Feedback on new UI

I think the new UI is a good improvement especially for Android. I had to update all tables before I could play them, so it seems this is required by the update. That's more of a warning for everyone who wants to update the game for the new UI but doesn't have a fast Internet Connection at that time to update all the tables.

• It seems impossible to close the game properly so it doesn't keep using RAM. There is no button to get out of the game - Please for the love of the pinball god, add such a button in the title, can't be hard to do.
• I remember in the PC beta it was possible to sort tables in ascending and descending order for every sort category - this seems to be gone - why?
• Table goals sort tab should default to have all non-completed goals showing up first, not last - doesn't really make sense the other way around, since you usually would select tables here, if you are chasing for goals. It would also make a lot of sense to show the achieved/remaining goals under the icons in the overview.
• The "update all tables" is quite well hidden in the "Restore/Backup" menu. Would be good to have as a separate button in the settings menu. If you want to limit the buttons to 8, then merge Credits/Our mission - no one ever reads that anyway more than once to see, if their name is listed in the backers list ;-)
• The Settings & Options screen is a wild mix of german and english. "Ton-Menü", "Unsere Mission" is next to "Redeem Codes", "Graphics". Even having "Settings & Options" in the title... well...
• Can you please increase the hitbox for the arrows when entering high scores. I mean the arrows which you need to hit to change the characters. They seem to be very difficult to hit
• The sort tabs for "Manufacturer" and "Table packs" would be great, if they had the choice of seeing them grouped by Manufacturer or table pack. What I mean is having like a sub-folder for "Williams tables", "Bally tables" etc. and then only showing those tables. Compare it with Zen does it in their app for "Star Wars tables", "Marvel tables" etc.
• When I select a table and the table overview shows up, then choose to exit this table, the icon is showing with a blue background and I am not able to choose it again. I can only choose any other table.
• The blue background on selected menu items is ugly, The color gradient isn't smooth at all.

Xanija said:

• It seems impossible to close the game properly so it doesn't keep using RAM. There is no button to get out of the game - Please for the love of the pinball god, add such a button in the title, can't be hard to do.

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Turns out I need to press the "Home" button in the title row first, then press the "Back" button on my tab in order to close the app properly. Well, a nice "Exit" button would be great still. There is one in the Steam version, so...

Tiling size issues - tiles change size depending on what tab you select first

The ball skins are removed from your purchase history - have to do the iOS log dance to get them back. Even then changing ball skins pre-game ****s the textures up.

The ability to filter up and down by filter selection is gone, not like it was on PC. This increasing platform non-parity is more crap. If they aren't going to maintain parity for physics or features, then mobile will need to be sold at a pro-rated cost soon.

No way to exit the app is just an amateur mistake, same with the way that setting won't take permanent effect until you actually finish a game to the end of your final ball. Or the way the UI has the setting ON/OFF switch reversed on some of the settings so it's hard to tell what's on or off by just a look. You think it's all right, until you realize the OFF position for invert nudge is actually ON


So I ask again, whatever happened to beta testing this. Or has beta testing been reduced to nothing but early access and play testing?

It was beta-tested. Not all the things discovered were fixed before it was released.

Gord Lacey said:

It was beta-tested. Not all the things discovered were fixed before it was released.

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If it was in testing then why release mid stream and not wait until the next official release to allow for some more time to polish this if these these issues were already known?

I know you, me, we, have no say in the matter, it is simply more bad marketing on FarSights behalf that is adding to a legacy of bad builds, and worse communication.

This new UI is a catastrophe. I understand change, but really? I could spend hours listing all the issues here, but why even submit such a broken and ill-tested calamity to Google Play? Missing textures everywhere, distorted graphics, sound settings not saving, no way to view composite Hall of Fame, no list for HoF scores per table, crashing tables, non-transparent Goals banner in the middle of the table during play, no more dot matrix screen for high scores, ugly black and plain UI, difficult to read table list with no text, tilt option requiring completion of Wizard goals per table...should I even continue? Holy cow, guys...

I think beta testing nowadays means Jared's had it since Tuesday.
Although what's the point in reporting stuff to them that never gets fixed.

It was a brave decision to theme the new ui and icons on 1990s website design. I really love the menu music setting that keeps on coming back even though you turned it off 18 times. It's persistent alright.

No seriously, I can see the potential benefits and increase in functionality etc, but man it sucks at the moment, even by Farsights standards.

Baron Rubik said:

I think beta testing nowadays means Jared's had it since Tuesday.
Although what's the point in reporting stuff to them that never gets fixed.

It was a brave decision to theme the new ui and icons on 1990s website design. I really love the menu music setting that keeps on coming back even though you turned it off 18 times. It's persistent alright.

No seriously, I can see the potential benefits and increase in functionality etc, but man it sucks at the moment, even by Farsights standards.

Click to expand...

Haha, there's about 30 in the group.

About 10 actively test.

Shardz said:

This new UI is a catastrophe. I understand change, but really? I could spend hours listing all the issues here, but why even submit such a broken and ill-tested calamity to Google Play? Missing textures everywhere, distorted graphics, sound settings not saving, no way to view composite Hall of Fame, no list for HoF scores per table, crashing tables, non-transparent Goals banner in the middle of the table during play, no more dot matrix screen for high scores, ugly black and plain UI, difficult to read table list with no text, tilt option requiring completion of Wizard goals per table...should I even continue? Holy cow, guys...

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Unfortunately, I have to agree.

There's no way this should have shipped in its current state.

I've got a feeling this may have been holding up dev on Indy 500. So out it goes.

Shardz said:

This new UI is a catastrophe. I understand change, but really? I could spend hours listing all the issues here, but why even submit such a broken and ill-tested calamity to Google Play? Missing textures everywhere, distorted graphics, sound settings not saving, no way to view composite Hall of Fame, no list for HoF scores per table, crashing tables, non-transparent Goals banner in the middle of the table during play, no more dot matrix screen for high scores, ugly black and plain UI, difficult to read table list with no text, tilt option requiring completion of Wizard goals per table...should I even continue? Holy cow, guys...

Click to expand...

I didn't know my highest score on Whirlwind was just 9M. I could've sworn I just scored 109M on it last night. (Yeah, I know high scores are in the quadrillions on that one), but it's pathetic this new UI can't even get that right.

I've always liked Zen's UI, and Magic Pixel did a nice job for ZP, but this is the third time FarSight has made an attempt at a UI. Sad to say, but the last one was better than the new TPA UI. And not by much....

jaredmorgs said:

Haha, there's about 30 in the group.

About 10 actively test.

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Great work there.

Baron Rubik said:

Great work there.

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Not a bad turnout considering we don't get paid.

jaredmorgs said:

Not a bad turnout considering we don't get paid.

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I'm not really blaming you guys.
I've spent a lot of hours bug testing for Farsight and they never did much with what was reported.

A lot of the bugs take a trip to the bug tracker where they're never seen or heard of ever again...

(Plays scary music)

I certainly wouldn't say there are bugs in the new update. Now, if we use the term infestation, I can get behind that. On four of my devices, I noticed missing textures on several tables within the first 20 seconds of play on each. The new table update for Gorgar force closed within two minutes for some odd reason. Selecting balls per table on any device yields a nice black box where the dot matrix window usually is, and the same for below where the ball preview is displayed. There are missing textures on bumpers on some tables, which I found almost immediately hitting the new random table button. No clue how many total Hall of Fame points I have now. The little icons for the HoF are stretched into ovals, and no checkboxes exist per goal to show what you need next. Icons don't display next to the settings options until you switch an option, then they also appear stretched. The Who's Pinball Wizard song is cute, but way too loud and the volume settings won't save.

The first impression I got with this update was that someone from Zen had broken into FarSight HQ and uploaded a faulty copy to kill ratings on Google Play. Now, *that* was successful as the one-star ratings are now pouring in by the dozens while there is major disbelief and panic from their customers. Has anyone even seen the slew of bad ratings and comments on GP? I understand this was a global public beta on all platforms, so perhaps the Steam kiddies are also setting their PCs on fire in protest? Is the office locked until Monday? What's going on over there?

I would expect something like this from Microsoft, but to unleash a beta in the retail channels, especially one so hideously broken, is just an epic oversight of quality assurance on FarSight's part. From what I can tell looking at the list of issues thus far, and with their schedule for new tables, this is going to take a good long while to fix. And why not work on the UI and get it streamlined, functional and working before putting it in line with a live retail update? If I had the PS4 version, I'd be kicking my TV right now. Why mess with a functional UI and replace it with a broken one that frankly looks like some Linux menu from 1987? I'm a huge fan of black UI, but the title textures aren't even centered and it looks like a disgraceful mess with no care taken whatsoever. The high score input of the dot matrix look was so cute! It blended in with the theme and it just felt right. Now it's just an ugly black box with no personality. I could post 4 gigs of screenshots here to show the numerous graphical problems in this release, but I won't waste my time. I barely consider this update to be alpha, let alone beta. They can release an Indy 6000 table and 12 more for free, but I won't be part of this until things are at least half as polished as the former version, which still should be available in the retail version until something *stable* came along. I'm very disappointed and headed back to Zen until things are fixed.

jaredmorgs said:

I've got a feeling this may have been holding up dev on Indy 500. So out it goes.

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FarSight needs to ask themselves: What will hurt business more? Shoving out an unfinished pile of junk or delaying the next table release by a week or two. Hint: One of this has a short term effect, the other will stick in people's heads for much longer, creates negative reviews and will make people switch to other products.

Xanija said:

FarSight needs to ask themselves: What will hurt business more? Shoving out an unfinished pile of junk or delaying the next table release by a week or two. Hint: One of this has a short term effect, the other will stick in people's heads for much longer, creates negative reviews and will make people switch to other products.

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This whole saga is interesting to me. The new GUI is objectively trash. It was unwanted by the majority of (at least) people here, but was still forced down everyone's throats. Why did Farsight do it? Maybe there are some VIP players that want sorting so badly that they don't care about literally anything else, or the desires of other players. It's hard to come up with any reasons. I'm hoping that the backlash will be so negative that Farsight will go back to the not-broken old GUI. But the reception has been negative for over a year now, and that didn't discourage FS, so I'm not holding my breath.

Pretty much everyone in my pin club has aborted pinball arcade. There was a buzz goin but it's long gone. Whenever I say this or that table is out, they shrug their shoulders and say like yeah it would be fun without the gamebreaking bugs maybe. Now it's not worth it.
99% of people who tried TPA never visit this forum, they have no idea about workarounds. Once in a blue moon they might try an old fave if it comes out on TPA, but they run into bugs. I tell them that most stuff is usually ironed out first week or two, but they don't want to waste their time anymore. It's like farsight sometimes figure a posted workaround here on forum as a permanent fix, and that everyone reads every thread. The first impressions of many tables has made farsight throw away enormous amounts of potential customers (well that and the NEVER fixed gamebreakers of course) I can kind of understand they want to push out tables asap but that is incredibly shortsighted and suicidal.

But the new UI, I don't understand. They're not selling it. It's their welcoming page, first greeting. And it makes a terrible impression. They shove this this buggy flawed thing right in the face of every customer; look at our company, this is us. This is our product.
It's incomprehensible how they can choose to present themselves in such a way.

My old boss used to say anyone can sell a product once, but the secret to success is making the customer want to return to your business.

(Edit: I can add that I worked in a still succeful camera/photo store that recently celebrated its 70th birthday!, and just to stay alive in these days when everyone buys their gear online or in money washing mega stores, and developing film/prints is almost extinct, well yeah you have to do something right)

In addition to all the above complaints about textures and missing things, it seems that there is another issue to add to the pile:

In landscape perspective the actual perspective is no longer being displayed correctly; view full size to see the round buttons squashed and no longer round. Profile doesn't seem to be displaying the same problem.

I can certainty understand what you are saying very well, even though I have no club or friends invested in this product to any extent. I guess they are the smarter ones in our circle, apparently. I enjoy relaxing with the game to wind down, and to reminisce with the tables of yesteryear, especially since I worked in an arcade in the eighties. We had a good deal of these tables and it was pure bliss working there, though the pay was low.

I can appreciate the labor that goes into crafting these tables, which is obviously no easy feat. They are done rather well, though still pale to their original counterparts by far. I can accept some bugs here and there; I am patient and will wait for a resolve. However, there is absolutely no logic or reasonable purpose for dumping this alpha travesty onto their unsuspecting customers, then locking up shop for the weekend and calling it good with no statement or even any consolation. They are charging a fortune for their product - four times as much as Zen per table!

I see that at least the Steam crowd had to opt in to the beta and take their chances, but the Android folks got zero notice or choice, which is unacceptable. I tried to go back in there again tonight to give it another chance, but it gives me great displeasure now; the opposite effect it once had. Yes, their UI is indeed an initial presentation; a greeting of sorts, which gives reflection of the over all experience a user will have with the product. Not only has the UI completely failed in all regards, but this also extends to the tables as well. I had three stuck balls in Black Knight today on top of bad graphics all over the screen. Other tables had missing textures. The option and camera buttons are no longer transparent with black square borders. I thought for sure this was all just a bad joke or terrible mistake...

And I was right! It was a very bad joke and mistake on the customer's part to buy into such ignorant practices I've witnessed from Farsight. They need to start listening to their users, not punishing them for being loyal. The fact of the matter is, we did not *require* a new UI. All opinions aside, it was functional before and it looked fitting for the genre. Sure, a professional UI job is always welcomed, but it looks like some kid downloaded Unity and tried to reskin in the thing in 20 minutes, gave up and then submitted it anyway. We deserve better than this, and I doubt this thing will be fixed anytime soon.

I'm not a huge fan of Zen's animated theatrics leaping around the screen and distracting me during play, but I do own about 15 tables in that app and have never had any issues. No stuck balls, no crashes, no missing textures, nothing bad to say at all. The UI in Zen is gorgeous and something to be proud of, especially since they ditched Swarm a while back. There are no classic tables to be had there, but what they do have is very solid, professional and presentable to anyone. The only one thing I'm not crazy about are the popup achievement banners in Zen that sometimes block the view....and guess who decided to implement that one feature with this horrid update?

I wish the word disappointed really summed up my feelings about all this, but it barely covers the joys lost that kept me playing a round or two every night. At this point, saving space on my devices seems like a better route to equilibrium.