Jack●Bot Tactics and Strategies

[MWink]

Lots of wackiness happened today for me.

#1: I got a ball perched on top of the visor, by shooting it there just as the barrier lifted during multiball. While it was there, it continually triggered the leftmost visor target, rapidly completing that Mega Visor round for me. (Then the visor lowered the ball back into play.) This happened twice in my game.

#4: I can also confirm that Dirty Pool exists and works in the TPA version. Get a ball caught behind the visor, then shoot it to newton the ball into an eye. This also completes Mega Visor immediately.

Yeah, I've had the ball catch on the visor like that a few times. Usually it rolls left/right, while continuing to register hits on the targets. I don't think I've had it happen during Mega Visor yet. I've also gotten Dirty Pool once, though I wasn't quick enough to get a screenshot.

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I actually managed to get two Dirty Pools in one game.

 

[Zaphod77]

Card Added adds a POKER card, not a keno card. and it does work every time.

 

[relaxation]

anyone double check their scores?*

I played a 30 minute game, only 14b.. hadn't played J*B in awhile but thought it was enough to look at what was scoring me points and.. I'm scratching my head wondering whats so valuable that I'm missing.
even accounting for the possible inlanes and saucers I still come up ~3b short

I got three dice cheats that game, also get cheats if I hit the button very few times too and sometimes get multiple cheats within the 4 games.. there's something there.. an RNG number match? a rhythm thing? someone who does romhacks should look into how the cheat mechanic works

*breakdown of pinballwiz45b within the first 1:32 we already have mysterious millions

 

[Zaphod77]

Cheating success is all about the RNG.

possibly mashing faster improves you chances. some games are easier to cheat then others. In papa tournament settings you probably want to cheat the slots (every fourth attempts works), cuz extra balls are 250M.

 

[Captain B. Zarre]

All the points in JackBot come from multiball. If you know how to make those JackBot and Mega JackBot shots reliably you can rack up a huge score. The only way to gain scores that are even comparable is increasing the scores of each game to a huge amount (easiest to do with roll the dice in my opinion).

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

All the points in JackBot come from multiball.

True for short games. In long games the casino games bring the points and will forward you to a possible next EB.

 

[relaxation]

I don't play it's multiball anymore, the locks or flippers don't behave like they used to.. a lot of shots just bounce out of there unless you shoot cross or hit a bank shot from the rubber into the locks, straight up is just a headache. another table that didn't play the same post-physics 3.0 patch

My leftovers were worth more than my casinos, it's likely this is another table that doesn't do math correctly...

If it were me designing the cheat button I would make it choose 'randomly' either 2, 3 or 5 and see if the input is divisible by it's 'random' choice, so 2 4 6 8 10 / 3 6 9 / 5 10 could all be the right number sometimes.. seemingly random, had anyone known my formula everyone would be pressing it 6 times.

getting a cheat that works on average 1 of 4 times for tournament players is a way better chance than getting a 10% match. it can't possibly just be an invisible number match from mashing, having a turbo button doesn't make you win more either

 

[relaxation]

Okay so I got one of those EB rampshots (dumb luck, never found a way to keep the ball bouncing long enough), is that the reason the ramp will start at 25M until you score another EB and reset its starting position?

Other thoughts revised, casino run becomes a hater and you might as well just collect poker cards to up your casheir shot, I was up to 250M cashiers. I was incorrect earlier about some stuff, while poker did get to 400M I thought it would scale faster.

I'd still forsake multiball and try to earn EBs from the spot targets while locks are open. Didn't get to test if I did lock a ball, requiring another keno sheet to be cleared and get that almost done, drop a ball in casino to get it back and after casino finishes.. see if I could claim an EB from the remaining spot targets.

 

[invitro]

Okay so I got one of those EB rampshots (dumb luck, never found a way to keep the ball bouncing long enough)

You know, I played a VP version a few years ago where I could get the ramp EB a high %age of the time. That's why I was saying crap on PAF about lots of people getting a trillion on J*B in TPA. I've been trying to play J*B for a couple of days now, I can't get above 18B. This game is hard.

 

[relaxation]

Last night I got a 30bn game [58m] but I can't crack 20bn all day today[30-40m]. I changed my strat, forget poker cards and shoot hit-me cards during casino runs. That should be a much quicker build up for cashiers. Still got bombed on the third reel on my first CR.. maybe low time is a factor.

 

[relaxation]

It turns out Jack lies in multiple places, big surprise.
short video example
spreadsheet

So in the above spreadsheet, the left example shows a brand spanking new game and I did 1 cashier shot and drained, the right example is what happened in the video: 3 Keno Arrow awards for a PC and Maxed Vortex then a cashier shot.

So if you read the second example, the DMD says 82M but it should have been 118M.. so you may ask where's my 36M? hold on, the score on the display actually goes up 107M.. so you're still missing 11M.

Forgot to validate the score display on the brand new game and didn't think to check if what the bonus was is actually what you get going into the next ball.

I'll edit in my 30bn game with the actual cashiers values, to the best of my ability, and see how the scoring stacked up. boy do I wish someone would install an electromagnet into jack*bots hit me area, activated by the cheat button of course.

30bn game, visual aid it's not my highest card value game either, one game I got started with the +10 Card slot award and ended at 24 Poker cards. At the end of that 30bn game I was only being shown 180~190M awards, keep in mind some higher ones had a 25M award rolled into it from a blinking card award. Bonus may account for only less than 1% of Misc (~11*20M, rough guess).

pie chart, re-arranged by category and removed the spots, launches, and bonus to see how the point makers stack up.. have to admit the Casino Run+Games with their ~51 activations and claims versus 46 Ramp shots awards (cashier/25M/solar jets) did better than I thought.

a 263.8 cashier award, my personal highest, was actually 292.8M in points, and according to the bonus screen should've been 299.8M: 24Pcard 5HMe 50VM 12.9DW.

one before that was 259.8, was 284.8M in points, bonus calc would be 295.8M: 24Pcard 5HMe 48VM 12.9DW.

Both are missing an expected 36M from their reported values, however one is only missing 7M and the other is missing 11M, I'll keep in mind to add 25M to the reported cashier value.. if I earn more it's a bonus.

 

[relaxation]

Last game, 39B decided to only start playing when I got a +10 cards from the slot machine and eventually tried to keep the locks door closed to get Max vortex, card and x5 bonus awards before continuing on a new ball. soft plunged the whole time. Game time was 72 minutes.

Hats off to anyone who can shoot that ramp reliably when it comes down the inlane, to put it bluntly I just plain suck at it, but there's only 14 people infront of me and that'll have to do for now.

 

[Zaphod77]

More casino run tips.
1) You can nearly always bonk the first bomb away, UNLESS you have used a no bomb. After the bucket cancels a bomb, you are very unlikely to bonk the next one away. This means that once you have used up you no bombs or bonked away a bomb, you should usually collect the bank.
2) it is best played early in the game, before you have collected other extra balls. It is then more likely to give you some.
3) while it's fun, it really isn't very good points compared to multiball, because they refused to set specials to 500 million. That setting makes it much more fun.

A humble request to farsight. PLEASE set specials to 500M like papa does?

 

[relaxation]

Well, who knows if they really only score 1 million anyway
3729.6+248+934&2Specials=5503.7

 

[Zaphod77]

I'm pretty sure they do score what they are set to.

And when played at PAPA they DO score 500M

 

[relaxation]

PAPA game
7:50, score reads 2,553 starting casino run
8:40, cow which is said to be an instant special
8:56, Jackbot which should be 300M (275M was previous)
9:20, score reads 3,160M during casino run
9:33, score reads 4,402 after adding 3 specials and 487M.

Had they really earned 500M, 3160+1500+487=... 5,147M, robbed 745M.

Comparison:
My Casino run
4,911 +2Specials.. being 5,503.7, so (5503.7-4911)/2.. 296.35M each.
PAPA Casino run
3,647 +3Specials.. being 4,402, so (4402-3647)/3.. 251.67M each.
PAPA Cow
2,853 +Cow.. being 3,160, so (3160-2853).. 307M.

Nothing to actually complain about scoring wise, pretty negligible.

the variance may be from shooting the lock itself which may score 30M instantly, as it does outside casino run, the point being specials do not earn 500M or 1M.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Pretty sure Specials are set to 50M or 100M in TPA (according to the instructions).

 

[relaxation]

Extra Balls / Specials
Specials are woth 1,000,000 points and can be collected from the Casino Run Mode.
24/27
The Williams Jack*Bot manual even says this on 56/150, when Special is set to points

nothing in the manual suggests turning tournament mode on makes EBs and Specials worth xyz points either.

I didn't see where you could make adjustments to the scoring in the operator menu
nothing was in the Williams manual either

 

[relaxation]

Ok how about a more direct way, let's watch the memory as it adds up points instead of the DMD? I am apart of the 'glorious PC gaming master race' after all.
video & Spreadsheet

I didn't know any ramp shot is already 15M, and unlit keno arrow targets.. were 17 then 18M.. have to look into that. The inlane is a confirmed 5M, the spot target under the ramp seems to be a steady 5M too. this sorta explains the 20~25M extra in cashiers/Solar Jets I noticed


I didn't do my Maxed Vortex strategy so the cashier/bonus calculation wasn't as screwed up**, no idea behind the first one.

Conclusion: if the casino run point award is to be believed, the special may have been worth 250M, I don't know if the EB awards points too or not, I may have to review more footage to get a Cow or special by itself.

other oddities, 25M scored 44M while vortex maxed scored 4M, then 25M scored 27M.
**2PK, 50VM, 4.9DW (60.9M total), 5X, says 214.5, it's supposed to be 304.5, (861.6-647.1).. 214.5 confirmed the DMD says what it adds but it doesn't do it's math right.
440.2+85.8+5, (score + cashier and spot target) is confirmed correct 531 but, again, it should've been 121.8M (missing 36M).. it's likely a maxed vortex value messes with bonus calculation on the bonus screen and cashier values.

Casino Run #2:
started at 387.5
risk 345M
5M inlane (392.5)
5M lock (397.5)
risk 558M
2M spot target and 5M lock (404.5)
Collect 666M, 1 Special
1,320.5M ... minus 666M minus 404.5 we end up exactly at 250M