Zen Pinball FX3 Williams Pinball Volume One

[Pantah010]

How's everyone finding the difficulty on the Classic Single Player now? I was struggling to get 150M last night and I was really trying!

I am enjoying this williams fx3 tables!
Think the difficulty is better now, also struggling to get high scores , somethimes i get in a zone and get good points so i think its good how it is.
I recorded some gameplay of a 200m game , best score so far for me, here's the video:
(my audio mixer needs replaced, sorry for the audio spikes)

 

[Kolchak357]

One thing that really stands out are the flippers sounds. Really good!

 

[Fungi]

How's everyone finding the difficulty on the Classic Single Player now? I was struggling to get 150M last night and I was really trying!

It's kicking my butt. I need to go back to TPA to feel better about myself.

 

[Klopek]

One thing that really stands out are the flippers sounds. Really good!

The mechanical sounds are great. I have them cranked. I love the sound of the pop bumpers in Medieval Madness.

 

[Hinph]

Glad to hear it's tough. Real pinball is tough. A good run should feel exhilarating and not like "wizard mode again?"

Remember Scared Stiff in TPA? Hour plus long games, and they wouldn't take our feedback seriously and go back to adjust the table. I think that's when I lost my enthusiasm for that project entirely.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Glad to hear it's tough. Real pinball is tough. A good run should feel exhilarating and not like "wizard mode again?"

Remember Scared Stiff in TPA? Hour plus long games, and they wouldn't take our feedback seriously and go back to adjust the table. I think that's when I lost my enthusiasm for that project entirely.

Agreed completely. I tried as hard as I could to convince Farsight to at least add a tournament difficulty mode, but I gave up after awhile when I realized it was never gonna happen. I only played Scared Stiff once or twice in TPA for that reason, which sucked because I was really looking forward to it.

Thankfully Zen sees the value in it right off the bat, so I couldn’t be happier.

 

[kimkom]

I am enjoying this williams fx3 tables!
Think the difficulty is better now, also struggling to get high scores , somethimes i get in a zone and get good points so i think its good how it is.
I recorded some gameplay of a 200m game , best score so far for me, here's the video:
(my audio mixer needs replaced, sorry for the audio spikes)

Nice score!

 

[kimkom]

It's kicking my butt. I need to go back to TPA to feel better about myself.

Ha ha, that's hilarious

tbh I'm not sure I'll be going back to TPA much once Zen has a few Williams tables released. I only loaded it up recently to see what Farsight had done with Whoa Nellie, and that was a big mistake!

Maybe I'll load it up to play a few of the other tables now and again though.

 

[kimkom]

Remember Scared Stiff in TPA? Hour plus long games, and they wouldn't take our feedback seriously and go back to adjust the table. I think that's when I lost my enthusiasm for that project entirely.

Indeed I do, I think most of us were falling asleep at the wheel on that...

 

[xAzatothx]

Hopefully Zen go back and continue to tune the tables post release. All the effort and feedback at the moment has been around Fish Tails, I'd like to hope the other tables will get the same polish too.

At the moment the rubbers in the game are too springy - feels like I'm playing with a rubber ball at times.

 

[SilverBalls]

Some interesting observations on the Beta 4 build on Spacies Arcade:

Initially I was contented with the beta 4 version, however after seeing the real Fish Tales footage here, I also feel some future tweaking is needed in Zen (as raised by Greg). Not sure what others think?

I have to say again these videos are great, and am sure they are helping Zen immensely.

 

[wolfson]

SilverBalls , yep watched it this morning , I liked it like you . Greg does a great job because he shows what he is talking about . also on youtube Ultra Custom Cabs , Darrel said he would do the cocktail table before my pinball table , but have a look it shows the pinball system I`m getting , I was over the moon . I should be getting my table hopefully this week , if not , next week will be fine !!!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Cool video. I think there would be a good deal more bounce off the flippers and speed in general if the slope was correct. The latest beta feels better than the previous to me especially when you compare it to Bowen's tutorial video and how fast his setup plays, but there's always room for improvement.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Also I think Zen is shooting for the feel of a brand new or extremely well-maintained pinball machine, which is quite a bit different than what they have at the pubs. They're always gonna play slower and less bouncy unless they have a dedicated guy keeping them waxed up, with new rubbers, and everything in tip top shape.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Check out Bowen's setup in comparison, way faster and bouncier as a result:

 

[Blkthorne]

Also I think Zen is shooting for the feel of a brand new or extremely well-maintained pinball machine, which is quite a bit different than what they have at the pubs. They're always gonna play slower and less bouncy unless they have a dedicated guy keeping them waxed up, with new rubbers, and everything in tip top shape.

That is what I kept saying when watching the video, I was like so you are checking out a table at a place you haven't been to before and then taking it for gospel that it is in tip top shape and acting the way the table should play with the ball even getting stuck in the inlane????

 

[Spork98765]

Check out Bowen's setup in comparison, way faster and bouncier as a result:

There is no way that the PAPA Fish Tales is bouncier than the FX3 one. Just look at the plunge at ~2:12 Bowen tries to catch it but it bounces and the ball does not go higher than the sling. Do the same in FX3 in single player classic arcade or tournament and the ball will clear the sling. Check the dead pass at ~2:36 see how the ball didn't go schatzing up the inlane, or skip off the bottom of the sling post because it bounced over so far. So in what way is the PAPA version bouncier if these 2 examples show the FX3 version is the one with more bounce?


This is the same amount/sort of bounce that was complained about in TPA, but is now being cheered for :-?. I don't get it. I feel like y'all are watching and playing a totally different thing.

 

[Jeff Strong]

There is no way that the PAPA Fish Tales is bouncier than the FX3 one. Just look at the plunge at ~2:12 Bowen tries to catch it but it bounces and the ball does not go higher than the sling. Do the same in FX3 in single player classic arcade or tournament and the ball will clear the sling. Check the dead pass at ~2:36 see how the ball didn't go schatzing up the inlane, or skip off the bottom of the sling post because it bounced over so far. So in what way is the PAPA version bouncier if these 2 examples show the FX3 version is the one with more bounce?

This is the same amount/sort of bounce that was complained about in TPA, but is now being cheered for :-?. I don't get it. I feel like y'all are watching and playing a totally different thing.

I was saying Bowen’s was faster/bouncier than the one Greg played in Perth...wasn’t saying it was bouncier than FX3. Sorry if I wasn’t clear, but I was intending for a comparison between the two real life pins.

I honestly wasn’t even gonna mention bounce, as it was the more the speed comparison of the two I was thinking of, but the increased speed does of course add at least a bit more bounce.

As for your examples, it’s not that cut and dry as there are other examples that react differently than the ones you gave. The plunge at 3:00 does bounce to the top of the sling. The plunge at 12:30 goes way above it, then at 13:10 it goes all the way over it and into the outlane! The dead flipper pass at 4:59 does skip off the bottom of the sling post...I could go on, but the point is there is a lot of bounce variety on a real pin, and the ball definitely “screams” at times as Bowen said, which causes all sorts of the mayhem we all love about real pinball.

Like I said, there’s defintiely room for improvement in FX3, but they shouldn’t go too far in the other direction by slowing it down to play like a pin that isn’t properly maintained (that’s kinda how the older “Zen” physics feel at times already). Just have to find the right balance.

 

[mystman12]

There is no way that the PAPA Fish Tales is bouncier than the FX3 one. Just look at the plunge at ~2:12 Bowen tries to catch it but it bounces and the ball does not go higher than the sling.

The thing about that clip is that he wasn't just holding the flipper. He flipped right as the ball approached it, and while the timing wasn't good enough for a perfect live catch it still managed to eat some of the ball's momentum. If he had just held it up well before the ball reached it, chances are he would have lost control of it.

I really wish we could get a video of someone just holding the flipper up on a real Fish Tales with fresh rubbers and launching the ball over and over again so we can all look at the same thing and come to an agreement on how the rubbers should react in that situation (I tried going out and testing similar stuff myself but unfortunately none of the games at the location I visited had unblocked orbits or plungers powerful enough to make it all the way around...). All I know is that if you can catch the ball consistently by simply holding the flipper up when you plunge, there's a problem. Only Gottlieb games should behave that way since the flippers on those swing so high.

 

[Jeff Strong]

I really wish we could get a video of someone just holding the flipper up on a real Fish Tales with fresh rubbers and launching the ball over and over again so we can all look at the same thing and come to an agreement on how the rubbers should react in that situation (I tried going out and testing similar stuff myself but unfortunately none of the games at the location I visited had unblocked orbits or plungers powerful enough to make it all the way around...). All I know is that if you can catch the ball consistently by simply holding the flipper up when you plunge, there's a problem. Only Gottlieb games should behave that way since the flippers on those swing so high.

Agreed. The tricky bit is finding one with new rubber and a freshly spiffed playfield. There’s one at a bar near me too, but last time I was there it wasn’t in much better shape than the one in Perth.

Zen should just make some videos of FX3 playing side-by-side with their office FT, a montage of similar ball behaviors...and if they aren’t similar enough, then keep tweaking till it is!

As of right now, I’d think it’s safe to say FX3 is closer to Bowen’s setup than it is to a wild FT in need of attention, and that’s a good thing. Definitely not perfect, or a replica by any means, but at least they’re going in the right direction. Now let’s just hope they keep fiddling till they truly nail the nuances as greg would say.