Request Challenge System (my thoughts)

[Retro Invaders]

I liked the challenges in the PHOF games, but the TPA version need some changes. Here are some of my thoughts and suggestions about this.

Major Problems of the Challenge System

1) Too much tables in one challenge! Play the entire first season challenge? It's kinda exhausting. We need to challenge skill rather than endurance/
Solution: Maximum 5-6 tables in one challenge.

2) Easy tables. Nobody wants to play 40+ mins marathon on Black Hole or SS or Bride of Pinbot. It just too long and boring for challenge mode.
Solution: Cut easy tables from challenges. For example - Black Hole from Gottlieb Challenge. Sure this tables are fun but in the term of challenge concept they are not suitable.

----------------------------
How we can improve this system?

1) Random table selection. So i start Gottlieb challenge and i don't know what table will be the first, second etc.

2) More ballanced challenges!
a) Remove some tables from Williams and Bally challenges.
b) Remove Black Hole from Gottlieb Challenge.
c) Remove Season 1 challenge.
d) Add "Season 1 Best" Challenge (Best of 6)
e) Add "Season 2 Best" Challenge:
Cactus Canyon
White Water
PIN•BOT
Whirlwind
Terminator 2: Judgment Day
El Dorado: City Of Gold

f) More new ballanced challenges hyper EX Edition! For example:
MONSTER CHALLENGE
Monster Bash
Creature from the Black Lagoon
Elvira and the Party Monsters
Haunted House
Class of 1812

g) Make a poll for the new "TPA Fans Choice Challenge"


Thanks for reading guys! I hope that these ideas will be useful.

 

[Tron]

Personally Challenge Mode doesn't grab my interest.

I would rather the time spent implementing this was channeled into improving other parts of the game. i.e update the UI, improve the lackluster flooring, add ambient arcade sounds in the background etc.

 

[Retro Invaders]

Well...After the first challenge (it was Bally) i see another 2 problems:

Points limit I got this on the first ball on SS. Then i just spent 5 minutes to drain all the balls and the extra balls. This is another reason why easy tables should be removed.

Table bugs TZ just broke after Lost in zone mode. Something wrong with plunger. I lost 5 balls. In the end of the challenge i pressed Leaderboards button... and the game crushed. So you never know when your challenge ends =)

 

[Kaoru]

Another suggestion: High scores should count for the leaderboards and table goals should get ticked off.

When I played the Gottlieb/Stern challenge and came to Big Shot I had this crazy thought: "You know what? This will be the one time in which I finally get past the 250.000 points, and neither the score nor the wizard goal will be legit because Farsight just does stuff like that."

What can I say, it really sucked to be right.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

We need PAPA settings in there as well.

 

[Roo]

Just tried this the other night and it was not a great experience. My issues:

1. As others said, high scores and goals achieved don't count. Why on earth not? Is there some way to "cheat" I'm not thinking of? This alone is enough to turn me off. Definitely had my best game ever on RBION going.

2. Again, as others said, it's too much of a marathon. I know you can save and continue but I must have played for almost an hour and only got through 2 tables in the season 1 challenge. I didn't even re-try any and I only consider myself average for an enthusiast player. I'm not one of the guys that knows every table inside and out and can play a single game for 4 hours.

I would much rather see smaller, tighter challenges that encourage you to try them again and again (or do you only get one total attempt?). Something that gets me out of my normal rut of playing my favorite tables and adds in some bursts of variety, or something that forces me to play in a slightly different way.

I like the "monster challenge" idea. Or what about a Steve Richie or Pat Lawler challenge?

Or maybe you only get 1 ball and no extra balls. Then you could rip through a "season" challenge reasonably quickly.

How about an EM challenge? (even though I'm not a huge fan, some are!)

3. I played TOTAN and it seemed like a normal game. I got a few extra balls and an ok score so I moved on. Then I was on RBION and was having a really good game - got like 6 or 7 extra balls (some were from specials) and I swear that was all on ball 1 because it kept saying "shoot again". Ball 1 finally ended and I hit both flippers to try and skip the bonus counting stuff. But then the challenge complete screen came up with my points summary, but the status report / "instant info" came up and started cycling on the DMD in the background (as if it was stuck with the flipper held down). I guess I could be mistaken but it seemed like I got screwed out of ball 2 and 3. Or is this by design and I'm missing something?

4. Then I gave up on the challenge for the time being and started a game of Cactus Canyon. I was again having my best game and wanted to check the instructions to see how to get the last item on the badge for the wizard mode. So since you can't do that while in-game, I reached for my phone to check it on the iOS app. But I accidentally nudged the mouse and I think I clicked on the second monitor - meaning I changed focus off of TPA (similar to alt + tab). Well that crashed the whole thing. I know this bug has been reported several times over the months (ever since the beta, I believe), so I'm disappointed it still exists. Not strictly a problem with challenge mode of course, but it crashing could ruin your whole challenge just as easily, as Retro Invaders had happen.

 

[PC.Doctor]

I played the Bally challenge and I had too many incidents with the balls getting stuck and me having to call the "attendant". After playing SS for so long, I had to drain the ball on purpose just to proceed on to the next table.

 

[Dan]

Spelunky showed the way with one daily challenge.

 

[mpad]

Another suggestion: High scores should count for the leaderboards and table goals should get ticked off.

When I played the Gottlieb/Stern challenge and came to Big Shot I had this crazy thought: "You know what? This will be the one time in which I finally get past the 250.000 points, and neither the score nor the wizard goal will be legit because Farsight just does stuff like that."

What can I say, it really sucked to be right.

Yeah!!! What is the reason behind this? I always get my highest scores when in challenge mode. maybe I need the extra pressure or something.
Starting the bally challenge I almost reached 2 billion on ToM (which is very good in my terms) and started grande finale.
I never got this far in normal gameplay.

I never play challenge mode again if this doesn't count like a regular game.
this way it is just a total WASTE

 

[mpad]

Aaah. Broke my promise and did play challenge mode again. Had a super great game on ripley's. It not counting for regular hs alone is bad enough.
But there also was a bug that it didn't recognize I had an extra ball left. Suddenly the menu came up withe the "success, time to move on bla...". Arrrrrgh.
Please FS fix this! And please let the scores count!!!

 

[Roo]

Aaah. Broke my promise and did play challenge mode again. Had a super great game on ripley's. It not counting for regular hs alone is bad enough.
But there also was a bug that it didn't recognize I had an extra ball left. Suddenly the menu came up withe the "success, time to move on bla...". Arrrrrgh.
Please FS fix this! And please let the scores count!!!

Yeah, don't hit both flipper buttons to skip the bonus totals on RBION; it will end your game prematurely! It happens outside of challenge mode as well.

 

[mpad]

Thanks. Good to know.

 

[SarahJS]

Personally Challenge Mode doesn't grab my interest.

I would rather the time spent implementing this was channeled into improving other parts of the game. i.e update the UI, improve the lackluster flooring, add ambient arcade sounds in the background etc.

Agreed. Maybe it just takes a very specific kind of person to like the challenge mode.

 

[SqueakyG]

So I checked out this challenge mode recently. For some reason I didn't notice it was there!

There's a bunch of challenges for the Season 1 pack of tables I own. Then recently I bought Season 2. I was expecting to see the list of challenges updated to include all the new tables in my collection, but the list didn't change. It's still just a list of challenges suitable for Season 1. Is it supposed to be like that?