Sunday, August 26th, 2007
Issue: 37   Editor: MadamNyxxie


The Player's Feature Air
As many of you noticed, earlier in the week I had a topic in the Game Forum. It was in regards to what you thought should be the next big feature in Bootleggers. The Buzz is not only a form of media to discuss the past but it brings a key opportunity for you, the readers and players of Bootleggers, to express your thoughts to the rest of the community. Even the staff.

So I asked for everyone to discuss their thoughts on this issue, clearly stating that the Buzz Team will vote on which 3 will be brought forward and published in this article. It was tough.

All ideas that were mentioned were, to be perfectly honest, great. Some obviously weaker than others but the majority had potential. So below I will post each 3 that the were most popular with the Buzz Team and something in which the staff should definitely consider for future plans.

Number 1
X - poopheadd (M) 2007-08-19 15:45:25
Ability for one crew to "spy" on another and see their stats, etc.

My Input: This could potentially cause mayhem. The possibility of another crew having a mole in their rival crew, finding out secret information and even possibly becoming trusted enough to hold the crew... oh, the possibilities. On the other hand, we can already have a spy in a crew... unofficially. If such an implantation was made, what's to stop people avoiding any fee and simply doing it "underground" style? My point lies there but the idea is still lingering in my mind. To elaborate on the idea even more, the spy would need to have extra features that you wouldn't get by going underground. For example, the chance to send an official warning to the "Crew Inbox" (not a feature yet but could be added in addition, if this feature was implemented), where the crew holder is told that they have a spy in their crew but the message itself lies anonymous. There are obviously more possibilities of extra additions for an official spy... some good and some which could potential leak the mole and cause havoc on the spying crew. Sounds good.

Number 2
I will leave this idea to your imagination. It was discussed well.

X - smitty (M) 2007-08-21 17:11:18
I think the crime feature could possibly use an update.
For example:
Let's say you and one other person who you invite take part in a crime similar to an organized crime yet smaller. You have a chance to rob one of the following existing establishments:
-Swiss Bank
-Casino
-Federal Bank
-General Store
-Gas Station
-Residence
(Pickpocketing didn't seem like a 2 man job so I changed it up a little.)
-You do not get to choose what you rob, the outcome is random.
Of course no crime comes without risk. Like crimes now, there will be a small chance you will be caught by the police.
-Getting caught-
If you are caught you will spend sometime in jail. More or less depending on what your caught doing.
Lowest: 1 minute to highest: 6 minutes (Residence to Swiss Bank)
You do not have to buy any equipment! You and your partner in crime will use your gun that you have already purchased from the buy section of the game. If you don't have a gun you can still commit the crime, but your chance of failing will be increased. The better the gun, the better your chances of success.
-Successful crimes-
If you are successful you could gain money and maybe even a few bullets (MAYBE!). Oh, and ranking experience of course.
-Time-
Not quite sure about this but seeing how it would take away the normal 2 minute crimes maybe something around once an hour? I think doing crimes once every 2 minutes can sometimes get monotonous. A lot of people play a few hours a day so 2 or 3 crimes wouldn't be too bad plus the normal Organized Crime. (Lets say it's 1 hour intervals. You could possibly do 30 regular crimes in that period. So your experience would be 30 times that of the regular 2 minute ones.)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I think this could possibly benefit the game in a few ways. It might encourage players to upgrade their weapons more. Also,any update like this might get players actually playing again rather than just BS'n on the forums (like myself). Would you rather keep doing the same old boring crime every 2 minutes? Or would you like it with a little more options and chances?

BarrellOfGuns 2007-08-22 04:52:37
Smitty's idea is good. But there'd still organising and arranging to do with the other person to commit the crime, which adds loads of time to the whole process. Also one good thing about crimes as they are now is that they are easy to commit, with one click, but this would be more complicated with more than one person, and there's already enough complexity in OCs.
==================================================
Well said, though I don't think it would be quite as complex as an OC. It's pretty simple just get someone to join in the same state as you and click 'commit crime'. Crimes are very fast now but with fast actions are low exp.
Quote:
(Lets say it's 1 hour intervals. You could possibly do 30 regular crimes in that period. So your experience would be 30 times that of the regular 2 minute ones.)
How many times do you forget to do a crime when your caught up in a discussion on the game forum? With this you hardly forget because once an hour is easily remembered. The only downfall to this idea would be if you failed, which would be 2 hours with no crime exp whatsoever. I'm thinking it would be kinda hard to fail though (unless your like 2 pee wee's with no gun).

Number 3
X - ELchino (M) 2007-08-19 15:53:28
let the statistics of the player affect his strength...players with better stats and better Arm Wrestling lever are harder to kill and have more shooting power..this will make killing harder and bullet amounts unpredictable

My Input: This could bring a much more realistic approach to Bootleggers. Not only will it make killing more interesting but it could most certainly make people use the features in the game more often, and for better reasons. Arm Wrestling at the moment is simply a matter of image, to show off your skill-level - with no real purpose, except minimal profits. As far as personal statistics go, it could make people play the game more instead of using the forums as their sole purpose of logging in... as some do. This could also bring us back to the idea of more crimes, giving people more of a purpose to do them. All in all, I like this idea a lot - especially as it links to other possible ideas which could ultimately give a much more exciting feel to the game. With State and Nation Dons, killing has become a lot more popular but only for those that actually reach there or have the finance/friends. This kind of idea could give the newer amongst us a much more equal chance to succeeding and having some real fun. We all love to see killing sprees and this could help out.

As you can see, these are only 3 ideas elaborated. There were a lot more. The Buzz will not be held responsible for any feature mentioned above that doesn't get used in the future. Features can take some time to actually go public. It involves the coding, the testing, the recoding, final testing and of course, official status. That was simplified.

Remember that you can submit your ideas straight to the Administrators via the Help Desk under "Feature Suggestion". Don't be afraid to do so! We love reading your ideas, especially the ones mentioned in this article.

As always, happy gaming and keep your stats high. You never know... you may need them high to succeed in the future.