Mark Miwurdz
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- Apr 7, 2012
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What is the ****ing point?
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Welcome Back to Digital Pinball Fans - please read this first
360 - Bug Funhouse. 464m. Ball one. No balls inplay or by plunger. Call attendant not working.
- Thread starter Mark Miwurdz
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Mark Miwurdz
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- Apr 7, 2012
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Had to tilt to maybe force something to happen. Stuck on tilt screen. Who let these clowns develop a pinball game?
bavelb
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- Apr 16, 2012
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How about we don't resort to swearing and namecalling?
Mark Miwurdz
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- Apr 7, 2012
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Never had this problem on the NTSC or PAL version on The Williams X Box game. Did they use that model and build in glitches? I am at the point where I can play the table indefinitely. Cannot save mid-game (MASSIVE oversight there by FS) so what confidence do I have in the game when I decide on a a marathon sesaion to post a leaderboard topping score? Man, I'm angry.
Matt McIrvin
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- Jun 5, 2012
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When this kind of thing has happened to me (on Ripley's, I think, which is an emulated table), the table software actually goes into ball-search mode. I think it'd be reasonable for TPA to assume a ball really has gotten stuck or gone missing if the table itself is in ball search: no need for a complex algorithm; the table devs have already done the hard part for you.
Of course, that strategy would depend on the table logic being emulated, which not all of them are. And it depends on whether it's easy for TPA to tell that the emulated software has gone into ball search.
Of course, that strategy would depend on the table logic being emulated, which not all of them are. And it depends on whether it's easy for TPA to tell that the emulated software has gone into ball search.
Mark Miwurdz
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Fair enough. Am I gonna get a refund like I would in the arcade?
I agree. They should at least fix the call attendant to reset the ball once that happens.
Matt McIrvin
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- Jun 5, 2012
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Ah, OK. I wasn't sure about Funhouse or Bride of Pin*Bot. (especially since Farsight had already done a pretty good scripted Funhouse for PHoF).
Mark Miwurdz
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It really does kill the table for those who can play it well.
- Mar 17, 2012
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I actually suggested a method of dealing with this, but I don't think it got much traction the first time around:
Notes Toward a More Competent "Call Attendant" Feature
Mike Reitmeyer
FarSight Employee
- Mar 13, 2012
- 1,735
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The problem is that lost ball can be caused by many things. We recently had a lost ball happen (1st time myself or the engineer who saw it happen in 1000's of games). The issue he saw was that all the balls were "dead" (No longer in play, not in traps, etc), but the trough was missing a ball. I'm working out a way to fix this, and hopefully this is the problem people have seen.
If the ball is on the table, Call Attendent works unless the ball is colliding with the flipper, in the plunger area, or in a trap.
Like all bugs, it's nearly impossible to fix something until you can reproduce it.
Sorry Mark that you experienced this. As a gamer myself, I know how frustrating a game stopping bug can be.
If the ball is on the table, Call Attendent works unless the ball is colliding with the flipper, in the plunger area, or in a trap.
Like all bugs, it's nearly impossible to fix something until you can reproduce it.
Sorry Mark that you experienced this. As a gamer myself, I know how frustrating a game stopping bug can be.
Mark Miwurdz
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I'll psyche myself up for another go once the leaderboards are workiing.
Tabe
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- Apr 12, 2012
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Seriously? I've had it happen on multiple tables, multiple times, and I've played nowhere near thousands of games.
Tabe
Mike Reitmeyer
FarSight Employee
- Mar 13, 2012
- 1,735
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Bugs require a certain series of events to occur. Because each person plays differently, the events may not happen that are necessary to reproduce the bug. The reason some people see the same bugs more often, most likely has to do with play style and reaction times. They hit the same shots a lot, etc.
When this sort of thing happens, any idea where the ball was last? Did the ball(s) in play drain and then it said they were lost, did they go into a trap, if so which ones, etc?
When this sort of thing happens, any idea where the ball was last? Did the ball(s) in play drain and then it said they were lost, did they go into a trap, if so which ones, etc?
- Mar 17, 2012
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I think it would still be worthwhile to implement some user-activated feature to reset the balls to a known state. As more tables are released, each will bring the possibility of obscure bugs that will be difficult to anticipate, reproduce and fix. Having some sort of "table recovery" option in place for use when unexpected weirdness occurs would lessen the impact of these bugs on players, even if we can't identify what causes a particular issue yet. I could see where this feature might be difficult to implement, as the ROM might get confused if (for example) balls were suddenly "reset" and disappeared from physical locks, but I think the idea at least worth looking into. Of course, I just play the tables, not develop them, so feel free to disregard me if I'm heading completely off base!
Even if we just had an "end game in progress" option (with appropriate safeguards against accidental activation!) so that we could force a malfunctioning game to a semi-graceful conclusion and preserve whatever scores/goals we had attained up to the point when the problem occurred, I think players would be happier.