still have a reason to be part of the game; yes free players are of importance to gree, they need some cannon fodder.

[Bala82]

Bala, Hit List 33:

HL34: 85 rivals, 5 seafood restaurants

How many hours did it take you reach Goal 34 - 1 day ?

[Bala82]

Well after 30 minutes i found someone with level 10 Electronics store you could say i went to town on it.

[zwiswoo]

The important thing to remember is that the existence of this event changes the whole approach. Yes, it will massively reduce the ability to take low tier bosses - but failing to take part now has a cost in forgone stats.

Once you hit level 101, xp is no longer the be-all and end-all it previously was, so the issue is how many bosses could you take from your current level vs how many LTQ's you'll pass up in doing those bosses. Since it is highly likely there'll be 1 boss event and 1 LTQ event per cycle, total stats become significantly more important. It is impossible to do more boss events than LTQs. The reasons to camp now become:
a) You are high stat for your tier, and can push through boss 50 far enough to mitigate the stat differential
b) You have misallocated skill points into attack and defense, and cannot get good results from LTQ.
c) You are heinously scared of losing fights in general play, to anybody.

If a or b happen to be true, then keep on camping. If c is true, then re-examine which game you chose to play, or else you'll end up with a hood full of defense buildings and the most losses in the game anyway.

Okay so let's take me (level 60), and say my horizon is the next year and a half. And suppose each event cycle is three weeks. I'm guessing this time's 12 day cycle is an anomaly.

Case 1: I play four of these LTQs, and get to level 101 in three months. In that time, I gain 28k attack points. At that point I can play in the tougher field for fifteen months, and won't gain further then from boss events. Sure, I'll still have these LTQ events, but so does everyone.

Case 2: I just play boss events and collect 10 etc for another six months and skip these LTQ events. Then in those six months I gain ~50k attack points from ~8 boss events. In that time sure I've lost out on playing these LTQs. And spend two months more getting to level 101 for a total of eight months. I have then 10 months in the top tier.

So the trade is (case 1 vs 2):
A) Eight enjoyable (read: can finish) boss events versus eight LTQ events
B) 15 months in the top tier vs 10

So in the next eight months I can play eight extra boss events or play eight extra LTQs. In terms of stats it's basically a wash. Especially since from then on it's all LTQ I don't see the benefit of starting early

I also can't say I particularly care about being in the top tier to begin with - pretty sure I won't be playing this long enough to get to level 200 for example. But to the extent it matters I'd rather be strong in my tier than weak in a higher one. I guess it's different for different people.

[bald zeemer]

I would say you are basically correct. I would also say that is isn't as solidly a point as it may seem.

To a large extent LTQ is 'boss event' for high level. For the vast majority that does not spend gold it comes down to getting one or the other. You can't have both. Low level can complete boss, and take the low hanging fruit of ltq, high level can complete ltq (and level further) while still get the early level bosses. Overall with bit of advantage to high level/ltq approach, but not so much of an advantage that it is a one way only or lose out.

If they don't change anything else (ha) This just may be the re-balancing needed so free players at higher level still have a reason to be part of the game; yes free players are of importance to gree, they need some cannon fodder.

I think you're almost right on the money. The important thing, in my mind, is that now a player under level 100 has a choice that isn't based on whether they know how the game works, but how they want to play the game.

I'm still not sold that this is a boss event equivalent to HLPs - purely due to the irrelevancy of leveling between 101 and 197ish. But in terms of a "you have a chance to boost stats by x if you do y" approach, yes it is. But this might just as easily be me falling into the level-fixation I'm hoping will become irrelevant.