New Home Page Review

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I finally got the new home page lay out and was able work with it for a day and formulate my own opinion about it.  Here is a last look at the old home page layout.

Here is a look at the new layout which is broken into several different modules.

The top portion of the new home page layout currently consists of 3 modules that rotate every few seconds.

Page 1 contains current events.  The Cake Jailbreak Gifting Event is currently featured.  Future gifting and other promotional events will now be located in this module.

For those who haven't mastered it, progress and timers can be found the same way the were with the old lay out.

Page 2 is The Your Mafia Activity module will consist of the last four player updates and will be identical to those in your Player Updates stream.

In the example below, I was attacked by someone named Thug and I lost.

I was given the option to fight back but why would I want to attack someone who can beat me?  I did anyways and got my ass kicked again!

I checked my Beta Live Updates and Thug only attacked me one time so there was no need to make a issue out of it and ask my mafia to attack him.

Das Carlo K. is a different story.  He went to town and I can see on both my Player Updates and Beta Live Updates that he attacked me 63 times! I wonder what his beef with me is all about.

I prefer to see who attacks me and loses.  It makes me happy to see that I got experience points.

I'm not sure what this one is all about.  Frenchy Marty attacked me and it says "attacked you and you".  I couldn't resist and attacked him back. Fortunately I won!

Recent robberies will also show up on the Your Mafia Activity module.

Because of the random luck factor, you can often beat the players who successfully robbed you.  Robbing back is much more enjoyable than fighting back.  I was able to get my revenge against Don Gold by robbing all of his available properties.

You can also help your mafia on jobs and send them parts right from the home page.  So far I've had much better luck than I had when the Player Updates section was in the lower part of the screen because it's more visible to me.  I wasn't one to constantly check my updates and rarely scrolled to the bottom of the page.  Having this module at eye level helps me to remember to help before it's too late.

War requests are never good unless you see them in your news feeds within seconds of them being posted.  These are almost always over by the time they show up in the Player Updates and apparently this holds true on the home page as well.

The Daily Take and the Beta Live Updates can be accessed by clicking the links located in the upper right corner of this module.  The Daily Take link will not be visible if you have collected it within the last 24hours.

Page 3 has a few different looks and replaces the banners and the message boxes from the old layouts.

The Job Module will tell you what the last job you performed was and what your status of mastery is on the various cities.  Many players are reporting that their mastery has been set back on some of the cities.  I had mastered Las Vegas a while ago and it said I was 96% completed.  I went to Las Vegas and found that 2 jobs were not fully mastered.  I wasn't going to complain because I got 2 skill points for finishing them again and now the Job Module says that I'm at 100% mastery.  I also noticed that it is reporting the last job I finished to be at 0% mastery but that's impossible because it says that New York is 100% completed.  I reported on this bug earlier so hopefully they will fix it.  Your Energy Packs are also available from this module and once you use one, a timer will appear for when you can use your next one.  Requesting and sending Energy Packs is also done here but you can't do this unless the timer is going.

Cindy Rea Hoffman, one of my mafia members, found that she has 103% of New York completed!

The Build Your Empire Module is really cool.  All four buildable properties in New York can be monitored here as well as crafting and upgrading.  Each page will feature the highest item you are eligible to build.

You can collect on all of these properties right from the home page by selecting the "Collect All Parts" button located at the upper right hand corner. Once you do this, the "Collect All Parts" button will disappear and a timer for when you can collect again will replace it.

I like this feature because I'm the type who will forget to collect on my properties.  Having a reminder on my home page is nice but it would be better if I could also collect on my other properties.  I'm going to have to go to the Property Page in New York anyways and there is a "Collect All" button there which will also take care of my buildable properties.

You can also craft items and upgrade properties right from this module.  It's much faster than doing it from the New York Property page and I really like that.  In the example below, my Armory features the Power Armor which is the highest level item I can craft.  If this is the item I want to craft, all I have to do is click the "Build It" button and it's done.

If I'm not interested in crafting the Power Armor, I can click the "See All" button to craft a different item. In this example, I would rather craft a MNU Suit than a Power Armor.

Choosing the "See All" option will pop-up my Armory build page and I can craft whatever item I want.

Once the item is crafted, the module will refresh and update your status. Since my Armory is fully upgraded, it will just show up as being locked meaning that I can't craft an item until the timer runs out.  If my Armory were not fully upgraded, it would show the next highest item I could build if I upgraded it to the next level.

You can also upgrade your properties from the Build Your Empire Module. In the example below, my Zoo is currently at Level 8 and the highest item I can build is the Black Mamba.

Once I build it, the next highest item I can build will appear and so will all the information I need about the upgrade status.

I can ask my mafia for more parts from the homepage.

Once I have all the items needed to upgrade, I can do that from the home page as well.

"Tell your friends!" so they can collect a bonus.

Too bad the bonus is just one of those cute little foxes.  Not sure how he can help anybody in a fight.  Maybe your enemy will think he is so cute and cuddly that he will stop everything to try to pet the fox and lose focus.

The last area of the Build Your Empire Module showcases the current Limited Time Item.  This is a new feature and each new item will be available for 2 weeks.  When the item expires, a new one from one of the buildable properties will take it's place.  The current Limited Time item is the Patriot which is available in the Chop Shop.  It will always be visible at the bottom of the module no matter what page you are on.

To unlock the ability to craft limited time items, 25 special parts are needed.  You can only get these parts through the free gifting system and they are not tradeable.  The special parts required to build the Patriot are Engines.  You can request and send parts from the home page.

Once you have the required number of special parts needed, it's much faster to craft the item from the home page than from the Chop Shop.  This is because the limited time items are located at the far left of the building page and it loads to the far right.  Many clicks are needed to get to it!

After the initial build, Limited Time items will require 5 parts to craft.

Once you collect enough parts to craft another Limited Time item, a timer along with a Reward Point speed up option will appear.

One thing many players would like to see on the new home page layout is a Gifting Module. The old home page would show you in the message box who sent you gifts.  I never cared for it because there wasn't an option to gift back and if you didn't know the person who sent you the gift(s), it was hard to locate them.  Since there is no Gifting Module on the home page, you need to follow the old system before the gifting message box was implemented into the game (which wasn't very long ago).  This is the method I've been using anyways because when you clicked "Accept Gifts" from the homepage any information about who sent you the gift disappeared.

The best way to ensure you are able to gift back your mafia members, it to go to your inventory page and select the "Loot" or "Collections & Vault" tab.

All the gifts you have received will appear with a option to sent a gift back.

Loot

Collections

If you have gifts from multiple players, you need to open the link in a new window because they whole screen will disappear once you leave it.

Ideally, you will have an item on your mafias wishlist and can easily return a gift.  In this example, I don't have many items on Mike's wishlist so I want to gift him with something else.  To do so, I need to click on "Send Gift".

Here is a major problem that's been around for a while now.  When I click on "Send Gift", I'm directed to my gifting page.  I select the gift I want to send but the mafia member I want to send it to is no longer saved.  I then need to search for my mafia member you want to gift.  In the case of Mike this isn't an issue because I know him.  It becomes a problem when one of my mafia members who I don't know by their Mafia Wars name sends me a gift.  The reason is because the gift I received shows up under their Mafia Wars name but the search box is organized by the players Facebook name making it impossible to know who sent me the gift.  If I opened the link in a different window, I can go back and use the switch bookmarklet to learn the Facebook identity of the sender.  I don't always remember to do this so many gifts go unreturned.  It would be really nice if the same name could be used for sending and receiving gifts.  It would also be nice if they add a gifting module to the home page that will better track the gifts we receive and store the ones we haven't gifted back.

Yesterday I talked about a discussion thread on the Zynga Forum Boards that was full of complaints about the new layout (1).  There were 136 replies and only one person claimed to like it.  Today there are 308 replies and a few more players like it.  I like it and it looks like I'm in the minority.  The majority of the players who don't like the new layout said it was because the Player Updates were no longer on the home page.  Many thought they were removed from the game.  Today Zynga added something to the new layout so this is a good sign that they are listening.  In addition to helping the players who couldn't find the Player Updates, this change benefits the players who complained about the two extra clicks it took to get there. Now it only takes one.  If you are going to quit the game because of this extra click, you should have never chosen a game like Mafia Wars to begin with!

Some players are upset that the Daily Checklist and the Mystery Reward that went with it are gone.  These may be the same ones who complained about too much clicking.  The Mystery Reward was just a Mystery Bag in disguise and the removal of this pretty much useless feature saves us all quite a few clicks.  If you really miss the Mystery Reward, ask one of your mafia members to send you a Mystery Bag! 

Some player miss the Daily Chance reminder that would randomly show up in the message section of the Daily Checklist.

I rarely remember to submit tickets to the Daily Chance and admit that I did so more frequently when it was on my Daily Checklist.  To get to the Daily Chance page, either use the tab located in the Marketplace or go to your Lotto Collection and use the link there.

I think the amount of complaints would decrease if they added the Player Updates back to the home page or built upon the Your Mafia Activity Module to include more than 4 items, included an option to collect on all of our properties in the Build Your Empire Module, added a Gifting Module and had a link to the Daily Chance.  Overall I really like the new layout and don't understand what all the fuss is about.  Some players really went to extremes with their complaining. To add your two cents, comment here or on the forum thread referenced above.  I think it will be fun to watch the home page improve and evolve.

Thanks goes to Mike Nestor for helping me test things out, taking some of the screen shots and the Zoo upgrade items!

Article written by Jennifer Patterson begin_of_the_skype_highlighting     end_of_the_skype_highlighting, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast. All material is protected by copyright law