PC SGDQ MLPINBALL TPA Tournament

[Dizzer2012]

Isn't it "strange" that scores can still be uploaded AFTER the tournament. It was on -1 hour something and 'somebody' still managed to upload scores??

 

[Xanija]

Who? At which time? I saw at some point something weird with the timer, it said something like 0-1 days, but at that time the tournament was still running.

By the way: Wonder why Tarek has 1000 points, not 900. Not like it would matter anyway.

 

[Tarek Oberdieck]

Who? At which time? I saw at some point something weird with the timer, it said something like 0-1 days, but at that time the tournament was still running.

Yes, the timing is strange. Yesterday I was at 1000 points and from the tournament clock the end must be 7 hours later. I had no time to play in the last 4 hours. When I came back home late in the evening (GMT) I saw that I went back to 990 points and thought the tournament was over. Now the tournament clock says 7 more hours. Enough time to fight for 1000 points again. Don't ask me why...

By the way: Wonder why Tarek has 1000 points, not 900. Not like it would matter anyway.

1000 points cause 10 tables, not only 9 as announced at http://www.mlpinball.com

 

[Xanija]

oh, I didn't actually count them lol. Then it makes sense.

 

[Heretic]

good luck to everyone that reached top 50/100

 

[shutyertrap]

Woohoo! My 49th place held during the night Yes, I'm happy with accomplishing the bare minimum to be qualified for the drawing. It's easy to find Tarek or Voof or Pinballwiz45b's scores to see how they accomplished what they did. Let me show you what mediocrity looks like...

6th place: Harley Davidson (my only strategy was to keep any multiball going and to use all balls for collecting the easy 10 million at launch)
8th place: Creature (consistently took me 1:15 to get multiball started, another 1:30 to get 4x and collect first jackpot, other than never missing I'm at a loss how to do better)
29th place: ToM (I honestly had zero strategy as I have never been able to shoot accurately on this table)
29th place: Dr Dude (much like CftBL where it was a race to get to jackpot, but I'd love to know what to do after that to get those top scores)
29th place: AFM (got to Total Annihilation, kept it going as long as I could. Wheeee.)
41st place: Big Shot (drained first 3 balls, played last 2 and hoped for the best. I really don't like this table!)
55th place: TotAN (how the hell do you score quickly on this table??)
78th place: Gorgar (combination of not knowing a scoring strategy and barely being able to control the ball)
118th place: TX Sector (I should really have read up on this one as I don't even know what gets the trans-whatever multiplier going)
123rd place: El Dorado (I don't mind this table, I just can't play it well or fast)

So here's my question to the peanut gallery...to raise my overall standings to say 40th place, which tables should I have been putting my efforts toward the end?

My thinking was to go after the tables that I at least knew what to do on, and had placed well with. Reason for that was I figured going from 123 to say 100 on El Dorado was only going to earn me fractions of a point, while if I could move from 8th to 7th on Creature I'd earn a solid point or two. Keep in mind, barring me getting a pure luck score, most of my scores were maxed out for what I was capable in 5 minutes. I wasn't suddenly going to become awesome at TX-S or Gorgar. So was my thinking correct in going after my better scored tables? The final day my placement was on a yo-yo, going from 37th to 53rd and back to the 40's and then 51st where I was stuck during the final hours for a while. Just curious what other people's strategy would have been.

 

[invitro]

Reason for that was I figured going from 123 to say 100 on El Dorado was only going to earn me fractions of a point, while if I could move from 8th to 7th on Creature I'd earn a solid point or two.

The last time I looked at their point system, it was linear except for places #1 and #2. So going from 123 to 100 should have been worth 23 times what going from 8 to 7 was worth. I might be wrong, so someone please correct me if that's the case. I always go for the tables I rank lowest on first, unless I think I can get first or second (which strongly depends on whether Tarek and/or Dizzer2012 are playing).

I think you should've worked on AFM first. You got 6.7B, I'm guessing you could've gotten about 11B with a little strategy. Did you use the Super Skill Shots to complete the ramps, saving lots of time? Can you nail the left orbit (& right orbit) in TA?

Honestly, I think this was a tough tourney, and this is the best I've ever seen you do in TPA. Your two top-ten scores, on HD3e & CftBL, are essentially what I got. I'm guessing that a lot more people made a lot more entries in this one because of the prizes. Two of the top six players, PinWizrd and gainey666, have apparently never played TPA before, as their usernames aren't in any top 2000 score lists. If I were [MENTION=2570]LAW[/MENTION] (sorry for yelling at you again / thanks for the previous hacker cleanup), I'd want to look at those two players' scores closely. There might be quite a few other hackers.

What I'm saying is that you did quite well, a #50 place in this tourney might've taken more skill & time than a #10 place in the monthly Steam Gold tourney.

I think you have to read the TX-Sector rules to know what scores well, and make a strategy. I understood most of it, but you really need to know all of it to do well, I think. I got something decent on it after I did. It was only #38, my lowest rank by far, so maybe I don't really understand it yet...?

El Dorado is the obvious other choice. You have to hit the lit drops to score on that one, I think even if it takes you a little time to catch a ball and set up a shot, it's worth it... just my guess of course.

Congrats on your Top 50 placing and good luck in the drawing!

 

[Xanija]

118th place: TX Sector (I should really have read up on this one as I don't even know what gets the trans-whatever multiplier going)

I looked up on how this works, and it's quite simple. You hit the drop target of the left ramp, then the multiplier countdown starts. If you hit the transporter, it will mulitply 10.000 x (energy level +1) x multiplier. It's the best way to score, if you can hit the right ramp reliably. Which I can't.

17th place: ToM - I think I had one great ball with a good multiplier behind a great bonus
22nd place: Gorgar - Quite happy with the 1-2-3-4 target strategy
23th place: Harley Davidson - All I needed was a few good Multiballs
31st place: TX Sector - This bloody right ramp....
34th place: ToTAN - I tried the multiball / 3 x lightning lamp and it worked quite well. If I had started earlier into this tournament, my score would have been even better.
44th place: AFM - Didn't have the time to try improving this.
70th place: Big Shot - No complaints here
74th place El Dorado - The biggest problem with this table: Even when starting with 50k on the first ball, you can easily end with 75k in ball 5
81st place: Dr. Dude - Learned a lot about this table and was quite satisfied with my result.
106th place: CftBL - Well, I am just not good in playing the MB. I could get it within 1 min., but couldn't really make use of it

 

[invitro]

I'll quickly say that I liked the 5 minute format for this tourney, just because it was different, added a lot of tension, and generated some interesting data. I would not like it if it replaced the 20 minute format for the regular tourneys, because I found it just too stressful. Near-perfect play seems to have been necessary to get top 10 scores, which at my skill level means endless restarts. I chose to play regular TX-Sector instead of this tourney for its last day and a half for this reason (and that I had some dental work done which doesn't combine well with stressful pinball ). If something like this happened again, I'd vote for going the other direction: a 60-to-90 minute time limit, with no short-time tables selected.

I'm looking forward to the regular 20-minute tourney starting on Friday, I like its tables a little better, except for HD3e and ToM repeating from this one and in general.

Does anyone know when the drawing for the prizes will be held?

 

[shutyertrap]

I think you should've worked on AFM first. You got 6.7B, I'm guessing you could've gotten about 11B with a little strategy. Did you use the Super Skill Shots to complete the ramps, saving lots of time? Can you nail the left orbit (& right orbit) in TA?

The right ramp is my Achilles. I can hit everything else fairly regular. I am able to take advantage of shooting the orbits during TA, it's just getting there that is the problem! You're right though, I probably should have put more time into that table, as I hardly did. Something about AFM that I just don't enjoy, go figure. Same with ToM, I get no pleasure from the table. Funny thing is, whenever either of these are in tourneys, I just groan and get 'em over with as soon as possible. I don't even have great scores with either on the regular leaderboards.

 

[invitro]

I looked up on how this works, and it's quite simple. You hit the drop target of the left ramp, then the multiplier countdown starts. If you hit the transporter, it will mulitply 10.000 x (energy level +1) x multiplier. It's the best way to score, if you can hit the right ramp reliably. Which I can't.

17th place: ToM - I think I had one great ball with a good multiplier behind a great bonus
22nd place: Gorgar - Quite happy with the 1-2-3-4 target strategy
23th place: Harley Davidson - All I needed was a few good Multiballs
34th place: ToTAN - I tried the multiball / 3 x lightning lamp and it worked quite well. If I had started earlier into this tournament, my score would have been even better.
81st place: Dr. Dude - Learned a lot about this table and was quite satisfied with my result.
106th place: CftBL - Well, I am just not good in playing the MB. I could get it within 1 min., but couldn't really make use of it

My question on TX-Sector is when/if is a good time to start multiball, and what to do during it.
I tried several things on Gorgar, except 1-2-3-4 because I haven't ever practiced them, and the 5000 G-A-R targets seemed to work the best, but just guessing.
What seemed to work on Harley for me other than multiballs was Mystery Rider, and getting all three EB's for their 10M + Mystery Rider + bonus.
I'm curious if on TotAN it's a good idea to get a few quick Lightning Lamps first to boost its value before starting MB. I had a very hard time keeping MB going long enough to really score with 3X LL.
I love Dr. Dude in general. I think having only one multiball might be better than draining a first quickly, then playing with the 2X playfield while starting the second multiball. I actually don't completely understand the rules for the Jackpot value, which is a problem.
I got 2 Super Jackpots in my best CftBL game. I played that table least because I did well on it first. The next thing I would do is probably to spend 30-60 seconds boosting the jackpot with the bumpers before starting multiball.

 

[shutyertrap]

Near-perfect play seems to have been necessary to get top 10 scores, which at my skill level means endless restarts.

I can't tell you how many games I dumped 2 minutes in! That being said, I find the 20 minute timer even worse. I remember playing RBION for 15 minutes and then having a bad minute which I immediately knew was going to prevent me from getting the score I needed, so I dumped the game. That's 15 minutes wasted in frustration, where 2 minutes never got to me. I still think the best idea is you best score is whatever the last score you posted. Not that that wouldn't be even more stressful or anything!

 

[invitro]

I still think the best idea is you best score is whatever the last score you posted. Not that that wouldn't be even more stressful or anything!

I would certainly like to see this method at least tried. I can't say yet if I'd pick it to be a permanent replacement.

 

[Heretic]

while i didnt play in this tourney, i didnt think it would upset playstyles, its actually closer to tbpb so i can handle the timing better

if this was a succes for pinballjoe id like to see more, incentives arent everything but this 100 man draw certainly puts the "ball is wild" aspect of the "winner" into tpa.

id fancy a tron translite in truth but im rusty as all hell

 

[Xanija]

My question on TX-Sector is when/if is a good time to start multiball, and what to do during it.

I don't think it's good for this format, as the only purposes it serves are an additional bonus of 100k for every multiball achieved and a possible extra ball. I constantly ran out of time before I could even play 3 balls.

Maybe one strategy might be to get the energy level back up to 10 in multiball and then having a bigger chance to get the transporter bonus. Or, if you are "lucky", get one ball into the plunger lane and leave it there, having the energy level up at 10 and constantly trying to get the transporter bonus. But that's a lot of if's...

 

[paganhobbit]

So here's my question to the peanut gallery...to raise my overall standings to say 40th place, which tables should I have been putting my efforts toward the end?

My thinking was to go after the tables that I at least knew what to do on, and had placed well with. Reason for that was I figured going from 123 to say 100 on El Dorado was only going to earn me fractions of a point, while if I could move from 8th to 7th on Creature I'd earn a solid point or two.

I went with the opposite approach. I kept trying the tables I had the lowest rankings on figuring that going from 120 to 60 on a table would make a bigger difference overall than going from 30 - 28. I kept thinking that the scores of people above me were bunched up, so if I happened to improve my score by, say 10%, I might jump 15 or 20 places. But if I improved my score by 10% on a table I was in the top 40 on, I might only gain 1 or 2 spots, or possibly none at all. So I kept plugging at the tables I was lowest on until I improved one, then went to another.

I think I was running in the 40s overall until I FINALLY got a decent Big Shot ball 5 put together. I could never put together a really good run on AFM, CftBL and TofAN. Somehow I got 18th on Dr. Dude and I have no idea how I managed that. I was really happy with my ToM score too.

 

[shutyertrap]

I guess I was thinking it was a score curve, where at the top you got complete points, and anything past 85th started getting fractions of a point. Is it instead an equal split for everybody that isn't top 3?

 

[Xanija]

From http://www.mlpinball.com/

Scores will be ranked and assigned 100 points for 1st, 90 points for 2nd, 85 points for 3rd, 84 points for 4th and so on.

That doesn't explain why someone would have 735.152 points though.

 

[invitro]

From http://www.mlpinball.com/ That doesn't explain why someone would have 735.152 points though.

I mentioned this in a post above . The points decrease by one per rank only if there are less than about 84 players in a tourney. If there are more, points decrease by less per rank. There is an easy formula, but I forget whether last place gets 0 points or 1 point . (This is all if the scoring system is the same as it's been for the monthly tourneys.)

 

[invitro]

I guess I was thinking it was a score curve, where at the top you got complete points, and anything past 85th started getting fractions of a point. Is it instead an equal split for everybody that isn't top 3?

It's 100 points for 1st, 90 for 2nd, 85 for 3rd, 85-x for 4th, 85-2x for 5th, ..., 85-Nx for last, where N is the number of players, and x is the amount of points dropped per rank, and Nx = 85, or maybe Nx = 84. Something very close to that, anyway .