Jun 21, 2011

The Opposite of Nerf

Share:

In my review of District 7, I remember commenting that the special ability of the mastery item, the Machete Dance Prop, was totally useless (1). On June 17th, it offered us a +3-+15% payout (depending on level) on our Brazil Headquarters.
Do I look like I need anymore Brazil Real? It's too easy to get from fighting. Like New York, Las Vegas and Italy, the currency from Brazil isn't valuable at all. At least there are money achievements in New York to give us some incentive to collect it.
In a surprise move by Zynga, they actually made this special ability better and useful to all players. Now we get a +3-+15% increase payout of ALL our Brazil properties. I wasn't anywhere close to getting a new mastery item in District 7 to further verify this change but Mike Nestor was and you can see the change is indicated on the mastery popup as well.
Before
 After
Lets take a closer look as I'm still shocked that they did this.
When you factor in that there are energy and stamina payouts this is totally cool. If you Refinery and Barracks are fully upgraded, you get a +20% of your total energy and stamina.  The special ability of the Machete Dance Prop is a percentage of the additional 20% energy or stamina and not your total. It's not much but it's way better than seeing a nerf. According to the Urban Dictionary, the opposite of nerfing is called buffing. Now we just need them to add an individual collect button to each Brazil property.
To demonstrate what the Zynga terminology of this special ability means and if it actually works, I collected on my Brazil properties. I own the Bronze Level Machete Dance Prop which give a +3% payout to all my Brazil properties.
None of my properties had been robbed so the math should be clean. My total energy pool is 3,360 and my payout was 1497 with the Taskmaster bonus activated. 20% of my total energy is 727, doubling this brings it to a total of 1,454. The additional energy I received because of my Machete Dance Prop (on the Bronze Level) is 43 energy. Doing reverse math (0.03 X 727. = 21.8 X 2 = 43.62) you can see this bonus applies only to the payout of 20% and not to your total energy pool (Zynga doesn't round up!). This bonus isn't really as great as it sounds but it's way better than it was before they buffed it.

Mimz made the following calculations for each level of the Machete Dance Prop and what it will actually do for you. This assumes your Brazil properties are fully upgraded.

Level 10
Hold Out
Bronze Level
Silver Level
Gold Level
Ruby Level
Machete Dance Prop Bonus
+3%
+7%
+11%
+15%
Total Boost
20.6%
21.4%
22.2%
23%
Total Boost with Taskmaster
4.2%
42.8%
44.4%
46%



Thanks to Mihai for bringing this awesome change to my attention and to Mike Nestor for helping with the screen shots.

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.
All material is protected by copyright law

8 comments:

  1. +7% of 20% is very little !! depends with zynga with what they actually mean i spouse.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well, it's a welcome change if it lasts..hehe!

    I wish they'd change the Jangada, too...in Rocinha

    Fully mastered it's supposed to give..Extra 10% damage to City bosses in Las Vegas and Italy

    It's totally useless considering that lot of us have already mastered LV and Italy...:-(

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is not actually what happened.. I checked with the amount I get from Barracks and Refinery after mastering this district. The percentage increase is to the amount of boost you get, not the total amount of energy/stamina you have.
    So, its not 20% + 3% = 23% boost for a fully upgraded property. Its 20% x 1.03 = 20.6% boost.

    Therefore if you've maxed Refinery and Barrack (level 10),
    Bronze mastery = +3% increase = 20.6% boost = 41.2% boost with Taskmaster
    Silver mastery = +7% increase = 21.4% boost = 42.8% boost with Taskmaster
    Gold mastery = +11% increase = 22.2% boost = 44.4% boost with Taskmaster
    Ruby mastery = +15% increase = 23% boost = 46% boost with Taskmaster

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks all, I collected on my own property to see what happens and made the edit. It's still better than nothing.

    ReplyDelete
  5. While this is all and good, more bonuses, but is it me or is Brazil Properties messed up? I can't seem to figure out how to collect on just ONE Property, which you can do in every other city. If I collect on my fully upgraded Refinery AND Barracks, I'm going to have a ton of Energy and Stamina to waste. If I could collect them individually, that would be SO helpful.

    It's like when we had the Mini-Energy packs. You could use them one at a time, or all at once, whatever you needed. Brazil Properties seems to be all at once. Period :(

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sorry Walt, you can't collect them individually... The only thing you can do is to use at least half of your max energy and stamina and then collect. This way you wont waste to much energy/stamina...

    ReplyDelete
  7. yeah, that Rocinha mastery award - totally useless. At the very least, make it apply to all Boss fight across the game, including Brazil Missions, the sporadic shotgun blast bosses and even the blasted Raven.

    ReplyDelete

Comments are moderated and will not be published until they are reviewed. Please don't use bad language or insult others. For faster feedback on questions, visit our fan page.