Do you restart a game after a lousy ball?

[switch3flip]

I can understand people who never do that as a philosophy of play, or to really simulate the quarter u should pay, but the story of "lot of good games have started on ball 3" is a non-sense: if u had restarted ur game and started with your theoric 3rd ball u would hve had the same score, and 2 others balls to play... that's the goal of the systeme ^^

Well not really, because there's the psychological aspect, when you're down to your last ball you tend to concentrate more and tighten up your game. So for some people it makes all the difference. Now if you're the type of player who chokes under pressure, well...

 

[fromduc]

Well not really, because there's the psychological aspect, when you're down to your last ball you tend to concentrate more and tighten up your game. So for some people it makes all the difference. Now if you're the type of player who chokes under pressure, well...

Lol, i'm the kind of player who plays a couple of games on each table just to discover the table, no matter points, and after that i just play for leaderboards, so feeling pressure on 3rd ball after have done peanuts on the 1st and second is not an option Pressure comes when u're on last ball and at the doors of a top 20, 10 or 5... and there i got to admit i do choke sometimes ;p

Anyway, i can understand ur point coz it seems u play really like on a real pinball, and there indeed u concentrate on your last ball to not have to put ur next penny right after. I play this game as a video game, based on pinball of course but a video game before anything else.

 

[Tann]

I can understand people who never do that as a philosophy of play, or to really simulate the quarter u should pay, but the story of "lot of good games have started on ball 3" is a non-sense: if u had restarted ur game and started with your theoric 3rd ball u would hve had the same score, and 2 others balls to play... that's the goal of the systeme ^^

Well, the opposite is true too! ^^

You can have a great first ball and mess up the two others balls. Especially on tough and punitive tables like F2K or HH.

For my part, I almost don't track which ball number it is (except for extra-balls). I just try to keep each ball alive as long as possible.

Have a good or bad ball has just a psychological effect.

 

[Fungi]

Well, the opposite is true too! ^^

You can have a great first ball and mess up the two others balls.

Happens to me WAY too often.

 

[gooche77]

Every time. No shame in the pursuit of perfection.

 

[DA5ID]

I used to restart thinking that every game was going to be the one that ups my personal high score. Recent realization that practice left me spending way too much time in the early modes of a game and I was restarting before I got to the more interesting and subsequently higher scoring later modes. Letting go of the fact that my first ball was not so stellar and playing through like I would IRL has resulted in more fun and higher scores.

 

[Potrzebie]

Only if I get an immediate drain on ball #1.

 

[vikingerik]

Incorrigible restarter here.

but the story of "lot of good games have started on ball 3" is a non-sense: if u had restarted ur game and started with your theoric 3rd ball u would hve had the same score, and 2 others balls to play... that's the goal of the systeme ^^

This. There is no such thing as casual score play for me in TPA. I only play to aim at top leaderboard spots, and well there's just no sense doing that with a ball or two already wasted.

Well not really, because there's the psychological aspect, when you're down to your last ball you tend to concentrate more and tighten up your game. So for some people it makes all the difference. Now if you're the type of player who chokes under pressure, well...

Total opposite for me. I play considerably worse on ball 3 when there's no margin for error. I know exactly why - I get panicky and flail the ball away instead of patiently coaxing it into a catch near that nasty scary drain. I gotta stay on ball 1 as long as possible where the play is more relaxed.

So my standards for even getting a ball 1 worth playing out are very high. My minimum standard on most tables is to get at least one repeatable extra ball; as in easy one-shots like AFM's second saucer don't count since that's guaranteed to come anyway. I restart probably ten games for every one that makes it up high on the leaderboards.

I even sometimes restart on real legit paid-a-quarter games. Only in the worst situation here - on ball 3 and the first two did absolutely nothing and the machine isn't one that has a pity EB available. I just won't have fun with my back against the wall. I paid for the ball, I get to decide what to do with it. Skip the agony and get on with a fresh game. I can afford it and the time saved is more valuable.

The gray area for me is real machines in unlimited play venues. Restarting is as freely available as on TPA and is the right move for all the same reasons, but there's also the complicating factor that you may be hogging a machine someone else wants to play. This falls somewhere in the middle, I'll restart if the first ball was absolutely terrible and nobody is looking, but otherwise play it out.

 

[Firefox2000]

No, i treat it like i just put my quid in for 3 balls, so i use them all, even if one drains out in the first few seconds, i enjoy it more overall, but that is just personal taste.

 

[Tann]

I only play to aim at top leaderboard spots, and well there's just no sense doing that with a ball or two already wasted.

OK for marathon tables on which you can score a huge amount of points with one ball. One ball quickly lost is one ball wasted.

But on tough tables (EM tables most of the time), restart is a bad choice IMO.

I put the 18th score on Haunted House after losing the two first ball quickly (~100K points). But I scored 3M points with the third and last ball (and one extra-ball). If I had restarted after the first two balls played badly...

 

[vikingerik]

But I scored 3M points with the third and last ball (and one extra-ball). If I had restarted after the first two balls played badly...

...Then you would have had that 3M on the first ball instead with two more still left to go even higher.

 

[Bowflex]

Pinball is weird in that you have the unpredictable ball behavior where you can have 10 awful games and then the best score of your life. I find that this usually happens game to game but sometimes ball to ball. I have experienced 2 balls straight to the outlanes and then on ball 3 get a bunch of extra balls and wizard mode or something. That's why I play til the bitter end every time.

 

[Morg]

I've been gradually trending away from restarting. I used to do it all the time, I figure it's a lifelong video-gamer habit. But I find when I just play through I'm just as likely to have a fantastic ball 3 that in itself challenges or beats my best scores after two terrible balls as I am to have two horrible worthless balls following a great ball 1. Same thing applies to ball 2 or to two great balls with the third going right down the drain.

So anymore I usually just play the game as it comes, figure I learn more that way anyway instead of just focusing on restarting and getting more and more frustrated. It's still tempting when the first ball is over in two seconds though. Since quitting resets some of the games with persistent features to their initial state I'll sometimes use that as an excuse not to restart.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Total opposite for me. I play considerably worse on ball 3 when there's no margin for error. I know exactly why - I get panicky and flail the ball away instead of patiently coaxing it into a catch near that nasty scary drain. I gotta stay on ball 1 as long as possible where the play is more relaxed.

Either I was thinking about this quote, or the same happens to me, but I just got that on STTNG. I got to Ball 2, and I started to panic. Only Bonus X EBs left, and all I'm doing is shooting for locks and starting missions with each new ball. (I was around 200 ramps short of the next Special.) Ball 3 was even worse. I bricked my last multi-ball and "only" finished up with 52B.

 

[Zorgwon]

I restart a game when the ball saver is still active.

This option is missing.

 

[TomL]

I restart a game when the ball saver is still active.

This option is missing.

LOL! Also missing is the option "I stay and see if I match to get a free game."

 

[Punisher]

I just play the game through, personally. I have a tendency of having a single amazing ball. I had a ToM game where I quickly lost the first two balls, coming up on Ball 3 with about 300m. I somehow managed to get to, and clear, the Grand Finale on that ball.

 

[Anderz]

Quitting the table just makes me more unfocused, Ive found out. I prefer a left nudge, a right nudge, another left nudge and a final blow upfront... Nothing like a virtual pinrage, for old times sake...

Then I can restart...

 

[Reagan Dow]

Very interesting proposition.

I'm ashamed to say I sometimes do restart however there have have been times when I haven't and still hit a top 5 local score. I guess I'll have to start really thinking about it before I hit reset!

Thank you

 

[DokkenRokken]

Every time. No shame in the pursuit of perfection.

This.

I'm not gonna sit there and have insta drains. When that happens on Ball 1, it's off to RESTART!