Too easy tables (PC version)

[kristian]

After playing this religiously for a week now here's my feedback on the tables:

Black Hole = This is wayyyyy too easy conversion. Great graphics, plays great... everything's great but I scored 4.7 million points on my first ever game. That's just ridiculous. This is a six-digit table and clocking the real one required a lot of coins and skill. Ball is too easy to keep in the lower playfield and the slope is too low. Haunted House doesn't suffer from this... it's a challenging table.

TOTAN = Definitely on the easy side as well. I'm not sure about the rom settings but the "cages" that capture the ball over the inlanes seem to pop up too often. I rescued the princess two times during one game and scored 130 million (after playing just 10 games).

Scared Stiff = Way too easy as well. I became a Grand Champion on my first game. The real machine ain't too hard, either... but definitely not THIS easy. You almost hope the ball goes away at some point...

No Good Gofers = This is so easy that it's actually possible to play it endlessly. The ball just doesn't go away... same thing... doubled the Grand Champion score on my first ever attempt.

Funhouse (amazing conversion but it has been ruined with a non-existing challenge). Maybe it has easy rom settings too... extra balls just come over and over again. Real Funhouse is a difficult table... same can't be said about this one.

Good conversions with genuine challenge:

Space Shuttle, Terminator 2, TZ, Firepower, Theatre of Magic, Pin-Bot (unforgivable left outlane).

I will give more feedback as I play the tables more. Haven't had time to play them all yet.

I think it'd be nice to make the tables more difficult (generally) as these are home conversions. It's no fun when there's no challenge. I love the Black Hole implementation... it looks unreal... but I hate to play it because of the difficulty level).

Overall I'm really happy with the product. Not complaining, just giving "constructive" feedback.

Keep up the good work.

 

[Dan Jaquint]

+1, pretty much agree with everything above. I played Medieval Madness today for so long I just had to give up from boredom.

 

[kristian]

Black Knight of course is scripted and doesn't have the genuine ROMs and table GI, which ruins it from the getgo.

But it also has way too fast paced gameplay. And when the ball goes to the bonus multiplier loop "backwards" it usually drains immediately (in the real machine). This table doesn't feel right at all.

It looks incredible so it'd be nice to get somewhat more genuine gameplay. It plays absolutely NOTHING like the real machine now. Check the Visual Pinball version by JPSalas if you don't have access to the real one. Also... that characteristic gate sound is missing completely.

I know it can be tough to make it challenging while keeping the genuine "low pace" but these old Solid State tables simply don't play like this one.

From the first glimpse Cactus Canyon and White Water seem to be pretty challenging.

 

[amxmodx]

Most Gottlieb tables are full of classic tables that does not have metal ramps, kickbacks and other interesting trapdoors in my opinion.

Correct me if I am wrong.

Still, those classic tables aren't that bad though.

 

[MontanaFrank]

+1, pretty much agree with everything above. I played Medieval Madness today for so long I just had to give up from boredom.

Hopefully after all the new hardware roll-outs, FarSight will have some time to add a multiple difficulty settings to each table. I like having little easier tables than IRL. I am just an okay pinball player who has a great time playing pinball.

 

[kristian]

Just played Elvira... I get constant extra balls everywhere. They have probably used the easiest dip switch settings with every table which is quite frustrating. And when you break the high score you also get an extra ball. Why?

STTNG & Dr. Dude seems to be pretty good (tough) tables. Trying CFTBL next.

These tables play just fine (besides Black Knight)... they look just fine. It's just that some of them are ruined with non-existent difficulty level. I'm sure this can be fixed pretty easily though.

 

[Dumpstar]

Is there a pro menu mode so you can make the tables harder?

 

[MontanaFrank]

Is there a pro menu mode so you can make the tables harder?

Yes, there is.

 

[Gozer]

I think most of the DMD tables have a tournament mode you can turn on. This should eliminate extra balls.

If it doesn't have a tournament mode you should be able to just turn off extra balls all together.

Unfortunately, you can't get into an operators menu or dip-switches on every table.

 

[netizen]

Is there a pro menu mode so you can make the tables harder?

Yes and No.
Not all tables have a pro menu, and not all pro menus have the same options; it depends on the age and manufacturer.

As far as difficulty you cannot, at present, adjust the angle of the playfield, but you can change the difficulty of the modes by adjusting how long timers for modes/jackpots, number of hits required etc.

I have a blog post about the operators menu settings on pro mode tables if you want to have a look at some of the things you can do.

 

[kristian]

On the other hand Cirqus Voltaire, Monster Bash and Champion Pub seem to be very good conversions. No such problems at all.

PS: Never saw Champion Pub anywhere but it's a brilliant table and it seems to be an incredible conversion on Pinball Arcade. I'm having a lot of fun with it.

 

[DrainoBraino]

Yes most are way too easy, same with the ps3 version though really. Much harder on android.

Give us some difficulty settings!

 

[Zappa]

Since I bought the PC tables and flipped the monitor, I've gotten high scores I never came close to on my android tablet...

They sure look cool though

 

[JPelter]

I sort of agree on the others but TotAN is in my opinion extremely brutal. The wizard mode is very easy to get to yeah, but the table is almost impossible to control. You can get scores up to a point but keeping the game going for extended periods is nearly impossible, which is the main problem with most of the "easy" tables on TPA.

I'm not entirely sure No Good Gophers is too easy either. It's definitely on the easier side of things compared to older tables in the set, but it's still harder than TZ/Ripley/MM etc that you can just go on for hours easily.

I think personally my gold standards for difficulty in TPA are Taxi and Big Shot. Big shot has some slight physics issues near the outlanes, but both tables seem very well balanced for what they offer.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Yeah, some of them are definitely too easy. Best you can do for now is get Pro Mode (where available) and disable extra balls, turn down ball savers, etc.

An official harder difficulty setting is supposed to be coming eventually (with leaderboards).

Also timed tournaments are already out on mobile, where you only have 20 minutes to score, so that'll help with some of the marathon tables.

 

[kristian]

Cirqus Voltaire is very good conversion. Just played a few games and had tons of fun. Difficulty is pretty much like the real thing... which is one of the easiest Bally/WMS tables anyway. I wouldn't change anything on that.

Strange that you find TZ so easy JPelter. I haven't scored much on that one yet. Medieval Madness is definitely too easy though. Shame... it's so nicely done and plays well.

Actually these could be easily adjusted... just give users the ability to change the slope, flipper length and dip switches (or simply use the hardest ones with all tables). That's it... everyone could personalize the tables that way very easily. There's nothing fundamentally wrong with the gameplay on any of these tables (besides Black Knight of course).

PS: I'm surprised how nice tables these modern Gottliebs are... never paid much attention to them before. Class of 1812 for example. Another well executed conversion.

 

[wolfson]

kristian well said, but remember there is a lot of first timers playing pinball for which these settings are great to start on. as time goes on I am sure farsight will have a hard and maybe an extra hard setting for all us pinheads in the near future. I honestly believe first timers should be encouraged, even the tables are made a little bit easier.

 

[vpalmer]

Pin Bot is not so hard after you get some of it's tricks and tactics

 

[xNiCeGuYx]

+1
But in my opinion TZ is the easiest one. The left ramp, right ramp, piano combo is so easy that it`s not possible to end a game without having reached litz for a couple of times. Same goes for FH, SS, BH etc.

 

[Exo]

A few of the tables could definitely do with some difficulty tweaking since they're way too easy in their current settings/playfield setup.
It would be pretty amazing if pro-mode eventually allowed you to change parts of the table layout to make it more difficult as well (obviously this would exclude you from leaderboards since it could also be used to make it easier).
Just imagine being able to remove the center-post from T2

I'm really excited for the tournament difficulty by the way since it'll make all the tables that throw a million extra balls at you a lot more challenging (I'm looking at you MM).
Tournament difficulty + the promised online head2head is going to be a blast