This week we witnessed a new and interesting update on Bootleggers; Don Cuts. Before I share those interesting matters regarding this update, let’s have a look at the new update first. So, what has changed? During the game the State Dons and Nation Don receive takes over a variety of features. Each of these features has a specific take percentage. The State Dons can adjust these percentages for their specific state and the Nation Don can adjust it for the entire nation. Fortunately the State/Nation Dons have maximum percentages for these takes, otherwise they might put everything on 100%, which means there is nothing left for yourself. More information regarding this new update can be found at the important topic on the Game Forum. Time to take a closer look at this interesting update.
So, where to start? Do I like this new update? I do, however I am extremely confused by a lot of things. Let’s pretend that there are no State Dons nor a Nation Don. This means we do not have to pay any money to ‘our Dons’. Incorrect, according to the new update, because we still lose 80% of the maximum percentages. So, who gets this money? Nobody does, it simply disappears. Still, the messages imply that the ‘Dons’ receive the money. It is unrealistic and extremely confusing for (new) players. ‘‘Who gets the money of those crew takes’’? Well, the State Don and the Nation Don! ‘‘But there is not State Don nor Nation Don! ’’. I am already looking forward to the next 100 Help Tickets.
Now, let’s pretend that we have only one State Don. If this State Don is clever, he/she will lower the percentages under the 80% of the maximum percentage. By doing so, more players will commit Organized Crimes in that state, because they have to pay less money regarding the takes. I really like this part, because this results in more activity of the nine states on Bootleggers. At this moment Illinois is far the most active state on Bootleggers. It is also interesting that the Organized Crime vault depends on the activity in that specific state. This means if everyone goes to the ‘cheapest’ state, the vaults will be crap, which eventually results in the opposite; a less active state. It is a damn circle, awesome stuff.
In order to become a State/Nation Don you have to commit a large amount of Organized Crimes. You can say it is quite an accomplishment of reaching these ranks on Bootleggers. As a reward for such an achievement you have the possibility to build a personal bullet factory, hire some body guards and so on. This week another bonus was introduced; the Don Cuts. Is the position of a State/Nation Don too important or are they still not strong enough? I believe it is becoming too important now. At the moment of writing this article, the total in-game money (in the federal bank) is approximately 9 billion. Let’s say that the Nation Don put the take on Federal Bank at the maximum of 4%. A simple calculation shows us that this Nation Don earns more than 10 million a day. For the record, that is $450,000 per hour, $7,500 per minute and $125 per second for doing absolutely nothing. Ridiculous, because I have seen plenty of State/Nation Dons who just commit two Organized Crimes a day and log out after they did that. A Legendary Godfather who plays the entire day will never make that much money by doing crimes and booze runs. This new update simply results that the stronger accounts become even stronger and the weaker accounts become weaker.
As I stated in many previous articles, I believe the current round is being dominated by a certain group of players. At the moment of writing this article, there are: 2 Legendary Dons, 11 Respectable Dons and 50 Dons. Not the best timing to introduce a State/Nation Don update, but let’s skip that part. I believe this dominating group of players will never allow a player to reach the rank of State Don. The result? A lot of shootings were Don+ accounts are going to die. Being killed is part of the game, but do we really want more of these random shootings?
I personally believe nobody was waiting on this update. With only a few Don accounts we won’t be seeing a lot of State/Nation Dons anyway. I am personally waiting on the promised blackjack feature and the new crew feature. A crew feature has a significant impact on the game-play and I believe those changes are more needed than Don Cuts. It seems BSF2000 rather posts some fancy jam emoticons on the Game Forum than spending his valuable time on coding features which were promised months ago. Every time I see ‘Updates’ in yellow I get a little hope. Every time I see an update which is not needed, I lose that hope. How much hope is left? Not much.
