Feedback on new UI

Well, the forward revenue stream post-TPA has been sorted, because the deal they have with Stern will keep going as long as Stern keep making new pinball tables. It won't be one a month, nobody knows what the schedule will be with mixing in new tables and old ones where the licensing can be tied up.

As for why they needed to push the new UI hand-in-hand with Season 6, you need to go back to how they handled new seasons with the old UI: they literally had to hard-code all the buttons and shoe-horn stuff into the old UI every time a new season rolled around. Therefore my assumption is, they did zero work to implement Season 6 in the old UI, and moved forward on the new UI.

One unforeseen setback later (which will teach them the benefits of off-site backups and a proper disaster recovery plan - been there, done that, got the t-shirt [actually it's a plaque!]) and they're backed into a corner working against the clock to get the new UI back up to at least stable, non-crashing, status and get the first table of Season 6 ready.

They are stretched thin, they are trying to support too many platforms, they are also getting pulled out of their comfort zone by the Stern deal (see: SPA Gear VR release), and they can't easily hire new permanent staff and either can't or won't hire contractors who will work off-site to get them through this current patch. It's also noticeable that a few voices we heard from on a regular basis have gone quiet; whether they're too busy to comment on the forums any more, or they've quit, is anyone's guess.

I'm not current on my Farsight news, and I haven't been on board since the beginning, or even the last UI. What is this Stern deal they have going? And why tear apart the UI for PA if they are balancing yet another major project and trying to stay on course with season 6? The more I hear, the less any of this makes sense at all.

Shardz said:

I'm not current on my Farsight news, and I haven't been on board since the beginning, or even the last UI. What is this Stern deal they have going? And why tear apart the UI for PA if they are balancing yet another major project and trying to stay on course with season 6? The more I hear, the less any of this makes sense at all.

Click to expand...

Go search for "Stern Pinball Arcade". On the forum, on Google, anywhere. It's kind of a big deal.

So, basically, this new UI is drafted over from their Stern project for continuity in both products. So, we can look forward to yet more of what we see now in the Fall, while PA will probably remain broken for quite some time to come. I really don't need another large pinball app on my devices as I have too many as it is, especially if it's a replica of what we have now.

No, the new UI isn't from SPA - it's been around in one form or another for nearly 3 years. One presumes it will be the UI that is used for SPA at launch, though. I regard the Gear VR release as a "soft" launch, but who knows - from what I heard it was contractually required.

Anyone else slightly annoyed that they removed not only table music/fx sound levels but removed the option to just mute the menu music? Even though it wasn't persistent, if I'm playing for a minute it really kills things to hear a song i don't particularly enjoy every single time I exit out of a table or go home.

At least entering initials has improved.

AnvilCloud said:

Anyone else slightly annoyed that they removed not only table music/fx sound levels but removed the option to just mute the menu music? Even though it wasn't persistent, if I'm playing for a minute it really kills things to hear a song i don't particularly enjoy every single time I exit out of a table or go home.

At least entering initials has improved.

Click to expand...

Annoying but the sound options were causing crashing problems on mobile (don't know about Steam) so they had to remove them while they work on a fix.

eh.........and still no controller support

Controller support would be nice....

New update, I guess, anyone notice anything different?

Is there a changelog somewhere where I can find out what's included in these updates? Just who releases updates without change logs anyways?

There haven't been proper changelogs since 2.0.was released. What I did notice with the current update is that the Goals are now marked properly per table with icons. However, there still doesn't appear to be any way to tell what your composite HoF actually is for all tables. Other than that, I haven't found too much that is different.

AnvilCloud said:

Controller support would be nice....

New update, I guess, anyone notice anything different?

Is there a changelog somewhere where I can find out what's included in these updates? Just who releases updates without change logs anyways?

Click to expand...

Controller support is improving.

The previous release had practically no support except in the table.

Now there is more navigation in game menus, and I'm seeing more button mapping consistency for backing out of menus.

2.01.3:

Manage tables: Download Owned has "TxSector downloaded" seemingly hardcoded as the message telling the user that there are no tables to be downloaded. Whereas Update All manages to have a proper "All tables are up to date!"

On the table select screen: If you select one table and go into the mid-screen, then press the back arrow to go back to the table select. You cannot select the same table, the one that is highlighted. You also cannot select the 4th tile on the screen that is shown as a half tile due to the way the tiles are sized. Even on a tablet the lay out is 3 columns, and 3 and a half rows. Again I have to mention that the tiles are oversized and this is just a perpetuation of the scrolling that the new UI was supposed to eliminate. At least the old UI remembered position; you weren't kicked to the top of the list after exiting each game.

Still cannot invert the filters. No double touch to make them Ascending/Descending. Given the problems with the list not remembering position this should be a given.

Yank the "Head to Head" button until it is implemented. It hasn't been used at all and uses real estate that could have been designed around for better layout purposes. **** Devs had already discussed moving the Tournament button to the home page, so what purpose does this page have now, being buried the way it is?

Add an an EXIT button. Or at least an exit confirmation dialogue to actually close the app.

You cannot re-buy ball skin packs, but now pressing on them will crash TPA every time. I have replicated it 4 times in a row. Here's how: Go to the store, click on the ball tab, click on a bunch of ball packs, try to press season 1 tab, watch TPA "unexpectedly stop".

Controller support is abysmal to non-existent: With a controller you can do 4 things. 1) get past the redundant game touch to start screens, 2) you can "close" the app with the B button from that point, 3) with some touch interaction to get to the table select screen where the controller will do nothing but select the highlighted table, not select anything else or move the the highlight/cursor, 4) Oh, the controller will "press start" in the still useless mid screen that simply adds click/touches to the UI to get to the game. Once at the game start screen the ball skin select is highlighted, and the controller will not do anything there. But, oh the B button will exit menus, What a damned improvement !!!!!!

Sound is very broken in the current version. I've had several games across several tables where the mechanical sound effects remain and work, but the music sound track drops in and out. Playing a second or third game within one table often gives issues too with lack of controls being present and requiring an app restart to regain control.

Not had any controller issues. Works as it has since first inclusion with the Shield controller and Shield K1 Tablet.

I've noticed a similar audio bug, I have started the app at times where the table's music completely disappears - all other sounds work though. I have to close out and effectively kill the app in the background and restart it so that it works properly

I have found a fix for most of the recent problems. When you start the app, just wear ear plugs and close your eyes through the game session. When you are finished, just push the off button since there's still no exit button. I've been much less annoyed since I started playing this way.

Shardz said:

When you are finished, just push the off button since there's still no exit button. I've been much less annoyed since I started playing this way.

Click to expand...

Android back exits the app now. Is it functioning differently for you?

jaredmorgs said:

Android back exits the app now. Is it functioning differently for you?

Click to expand...

But you have to be on the home screen to do that, and it also requires a swipe up on some devices that only have soft keys. All apps should have a proper exit method, no matter which screen you are on at the time.

Shardz said:

But you have to be on the home screen to do that, and it also requires a swipe up on some devices that only have soft keys. All apps should have a proper exit method, no matter which screen you are on at the time.

Click to expand...

Ahh, OK.

You want to be able to exit the app from any screen, so you can be sure the game is purged from memory.

Comparing the TPA experience to other apps time.

If I'm playing Sky Force Reloaded, I get an "Exit the game" modal at that app's version of the main lobby as well. I don't get the option to do this until i go back to the main lobby.

I can clear the app from memory by tapping the Recents system button and swiping it away.

FarSight would need to add app navigation buttons between major screens to control navigation discreetly, separate to the Android system back button.

The back button currently steps back through the app screens to the main lobby, then exits.

Is this how other folks expect this to work as well?

Baron Rubik said:

Sound is very broken in the current version. I've had several games across several tables where the mechanical sound effects remain and work, but the music sound track drops in and out. Playing a second or third game within one table often gives issues too with lack of controls being present and requiring an app restart to regain control.

Not had any controller issues. Works as it has since first inclusion with the Shield controller and Shield K1 Tablet.

Click to expand...

I'd agree that sound has issues. There seems to be issues with some of the mechanical effects in the sound pool as well. Notably flipper stroke.

Which tables have the sound drop issues?

jaredmorgs said:

I'd agree that sound has issues. There seems to be issues with some of the mechanical effects in the sound pool as well. Notably flipper stroke.

Which tables have the sound drop issues?

Click to expand...

It seems to happen on any.
This week I've been playing, and seen it happen on Indy500, Earthshaker, and Hurricane.