Bug Missing ball, unable to continue

[Brandon Debes]

though it recovers if you quit the table.

Be forewarned: any table goals you completed will be lost if you quit the table.

 

[Brandon Debes]

Oh wow, a guy on another forum just posted an even weirder manifestation of this bug:

I was playing Ripley's and was having a good run (for me). I unlocked the fifth Standard Goal and got the achievement. Unfortunately, my final ball disappeared somehow during multiball, and there was no way to get it back. The machine's auto-cycle couldn't find it, and the Call Attendant option claimed there wasn't a ball stuck.

Not the end of the world, right?

Well, here's the problem: I quit out of the session and noticed that it was still displaying the Standard Goals for Ripley's, but they were all checked. Uh-oh -- the Wizard Goals didn't open up. I went and played a game on Tales of the Arabian Nights, hoping maybe it would fix things. When I finished, it said "All Standard Goals complete -- Wizard Goals unlocked" -- for TotAN. What? That was the first time I'd played TotAN in Pinball Arcade, and I only completed one goal.

So now I'm locked out of the Wizard Goals on Ripley (since they're not available), and locked out of the achievement for the Standard Goals on TotAN. I suppose I can just delete my save file, but that's a pretty ****ty bug.

 

[HeYjOe]

Just happened to me on Ripleys (360) as well, missing ball, nothing would find it

 

[invitro]

Happened to me yesterday, with a pretty good game going (200M, "Ball 1", had lost a couple EBs). On Xbox, the problem happened during regular MB. A ball disappeared somewhere; I had at least two balls, and then one ball, but MB was still running. When that ball drained, it was on to the impotent ball search. I tilted, still more ball searching, tried the plunger, still more ball searching, called the attendant, got "ball not stuck" message, still more ball searching. Let it go for over an hour, still more ball searching. Quit game.

It seems that it shouldn't be hard to just check if a ball search (or a tilt) lasts for >20 seconds (or >1 min, or >5 mins, or whatever). If that happens, something is bad bad bad wrong. Really, the game shouldn't have been released without this simple sanity check, but maybe it's much harder to implement than I imagine.

The problem is not primarily with the table (I've had it happen on BHole, and there are other reports on its forum), or the situation, or the platform. It's with the general TPA game-simulation code.

Official people, please give some info. This problem is several times worse than all other reported problems combined, as it makes the game almost unplayable for good players who are trying for high scores that require long games.

 

[Crush3d_Turtle]

I ran into this today on the PS Vita during a relatively good game. I let it do the ball search 3 times to no avail before using the "Call Attendant" feature which also did nothing. I was forced to exit the game in order to continue playing.

 

[PiN WiZ]

I finally ran into this bug on the Xbox 360. I let it go through the ball search one time, then once it said the ball was missing, I used the call attendant feature and my ball was reset in the plunger lane.

 

[Kaoru]

Had this yesterday evening right after Atlantis mode ended... and again just now, after Atlantis. The table is looking for a ball again and again (even after tilting the game) ...and calling an attendant won't work.

 

[Richard B]

Happened to me too (as if you need more evidence of this) on the 360. Standard multiball (puking pool balls), started with three balls, ended up with two, music and jackpots continued after second ball drained, once remaining ball drained, had all the problems the other posters had.

 

[PiN WiZ]

I'm hoping this was fixed with the upcoming update.

 

[Kolchak357]

Ran into this RBION bug today. Real bummer to quit out on a good game for me. My high is only 58M on this table, and my game was lost at 51M and a few balls left. I assumed this bug was fixed already.

 

[Richard B]

That's a shame. I missed out on my Frog Frenzy completion because of this wonderful bug. It's a shame they haven't squashed it yet. Maybe they can fix the attendant feature for missing balls, as well as stuck balls.

 

[Squid]

First game in two weeks.
Seven-forty Million.
Ball lost, gone for good.

A haiku for you FarSight. (Please fix this. The ball seems to get lost in the cluster of the Vari-target.)

 

[Advalle]

Missing ball

I just had another missing ball bug just now on a 400Million on ball 1 , three days ago i had a 700million game on ball 1 and happenned again, Im getting tired of this, it happens when im getting close to break my record. It happens all the time on multi ball, frog frenzy. Fix this ASAP pleaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaase!,!,!,!,!,!,!,

 

[SKILL_SHOT]

I had an issue on MBOP today, it said second eye lock with only 1 ball then nothing it just sat there so I called attendant it spit it out to the post....nothing called attendant again ball was in play, I hit it up the left ramp and it second eye lock sounded then locked the ball and I called attendant again and said balls not stuck as you hear the table looking for a ball every 30 second. Finally I said F'IT! and TILTED and thats where it stayed while looking for a missing ball. Oh I was on an awsome 1hour game with 2x extra ball and 2billion on ball 2. I redeemed that game with a 5billion!!! later.

 

[Advalle]

It happened again on a second run on Atlantis, missing ball on a 1Billion point game with 2 extraballs on ball 2. Well, im not playing again until this gets fixed. Not interested on wasting 1 more hr on this thing. Im pissed!

 

[DH_Kevin77]

This has happened to me twice. Both of the games they happened in were pretty lackluster performances on my part, though.

 

[Advalle]

Missing ball on RIPLEYs Bug

I meant RIPLEY.
I thought this missing ballbug had been fixed!!! It happens during multiball, sometimes on Atlantis, most times on Frog Frenzy. I just encountered that bug ona 2,100,000,000 point game with 30 repley letters on ball 1 and 4 extra balls. It took me a couple of hours to get there and all of a sudden...AGAIN!!! With its typical missing ball bug. I dont even see the point of having a Call Attendant if it is going to tell you that the ball is Not stuck. Well, yeah, it is not stuck, it went to a parallel dimension and I want you to replace it!!! How hard can it be to just add to the program a few additional lines that say. " if ball has been looked for for 5 cycles of 20 seconds and not found, reset the ball at the plunger, or cancel that ball from the game." its not like we are going to start stealing this damn video game balls or watever. The bugs are alienating the hard core customer base of this app.

M-U-S-T F-I-X. T-H-I-S. B-U-G. PLEASE!!!

In order to beat you record you must play precise, and pray to god this damn bug doesnt show up, which usually does when hitting the big points.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Advalle: I merged your post with this existing thread.

 

[Advalle]

Thank you jeff.
Are we ever going to have this simple bug fixed? Lets do it. These are awsome games. Let the gamers enjoy these pinballs properly. Im willing to pay extra if it thats what it takes.

 

[Advalle]

I just thought of it. The trick is to not trigger frog frenzy with a multi-ball going on. Thats the trick. Next time i need to time everything correctly so the bug does not show up and I will be able to continue.