Table of the Week Club...Week 33: BLACK ROSE

[shutyertrap]

Aarrggg, mateys. Time to sail the high seas with this week's table, Black Rose. Had I remembered Talk Like A Pirate Day was September 19th, I would have had it that week! Oh well. Curse like a sailor as you collect all the wizard goals, follow everyone's advice in this thread to discover a treasure trove of points. Make me walk the plank for using lame pirate references.

 

[Xanija]

I'm not sure why I don't play this table very often. I like it, even I'm not a huge fan of the video modes. Got all wizard goals a while ago high score at 591m which puts me @ rank 249 - let's see if I can improve on this. Top 100 would be cool and would need about 1b points... lets try that as a goal for this week.

Need to practice a bit more this time to get a better score in the tournament, too.

 

[Gus]

Pretty nice table, and I've been looking forward to playing this one again. I've just started shooting some games in the FS tournament, but hopefully I can sneak in a couple of Black Rose games over the week as well Only 2 really important things to do on this table:
* Get the extraball by shooting the right ramp 4 times (lock can be lit while doing this too)
* Get into preferrably 3-ball multiball, hold one ball on the left flipper and loop ramp + upper orbits like crazy with right flipper. This spells SINK SHIP letters.

Oh, there's one more important thing - Sink those frigates! Each ship awards more points than the last one, and it gets crazy after a while

 

[Slam23]

I'm with Gus on this one, nice short strategy list. There's a nice trick too with plunging: if you hit the skill shot (lowest three standup targets called the Torch targets) and immediately drain, you'll get the ball back and you can shoot straight for the locker (which you just opened with the skill shot).
Ships go up 10M anytime you sink one. So it's slow going at first, but when you get to 9 ships sunk, you're already up to 100M a ship. Another 10 ships and you're up to 200M....etcetera

 

[Pinballwiz45b]

Arr...ye all be walking the plank tonight!

 

[Xanija]

I remember why I get frustrated over this table so often: The right outlane... Need to practice nudging a lot to avoid this...

 

[Dedpop]

I'm with Gus on this one, nice short strategy list. There's a nice trick too with plunging: if you hit the skill shot (lowest three standup targets called the Torch targets) and immediately drain, you'll get the ball back and you can shoot straight for the locker (which you just opened with the skill shot).
Ships go up 10M anytime you sink one. So it's slow going at first, but when you get to 9 ships sunk, you're already up to 100M a ship. Another 10 ships and you're up to 200M....etcetera

Nice tip with plunging + drain + lock. Never thought of doing it.
And yes sinking ships continually can be sooo satisfying.
-----------------------
I love that table.

 

[Johni3w6]

Wonder if the bug is still on the PS3 version. I believe it starts a new game if you sink too many ships at the end when you enter your initials.
I forget at the moment, and yes another table I'm not fond of or maybe I just haven't played it in so long.

Hopefully the PS3 will catch up on tables if one comes up for Totw.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Yargh this be a fun one for sure. Fetch me parrot, mateys, I'm off to find me buried treasure!

 

[Stuzz]

So I was playing some Black Rose, and some things seem odd to me:

1. You don't get an extra ball when replay is awarded
2. When I successfully shoot the lit special after sinking 2 ships, the DMD displays "Special 0" and I don't get an extra ball, or AFAIK the 10 (or 20?) million points the instructions tell me I'm due.
3. I think I only have 2 for now.

Edit: Aarrrggghhhh!

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

So I was playing some Black Rose, and some things seem odd to me:

1. You don't get an extra ball when replay is awarded
2. When I successfully shoot the lit special after sinking 2 ships, the DMD displays "Special 0" and I don't get an extra ball, or AFAIK the 10 (or 20?) million points the instructions tell me I'm due.
3. I think I only have 2 for now.

Edit: Aarrrggghhhh!

1. Yep.
2. Also, yep. Avoid collecting the Special. It also resets the jackpot.

Neither are bugs, just the table settings chosen by Farsight.

 

[Stuzz]

Arrggh, OK. Thanks for the heads up Eldar.

I guess both are moot points since extra balls aren't of use in TotM, but it still seemed weird since these two things are the norm (to me at least) on every other table in TPA.

 

[shutyertrap]

Not sure exactly when, but FarSight stopped letting Specials give extra balls on all tables thereafter.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Specials, pretty uniformly, don't give EBs any more. I can't think of any S3/S4/S5 tables where that happens.

Replay giving an EB is usually decided on a table-by-table basis and is predicated on how easy/hard it is to get other EBs. Got to wonder why Replay EB was allowed in F-14 though.

For all of those tables, it's maybe worth diving into the Pro menus to see if there are "better" options. Especially I'd like to see what could've been done with Black Rose, because it is so very broken.

 

[shutyertrap]

Today was the first day I actually gave a go at this table. I've thrown a few quarters into it in real life, played a handful of times in TPA, but never "played" it. So far I'm having fun with it. I'm down to my last two wizard goals, on being sink 5 ships (I'll get there), and two being scoring the 10m+ jackpot. That one is proving difficult, as I never even get the stupid jackpot lit! Here's my question, do you only build the jackpot value while it's lit? Meaning you don't want to hit that ramp until you've built it up the additional 5 million, right?

 

[Stuzz]

...as I never even get the stupid jackpot lit! Here's my question, do you only build the jackpot value while it's lit? Meaning you don't want to hit that ramp until you've built it up the additional 5 million, right?

IIRC, if the jackpot doesn't get lit from a random award, it is lit one you've completed all the broadside modes. As for increasing its value, I'm not sure. I know if you don't collect it in one game (and don't back out to the table select) its begins at its current value in the next game.

This may be something to consider during TotM like how the Dr. Dude cool meter was to be reset before TotM games.

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

Whatever you do, don't collect a Special. As discussed above, that resets the Jackpot to 5M.