GO BACK! WE MESSED UP!

   The point of this thread is to revert some of the changes made to the game, in hopes of bringing the community back together while bringing back value to the family element and value to ranks once seen rarely attainable.

Back in the old days of MafiaReturns we had 8 cities New York, Philly, Chicago, Detroit, LA, Las Vegas, St Louis, and New Orleans we also had ZERO districts during this time that ment that there could only be 8 Godfathers in the game so many people didn't achieve the rank which made it much more valuable.

  - I suggest we go back to this format, go back to 8 cities we can leave the districts in the coding to keep wars interesting and allow the continued practice of micro trading on the drug board. 

My reasons elaborated.

1. It would as I previously said bring value back to the rank of Godfather allowing 8 very sought after spots, rather than the near 20 "Godfathers" we see.

We have people that are nothing more than actual Capos or Dons running crews under Godfathers, a Godfather used to mean not only were you capable of running a crew but you lived a very long time in a hostile world. It was a sign of prestige and showed you were elite. Now not to take anything away from the current player base but the rank just doesn't hold that same weight as it once did.

2. Getting rid of districts and centralizing the power around the city itself.

Not have a three headed beast within every city would allow the cities to get much closer and work together in a united sense and not a tribal way like we see now. We basically have three gangs running a city with one figurehead towering over.

3. Getting rid of this have to fill up mentality.

We could get rid of this authing 11 day old character to run district and cities just to prevent NPC's from spawning there. It would help with the plaque of how spread out the playerbase is and just add to centralizing the players.

4. One of the biggest points is it would prevent this issue we keep seeing of leaders taking over and not necessarily trying.

Back in the old days if a leader was authed and they didn't preform were replaced because of the limited space and it kept the community ACTIVE and INTERACTIVE. Now we see leaders authed and waste away not only their time but the time of their members driving people away from the game because they aren't driven to build the community up.

In conclusion no one can deny this place isn't nearly as lively as it once was, and I feel like if we do not change this feature of the game soon we could soon be looking at much emptier streets and at that point it may be too late to do anything. 

The game needs change!

I would love to hear as many opinions on the matter as possible

as we are a community and need to make the decisions together.

~Dean Winchester

An excellent summary of excellent ideas. I agree with them all. +1 and I really hope Squishy will consider at least some of these

Or, modifications to no longer see crews associated with districts but solely cities via home cities for crews. One GF/GFC per city, no cap on number of crews. Should want more crews formed if they can brintg the player numbers but raise initial members minimums. Districts shouldnt spawn NPC crews where no crews authd. Raise minimum initial members for a crew, but also increase maximum number allowed cap for members. Also, Possibly a player-led commission utilizing digital tools integrated into the game. Maybe a voted in head of commission (determined by community vote and position has terms). Commission wouldn't create barriers to entry for news crews or conflict scenarios. Main purpose is to centralized leadership which fosters further engagement in the community and drives communications and forum acitivty. Voting on rules, auth, alliances, partnerships, etc but applying gamification and making the process transparent for all ranks to contribute. Open it up and give characters more flexibility to influence the meta. Two cents.

I agree that things have sort of gotten out of control with having a GF for each district. I remember the days years ago where getting GF was hard and there was only one GF in each city. I have an idea that I think would bring it back to the old ways without removing districts and maybe make it a bit more realistic from a mafia sense. 

To my understanding there was not a dozen or more GFs in the mafia, there was one of each family...hence you had 5 families and 5 godfathers. I propose that we eliminate godfathers at the district level and make one GF per city. Also, I propose that we create a GF council, made up of all the GFs in the game, where they can collectively make the decisions for what rules we want to have in place for the game. On this GF council you would have one chairman who is elected by the other GFs in a majority vote. If the other GFs feel the chairman is not doing their job or is no longer qualified then they are tasked with removal of that GF. If CLs feel the GFs aren’t doing their jobs then they are tasked with removal of the GFs. 

I’m open to suggestions but I feel like this would not be a drastic change but would bring a bit more realism to the game instead of having a dozen GFs at a time. 

@Rico I for one absolutely love this man! I feel like this helps solve all the problems I mentioned without taking anything away from the game or causing too much work for the admins

RicoLuciano That is seriously brilliant. I mean, it's just damn awesome. This would give the game a massive uptick in realism and restore the GF rank to its former glory and rightful place in the game

I think it's a great idea Rico. It would be great if we can get CLs, hands, and regular players involved in this council as well. Think it should be available to all players at some level. Ability to take part in the institutions processes & policies. Possibly tier level voting on referendums/elections/etc. Eventually the debate progresses to gf council for final review and determination.

Chaos NO WAY. GFs have all the power, that's how the mob was and thats how we should be.

Alright for the sake of argument, would this council create any barriers to entry for authd? Does everything have to go through the council? Just trying to look at this from a practical standpoint and what staff would be willing to implement. I understand historically the commission was the leadership of this thing of ours, but for gaming applications it has to be bigger than just seven people. Code, test, and release a function that only a nominal amount of the community can interact with ...? I'm not saying the council shoutdn't be the final word, but it has to involve a broader base of the playerbase at some level to be justify the development.

In my vision of it I don't see the council as having a say in the features that are implemented in the game or to control any features that can or can not be used, I believe that would go against the creators wishes. My vision of the council would be that they would be the ones who deal with what the stance on a rule is for example the PP issue or the importance of the Mademan role. The council would get together to come to a conclusion of how they want to treat those that disrespect funerals or CLs. I would see the authing of a CL as more of a single GFs issue for his or her own city but I could see the council taking part in deciding who gets to take control of a brand new city. 

Again Rico I absolutely agree with what you said, and no Chaos I have to agree with Dom any and all voting should be done by just the GFs. 

And I would agree with that... Voting is done by GF council. Only pointing out that players should be able to contribute in another way. Something that gives a regular player the sense of involvement. Helping to support the council in a capacity separate from voting and gives players a stake in the institution. Im not debating the purpose or authority of the council just would like to discuss processes and functions and how players interact with the council and associated aspects.

Possibly when something is open for voting, the populace can show their support for either side that can be seen by their GF. That way he knows eclxactky how his city feels about something

We tried that with PPing Squishy

The best way to have the game in my opinion is as a blank canvas so that the player base can decide whats best for them at that time. Right now, the players can decide to have 1 godfather in the entire game... or 7...  Or 6, and 1 is a no-rules city, or 10 if they wanted to. Right now it is all possible.  I don't think taking away options that the users can set up the games hierarchy is necessarily a good thing.  Why not let them decide in real time - this sort of future proofs us to fit future situations as they happen and allows the userbase to shape it exactly how they want it without having some game mechanic used against them.

 

Right now a handful of players decide things, not the userbase. It's all about the same people rising to godfather and controlling the game. You've allowed this to happen by opening up all these Godfather slots rather than one a city as it was before. You've got jokes if you think the players have a choice or would ever want 1 GF in the entire game. All these GF slots and the same people running things are among the reasons I don't come back. 

The userbase has no say on decisions around here. Crews are not asked. You know this.

Woot, if we are role playing, the only option is one GF. That ideal scenario allows a challenge on multiple levels.

There is a new wave of players dating back to 9 years ago. Squishy, listen to those players. Survey the user base via email. You know who is who. The handful of players that run this thing are killing it. But you heard that years ago...