Hey guys.
I just posted 5 ideas I had over on the official forum here - http://forums.zynga.com/showthread.php?p=241214#post241214
Here's what I wrote
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Hey guys. Just wanna start by saying congratulations on the success of the app. A great idea that is a lot of fun to play (I hope to have the same level of success on the app store one day soon)
I am a huge fan of The Sopranos and recently re-watched season 5 and 6. Whilst watching through, a number of times I thought "wow this idea would be great in Mafia Wars! And I think it could be possible too." So a lot of these ideas I have started from the TV show.
Anyway, let me know what you think!
1) HEALTH MATTERS
I haven't died in the iPhone version yet, so I'm writing this in case it's different. When you're dead you should be dead (with maybe a 10% chance of being sent to the hospital and surviving). None of this "making it to hospital" EVERY TIME! This will makes the consequences of ones actions more serious.
2) REALISTIC FAMILIES
My family list is getting out of hand!! It's more like a list of people I FIGHT constantly than an actual family (especially with the recent Fight List bug that won't go away on my phone).
The Family should initally be limited to 5 to begin with, but increase by X amount every X number of levels (IE: 5 members until level 10, then you can have 10 members, but at level 20 you get 15 members etc…)
Also, members in your family should be getting a percentage of your criminal activities. If I do a job that gets me $10,000, 20% of that should get divided by how many family members I've got and sent to them. This means smaller families may make better money than larger families, but run of the risk of being steamrolled by others. This mixes up the family dynamic more and leads me to my next idea.
3) RIVAL FAMILIES
MAFIA WAR!! History shows although internal fighting was an issue, the biggest wars are always rival famillies! If X% of my family attack X% of another family, this equals MOB WAR (or, more better put: MAFIA WAR!)
Once something like this occurs, those two families should then be considered at war and out to END each other. Why? Well, the money of course! The bonuses for fighting ("hitting" sounds better) Rival Family member should be say 20% bonus on top of the normal cash from a win. Good incentive to start a war and take that family down!!
4) LAY LOW
With Rival Famillies out for blood, as well as all the other normal fighting happening, It would be great if I could disappear from the scene. Let's say you are low on health and getting hammered by other mafioso (family or not). You're down to your last 20 points of health. Time to LAY LOW!
Like the doctor, for a percentage of your bankroll (15-20% for eg) you can hide from other players for 24 hours, so if they try and fight you, they get a response saying:
"Youz went lookin for <player-name>, but it seems hes layin' low. No ones seen him in days."
However, if you try and FIGHT anyone during the 24 hours, the LAY LOW option is removed, meaning you are back in the open.
And now for the creme de la creme. The momentous occasion. The fear of God...
5) FBI
So you think your family is tough huh? Wasting out other mobs, raking in heaps of cash, commiting heaps of crime. Well don't be surprised if the FBI are suddenly on your ass!!
The FBI should be a game-controlled "player" if you will, that gets attracted to real players with:
- A large family
- Large amounts of money
- high amount of crimes
- A lot of won Mob Wars (Mafia Wars!! :D)
The result of the FBI would be similar to death, except it would be PRISON of course.
I know the addition of such a function would be one of the most difficult of my ideas, as it would require more server space and calculating than anything else in the game, which is why I haven't fleshed it out too much. But I believe this would be a great way for the game to escalate from just street-level fighting of other players into something much more intense ([I]remember when Tony ran away from the FBI at the end of Season 5? Yea... that intense!! haha[/I])
Anyway, that's all from me for now. Hopefully you guys get to see this.
Cheers from Oz.
Dizz
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I reckon they're great ideas. What do you think?