Welcome Back to Digital Pinball Fans - please read this first
For latest updates, follow Digital Pinball Fans on Facebook and Twitter

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="shutyertrap" data-source="post: 271691" data-attributes="member: 134">Sure, here ya go...- Difficulty settings. After the 1st season, we asked for and were told there'd be a choice of difficulty added to each table because the marathon runs were just not remotely what any of us had experienced on real tables.- Tournament settings. Since difficulty mode came and went, this too was offered up as coming soon. This would take away extra balls and tighten up certain rule sets like PAPA has tables set to. Once more this turned into nothing.- Beta testing. I have been a part of the beta testing for PC. I would not get my hands on the table until 2 weeks prior to release (maybe less), and only DX9 version. We'd get the DX11 version sometimes only a few days before release. My big thing has always been about how the tables are lit and the dynamic lighting settings slider bars. I'd give my notes but almost never see them implemented, and then there'd be the complaints on release. And while we might be satisfied with how the new table plays, there was never enough time to go through every single other table to see if one of them was suddenly broken. Inevitably we'd get the next table a few weeks later, and my exact same complaints about lighting would be present again. It's rather defeating.- Head to Head. Pinball is most fun when you are able to compete. I was thrilled when head to head started getting tested, but it was a barely functioning mess. It then got released in a form I'd barely even consider an alpha, let alone a beta. I've never bothered with it since.- The leaderboards. We have been complaining about the leaderboards since the inception of this game. Black Hole had an exploitable bug that allowed for insane scores, was fixed, but the leaderboards were never reset. Some scores were so obviously fake on other tables as to be laughable, no reset. Finally FarSight started culling some of the glaring offenders, but at the same time some tables were posting scores to the wrong board, causing legit scores to appear in the wrong spot. The simplest solution would be to clear the boards at a regular interval, but FarSight didn't want to offend those that had spent countless hours earning some of these spots. Meanwhile the rest of us just stopped even bothering since the boards were such a mess.- Local high scores. An update happened that borked the local high scores on quite a few tables. When I see a score that's not just a trillion, but a quadrillion, c'mon. No patch was ever issued to clear this issue, nor was there a way to just clear the local high scores yourself without losing all your data.- Steam data loss. In any other Steam game, you can switch between computers and all your accomplishments carry over because the data is stored on Steam's servers. With TPA, things are stored on your own PC. That's not a terrible problem, except the moment you open TPA on another PC, it overwrites the data of your other PC the second you boot up the game again. So kiss goodbye those standard and wizard goals. There is a way to recover this data, but it is a royal pain to do and not for the average user to do. FarSight has been made aware of this countless times and for multiple years. They claim they don't know how to fix it, meanwhile a few users have shown them exactly what they'd need to do. It's simply not a priority.- Graphical updates to older tables. Those first two seasons have the AAA titles in them. They were fine before dynamic lighting became a thing, and before FarSight started using new techniques to capture tables starting in season 3. Essentially the show cars displayed at the front of the lot were covered in dirt and grime while the more utilitarian vehicles looked pristine. FarSight never understood the concept of first impressions (in any aspect of the game), and this has been such a sore spot among users over the years. Tables have been tuned, physics changed, but why in the world does Monster Bash to this day still look so low rez? The endoskeleton skull in T2 only looks the way it does because in beta we screamed bloody murder over how terrible it looked, to the point that artist refused to listen to a single complaint from this forum ever again (he's no longer with FarSight for the record). -Pro mode. I'm glad the ability to open the coin door exists. I don't like that the second you exit the table, all your settings go away. I don't like that with Scared Stiff the non family friendly version is hidden behind this mode and then you can't play for goals or leaderboards because you are in Pro mode. I hate that the table view function, which in Zen is available while you are playing even, is stuck behind this paywall and not available with the simple touch of a button. FarSight never seemed to realize what could have been done with this mode, instead just letting it sit like a lump.--------------That's just a sampling. I get that certain things are the way they are because of emulation. Most of my complaints are with the actual interface and functionality of the game. Once I am playing a table, I have few issues. Things like the table crashing when hitting certain scores were simply because on the real table, those scores were never meant to be reached and the ROM simply couldn't deal. The game itself carries so much data debt that the slightest change in one table can cause major issues in another. Have you ever noticed in Cirqus Voltair you always get the same judges? That wasn't always the case in the beginning, and FarSight has no clue (nor were they even aware the judges changed) what is causing this. Farsight needs to do a complete engine update like Zen has already done twice in the same time frame. With the loss of the Williams license, now would be the ideal time to do it. Lock everyone's game in with TPA, introduce 2.0 with a clean slate. Odds of that happening? Next to none.</blockquote>

Verification

Members online

No members online now.

Total: 548 (members: 0, guests: 548)

Latest posts

D
Anyone still playing?
- Latest: Dan
- Mar 3, 2025
The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios