Round 2: Vote on Your Questions for Bobby King (Pick 3)

[Jeff Strong]

It's time to vote on which questions will be selected for the next round of the Forum Interview with Bobby King from Farsight! Please select 3 Questions from the poll. Bobby will answer the top 3 questions later this week.

I expanded the poll from 20 to 30 random questions (with a few carryover questions from the last poll), and some questions were either combined or condensed to save space in the poll (the forum only allows so many characters per question, so the questions will most likely be expanded when they are presented to Bobby).

If your question didn't get picked this time around, or it doesn't get voted in, don't worry because this will be a reoccurring event, so you can always resubmit your question for the next round. Some people submitted multiple questions, but there is only space for 30 questions so I couldn't include every single question, but I tried to get at least one question from everyone who submitted.

Thanks again for submitting your questions, and to HOW (Andy) for the idea, and another big thank you to Bobby for graciously agreeing to take part.

 

[Jeff Strong]

The poll is now ready....happy voting!

 

[Crush3d_Turtle]

Thanks for doing these polls. I really hope the PS3 lag issue question gets included.

 

[Jan Duin]

Voted, thanks Bobby for taking the time to answer our questions.

 

[Bowflex]

Why is there a question about Data East tables being possible? They've remarked numerous times that they can release those if they wish as part of the Stern license. The other aspect of that question is fine, but that specific point seems odd.

 

[Frostyglitch]

Fantastic community we have here. I'm looking forward to seeing the next round of answers. Thanks much Bobby, your participation is really appreciated.

 

[Tony C]

Bowflex, I'd guess that it could be in there because while we all know that FS has the license to release DE tables, they have not yet done so. It makes me wonder if there is some issue with the DE hardware that they are having a problem with.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

I really want to see his answer to the tournament question.

 

[Dan]

Come on people, vote for the game disc question...when PS4 or Xbox720 arrives (or European TPA, whatever comes first) who knows if MS/Sony will support "old" titles...you want to play this for a looong time.

 

[Richard B]

I voted for the question that I face every time I play - the ball / flipper interaction. Some of the others questions are good too, but some of them are a total waste:
We asked a question about unannounced tables or recently acquired licenses last time, and they wouldn't reveal anything specific, and they probably won't this time either. They've also already answered the Kickstarter question (if TZ and STTNG do well enough, they won't need to do any more KS). When the PC version nears release, they'll release the specs. If development is still underway, they won't precisely know themselves, and won't give us specs today that might be wrong tomorrow.

 

[Richard B]

Come on people, vote for the game disc question...when PS4 or Xbox720 arrives (or European TPA, whatever comes first) who knows if MS/Sony will support "old" titles...you want to play this for a looong time.

If Sony and MS implement the draconian DRM measures they are rumored to be considering, I won't get a 720 or a PS4.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Why is there a question about Data East tables being possible? They've remarked numerous times that they can release those if they wish as part of the Stern license. The other aspect of that question is fine, but that specific point seems odd.

Bowflex, I'd guess that it could be in there because while we all know that FS has the license to release DE tables, they have not yet done so. It makes me wonder if there is some issue with the DE hardware that they are having a problem with.

Yeah, the question can be viewed as "are any of those tables coming soon-ish" type of thing. We already know they're possible, so that's not what's being asked. I edited the question a bit (added "coming soon") to reflect that.

I voted for the question that I face every time I play - the ball / flipper interaction. Some of the others questions are good too, but some of them are a total waste:
We asked a question about unannounced tables or recently acquired licenses last time, and they wouldn't reveal anything specific, and they probably won't this time either. They've also already answered the Kickstarter question (if TZ and STTNG do well enough, they won't need to do any more KS). When the PC version nears release, they'll release the specs. If development is still underway, they won't precisely know themselves, and won't give us specs today that might be wrong tomorrow.

Where did they say that about Kickstarter? Either way, that question doesn't look like it'll make it into the top 3 anyway.

The PC question may seem like a total waste to you, but it's obviously not to others. A lot of people are dying for any morsel of PC news, even if the question doesn't yield the specific requirements.

And I'm just putting up the questions you guys give me, and I try to be fair to everyone, so don't shoot the messenger it's up to you guys to pick the good ones.

 

[nimitz]

The PC specs question seems rather pointless indeed, since they probably don't have that info.

But a PC release time-frame and (hopefully) letting them know that people are concerned about that version is a good thing.

I get the feeling that the PC version is nowhere near their top priority.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

There's a reply from FS buried in a response to a Facebook comment; that reply stated that a "fully-functional" PC version was demonstrated internally, so it sounds like at least the software itself has reached a beta stage. No word yet on if they've made any progress on the distribution problem.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

I hope Booby King will answer the question about ball physics. After watching so many PAPA tutorials, I am upset that I can't use most of the shown flipper techniques.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I hope Booby King will answer the question about ball physics. After watching so many PAPA tutorials, I am upset that I can't use most of the shown flipper techniques.

Booby King? Something on your mind?

Actually, you can use most of the techniques, with the proviso that the ball(s) will bounce higher and move faster than they should. Post passing is pretty doable, a bastard version of a live catch is possible but ugly (lots of bounciness and sometimes a nudge is needed to keep the ball from coming back down on a sling), dead passing works. It's the things that require subtle flipper work that aren't possible currently.

On the other hand, the local arcade replaced the flipper rubber on a number of machines recently and the bounciness is much closer to TPA than it was before. Given that FarSight restores their tables before digitizing them, and presumably such restoration involves new rubber for the flippers, they may not be as off as I first thought. If you look at the PAPA video for last year's quarterfinal round on Monster Bash, they even comment on the effects flipper rubber can have, and you can watch the ball bounce like mad, backspin into the drain, and do other weird tricks even for world-class players. (Granted, they do not have the ultra-liberal tilt setting that we TPA players enjoy.)

Even if Bobby can't tell us that the flipper physics are fixed or going to be fixed soon, I'd be interested in hearing more in-depth information on what the technical difficulties are. For example, it appears that the flippers instantly travel their entire distance down and up if a button is released and pressed again quickly, whereas on a real table the flipper would not have time to complete a full cycle and so the ball resting on that flipper would be flicked instead of launched. I think this is causing a lot of our control problems, more so than the bounciness.

 

[Actionball]

Bowflex, I'd guess that it could be in there because while we all know that FS has the license to release DE tables, they have not yet done so. It makes me wonder if there is some issue with the DE hardware that they are having a problem with.

Considering that there are only like 5 DE tables that don't have an external license or stripper themes and thus might be worth considering I'm not sure its of critical importance to FS to figure out the DE hardware if that was an issue. Really only 2 of those games might be any fun to have, Time Machine and Checkpoint but even then they don't quite rank too highly on most peoples wish lists.

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

@Serenseven
Uppppppps, should be Bobby not Booby. hehehe
Please forgive me Booby ehhhh Bobby.
"it appears that the flippers instantly travel their entire distance down and up if a button is released and pressed again quickly"
Yes! This has to be fixed in order to have a much better realistic feeling.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Booby King? Something on your mind?
.

Hahahahahaaaaa!

 

[Bowflex]

Thanks Jeff! I appreciate your hard work in organizing, updating and presenting the polls/questions.