Road show

[invitro]

I don't see a RS forum, so...

After a few plays...
- The music seems too low to me. I set SFX to 50% (music at 100%), and the sound seems better. I haven't noticed a bad mix (?) on any other table before, but I may be extra-sensitive to RS.
- Hitting the Blast from a caught ball on the L flipper bounces STDM, every time, if nudge isn't used. I am pretty certain the shot isn't this dangerous on the real machine. It's been many years though.
- The left flipper is lit up, the right one is dark. Hmm.

Otherwise, seems alright to me, but I just started. I'll have to decide whether to try to figure out all the rules myself, or read them, I'll probably choose the former.

Hey Crazy Bob, whaddaya got in stock today? Do you still have that Uranium Ore for $3/Chunk?

Even better... I'll take the Pretty Rocks, please!

 

[RSchwantner]

I just checked, the backwards facing "Magic Standup" target does not change the city.

 

[invitro]

I just checked, the backwards facing "Magic Standup" target does not change the city.

Thanks!

 

[pm1109]

Looks like a fun little table!

 

[The Digital Man]

Looks like a fun little table!

It was IRL too...

 

[switch3flip]

Hmm on android the blast zone shot from left flipper usually returns to edge of left flipper. But I think it will go SDTM and nudge it to the middle if I'm not prepared, lol.
On real table it's usually not as dangerous but I've had my fair share of those as well. Last time I played Roadshow in a tourney, my 3:rd ball ended by a shot to blast zone that returned SDTM. Really fast as well. I was stunned but a big bonus saved me.

 

[W1LDD ONE]

Apple delays as usual.
I predicted next Friday and I most likely will be correct.
Anybody guess hint pic I have no clue?

 

[pm1109]

Apple delays as usual.
I predicted next Friday and I most likely will be correct.
Anybody guess hint pic I have no clue?

Safe Cracker

 

[W1LDD ONE]

I just downloaded IOS version.
Sweet table.
Thanks Soo Very Much Farsight Family!

 

[Arjan]

when lock is not lit and no mode is running, every ball in bobs bunker just serves a new ball!

 

[Zaphod77]

Ok I have some tips.

To safely survive fire in the hole hold the flipper up and trap the ball then release. It can then be trapped on the left flipper. You can also do reliable set shots this way.

The bulldozer is pretty safe from a trap.

Yes, the song is in game.

Practice the skill shot. Souvenirs are good

 

[invitro]

There seem to be many opportunities for improving the published rules. Example: can the Wheel EB be collected from every Super Payday, or even more than once in one Super Payday? This seems to be the only possible repeatable EB, except if the Gold/Lead/Zinc Pinballs can be awarded multiple times (even if they are, it seems impractical... I've only gotten the Gold Pinball; I've gotten it twice in all games), or if the regular Wheel EB can be repeated by getting repeated EBs some other way (since it can be collected a max of 5(?) times per ball). This seems practical if possible.

When you get all cities and they unlight, do you have to relight them to get their souvenir bonuses?

I am no strategy guru, but it seems that finding the optimal strategy might be difficult, at least if the above works for getting EBs. A 6X souvenir is 60M times # of remaining balls, which is massive early but not on the last ball.

Is the scoring on RS balanced?

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

There seem to be many opportunities for improving the published rules. Example: can the Wheel EB be collected from every Super Payday, or even more than once in one Super Payday? This seems to be the only possible repeatable EB, except if the Gold/Lead/Zinc Pinballs can be awarded multiple times (even if they are, it seems impractical... I've only gotten the Gold Pinball; I've gotten it twice in all games), or if the regular Wheel EB can be repeated by getting repeated EBs some other way (since it can be collected a max of 5(?) times per ball). This seems practical if possible.

When you get all cities and they unlight, do you have to relight them to get their souvenir bonuses?

I am no strategy guru, but it seems that finding the optimal strategy might be difficult, at least if the above works for getting EBs. A 6X souvenir is 60M times # of remaining balls, which is massive early but not on the last ball.

Is the scoring on RS balanced?

The Wheel EB can be collected in every Super Payday repeatable and also in the Las Vegas Slot Machine.
As long as you have only 3 in stack the wheel can light more EBs unlimited.

The score is not balanced, most points results in longer games from the bonus. I´ve had a twelve billion
bonus per ball in my #1 game. Lost the score overview but it´s possible that the 12B counts only as 2B,
at least the display does not show the full points. I´ll check this out some day.

When you unlight all citys it´s not needed to relight them for the bonus.

Gold, Zink and Lead Pinball seems repeatable, but I´m not sure about that. At least I got all three in one game.

 

[Slam23]

An optimal strategy will not be easy to find, there are a few risk/reward judgements to be made. I haven't had the time to put in a lot of gametime but this is what I look for:
- upping the bonus X is huge from mid-game on, my best and quite modest 3.4B came with a 500M bonus. Hold bonus is therefore also a very good Wheel award. For now, bonus seems to be the most unbalanced scoring on this table. I haven't yet found MB's, modes or single shots that give huge scoring relative to the others. Super Payday seems a sure candidate but I haven't sustained it long enough to see the possibilities in scoring. And even if it pays out as it says, then there is risk/reward to be factored in because it's hard to maintain any MB.
- there are a lot of EB's to be found but seemingy only the one from the Wheel is dependably repeatable (although it involves a lot of work to complete the wheel, especially within Super Payday/Las Vegas Slot Machine). Others are one-time or very rare to get twice. I have to play more, and read the rules in depth to see if there is another easily repeatable EB to be gotten. Tarek says it's not there and that's good enough for me...
- selling souvenirs seems not a wise thing to do because they play a huge part in the bonus (souvenirs linked to cities count as 10-20M in your bonus when you played the city's mode). This gets better when you get better at getting at least one extra ball per ball played
- trapping the ball at the left "blast-flipper" is a good thing to do. With some practice you can always get the super-blast. With some more practice shooting the city hole is also quite safe
- don't hit the bulldozer (progressing the week, smashing cabs etc) from the left flipper if you are not a very good aim. The ball will go SDTM or get wild. My favorite way to hit it is to cleanly shoot the lane beside Ted (+75 miles toward the next city), go around Red, and get a bulldozer hit from the bumper area. This will eventually lead to a trap on the left flipper quite dependably. Shooting from the right flipper and deadpassing it back from the left is also doable but with more risk. The bumper area itself seems not to be that dangerous and will often get you cities from the city or blast hole if it doesn't bounce the ball towards the bulldozer.
- balls let go from the bunker without flipping, can be easily trapped on the left.
- MB is hard to control as said before. Even with 2-ball MB in some modes it's still not easy to keep track of the balls and keep them in play in a controlled matter. I do like it hard btw but it begs the question if it is not better to forego MB or play them very conservative. I got my fair share of double and even triple drains.
- The left outlane is more dangerous than the right by far, but with some timely nudges and using that flipper above it, it can be managed.
- A quick way to get a lot of superblasts and score high on some modes: onetime a released ball from the city hole to the "blast flipper" at the left (called left loop in the instructions), trap the ball, shoot a Super Blast (this feeds the ball to the City hole), repeat. Modes that have a constantly lit alley to the "blast flipper" are Monster Cab and Mardi Gras. For a couple of other modes it's one shot. Super Blasts go for 15M a pop and build up towards Flying Rocks.

All in all, I really like this table. I was put off a bit at first by the goofy theme, but the table makes up for this with quite deep gameplay and rules and it has that "just one more game" thing that I love. There is a lot of flow to it also and a diverse array of different shots. Still lots of things to try and get further within the game. Great job Farsight!

Edit: and what Tarek said offcourse!

 

[invitro]

The Wheel EB can be collected in every Super Payday repeatable and also in the Las Vegas Slot Machine.
As long as you have only 3 in stack the wheel can light more EBs unlimited.

The score is not balanced, most points results in longer games from the bonus. I´ve had a twelve billion
bonus per ball in my #1 game. Lost the score overview but it´s possible that the 12B counts only as 2B,
at least the display does not show the full points. I´ll check this out some day.

When you unlight all citys it´s not needed to relight them for the bonus.

Gold, Zink and Lead Pinball seems repeatable, but I´m not sure about that. At least I got all three in one game.

Great stuff Tarek, thanks! My max bonus is 1.647B, I think I would've guessed that your game had a bonus over 12B.

How long do you guys think the 315B will last at #1?

 

[invitro]

An optimal strategy will not be easy to find, there are a few risk/reward judgements to be made. I haven't had the time to put in a lot of gametime but this is what I look for:

Selling souvenirs at Albuquerque seems like the most horrible thing you could do other than tilting. If it's not your last ball, you lose points, and probably lots of them, if you do it. The only way you can even break even is to sell them on the last ball when you have 6X bonus. Except if you can sell the dud souvenirs like Wax Lips, which might make it worth doing on the last ball, except that you can't know that it'll be your last ball if EBs are on. Or if you can recollect these points during Super Payday, which still might not be enough to make it worthwhile.

I don't know about the little-flipper trapping. It seems harder for me to hit the blast hole after a trap than as usual. I'll have to try it some more.

I hope you're not actually shooting the bulldozer during Smash a Cab on purpose.

Hold Bonus doesn't seem that good to me... it actually seems like it can have a NEGATIVE expected value, depending on skill. All the Bonus points seem to be cumulative, so holding them has no effect. You should be getting 6X easily (almost?) every ball. The main effect seems to be that it prevents you from getting five Wheel Awards, 5/12th of an EB, on the next ball!

 

[Maggie]

- A quick way to get a lot of superblasts and score high on some modes: onetime a released ball from the city hole to the "blast flipper" at the left (called left loop in the instructions), trap the ball, shoot a Super Blast (this feeds the ball to the City hole), repeat. Modes that have a constantly lit alley to the "blast flipper" are Monster Cab and Mardi Gras. For a couple of other modes it's one shot. Super Blasts go for 15M a pop and build up towards Flying Rocks.

I'm still working to understand pinball lingo -- I don't know what you mean by this -- any chance you could explain it in different terms? It sounds interesting.

I'm really enjoying this game a lot. It's all about the bonus. My highest so far was just a few pennies over 1B. I think you would have to be very, very good to have 'infinite' extra balls (waves at Tarek). But for a player like me, the extra balls are finite. However, the ball controls pretty well -- especially if you avoid multiballs, and I can run for a while without losing one off some random ricochet off a miss-hit. And even though it's a finite number, there are a lot of extra balls. So the strategy, such as it is, is to be very cautious to keep the early balls going as long as possible, accumulating cities and souvenirs, and trying to get one spin off each tick up in the multiplier bonus. That means I totally ignore super blast and multiball and the modes (except I usually give in and make one careful shot at the bulldozer in Salt Lake City). The bonuses jump up after the first super payday because that's when I have enough souvenir/city combos to make the 6x multiplier really work for me. Anyway, I'm at 6B, and I think I can go higher still by getting more consistency on the skill shot, etc.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

How long do you guys think the 315B will last at #1?

Don´t ask me.

There are two more repeatable EBs from the Blast. After 255 Blasts it starts again at 0 and awards the EBs again...

 

[invitro]

- balls let go from the bunker without flipping, can be easily trapped on the left.

I didn't know this before reading and trying it out. It works 100%, and is very valuable for getting souvenir after souvenir, fast.

 

[Slam23]

Don´t ask me.

There are two more repeatable EBs from the Blast. After 255 Blasts it starts again at 0 and awards the EBs again...

I laughed when I read this Tarek, not because it's not true but because of the faith you place in us mortals that we actually get to rollover the Blasts......
[MENTION=446]invitro[/MENTION] : hold bonus = hold bonus X (my bad!), and you are right, it should be a priority to get it up at 6x every ball. I did profit though from it when I messed up a late ball and still got the huge bonus. I also think selling souvenirs is very bad, or did you just reiterate my point? Because it read like you misread the portion of my post about this
[MENTION=5109]Maggie[/MENTION] : just flip directly but quite late with your right flipper when the ball is released from the City hole, "onetiming it" This will shoot the ball up the left loop towards the left-most "Thing Flips" flipper. If you keep that flipper up, you'll hold the ball between the flipper and the thing right next to it, that's the equivalent of a trap. Release it and quickly flip, practice shooting the blast hole. Nice going with the 6B! I'll have to catch up to you, at 4B myself.