The Slammer was re-released today and it provides many clues into the minds of the powers that be at Zynga. It was first release on Jan 19th and pulled a few hours later (1), (2). The reasons given for this ridiculous action were explained via Customer Support: "due to player feedback regarding our recent event schedule, this district will not be made active until Monday January 23rd, 2012", "we felt the timing of the event would be better suited for our players at a later date"(1). This is all a bunch of horseshit and the real reasons can be sen below. What they really meant was something more like this: "too many of you completed the district without spending reward points so we needed to make it more difficult. We gotta eat!".
There were many players who fully mastered The Slammer during the time it was releases. Zynga often justifies their actions by claiming they want to "balance the playing field". If this were true, all mastery would have been reset. Those who didn't complete everything will find much of the Secret District has been nerfed and they will spend more resources than their counterparts.
Here are the new job requirements and payouts. The original versions of everything listed below can be found here.
Silver
Gold
Ruby
Right away you will notice that many of the jobs cost more energy per click.
| Job # | New Energy Requirements | Old Energy Requirements | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
1 | 702 | 540 | +162 |
2 | 810 | 702 | +108 |
3 | 756 | 756 | 0 |
4 | 864 | 864 | 0 |
5 | 918 | 594 | +324 |
6 | 756 | 810 | -54 |
7 | 702 | 702 | 0 |
8 | 864 | 594 | +270 |
10 | 1020 | 1020 | 0 |
The experience/energy ratios were nerfed. Players who already collected the 50 loot items for the skill point bonuses had a much easier time.
New Ratios
| Job # | %Mastery | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Ruby |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 1.46 | 1.52 | 1.56 | 1.56 |
| 2 | 6 | 1.33 | 1.38 | 1.42 | 1.42 |
| 3*** | 7 | 1.64 | 1.70 | 1.75 | 1.75 |
| 4 | 8 | 1.81 | 1.88 | 1.93 | 1.93 |
| 5* | 9 | 1.35 | 1.40 | 1.44 | 1.44 |
| 6** | 5 | 1.93 | 1.99 | 2.06 | 2.06 |
| 7* | 6 | 1.69 | 1.75 | 1.81 | 1.81 |
| 8 | 8 | 1.44 | 1.49 | 1.53 | 1.53 |
| 9 | 7 | 1.84 | 1.91 | 1.96 | 1.96 |
*Requires 1 Jailbreaker per job
**Requires ¢20 per job
***Requires 1 Jailbreaker and ¢24 per job
| Job # | % Mastery | Bronze | Silver | Gold | Ruby |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 1.90 | 1.97 | 2.03 | 2.03 |
| 2 | 8 | 1.54 | 1.59 | 1.64 | 1.64 |
| 3*** | 9 | 1.64 | 1.70 | 1.75 | 1.75 |
| 4 | 10 | 1.81 | 1.88 | 1.94 | 1.94 |
| 5* | 12 | 2.09 | 2.17 | 2.23 | 2.23 |
| 6** | 6 | 1.80 | 1.87 | 1.92 | 1.92 |
| 7* | 8 | 1.69 | 1.75 | 1.81 | 1.81 |
| 8 | 9 | 2.09 | 2.17 | 2.23 | 2.23 |
| 9 | 8 | 1.84 | 1.91 | 1.96 | 1.96 |
*Requires 1 Jailbreaker per job
*Requires ¢20 per job
***Requires 1 Jailbreaker and ¢24 per job
In addition to the energy required and the experience/energy ratios being nerfed, the mastery percentage per click on each job was reduced. Not only will you spend more energy per job but now you have to do more jobs to achieve 100% mastery.
| Job | New Mastery % | Old Mastery % |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 | 6 |
| 2 | 6 | 8 |
| 3 | 7 | 9 |
| 4 | 8 | 10 |
| 5 | 9 | 12 |
| 6 | 5 | 6 |
| 7 | 6 | 8 |
| 8 | 8 | 9 |
| 9 | 7 | 8 |
Because you have to do more job, you need more consumables and currency. In the original version, we needed 136 consumable items (Jailbreakers) to fully master the district. Now we need 176.
New Requirements
| Job | Mastery | Jailbreaker/Level | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 7% | 15 | 60 |
| 5 | 9% | 12 | 48 |
| 7 | 6% | 17 | 68 |
| Grand Total | 176 |
Old Requirements
| Job | Mastery | Jailbreaker/Level | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | 9% | 12 | 48 |
| 5 | 12% | 9 | 36 |
| 7 | 8% | 13 | 52 |
| Grand Total | 136 |
You now need to spend ¢2,800 instead of ¢2,580 to complete all the jobs requiring currency (assuming you don't use any bonuses, boosts or request help). They left the job equipment requirements alone. If you had to buy all items, it will still cost ¢15,505.
I lost interest in this Secret District and decided I don't care about the bonus skill points. I'm just going to finish it and forget about it. I was going to update the walkthrough but when Zynga pulls things like this, it makes me lose interest in blogging as well. If they would have warned us that the district was going to return with completely different energy requirements, mastery percentages and experience ratios, I wouldn't have spent the time I did creating the first walkthrough. Maybe it's time that Zynga does more to inform the players and stop relying on the community to do the job for them!
On a more positive note, they fixed the ruby level bug that was present with the last two Secret Districts. The irony here is that with poor ratios, nobody will bother going back. There are jobs in Las Vegas, Chicago and Brazil that offer better ratios than you will find in the Slammer. They could have saved themselves the time and left the bug alone.
| 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. |
it also seems harder to get 50 each of the required loot items. It seems like the drop rate is much lower now :(
ReplyDeleteWhenever I master these special places I never get enough drops to get all the bonus stuff. Last secret district I had like 16 6 and 18 of the drops. Just a little annoying because I did master it, but it's pretty lame to sit there trying to get drops that when all missions are ruby only drop once every 100000+ energy. Awesome job Zynga. The real kicker is the second job since you have to acquire 176 consumable items that means doing the job like 300+ times? Maybe 250 if you're lucky. With a 1.33 ratio if you're not stocked up before ruby you're gonna be there for a while trying to stock up while spending 810 per click.
ReplyDeleteAll they've done is hobble the average player. My e-ho alt has near 50k energy to call on and blitzed this from start to finish in 4 levels within 10 minutes.
ReplyDeleteThe lower xp ratios make it harder for to level. I have to use more resources to do so meaning I lose a level-up here and there. Every level it costs me is 5 skill points. Why would I sit here and farm this just to get their extra skill points when it's costing me on the other end?
ReplyDeleteWaste of space yet again, i do not get why they even bother with these secret levels. They took away the one rare good ratio job and in its place left a 2.06 pile of rubbish. These levels offer you free skill points but let us be honest the only people who can get them are those using energy accounts because fighter accounts with enough energy to complete these are very far and few!!!
ReplyDeleteI think old secret districts was released for 14 days and we have only 12 days to finish. But I am not sure.
ReplyDeleteThe only players that seem to benefit from these types of missions are upper level players who can fight as well as have enough energy to acquire the loot. I am guessing I did not have a chance with this type of player before, so it seems that giving them even more of an advantage is not going to change the outcome. I will simply complete what I can and just cruise on by, not stressing about the small stuff. ;)
ReplyDeleteSteve
Is 1 job better to try and get the special loot from or does it matter?
ReplyDeleteLately Zynga has been requiring ridiculous amounts of loot, etc. This sort of behavior drew heavy fire in the past, wassup? The Forbes article makes me want to tell all the newbies what they can expect from Zynga, and to ask the vet mobsters to hang in there, don't leave. I'm not advocating organized boycotts against blatantly greed-inspired game requirements or anything, just sayin'...
ReplyDeleteGreat and very informative post. You're right, it does show their current mindset. The question is, why was the easy version ever released? It just doesn't make any sense.
ReplyDeleteHi :) I've just finished the Ruby level of the Slammer secret district. I completed it around 5:30 pm PST today and did NOT receive either a pop-up or a reward. So as far as I'm concerned, the bug hasn't been fixed.
ReplyDeleteI will now go to file a bug report. *sigh I've filed so many bug reports lately, that it has now become more of an irritation than a fun game. After two years game play, I'm now wondering what the other (non-Zynga) mafia games are like - certainly they're starting to look more inviting to me these days.