As we all know, when you start an account using the 'Shooting Range', it will get your gun up to a certain base wack amount (that we'll call '100') with little to no risk in doing so (meaning no wackback). For those of you who didn't know... theshootingrangewillgetyourgunuptoacertainbasewackamountwithlittletonoriskindoingso.

Now that we have that out of the way, I'd like to tell everyone that we at MafiaReturns are now offering an accelerated version of the training range. By using the accelerated version, you will be able to hit that '100' wack mark using MIAs... without a limit upon them. Yes, you heard right. Until your 'wack' skill is where it's supposed to be, you will have access to unlimited MIAs.

However... using the MIA method WILL cost substantially more (the shooting range is a static 75K, where an MIA will usually go for about 160-240K depending on the credit marketplace). There is also the chance that you will MISS the target, as well as run the normal chance of wackback- the 'normal' risks that are associated with wacking.

Once you hit the '100' mark, the 3 MIAs every 2 days rule will be reinstated.

In an attempt to balance out the affect this would have on other accounts who may not spend a majority of their early days in a shooting range, those who now sign up on any form of 'WACK!' answers will find that they now start out with a higher wack base. With two of the sets of wack answers, you may even find that you won't even need to use the shooting range or the accelerated MIA path in order to be at the '100' base.

Have fun!

Exits stage left.

This was briefly discussed last night and it still seems like a decent option to me.

What about free MIAs for Godfathers?

No?

Just as a clarification, when you hit "100," will the MIA's reset to 3 every 2 days, or will they take into account the past 3, and go 48 hours from there?

That's what I assumed, but the original post was a bit hazy. I blame Kendra. *nods* Thanks for clearing it up Scott.

Very nice! That means now I can go and shoot up all them MIA's for just some credits. My water squirter will finally become a water pistol!

Diablos smiles happily

I'm not hazy. I'm just way ahead of my time!

Does the double thumbs up/hand gun gesture.

Great addition now it's hitting time

Now players with money will be able to max ranges approximately four times faster than non-paying players. This seems very much to the contrary of the original spirit of "no advantages that someone else couldn't get without hard work." Consider, the accounts affected by this are precisely those who are least able to finance the purchase of MIAs with ingame cash through the marketplace, the low rankers. That everyone was on approximately equal footing was a redeeming factor of the original (capped to one every other day, stealing possible because they were visible to all) MIA idea. This moves beyond that. This isn't a benefit to hard work. This is a benefit to people who wish to purchase a powerful account instead of work for a powerful account. Has the developers' intention changed to making this game into a cash cow instead of a free game where everyone is on equal footing? I believe there needs to be a serious discussion on the matter of how far is too far. Things are simply spiraling out of control right now.

Dislike, a thousand times dislike.

As much as I dislike this for a different reason to you) you can buy credits with game cash. Work hard enough in game and it costs you nothing.

The developers could of, had they wished, only made credits available with IRL cash. I know people with cash IRL recieve this money IG and that they are gaining an advantage from that but it leaves all avenues open to everyone.

You also say this game is becoming a cash cow. Yes and no. It is. They are making money from it. But they also put a hell of alot of it back again through various means. It is a very very fine line and people have different limits. Whether that has been hit in the majority yet and whther you can expect a game to stay 'free' is another matter.

I think I can foresee a time with this method where after a large war people will come back on D answers knowing how quickly they can obtain 100 wack result. 12 MIA's a day, roughly 50 needed, 4 days and you have wack as strong as someone who went for pure wack, yet you will have a pure D defense score.

What needs to be looked at is how much time and effort needs to be spent to get someone on pure wack to a defense level of someone on pure D. So that it is even across the board that needs to be level in my opinion

PS Makedonia, the game is a long long long way from becoming a cash cow. I think everyone who plays this agrees that the game should be able to wipe its own arse. I personally wouldnt begrudge the game making enough to pay some sort of wage towards Scott and Travis if they are devoting the time they could be working else where to the game.

El_Nino, this is where I think the problem is.

If you can be on 100% D and train it to 100% wack and be on 100% and train it to 100% - what is the point? The answers at the moment seem to make little difference to much over the long term other than vision. They are all being blended into one, with everything trainable, everything steadily increasing and no advantages/disadvantages.

At this point in time, do we really need different answer sets? Perhaps we should just make it so every new account is equal across the board and do away with sign up all together.

...100% D and train it to 100% wack and 100% wack and train it to 100% D.

That's the problem gwarble I don't think if you are on 100 Wack you can get to the defence level of someone with 100% defence.

Let's take 2 people both wannabe crewleaders.

Joe90 is on pure def answers he kicks off and is bought 70 bgs, he trains his gun shooting 13 Mia's a day for 5 days. After 5 days he has a maxed gun plus 3 kills.

Johndoe is on pure Wack he to gets 70bgs shoots his Mia quota of 3 per 2 days. After 5 days he has 6 kills.

Which would you rather be? The chap with max d and a full gun or the chap on pure Wack?

I would guess that 95% of the people who have played this for awhile would want to be joe90, if the two of these continued killing at the same rate till they hit gf I would stake my money that if they took turns shooting at each other and knocking down a bg joe90 would be the winner.

Now this is an extreme example but to me that just doesn't seem right and makes answers totally pointless. There should have to be a massive amount of kills to be done for someone on pure d to catch up with someone on pure Wack just like it would take a massive amount of money to get your defence up.

That's the problem gwarble I don't think if you are on 100 Wack you can get to the defence level of someone with 100% defence.

Let's take 2 people both wannabe crewleaders.

Joe90 is on pure def answers he kicks off and is bought 70 bgs, he trains his gun shooting 13 Mia's a day for 5 days. After 5 days he has a maxed gun plus 3 kills.

Johndoe is on pure Wack he to gets 70bgs shoots his Mia quota of 3 per 2 days. After 5 days he has 6 kills.

Which would you rather be? The chap with max d and a full gun or the chap on pure Wack?

I would guess that 95% of the people who have played this for awhile would want to be joe90, if the two of these continued killing at the same rate till they hit gf I would stake my money that if they took turns shooting at each other and knocking down a bg joe90 would be the winner.

Now this is an extreme example but to me that just doesn't seem right and makes answers totally pointless. There should have to be a massive amount of kills to be done for someone on pure d to catch up with someone on pure Wack just like it would take a massive amount of money to get your defence up.

Why don't we make a Gym where you can send time improving your defense?

That way wack answers can improve their def the same as def answers can improve thier wack?

"As much as I dislike this for a different reason to you) you can buy credits with game cash. Work hard enough in game and it costs you nothing."

Untrue. This is focusing on those characters who are LEAST capable of financing it with game cash, the low rankers, and specifically excluding the ones most capable of generating the vast sums of ingame cash required to finance the operation entirely in-game. This change means that if you compare a new player who starts the game with 0 credits and another new player who starts the game with 50 credits, the one that sent in the check is going to be about two weeks ahead of the other. That's not a level playing field. That's nothing even resembling a level playing field. That's not a reward for hard work, that's not a reward for playing the game well, that's not a reward for anything the one character did at all. That's 100% "if you send us money then your character will be significantly stronger than someone who does not." I can't support that sort of change. For the record, I would have MUCH rather seen the change be to up MIA purchase maximum to two per day, rather than an unlimited supply at any given point in a character's lifespan. At least in that case a hard worker can still make it up in game cash. This? This isn't at all related to work, this is about writing a check.

"The developers could of, had they wished, only made credits available with IRL cash. I know people with cash IRL recieve this money IG and that they are gaining an advantage from that but it leaves all avenues open to everyone."

So any and every change they make to make credits a required aspect to play the game at top level is OK because there's a marketplace? I disagree with this assessment. Especially for a change of this nature, unlimited use of MIAs, it is not reasonable to assume that someone taking full advantage of the feature is using the marketplace to do so.

What I would rather have is a brainstorm of ways to help increase site revenues while least unbalancing the playing field between those who can pay and those who would not. I think that it would likely result in options that would match this one in revenues without upsetting the balance as much. I am not against being able to pay the bills, and recognize that running a site like this is expensive, but I think a core aspect of what makes this game so wonderful is that previous uses of game money have been focused on helping the entire site while you help yourself. Crackdowns everyone can participate in, MIAs that you have to be careful or people will get to them before you, etc. Recent changes have drifted away from that, and it saddens me.