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After playing the changed game for a while, a few things have become very obvious. Since money is scarce in Cuba, you will fly back to NY to heal in the Hospital a lot. So it would appear that fighting in Cuba is the first way to get Cuban pesos so you can start to to take over Businesses which will create a cash flow in Cuba.

The MySpace version gives Reward Points each day while the Facebook version has brought in a system of Lotto tickets that will reward various prizes. The top prize is a 1,000 Reward Points for matching 5 numbers out of a possible 70. That prize is equivalent to about $250 worth of Reward Points. You can buy Lotto tickets for Reward Points. You can find the Beta version under Godfather in Facebook only right now.

Loot & Inventory

A very significant change is an improvement in items that can be gained as Loot in Fights and through doing Jobs in Cuba. In a few cases you can buy better inventory in Cuba but most of the items are Loot. They are usable in both Cuba and NY.

Weapons

Previously the best attack weapon was the AR-15 Assault Rifle with a value of 32. Looted weapons now has TNT (42), Aguila HV .50 Sniper Rifle (40), ASC45 “Conquistador” (36) and Para 322 (34).

Armor

Previously the best attack armor was the Federal Agent with a value of 15. Looted armor now has the Guerilla Squad (34), Street Gang Member (20) and Camouflage Body Armor (18). You can also purchase in Cuba the Rebel Sniper (24), Wise Guy (20) and Hired Thug (16).

Vehicles

Previously the best attack vehicle was the Humvee with a value of 26. Looted vehicles now has Hu-9 Helicopter (36), Si-14 Cargo Plane (31), Armored State Car (30), Mini-Sub (30) and Montaine 320 (27).

All of these ratings are for offense only. Currently the game doesn’t give a listing of your best makeup of defensive weapons, armor and vehicles. If you want to drive yourself crazy, you can attempt to keep track of what your defensive numbers are but there is currently no way of confirming that this is what is actually taking place in the game. I would think that this is an area that could be improved upon in the future.

One of the downsides of making the game more complex and more interesting is that game speed is dropping again and you get faced with the mostly 501 groupings in fights to assist Zynga in their Beta tests. The Facebook version currently has over 3,500,000 players each day and that can only mean that the servers will need to upgraded. It also means that the Zynga folks are probably back visiting the Ferrari dealership on a more regular basis since the latest changes seem to have drawn a lot of players into the game.

I often wonder if game designers actually play the game that they design because some of the things they do don’t make too much sense for the player. They may be something that the designer thinks is a good idea but some items just end up frustrating the player and they move on. For example, when you start Castle Age, the designer feels you need to post a promotion for them but I skip that one. For every 10 battles you win, the designer thinks you should advertise for them so I skip that one too. Personally, this is just too often and 25 or 50 would be a better number. Just make sure the game is fun and interesting and you won’t need to force people to promote the game for you.

When you are in battle mode, you sometimes get a listing of players that is all 501 and all that seems to do for me is make me move on to another game. Don’t get me wrong, I think Castle Age is a pretty good game but I don’t think the self-serving promotion and restricting you to fight against players that are significantly stronger than you is good for the game.

Demi-Quests

This seems to be an interesting addition to the game in that you can gain Energy Bolts, Energy Potion and Favor Points  to do other things in the game. I have been playing with other demi-quests that promise something will happen in time but it seems that you have to do boring and repetitive attempts with little chance of reward. This just gets frustrating and I move on once again. I really think you need to get something every once in a while, other than small amounts of gold, to make the game interesting.

Game Start

You should pick your hero each 24 hour period (one is 48 hours) and build on these since you will also get access to some different weapons and armor that don’t appear to be available anywhere else in the game. Demi-quest is different but I think it needs more and different payouts to remove the boredom from the process.

Like most other games, Castle Age rewards those that get others to join their team. The fact that you can upgrade your weapons every two players is good but usually the weapons are not that significant. It seems that Favor Points, and to a lesser extent Demi-Quests,  are the only real way to grow with larger items that are useful. As usual I resist spending cash on Favor Points and just move on to another game. Castle Age is one of the few games that does give you free points every once in a while.

Make sure you are adding all the generals/heroes as you grow. A new General will be added to your team every five players as long as you have added the Hero. Make sure that your most powerful Hero is  your General but also make sure you are using the proper Hero as General when you are performing Quests to gain access to other levels.

How to Handle Poor Attendance in the Workplace

Every teacher has heard this one at one time or another along with a myriad of other lame excuses for not doing what was assigned. If you are going to come up with an excuse, make it more believable than this one. The problem with providing an excuse is that it is ultimately a lie and your forget which lie you used the last time you got in this kind of predicament. Just how many grandparents can one person have? Managers in the business world catch on after a while when you have gone to your 28th funeral for a grandfather, grandmother, uncle, aunt, etc.

Telling the truth is a lot simpler in the long run. You don’t have to remember it because the truth isn’t made up. It’s just simply the truth. Having beeen a manager of people in my working career, I found I got real tired of “the dog ate my homework” approach to poor attendance. One particular case was an employee that made a habit of not showing up for work on Fridays. The truth seems that he would party on Thursday night and not show up to work because he just stayed out too late and didn’t feel up to working. He also drove in a co-worker so now two people wouldn’t be at work on Friday.

So to rectify the situation, I took the approach of the first time was a friendly discussion regarding the importance of showing up for work. The second instance resulted in a verbal warning. The next instance resulted in sending him home along with his ride without pay and a written warning that the next time would be the last.

This may not seem fair to the other worker but the rest of the workers in the department were unhappy with the poor attendance of the first worker and needed to be supported with actions that showed this would not be tolerated in the long run.

So when the culprit showed up on a Monday morning after missing yet another Friday (without calling to say he wouldn’t be in. He even had his mother call in sick for him), he was told by me that he was given plenty of chances to correct the problem and now is no longer an employee of this company and he should leave the premises. Yes, he threatened legal action (which never happened) and he was smart enough to not ask for a reference.

Another person I know (in a completely different business) used this technique when someone called in sick. He would give them two days off with no pay and told them to rest up and get well and come back to work when you are feeling better. The second time this happened he gave them the week off with no pay and very quickly the problem stopped.

There will always be schemers out there trying to avoid work because they just don’t feel like it. The important thing to remember is that you must show those that take their job seriously and have exemplary attendance that they are not mistreated by allowing others to get away with bad business practises. It isn’t cruel. It’s just plain fair and those reliable employees will appreciate it.

So it would appear that Zynga has made a good improvement to the game by adding Cuba as a second country for exploitation by your mob. Here are some preliminary observations based on the early introduction of the Cuba location.

Money

US dollars are of no use in Cuba and you must acquire Cuban pesos to do anything. Initially fights are a poor way to get money since the locals do not have much money (just like the reality in the real Cuba). Since your cash is very valuable, you should protect what you don’t spend in the Bank.

The most useful way of getting money is by taking over a Business and improving its ability to produce items that can be sold. Upgrading the Business is just as important as getting enough items to complete Jobs. You must actually sell the stock to gain the money (every 3 hours) unlike the approach in NY where the money supply increases each hour without player intervention.

Hospital

Since you have little money in Cuba, you will need to Fly to NY regularly to heal in the Hospital there using $US. It will take some time to amass sufficient extra cash to visit Cuban hospitals to heal your wounds.

Loot

Cuba offers additional loot opportunities in the form of weapons, armor, vehicles and gifts. Loot is shared between both countries (with the exception of gifts). The first three categories get shared in fights (in either country) and the package is automatically decided by the game so you may have opportunities to sell off items that have Upkeep costs if they are extras.

Mob Size

The size of your mafia is the same in each country. If you add additional players, they are added to both countries.

Beta

Cuba is in trial mode and expect to see changes in the future, although it would appear that it has been pretty well thought out and most changes will likely be minor. There is no sign of Robbing in Cuba in the same format as NY.

All in all, Cuba is a welcome infusion of something new to the game of Mafia Wars and we can only hope that it is the first of many different locations. I can easily see the opportunity to add Chicago, Las Vegas and Russia using this approach. This will ensure that the game will continue to maintain a dominant position in both the Facebook and MySpace versions.