If you could change JUST ONE RULE per table, what would you change? Would the change be for score balance, for fun, or for some other reason? Obviously, this is not a request for Farsight to IMPLEMENT these changes. This is just a fantasy "if I'D been in charge of development at Williams in 1995..." kind of thread.
Taxi
Increase the value of the jackpot for delivering all 5 passengers to the airport from 500,000 base value to 2.5 million base value. The reason: it's at LEAST 2.5 times harder than getting the "millions" jackpot from the ramps, and far more risky. There's currently no reason to try for that goal over just shooting the ramps over and over and then aiming for Santa. Making the Taxi Jackpot the most lucrative goal on the table would put it in line with the difficulty/risk involved.
Gorgar
Make the flipper buttons change which "A-B-C" lanes are lit, like on modern machines. It would really give a sense of added agency to the player, on a machine that tends to feel a little too random as-is.
Black Knight
Multiply the values for the end-of-ball bonus by about 3x. The bonus in its current form is almost totally insignificant even when maxed out.
Bride of Pin*Bot
There are many candidates here -- The Billionaire's Club shot is too easy, too dependent on a random wheel spin, and too far out of scale with the rest of the table score-wise. But i'm going to go with something else: Building the Bride is too monotonous. Shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp. Instead, my rule change is designed to mix up the monotony of building her a little bit: The game starts with a ball already in her mouth. You must hit the left loop and then the heart ramp to release it, which starts a 2-ball multiball, the goal of which is to spin the small wheel (to activate optics) and then shoot both balls up the heart ramp (which go in her sockets, completing the machine, etc). That way there'd be a little variety involved in putting her together, and it'd go a little quicker, too. I might be breaking my own "one rule only!" rule here, though.
Creature From the Black Lagoon
I just want to say I think this machine has the perfect ruleset. well balanced scoring, and a wide variety of shots are necessary for getting to and completing the major point-scoring goals, and the highest-scoring goals are also the most elaborately celebrated by the table.
Taxi
Increase the value of the jackpot for delivering all 5 passengers to the airport from 500,000 base value to 2.5 million base value. The reason: it's at LEAST 2.5 times harder than getting the "millions" jackpot from the ramps, and far more risky. There's currently no reason to try for that goal over just shooting the ramps over and over and then aiming for Santa. Making the Taxi Jackpot the most lucrative goal on the table would put it in line with the difficulty/risk involved.
Gorgar
Make the flipper buttons change which "A-B-C" lanes are lit, like on modern machines. It would really give a sense of added agency to the player, on a machine that tends to feel a little too random as-is.
Black Knight
Multiply the values for the end-of-ball bonus by about 3x. The bonus in its current form is almost totally insignificant even when maxed out.
Bride of Pin*Bot
There are many candidates here -- The Billionaire's Club shot is too easy, too dependent on a random wheel spin, and too far out of scale with the rest of the table score-wise. But i'm going to go with something else: Building the Bride is too monotonous. Shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp, shuttle ramp. Instead, my rule change is designed to mix up the monotony of building her a little bit: The game starts with a ball already in her mouth. You must hit the left loop and then the heart ramp to release it, which starts a 2-ball multiball, the goal of which is to spin the small wheel (to activate optics) and then shoot both balls up the heart ramp (which go in her sockets, completing the machine, etc). That way there'd be a little variety involved in putting her together, and it'd go a little quicker, too. I might be breaking my own "one rule only!" rule here, though.
Creature From the Black Lagoon
I just want to say I think this machine has the perfect ruleset. well balanced scoring, and a wide variety of shots are necessary for getting to and completing the major point-scoring goals, and the highest-scoring goals are also the most elaborately celebrated by the table.
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