I have played bootleggers for an exceedingly long time, and I feel that with the rise of crewless accounts shootings that it has really decreased the fun of the entire game. I won’t even say UG shooting, because it is no longer that. The killers don’t always come forth and reveal who they are, like in days past. It’s hard to label yourself “underground” when you never reveal who you are in the first place, nor ever present yourself as an actual target. It used to be well known players would be forced to go “ug” because they would be shot on sight if they used their regular username, and in this right it makes sense go underground and use a different username to have a chance to shoot your enemies. After they shot they would reveal themselves and retake a crew spot/bullet factory and thus the cycle would begin. There were other Crew wars where the use of UG shooters wasn’t even necessary as people would respect each other enough to give them a chance to rebuild and not constantly shoot them at low ranks; where it was a constant race to get back to Boss to be a meat shield to hold the crew spot.
Well times have changed and I believe it has been for the worse. Yes I understand the logic of Crewless shooting, and yes it makes more sense that the guerilla style tactics are more effective, but is it more fun? No, it makes the game worse and ruins the experience for a casual Bootleggers player, no longer is someone able to just play the game at their own pace and rank outside of a crew, sooner or later they will get shot for just simply being a high ranked crewless account under the suspicion that the account is either a shooter or banker for a rival crew. The current state of crews is a joke and they offer no real benefits, the only benefits they actually provide is Bullet banking, and reduced protection and gun costs. Yes you meet people in crews and blah, blah, but you can do that without ever joining a crew as well.
What I think we need is a complete overhaul of the crew system, bringing actual in-game benefits to crews. Have it so the guerilla style tactics are still viable, but offer incentive to keep and hold a crew spot, and make it so that crew spots are worth having so that real crew wars could happen. My idea is probably too late and it would take a massive amount of work, but believe it would greatly balance the dynamic of power that right now so heavily favors crewless shooting.
First off have crews have territory that they can gain by either a) Owing properties (Casinos or Bullet Factories) in a state or b) bring back establishment and have crew members control the majority of land.
If a crew holds more than 50% of the territory in a given state they now control that state and it is their territory. There are 5 casinos and 1 bullet factory in every state to control a state you would need to own either a bullet factory and two casinos, or four casinos. I count BF as worth two casinos because I think they are a much more valuable property. This I think would be a better option than having control dictated by establishment since I am 100% sure how it would work out, and what would happen if crewless people bought it and I wouldn’t want a completely useless for people that were not in crews.
This would also make Casinos more valuable and contested over more, like in the old days where Casinos passed hands much less frequently. Though as a gambler I see this as a slight double-edged sword as I feel people would be less likely to have high maxes, but sacrifices must be made! Also it would make crew spots really worth fighting for. I’ve seen crew spots given away because they aren’t really worth anything anymore.
Once a crew had Control over a state they could pay money to begin building a Crew Headquarters or base of operations. Once completed it would offer them a chance to build upgrades to benefit all crew members.
To get these upgrades crew members would have to do crimes, auto thefts, busting, boozing, and OCs in the state they control to gain Influence. Thus giving influence in that state towards a crew total that they could spend to get various upgrades for their crew. It would also cost money and take time to create these upgrades (similar to building something on the old establishment).
Some Proposed upgrades are- Crew Bank- $500,000, 3,000 Influence, 8 hour build time With this structure you can now transfer money from the crew bank to anyone in your crew, you are also are only charged a 5% transfer fee instead of the normal ten. Crew Gym- $1,000,000 5,000 Influence, 12 hour build time With this structure crew members have a much more efficient gym, than the public gym. They gain levels faster(exact numbers would need tweaking) Crew Bullet Factory- $3,000,000, 8,000 influence, 24 hour build time With this structure you will have a bullet factory that produces 500 bullets an hour that is automatically added to your crew bullet bank.
I have other structures that I think would work as well, these are just ideas, other are
Crew Hospital-Free admission into the hospital AND automatically puts you in the hospital if you are shot, you are also free to leave as you please.
Crew Safehouse- Once every 24 hours, you may place one crew member in the crew safehouse, this person cannot be shot at or found for a period of 18 hrs, however they cannot do any actions while in the safe house.
Gangster stash- With this upgrade crews are able to hold X amount of money and X amount of bullets in a safety deposit box/safe that can be accessed after death at no penalty. It would be similar to a swiss account but with no penalty. This would be an upgradeable perk that the cap for money and bullets would go up as you leveled it, each level costing more time and influence.
Also crew members in a State that they control would have increased protection against shooters, and increased attack while shooting, also would have increased % on WS they received. Crews would also receive a % of all gambling and booze transactions in that state. I would think 1% for gambling and 3-5% for booze transactions. Though if a crew member is shot by a member of their own crew (insiding) they do not receive any of the Defensive bonus they would normally have. This would make it so that shooting crewlessly would be at a disadvantage, but you play your cards right you would still be able to nullify some of the perks. I also think that there is room for more perks for players in territory they control, like increased crime percents or payouts, but it’s all up for debate
I think adding this into the game would breathe new life into the crew system and balance out power, and make crews useful again. Give crews real benefits, and a reason to join a crew and keep it. We might start seeing crew wars again between stat crews, and larger crews. As it stands there is no real benefit to being in a crew, this would change that, but not so drastically that if you choose to remain crewless it would be detrimental to your playstyle. Thanks for reading and I would love to hear your opinion on my idea.
