a) how good shots are - feel good shots - This is where I struggle with MB - FOR ME there is no single shot that would feel good apart from the ramps on the very right and second from the left.
RBioN - I need your comments. Why should we keep this in top 10 ? Confusing rules, tons of stuff you don't even care about, Atlantis does not seem to be worthy achieving as the whole strategy comes to 2x tour (all continents). I still need to play more to be able to judge better.
I agree that MB's tuning feels a bit off in TPA, the ramps and scoop feel like you're shooting at the wrong angles.
Do you want to reconsider the premise of this list -- do you want to rank the tables as they are in TPA rather than the real thing? I get the sense that you really can't judge the real machines properly yourself for lack of experience with them. (And particularly the tables that aren't in TPA.)
Pet3r, regarding Shadow. The multiballs and battlefield become more difficult each time you finish them. So it isn't a case of play for multi and repeat. The risk/reward is accounted for. They get progressively harder, but it isn't like White Water where it becomes practically impossible:
Pet3r, what are the criteria by you assess if a mode can be timed out? Can't pretty much most modes be timed out? I understand ones like in STTNG, where it contributes to the final score, but isn't it just a score thing? What tables have good modes that timing out is of little use vs ones that you think are not implemented properly and encourage timing out?
Now do one for WOZ. I dare you.
Funny thing is that WOZ itself has it as a feature when you "pause" the game. It displays onscreen how far you are within modes and towards bigger steps towards wizard mode. Such a flowchart can be found here in any case: http://rvapinball.org/2014/06/24/woz-rule-flowchart-2/
Why would you time-out the TAF modes? Seance, Tunnel hunt, Quick mb and Thing mb are worth about 30 mill each, compared to 50 mill for Tour the mansion. Mamushka and especially Hit cousin It can give 10-15 mill each just by continuing to play normally. The modes doesn't lock out progress towards Tour the mansion or the other scoring staples - mill plus, 5xgraveyard etc. I always play all modes on TAF except Raise the Dead as I never aim for the bumpers, but if the ball ends up there anyway it's a nice bonus.
In TPA it's absolutely not worth playing the modes, as the bonus from mansion rooms is the only way to get a competitive score, but that's not the case on a real table. I don't think anyone is collecting over 200 rooms in one game.
This forum is a small rural village of the pinball community. The big discussions and real pro players are on Pinside and rec.games.pinball.I expected many more pro players to come here and comment but that did not happen.
Thanks for your esteem, but I'll pass. I hold my own opinions too strongly and wouldn't give proper balance to other input. Besides, we already have the ipdb.org rankings that come from a much bigger community than this little forum. I've never been quite sure what this thread is trying to accomplish that IPDB doesn't already.I am not the right person to be in charge for a ranking decisions and therefore I would like to ask you whether you could take this responsibility please ?
But before me writing more, could I ask you vikingerik to write down top 10 for us the way you would do it ? Or actually as I am quite interested to see, could you write a ranking made up of all of these tables:
Can you also let me know whether any of these tables are worth mentioning:
Spider Man, Tron, Iron Man, Revenge from Mars, Tales from the Crypt, Judge Dredd, Congo, Big bang bar,World cup soccer, Mustang, Kiss, Walking Dead
Vikingerik, have you played Shadow? What are your thoughts? Deserving of top 10?
Oh well, looks like this topic has lost direction and has fallen flat on its face!
Not me, I've been enjoying the topic and would prefer to keep it going!