Google Play Games integration

[Mapa]

I just installed the last version of TPA (with Earthshaker) and noticed it now comes with support for GPG. As I understand, it stores achievements (whether or not you cleared all Standard/Wizard goals and local highscores. The Save Game feature can be used to store individual scores and goals in the cloud. It can later be loaded (restored) on another device.

This is a great way to backup (yay, we can finally do that!) although I do not like I can still not use it to play on two devices without constantly saving/loading. It would have been great if it could store each individual goal in GPG (it might introduce A LOT of achievements, don't know if that is a problem) and sync it whenever connected, so I can immediately see the result on my other device(s).

I also notice that when you restore a saved game on another device, it immediately starts pumping all achievements back to GPG, even though those achievements obviously where already unlocked from the first device .

The possibility to save and load games would be great to pause, restore/replay a game

Anyway, great move to implement GPG, can't wait to see where it's heading!

 

[Baron Rubik]

Zen are a great example of how to do GPG well.

 

[jaredmorgs]

This is a great way to backup (yay, we can finally do that!) although I do not like I can still not use it to play on two devices without constantly saving/loading.

I agree the save/load operation does require some "coordination" if you are moving between devices.

It would have been great if it could store each individual goal in GPG (it might introduce A LOT of achievements, don't know if that is a problem) and sync it whenever connected, so I can immediately see the result on my other device(s).

Yep, 520 individual achievements (at the time of typing this) is way over the threshold set by Google Play Services. I believe the limit is 300 (will check after posting).

I did suggest during the beta that there be a cumulative count on each achievement so you know which tables you still need to earn on.

There are currently three achievements per table at the moment. One for high score, and one for standard, and wizard goals. 52 x 3 = 146. Considering FarSight has suggested there are three more seasons to go at least, this number will be getting tight towards the end.

I also notice that when you restore a saved game on another device, it immediately starts pumping all achievements back to GPG, even though those achievements obviously where already unlocked from the first device .

I agree that is strange behavior. Perhaps [MENTION=4573]Scumble373[/MENTION] can comment on that behavior.

The possibility to save and load games would be great to pause, restore/replay a game

That would be cool! I wonder how ROM state would be re-instated again?

Anyway, great move to implement GPG, can't wait to see where it's heading!

Expect Quests in the future (no idea of timing but its on the planning board).

 

[jaredmorgs]

Zen are a great example of how to do GPG well.

That would have to be the best piece of Neuro-linguistic Programming I've seen all day.

Use your powers for good, not evil, Baron von Baron.

Edit For the record, the seamless migration of achievements from Swarm to GPS was the finest transition I have seen from a legacy service. Slow clap, Zen.

 

[RSchwantner]

I also notice that when you restore a saved game on another device, it immediately starts pumping all achievements back to GPG, even though those achievements obviously where already unlocked from the first device .

The possibility to save and load games would be great to pause, restore/replay a game

The achievements trying to reload from each device I believe was not known, but once Scumble gets back to the office I'll make sure he knows about it.

The only problem with allowing users to save in the middle of a game is that it could lead to score exploitation.
Everyone's had that great first ball that ended up with a horrible second and third. If one could save a game state after a great start, he could then restart from that point until he had a great full game.
Not sure if I explained that well.

But at the very least, I'm stoked to see the GPS integration going in and I don't even play on a personal Android. Glad you are too.

 

[Baron Rubik]

The achievements trying to reload from each device I believe was not known, but once Scumble gets back to the office I'll make sure he knows about it.

The only problem with allowing users to save in the middle of a game is that it could lead to score exploitation.
Everyone's had that great first ball that ended up with a horrible second and third. If one could save a game state after a great start, he could then restart from that point until he had a great full game.
Not sure if I explained that well.

But at the very least, I'm stoked to see the GPS integration going in and I don't even play on a personal Android. Glad you are too.

Not to fussed about saving games mid play personally - but again, a good example of how to do it would be Zen, but as it's done on the console version.

You can save, but can't return to a previous point, only continue and save along the live time line of the current live game.

 

[Zorgwon]

TPA now crashes after killing it and launching again and I'm killing it because it gets fast. Fortunately it gets fast early in the game.

 

[Scumble373]

I agree that is strange behavior. Perhaps [MENTION=4573]Scumble373[/MENTION] can comment on that behavior.

This seems to be a reoccuring "bug" that people have brought up to me since I got back. Here's the issue i'm facing:

For achievements to work perfectly, I need to check for the achievements that you have already gotten, and award them to you. This is so you can get all of your past achievements that weren't registered before GPS was implemented. The problem with transferring devices is this: What if someone plays offline on a tablet, gets an achievement, saves, and loads onto their phone. That achievement wasn't registered on the tablet, so it gets picked up, and registered on the phone. This situation could be applied to anyone who is playing our game offline. GPS has to be checking for achievements whenever it is turned back online, so that it can detect any achievements that were gotten offline.

I'm not sure how to fix this as of now, especially because any "fix" I may try to implement may actually end up NOT picking up on achievements that someone has gotten offline, which would cause an even greater uproar.

Not ruling out a fix for this issue, but it will have to be carefully implemented and tested as to not mess up anyone's achievement

 

[Pinetwig]

Do I have to do anything to make my scores show up on gpg? Have 1,3M on Gorgar that would put me on #2 on gpg for example.

 

[RSchwantner]

I believe you have to get the score now with the GPS already integrated on your build.
Basically think of the Google Play leaderboards as a fresh start Android leaderboard.

 

[Heretic]

sorry not an andorid user but,

if this isnt an easy fix and atchivments are cuasing an issue why not reset those also?

i realise some are very hard to get but hey no need to mess up the code with a dodgy hack

sucks in the short term but thise that usally care are gonna play anyway

plus itd give incentive for replaying okder purchases

just sayin

 

[jaredmorgs]

sorry not an andorid user but,

if this isnt an easy fix and atchivments are cuasing an issue why not reset those also?

i realise some are very hard to get but hey no need to mess up the code with a dodgy hack

sucks in the short term but thise that usally care are gonna play anyway

plus itd give incentive for replaying okder purchases

just sayin

I've done this a number of times now. It's actually fun to see all the goals tick off in rapid succession. But I know some folks won't like that.

I haven't ever earned Lyman's Lament and the other really tough goals, so perhaps my opinion is skewed.

 

[Zorgwon]

TPA stops crashing when Turning GPG Off.. It's not enough to sign off.

Beyond that the GPG scores work well and only have new HS. It's interesting how low the scores are.

 

[Baron Rubik]

It's interesting how low the scores are.

Only new and scores whilst connected to GPG register. No upload of existing scores.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

TPA stops crashing when Turning GPG Off.. It's interesting how low the scores are.

It's harder playing on a tablet, that's for sure. This offsets the "easy" factor and probably drives scores back towards "normal" high scores. For starters you're not going to have people playing multi-hour epics on a tablet.

 

[Mapa]

Why would you think so? I play almost only on my tablet. Phone is faster, more crisp graphics, but too small a screen to really aim for things.

 

[Mad07]

The counting of the reached goals is not implement during update. E. g. I've reached 148 goals, but the counter is only 1, because one goal in Google was reached after GPS was implemented. I expect, that during sync the counter is 148 from xxx are reached

 

[mikehg]

One bug with this - if you don't sign in to GPG (I never do, personally), sometimes a few minutes into the game it'll pause and bring up the sign in prompt again. Hitting cancel returns you to the game, but unfortunately sometimes this triggers the 'accelerated time' bug, so you have to quit and restart the application. [edit - though there is actually a workaround to get it back to normal again: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/9229-Game-pauses-itself-then-goes-into-hyper-speed ]

Weirdly, I don't think I've ever seen it trigger twice in a row - it only ever seems to happen right at the start of one of my TPA sessions, which makes me think there's some kind of state somewhere being kept despite quitting TPA entirely and rerunning it from scratch (but I could be mistaken...). I haven't figured out what triggers it in the first place, but it doesn't seem to be directly related to achieving goals. I'll try to see if I can get it to happen on a table on which I've already got all the goals.

 

[Scumble373]

One bug with this - if you don't sign in to GPG (I never do, personally), sometimes a few minutes into the game it'll pause and bring up the sign in prompt again. Hitting cancel returns you to the game, but unfortunately sometimes this triggers the 'accelerated time' bug, so you have to quit and restart the application. [edit - though there is actually a workaround to get it back to normal again: http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/9229-Game-pauses-itself-then-goes-into-hyper-speed ]

Weirdly, I don't think I've ever seen it trigger twice in a row - it only ever seems to happen right at the start of one of my TPA sessions, which makes me think there's some kind of state somewhere being kept despite quitting TPA entirely and rerunning it from scratch (but I could be mistaken...). I haven't figured out what triggers it in the first place, but it doesn't seem to be directly related to achieving goals. I'll try to see if I can get it to happen on a table on which I've already got all the goals.

Mikehg,

This is strange behavior. I know that it will prompt you to sign in when rotating the device, or when going back to the home screen and re-entering the app. I've never heard of it doing it randomly though.

There will be more details in the game fixes for the next update, but I think I've finally managed to fix the "speed-up" issue. I'll let you know more soon.

Thanks

 

[mikehg]

I'm definitely not pausing it or going to the menu or anything. It isn't the device actually rotating either - I mostly play on my Galaxy Note Pro, which is a 12.2 inch beast sitting in a stand on a coffee table.

It could be spurious signals I suppose - either coming from the sensor, or perhaps from the screen rotation manager daemon thing I'm using (unfortunately I kinda need that, because I need to put the tablet upside down to plug it in in portrait, and TPA has a tendency to flip it right side up halfway through a game - the daemon prevents that).

I'll try without the rotation daemon, see if I can narrow this down.