Done with Cactus Canyon

[spoonman]

I love the funny Western theme of Cactus Canyon but the ramps kill the table for me. From the left ramp there is a 10% chance that the ball goes SDTM. It's cheap and I refuse to nudge because this is not a danger zone where the player can decide if he wants to take the risk or not. It's either a bug or poor design.

It's also surprising how many on-the-fly shots with the right flipper will hit something on the table and immediately drain in the right outlane. The Wild West can be cruel.

I agree with Yeti on this. The high percentage or right lane drains combined with not being able to see it leads to frustration.

I mentioned a while back, that if they could somehow make the guns semi transparent it would at least give the player a fighting chance. http://digitalpinballfans.com/showt...-are-Available-NOW!!-PSN-NA?p=73810#post73810

But yeah, as much as I love the Wild West theme, I just can't play this one very long without wanting to throw the controller or let out some Deadwood grade swears.

 

[Kolchak357]

I asked Bobby about the orbit issue and here's what he said: "I did that on purpose to make the table a little harder. Before I made a few tweaks, the average player would last forever. A perfect feed every time isn't realistic."

Yet they corrected this on AFM and I don't hear anyone complaining about that fix.
CC is not a terribly difficult pin in real life. I only played two games on it and got surprisingly far into the game. In fact many pin collectors don't like it because it is too easy.
If they want to make it tougher for elite players, then make the backhand shots tougher to make or weaken the flipper strength. Maybe a flipper strength user setting? This would be interesting on many tables. I'd like to be able to weaken the flippers on Big Shot and Central Park.

 

[netizen]

I asked Bobby about the orbit issue and here's what he said: "I did that on purpose to make the table a little harder. Before I made a few tweaks, the average player would last forever. A perfect feed every time isn't realistic."

Didn't he encourage players to play forever by making the HOF and local HSTD targets so impossibly high though?

If the orbits were reliable, then the ramp collision meshes could be tightened up to make it so it were even more difficult to get your shots on them, or upping the default difficulty for the game; have no memories enabled etc.

But setting up on purpose situation that result in un savable drains and set up the sort of ball collisions errors that are oh so difficult to reproduce then it is asking for a discontented user base; especially when a precedent has been set with changing this exact situation once already (AFM).

 

[TomL]

If they want to make it tougher for elite players, then make the backhand shots tougher to make or weaken the flipper strength. Maybe a flipper strength user setting? This would be interesting on many tables. I'd like to be able to weaken the flippers on Big Shot and Central Park.

I've read that TPA tables are modeled after brand new factory fresh machines: strong flippers, fresh rubber bumpers, clean playfield, etc. It would be interesting to have the option of introducing small imperfections into tables to simulate wear & tear:

weakening flippers
bumpers getting slightly less bouncy
playfield friction changing

Tom

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

On a FRESH CC you get a double dead pass. ball hits left flipper then bounces to the right then back to the left. He added code to do that Mmm ok PEE WEE HERMAN "I meant to do that" translation "I cant fix it like I did for AFM" C'mooon Maaan.

 

[pinballchris]

I asked Bobby about the orbit issue and here's what he said: "I did that on purpose to make the table a little harder. Before I made a few tweaks, the average player would last forever. A perfect feed every time isn't realistic."

If that is the case, I will never touch this table again unless it is announced it has been removed. I have never played this in real life, but others here have said it is a flawless release to the orbits in real life. It would be one thing if the release hit the tip of the flippers, or made a change in ability to catch or pass, but these go SDTM. Hardly fair.

 

[grashopper]

Yeah, I'm not a fan of the game randomly deciding to kill you to make sure you don't play too long.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Bobby added this:

"I consulted with Josh Sharpe during the development of CC because the table was WAY too easy when it was beta. On the real table, the speed of the ball affects where it feeds to and it actually can feed SDTM. Our re-creation is still pretty easy. "Fixing" the orbit feeds would make me nervous."

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

So what happen to TZ? I thought they weren't suppose to add things to the game?

 

[pinballchris]

Bobby added this:

"I consulted with Josh Sharpe during the development of CC because the table was WAY too easy when it was beta. On the real table, the speed of the ball affects where it feeds to and it actually can feed SDTM. Our re-creation is still pretty easy. "Fixing" the orbit feeds would make me nervous."

I would disagree and would like to think I am pretty decent at Virtual Pinball, Only two people have beaten the local high scores since release on iOS. I can't even come close to my personal high score since the table released.

 

[smbhax]

So shouldn't they find a realistic way to vary the speed, rather than assign an arbitrary random kick to the ball as it exits?

I wonder if they ever tried something like just having every collision vary speed and angle by some minute random value (except off the flippers!)--not enough to seem unrealistic or even be noticeable on its own, but just enough to add up to some travel variation as the ball bounces around the table.

 

[Kolchak357]

Why not just have the ball disappear every now and then? Basically the some thing IMO. The earliest beta version didn't have the random/fake kickouts, and it was easier, but it was also not infuriating.

 

[pinballchris]

Why not just have the ball disappear every now and then? Basically the some thing IMO. The earliest beta version didn't have the random/fake kickouts, and it was easier, but it was also not infuriating.

The game/table appears to be a marathon table anyways to hit high scores and complete all the challenges.

I think I will remove the balance weights from one of my wheels, it rides too smoothly and I may get too many miles out of my tires.

 

[netizen]

There has to be a balance.
Fix the orbits, but set the specials to credit/point, and 1 replay level set to credit, so that there are less extra balls awarded if Bobby is worried about people playing for too long and wants this to closer emulate a real pinball machine.

This forces the player to get extra balls from Polly's Rescue and from completing the modes

 

[pinballchris]

There has to be a balance.
Fix the orbits, but set the specials to credit/point, and 1 replay level set to credit, so that there are less extra balls awarded if Bobby is worried about people playing for too long and wants this to closer emulate a real pinball machine.

This forces the player to get extra balls from Polly's Rescue and from completing the modes

I would agree. Doesn't make sense to award a bunch of EBs then punish the player. What about those that don't play EBs? They get punished for no reason.

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

Marathon game? You mean like the 8hour game I played on BOP or the 4hour game on MM the fact is its just wrong. Did FS make the pop bumpers lame on AFM so I can get supper jets faster? It doesn't make sense other than BK saying how the tournament turned into a marathon game and HE didn't have time for such long games or maybe it's a battery life issue for MOBILES! Screwd again by the mobiles priorities over consoles.

 

[pinballchris]

Marathon game? You mean like the 8hour game I played on BOP or the 4hour game on MM the fact is its just wrong. Did FS make the pop bumpers lame on AFM so I can get supper jets faster? It doesn't make sense other than BK saying how the tournament turned into a marathon game and HE didn't have time for such long games or maybe it's a battery life issue for MOBILES! Screwd again by the mobiles priorities over consoles.

I am sorry, I am missing your point. I couldn't imagine playing BOP for more than 45-60 minutes. AFM pops are a bit crazy now I agree, I had no trouble before anyways in that game except the right loop, I think it is perfect now, the entire table. MM I love, and the points, difficulty, goals and local score are correct for the table and game play. This table, not so much.

Add to the fact there are no coded ball drains on those tables. If you can keep the ball on the table and keep scoring, that is the way it is supposed to be. Now, if a real life table has a common "glitch" then it should be included. Pretty frustrating to get to 200M on this table, then have your 2 or 3 EBs drain SDTM due to this.

 

[spoonman]

I've had games on real machines last hours before so I have no problem playing that way on the PS3.
At least that has a pause button.

I didn't think CC had anyways drains during my game last night so I honestly think that might have been a lucky game or something. That right lane seems to drain at about a 75:25 ratio. It wouldn't be SO bad if you could actually see past the gun.

So is there any chance they will fix this and make it a fun table like the rest??

 

[pinballchris]

So decided to give this game another shot. Really a waste of time. Who almost falls asleep during pinball? Actually, unless it is my last game of the evening, I restart the first ball if I don't hit 100M, high noon or collect an extra ball. Seriously FS, waste of time. And I really think ball collision is messed up on this table as well.

 

[superballs]

Wow, I love this table. It makes me belly laugh still



<-------This is my belly laugh face.