Hello and welcome to my first ever article for the Bootleggers Buzz! What I am trying to do here, is to look at the contrast between some of the games key features and how they have changed, if they have, throughout the years. I started playing this game back in 2004 and left around the 2008 - 2009 period, returning this round. So I'll try to keep this article related to what I know best from the time I have played.
The first thing I would like to look at would be - Crews
Crew spots have always been an integral part of the game, with some questioning what their actual point was, without holding at least one of the illustrious properties known as a Bullet Factory. I'm sure the majority of players know the benefits of holding a Bullet Factory, but for those who don't I'll give you a brief explanation as to why holding a Bullet Factory in a crew is a good idea. A Bullet Factory is the most valued possession on this game for a good reason. When a Bullet Factory is held inside a crew, it feeds the crew bullet bank with a percentage of bullets that is produced from the factory. The holder of the factory has the option to change the percentage of the bullets that are produced that go into the crew bullet bank, the highest being 25%, which would roughly work out at around 9,500 bullets a day. The Bullet Factory will also put a percentage of cash that it makes into the crew bank, this is brilliant for paying things such as your crew daily tax, which for the majority of crews is a whopping 500k per day. So, if you take a good percentage of money you don't have to worry about dipping into your own wallet to pay your tax. Another thing you can buy with the money is gun and protection packages for your members! With the money, it's slightly different, the crew owner will decide the percent of money that comes into the crew bullet bank.
As far as the contrast between how crews used to be and how they are now there is not much of one. The only real difference I can see is the amount of players per crew. I remember when I used to play, some crews would house over 100 members, and the rest! Now, we very rarely see a 50 man crew spot. As for the future, this contrast could change dramatically, with promised crew-feature updates from the almighty BSF! Hopefully these will be implemented soon, so that we can divulge into a brand new way for those who are for crews, to play the game!
The second thing I would like to look at would be - Killing
Killing, has to be in my opinion the main feature of Bootleggers. Any one who plays Bootleggers seriously, wants to be the best, they want to make their way to the top and become a Bootlegging legend. There is only one way to go about that; make cash and kill who ever opposes you. Now back in the day, I remember killing being a lot easier than it is now, all you would have to do is train your gun, search your target for four hours and fire away. But this round, everything changed. Now, if you want to be able to shoot actively, you must put in countless hours of gym training before you can handle the big weapons. This new feature, has yet again caused a massive divide in opinions, some who are for the gym feature and some who are against it. Those who are for it see the benefits, it stops people duping and having endless accounts that can shoot, which is obviously unfair. Those who are against it, well in my opinion I think they are just the lazy players, although some of them do have valid points about not being able to retaliate as quick as they would like too. Another contrast is the new way to search for people. You now have to search every single state to find someone as well as having the choice to hire a list of different investigators to do your dirty work. Some of the investigators are better than others, meaning they will find your target quicker, but this comes at a price. Killing is really expensive in today's game compared to how it used to be, in my personal opinion, I like it as it sets to be more of a challenge.
The third thing I would like to look at would be - Gambling
There is not really much to say here, as not much has changed. The only real change would be the RLT update, which again has caused a divide between players who like it and players who don't. Personally, I'm not a fan, I don't like the idea of converting my cash into chips before I am able to gamble at the table, as well as that, the wheel doesn't seem to spin for me. There is a solution for that, but I'v stayed away from it regardless. For those who don't know, the old Roulette system was really simple, you would simply place your bet, as you would now but with cash, rather than chips and the table would randomly generate a number which it would represent where the ball had landed. Another promising feature that we don't know too much about would be BSF implementing a change to the Black Jack casino, which sounds encouraging because owning a Black Jack table is more or less certain to make you a loss. This has led to the majority of black jack owners keeping a low max, making them pointless. Hopefully, we will see massive changes in the current black jack system, which will make them fun to play again!
The final thing I would like to look at would be - Forums
The forums have always been, and always will be a part of Bootleggers. I love the forums, it's a great place to meet new people or to get annoyed for those who can't take the banter of the excessive trolls. You can always find something funny in the Off Topic Forum, whether it's a really funny meme or a stupid argument about games or football. Personally, the OTF is my favourite place to be, I rarely post but I'm constantly there reading what other people have got to say. The Game Forum takes a more serious approach, the majority of the time players will be arguing about who killed who, what crew doesn't like the other crew, some one slating BSF or RIP topics. The Classifieds is where you go to advertise your OC, advertise yourself to OC, sell a Casino or make people aware of your maximum bet. The Classifieds is strictly business, so to speak. The forums are the main reason some people still play this game, they don't rank or intend to make a name for them selves, they just like to whore the forums with friends and stick around for the social aspect. As for a contrast, there is only a couple of things I can think of. One would be that it's slightly stricter, as to what you post and where, and the other would be there are more trolls. I like the trolls, I think they are funny as hell, but they seem to annoy a lot of people.
Well, that's it for now! I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it!
