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Farsight Studios
The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
Stop making the tables easier!
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<blockquote data-quote="Sean DonCarlos" data-source="post: 33144" data-attributes="member: 152"><p>As best I can tell - and I have access to physical versions of 10 of the 16 released tables - TPA's tables use the factory default settings, except for specials being turned into extra balls.</p><p></p><p>There are three primary factors that make TPA easier than physical pinball:</p><ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The collision meshes are by necessity only approximations of the actual tables - not every single tiny nook and cranny is reproduced, in order to keep the physics calculations under control - which in turn makes marginal shots slightly less likely to be rejected. You also get less weird unexpected ricochets from hitting a projecting part of a table element.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">The physics are nearly 100% deterministic. Once you learn how a ball leaves a kickout on TPA, it almost never changes. That predictability makes things much easier. The Slot Machine kickout on TZ will be a good test - even on a well-maintained machine, it often changes <em>mid-game</em>, to the point where your dead-pass that worked the previous 10 kickouts suddenly becomes an instant center drain instead.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">It is inherently easier to nudge using a controller/phone/tablet than it is to properly manipulate 125 kilograms of pinball table.</li> </ul><p>Of these three, only the second one seems amenable to a fix by FarSight. The third one can't be helped (at least not until the PC version with cabinet support is released), and the first one is limited by current technology.</p><p></p><p>What I believe Bobby was referring to in his interview with WGN is that even after the above all happens, the collision meshes receive additional tuning to make shots even more forgiving. I still have no problem with this, especially on mobile devices where fine control is problematic.</p><p></p><p>While I understand and to some degree sympathize with your position, the other part of me sees things like Atlantis (which it took me <em>four months</em> to reach in TPA, and I'm not an "unskilled, crappy" player) and Battle for the Kingdom and realizes that even at TPA's current reduced difficulty, probably 95% of players will never see those modes, and so they're going to miss out on part of the table's experience. Pinball scores are not evenly distributed; for every player who scores 900M on TZ, there are 20 or so who would find 90M a major accomplishment. While I'm not saying everyone has a divine right to reach the wizard mode, I don't think it's realistic - or good for FarSight's business model - to expect players to put in the same amount of time and effort to reach a wizard mode on a TPA table that they would need to reach it on the physical table.</p><p></p><p>If FarSight can easily give players the option to disable the additional tuning and play with collision meshes that are as faithful to the real table as technology will allow, that's fine. But I don't think that it should be something that is forced on all players. (Remember the outcry raised when CV's outlanes went from sedate to voracious?)</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Sean DonCarlos, post: 33144, member: 152"] As best I can tell - and I have access to physical versions of 10 of the 16 released tables - TPA's tables use the factory default settings, except for specials being turned into extra balls. There are three primary factors that make TPA easier than physical pinball: [LIST] [*]The collision meshes are by necessity only approximations of the actual tables - not every single tiny nook and cranny is reproduced, in order to keep the physics calculations under control - which in turn makes marginal shots slightly less likely to be rejected. You also get less weird unexpected ricochets from hitting a projecting part of a table element. [*]The physics are nearly 100% deterministic. Once you learn how a ball leaves a kickout on TPA, it almost never changes. That predictability makes things much easier. The Slot Machine kickout on TZ will be a good test - even on a well-maintained machine, it often changes [I]mid-game[/I], to the point where your dead-pass that worked the previous 10 kickouts suddenly becomes an instant center drain instead. [*]It is inherently easier to nudge using a controller/phone/tablet than it is to properly manipulate 125 kilograms of pinball table. [/LIST] Of these three, only the second one seems amenable to a fix by FarSight. The third one can't be helped (at least not until the PC version with cabinet support is released), and the first one is limited by current technology. What I believe Bobby was referring to in his interview with WGN is that even after the above all happens, the collision meshes receive additional tuning to make shots even more forgiving. I still have no problem with this, especially on mobile devices where fine control is problematic. While I understand and to some degree sympathize with your position, the other part of me sees things like Atlantis (which it took me [I]four months[/I] to reach in TPA, and I'm not an "unskilled, crappy" player) and Battle for the Kingdom and realizes that even at TPA's current reduced difficulty, probably 95% of players will never see those modes, and so they're going to miss out on part of the table's experience. Pinball scores are not evenly distributed; for every player who scores 900M on TZ, there are 20 or so who would find 90M a major accomplishment. While I'm not saying everyone has a divine right to reach the wizard mode, I don't think it's realistic - or good for FarSight's business model - to expect players to put in the same amount of time and effort to reach a wizard mode on a TPA table that they would need to reach it on the physical table. If FarSight can easily give players the option to disable the additional tuning and play with collision meshes that are as faithful to the real table as technology will allow, that's fine. But I don't think that it should be something that is forced on all players. (Remember the outcry raised when CV's outlanes went from sedate to voracious?) [/QUOTE]
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The Pinball Arcade / Farsight Studios
Stop making the tables easier!
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