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

[Jeff Strong]

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!

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Yes please. Too many easy tables, and would love to see this especially on the PC version.

Tables to look at:

Twilight Zone
Scared Stiff
Addams Family
Ripley's
FunHouse
CftBL
AFM
MB
MM

 

[Crawley]

This is good news. Look forward to the poll.

 

[Gorgar]

I would vote for Gorgar, Black Knight, Black Hole and Firepower on the off chance that they finally emulate them. (Black Hole would be on my list regardless).

Other tables that need it desperately because they are too easy:

Scared Stiff
Twilight Zone
Black Knight 2000
High Speed
Funhouse
Bride of Pinbot

 

[David T. Melnick]

This is good news. Look forward to the poll.

----
Looking forward alright.

 

[Kolchak357]

Yes please. Too many easy tables, and would love to see this especially on the PC version.

Tables to look at:

Twilight Zone

Scared Stiff
Ripley's Believe It Or Not
FunHouse

(I'll come up with others.)

I like all of these and would like to add
AFM
CFTBL
JY

 

[JJH516]

Should've asked him about an update on ROM emulation for Black Knight, etc.

 

[IGoFirstIndy]

Yes please. Too many easy tables, and would love to see this especially on the PC version.

Tables to look at:

Twilight Zone
Scared Stiff
Ripley's Believe It Or Not
FunHouse

(I'll come up with others.)

Yup!

SS would be my #1

I'd add

MM
AFM
JY
HD
E&TPM

 

[Kratos3]

Twilight Zone for sure. Its legendary for its difficulty.

Medieval Madness and Scared Stiff next.

 

[Robert Misner]

I'd like to see Who Dunnit on the list. Its such a fabulous table and having tourneyed to manage the roulette wheel winnings and extra balls could be pretty awesome.

 

[DA5ID]

Real tournament setting - extra ball awards set number of points instead of actual extra ball.

Not sure about things like the double your score in POTO - or the billionaire club in BOP - how are they handled on the real tables when in tournament mode?

 

[JPelter]

Real tournament setting - extra ball awards set number of points instead of actual extra ball.

Not sure about things like the double your score in POTO - or the billionaire club in BOP - how are they handled on the real tables when in tournament mode?

Those two aren't really popular tournament tables, but usually if there's no ROM switch on a given table for disabling or making something harder they'll just disable the switch that gives the award entirely on the table for the duration of the tournament. If I remember correctly the last one I saw this done to was the spinner on Johnny Mnemonic, although it's possible they just worked the spinner to have almost no movement instead. Something like that anyway.

 

[smbhax]

This would be great, but I hope they could add it to all tables eventually!

 

[jrolson]

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...

 

[Jeff Strong]

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...

Yeah, that would definitely be nice to finally see as well. I know the difficulty mode won't appeal to everyone, but it will certainly put new life into the game for a lot of us. This is something I've personally been dreaming about for years. If they do this right I'll be thrilled.

 

[kinggo]

how about separating PC from android? Because I don't have issues with marathon games on android. Sure, sometimes I do have longer games but I still didn't find the one that I can go on forever no matter what the PC guys are telling. I think that I never had a game longer than 45 minutes. Which is A LOT for a pinball game but still far from those week long sessions from PC.

 

[Jeff Strong]

how about separating PC from android? Because I don't have issues with marathon games on android. Sure, sometimes I do have longer games but I still didn't find the one that I can go on forever no matter what the PC guys are telling. I think that I never had a game longer than 45 minutes. Which is A LOT for a pinball game but still far from those week long sessions from PC.

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.

 

[DA5ID]

how about separating PC from android? Because I don't have issues with marathon games on android. Sure, sometimes I do have longer games but I still didn't find the one that I can go on forever no matter what the PC guys are telling. I think that I never had a game longer than 45 minutes. Which is A LOT for a pinball game but still far from those week long sessions from PC.

For the discussion on the nudging thread - I would gather that the enhanced nudging control on PC is probably one of the major factors to a marathon game - being very choosy when to nudge and when not to and tilting on iOS and android = much shorter game.

 

[JPelter]

I'm almost as excited for this as I am for DX11. It's like some sort of pinball christmas. Too much good news means I'm banking bear mountain or whatever erupts in the next month despite not even being a volcano.

e: Checked and it's bear lake. I bet it erupts anyway!

 

[Jeff Strong]

I'm almost as excited for this as I am for DX11. It's like some sort of pinball christmas. Too much good news means I'm banking bear mountain or whatever erupts in the next month despite not even being a volcano.

e: Checked and it's bear lake. I bet it erupts anyway!