Patch 1.29 NA and 1.30 EU

[Tom Devaney]

Hey everyone. Haven't been on here for a bit. Sorry for the delay. Everyone's been really busy here. I was busy fixing bugs on PC then I was busy fixing all of the Buck Hunter and Whoa Nellie bugs, so PS4 had a stable release.

---

Patch 1.29
Tables Added:
- Big Buck Hunter, a 2010 Stern table based on the hunting arcade game featuring a motor powered buck
- Whoa Nellie, a 2015 Stern table featuring an old school play style

Bugs Fixed:
- DMD animations no longer run slow on AC/DC, Ghostbusters, Mustang, and Star Trek
- Lowered minimum table brightness for ACDC, Ghostbusters, Mustang, and Star Trek
- Removed playfield reflections for Star Trek: TNG, Taxi, Tee'd Off, Terminator 2, Theatre of Magic, Whirldwind, and WHO dunnit
- EM tables have flipper hum
- Medieval Madness ball doesn't shake when in plunger lane
- Instant info now shows on Ghostbusters, AC/DC, Mustang, and Star Trek when holding down flipper
- For scripted highscore initials entry, you can now use the correct flipper buttons

---

For Buck Hunter and Whoa Nellie, if some of you weren't aware, I was the programmer working on those tables pretty much exclusively. So I have a pretty good understanding of those tables. If you see any problems, let me know, and I should be able to fix any of them. In regards to Whoa Nellie, that table has a little DMD on the apron. In order to change the HUD to the DMD, just press triangle to toggle between HUD->DMD->None.

Anyways, this is a better update than I was expecting it to be. PinballWiz45B was really upset about the DMD animations running slow on the new Stern tables, so I fixed that and confirmed it with him in the PC beta. I noticed in the master list that EM hum wasn't on, which confused me as I thought it was on. Super easy fix and should make the EM tables more enjoyable. Then one other fix was that the initials entry was pretty weird, so I made it where you press the flipper button to choose initials. Hopefully this doesn't affect anyone too much, but it's the logical fix. This was a bug in regards to scripted tables though where you had to press L1/L2 instead of the current flipper button.

As for an update on the audio issues, I've been slaving away at a very difficult fix that should hopefully handle a majority of the audio bugs. I've already tested it against the looping bug where there's a little delay and that works. And I've also tested it against Elvira's high pitched voice, which is no longer a problem. Hopefully I only need a couple more weeks at most to get this out to you all.

Edit:

I forgot to post the release date. The tables should be out the November 6th.

 

[Russell Bergman]

Thank you so much for the update and all of the work you are doing! Much appreciated!

 

[PiN WiZ]

Looks like a great patch and really hope the sound issues get resolved before release. Thanks again for all your hard work Tom.

 

[Jake_Ry4n]

Why is it only you working on the update exclusively? I feel like a team would be much better suited....

 

[jrolson]

What's the reason for removing playfield reflections?

 

[Tsakalos]

[MENTION=7016]Tom Devaney[/MENTION]: Thank you very much for your work and support!

Is it technically possible, to have an option to enable/disable the playfield reflections ?
I think they look nice on some tables.

 

[Sean]

Awesome, gotta get that updated this weekend!

 

[RJB]

[MENTION=7016]Tom Devaney[/MENTION]

Great! news that a new patch is not far away, thank you! for your continued efforts.

Just one thing about the Scared Stiff table, any chance you can also squeeze in a fix for the "Spider Wheel" there are always three items at the bottom already lit at the start of every game?

 

[Han_Solso]

Tom. You work VERY hard at perfecting a “game” that is immortalizing pieces of Americana. Every one of us GREATLY appreciates your endless efforts!!! Thank You.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[shogun00]

This will be a nice (slightly early) birthday present for me. Thanks Tom!

 

[Byte]

Yay! So the November 7 party is cancelled. Great opportunity to send some $ Farsight's way too, there's still a business case to keep TPA up and running. Hopefully another table constructor license will drop soon to replace W/B.

 

[RJB]

Yay! So the November 7 party is cancelled. Great opportunity to send some $ Farsight's way too, there's still a business case to keep TPA up and running. Hopefully another table constructor license will drop soon to replace W/B.

100% there's a reason to keep TPA up & running, the game still has so many good tables to play that probably will not be playable in any other pinball game for a long, long time, if ever!

Personally I'm not at all happy with how Zen Studios have censored their first Williams tables they've released, I'm totally against needless censoring, I much prefer TPA's approach of keeping every table as near to the original real life version as possible both in terms of audio and artwork.

I totally respect players who can look past the censoring, but, it's a big deal for me, I bought Zen's first Williams pack without knowing about the censoring and I doubt I'll buy any more, if anything it's made me appreciate the tables in TPA even more and I've been playing TPA more than ever of late.

I think Zen Studios approach will hurt them in the long run, they should understand that most of these classic pinball tables were found in pubs & clubs etc. and people who remember playing them are mostly in their 40's now, so they will not put up with them butchering classic tables with ridiculous censorship, I'm convinced they will lose lots of sales because of their approach

 

[Silverball67]

I´m as well a bit disappointed by the censorship in Zen and I appreciate Farsights approach keeping every table historical accorate and their noble engagement to keep digital pinball alive. And yes, there a lot of tables in TPA and SPA still fun to play. But, sorry, I must disagree with most of the rest of your Statement.

I can´t see a good chance for FS to keep up with Zen, 'cause the new TPA-tables like BBH and WN are - imho - inferior tables, highly priced and it was a bad decision to choose these tables (having so much premium tables in the Stern-range). So, I won´t buy them for PS4. (Sorry Tom, ´cause you´re doing a great Job.) They will not compete well with so great updated tables like Fishtales, MM and all the tables Williams/Bally-licence has to offer (especially unreleased tables like Indiana Jones). On PS4 the first 4 tables released look so much better than in TPA...great physics with three different Levels of difficulties....and - last but not least - the horn of plenty community activities, like Matchup, Tournaments, Hot Seat, Challenges ...In TPA? Nothing, you´re a lonesome Pinball Wizard.
The greatest tables are retired from beeing sold (my favorite tables are about 75 % Williams/Bally and 15% Stern. So Gottlieb doesn´t really count for me. Adding new premium Stern tables like Metallica, Walking dead, Lotr etc. to TPA would change the Situation profound. But i have my doubt, seeing these tables published by FS.

Maybe I´m wrong. Only future will tell.

P.S. Of course, hard competition between companies is always the best for the customers. ZEN as a Monopolist would not be the best for the community. So good luck for FS and thanks to Tom!

 

[wolfson]

Melbourne Cup mate , no way , I`ll play the following day . all I want is release dates and what tables , thanks .

 

[RJB]

I´m as well a bit disappointed by the censorship in Zen and I appreciate Farsights approach keeping every table historical accorate and their noble engagement to keep digital pinball alive. And yes, there a lot of tables in TPA and SPA still fun to play. But, sorry, I must disagree with most of the rest of your Statement.

I can´t see a good chance for FS to keep up with Zen, 'cause the new TPA-tables like BBH and WN are - imho - inferior tables, highly priced and it was a bad decision to choose these tables (having so much premium tables in the Stern-range). So, I won´t buy them for PS4. (Sorry Tom, ´cause you´re doing a great Job.) They will not compete well with so great updated tables like Fishtales, MM and all the tables Williams/Bally-licence has to offer (especially unreleased tables like Indiana Jones). On PS4 the first 4 tables released look so much better than in TPA...great physics with three different Levels of difficulties....and - last but not least - the horn of plenty community activities, like Matchup, Tournaments, Hot Seat, Challenges ...In TPA? Nothing, you´re a lonesome Pinball Wizard.
The greatest tables are retired from beeing sold (my favorite tables are about 75 % Williams/Bally and 15% Stern. So Gottlieb doesn´t really count for me. Adding new premium Stern tables like Metallica, Walking dead, Lotr etc. to TPA would change the Situation profound. But i have my doubt, seeing these tables published by FS.

Maybe I´m wrong. Only future will tell.

P.S. Of course, hard competition between companies is always the best for the customers. ZEN as a Monopolist would not be the best for the community. So good luck for FS and thanks to Tom!

My major concern is that if Zen are censoring artwork on tables like Fish Tales then I dread to think how much censoring will be going on with future table releases, there are tons of superb tables in TPA that I can already see Zen having a problem with if they decide to stick with their current attitude, in fact I'm sure some classic tables won't even see a release as to much will need to be changed/butchered for Zen to release them, the best way forward in my eyes is for Zen to make it optional somehow so players or parents etc. can decide whether to allow the original artwork and sounds/voices, but just cutting things out altogether is a major error, all these classic pinball tables "deserve" to be kept as original as possible.

As for FS keeping up with Zen, right now Zen have a long, long way to go to catch FS, FS have some really cool licensed tables by Stern that Zen "currently" will never have as long as FS keep hold of the Stern license, with exclusive tables like Ghostbusters, Frankenstein, Last Action Hero, Starship Troopers to name just a few off the top of my head.

Also with Zen's current attitude with censoring tables, classic pinball tables like Scared Stiff seem impossible to be made for PFX3, and they'd probably have issues releasing tables like Dracula, Gorgar and Jackbot for example because of the themes of each table.

Finally you also have licensed tables like Star Trek TNG, T2, Twilight Zone, Dr Who and Addams Family in TPA, I'm not sure how easy Zen will find it to get these licensed again when you consider FS had to go the Kickstarter route for all of these, so Zen may not be prepared to pay out huge license fees for all these classics.

These are just some of the reasons why TPA still has plenty of life left in it, FS just need to keep working on improvements wherever possible in terms of table bugs/glitches.

One thing I 100% agree with you on is that competition is always a good thing for the customer, so hopefully over time both FS & Zen will continue to raise the bar in their pinball games, but, like you said only time will tell

 

[zype2222]

First I want to express many thanks to Tom for the next update! I have Whoa Nelly on my IPad and very much enjoying that table.

I do agree with the concerns with the censorship in Zen with having exclusive W/B table rights. I view the tables as art. So once you start removing or altering the table and back glass art, it doesn’t sit very well with me. Every time I load up Fish Tales, my eyes seem to gravitate to the fisherman’s mouth without that cigar. Or in MM, my ear takes notices to the missing voice samples. May sound silly, but I do have concern with that moving forward.

I gotta give TPA a lot of credit for the diverse range in tables. I still think they have a good future with the Gottlieb EM’s and any Stern they can get their hands on. There is still a lot of great tables they can release! The one thing that I think Zen has over TBA big time are ball physics. So if TBA can get the ball to seem heavier, that would go in their favor! Just feels like the slop of the TPA tables seems weak. Like being in a arcade and seeing the level bubble at the 1/4 spot when is suppose to be in the middle.

It’s early judging Zen, but I hope they just don’t stick with the tables with lots of toys and DMD displays just because it’s easier to have remakes. I hope they will crank out lots of early 80’s tables as I feel that had a ‘classic’ feel to it. Again, TBA nailed it when it came with good variety!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[xZOMBIEx]

100% there's a reason to keep TPA up & running, the game still has so many good tables to play that probably will not be playable in any other pinball game for a long, long time, if ever!

Personally I'm not at all happy with how Zen Studios have censored their first Williams tables they've released, I'm totally against needless censoring, I much prefer TPA's approach of keeping every table as near to the original real life version as possible both in terms of audio and artwork.

I totally respect players who can look past the censoring, but, it's a big deal for me, I bought Zen's first Williams pack without knowing about the censoring and I doubt I'll buy any more, if anything it's made me appreciate the tables in TPA even more and I've been playing TPA more than ever of late.

I think Zen Studios approach will hurt them in the long run, they should understand that most of these classic pinball tables were found in pubs & clubs etc. and people who remember playing them are mostly in their 40's now, so they will not put up with them butchering classic tables with ridiculous censorship, I'm convinced they will lose lots of sales because of their approach

It's a little artwork "censored" or changed, it doesn't affect the gameplay or the tables looking a million times better than any table on PBA, not to mention plays a hundred times better and a lot closer to an actual pinball table... Granted no digital Pinball will get it 100% perfect, but Zen Studios is a lot closer than Farsight and the "changes" aren't even noticeable. Oh no the cigar is missing, a tiny piece of artwork that no one even noticed or was the reason people played the game.

Cause I know EVERYONE only played fish tales because the guy had a cigar and everyone played Medieval Madness because of the tiny bit of blood and whatever other nonsense that doesn't affect the gameplay in anyway... Because that was the real reason people played those games...

Although, it probably was only noticeable because of how clear and amazing the tables look... It was kind of hard to see those teeny tiny details missing on the farsight tables because of how blurry and dark the tables are...

So I guess I can understand the salt... But it's ok, go back to the slow floaty balls that you can barely see unless you have glowballs on, which you have to pay for and have to wait months to years to hopefully get something fixed and or a new table....

We'll be enjoying the better product where we are to busy watching the ball to worry about small artwork that can't even be seen when playing.. Oh and a ball that actually looks like a steel Pinball that you don't have to change to a custom ball just to be able to see it...

But seriously, it's things that don't affect the game what so ever. If you are that concerned with it then go get it for PC as that will have a toggle.

Although I wonder if you are that harsh on Farsight for having the Elvira tables censored to the family friendly version and unable to have your high score added to the leaderboard if you turn off the family mode for that and all the other tables that was "censored" as well...

I would like to see your posts on those tables being "censored" and not being able to have our high scores count when we turn off that feature...

Plus the audio is a much bigger issue than some tiny artwork on the backglass or on the playfield that isn't noticeable while playing the game, because you hear the sounds while playing...

So you might as well boycott both companies since they both have "censored" tables from their original versions....

 

[xZOMBIEx]

My major concern is that if Zen are censoring artwork on tables like Fish Tales then I dread to think how much censoring will be going on with future table releases, there are tons of superb tables in TPA that I can already see Zen having a problem with if they decide to stick with their current attitude, in fact I'm sure some classic tables won't even see a release as to much will need to be changed/butchered for Zen to release them, the best way forward in my eyes is for Zen to make it optional somehow so players or parents etc. can decide whether to allow the original artwork and sounds/voices, but just cutting things out altogether is a major error, all these classic pinball tables "deserve" to be kept as original as possible.

As for FS keeping up with Zen, right now Zen have a long, long way to go to catch FS, FS have some really cool licensed tables by Stern that Zen "currently" will never have as long as FS keep hold of the Stern license, with exclusive tables like Ghostbusters, Frankenstein, Last Action Hero, Starship Troopers to name just a few off the top of my head.

Also with Zen's current attitude with censoring tables, classic pinball tables like Scared Stiff seem impossible to be made for PFX3, and they'd probably have issues releasing tables like Dracula, Gorgar and Jackbot for example because of the themes of each table.

Finally you also have licensed tables like Star Trek TNG, T2, Twilight Zone, Dr Who and Addams Family in TPA, I'm not sure how easy Zen will find it to get these licensed again when you consider FS had to go the Kickstarter route for all of these, so Zen may not be prepared to pay out huge license fees for all these classics.

These are just some of the reasons why TPA still has plenty of life left in it, FS just need to keep working on improvements wherever possible in terms of table bugs/glitches.

One thing I 100% agree with you on is that competition is always a good thing for the customer, so hopefully over time both FS & Zen will continue to raise the bar in their pinball games, but, like you said only time will tell

Lol Zen has much bigger licenses than Farsight has had and they didn't need kickstarters to get those licenses.... Pretty sure Stern will see the great job Zen has done and is doing, not to mention how many of us have been asking them to let Zen make their tables digitally, that they to will jump ship once their contract is up... Gottlieb can stay with Farsight...

 

[RJB]

Lol Zen has much bigger licenses than Farsight has had and they didn't need kickstarters to get those licenses.... Pretty sure Stern will see the great job Zen has done and is doing, not to mention how many of us have been asking them to let Zen make their tables digitally, that they to will jump ship once their contract is up... Gottlieb can stay with Farsight...

First things first, if you looked closer at my first post in regard to Zen censoring their tables I have very clearly put the following:

"I totally respect players who can look past the censoring, but, it's a big deal for me"

So if you read this line you should understand right away that I personally don't agree or like any changes to such classic tables just for the sake of keeping in line with an age rating but at the same time I "RESPECT" those that can look past this, I feel Zen should have found some way to make it optional on consoles, I don't play on PC so that's not an option for me, plus from my understanding the artwork is still altered on PC it's only the family mode option that is different, I just like pinball tables that are based on real life tables to be the same in every way from a look/sound perspective unless there's a very good reason to make changes, and I don't think Zen's reason is a good one, just a lazy one where they can't be bothered to find a sensible way around the issue.

I have seen many of your posts on here and nine times out of ten you are moaning at FS for some reason or another, therefore you clearly just have an issue with FS, again fair enough that's your opinion, but, personally I don't have a major issue with them like you seem to have, my biggest problem with FS has always been delays, whether it's delays on fixing obvious issues or delays on getting out new tables, but, to be fair I feel Tom has done a decent job in improving TPA on the PS4 over the last year or so, other than these issues I don't have a major problem with TPA, sure the ball physics could be better but I've played TPA since it first released and I get plenty of enjoyment out of the game, as for the graphics I've played a lot of Zen's Williams pack and I honestly don't think they look much better than TPA at all, I don't think there's much to choose between each game in the graphics department overall.

As for Zen having licenses, I think your being very optimistic, you say Zen have big licenses, but, many of their major licenses like Star Wars don't have the real film voices or tables like BTTF & Jaws don't have the real voices or music from the films, so while I actually hope your right that Zen will license tables like Addams Family, ST TNG & T2 etc. etc. I'm not as convinced as you that it will be so easy for them.

Finally, you mentioned Scared Stiff and the family mode option in TPA, while I agree it's a shame that leaderboards don't work with family mode off I don't have a major problem with it, I'm not fussed about online leaderboards anyway as my pinball scores are just average to good so it makes no difference to me if my score goes up online, I just like having the option able to play Scared Stiff "fully uncut" something we're never likely to see in PFX3.

 

[TFHFony]

I'm not a fan of censorship either. I really hope that the announcement a week or 2 from now will bring some positive news for the console owners.

Now, back on topic...
I own all tabels on TPA, SPA, ZP2 & FX3, but... to be quite honest... I think I'm not going to purchase the 2 new tables for TPA. Not untill the engine gets a decent makeover so TPA will look & sound on the PS4 as it should.