Here's a newbie-friendly variation of my process for finding inactives to mine mug for cash and merits:
Note I'm assuming you've bought and used at least one Donator Pack(with either real money or from item market with TC$) for access to the friend/enemy lists function. It's also a very good idea to have a palace, castle or private island with a large vault so you've got a place to stash your cash while waiting for bank investments or building up cash for other pursuits.
1: Search by age, using a narrow range(1800-1808 days old, for example)
2: On the results page, open new tab for anyone with the following starter job positions(hover mouse over job icon for a text popup to see their job position): Education: Principal Casino: Casino President Law: Federal Judge Medical: Surgeon or Brain Surgeon
Anything else won't pay enough to bother with, or if in player-run companies, be active enough to be a risk to you.
3: Once you've got a good handful of tabs ready, start examining them one at a time for the following information:
3a: Status, if it says anything other than "[player name] is currently okay", close tab and forget about them. You can't attack inactives in other countries(they become untargetable after ~24hours inactive), or if they've been fedded, and if they're in the hospital then someone else is likely already draining them so no point in troubling yourself with them.
3b: Last Action, if this is less than roughly 1K days they won't have had time to build up much cash without some stock benefit blocks with cash dividends. Since you can't tell if they have these, always assume they don't(you'll know if you find one that does when you get multi-million dollar mugs off of them. It's a rare, but oh-so-sweet find when you get them, so savor it when you do).
3c: Are they married? If so, open a new tab on their spouse, they might be a viable target to check out as well. Be sure to follow the same criteria to determine their viability as a target.
3d: Property: If it's a penthouse or better, inspect it(click the link) to see if they've hired any staff. If they have staff, and they own the property(and thus are paying for upkeep/staff) close the page, they won't have any money. If the property is a Palace, Castle or Private Island you should also close the page unless their spouse owns the property and is paying upkeep/staff, though this is unlikely.
3e: Enemies, if your target's got a lot then it's likely any money they might have had has already been mugged off(either by people they've previously torqued off or they're known as a target with multiple dividend BB's and you'll have more competition for getting decent income). No enemies does not mean they haven't been mugged dry and tossed aside by someone else, but it's a far more encouraging sign than someone with 20+.
3f: Life, if their total is close to/higher than yours you could be in for a tough fight. You'll just have to learn the hard way what you can or cannot handle, and it's only a rough approximation, but as a newbie you will want to pay attention to this.
3g: if your target has passed all of these preliminary checks, click the "Add to Blacklist" button and give them a short description(like "Target?" or "untested")
4: Repeat 3 until you've gone through the tabs you've opened/search list you pulled up or you hit 50/50 enemies.
5: Start attacking/mugging your targets to see what you can get. Since you're newb, I wouldn't recommend using much more than one full Energy bar/day on this, since that will be far better spent on stats/training, but a steady stream of successful mugs will provide income for DP's(and thus, more energy for attacks/training, and more income) and will slowly move you towards various attack related medals/honors and the merits they reward.
5a: I can't tell you what to set as your lower limit, but make sure you have one and that anyone who yields less than that target(say $250k or whatever your choose) gets deleted off of your list. Those with larger yields should have their descriptions edited to reflect their quality as a target(eg, "Target$$" for someone that passes your cutoff limit, "Target$$$$" if you find a whale that mugs for millions. Don't be afraid to use your own descriptions, but make sure that you have a system that works for you and is consistent and simple to understand).
6: Make sure you also check out this thread for some easy merits to grab which can be used to help make mugging more profitable. Also consider working on getting your various finishing hit merits as well, since you'll already doing a lot of attacking. Also consider focusing on getting the Bachelor of Military Arts and Science(and associated Combat Training education courses) finished ASAP, as the bonuses and weapon XP will add up to make this path even better for you in the long run.
7: Continue mugging the targets on your list, focusing on the biggest mugs on the list and draining them till they fall under your limit, then chucking them and going to the next biggest.
8: Over time you'll end up mugging dry the list you built up in phases 1-4, which means, you guessed it, you'll have to repeat that again, preferably when you've still got about one energy bar's worth of targets that are still viable(if getting close to being tossed aside).
Something else to note, once an item spawns it'll stay on the map till you pick it up. It may change location, however, if it sits there long enough.
The most complete search method I've found is to start at the top left corner of the map zoomed all the way in, then click down via map arrows till I hit bottom, go three clicks right, go up, three clicks right, go down, and just keep doing that till I end up in the opposite corner. I usually only search once every week or so, but it's been netting me a few items every time I do. I should note I've only got one merit spent on awareness, and the PSY 2680 education bonus.
Also, going four clicks right could work as well, with less trips up/down leading to a quicker search, but I'm not sure that doesn't leave a small gap between the up/down stripes, leading to potential missed items. Three clicks gives a fair bit of overlap, but I can be certain no items are being missed between stripes, hence why I use that method.
While I had first posted this over here, I figured it warranted more fleshing out and it's own post, to see if anyone would be interested.
Item Description: A "talking board" used to contact spirits during a seance, this lightly stained example seems more intricate than the ones found in the toy aisle.
Obtained: Found item in city. May also show up in Halloween town or when successfully attacking zombies during zombie event.
Effects when used: 1: After lighting the candles and sitting down in a circle with Name1*, Name2* and Name3*, you begin the chant to call upon the lost spirits of the city. 2**: Though you feel a bit silly at first, that fades quickly as you start getting a response.
Failure: 3: As the night wears on you trade questions and answers with the spirits. Though vague as some of the answers are, it's a generally interesting and enlightening experience. {Awards a varying amount of crime and leveling xp, maybe 3-5% of a level or NB upgrade}
Success 1: 3: As the night wears on you trade questions and answers with the spirits. Though vague as some of the answers are, you do get something useful, it seems someone in the city likes you! {Reveals one player who has you on their friend list}
Success 2: 3: As the night wears on you trade questions and answers with the spirits. Though vague as some of the answers are, you do get something useful, it seems someone in the city is holding a grudge. {Reveals one player who has you on their blacklist}
Extra: 4: So absorbed are you and your companions in the seance, none of you notice the pale red points of light glaring at you from the shadows.{Hospitalized for 12-36 hours. Reasons will be semi-random and can include certain crime failures, as well as more humorous ones like "Hit by a truck. While wakeboarding", "Played catch with a meteor", "Ran with scissors" and "Savagely beaten with a Ouija board"}
Merits spent on awareness would translate to a lower failure rate. Successes would rolled separately if you don't fail(so it could be possible to reveal one friend & one enemy if you were lucky, but unlikely). The extra would be a fixed chance to happen(say 5-10%), regardless of success or failure.
So, that's my suggestion. Anyone else think it'd be worth adding in? And yes, I know the hosp time is kinda brutal, just think of it as an aid for the "Magic Veins" honor(numbers are easy to adjust for balance anyways).
*=Random player names, pulled first from your friends list, then faction members, company members and finally anyone from the "recent" tab on the "people you know" list, depending upon what's available to pull from. Purely cosmetic, they won't be affected by anything that happens here. **=Doesn't always happen, just some intermittent flavor text
I'd say medals at 100, 250, 500, 1000 & 5000 RR wins, and the Honor at around 500-2500 losses.
Alternate honor titles/possible medal ranks: Tis a Flesh Wound Lead Foot Didn't Need That Foot Anyways Dancing With No Left Feet Like Shooting Yourself In The... One Foot In The Grave(And The Other In Pieces) They're Speed Holes
I like this, though I'd definitely like to see it locked behind some education courses(say a History or General Studies Blacksmithing course for melee weapons, a Self Defense Armor Fitting course for armor, and a Combat Training Gunsmithing course for firearms).
It'd also be nice if one had the choice of sacrificing Weapon XP for better upgrade potential, provided they've unlocked that perk. The more XP they throw in, and the more weapons they take it from, the bigger the bonus, up to the limit for a given weapon type.
There are now four honors with blood transfusions, which require completing the BIO1340: Introduction to Biochemistry and BIO2127: Intravenous Therapy education courses. Clotted is for using an incompatible blood type(or being immune to that by having AB+ blood type), Transfusion for filling 250 empty blood bags, and Anemic for filling 1000. Note that filling blood bags counts as using medical items for the Magic Veins honor, and you can use Small First Aid Kits to refill your health after filling bags. With the cooldowns you're looking at an average of 5 bags + 25 SFAKs per day, or around 8 months till you hit Anemic and Magic Veins(this assumes that you may miss a few days here or there, actual time could be less).
There is also the Vampire honor, awarded randomly when using blood bags. Since, as of this posting, the chance to recieve this honor is unknown you're better off getting the first three honors so you'll have a supply to work with.
There is also a new, easy Energetic honor for having 1000 energy. If your job lets you trade Job Points for energy, just save them up till you can buy 900E while your bar is full(850 E if you've got donator status). If you don't, you'll need 3 Xanax(250E each) + 5 cans(30E each) of Tourine Elite or X-MASS(donators will need 3 cans of Tourine Elite or X-MASS, plus one can of Munster(20E)). Starting from full energy, just start taking the Xanax(you'll have to wait for the drug cooldown to finish(about 8 hours) between doses, but you won't loose the extra E) till you've got the three doses, then use the energy drinks to cap off. Note, if you're subscribed to the newsletter you can replace one dose of Xanax with the energy bonus that's mailed out each quarter. You can also replace another Xanax dose with more energy drinks if you've got the cash, or are worried about risking an OD.
This is already planned as part of Attacking 2.0. Individual weapon stats, mods, and alternate ammo types have been held back so that players have time to adjust to the new stat/health/functional changes first, so we can ultimately make better use of these improvements when they're dropped on us(and also to make sure the base changes worked and didn't suck).
Still, R+, because it is a good idea even if it's going to happen anyways.
I think I'll set that up tomorrow after work then. There's a few more things I'd like to add in before making it a full guide, but it's nice to see some people are finding use in it as is.
Here's a newbie-friendly variation of my process for finding inactives to mine mug for cash and merits:
Note I'm assuming you've bought and used at least one Donator Pack(with either real money or from item market with TC$) for access to the friend/enemy lists function. It's also a very good idea to have a palace, castle or private island with a large vault so you've got a place to stash your cash while waiting for bank investments or building up cash for other pursuits.
1: Search by age, using a narrow range(1800-1808 days old, for example)
2: On the results page, open new tab for anyone with the following starter job positions(hover mouse over job icon for a text popup to see their job position): Education: Principal Casino: Casino President Law: Federal Judge Medical: Surgeon or Brain Surgeon
Anything else won't pay enough to bother with, or if in player-run companies, be active enough to be a risk to you.
3: Once you've got a good handful of tabs ready, start examining them one at a time for the following information:
3a: Status, if it says anything other than "[player name] is currently okay", close tab and forget about them. You can't attack inactives in other countries(they become untargetable after ~24hours inactive), or if they've been fedded, and if they're in the hospital then someone else is likely already draining them so no point in troubling yourself with them.
3b: Last Action, if this is less than roughly 1K days they won't have had time to build up much cash without some stock benefit blocks with cash dividends. Since you can't tell if they have these, always assume they don't(you'll know if you find one that does when you get multi-million dollar mugs off of them. It's a rare, but oh-so-sweet find when you get them, so savor it when you do).
3c: Are they married? If so, open a new tab on their spouse, they might be a viable target to check out as well. Be sure to follow the same criteria to determine their viability as a target.
3d: Property: If it's a penthouse or better, inspect it(click the link) to see if they've hired any staff. If they have staff, and they own the property(and thus are paying for upkeep/staff) close the page, they won't have any money. If the property is a Palace, Castle or Private Island you should also close the page unless their spouse owns the property and is paying upkeep/staff, though this is unlikely.
3e: Enemies, if your target's got a lot then it's likely any money they might have had has already been mugged off(either by people they've previously torqued off or they're known as a target with multiple dividend BB's and you'll have more competition for getting decent income). No enemies does not mean they haven't been mugged dry and tossed aside by someone else, but it's a far more encouraging sign than someone with 20+.
3f: Life, if their total is close to/higher than yours you could be in for a tough fight. You'll just have to learn the hard way what you can or cannot handle, and it's only a rough approximation, but as a newbie you will want to pay attention to this.
3g: if your target has passed all of these preliminary checks, click the "Add to Blacklist" button and give them a short description(like "Target?" or "untested")
4: Repeat 3 until you've gone through the tabs you've opened/search list you pulled up or you hit 50/50 enemies.
5: Start attacking/mugging your targets to see what you can get. Since you're newb, I wouldn't recommend using much more than one full Energy bar/day on this, since that will be far better spent on stats/training, but a steady stream of successful mugs will provide income for DP's(and thus, more energy for attacks/training, and more income) and will slowly move you towards various attack related medals/honors and the merits they reward.
5a: I can't tell you what to set as your lower limit, but make sure you have one and that anyone who yields less than that target(say $250k or whatever your choose) gets deleted off of your list. Those with larger yields should have their descriptions edited to reflect their quality as a target(eg, "Target$$" for someone that passes your cutoff limit, "Target$$$$" if you find a whale that mugs for millions. Don't be afraid to use your own descriptions, but make sure that you have a system that works for you and is consistent and simple to understand).
6: Make sure you also check out this thread for some easy merits to grab which can be used to help make mugging more profitable. Also consider working on getting your various finishing hit merits as well, since you'll already doing a lot of attacking. Also consider focusing on getting the Bachelor of Military Arts and Science(and associated Combat Training education courses) finished ASAP, as the bonuses and weapon XP will add up to make this path even better for you in the long run.
7: Continue mugging the targets on your list, focusing on the biggest mugs on the list and draining them till they fall under your limit, then chucking them and going to the next biggest.
8: Over time you'll end up mugging dry the list you built up in phases 1-4, which means, you guessed it, you'll have to repeat that again, preferably when you've still got about one energy bar's worth of targets that are still viable(if getting close to being tossed aside).
That'd work. Have it stack with the job special, for those who ?really hate steathers, but don't make it a "buy this to entirely negate a gameplay feature" kind of item.
That, or an instant 12hr+ hospital visit. Maybe runaway the first time or two within a week(or if in huge battle like with scrooge), in case of legitament tech issues, then hosp after that for anone who "forgot how does fite".
I've got the same problem using Iron(basically Chrome minus Google's tracking scuzware).
If you have an AdBlock addon you can just select "block an ad on this page" and highlight the friends box(that's how I got rid of mine. Fair warning, you need pixel-perfect accuracy to only hide that one box).
Gratz on the drug honor, that thing's a bitch and a half to get!
I'd say Arsons, since you're fairly close to the 3k merit there, and theft(shoplift--> clothes shop--> jackets), while a long term project(25k thefts to top it out) offers many medals and several honors. Maybe reverse those if you need to build your nerve bar back up.
That's what I'd recommend, but I'm probably a bit biased given I'm currently working on theft myself.
I'd say medals at 100, 250, 500, 1000 & 5000 RR wins, and the Honor at around 500-2500 losses.
Alternate honor titles/possible medal ranks: Tis a Flesh Wound Lead Foot Didn't Need That Foot Anyways Dancing With No Left Feet Like Shooting Yourself In The... One Foot In The Grave(And The Other In Pieces) They're Speed Holes
B&R+, Should absolutely be part of the incoming weapons update. Between the mods/attachments for weapons and individual guns having their own unique stats, it's going to be vital to have a simple way to tell at a glance which weapon has the attributes you most value.
I probably missed some days without noticing, but I got the merit after almost seven weeks or praying 1-3 times a day, so it may take a bit of luck and a lot of patience.
At any rate, I'm relatively certain it had absolutely nothing to do with me praying with a pocket full of bloody money, or that I always did my prayers after spending my energy attacking other players.
I think what he's trying to ask for is an option to display effective battle stats rather than just the current number + % modifiers. And I'd be OK with that. Not a hugely necessary addition, but I can see the appeal. R+
Something else to note, once an item spawns it'll stay on the map till you pick it up. It may change location, however, if it sits there long enough.
The most complete search method I've found is to start at the top left corner of the map zoomed all the way in, then click down via map arrows till I hit bottom, go three clicks right, go up, three clicks right, go down, and just keep doing that till I end up in the opposite corner. I usually only search once every week or so, but it's been netting me a few items every time I do. I should note I've only got one merit spent on awareness, and the PSY 2680 education bonus.
Also, going four clicks right could work as well, with less trips up/down leading to a quicker search, but I'm not sure that doesn't leave a small gap between the up/down stripes, leading to potential missed items. Three clicks gives a fair bit of overlap, but I can be certain no items are being missed between stripes, hence why I use that method.