Nudging

[DemoHawkD]

After playing a few (several) games of Big Shot last night I was really playing around with nudging the machine. I always nudge straight upwards as I do in real life but after some trial and error I started experimenting with nudging in different directions. I was just curious if any of you have any tips or techniques regarding directional nudging. Specific tables or instances? Do you notice any consistent reactions to the nudges that you use to tip the odds in your favor?

I'll be doing some more experimenting myself this evening but I figured I would also get some of your opinions/tips as well. Thanks!

 

[workshed]

There are plenty of times nudging from side to side can be helpful. On Cactus Canyon for example the feed from the right orbit on a Bart shot often will trigger the right sling. A subtle nudge from the left as it comes around the orbit will keep it off the sling to a clean trap. Similarly on any table if a ball is coming down and you think it might catch the bottom corner of the sling a subtle nudge can be enough to get cleanly down to the flipper for a trap. If you can judge early that a ball is heading down the middle, again a subtle nudge from the side can be enough to move it over to the flipper of your choice. If you judge it too late then the ol' slap save, a firm nudge from the side just as the ball is about to drain can save you many a ball. If you have a ball that momentarily perches on the post between the inlane and the outlane a subtle nudge is a great way to get it to chose the lane you want. You can also sometimes stop a ball on a raised flipper with a well timed nudge, for instance on Dr. Dude when the ball returns from the left habitrail to the left inlane if you give the machine a good shove up and to the right you can often get it to stop on that flipper for a clean trap. Of course if you get it wrong it just squirts into the center for a silly looking drain (I was practicing this tonight in my quest to finally like that game).

My best advice is to practice nudging in many situations and just see how the ball responds. Your subconscious and muscle memory will eventually learn. It took me a long time to get decent at it, but once you get used to nudging you don't even think about it, it almost happens automatically and your scoring will increase dramatically.

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

Pretty much.

 

[Extork]

My advice would be to not be afraid to use up tilt warnings. Sometimes when it's going out the outlane, and it's not so fast that nudging doesn't help... It doesn't always work, so just give it another nudge, or yet another. This is hard to pull off sometimes because if you wait a split second too long, your dead. Actually it's pretty tough to pull off in general (the 1 or 2 extra nudges). But I've been able to do it in tourneys. maybe because the adrenaline is flowing lol. But normally I'll just nudge once and watch it drain. So it's not like I follow my own advice. But it's a thought

 

[Espy]

Nudging upwards only slows the ball down, in general (aside from backbacks and nudge passes which don't work well in TPA, and the former is tournament illegal anyway). Which is useful to get the ball under control when it's going crazy. Remember, horizontal momentum on the ball is bad as it's unpredictable. If it's going crazy on the slingshots, it helps to rock the cabinet slightly with light, constant upwards nudging. That helps kill the ball. Nudging left and right is more important, in general, though. In all situations you want the ball to return to the inlane or flipper. Outlane, slingshots, centre drain, avoid. Of course, most people know to avoid the outlane and centre drain, but don't consider the slingshots. They exist to randomise the ball's trajectoy, so nudge to avoid them too.

This all takes practice, and comes naturally after a while, so don't be discouraged if you can't do it well at first.

 

[Extork]

Hell, you're one step ahead of me DemoHawkD if you can do upward nudges.

 

[DA5ID]

left and right nudges are my "go to" technique. working on the up nudge - but usually only when the ball is bouncing between the slings. I guess next would be learning diagonal nudges (up-left, up-right) - are these even possible on a touch screen in mobile TPA? - or other platforms like pc with a keyboard controller? I believe they are quite possible with the analog joystick of a ps3/4 controller but I believe it counts as 2 nudges bringing you into the tilt danger zone.

I still really wish FS would add tilt meter as an option for the pro mode in ps3. It would really help in learning nudging techniques using the joystick.

what about down nudge? anyone use it - does it exist in TPA?

 

[neglectoid]

left and right nudges are my "go to" technique. working on the up nudge - but usually only when the ball is bouncing between the slings. I guess next would be learning diagonal nudges (up-left, up-right) - are these even possible on a touch screen in mobile TPA? - or other platforms like pc with a keyboard controller? I believe they are quite possible with the analog joystick of a ps3/4 controller but I believe it counts as 2 nudges bringing you into the tilt danger zone.

I still really wish FS would add tilt meter as an option for the pro mode in ps3. It would really help in learning nudging techniques using the joystick.

what about down nudge? anyone use it - does it exist in TPA?

I use diagonal down nudge alot when playing centaur (ps3) it works wonders when trying to nudge the ball from the outlane drain into the gates that lead to the flippers.

 

[Rich Lehmann]

I only nudge if it appears to be going down the middle or to try and knock it out of the outlane. So in those cases I always nudge right because I'm right handed and it is the only one I can do fast enough on a Kindle Fire or my phone.

 

[DemoHawkD]

Great tips! Thanks folks! I've been trying to work on nudging in different directions over the past couple of days and I was telling a friend of mind how I felt like I tapped into the next level of my play. I love playing Whirlwind but it can sometimes just beat me into submission with violent outlane drains. I actually managed to put a 3rd place score a couple nights ago with almost complete credit going to nudging.
As far as a tilt meter, I feel like I barely even get warnings which is crazy because there are times when I feel like I nudge 3-4 times in a short span but the tables feel rather lenient in that regard.
Bangbacks. I showed one of these to my grandfather when I was in my teens and I remember looking at him like "Ehhhh??? Not bad right???" and he paused for a sec and then said "THAT'S CHEATING!!!!!!!!!" and my defense was that if I could pull off the 'death save' without tilting, it was a skill, not cheating. But I have yet to even come close to one on TPA.

 

[Espy]

Great tips! Thanks folks! I've been trying to work on nudging in different directions over the past couple of days and I was telling a friend of mind how I felt like I tapped into the next level of my play. I love playing Whirlwind but it can sometimes just beat me into submission with violent outlane drains. I actually managed to put a 3rd place score a couple nights ago with almost complete credit going to nudging.
As far as a tilt meter, I feel like I barely even get warnings which is crazy because there are times when I feel like I nudge 3-4 times in a short span but the tables feel rather lenient in that regard.
Bangbacks. I showed one of these to my grandfather when I was in my teens and I remember looking at him like "Ehhhh??? Not bad right???" and he paused for a sec and then said "THAT'S CHEATING!!!!!!!!!" and my defense was that if I could pull off the 'death save' without tilting, it was a skill, not cheating. But I have yet to even come close to one on TPA.

To be fair, bangbacks are generally considered cheating in tournaments and damaging to the machine and your wrists in general Listen to your elders!

 

[vikingerik]

I pulled off a death save once on TPA. I forget which table, want to say Medieval Madness. I know it was a screaming fast ball down the right outlane, and I think a straight up nudge saved it. But it's not something that can be done with any consistency.

The most important nudge in TPA is the slap save. TPA's shoves are so strong that it's always guaranteed on every table for your flipper to reach the ball and save it. TPA tables don't have SDTM drains in advanced play unless you screw up.

The other most important nudge in TPA is when a ball is rolling up a flipper with just enough velocity to fall off the tip. Shove the flipper towards the center, which means the ball has to roll a greater length up the moved flipper and will lose some velocity in falling back down, so you can easily catch it.

I've never gotten any hang of slingshot-related nudging, in either real or TPA pinball. In TPA I never want to nudge there so I can save the tilt warning for the slap save instead.

 

[DemoHawkD]

To be fair, bangbacks are generally considered cheating in tournaments and damaging to the machine and your wrists in general Listen to your elders!

Haha! My apologies! In my defense, when I first started attempting the move it was ROUGH. Like, "slam the machine through the wall" rough. But after some practice, I could get the ball from the outlane, off the center pin and onto the opposite flipper with one solid nudge and with some fairly decent consistency as well. Also without any tilt warning, so it became my own little 'challenge' but as far as TPA goes, I don't stand a chance.

I also need a glossary of pinball terms! Haha! I'm out of the loop!

 

[workshed]

I also need a glossary of pinball terms! Haha! I'm out of the loop!

http://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php is a good one.

 

[Dedpop]

Tilt :

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

It's a pain when arsehole landlords disable tilt on tables just so they can set the gradient well steep. That's until you bring in a plank and bung it under the front legs. Good fun then.

 

[rehtroboi40]

To be fair, bangbacks are generally considered cheating in tournaments and damaging to the machine and your wrists in general Listen to your elders!

Like the ones who made the bangback an achievement on the Avengers table?

 

[wizard33]

Today I played AfM with my little nephew of 10 years old in a Restaurant. I taught him what was nudging/tilting. Quite fun (but no RTUs though)

 

[Espy]

Like the ones who made the bangback an achievement on the Avengers table?

With digital pinball, you can't damage the machine or your wrists, so I'd imagine they're less strict

 

[Shanerion]

After playing a few (several) games of Big Shot last night I was really playing around with nudging the machine. I always nudge straight upwards as I do in real life but after some trial and error I started experimenting with nudging in different directions. I was just curious if any of you have any tips or techniques regarding directional nudging. Specific tables or instances? Do you notice any consistent reactions to the nudges that you use to tip the odds in your favor?

I'll be doing some more experimenting myself this evening but I figured I would also get some of your opinions/tips as well. Thanks!

For some reason I actually nudge forward the least of all nudges. I'm absolutely constantly nudging left and right. But fine nudging. Speaking of which, make sure you're using a controller and not the keyboard, otherwise you won't be able to access fine nudging. This means just nudging just a tiny bit, not the full chunky nudge that shakes the table a bunch.

Forever, I only nudged to get the ball to hit a surface, so I'd nudge when the ball was going SDTM and try to get a flipper on it, I'd nudge to bang a ball away from the outlane, etc. But now I've realized the most important nudges are left and right nudges when the ball is rolling around on the middle of the table. If you nudge right, the path of the ball will correct left, and vice versa. By using fine nudges when the ball is in the middle of the table, you can get the ball to miss the slingshots most of the time, away from the outlanes, and onto the flipper during a SDTM.