DLC Release Date

[laughing_lunatic]

hmmm, in a dark room, I like the PS3 versions... during the day, the XBOX'ers take the crown. How spoilt am I now for choice ?

 

[Richard B]

FS's ultimate plan is to offer a slider switch, so the user can configure it to their liking. Until they get that finished, it might not be a bad idea to have both systems have different lighting schemes, so they will each be unique in their own way.

 

[szycag]

MM's DMD isn't "glowing" like the initial tables after the update. Also the pack one stuff doesn't seem to have the lighting upgrade, or at least the contrast is a lot better on the pack 2 stuff. Will it be another long wait to get the first two DLC tables up to speed?

 

[Emmanuel Papillon]

Might be something you want to check out yourself before you believe things you read in posts?

Not when one of those posts is the actual Farsight developer who made the damn table openly acknowledging the bug from more than three months ago. And I have a hard time believing it's hard to notice when it's found only a few hours after going online - both back when it released on phones, and now on 360.

I mean, it's flippers too far apart. On a pinball machine. It's pretty big. It's not some mysterious bug that happens on mysterious circumstances. It's physical, it's right there, in the middle of the table, it's the stuff you control to make the ball bounce back... having a hole too big in the middle, that lets balls drop without you being able to do anything... it's some sort of real issue for a pinball machine. No?

Also, people may not think right away: "oh, the flippers are too far apart", but they'll think: "man, that table is unfair/badly designed". And stop playing it. And miss the patch that'll fix it in three or four months (or never)?

And finally, yes, I check out stuff before buying them, now, when it's from Farsight. Because I've been burnt again, and again. If stuff had worked properly right after release, I would not worry about it, like with other software I buy. But things being as they are, I pretty much have to check things out on forums like this, you know? No offence to Mike, I'm pretty sure you guys do as much as you can, I admire your passion and the ambition of your project, but I'm not into buying an alpha version and waiting for it to be patched for months. There are way too many issues. I mean, like the plunger camera on release... how on Earth can you miss something like that? That issue is you don't see where you throw the ball at launch. You see it the very first second you start a game. How could it release like this back in April?

 

[Trib74]

Up until now, I've been content to lurk in these forums, but I have to express my amazement at how people simply have to find something to complain about after finally getting the Xbox DLC. "Unplayable?" "Rubbish?" Give me a break. With a limited understanding of the rules, I scored 606M on MM last night. Overly large flipper gap or not, I'm finding it to be a relatively easy table, at least on the Xbox. It makes me wonder how long some people actually spent on the table before they concluded that their lack of success was the table's fault.

Anyway, thanks to Mike and the Farsight team for their patience and hard work. Even if they are not yet perfect recreations, I still love having these tables on my Xbox and appreciate what you guys do.

 

[Richard B]

MM's DMD isn't "glowing" like the initial tables after the update. Also the pack one stuff doesn't seem to have the lighting upgrade, or at least the contrast is a lot better on the pack 2 stuff. Will it be another long wait to get the first two DLC tables up to speed?

The core tables update will be out tomorrow.

 

[Richard B]

Anyway, thanks to Mike and the Farsight team for their patience and hard work. Even if they are not yet perfect recreations, I still love having these tables on my Xbox and appreciate what you guys do.

I second that. Imperfect as they are, they are still the best recreations I've ever played.

 

[Crush3d_Turtle]

None of the tables are the "dark versions" the PS3 had. Personally, I like the level they are at now.

I completely agree with that. The darkness on the PS3 in addition to the flipper lag was more than enough to drive me over to the 360 version for good.

 

[Emmanuel Papillon]

Up until now, I've been content to lurk in these forums, but I have to express my amazement at how people simply have to find something to complain about after finally getting the Xbox DLC.

I've waited three years for Williams Pinball to release on 360, with bogus announcements from Farsight every six months telling the game would be out the next month. I've bought The Pinball Arcade and saw the graphics simply weren't what was advertised, was then told it'd be quickly fixed, and now, four months later, it still isn't, and I'll believe it's fixed when it is. Black Hole doesn't work properly. Every single other version has issues ("be glad it doesn't have lag" we read here, "be glad you have the DLC" we read on the PS3 forum), and the new tables have important errors, again known and acknowledged by Farsight. And again, I don't understand how any company could release their product with the initial plunger view, again, how can you miss something like that?

I'm simply saying I'm not trusting this company any more, I think they're way too OK with releasing alpha versions, and I will only buy something from them when I read it works 100% first, which is pretty understandable given the facts. I even went out of my way to say nice things to Farsight, because I saw how rabid the fans of this forum became, and because I don't want them to get discouraged. If this perfectly reasonable attitude generates hostility from you, then it's your own damn problem.

The way Farsight works, with alpha releases and constant adjustments and patches, simply won't go well with the console market in general, and Microsoft in particular. Some of it comes from the nature of the simulation and arcade, but some of it seems to come from a "what the Hell, we'll patch it later" attitude.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

flipper gap too wide...play JIVE TIME then play MM what GAP Havnt you Xbox guys read the bugs for ps3? What you thought you were special for waiting longer? WELCOME TO THE PARTY PAL!

 

[Trib74]

So let's get this straight. You complain that they don't release new content when you want it. Then, when they release something, you complain that the content was released too early. Does that about sum it up?

I mean, seriously. Black Hole doesn't work correctly. So what? Rather than complain about it incessantly, I accepted it for what it was and went on to score 79M on it. I'm all for identifying and discussing bugs, inaccuracies, etc. but whining about it gets old after awhile and making extreme exaggerations about its effect on gameplay is just silly.

I would love to see further improvements in the game, and I've been frustrated with it at times, but these tables are easily worth what I paid for them, warts and all.

 

[Richard B]

Mike said BH would likely be fixed on the third title update (that's the one after the next one, which enables CFTBL and probably other tables as well.)

 

[malignance]

I would love to see further improvements in the game, and I've been frustrated with it at times, but these tables are easily worth what I paid for them, warts and all.

Agreed! This messageboard is filled with some of the whiniest people (even for the internet). I understand the frustration, but come on! Get a grip! I am enjoying the hell out of these games. Are they perfect? No, and they never will be, but they are damn close and I think Farsight has been doing a decent job and I am sure they are trying their best (thanks, Mike!).

I wish people would just stick to constructive criticism and stop with the whining and entitlement.

Play some pinball and have some fun!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I mean, it's flippers too far apart. On a pinball machine. It's pretty big. It's not some mysterious bug that happens on mysterious circumstances. It's physical, it's right there, in the middle of the table, it's the stuff you control to make the ball bounce back... having a hole too big in the middle, that lets balls drop without you being able to do anything... it's some sort of real issue for a pinball machine. No?

As best I can tell from playing Medieval Madness on the 360 tonight and deliberately hitting the troll standups and the gate to get lots of potential center drains, I believe that the collision mesh for the right flipper is in the correct location, but the visible flipper is too far right. You can flip at a ball that looks like it's just going to brush by the right flipper and it will make solid contact and save the ball, even though it looks like the ball is bouncing off air.

In short, that right flipper is actually slightly longer than it looks. Should it be fixed? Definitely. But there are things you can do now to minimize its impact.

You have an ultra-liberal tilt setting on these tables. Use it for all it's worth. It is no different than adjusting your play of a real table to get around a broken or malfunctioning part, or some playfield aberration. If you know that a ramp reject will often go SDTM, shove that table before the ball even makes it back off the ramp. Get a trap, wait a few seconds for the virtual tilt bob to settle, resume play. Not that hard.

I would love to see further improvements in the game, and I've been frustrated with it at times, but these tables are easily worth what I paid for them, warts and all.

Exactly. CP Pinball, my local "arcade" (actually a private collection that's occasionally open to the public), charges $15 for 6 hours. That's $2.50 an hour, which in and of itself is a smashingly good deal already. It costs an average of $2.50 to play a TPA table forever...and it's always open...and the "table" might have bugs, but it never has mechanical failures or is in need of maintenance...and for some platforms you can even take the table with you wherever you go. Is that seriously not worth putting up with some errors and inaccuracies, especially when some of the developers are here answering questions about and discussing said errors and inaccuracies, thereby demonstrating a desire to get things fixed instead of just moving on to the next revenue opportunity?

I really think some players have lost all sense of perspective of what they're being offered with TPA. If someone had told me a year ago that I would be playing a 99% accurate reproduction of Monster Bash at my desk during my lunch break, having paid ten quarters to play it as many times as I wanted, I would have thought they had gone mad. And yet I did that today, and was very happy about it.

 

[Revlis Llab]

i spend the last days reading reading reading almost every post in the forum and there are a lot of very good points and comments but also some creepy fanboy stuff. Unfounded hate against microsoft and a lot of funny stuff too. I really enjoy the board though because in general the focus stays on pinball most of the time. And that's what matters most.
I agree on some points you made but a computer game and a real pinball table is not comparable by no means. Maybe it looks almost the same but that's it. Even timeshock, by far the best simulation available right now, is just a computer game and is not comparable with a real machine. So comparing the price is useless.

The only purpose of all these things is entertainment and that's what all these things should do, entertain. But not everything entertains everyone the same way and if someone is not able to find entertainment in a buggy table then that's the way it is. Stop trying to convince people that tpa is a good piece of entertainment or farsight is a great and friendly company. If it fits for you, perfect but there are others who are not satisfied. The user franky was criticized for trying to convince people that farsight is doing a sloppy job, but most of you doing the exact same thing, trying to convince people that tpa and farsight is a good thing.

Every second post is a justification for something. we all should stop trying to convince each other. some are entertained and some not. some can live with all the bugs others can't. For some farsight is doing a good job for others not.

Best thing is to accept this and let it be. People try to entertain yourself with whatever it is.


yours,
Revlis

 

[Daniel Osborne]

Deleting everything and reinstalling made the update work. Just going to try the leaderboards and achievement glitch.

 

[bavelb]

Deleting everything and reinstalling made the update work. Just going to try the leaderboards and achievement glitch.

Most likely still won't work, has nothing to do with the update. It's a Microsoft serverside/database issue.

 

[Daniel Osborne]

The leaderboards and achievement glitch still remains a problem. I lost all my table goals, so I'll not play the new tables till these two things are fixed.

 

[DJ Clae]

Deleting the core game program and the update worked. I didn't have to delete my saved game or the two DLC packs. I now have the update running on the original 4 tables. I wonder if it has been like this all along.

I'm keeping a copy of my saved game data on a memory card so I don't have to worry about losing it.

 

[bavelb]

I didnt have to delete anything to get the update working today. It just went past 99% when it unlocked this morning, as FS said it would.