Pro Mode in Arabian Nights

[Just Some Guy]

If FarSight decides to add a feature for the user to adjust the table camera angle/zoom to their preference for gameplay to the Pro Version, it will greatly add to the value of purchasing the Pro Version.

If FarSight did that, I would be done with Pinball Arcade.

That should be a standard feature of a pinball game, not a "pro" feature. It's bad enough that we have had to put up with their limited selection of, or downright bad, camera angles on the tables for so long.

I bought the pro pack and felt completely ripped off by it. I was expecting some kind of video tutorial showing pro play, but it is just like the table overview, except it just tells you to keep hitting the harem multiball over and over to score big points. I can barely even hit the left loop in PBA. Seeing how the "pros" do it would have been really useful. (I suspect this advice is based on the real table though)

The table operator menus etc. are worthless because they disable your high scores. I understand why that is the case, but that means I'm never going to touch anything in the Pro menus. It's bad enough that I've had my scores wiped multiple times from previous updates, and am still playing catch-up - on some of the tables my scores are barely even half of my previous best. (including high-scoring tables like Gorgar and Black Hole) If that ever happens again, I'm completely done with PBA.

Exploring the table layout might have been a nice novelty (certainly nothing worth paying for) but the table art is actually quite low resolution, and it's really obvious once you're not using the stock camera views. It's also very limited, and doesn't let you move around the table freely.


This just feels like a way to grab some extra money from the people that are still playing PBA for minimal effort. (I bet most of the features were already implemented in their development builds)

 

[Dutch Pinball ball]

Dont care the price, cause i dont need the options, the only thing what makers me pissed of that, again i have an unwanted stamp Go Pro on top of my tables that Ive bought.

Sorry, but **** off with that sort of crap.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Yeah, I do have to agree that camera options should be included as features of the standard game.

 

[spoonman]

I hate to say it, but I'm personally a tad disappointed that they've been working on this instead of bug fixing the existing tables.

I also think this will do nothing but create more hatred towards them in the long run.
They are basically asking you to pay an additional $4.00 to give you a few of the options that Zen Pinball 2 throws in on EVERY table and for FREE.

So is free-roam camera added to Pro Mode or not? I wish they would have included a video demo or pictures.. Something to explain why we should all spend
another $4 on a table we already own.

I'm also waiting for the #&$^% storm from people who dislike the "GO PRO" icon that will start popping up on tables that we paid for!

Also, does this mean we shouldn't expect and new features (day/night slider, better camera angles), bug fixes (BK, MM, etc..), or enhancements on the "Basic version" of TPA tables?

 

[Jim O'Brien]

Also, does this mean we shouldn't expect and new features (day/night slider, better camera angles), bug fixes (BK, MM, etc..), or enhancements on the "Basic version" of TPA tables?

I'm interested in the answers to these as well. I'd also be interested in paying the one flat rate price for all operators menus like others have mentioned, than again maybe not just for the fact that the leaderboards are disabled if you open the coin door and start playing around in there. Histograms is a cool feature to see how much money a table has taken along with the machines average ball time and play time again all features that Zen offers for free. To me it's like turning tilt off after wizard goals are met, personally for me it isn't something I do, but maybe there is a niche audience that plays Arcade and has never played Visual Pinball or Zen Pinball that would totally eat this stuff up.

 

[Worf]

can you turn free play off ? because if you can i can't find it ..

Should be an option, but since TPA doesn't support any credits, the only way to put credits in is to use the service credits method.

 

[netizen]

If you think $3.99 is too much for the operators menu, don't buy it; I still haven't decided if I want to buy the operators menu for TOTAN myself, I don't enjoy TOTAN all that much. Maybe in a couple weeks when and if I hear something good about the nexus 10 i'll consider it again.

But to put it into perspective a bit. Those who put in on the KS for TZ and ST:TNG, so that they could have access to the operators menu, all contributed $100+. Which makes paying the base table price of $2-4 plus the "Pro" add on cost of $3.99 a pretty good deal, IMO. Even if you do not use it too much, or only find one or two features useful.

Meh.

 

[okurka]

If you think $3.99 is too much for the operators menu, don't buy it

But then we're still left with the Go Pro stamp on tables we already paid for.
If FarSight is going to continue like this, I'm going to stop buying tables on both devices I own.

 

[an ox]

It's pretty obvious to me that a game's options shouldn't cost more than the game itself.

I've bought every table pack without hesitation so far and this is the first thing that's given me pause. If it were an extra buck on top I'd probably not hesitate but as it is it feels like too much. And to be honest I am mildly miffed that now we are going to acquire new nag stamps on tables we've already paid for if we don't buy the pro to get rid.

I do understand the need to make money (goat only knows I make next to bugger all as an iOS developer myself) but at this price the pro extras feel like a bit of an attempt to further milk the cows that have already squirted.

I fear it's likely to make some of us moo.

 

[Whizkid33]

Pro Mode thoughts, I don't really mind the price.

What needs to be realized is that implementing the mode does cost time and money. So then it comes to the pricing. It is a little steep and I understand the arguments on the other side of it. But it is an extra feature and one at that that does not affect gameplay for scores or goals, so it is totally optional. As for the company they do need to balance how many Pro Modes they think they can sell, and find the break-even point to then see if they could break-even or make a profit from the work or not. The real question is how many people; if they did drop the price $1 or $2, would actually buy the Pro Mode... and then more so, how many would buy the PRO Mode for all the tables, versus just the ones they like. All of this is considered into the pricing of the feature (or at least I hope it was).


Now getting to my opinion about the Pro Mode Features. I enjoy being able to set harder difficulty, and no extra balls/ having a tournament mode. It helps when I am playing with my friends because it gets very boring sometimes to wait for the other person because they got 3 extra balls. So that I do enjoy. But just for that feature I don't think the price is worth it.




There are some things I think Farsight could do to, to really boost up the benefit of owning Pro Mode:

-Have the game, remember the stats, and Pro Mode settings, even if you turn it off. From my experience the data (like setting the time, modes played) Get erased when you
turn it off to go back to goal getting/leaderboard modes.

-Being able to implement a way to insert coins. Many people have requested being able to turn off freeplay mode, and put in coins. I think with the ability to go into the operators menu, this should now be implemented into the game.

-The ability to facebook share what settings you are playing with.

-If they could find a way to hook up the Audit Printouts to print out to a PDF or email, that would be really amazing. obviously to have this one useful, they would need to make sure
the game makes a save file and records the rom data, and loads it even when turning off Pro Mode or shutting down the APP.

I do feel that if this stuff was implemented then the price would be worth the mode. I know for myself I will Buy whatever Pro Modes they release because as mentioned above I like the extra features when playing with friends, to make sure the game doesn't last forever.






***Quick side note*** - to those people who say it should have been included in the game anyway, because it is part of the game... etc. When have you ever gone to an arcade and been able to play with the operators menu? Are you the operator? Arguably to get into schematics... you have essentially bought a lifetime membership to The Pinball Arcade (a virtual location) and have paid on each table a price to be able to play unlimited amounts of times. What you have not done is BUY the machine. So you do not own or have access; to the machine or the operators menu.

 

[Urbanshenkie]

Whats Next selling ballskins ? I'm defently not buying that crap

 

[spoonman]

***Quick side note*** - to those people who say it should have been included in the game anyway, because it is part of the game... etc. When have you ever gone to an arcade and been able to play with the operators menu? Are you the operator? Arguably to get into schematics... you have essentially bought a lifetime membership to The Pinball Arcade (a virtual location) and have paid on each table a price to be able to play unlimited amounts of times. What you have not done is BUY the machine. So you do not own or have access; to the machine or the operators menu.

Apples and oranges though...

Owning TPA tables would be more likened to owning real tables, in which case you would have access to everything.
Like many other people here, I have bought table DLC within the hour it was released and plan on buying every future table without hesitation. If there is a DLC released I plan on $5 going to it right away.
But $4 for options isn't for me. I consider myself a pretty big pinball fan... been playing them all my life and have owned the real thing back in the day. I then have to ask myself how many people are willing to
pay more money for options than for the tables themselves.

Someone also mentioned Rock Band DLC and Pro mode.. Now if it were priced similar to that I would buy it for all tables without quest.
RB tunes are (IIRC) $.99 for RB1 & 2 DLC tracks, $1.99 for RB3 tracks, and $.99 cents for Pro Guitar Mode.

Now if Pro Mode included A Day/Night slider, a true free roam camera mode (w/ zoom), Ability to play music on the PS3, Stereoscopic 3D support, High resolution flyer scans I may be more inclined
to pay $4 for that.

 

[superballs]

I bought it I think it's cool.

Only wishlist items:
Ability to save settings and boot separately into pro or normal mode along with boot up test that's awesome.

A button to insert coins. There my arcade experience is complete

Thanks for the feature yeah a bit steep I am curious about the pricing logic. Bit cool


Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk 2

 

[Stormchild]

Too expensive relative to the cost of unlocking the tables themselves. Not interested at the current price.

$0.99 would definitely have been the right price point.

Please get rid of the ugly "GO PRO" badge. (Didn't we just get through deciding those same badges were unsightly when they said "OWNED"? Why bring them back for another purpose?)

 

[Fungi]

Please get rid of the ugly "GO PRO" badge. (Didn't we just get through deciding those same badges were unsightly when they said "OWNED"? Why bring them back for another purpose?)

I fear it's FarSight's version of the nag screen. ALWAYS a popular feature.

 

[DaPinballWizard]

If FarSight did that, I would be done with Pinball Arcade.

That should be a standard feature of a pinball game, not a "pro" feature. It's bad enough that we have had to put up with their limited selection of, or downright bad, camera angles on the tables for so long.

I bought the pro pack and felt completely ripped off by it. I was expecting some kind of video tutorial showing pro play, but it is just like the table overview, except it just tells you to keep hitting the harem multiball over and over to score big points. I can barely even hit the left loop in PBA. Seeing how the "pros" do it would have been really useful. (I suspect this advice is based on the real table though)

The table operator menus etc. are worthless because they disable your high scores. I understand why that is the case, but that means I'm never going to touch anything in the Pro menus. It's bad enough that I've had my scores wiped multiple times from previous updates, and am still playing catch-up - on some of the tables my scores are barely even half of my previous best. (including high-scoring tables like Gorgar and Black Hole) If that ever happens again, I'm completely done with PBA.

Exploring the table layout might have been a nice novelty (certainly nothing worth paying for) but the table art is actually quite low resolution, and it's really obvious once you're not using the stock camera views. It's also very limited, and doesn't let you move around the table freely.


This just feels like a way to grab some extra money from the people that are still playing PBA for minimal effort. (I bet most of the features were already implemented in their development builds)

"If that ever happens again, I'm completely done with PBA"

Sick of this bs. I am going to stop enjoying your games, take that. It is stupid. Who cares?
If you are unhappy with their product, don't buy them. I for one,will buy all tables. Maybe not all the extra stuff, but all tables. I put in $100 for each kickstarter and look forward to getting those tables. I am just so sick of people complaining. If you don't like their games or way they run their business. Move on. You have crappy zen to play.

 

[farmerjohn]

The only problem I have with this, is the fact that they added a frequently requested feature to Pro Mode only:
The free roaming camera. In my book that's a real shoddy move.

 

[Kevlar]

The only problem I have with this, is the fact that they added a frequently requested feature to Pro Mode only:
The free roaming camera. In my book that's a real shoddy move.

Completely agree and have said that here somewhere already, the only thing I personally want from the 4 features of the pro mode is the free roaming camera which I'm sure most people would agree should have been free anyway.

 

[Mark W**a]

If they are charging such a high price for these prices, makes me wonder how much they are going to charge for the lighting slider. Will the lighting slider and ability to set our own camera angles be part of some kind of "super pro" mode or something?

 

[the ajp]

i like pro mode little things like the score rising to get a free game as you get better and adding credits add to the whole machine in the arcade feel rather than the free play home version.. even silly things like being able to set the date and time i think are cool .. love messing about with things but i do agree it's overpriced and should really be there as option buying a new table for a small extra charge