Update 1.75

This week there was an update. The main changes, according to the app store:

• Game Center
• LT Skins coming soon
• Properties page polishes
• Lots of minor improvements and bug fixes
• As always, more FREE updates to come!

A bit more information based on a day of play and some forum posts:

The apple GameCenter is now used to transfer characters. You can switch from one character to another, for up to 5 characters on a single device. There is a 2-hour cool-down period. This doesn't mean that you can create many characters on a device. You can't have more characters than devices. But once you've created them, There is apparently a way to play multiple characters on a single device. I want to know a lot more details, and I'll write about it as soon as I know the relationship between a character, a game-center account, an appleID, and an email address. 

LT Skins is curious - apparently you can change the appearance of your LT's. Are we going to be dressing them in matching clothes?

Properties page polishes refers to a change in the top of the page. Some people think that it's not underworld enough, that it looks too clean. A briefcase shows up and fills with money. Kind of cartoony. But I can say this - if you're playing on an iPhone 4, it's way faster than before. 

Which brings me to my favorite change - they added settings to support turning off some graphics and animations. Overall, that really helps on the older iPhones. I turned it off on everything, because after I've seen the cool graphics and effects a couple of dozen times, I'm only interested in how it plays, not how it looks. 

But that's not all. There are two new "secret jobs" in the Westside district. Financial Center and The Docks will each give you a crate roll for completing them. And in the process, you get 40 SP from each one. These are "cheap" SP, too. In some parts of the game, a star costs 1000 energy. In this area, there are stars for 200 SP and less!

On 13-March, PA mentioned an upcoming event (an "Ultimate Boss"), new LT's, items, and bosses. Some of the LT's are from the newest district, Mexico. But there are other LT's pictured that we haven't seen in the game yet. Speculation about the timing of this event has been constant. I predicted it would be two weeks, so I'm almost a month past my guess. Others suggested "Tax Day" which has also passed. Perhaps, this big holiday weekend, we'll have some kind of promo / event starting up. 

I can't wait!

Filling the Inner Circle of Lieutenants

Filling the Inner Circle of Lieutenants

There are 5 seats in the inner circle. Here’s how you add them.

1. RIGHT HAND. You get the Right Hand seat at the beginning. It’s only metaphorically a right hand seat, the chair is in the middle of five of them. It’s your “right hand man” so to speak. This is the only seat that can level up. It gets no seat bonus.
2. ENFORCER. You get the enforcer when you complete the “No More Talk” job in Midtown. The enforcer gets a seat bonus of 10% of attack. For example, if your LT has 53 attack, they get 53+6. You can see this on the LT page.
3. CAPTAIN. You get the captain when you complete “Calling the Captain” in the Downtown district. The Captain gets a seat bonus 100% of defense. So, if your LT has a 53 defense, they get 53+53. You can see this on the LT page.
4. ASSASSIN. You unlock the assassin seat when you reach level 100, if you have the CAPTAIN seat open. The Assassin gets a seat bonus of 100% of Attack.
5. UNDERBOSS. You unlock the UNDERBOSS seat when you reach 500 allies, if you have the ASSASSIN seat open. The Underboss gets a seat bonus of 50% of attack and 50% of defense.

Maximizing your seat bonuses

A forum post by Voodoo Jester contains a simple process for assigning these seats.

1. Put your highest attack at Assassin.

2. Put your next highest attack at Underboss.

3. Put your highest remaining defense at Captain.

4. Put your next highest attack at Enforcer.

5. Put your next strongest LT in the right hand seat.

This is a fine way to load them for empire games. You have to use some common sense. The idea is to max the seat bonuses, and sometimes you might have to try things a couple of ways before you find the best combo. 

But empire games aren't all you do in UWE. You might want to have some other setups.

For doing district jobs, you want:

• Penelope,
• Michael if you’re buying weapons,
• Blade if you’re wanting some cash.
• Baron, to save you some clicking

At Level-up time, you might want:

• Tagg, for more energy
• Caine, for more stamina
• John, for energy
• Shun, for energy
• Fang, for stamina

When doing Boss Jobs, you might want:

• Hector or Lucas for extra boss damage
• Stacy, to save on healing costs
• If you’re a sniper, Blink or Pain for criticals

When you’re going to be away a while, you might want:

• Ariel, to add to property income.
• Your best defensive players, to help when you are attacked.

They really should let you set up these groupings and switch them all at once, but for now you have to do it one at a time. And don’t forget to seat Victoria when you are donating to your empire!