Bootleggers is a mafia based game. What is one of the main aspects we relate to the Mafia? The constant shooting between each mafia. This is arguably the most important feature needed on Bootleggers, yet since this round has started, nobody has died! No, it’s not because all us players are holding hands in harmony having picnics, singing round campfires and making daisy chains for each other, well there may be some players actually doing that, but most of us want to see the action! See the crews go to war; casino’s to drop and underground crews to spring out of the shadows and unsuspectingly massacres some unfortunate victims! So why hasn’t anyone died? Well, Mika posted a topic on the Game Forum on the 12th February 2012 stating that there is a bug in the kill system that makes it impossible for players to kill each other and advised the community not to use it. He also said the problem will be solved as soon as possible.
Coming up to ten days later and kill was still disabled. Players started complaining. They could see what was going to happen if it wasn’t released soon, which will be explained later on in the article. Riserva then updated Mika’s topic stating that the kill feature has not been fixed due to an unknown person breaching Bootleggers security and trying to take the game offline via the main servers. This means BSF2000 has had to put the kill feature project on hold and concentrate on upgrading the security aspects of Bootleggers to keep the game running. This is obviously a bigger priority because without the game staying afloat, we won’t even need the kill feature. Unfortunately, a bug was discovered that enabled crews to be able to upgrade guns/protections without having to ascertain the relevant gymnasium levels. This is another unfair advantage to the crews. As of now, the bug hasn’t been fixed and we do not know what the moderators are doing about the players who are exploiting this chance to get an unfair advantage.
The Buzz posted a topic on the game forum asking for the opinions of the players as to what they think could happen if it is delayed any longer. SomeoneYouUsedToKnow brought up a valid point about the protection bug explained earlier on in the article being used to crew’s advantages and bullet factories not being contested, allowing crews to gather a massive stock of bullets. WarDrake spoke about missing the thrill of selling casinos at a lower rank such as thug or a gangster before you got killed. PhriendlyPhief complained that, “Constantly playing a Mafia game where you can't kill people, because you don't have the resources is one thing, but just outright not being allowed to kill because the kill feature isn't working is lame”. SeaPea then sums it up nicely in one simple sentence stating “A game that centres around killing, without that vital function, is worthless”. The Buzz think the main problem is that we don’t want to see a repeat of the previous round where the game was easily dominated by a small group of players preventing anyone from ranking, leading them to quit.
The Buzz then asked Aldarion what he had to say about the kill feature being disabled. This was his reply. “My personal opinion is that it should be back as soon as possible in order to avoid the risk of disturbing the game. No-one knows what will happen when the feature is disabled for much longer. Should the problem be extremely complicated it would be best to stop the Bullet Factories from flooding the game with bullets.”
So it looks like we have to continue to play the ever long waiting game before we can use the feature. Most of you readers will agree the security of the game is most important, so it is right that BSF2000 is making that the priority. We can only hope that he gets round to fixing the protection/gun bug and fixing the kill feature and finally let the game have access to the most important tool.
UPDATE: As of Sunday 26th February, Riseva has posted on the Game Forum that anyone who unfairly gained higher protection/gun through using the bug will have it removed from their account very shortly. The players will also be reimbursed of any money/point losses through this bug.
