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

[relaxation]

I think the lack of any organized thread explaining all the interactions you can have with the ball in this game is a hinderance to communication. ... I could make that thread, ... , but it'll take some time to: prep before recording, edits, voice over and upload each individual video to a playlist.

Here's a mockup,

Technique examples	Steam (PC)	Mobile (Android/IOS)	Console (Xbox/PS)
Trap	*	*	*
Bounce Pass	*	*	*
Live Catch	*	*	*

that's the general feel, so I would hope to get feedback from all the specific platforms if they could perform the techniques I had examples for, would also like to add 'real tables' to the platform line up to get a list of what can/can't and not quite the same to compare to.

 

[vikingerik]

Yes I'm talking about nudging to make the ball change it's path without the ball touching anything other than only the playfield underneath ... it's not like the entire table and legs are perfectly sliding from side to side like it was standing on ice or something, there will be a slight sideways leaning, maybe that affects the path, maybe the dynamics and forces on the ball vary from nudge and back and ball will roll differently, maybe ball spin makes ball lose contact for fractions of seconds.

This is correct. You can alter a ball path in open space on a real table, and the reason why is these subtle dynamics of table flex and ball spin.

TPA doesn't remotely attempt to simulate any of that, though. It treats a nudge in open space as if you somehow physically poked the ball directly. Obviously this is impossible unless you're telekinetic.

But TPA does that because the average player thinks that's how it really works. Because that's how Microsoft did it in Space Cadet and they don't know anything about real machines to know otherwise.

The maximum possible effect on a real machine is about what TPA does on every nudge. But this is a crude approximation reached by plugging in parameters for TPA's nudge strength, not any kind of actual simulation.

A real machine can yield about the same emergent results as a TPA-style nudge by sliding the machine several inches underneath the ball. Whether that is possible obviously depends on the environment of things like floor surface and space around the machine and even the player's physical strength.

 

[Tann]

Here's a mockup,

Technique examples	Steam (PC)	Mobile (Android/IOS)	Console (Xbox/PS)
Trap	*	*	*
Bounce Pass	*	*	*
Live Catch	*	*	*

that's the general feel, so I would hope to get feedback from all the specific platforms if they could perform the techniques I had examples for, would also like to add 'real tables' to the platform line up to get a list of what can/can't and not quite the same to compare to.

Good idea. The video is really well done.

As it's just a mockup, I imagine you didn't include purposely Tip/Flick Passes, which in TPA, are very hard to do, as a Cradle Separation (very inconsistent, at least on PS3), and finally the usual and easy Post Passes

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

This is correct. You can alter a ball path in open space on a real table, and the reason why is these subtle dynamics of table flex and ball spin.

TPA doesn't remotely attempt to simulate any of that, though. It treats a nudge in open space as if you somehow physically poked the ball directly. Obviously this is impossible unless you're telekinetic.

But TPA does that because the average player thinks that's how it really works. Because that's how Microsoft did it in Space Cadet and they don't know anything about real machines to know otherwise.

The maximum possible effect on a real machine is about what TPA does on every nudge. But this is a crude approximation reached by plugging in parameters for TPA's nudge strength, not any kind of actual simulation.

A real machine can yield about the same emergent results as a TPA-style nudge by sliding the machine several inches underneath the ball. Whether that is possible obviously depends on the environment of things like floor surface and space around the machine and even the player's physical strength.

As a young man, one of the first things I'd check on a table was the tilt sensitivity and I'd throw the table side to side checking. Still have the upper body strength, but my legs cannot deal with standing for long periods now.

 

[relaxation]

Good idea. The video is really well done.

As it's just a mockup, I imagine you didn't include purposely ...

Thank you for your input, I got a list of 20, and growing, techniques that I need to come up with pros/cons and a concise definition for before I make recordings. Worried if the pros/cons will be too obvious/repetitive and not worth the effort but I'll try to refine it.

 

[relaxation]

Technique
examples was updated w/ a few videos with a different layout.. I think it might be better than the last one.

planned on definitions in the big table, in case I needed to change the wording

table below is a guess as to how it may turn out

Technique examples	PC	PS3	PS4	360	XBONE	OUYA	Droid	iOS	Wii U
Trap
Flowery
Bounce Pass
Words
Hold Pass
Go
Post Pass
Here

 

[gazgti]

Does the temperature affect the ball much?

 

[Tann]

table below is a guess as to how it may turn out

Yeah, nice work.

Some feedback soon. For instance, I'm almost sure Drop Catches are impossible on PS3 (even on the most recent tables, which have physics 3.0). Usual Trap instead when attempting a Drop Catch (because the ball is bouncy as hell on PS3 due to the rubber bounciness of the old physics 2.0).

PS: you forgot Cradle Separation.

 

[Spork98765]

Does the temperature affect the ball much?

What about the color of the rubber on the flippers

PS: you forgot Cradle Separation.

They also forgot tap passes

 

[relaxation]

PS: you forgot Cradle Separation.

That and some others require some homework to figure out on how to best approach it on a majority of tables.my guess is, this is that piece of code that doesn't let a ball reside under a [upper] flipper


One example I haven't been able to perform [reliably, without voodoo] yet is an immediate, full nudge, slide save, on a left orbit on addams. likely sdtm drains can't be saved like that