Thread for irrational dislikes

[invitro]

TPA tables that get super hard after you score well and make the game not fun anymore, sometimes soon after they come out. It's like there is an artificial barrier to getting better and mastering a table.

Could you be more specific?

 

[switch3flip]

TPA tables that get super hard after you score well and make the game not fun anymore, sometimes soon after they come out. It's like there is an artificial barrier to getting better and mastering a table. When I played real games in the arcades I generally did master the current game I was playing. (At least those that came out before arcade games also got harder with better play, and even those I usually could at least keep improving on.) I'd rather get bored with a game and stop playing it because it's too easy for me at some point than to get beat up from the AI deciding to cut me off from improving my game high score. So how is this an irrational dislike? From what I have gathered from other posts I've read at various times (a couple in response to a post I made), most people don't even believe the games do get harder with better play. So if I'm wrong (I'm not.) I guess it is an irrational belief.

Well good news for you, there's a workaround to avoid the artificial difficulty. Just put one of these on your head.

 

[geohoo]

Could you be more specific?

invitro,

I looked you up in the downloadable database. You are a good player so you should have observed the physics of the machines changing as you get good scores like I do. Have you not experienced this? Unless of course there is a difference between the PC version which I see you play and the ios tablet version which I play on my iPad II. Some of what changes is:

• Shots get harder to aim for
• Balls that were usually savable get sucked down the drain over and over
• Mystery awards are less likely to award free balls or other good awards

For example, The Getaway: High Speed II (which I happen to revisit today) can really be a fun game. But if I have a very good 1st ball with three extra balls upon drain, the next three balls might end in seconds. I see you are in 19th place. I am in 32nd with 2.3 million. (My score doesn't show up on the leaderboards site because none of the recent tables score me anymore there. But my score is listed in-app.) I scored my high game within a short time of it being released. Now, I can't get anywhere near that score. And I'm not just choking. I do plenty of that and I know when I do choke. But that is not what I am talking about. What I see, as I do on many other TPA games, is that my chance of scoring better has almost been eliminated as the physics get extreme after I achieve a game that ranks pretty high. In fact, I often have trouble getting near my top score again, even though I know the game better as time goes on from playing lots of games on it. If you are still playing High Speed II, are you getting close to your high score? Could you improve it because you're even better at it now because of more skill on it?

Anyway, I see that switch3flip (another good player who is also not an ios player) thinks I'm crazy with his clever post with the tinfoil hat photo so maybe you do, too. But, I'm serious and I don't think I am delusional.

 

[invitro]

[MENTION=2845]geohoo[/MENTION]: It's well known that random awards on many machines give extra balls at decreasing frequency as a player's score increases. But no, I haven't noticed any non-ROM-related increase in difficulty on any TPA table.

I'll play more HS2 in a few months... it is too easy and takes me too much time to get a good score unless I improve my shot percentage on the ramp and so boost Super Jackpot more, but mainly I'm still worn out on it from the tournament a couple of months ago. But in general I do improve my high scores regularly, indeed I have improved several of my top-100 scores in October by small amounts.

Yes I am on PC/Steam and so cannot comment on iOS/iPad.

I do see your score on HS2 on the website leaderboard: #31, 2.36B.

 

[David Pannozzo]

Geohoo, I feel it also, and I play my games on my iPad 3 and PlayStation 4. Both systems I feel the game getting harder, I thought maybe I was crazy, so I'm happy to know someone else has the same problem. When they start getting hard, I set my balls from 3 to 10, then at least I can have a fun game sometimes.

The things I don't like is games made from 1985 and under, I can't play EM's so I really hate them. The only two games I like from early 80's is Xenon and Fathom, that is it, other wise I play System 11 games up to Wizard Of Oz or Sterns newest when I can find them. And that's my other thing I hate, not being able to play any Pinball, except a bar near me called Shorty's has a Pirates Of The Caribean. But I'm playing it so much I'm getting a little bored and frustrated with it, in other words I can't finish the game, I almost got the Wizard Mode then my last ball went right down the middle.

 

[DA5ID]

We talked about something similar in an earlier thread. When you first play a table you really don't know what to shoot for and you whack the ball around and sometimes come away with an amazing score. As you learn the rules and develop a strategy those shots become more difficult and often are dangerous (risk vs reward) so shorter ball times and lower scores.

I can almost guarantee that TPA doesn't have a table physics difficulty that ramps up. It's a simulation of a real table that doesn't have that feature...

 

[Gus]

.....the physics of the machines changing as you get good scores like I do. Have you not experienced this? Unless of course there is a difference between the PC version which I see you play and the ios tablet version which I play on my iPad II. Some of what changes is:

• Shots get harder to aim for
• Balls that were usually savable get sucked down the drain over and over
• Mystery awards are less likely to award free balls or other good awards

For example, The Getaway: High Speed II (which I happen to revisit today) can really be a fun game. But if I have a very good 1st ball with three extra balls upon drain, the next three balls might end in seconds. I see you are in 19th place. I am in 32nd with 2.3 million. (My score doesn't show up on the leaderboards site because none of the recent tables score me anymore there. But my score is listed in-app.) I scored my high game within a short time of it being released. Now, I can't get anywhere near that score. And I'm not just choking. I do plenty of that and I know when I do choke. But that is not what I am talking about. What I see, as I do on many other TPA games, is that my chance of scoring better has almost been eliminated as the physics get extreme after I achieve a game that ranks pretty high. In fact, I often have trouble getting near my top score again, even though I know the game better as time goes on from playing lots of games on it. If you are still playing High Speed II, are you getting close to your high score? Could you improve it because you're even better at it now because of more skill on it?

Anyway, I see that switch3flip (another good player who is also not an ios player) thinks I'm crazy with his clever post with the tinfoil hat photo so maybe you do, too. But, I'm serious and I don't think I am delusional.

Geohoo, I can guarantee that the physics don't change at all. I have played many multi-hour sessions (all on iPad) repeating the same shots, so I feel completely sure when I say that. Like Invitro says, the mystery awards will not award the good stuff after a while, but the rest is all you. I will agree that a sort of difficulty ramp-up CAN happen, but it's in the player's head, which doesn't make it less real. Whether you're playing in a tournament or aiming for a spot on the leaderboards or trying to beat your personal best, shots tend to get real hard when you have your goal just within reach. Try to NOT focus on that goal, just keep making your shots. I've read that some players are helped by turning off the score display, and I totally get that even though I personally wouldn't want to play without the display. I really like that feeling when getting close to my goal and I start missing shots. I know it's all nerves messing with me, and sometimes it helps to pause and take a few deep breaths before continuing. Or just keep the tin-foil hat nearby

 

[geohoo]

Gus,

What I observe is not what you experience. OK, i can't explain that. Even in arcades with original machines, my experience has been that ramps get harder to get the ball up through, other shots become more difficult, balls drain faster, etc., with better play. And I'm not talking about the real phenomenon that DA5ID posted about of the game sometimes seeming harder when you start to learn a machine and start playing strategies rather than just trying to keep the ball going which can cause poorer rather than better scores for a while. I won't harp on it any more after this post, especially since I can't show you. If you were a buddy and over at my house, maybe I could set up what I'm talking about by my getting a great start on a machine (Like a good score and a couple of extra balls) on the first ball (or if I completed a very good game) and then handed my iPad over to you and ask you to continue the game and see how you do. But since you are one of the best players, it may be that you wouldn't notice the change like I do and you would just step up and play better and through the greater difficulty. We'll just have to leave it in disagreement, with most people thinking I'm delusional. I will add that I love TPA and part of me enjoys the increasing challenges which I perceive. I know that perception is much about what reality is all about. After all, I'm a licensed Mental Health Counselor and every day I work with people who experience reality differently than others. (sometimes with symptoms such as paranoid delusions and hallucinations and what they perceive is very real to them, especially when a person is off their medication or otherwise having a difficult time with their illness) In the setting I work in, most of my clientele have long-term brain disorders with thought disorders (such as schizophrenia, schizoaffective d/o, etc.) it is usually futile to try to talk someone out of fixed delusions and there's nothing to gain by trying past a certain point. So if I'm wrong, it would seem it's a fixed delusion that I'm going to hold on to. But thanks to you and others for the thread! It felt good to get it out of my system, as they say. And, i increased my rank on High-speed II yesterday to 18th which has renewed my faith that I can go back to machines and if I work hard enough I can rank even higher. If only I could get better at making the super jackpots on that game, I could get up into the top 10! Got any tips?

 

[DA5ID]

Tips? Oh yeah we got your tips (and some tricks).

http://digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/10628-Tips-and-tricks

 

[invitro]

maybe I could set up what I'm talking about by my getting a great start on a machine (Like a good score and a couple of extra balls) on the first ball (or if I completed a very good game) and then handed my iPad over to you and ask you to continue the game and see how you do.

Aha, so this is about having a great ball one, which is more often than not followed by a not-so-great ball two. I understand now.

 

[HotHamBoy]

I believe that it is possible the phenomenon you guys are feeling is fatigue. It becomes harder to make shots because you over-think it or over/under-react, balls drain because you arent as fresh and on-point. The longer you play any game the harder it becomes to maintain peak performance, that's not just pinball. When I play pinball i generally take a small break every 15 or 20 minutes because otherwise i get zoned out or desensitized and star making stupid mistakes, having slow reactions or just start choking. You want your brain feeling fresh if you want to play your best. Of course, the ROM is also keeling track of your performance and tweaking rewards and such. But the physics aren't changing. TPA has no motivation to do that, it's not like you're putting in quarters.