I'm going to keep this one short.

Now in all the years i've played this game witness statements have been a currency of sorts, needed for us to progress and avenge our loved ones untimely demise we have requested witness statements and 9 times out of 10 someone caught the W/S and the shooter gets whacked.

However i personally (Guns away cowboys this is just my opinion not a god given fact) feel this feature is overpowered slightly in the fact that it's extremely rare if not impossible for nobody to witness a murder on this game and in real life it was the other way around most mafia members would wait for the right moment before committing the dead so that nobody was around for re-precautions.

Now i understand alot of people will be upset because they love to know who shot who and when where how it happened but the fact of the matter is it's unrealistic to have that amount of information even the police who spend years analyzing evidence find it hard to catch the killer in most cases and that's as of now 2015 could you imagine how much harder it was in 20's 30's prohibition with a lack of technology and all the bizarre murder cases of that time period.

I mean obviously if it was a failed whack attempt then by all means they should know who tried to kill them but a successful premeditated murder is something that rarely has witness's now i get it it's not always going to be possible to stealthkill someone with 40 bg's but someone who is alone with no protection or maybe 2-3 guards can easily be killed without anyone knowing who the killer is it happens all the time in the projects.

Agree or disagree with me on this one but i would like to see a system in place where it's not as easy to find out who the killer is maybe have to bribe an official ?

I don't know let's have a debate and hear your thoughts

Honestly, considering the game-play mechanics and how witnesses to a murder are carried out in this game.  I'm actually amazed that we have as much follow up on witness statements as we do.

The fact that a large majority of the time murderers are actually found when a request is sent up should surprise people more than anything, however...history has proven here that the killer is not always found and when people want information to be covered up, it can be and is.

I'm in full favor of keeping this feature completely as it currently is.  If it's not broken, don't change it.

1. Shouldn't this be in the suggestions forum?
2. You can actually try to minimize the possibility of being 'caught' by shooting in cities with a low amount of people in them, or by having a group of friends trying to catch your shots. Ingenuity and effort, not easier game mechanics! Also, witness statements also need to be decipher before  they're useful (this usually isn't too hard but still).
3. We must also remember, I think, that this is a game and realism isn't always the (best) way forward. A balance between good game-play, action and realism must be had and I think the current witness statement system does its job adequately.

Indeed, if it ain't broken, don't fix it.

It's not a game suggestion it's an Out Of Character debate hence why it's here and also why i asked for people's opinions.

Also i understand that realism isn't always the best way but for something like this i feel there should be more to it instead of getting a few buddies to try catch a WS because after all this is a Role Playing Game and it's not really Role Play if everytime you kill someone you tell 10 people and ask them to sit there and witness it so that nobody else could witness it.

I suggested a bribe feature once that would see the shooter anonymously offer a bribe to whoever saw the kill. The witness would then have to chose between whatever sum of cash the shooter is offering, or knowing who made the kill.

The moral challenge would come with risks, in that a crew leader could be tipped off that "word on the street is someone in your crew accepted a bribe".

The value-add would be a world where kills could be made without direct consequence to the shooter, should the bribe be accepted. The possible variables make for a very exciting potential however. Would you take an $100,000,000 bribe to not see who the killer of a RHM that pissed off the wrong person is? Who could have wanted to cover up the kill? Would you risk having someone killed and hope that the price you pay for bribe is enough?

"i would like to see a system in place where it's not as easy to find out who the killer is maybe have to bribe an official ?"

its a game suggestion

Liam if you look you will see a question mark meaning it is a question meaning this is an idea what do you guys think i mean this is meant to be about witness statements what does it matter if it's a suggestion or a debate?

suggestion is in wrong forum thats what it matters OOC gives XP suggestions dont

It would add alot more risk/reward because say for example the price for info is 1mllion would the Don pay that to find out who whacked a goomba ?

Well this is a debate there is your answer do with it what you will

Let's take a look at the current system which you say works perfectly...

1. You're a Don and one of your members die for example a Goomba this time

2. You want to know if anyone bore witness to this so you send out mass mails looking for the W/S knowing full well someone did and it's just a matter of time before you find out that someone definitely witnessed this because a witness statement always goes out.

3. You kill the person responsible and everything is back to normal.

This scenario took a few hours and when completed was thought of a random act of shooting from a rogue player and not much gameplay is required to find the killer aside from a mass mail which sometimes even that isn't needed.

Now how about we look at another idea.

1. You're a Don and a Goomba dies

2. Now he was unprotected and not very good with his defense and nobody knows who did it

3. You decided to go to the FBI agent and inquire how their investigation into his murder is progressing the agent says you gotta pay for that kind of information and so you pay say for example $2,000,000 for a Goomba and when you pay he tells you to come back tomorrow for the results.

4. You come back and depending on random events he has either found the killer or he's got nothing this could also depend on the killer's whack/stealth skill.

So now there's a risk factor and you actually have to make an effort to find the killer or if it's even worth the 2 million in the first place.

The debate is that this "perfect" system you speak of is in my belief lazy and roleplay is skipped what are your thoughts on this having now seen an example of two different types of systems and which offers more roleplay 

The current system isn't "perfect" but it does it's job.

It presents a scenario where all murders can be solved, provided the users enable it to be so.

I made another post recently about the attitude of the players and how there has been a shift over time in that everyone now does what they are told to do by default, whereas when I first began playing here, there was very much an attitude of people helping if it benefited them to do so.

This is the case with witness statements. They are only handed in because a player either chooses to sell the witness statement and it is purchased, or much more commonly, someone sees the notification and they hand it over to whomever requested it. 

So, the problem of murders being solved isn't down to the system, it is down to the players. If users don't hand in or sell witnesses statements, murderers aren't caught. 

Your system takes away any choice on behalf of the players and just enables anyone with enough money to find out anything. Whilst there is an element of realism there, it isn't through bribing the FBI that this would be achieved, but rather through dealing with the gunmen themselves and something like SammyGato suggests would be a more viable alternative.

But, as it stands, my feeling is that there should be tweaks to the existing system rather than wholesale changes. Such as, if there is nobody active in the district at the time of hit, there are no witnesses to it. 

Pretty much want to echo what Credits said here, it is entirely the users choice to hand over the witness statement for a murder and it never used to be like this.

I remember a family all having to chip in a few hundred thousand each to whip up a good reward for anyone coming forward who witnessed the murder of a family member.

I'm not entirely sure when it became the norm to just hand over a witness statement but maybe a tool added by the Gods could help here?

We have a credit marketplace, why not a witness statement marketplace to encourage users not to just hand witness statements over? A mass mail goes out for a witness to come forward, the witness reads the mail and can judge for themselves how important they deem the deceased to be and come up with a price to offer anonymously on the marketplace. People looking for the witness statement can choose to pay said price... or not.

We could even have the opposite way round to that marketplace where a rewards market is available for witness statements. Someone dies, you type their name in a box for who's witness statement you're looking for and in another box, the amount you're willing to reward the witness... anyone else who wants to find the killer and wants to donate to the reward fund can simply add money to the offer already up. 

This trickles a little bit more money down the food chain maybe?

I don't know if this would stifle a bit of user interaction but there's not much interaction in the mass mails asking for witness statements anyway apart from with whoever has it. Just throwing out an idea to add a bit more 'mystery' to the game.

We have a credit marketplace, why not a witness statement marketplace

Should go read suggestions, pretty sure myself and some others championed this a while back. Would be an awesome idea!