The crew system has received a lot of bad press recently with many players becoming more and more despondent. Indeed, I share there opinions and whilst we have been told that the first quarter of this year will be spent developing the new system it sometimes is hard to weather the storms to get to this stage.
As a crew boss I often receive messages proclaiming that my crew will be gone with the day/hour/month/week. Often these are just scam merchants attempting to extort money from you and giving you the chance to "save the life of your crew" but sometimes they are genuine. There are many that complain and grumble about this offering suggestions such as "stop doing updates to jail and make the crew and kill system better". I do not share this sentiment however, many updates are necessary to keep the game on the move. These small updates (usually provided by Sky ) are the ones that give us hope that there will be progress in the future. Indeed, when Sky was first appointed he said that he would be starting with the smaller stuff although many of his updates, such as the bust party feature, has proved an absolute hit with the players and has really embraced those who enjoy busting in jail, a part of the game that the administration probably never thought would have such a limelight. The real issue is, going back to the threats, knowing that anyone with enough bullets and the right gun (assuming no kills are failed) can wipe your crew in under 15 minutes if they had such a motive to do this. So what is the problem? It's a mafia game, you're supposed to die. This is, for the most part, true. The game is all about killing and those who moan when they are shot clearly are not playing right. It is not the death which irritates many amongst the community its the looming void of distance from how a situation would take place in reality that riles them. In reality if one of your crew members were to be shot the others would know. They would be in different states, they would go to ground, find out what they could or even shoot back if they were with the target.
So we have established that this is far from ideal. Currently crews are just an expensive ticket for a coffin fitting appointment but what is to be done? Many players have promoted their own ideas, whether right here in the buzz, or in the forums and many have been met with interest and acceptance by the community. Some things which really should be considered in the crew update are, in my opinion, as follows:
The ability to set council positions for a crew official. (Almost all the crews have council positions and at the very least they have a recruiter. These positions should be given the opportunity they deserve. What is the point of being an underboss of a crew if you can't kick a member out when they go an a mad murderous maraud?
The ability to provide certain members certain special abilities such as forum authority so they can delete or lock topics.
The option to fund quick searches. (If your members are in all of the states and are online then they will help to track down your targets faster. Obviously if all your crew are asleep then it would not help as in life, but if your entire crew is ready to react it seems somewhat pointless to wait for a timer to tick down).
Surveillance of players (Have members from your own crew follow other players around to the states that they visit and if your crew member is in the same state as the target, find out what actions they are doing. EG. buying bullets, buying cars, visiting the private investigators office).
Timeouts for shooters (Whilst many who shoot crews would argue that this is unfair i would argue and say that in reality, 1 man could not shoot 50+ people within 9 different states in less than twenty minutes).
Kill heat (If you shoot someone, especially if this person has a high rank or is holding property, then the killer should receive heat from the police. If they continue to shoot high profile players then they will gain more heat until the point where they will be put in jail for an hour as the police track them down).
And the rest (such as a way to extract funds from the crew bank, means to ascertain higher levels of protection, work together with other crew members to pool your money on a casino and many more).
Some of these ideas, as you have doubtless noticed, overlap the kill system. I realise this but to speak of one is to speak of the other. These are just my personal thoughts and there are many that extend and exceed these which can be found in the forums.
There is little doubt that the crew structure needs an overhaul and that has been promised by the administration but we must hope that they also take into account the ideas of the players and the thoughts of those who actually play the game. Being in a crew should provide real privilege to justify the costs that many are paying for their slot at the funeral parlour. We must wait and hope that BSF2000 really brings us what the players and committed community of Bootleggers want and deserve.
