Buy RP from Atlantic City!!

We can now purchase RPs from the Atlantic City!
Zynga added this new feature recently..

All you have to do it go to the Jobs or Fights page, then click on the left drop-down and click on Buy RP.

 Once you have enters "Buy RP" page, you'll get the following screen -

Atlantic City 4 - CAMDEN COUNTY

 

The new location is CAMDEN COUNTY, which is a major geographical error.  While I took issue with the overbroad geographical labeling of Atlantic City 3: SOUTH JERSEY, at least Atlantic City is IN South Jersey.  But more on that later - let's check out the new location.

CAMDEN COUNTY has the same structure as previous Atlantic City chapters: six jobs, with Bronze, Silver, Gold and Ruby levels for each.   There's not much excitement on the way - just this icon as you finish each level:

Sadly, there is not any new job loot in CAMDEN COUNTY.  The prior chapter - SOUTH JERSEY - had the Pickpocket, the Ground Hugger, and the Frilled Lizard - nothing with huge stats, but interesting because you could only get them in Atlantic City. 

CAMDEN COUNTY also has those items as job loot, and some decent Las Vegas items - the Diamondback and Range Finder Rifle - but nothing top tier, and nothing you couldn't previously get in SOUTH JERSEY.

But the new "iPod" layout will probably cause Apple to sue Zynga for trademark infringement is pretty neat:

Come to think of it, if you DO play Mafia Wars: Atlantic City on your iPod, do you get confused because there is a button on the screen right above the button on your iPod??

Anyway, in addition to the one-stop shopping of collecting from all of your Properties that is the neatest feature of Atlantic City overall, SOUTH JERSEY offers you 24 Skill Points for completing the four levels - not a bad use of your Energy if you've completed Italy.  The XP:Energy ratio is pretty low, but Atlantic City has never been about leveling.

The reward for completing SOUTH JERSEY is the Parkour Master, an Armor item with sub-type "Legs" (???) and very nice 105/121 stats.

Now for some geography ranting.  Let's go back to the map of New Jersey that we analyzed in Atlantic City 3: SOUTH JERSEY:

Atlantic City is in...ATLANTIC County.  Not Camden County.  Using CAMDEN COUNTY as the name for a new Atlantic City location makes about as much sense as if Mafia Wars released Las Vegas Chapter 9: UTAH, or Moscow Episode 7: CHINA.  

Here's something else totally irrelevant that irked me - once I accepted that the new location was called CAMDEN COUNTY (where I grew up, hence the hysteria), the names of the jobs were the next insult:

I don't think this is unique to New Jersey, but COUNTIES DON'T HAVE MAYORS.  Cities do.  So what mayor are we blackmailing?  For that matter, what CITY Council are we stacking in a COUNTY?

 

Atlantic City Chap1

You can access Atlantic City from most mobile devices... and from your desktop or laptop ... by clicking Go to Atlantic City or pasting http://m.mafiawars.com/mobileweb into your browser. You'll see this 

The best thing about Atlantic City is the ability to collect from properties in all 6 cities at once, rather than going city by city within Mafia Wars. Under 'Properties', you'll see a screen like this:

If a City has a green 'Collect' button under, you can click it to collect from the 'ready' properties in that City. The money and parts you collect will not go into your bank or vault, but it won't be left in your properties to be robbed either.

That may be the only redeeming feature of Atlantic City. The rest of the city is divided into two "mission", entitled Atlantic City Chapter 1 and Atlantic City Chapter 2.

Both Chapters have 6 jobs. each with Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Ruby levels. The jobs do not form a cohesive pattern, as in Italy's Regions. Rather, they have generic names like "Gun Down a Rival Outfit" and "Meet With Local Crime Lords." Having grown up in Philadelphia and spent literally hundreds of weekends in the real Atlantic City, I can assure you that there are far more colorful things going on there.

While you complete the jobs, the graphics look like this... and ONLY this:

You yellow meter tracks your progress towards completion. You earn Vegas dollars and the occasional low-level Vegas loot item - the highest being the Femme Fatale. The XP:Energy ratio is pretty low - topping out at 1.46 XP per Energy point - so Atlantic City is hardly the place to level up. You get 6% mastery each time you do a job, meaning you will need to do 102 jobs to complete Bronze level.

After you complete all 6 jobs at Bronze level, you will see some eye-popping graphics (for Atlantic City):

Then you do the same 6 jobs at Silver and Gold levels. You get one Skill Point for completing each job to 100% Mastery

Silver level gets you 5% mastery each time you do a job (total: 120 jobs), while Gold gets you 4% mastery (total: 150 jobs). And the jobs are not cheap, in terms of Energy required to do each one.

Ruby level is a complete drain on your Energy. You get 2% mastery each time you do part of the 6 jobs, which range from 54 to 171 Energy points per click - and you'll have to click on each job 50 times to complete it (total: 300 jobs). It takes 35,550 Energy to complete Ruby level alone. I'd like to see the Energy account that can quickly conquer that.

When you finish the 6 jobs at Ruby level, you receive the Automatic .22 (105A/99D). This is certainly a nice Weapon, but hardly worth the tens of thousands of Energy points used earning it.

Atlantic City - Chapter 2 offers an even nicer reward (the Bullet 44 OET, a Vehicle with 99A/116D stats). Even with my high-level OCD, I just can't see spending the better part of 100,000 Energy points to get through the 4 levels of 6 jobs just for one car.

The ability to collect from all your Properties at once - whether you're at a computer or not - is the real genius of Mafia Wars: Atlantic City.

Atlantic City Chapter 2

Again, the jobs have generic names, with Mastery dropping from 7% to 5% to 4% to 2% as you go from Bronze to Silver to Gold to Ruby. The XP:Stamina ratio is again brutal - 1.3 at worst, 1.6 at best.

And your only pit stops along the way, besides getting the Skill Point at the end of each job, is completing an entire level:

You still earn Vegas dollars and get Vegas items as drop loot. In Chapter 2, however, I noticed slightly better Loot dropping from jobs - the two standouts being the Goldsmobile (55D) and Range Finder Rifle (54D).

I also realized that the low XP:Energy ration isn't as much of a problem as I thought. After all, when you level up, your Energy and Stamina - even when used in the best ratio jobs and fights - cannot get you even close to the next level, especially as you get higher and higher in levels.

So instead of being 1,800 XP short of the next level and reluctantly cashing in a 6,300 Energy point pack - which drives me crazy since so much of it goes to waste, I found that Atlantic City jobs' low ratio - along with the low ratio from the tons of Missions out there - make my Energy use more efficient. I still can't level up in one shot, but I also don't leave 4,000 Energy wasted when I do level up.

Your other option is to keep doing jobs in Napoli or Hoover Dam or Area 51, trying to nail the few and far between top items there (Meadow Viper, Corpo Armatura, Ballista Missile Launcher, Bighorn, Foo Fighter). But the drop rate on ANY item is so low if you're at Ruby level in those Districts/Regions, to the point that you can spend 5,000+ Energy and get one Hopped Up Thug or one Cinghiale for your efforts.

In Atlantic City - Chapter 2, after spending some 70,000+ Energy points, you'll reach the finish line:

The Bullet 44 OET will be a standout in your Vehicle list on both Attack and Defense, and just LOOKS good:

One other neat feature about Atlantic City is your ability to upgrade your stats when you level up - you don't need to go back to Mafia Wars on Facebook to do this:

The best feature of Atlantic City is still the ability to collect from all of your Properties - in all 6 cities - while you're away from the computer.