Pinball Arcade too easy and unchallenging

[seansjs1973gamer]

I want to play some challenging pinball. Why does pinball arcade seem so easy and unchallenging. I earn a extra ball like every two minutes. I would rather play Pinball Hall of Fame the Williams Collection at least that is challenging. If I wanted to play 30 minute or longer pinball grinder session I would play Pinball FX. Maybe the Pinball Arcade doesn't deserve to do a classic table like The Addams Family because they would ruin that also. I though Pinball Arcade was in the business of preserving these tables along with the gameplay. Instead they tune them to be extra easy, again I say why? They didn't tune them that way in Pinball Hall of Fame the Williams Collections. Prime example is the left ramp shot from Creature from the Black Lagoon, absolutely no effort required to hit it. If you want some real pinball action play Pro-Pinball. They have ball spin, ball physics and real airballs. And if you get a high score or game time of longer than 12 minutes you can honestly say that you earned it. After all Pro Pinball said it right, it's not about quantity but quality. Pinball Arcade can we get some difficulty settings in the near future.

 

[JavaJack]

Yeah. I'm less of a Grouchy Gus about this than seansjs1973gamer, but I have noticed that I play MUCH better in TPA than on real life machines, by a long shot.

It will be interesting to see how I do on TPA's Diner when it comes out, since I own a real life Diner.

 

[kinggo]

guys, start playing it on mobile devices. It's still easier than the real thing but not so ridiculous like on PC or consoles.

 

[Tann]

guys, start playing it on mobile devices. It's still easier than the real thing but not so ridiculous like on PC or consoles.

Agreed. TPA is a LOT harder on mobiles (I suck on Android and I'm OK+ on PS3), because the nugde isn't so accurate than on consoles (thanks to the controller stick).

Instead they tune them to be extra easy, again I say why?

It's a choice made by Farsight, so everyone can enjoy all the features of a table (It has been said that the table manufacturers wanted also that the tables are easier than IRL).

Maybe in the future, Farsight will a add a hard difficulty setting (which disables extra-balls for example) with separate leaderboards. Requested by the TPA community since a long time.

There's only one problem: you can disable extra-balls with the pro mode DLC...

 

[kinggo]

IMO, disabling EB won't do much. I didn't play much on PC, only few games (first game on TAXI some 17M, first game on Elvira some 47M) but the thing is that one can nudge so precise very easily. I can earn as much EB on my tab but I just can't save so many balls from draining with nudging.

 

[Richard B]

All the tables before STTNG (of which CFTBL is one) have had their difficulty tuned way down. The ones released since then (some more than others) have been a lot closer to the originals, and in the case of CC, harder. WW, JY, WD, and WH20, among others, play a lot like their originals. The extra balls settings are in place because FS has implemented them in the operator's menus, and they can be removed there too (one of the few reasons to have Pro). Nudging is not a big part of real tables since nudging a real table means moving a 300 pound machine, and most of them (around here at least) have tilt settings that allow for one nudge before you get a warning (or double warning), with some just going right to tilt without warning you.
As far as spin and air balls (the latter of which plays heavily into Champion Pub, which is otherwise pretty accurate), FS said they were looking into it, but we've not seen it yet.
I would like to see earlier tables better tuned for difficulty (especially the ruined BOP), as they've already updated the physics (cradle separations and rolling taps are now possible, and the overly bouncy physics, including the non-orbit flipper-to-outlane bounce, are a thing of the past.

 

[Baron Rubik]

I find it too easy on mobile, even with the pro packs and extra balls off.
Got it on console for 360 at release, and tried it again recently when Farsight announced release again last month, but both console and PC version were laughably easy with a game on MM lasting over an hour and a half.
Since Android picked up input lag on my 2 droids a few months ago, I don't play much at all anymore.
Sad really.
I kinda wish Zen or another had got the Farsight licenses and vice versa.

 

[Bowflex]

Tables are hit and miss on difficulty. Most are way easier but there are a few that are noticeably more difficult than the real life tables. The one good thing about the pro modes is you can change the extra ball settings since most of the tables have fairly easy extra balls from scoring.

 

[Tann]

IMO, disabling EB won't do much.

Yes, you're right, I have been imprecise: disable extra-balls would only shorten the game length, and will make harder to score gazillion points on tables like MM, MB, AFM and so on.

But the table itself would be still "easy".

However, I've just purchased the S2 pack this week, and maybe it's because I don't know well the tables for now, but I find the difficulty has been increased a liitle (more straight drains, in the center or in outlanes, some ramps harder to shoot or to chain).

 

[Jeff Strong]

IMO, disabling EB won't do much. I didn't play much on PC, only few games (first game on TAXI some 17M, first game on Elvira some 47M) but the thing is that one can nudge so precise very easily. I can earn as much EB on my tab but I just can't save so many balls from draining with nudging.

Yup.

If only we would've complained about the nudging more early on, I think they might have adjusted it, but I think it's probably too late now. I mostly played on mobile until PC, so I didn't realize how over-the-top it was on consoles, and now PC. It's such a glaring flaw that I really haven't played much TPA since the PC release. It's too bad because that adjustment would help tremendously, even if it were just an option in the Pro menu.

 

[SilverBalls]

The easiness of TPA kills it for me, and I live in hope that one day they will add a tougher mode like Bobby once mentioned in one of Jeff's interviews.

 

[Heretic]

from the lov of the casual gamer if they cant get that ramp 8 times ourta ten instead of two outta ten itll put many off,

on the flio side theres us one hiur and and thinking this game was drsigned to het you in and out within minutes bored now

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

I certainly would love a harder TZ.

 

[AshleyAshes]

As a child I didn't know you could shift and hip check a pinball machine to move the ball, I just pressed the buttons.
As an adult I played The Williams Collection and was amazed by how nudging with the analog stick made pinball so much easier.
As an adult on a real arcade machine, now equipped with this 'nudging' knowledge, I found it a lot harder without an analog stick and it looked like I was doing terrible, criminal things to the pinball table.

 

[Nightwing]

I kinda wish Zen or another had got the Farsight licenses and vice versa.

Please point out anything recent made by Zen that you could consider hard. If TPA is considered easy and you can play for awhile on a single game,then the recent Zen tables I've played are super easy.

Speaking as someone who is slightly more than a casual player - I think that adding some sort of difficulty switch or normal/hard setting would go a long way towards appeasing some of the "hardcore" players. I'm all for that. And hopefully when/if multiplayer gets into TPA - it will be addressed then.

And,as an aside,if someone has some tips for safe nudging on an iPad,than please let me know,because for me - nudging more than once means tilt - and forget trying to directional nudge.

But to change the settings completely from what they are now - I say NO. By not making/keeping the game somewhat easy for the casual players,then you might as well say goodbye to TPA,because I'm pretty sure that the game won't sustain momentum on the "hardcore" players only.

 

[JavaJack]

Please point out anything recent made by Zen that you could consider hard.

All of them? For instance, I've yet to complete more than two movie scenes EVER in any given game of Empire Strikes Back, because of the strict Scene Mode time limits. In contrast, I've gotten to Lost In The Zone, Join The Circus, and whatever the ToTaN Free the Genie Battle thing is called on TPA, despite being fairly unskilled.

 

[DanBradford]

Too easy?

FFS if you don't like it, don't play it

 

[kinggo]

from the lov of the casual gamer if they cant get that ramp 8 times ourta ten instead of two outta ten itll put many off,

on the flio side theres us one hiur and and thinking this game was drsigned to het you in and out within minutes bored now

for me, it's not about that. It's just that the same game on different platform is not the same after all.

And,as an aside,if someone has some tips for safe nudging on an iPad,than please let me know,because for me - nudging more than once means tilt - and forget trying to directional nudge.

this exactly, on mobile platforms one just can't nudge like crazy without tilting. DMD's are somehow more prone to tilt but EM's and early SS tilt after two nudges. And nudge on mobile is not even close to what nudge on PC do to a ball.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Please point out anything recent made by Zen that you could consider hard. If TPA is considered easy and you can play for awhile on a single game,then the recent Zen tables I've played are super easy.

Speaking as someone who is slightly more than a casual player - I think that adding some sort of difficulty switch or normal/hard setting would go a long way towards appeasing some of the "hardcore" players. I'm all for that. And hopefully when/if multiplayer gets into TPA - it will be addressed then.

And,as an aside,if someone has some tips for safe nudging on an iPad,than please let me know,because for me - nudging more than once means tilt - and forget trying to directional nudge.

But to change the settings completely from what they are now - I say NO. By not making/keeping the game somewhat easy for the casual players,then you might as well say goodbye to TPA,because I'm pretty sure that the game won't sustain momentum on the "hardcore" players only.

Good points. I don't want them to change the default settings, but we really need more options. As it is now, I really haven't "played" TPA since last year, other than a minute or two here and there to see what the demos of the new tables look like. If I want a pinball fix, I go to VP or Pro Pinball.

 

[Nightwing]

All of them? For instance, I've yet to complete more than two movie scenes EVER in any given game of Empire Strikes Back, because of the strict Scene Mode time limits.

I didn't find it that hard. But then again,everyone plays in their own way,so who am I to say?

Having said that...

IMHO, I find I last a long time on most of the Zen tables on my 360. I can't really compare TPA properly on the 360 with the lack of updates/tables. It's going to be an adjustment playing TPA on a console again.