Month Off

[p6800]

I have no problem with these people taking a month off now and then, if it can help with fixing bugs and upgrading/improving old tables as many have requested.

It will be funny when the next tpa table hits and almost nothing old is fixed/upgraded/improved.

- Why did you guys take a month off from TPA?
- To work on SPA!
- Cool!

 

[Fungi]

Maybe this could or even should be a regularly scheduled thing. 1 month off between seasons to get stuff off their plate. Seems like a natural stopping point. Kinda like TV hiatuses between seasons.

 

[Zevious Zoquis]

I'm not sure Zevious Zoquis is familiar with what/who you are talking about. We don't need to get any deeper into that here.

I'm just talking about this thread specifically. Bashing that may or may not have occurred in other places is another thing. I just don't see anything in this thread that could be called bashing and I'm not sure why stuff that happened elsewhere is being referenced...

 

[Johni3w6]

Have been too busy playing Horizon, looking forward to seeing what FS has upcoming with the next season and also more tables in SPA.
Very happy that I can now play SPA on my phone.

 

[HotHamBoy]

They should take 2-3 months off, honestly. Just hunker down and polish.

 

[Heretic]

in an ideal world maybe.and the majority of that time may focus on spa polish, but we do get paragon....i love you pinball jesus

 

[David T. Melnick]

in an ideal world maybe.and the majority of that time may focus on spa polish, but we do get paragon....i love you pinball jesus

------

 

[Michael DiFilippo]

Farsight has been working steady every month for FIVE years. They need a break because working in a cross-platform environment, no joke, is stressful. I still think it's amazing to see actual "products" released every month.

 

[Narc0lep5y]

yes

I don't understand the logic behind the thinking that "taking a month off" = "no revenue".
With the huge number of tables already available for TPA, I'm sure FS garners a fairly steady revenue stream as new fans continue to discover the product while old fans may repurchase tables for different platforms.

For example, I have purchased all of the tables on iOS and also participated in most of the Kickstarters. But now that I've obtained my Cab, I've only just now started purchasing the tables on Steam. And I'm sure I'm not unique in repurchasing favorite tables on multiple platforms.

So, yeah: They *should* take a month off from producing new tables and concentrate on fixing bugs and adding improvements to already released tables -- which continue to be "new" tables to new customers.

Oh, and BTW, THEY REALLY NEED TO FIX THE CRASHING BUG ON THE STEAM VERSION OF THE STERN STAR TREK TABLE!!!

I wondered when someone would realize this. Just because they aren't releasing anything new, doesn't mean the shop is closed and they can't make revenue on past tables. I'm sure some of the most popular tables even outsell the new ones during their launch month in some cases.

 

[steven120566]

I wondered when someone would realize this. Just because they aren't releasing anything new, doesn't mean the shop is closed and they can't make revenue on past tables. I'm sure some of the most popular tables even outsell the new ones during their launch month in some cases.

Absolutely. I only made my comment about revenue because this is my observation as to the operating mode they are in. Taxing their resources to continue to produce new so people buy the new table every month is tied to the tournament schedule, and it sure LOOKS like they are doing this to hang on.... so to speak. Seems to me that they are in a loop they can't get out of like the highway in high speed 2 the getaway lol....

I am in full agreement this product could achieve pure greatness if cleaned up across all platforms, and would live to see it. Gee, if I won the powerball, I would buy the studio and fund them for 3 or 4 months to get the product right, give them a cushion.

It was my observation of the current modus operandi of what they are doing that made me comment on revenue. Of course that doesn't mean that what's out there will sell nothing at all, and new releases of course are not the only stream they have

 

[Byte]

I am in full agreement this product could achieve pure greatness if cleaned up across all platforms, and would live to see it. Gee, if I won the powerball, I would buy the studio and fund them for 3 or 4 months to get the product right, give them a cushion.

Not just that, I'd also supply teams of external "platform specialists" that are experts at producing highly-optimized code for the various platforms. These are the kind of people that produce games for the PS3 where you think it's actually running on a hidden PS4. Every platform has these jaw-dropping games (usually nearing it's end-of-life) you can hardly believe it's running on the machine in front of you. This would hopefully add things like ball-spin, physics 5.0 and a "3D space" where the ball can actually go up, hit the glass, and fall back down.

 

[Ben Logan]

During the Month off, will they be working on and implenting the so called physics 4.0 that was suppose to happen with the release of Stern Pinball Arcade from about 3 months ago? If not then it doesnt matter what bugs they fix. The heart of a pinball games is the physics. They need to get rid of the fake tap passing and magnet like drop catches. Everyone says you can't accuratey emulate pinball physics, after playing Pro Pinball Timeshock the original from 1997 and not even the ultra version, I beg to differ. Yes video pinball physics can be done correctly if only farsight would stop catering to the casual crowd and dumbing down these awesome machines.

Right with you, Sean and Byte! Glad to see fellow forum members mentioning the promised ball physics upgrade. I'd seriously buy the remaining four seasons I've yet to purchase if they'd eliminate railroads and add ball spin.

 

[Snorzel]

Imo they are going to overhaul Black Knight, update the physics, season 1&2 visual update, mirror on dx11 ToM, get set up to do pin2000 like Revenge from Mars, get all the Alvin Gs and Capcoms for future release, talk Stern into letting us get the 2 Simpson's tables in tpa, and negotiate the licence for both Indiana Jones and Star Wars with Disney to be in TPA. Sounds reasonable for a month right?

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Listen to #94 of the Blahcade Podcast. [MENTION=459]jaredmorgs[/MENTION] and [MENTION=134]shutyertrap[/MENTION] will explain things for you.

 

[Snorzel]

I was being very sarcastic but am listening right now to get the inside scoop, thanks for the tip

 

[Byte]

With the coming changes to Season 1 and 2 ("significantly more difficult to play") as per the BlahCade podcast, what does the community think: should the leaderboards be reset to zero for these tables?

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I think a leaderboard wipe is a good idea for the tables affected. The physics are going to change dramatically, and since the games are bound to be more difficult, it might not be possible to attain those scores again.

TotAN needs a wipe the most. Even my score is not correctly shown.

 

[shutyertrap]

I say it every time the topic comes up; leaderboards should be wiped once a year. It clears off all the bogus scores, scores obtained before updates, and also clears it of players who no longer play the game. Leaderboards should be living things, in flux, as a way to engage the active community. I hate this legacy crap people cling to. You were king of the heap for a while? Great, take a screen shot and post it as your avatar if it's so important to you. All I know is a stagnate board, especially at the top, is psychologically harmful to how players feel toward the fun of making the leader board.

 

[steven120566]

I say it every time the topic comes up; leaderboards should be wiped once a year. It clears off all the bogus scores, scores obtained before updates, and also clears it of players who no longer play the game. Leaderboards should be living things, in flux, as a way to engage the active community. I hate this legacy crap people cling to. You were king of the heap for a while? Great, take a screen shot and post it as your avatar if it's so important to you. All I know is a stagnate board, especially at the top, is psychologically harmful to how players feel toward the fun of making the leader board.

Compelling argument for annual purging.... compromise may be swapping the monthly tab for an annual, and keeping the weekly.

 

[Ben Logan]

Tuning early tables with current physics engine is a bandaid at best. I'd rather they didn't invest further in the current ball physics. Bummer news, imo. TPA could be so great with overhauled ball physics. They get a lot else right.