BREAKING NEWS: New Difficulty Mode w/ Separate Leaderboards Coming!

[wolfson]

OK, so when I saw that TAF gold edition had its own leaderboard, this reminded me how much each table desperately needs a separate leaderboard for a tournament style difficulty setting. I have to be honest that I don't play nearly as much TPA as I used to because many of the tables become a marathon and seem to go on forever, and I'm not even that great of a player, but shorter game times always keep me coming back, while the marathons leave me looking at the clock wondering when it will end.

We had asked Bobby about in the past (a few times, heh), and we'd always been told it's something they want to do, but that's about it. Well, the TAF gold leaderboard persuaded me to go out on a limb and ask about it one more time and here's the response I received:

"Adding the gold ROM and a second leaderboard was done in anticipation of adding tournament difficulty settings and more leaderboards.

Adding the ROMs and leaderboards is not simple and we'll have to do it one table at a time.

Do you want to run a poll on the fans site to get people to vote for the top 8 tables for us to add a tournament difficulty setting for? Once we get this in, we'll have a tournament featuring those 8 tables."

Woohoo!

Be on the lookout for the poll soon, and PLEASE vote for the marathon tables that really need this treatment. I'm looking at you Twilight Zone, Scared Stiff, Funhouse, etc.

Disclaimer:

This will NOT affect the default difficulty of the game. It will be a seperate mode!

GREAT NEWS JEFF CAN`T WAIT THANKS AGAIN !!!

 

[Dan]

45 minutes is a marathon for a game of pinball.

When we say "go on forever", we're clearly exaggerating (well, mostly).

All we're asking for is another option. Think of it like a racing game. Even "casual" racing games like Mario Kart have the different options: 50cc, 100cc, 150cc. Sometimes you just want more of a challenge. Other times you want to feel like a racing god and dominate with no problem. Difficulty Options are good because they increase the replayabilty of the game and make it more appealing to a wider audience.

One very cool thing about real pinball machines is they kick your ass enough that you keep wanting to come back for just one more game to try to squeeze out a few more points, similar to the old arcade games like PacMan, DigDug, etc...that's what made them so addicting...and in pinball keeping the ball alive is a real battle and a thrill. That doesn't quite carry over very well into TPA as it is now, so adding some more of that in as an OPTION is a very good thing.

Again, this won't appeal to everyone, but by adding it they are making the game more enjoyable for a wider audience, which means more sales, which is good news for everyone, even if you won't personally use this mode. So this as a good thing for us all.

Thanks man, this is highly needed! One evening I almost fell asleep at Firepower, true story! Let's get the adrenaline flowing!

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

Great news!
TZ
MM
FH
AFM
CFTBL
MB
RBION
TOTAN

 

[kinggo]

45 minutes is a marathon for a game of pinball.

When we say "go on forever", we're clearly exaggerating (well, mostly).

I agree. But that happen maybe 5x in 2 years and countless numbers of games.
I know, but still......... I did play a few games of TPA on PC and it is to easy.

While I'm 100% on this idea, it still won't solve the issue that PC and android players are on the same leader borad and that HOF points are the same although the game is like 246983972 times easier on PC. So even when I do have a score that I know is very respectable IRL I still fell like I failed miserably when I see where I am on the leaderboard.
Tournamets are all about competition. But the leader boards should also mean something. And I'm pretty sure that none of those legit guys from leader boards wouldn't be 50x-60x-70x..... better than me IRL. Sure, I could play on PC too but like you, I also don't like when every game is a marathon.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I agree. But that happen maybe 5x in 2 years and countless numbers of games.
I know, but still......... I did play a few games of TPA on PC and it is to easy.

While I'm 100% on this idea, it still won't solve the issue that PC and android players are on the same leader borad and that HOF points are the same although the game is like 246983972 times easier on PC. So even when I do have a score that I know is very respectable IRL I still fell like I failed miserably when I see where I am on the leaderboard.
Tournamets are all about competition. But the leader boards should also mean something. And I'm pretty sure that none of those legit guys from leader boards wouldn't be 50x-60x-70x..... better than me IRL. Sure, I could play on PC too but like you, I also don't like when every game is a marathon.

Agreed man, every platform should have its own leaderboards. You bring up a great point there.

 

[Espy]

Agreed man, every platform should have its own leaderboards. You bring up a great point there.

An overall leaderboard is fine, but it would be good to have platform-specific boards, too. I'd like both. But make a leaderboard for every table for every platform and suddenly you're maintaining and monitoring 500 of them...

 

[fenderbendr]

Twilight zone
Funhouse

Also, I think for the harder difficulty mode, it should be no extra balls, No Nudging, and the very hard rom setting.

Even if there were no extra balls, the nudging is so overpowered, and makes it too easy to play on forever, especially on Twilight Zone. Maybe if they made the tilt a lot more sensitive we could get away with nudging.

 

[Xanija]

Disclaimer:

This will NOT affect the default difficulty of the game. It will be a seperate mode!

Ok, so what exactly would this seperate mode do?

 

[kinggo]

An overall leaderboard is fine, but it would be good to have platform-specific boards, too. I'd like both. But make a leaderboard for every table for every platform and suddenly you're maintaining and monitoring 500 of them...

well, every other platform has a dedicated leaderborad for this or that reason, even those obscured and (un)suported ones but 2 totally different of the 3 most popular platforms are crammed together. And it's not that they actally maintain them, there's plenty of bogus scores there.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Android kind-of has its own leaderboards through Google Play Services support, but also still feeds into the main TPA leaderboards as well. Best of both worlds, I guess?

 

[kinggo]

I don't know, since TPA works just fine without it I'll also stay away from it. I know that this is very unlikely scenario but google likes to pull the plug on their services.

 

[Kolchak357]

Twilight zone
Funhouse

Also, I think for the harder difficulty mode, it should be no extra balls, No Nudging, and the very hard rom setting.

Even if there were no extra balls, the nudging is so overpowered, and makes it too easy to play on forever, especially on Twilight Zone. Maybe if they made the tilt a lot more sensitive we could get away with nudging.

Not sure if you should totally eliminate nudging but it needs to be toned down and made easier to tilt.

 

[David T. Melnick]

45 minutes is a marathon for a game of pinball.

When we say "go on forever", we're clearly exaggerating (well, mostly).

All we're asking for is another option. Think of it like a racing game. Even "casual" racing games like Mario Kart have the different options: 50cc, 100cc, 150cc. Sometimes you just want more of a challenge. Other times you want to feel like a racing god and dominate with no problem. Difficulty Options are good because they increase the replayabilty of the game and make it more appealing to a wider audience.

One very cool thing about real pinball machines is they kick your ass enough that you keep wanting to come back for just one more game to try to squeeze out a few more points, similar to the old arcade games like PacMan, DigDug, etc...that's what made them so addicting...and in pinball keeping the ball alive is a real battle and a thrill. That doesn't quite carry over very well into TPA as it is now, so adding some more of that in as an OPTION is a very good thing.

Again, this won't appeal to everyone, but by adding it they are making the game more enjoyable for a wider audience, which means more sales, which is good news for everyone, even if you won't personally use this mode. So this as a good thing for us all.

-------
you put the nail on the head eh. I love your logic; this idea will enlarge sells big-time eh.

 

[xAzatothx]

I agree. But that happen maybe 5x in 2 years and countless numbers of games.
I know, but still......... I did play a few games of TPA on PC and it is to easy.

While I'm 100% on this idea, it still won't solve the issue that PC and android players are on the same leader borad and that HOF points are the same although the game is like 246983972 times easier on PC. So even when I do have a score that I know is very respectable IRL I still fell like I failed miserably when I see where I am on the leaderboard.
Tournamets are all about competition. But the leader boards should also mean something. And I'm pretty sure that none of those legit guys from leader boards wouldn't be 50x-60x-70x..... better than me IRL. Sure, I could play on PC too but like you, I also don't like when every game is a marathon.

+1000000000 this. Can't agree enough. Android scores bundled with PC scores really hacks me off.

 

[Rudy hates me]

Fantastic news!!! So many tables I won't play because they take too long.

Looking forward to the poll, my 8 will be TZ, FH, NGG, SS, BoP, MM, AFM and MB.

 

[Kratos3]

Not sure if you should totally eliminate nudging but it needs to be toned down and made easier to tilt.

This exactly.

 

[switch3flip]

Great news!
Obviously TAF and hope for Dracula it's awesome in tournament mode. Star trek would be awesome as well. Centaur. AFM. TZ. Creature. Funhouse. T2.

 

[shutyertrap]

I still don't get why leaderboards aren't reset on a semi regular basis. I love that level ranks in Hearthstone are reset every month, and what is a leaderboard than nothing more than a level ranking?

Everybody is going to have an opinion on what the first batch of tables to get this difficulty/tournament setting should be. What is important is to get the first batch right so that FS continues to see the value in doing this. That real value is keeping players playing, bringing back those that have gotten bored.

 

[Heretic]

What he said

this isnt about populairty its about which tables NEED a tournament mode and beFUN ( while opinions vary the likes of lca and hd dont need to be in this first goruping) e all have our favourties but we need to consider which 8 would benfit the most for it, if its not a success farsight wont see any point in redoing the rest

 

[IGoFirstIndy]

Meh... I would rather see an updated UI so it wouldn't take a lifetime to scroll through the list of tables, than a difficulty mode...

totally agree with you, but that being said, it is pretty epic to open the app to the Addams Family Pinball tune blaring.