Request General Wish List Thread

[Sean DonCarlos]

as mentioned before, "UNLIMITED BALLS" is a must, so that the unexperienced or casual player get the chance to actually beat the tables. Only 3 balls is for a casual player very frustrating and they get easily bored which results in loosing interest and not buying more tables - but having the chance to reach all the goals and activating new modes and specials keeps them coming back for more. The casual players (and not the pinball nerds) are not willing to play 8 hours of pinball a day. Furthermore this option is unique - compared to other pinball games.

Remember that TPA's tables are faithful recreations of actual pinball machines, whose purpose was to make money for their operators. The tables had to be hard enough to keep experienced players wanting to play "just one more time" trying to get that wizard mode or replay score, yet easy enough that a novice player could get a few minutes' entertainment for his 50 cents. Tables fall at different points along this spectrum, but a table that could be "beat" would be a failed table - players would lose interest and the game would stop making money.

That being said, I can appreciate that not all casual players want to invest the time to become pinball wizards and that they just want to play a fun game. There are two things that could help:

1. If FarSight decides to make the operator's menu available on all tables, one of the settings on every table is number of balls per game, usually adjustable from 1 to 10. Less experienced players (or even players wanting to practice on advanced modes that they can't always reach in 3 balls) could set this to 5, 7 or even the full 10 balls.
2. Not all tables are the same difficulty. Some, like Theatre of Magic or Space Shuttle, are considered relatively easy. You then proceed through medium-difficulty tables (Medieval Madness, Taxi) to the real killers (Twilight Zone, Pinbot). Perhaps a rating system (one to five pinballs, maybe?) visible on the table select screen or even at time of purchase indicating how tough a particular table is, so that players who would be frustrated by difficult tables can avoid them until their skills improve?

 

[brakel]

I find that for most of the important things in life, two balls is enough. But that's just one man's opinion.

 

[Franky]

@brakel



@Serenseven

yes, of course - why and how the created tables is absolutly clear - but this is a computer game and not a real table. and when you're running a company you need to do a little outside the box thinking, you need to get new customers to make money to go on. And by giving the chance to train "pinball" so that the whole experience get richer and richer and the game finally really starts making fun attracts a lot of new people, i'm sure about that.
To master all the moves like stoping the ball, special shots, etc... you need to repeat the same thing over and over again - hundreds of times - and therefore you need unlimited balls (or at least, it's more convenient that way) - and don't forget, it's just an option and has nothing to do with "faithful recreation of the tables".

 

[Nik Barbour]

I posted this on another thread, but thought it'd be a good request.

I'd like if you press both Left & Right Nudge simultaneously, it would perform a nudge up. (ie nudge the front panel of the machine).

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

Dont know if this is already asked, or worse: its already i the game but i did not see it, and its not a big thing. But i think its easy to implement and i think it can be fun/good.

I would like to see how many plays i played on a table. And i would like to see that on the leaderboards too. From all players.

(rank; gamertag; score; # of plays)

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

I have another request: can we please have icade support?

This would be fantastic, playing with real buttons would be fun, and we can build nice virtual pinball cabinets.

If pinball arcade and icade worked (without jailbreak, not gonne do that) would work i would buy icade instantly. (and rebuild it into a pinballmachine instead of an arcade game machine)

 

[Rooter]

Support for the Nanotech digital plunger would be awesome.

 

[LeeChicago Gilbert]

I would love a play counter like they had in williams arcade classics. Then i could see how much money i dropped on robotron

 

[LeeChicago Gilbert]

Maybe people would quit *****ing about the app price

 

[Mockduck]

I think Farsight has done an amazing and incredible job with these tables, really, dating back to Williams Pinball Hall of Fame. My "wish" is to encourage them to continue to keep the quality and emulation very high; for as long as the tables are the next-best-thing to actually playing the pinball tables, they've got a customer in me.

Personally, I'd love to see Star Trek pinballs, both Next Gen and original series. I realize licensing is a huge hurdle, though. Also, if they have a good agreement with Stern, it'd be cool to get some of Stern's newest tables, like AC/DC, Tron Legacy, and even the upcoming X-Men.

 

[Richard B]

A training option would be nice, but even better than unlimited balls would be a Rock Band style trainer, in which you could select and play certain features, such as multi-balls, missions, and (if you've reached it at least once) the wizard mode. They could also make a scenario mode, much like those in EA sports games, where you have to accomplish a specific goal under certain conditions.

 

[The Doctor]

A training option would be nice, but even better than unlimited balls would be a Rock Band style trainer, in which you could select and play certain features, such as multi-balls, missions, and (if you've reached it at least once) the wizard mode. They could also make a scenario mode, much like those in EA sports games, where you have to accomplish a specific goal under certain conditions.

yes yes a thousand times yes

 

[Rooter]

Remember that TPA's tables are faithful recreations of actual pinball machines, whose purpose was to make money for their operators.

That's why there is a free extra ball on every table for scoring a certain amount of points, right?

Don't get me wrong though, I like that they made the tables a little bit easier than the real thing.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

That's why there is a free extra ball on every table for scoring a certain amount of points, right?

You can set most real tables to do that if you want; it's a setting in the operator's menu that controls whether a replay is credit or extra ball. Many tables can also be set to award nothing for hitting the replay score, especially while they're in tournament mode.

 

[RetroDude]

You can set most real tables to do that if you want; it's a setting in the operator's menu that controls whether a replay is credit or extra ball. Many tables can also be set to award nothing for hitting the replay score, especially while they're in tournament mode.

Yep.
All controllable in the actual machine settings.

Some places had laws against free games, so the machines would give extra balls instead of games.
Some other places had laws that prevented the extra balls, so specials, etc. would just give more points.

So long as the games reflect the actual rules and options on the physical machines, that's great.
It would be nice if they stuck to the default machine settings for the most part though.

 

[Fungi]

I always thought the "extra ball for special" was set up because FS knows a free credit is useless in this situation.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

I always thought the "extra ball for special" was set up because FS knows a free credit is useless in this situation.

Right.

Pinball Hall of Fame actually had a credit system. Only some of the tables were set to free play by default; the others took credits to play, and you started out with a fairly small, finite quantity of credits (25?) So the credits meant something.

However, they knew full well this was potentially off-putting for new users (why do I need virtual credits to play the game I already really paid for?) In fact, I recall reading some reviews from people who were bothered by it as it was.

So they had to make it much easier to grind than it looked. You got a credit for every one awarded by the machine, but you also got large wads of credits for making goals, even the easiest ones like "ME GOT YOU" on Gorgar (which was a free-play table).

You could buy free play on any table with 100 credits, but you also got to unlock free play on any table of your choice if you finished the standard goals on a table (which did not have to be the same one you were unlocking). Also, the credit supply topped out at 999. So they got meaningless pretty quickly once you developed a basic level of competence.

For tables sold as a la carte DLC, this approach wouldn't really work. If I'm paying specifically to play some pinball machine, it ought to be unlocked for free play. Also, on the mobile platforms, they can't count on the user having access to some special population of unlocked tables.

So they had to do something, and they probably figured that if credits don't mean anything, it made sense to set replay values and specials to give extra balls. (You still get meaningless credits for high scores, though.)

 

[brakel]

They've said that they want to a use for the credits down the line. Perhaps tournament entry fee? Maybe to buy special balls or other options?

 

[Dumpstar]

I would like to see alternate high scores like MM Damsel's, and Monsters Bash's multiball high scores also saved.

EDIT: Also saw something that younger people like from the game reviews on IOS, the ability to play your own music instead of listening to the pinball itself. I know that most of us prefer to listen the pinball, but you have to cater to all markets. I suppose today I find myself wanting to play the pinball, but I also want to listen to the football match that is happening via Tune in radio. A lot of others apps let me do this, so it would be great if I could overide the default must listen to pinball tunes.

 

[Dumpstar]

With the Wii U coming up, and hearing things like the DMD will be on the controller unit, wouldn't it be good to start the forum to see what people expect as a focus group type situation (Really a focus group for each platform, or just in general would be good. Representives from those casual players, younger people, hardcore guys etc to get an idea of where the game should go, and general improvements that could be made that we as more hardcore players probably wouldn't see).