The Big "Z" Team

Fight Loots Will Be Permanent!

In the short term, Zynga is planning to release some rather nice new items (Already released) that can only be earned through PvP (Fighting), as well as making all Bangkok loot drops available. In the longer term, they plan to make the drops more suited to your level, so that a level 300 player isn't getting brass knuckles and butterfly knives.
They are also working on some new systems to make fighting more interesting (Fighting Arena). These sort of features tend to require more time, so it may be a bit before we can provide additional details. They are working on this, however. Plus They're planning on making some changes to robbing to reduce the amount of time after a property finishes before it is able to be robbed and increasing the amount of damage you can do to a property.
They also have some ideas on how to make fighting more attractive in Las Vegas, where banking your money won't be quite so easy.
Zynga's current plan is to remove the ability to hitlist a player unless your health is above 20. No more phone calls to the heavy hitters from your hospital bed.

Improvement of Inventory System

Although this isn't a short-term project. Zynga is already in the process of making improvements to how your inventory is displayed as a whole, and hope to provide more details on this in the near future.

How The Result is Determined for Robbing

Basically, when you attempt to rob another player, the result is determined based on the following:
(Your Attack Skill) + (25% of your Mafia Attack Strength) + (A Random Roll based on 75% of your Mafia Attack Strength)

vs

(Defenders Defense Skill) + (25% of their Mafia Defense Strength) + (A Random Roll based on 75% of their Mafia Defense Strength) + (Robbing Defense Boosts, if applicable)

As an example, lets say you were trying to rob someone's Flophouse (each player brings one extra friend along for the robbery). Your Attack skill is 800, and your two best offensive weapons, armor, vehicles, and animals add up to a total attack strength of 600. Your opponent has a Defense skill of 400; their two best defensive weapons, armor, vehicles, and animals combine for a total defense strength of 600; and they don't have any Robbing Defense boosts. You initiate the robbery and the following numbers are used:

Your result will be:

A number between 951 and 1400
800 (Your Attack Skill) + 150 (25% of Mafia Attack Strength) + a random number between 1 and 450 (75% of Mafia Attack Strength)

The defenders result will be:

A number between 551 and 1000
400 (Their Defense Skill) + 150 (25 of Mafia Defense Strength) + a random number between 1 and 450 (75% of Mafia Defense Strength)