New Lucky Stash Loot

New Lucky Stash Loot

The 9th generation of Lucky Stash Loot is here. They sure don't miss a beat on updating this loot. They should be doing something with the useless Secret Stash loot. The feature is lame as it is but with outdated loot is there a reason to even utilize it? I won't even get into the Crime Spree, Treasure Chest and Loyalty Program loot.

Here are the new items you can get once you fill the Bonus Meter.

How To Request Rifle Rounds

How To Request Rifle Rounds

Below are the steps involved to ask your Mafia Members for Rifle Rounds. Go to your Home Page or Boss Tab.

Look for the "Get More Ammo" button and click on it.  You would think that this would be enough but it's not. In a game where things often don't work, it's not cool to add an extra step that many players won't know is there. I just assumed my button wasn't working and moved on.

You will see an image of your current Rifle Round inventory. You would think that clicking on "Get More Ammo" would be enough but it's not. In a game where things often don't work, it's not cool to add an extra step that many players won't know is there. I just assumed my button wasn't working and moved on.

Hover your mouse over the image until the word ASK appears.

Click on it and a news feed post will be generated for you to share with your mafia.

Ammo Bugs & Drop Rates

Ammo Bugs & Drop Rates

Many players, including me, are having issues with the Ammo items for the Family Boss Fight. We have this nice "Get More Ammo" button before entering the fight.

When I click on it it, all I see is that I have zero Rifle Rounds.

In theory, we are suppose to be able to ask our mafia for more Rifle Rounds once a day. You can see the last time I was able to do this was over a day and half ago.

You get a Rifle Round if you send one to your mafia members so I wasn't too concerned about this because in theory, we can only get 20 a day which includes the ones you ask for. The problem here is I get the message "You have already collected 20 Rifle Rounds today".

I haven't collected any for two days and my Rifle Round count is a big zero.

I wasn't about to give up so I did a 5 hour scan of my news feeds using the Stream Scanner by Team Spockholm. Use the "Epicclanboss" tab to get to the Ammo posts. Team Spockholm does not name these tabs, they are based on the code. Zynga is still calling using the term clan to describe Families in the back code.

I was able to run through a whole lot of posts and I did get some Rifle Rounds from it. According to the log, the vast majority of these posts came back as "You have already collected 20 Rifle Rounds today.".

I was able to get 8 Rifle Rounds. I did several more scans and 8 was all I got even though I was told I collected 20.  I do know some players who were able to collect more than 20 from the feeds. They had to use them up as they went but there wasn't a cap. I would try my luck and see what category you fall in. It's typical that Zynga can't get this one right and it reminds me of the war loot. Some accounts can't even get 20 and some accounts can get as many as they want. I wonder if they will steal ammo items too?

You can see in the image above that I have more than 20 Backstabs and Sucker Punches. We were told we could only hold 20 at a time but I suspect that only applies to Rifle Rounds but I haven't gotten enough Rifle of them to verify.  It kind of sucks because Rifle Rounds do the most damage when compared to the other Ammo items and they are needed for all but one of the combos.

Many players are also reporting that the other ammo items simply don't drop from fights, jobs and robs. I found the Backstabs drop at almost 100% in Brazil (to include The Smuggler's Haven jobs) and if the Lockpick bonus is used, you get 2 instead of one.

When fighting, they drop around 1 per 1,000 stamina. I've done a few runs to verify this. Here is a 9006 stamina run and I got 8 Sucker Punches. The 9th one probably would have dropped soon but I wanted to do some robbing.

I haven't been robbing much but didn't have an issue here either.

Here is a small robbing run. I used 5,613 stamina and got 10 Crowbar Swings.

Thank You;

Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast.

Gold Mystery Bags

Gold Mystery Bags

Zynga is offering us Gold Mystery Bags. 

Find Gold Mystery Bags on the Free Gift Page. You can't ask for Gold Mystery Bags but you can send them and hope your mafia members return one to you.

The Gold Mystery Bags May Contain The Following Items;

The Grand Prize of these Mystery Bags is the Canister Rifle. I didn't get one but went searching for it on a different account after reading many comments about it.

It's too bad these Gold Mystery Bags are only around for 1 day because I would have liked to have one.

Now it goes downhill really fast. Thai Baht!!! Are they serious??? This is worth it's weight in poop not gold!

Save the boosts for Mystery Boost Packs please.

Because these are so useful to players who have fully upgraded their NY properties.

One thing I can always use more of is useless loot items. Throw these on the poop scale.

This should help with the skewed robbing equation.

I'm not clear on the limit as it doesn't say on the requests. It seemed like after 20 or so, I started getting all the regular Mystery Bag items. If you know the limit, please comment. I have a feeling some of the "Gold Mystery Bags" shown above should have been regular Mystery Bags as the items are about the same.

Chianina Taurus Bull; Limited Time Buildable Item

New Limited Time Buildable Item

There is a new Limited Time item available in the Private Zoo. It's the same story as all the others before it. The stats suck, there are no skill points attached to it and you need 10 building parts to make it. Boring!

Find the Chianina Taurus Bull at the bottom of the Build Your Empire Module or in the second position of the Private Zoo.  Lassos can be found using the Free Gift system. Old Lassos from the last built have been removed from your inventory and you need to start over.

Lost Family Progression

Lost Family Progression

Zynga has address the Family Progression problem issue that I posted about yesterday (1). I love how they say it has affected a "limited number of players". They must be talking about all the people who actually still play the game. Almost everyone I know with a Daily Timer (including me) has been affected. The good news is they claim that our progress will be restored. The bad news is "the development team is working on finding a resolution". I'm not very hopeful that it will return in time for the reset.

Here is a reprint of the Customer Support page dealing with this issue. Click the title link to check for updates.


Lost Family Progression Progress on 8/22/11
Updated 08/23/2011 at 17:06

Lost Progress for the Family Progression  On 08/22/11 a limited number of players lost their progress for the Family Progression feature.  The development team is aware of this incident and have been working on finding a resolution. Players who have lost progress will have their progress restored or will be compensated for their efforts. This issue affected only a limited number of players and the development team has been able to track and identify each account. Currently this issue is still being investigated and the resolution will be determined when the review has been completed. When the cause of this issue has been determined any restoration or compensation will be automatically added to the affected players accounts. We understand that you may be frustrated at your lost progress, and apologize for any inconvenience that this has caused. Our development team is working diligently to correct the issue, and we appreciate your patience while we work at resolving the matter. Thank you, The Mafia Wars Team

Family Issues

Family Issues

Zynga added a Family Requests Tab to the Zynga Message Center.  The only problem is it doesn't work.

You can see the Family icon is hiding behind the tab and when you click on it nothing happens. I've tried in Chrome, FireFox and mafiawars.com.  It's not a bad idea so hopefully they will get it straightened out soon.

We were told, ten days ago, that the option to send gifts to your Family members was not intentionally removed and that it would be returned (1). I'm still waiting.....

While I'm on the topic of Families. WTF is going on with the Family Progression feature?  This is the second day in a row that the timer reset but the objectives didn't. It's going to take a long time as it is for Families to get to Level 10, getting Zynga'd isn't helping the situation. How hard can this be to fix? The have no troubles when it comes to "fixing" Power Packs, Exp/Energy ratios and War loot counts.

Last Days Of Summer

"Amazing" sales Coming Soon

"There is a new ad hinting at a big Marketplace sale. Zynga isn't always accurate with their adjectives and they seem to have a Marketplace sale every time I log in.  If they want more players to purchase Reward Points, maybe they should stop nerfing and complicating things so players will buy virtual good instead of quitting the game." 

MW Loot Lady Blog

Timing Isn't Exactly A Science In Zynga Nerfland. In Order For Me To Complete The Epic Boss Fight I'm Going To Have To Spend Rp's. Which I Am Not Going To Do. Then They Will Try To Sway Me With An "Alleged" Sale That, In Reality, Isn't A Sale At All. When  You Take A Marked Up Intangible Item That Is Already At A Premium Price Then Knock 10% Off It ISN'T MUCH OF A SALE. We Are Only Talking About Pixels Here On The Internet. 

Since Zynga Normally Charges $10 For 42 Rp And It Takes 35 Rp To Buy An Item At Full Price It, Therefore, Costs About $8 In Real Money To Buy An Item. For Far Too Many Of Us That Is Outrageous. That's An Hour Of Pay From Our Employers. If You Take That Item That Normally Costs 35 Rp And Take It Down To 30 Rp Then I Save What? About A Dollar? Not Much Of A Savings When You Live On The Poor Side Of Town. In Fact, It's Not Much Of A Savings For The Glitter Kids Neither. 

Of Course The Play On Words Here Is The Use Of The Word "Sale". Too Many People Hear That Word And Lose All Sense Of Reality. They Hear That Word And Believe They Will Get A Bargain.