Feedback on new UI

[bigfatbass]

It's like they intentionally mess up things that are working fine in some Bizzaro world where bad is good, and superman is a moron with a hunk of crystal for a head. A bit off topic, but has anyone ever come across an "optimized for mobile" version of something that was better than the previous version? Or pretty much any "upgrade"? It's as if they are thinking: Gee, all this stuff is working great and it's actually starting to generate us some real money. Let's completely muck with it and release a basically untested version that will cause hundreds and hundreds of loyal users to jettison our program overnight. Won't that be great?

 

[bigfatbass]

On topic, that work around would save some fuss if it was during a game. I can't pause a game I haven't actually started yet. As of right now I can only play one or two games before it crashes. Not worth my time to endlessly have to restart it. Often I actually have to restart my tablet to get it to reset itself back to normal. Having this kind of bug in a major public release is simply inexcusable but is actually the norm for this world of no accountability and users that will pretty much put up with anything for the content they like. Not this user, I'll watch this thread for a while to see if there is any news on cleaning up the full diaper they handed us, but I don't see myself playing much. It's like walking into an arcade with one quarter.

 

[Metalzoic]

It's awful. I think I'm done with TPA, this being the nail in the coffin. I just wish there was a way to downgrade and stick with the few tables I actually like.

Yeah, this UI on the Android version is so bad I just deleted it off my phone entirely.
What I did on the Steam version was go back to my backup folder of version 1.50.10, so I have all the tables, with the latest fixes, with none of the new glitches, and with the previous UI that doesn't complete f*** up cab support.

If they don't drastically change and improve the new UI then I'll simply not buy Season 6 and never give them another dime or contribute to another Kickstarter again. However Farsight are complete morons so I don't think they will fix it. Hell it took them 3 years to design something that looks worse than any interface in the past decade.

 

[kinggo]

I still didn't update on v 2.x so I have no idea how bad it is. Luckily, I'm on rooted device so going back is not a problem for me.

 

[Spork98765]

I'll watch this thread for a while to see if there is any news

This thread is probably the most activity the Android section has had in the last year.

Most users went to PC, as you can see the beta testing liaison suggesting you do here in this thread, or just stopped caring about the game and it's not like FarSight bothers to communicate anything via the Google Play store which leaves the majority of end users in the dark about things. Which translates to lost sales, disappointed and frustrated users with no recourse.


I am kind of curious that no-one has questioned why Android has 4 free tables of the month.

Is that not a bug of some kind. Reading the Play Store reviews it sure seems to be causing no limit of trouble for the "end user".

 

[bigfatbass]

It shows 4 tables of the month, but only one is actually unlocked for free play. The others are still cripple.ware like every other table. As for moving to steam, the old mac in my den won't run the new version.

 

[Day]

a complete abomination on android imho. if reverting to the fully serviceable UI isn't possible i will sadly not be playing any more. what has been foisted on us is quite simply no fun at all.

i'm not rooted, do i have any possibility to regress?

 

[bigfatbass]

Happens every time now. Play one game, go to start another one, it tricks/forces me to a web page or the playstore, and when you click back out of all that crap the game is unplayable. What an (expletive withheld) joke. I will never understand why companies do this, it appears to be the business model for the new millennium. Build it, sell it, and as soon as it becomes the least bit successful, completely screw it up and wonder where your users went. I tried the other pinball emulator recommended but all the tables are junk. Overseas release cookie cutter tables, designed during the era that almost killed the pastime. People raving about the lighting and camera adjustments? Who cares when the tables are lame? Couldn't delete it fast enough.

 

[Shardz]

Random crashing confirmed. After two to five games on a single table, the app will force close now after this lovely new UI update. It happens every time I play the game, no matter which table I select. It never fails; I start off a game off blazing well looking like a high score game and...crash. Extremely disappointing to say the least.

 

[rhester72]

Wasn't one of the points of the new UI to finally bring Android TV into the fold? It's frustrating to no end to have waited a _year_ with no end in sight just to be able to play my tables on Shield TV...where the tables really shine! *sigh*

Rodney

 

[Shardz]

New update out today for Android and no idea what has changed since the last patch as I can't find a changelog anywhere. I see no obvious changes or fixes, or hear any since the audio settings still won't save. Goin' Nuts still force closes the app after three balls are released. No visible checkmarks for goals still, no way to know your composite HoF rating, either. Boy, at this slow rate, it will take 12 years to get this game proper like it was before this SuperRevision that we just had to have.

 

[AnvilCloud]

The problem is TPA is ignoring it's fanbase, a good portion of which of invested a good amount of money in.

People don't really want patches and fixes, they hate this UI and the problems it brings.

They could've upgraded the old UI with extreme ease by added a seek bar to the left side of the table menu. That would allow you to scroll from A to Z in a second or less. It's programming basics FFS! I did give them this advice, I guess they ignored it. Enjoy your dwindling client base. Maybe I should start working on an android side project.

 

[Gorgias32]

One thing that was definitely fixed in the latest update is the bug for setting up multi-player games - you no longer have to double-tap the buttons to increase the number of players in the "table setup" screen.

All in all, I feel like the new UI is getting to the point that it's pretty stable. I really appreciate having some of the new features (many different ways to access/sort tables, random table, easy selection of custom ball, quick links for last played/newest release/free tables of the month) - I would not want to go back to the old UI now. The general graphic design and intuitiveness are still not great in my opinion, but I don't personally mind those now.

This whole experience with the new GUI rolling out clearly in early beta form just makes me realize that Farsight is a small shop, probably with no dedicated software QA personnel. With the staff they have, however, they are focusing on what is really important long term (the tables) and they are pretty agile/quick to fix bugs across all the platforms that they support.

New update out today for Android and no idea what has changed since the last patch as I can't find a changelog anywhere. I see no obvious changes or fixes, or hear any since the audio settings still won't save. Goin' Nuts still force closes the app after three balls are released. No visible checkmarks for goals still, no way to know your composite HoF rating, either. Boy, at this slow rate, it will take 12 years to get this game proper like it was before this SuperRevision that we just had to have.

 

[AnvilCloud]

Confirmed that they have no desire to move from this UI and really don't care how many of us dislike it. Really not the way a business is properly run. Don't see progress in bug fixes, but I swear I've noticed slight cosmetic tweaks since the last update.

Having a degree in programming, I can not imagine how this company is run. It's extremely immature and rather insulting to it's user base. Not to mention how many relatively simple bugs I've come across that have relatively simple fixes.

I for one might just stop doing business with these people. Wouldn't bother normally outside of the fact that some of us have paid this company well over $100. Just amateurish and embarrassing to be honest.

 

[Baron Rubik]

I didn't realise there were so many Android users and members here judging by the platforms previous thread activity.
It's been nice to see them all, even if it was just before they all spoke out to announce they were leaving

I currently own all tables on Android, so I'm not having the problem where owned tables are interspersed with not owned.
I'm not going to be buying all going forwards though so would like an additional option to hide unowned tables. Other than that, I can live with the new ui. It looks like garbage and obscures some features, but it adds others like Google Play scoring so I wouldn't go back. I'll qualify that statement with, whoever actually designed the look and feel and ok'd it should be dragged out and shot, after that we can all get on with playing Pinball.

I'm personally more pished off with Farsight for reasons other than the ui.
I've said them many times before, but for the record...
1 Black Knight still not being rom emulated and having meshing issues.
2 it runs like cr@p on a Samsung Note 4, which I know isn't new but TPA worked very well on the S4 and even the htc Desire I had previously.
3 - just general bugs and glitches. The bugs and glitches I encounter are almost every time linked to TPA and it's abnormal behaviour. I set this up on my Shield K1, it didn't work for 3 days and then just suddenly settled in without any change. No other apps or developers give me these issues.

Fix BK, add menu option to hide un purchased tables, and I'll live with it, and disappear into obscurity maybe still purchasing the occasional future table that takes my fancy.

 

[Shardz]

Someone mentioned not being able to enter their initials on the high score screen, which didn't happen here....until yesterday. On some tables, you can enter the first initial properly, but the right scroll key doesn't work and stays at the letter A. I found that you can hit the left scroll key to cycle the alphabet, but then it resets to A again and the last two initials can take more time this way. Since there is a time limit time to set the three letters, you need to be swift.

Also, the sound settings are not saving still. I turn off the music in settings, restart the app and it's blaring Pinball Wizard again. Three patches and this hasn't been fixed yet!

Playing a table multiple times still results in a random crash for me between 2-8 plays. Not sure why. Goin' Nuts still crashes for some people after the third ball is released...This started with the patch right before the new UI. No word on that yet, either.

I have to say that the crack is strong in Big Bear or something. I understand they have schedules and priorities, but changing something like this just to change it really sucks. And this new UI took 2 years to build I read?? I love dark UI in my apps, but it just went terribly wrong with this game...it doesn't fit and it's morbid to look at. The final insult is not one single damned reply in this Android thread or even an ounce of acknowledgement, just like the bad reviews on GP. I noticed they only reply to positive reviews while ignoring everything else....and that is how I feel being on Android; ignored.



Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Spork98765]

Also, the sound settings are not saving still. I turn off the music in settings, restart the app and it's blaring Pinball Wizard again. Three patches and this hasn't been fixed yet!

This is due to the inane way that FarSight saves setting. You have to finish a game to the end of the last ball before the app is closed in order for settings to save.

Make changes, play a quick game, let all the ball drain, and the settings will save.

IDK if this will work for everyone, but this is how I have been able to save music settings on both Android and Steam.

 

[Shardz]

This is due to the inane way that FarSight saves setting. You have to finish a game to the end of the last ball before the app is closed in order for settings to save.

Make changes, play a quick game, let all the ball drain, and the settings will save.

IDK if this will work for everyone, but this is how I have been able to save music settings on both Android and Steam.

Oh, I change the sound settings and play up a storm, then exit the app normally and it still doesn't save. I will try that method again with draining and exit, but I can't get it to work. Thanks for the suggestion, though.

 

[AnvilCloud]

I'm curious, does anyone know if they did any actual out-of-house testing before implementing this horrid UI? I am asking about the android platform to be specific ( although i own many of the tables for Xbox one and some on PC). It's generally standard protocol to do a number of rounds of testing before releasing a pay-for product especially. In these testings, you not only look for bugs but after that you try to actually break your app to discover potential issues and weaknesses. And these do generally get fixed before getting rolled out. Particularly (!!!) If your product already has an established user base with large amounts of invested money already.

There is literally too many bugs to name. Like everyone else, the sound settings for the menu don't stick no matter what I've tried. Various tables now, for some reason, crash at seemingly random times. RBION was one of my faves and now I cannot play more than maybe 5 minutes without a FC( force close). Framework covers the DM display so you can't just look at the display to see high score. And inputting a high score is now ridiculously tedious if manageable at all.

"I noticed they only reply to positive reviews while ignoring everything else....and that is how I feel being on Android; ignored."

I've seen them respond to the some of the overwhelmingly negative feedback with the near insulting response of "we're glad to see how enthusiastic you are about pinball ".

Wow. Just wow.

Would love to see them take a minute to respond to some of us outside of the copy-n-paste replies they have to real feedback from what used to be real fans. And this garbage UI isn't the only issue, but it broke quite a few things in the process. And where are the videos some of us purchased?

 

[Shardz]

You saw them reply to negative reviews because they were once positive reviews that changed! They won't reply if it's negative. As for testing, I understand they have some free testers from the community and that's it.

Hundreds have said it and I'll say it again; they don't listen to their customers whatsoever. They just do. The Android thread has gone unnoticed since the introduction of the new disaster UI, and it will probably stay that way since it's not gleaming with love for this terrible idea they came up with.