Looping for trapdoor more difficult - has the sound/visual changed.

Before I lost all my goals I remember finishing off the Wizard goals related to the trapdoor fairly easy, at least I could learn how to do it and on a good game make the goal. But now, a few months later, I can't seem to get the timing right at all. I have tried all different camera angles and turned the sound off but I can't find anything that will help me with the timing.

Before I think I handled it by listening (since you can't see the ball until it's too late) but now it seems that the cue sound is too early or something making it incredibly difficult.

What do you use as a cue in order to repeatedly hit the loop?

Cristobal said:

Before I lost all my goals I remember finishing off the Wizard goals related to the trapdoor fairly easy, at least I could learn how to do it and on a good game make the goal. But now, a few months later, I can't seem to get the timing right at all. I have tried all different camera angles and turned the sound off but I can't find anything that will help me with the timing.

Before I think I handled it by listening (since you can't see the ball until it's too late) but now it seems that the cue sound is too early or something making it incredibly difficult.

What do you use as a cue in order to repeatedly hit the loop?

Click to expand...

This is a problem on Android as well. The timing of the ball going through the outer loop behind Rudy's head has been altered or tweaked, but I can't pin down exactly which update the change took place on since I hadn't played Funhouse on my Galaxy S III in a while. I too am having a problem with the timing of the ball coming around the loop now. I need to contact Bobby and see if he'll take a look at this for us as this timing issue is keeping me from enjoying the table like I used to.

Does anyone have a technique that works for it?

I'm having big troubles with this is as well. Before that last update it was harder to hit the 4 way combo than the trapdoor bonus.

I've noticed that when a ball is released from the Hidden Hallway, it's nearly impossible to time the trapdoor shot. I've gotten as close as open the 1,000,000 trap door and choked. It seems the speed of the plunger shot helps in getting the ball rolling. Still cheap as hell, though.

+1

i'd love for this to get some attention and re-tweaking. i've only just started playing FH and whereas the PHoF TWC on PSP was definately far easier, and i don't recall the RL table being that hard, on TPA getting in the trapdoor on exit from the left orbit is a complete hope-to-luck shot

i also don't recall the ball being quite so obscured from view, on exit from left orbit, on the RL table. can anyone confirm the accuracy/inaccuracy of this on TPA ?

I finally got this last night. You can only see the ball come out of the left orbit for a millisecond before you react. Eventually I stopped looking for the ball and just rhythmically hit the left flipper until it eventually worked........after 4 days of constantly trying.

Is this only on mobile? Because I have no issue with this visibility

phreaker47 said:

Is this only on mobile? Because I have no issue with this visibility

Click to expand...

I'm playing on nexus 7 tablet. always in portrait mode and either using camera view 2 or 3.

looking at this yet again, you can see that the steps construction is translucent and you can see playfield detail through the steps. when the ball exits (or enters for that matter) the left orbit it disappears completely even before it passes under the arch that demarcates the steps construction. there's even a metal protector plate affixed to the front of the steps at left orbit entry. between the plate and the arch there is a small gap of clear daylight; the ball is invisible passing under here and cannot be seen at any time when underneath the translucent steps.

as my previous post above, I'm pretty sure on a real FH table you SHOULD be able to see the ball through the translucent steps. As a student, i devoted many many hours to this table @Zilles Bar, Kassel 1991.

Whilst I can get the trapdoor on ball launch or after ejection from Rudi's hideout, getting trapdoor millions during midnight multiball is way harder than I can recall it being on the real table. with two balls released to the upper left flipper at start of midnight multiball, a half-way competent player should be able to make this shot....hitting the trapdoor should be a given, instead it's a crap shoot and near impossibility. this makes the house not such a fun place, taking away considerably from the enjoyment :-(

anyone reading this who can check on a real table please?

check the strategies thread on the last page for my youtube video that shows an alternate way to hit the shot. Maybe it will help

AHH! I thought it was just me. So happy to see this thread! My trap door shot was always weak from day 1 - maybe a 40% success rate. But I decided to try and extend my FH high score today after not playing for a few weeks, and MAN! I'm sucking over here!

I can't figure out what's changed, but it seems like I used to have some sense for where the ball was as it orbited around the back. Now, I have no idea where the ball is. Sometimes I can't even react in enough time to flip. The ball just flies around past the left flipper and ends up almost draining. Very frustrating and embarrassing as well.

Is it possible FS changed ramp transparency so that now we can't see the ball as it traverses the back orbit?

(This is on iPad btw, I haven't fired up TPA on the 360 in a long time so no idea if the problem exists there)

+1

Thought I'd just got rusty at this, but couldn't hit it all. Hope it does get fixed as the table was working fine before. This is on iPad 3.

ClaudeHenrySmoot said:

(This is on iPad btw, I haven't fired up TPA on the 360 in a long time so no idea if the problem exists there)

Click to expand...

The timing of the ball going through the outer loop behind Rudy's head has been altered or tweaked for some reason on mobile devices. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions still portray the correct timing, but I'm afraid the next update in March may change the timing as well on the PS3. I still can't pinpoint exactly which mobile update changed the timing, but it definitely is not the same as it was previously. The ball seems to slow down when it disappears behind Rudy's head and then accelerate again when exiting the loop from under the steps ramp.

PiN WiZ said:

The timing of the ball going through the outer loop behind Rudy's head has been altered or tweaked for some reason on mobile devices. Both the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions still portray the correct timing, but I'm afraid the next update in March may change the timing as well on the PS3. I still can't pinpoint exactly which mobile update changed the timing, but it definitely is not the same as it was previously. The ball seems to slow down when it disappears behind Rudy's head and then accelerate again when exiting the loop from under the steps ramp.

Click to expand...

as much as I recall from playing the real table, some 22 years ago now (yikes!!!!) you're supposed to be able to see the ball as it travels underneath the steps.
when making an orbit or when the ball is released from the hidden hallway for a rudi gulp, or trapdoor shot, the ball cannot be seen until too late - it could also be that the ball's appearance is no longer in sync with the audio cue. this makes the trapdoor a very difficult skill shot indeed.
shooting rudi's mouth to start the multiball at midnight is trivial when compared to hitting the trapdoor during multiball.

I would like to think this would get revisited, but I'm not so hopeful.

You CAN see the ball coming on the PS3/Vita versions. Not sure why the IOS versions are different.

PiN WiZ said:

The timing of the ball going through the outer loop behind Rudy's head has been altered or tweaked for some reason on mobile devices.

Click to expand...

Good call Pin WiZ. I just fired up the 360 to confirm. The ball drops down with much less zip. Plenty of time to react.

I just watched a few FH videos at PAPA's video site... Can't say I reached any conclusions. Sometimes, the ball seemed to drop down like the 360 version. Other times, it came out of orbit with some serious heat. I don't see why FS felt the need to make this shot tougher. It was hard enough as it was!

That being said the PAPA videos reminded me I shouldn't be hard plunging on FH anyways. Soft plunging should solve some of my issues with this change.

Do you think they will actually do anything about this bug?

Lets hope so. First step is to get it into the master list I suppose. I've reported it to the ios bug thread and this is here on the table specific forum so it should get picked up eventually.
Its defo the transparency that's at fault here.

Pod

Pod said:

Lets hope so. First step is to get it into the master list I suppose. I've reported it to the ios bug thread and this is here on the table specific forum so it should get picked up eventually.

Click to expand...

Looks like I missed a spot. The trapdoor shot timing issue should be recorded on FunHouse's master list now. Thanks for the catch!

Excellent. Glad to be of help. Might be worth adding the transparency theory as well to assist the developers?

Pod