Twilight Zone is here!

[Rob Mann]

Hey guys, how's it going? Not much here in Big Bear. The fog is really heavy today and it is raining a lot. We might get snow tonight. I can't think of anything else.... oh, yea: TWILIGHT ZONE!!!

As you may have noticed here or here, we have released TWILIGHT ZONE TO THE PEOPLES!!!!

It's here! Tell everybody! Except zoo keepers. They're weird. Anyways, to get your ball skins, simply go into a table menu and select extras. You should see Ball Skins as an option. Select it and you can see the different skins we are now including in the game. The Twilight Zone skin is at the end of that selection.

When we submitted the Mac build, we somehow left out some optimizations for some of the older systems. Monday we are submitting the new build to Apple and then we will release the update to you guys.

Also, if your farsight login is different than your kickstarter email address, please PM me so we can get you your table. (Note that this is for mobile and OSX only).

Have a great weekend!

 

[Jeff Strong]

Thanks Rob, have a great weekend too!

 

[jrolson]

Lovin TZ and the ball skins!

 

[David Smith]

Hey guys, how's it going?

Hey Rob! Great job on TZ, really enjoying it so far. Plays great. Only real problems I've noticed so far is that the powerball doesn't have a different texture unless you use a custom ball skin, and it doesn't have noticeably different physics (other than not being affected by magnets).

Seems pretty easy though -- got 2.4B on my second game. New players should love it.

Had a few problems getting access to my kickstarter award, but seems *mostly* resolved now (I assume due to an email I sent to support@farsight - thanks for the quick response). Will PM you with outstanding issue.

 

[Kolchak357]

I appreciate the extra ball, but Talking Tina really creeps me out.

 

[Russell Bergman]

Hello Rob and thanks for everything! Quick question for you or anyone else. I watched the credits scroll and didn't see any kickstarter pledge names. Are the pledge names not on mobile devices like android that I am using?

 

[Richard B]

Only real problems I've noticed so far is that the powerball . . . doesn't have noticeably different physics (other than not being affected by magnets).

Seems pretty easy though -- got 2.4B on my second game. New players should love it.

Holy Bride of Pinbot! FS screwed up again! TZ is notoriously difficult and unforgiving. Taking that away to appeal to the "average" player will likely piss off anyone who has ever played the real machine, and make future KSers a lot more difficult to meet.

 

[Russell Bergman]

Twilight Zone is supposed to be super hard. The posts on the table are infamous. Love it!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Twilight Zone is supposed to be super hard. The posts on the table are infamous. Love it!

What Richard B was saying is that the real TZ is notoriously difficult and unforgiving. Unfortunately, the TPA version is not at all reflective of the real table's challenge. Five hundred million on the real table requires significant effort. After 1000 games on a real machine, I'm still only at 902M. I made 1B on my first game on iOS, and that's with me more concerned about looking for bugs than actually playing skillfully.

I feel sorry for the first person who plays TZ on TPA, confidently approaches a real table thinking he's going to do well, and proceeds to get annihilated by the machine.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

What Richard B was saying is that the real TZ is notoriously difficult and unforgiving. Unfortunately, the TPA version is not at all reflective of the real table's challenge.

The most noticeable thing is that TPA's Twilight Zone has the barrier between the left and bottom jet bumpers that prevents a ball that goes there from getting shot out the left outlane. I don't think I've ever seen a real TZ set that way.

The extras include a bunch of "Pro Tips", the first of which says that "the jet bumpers are death in Twilight Zone" and suggests not even going for the skill shot just to stay away from them. That's an interesting suggestion in reality, but I don't think it applies to TPA's Twilight Zone at all!

 

[Matt McIrvin]

...I guarantee, though, that if they ever took that away, we'd see the Cirqus Voltaire drama all over again.

 

[zaino]

Hi Rob,
Just tried TZ on iPad Mini, and noticed its pretty slow compared to other tables. Runs fine on iPad 3.
Any chances future optimization would make it faster on the mini?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

The most noticeable thing is that TPA's Twilight Zone has the barrier between the left and bottom jet bumpers that prevents a ball that goes there from getting shot out the left outlane. I don't think I've ever seen a real TZ set that way.

The extras include a bunch of "Pro Tips", the first of which says that "the jet bumpers are death in Twilight Zone" and suggests not even going for the skill shot just to stay away from them. That's an interesting suggestion in reality, but I don't think it applies to TPA's Twilight Zone at all!

That barrier installed on a real table allegedly trades the left drains for center drains, which is why the posts were not installed by default, but were included in the coin box so that operator could decide for himself which way his TZ would screw over his players.

Incidentally, on a real TZ I take the skill shot once on the first ball to get the 10M door panel out of the way. After that it's hard plunge all the way unless the Super Skill Shot comes up. (Although if you want to take the trouble, you can soft plunge just enough to nick the Red rollover without going past the gate and then hard plunge. I generally don't find it worth the bother for an extra 1M though.)

The barrier can't be blamed for everything though. On a real TZ, if you hit the Greed target next to the slot machine, 90% of the time it's BAM!, instant center drain. Same with the Clock target, the left Greed targets, pretty much anything that isn't a ramp or lane. A real TZ punishes inaccurate shooting swiftly and mercilessly. A real TZ's Powerball is not nearly as well-behaved.

...I guarantee, though, that if they ever took that away, we'd see the Cirqus Voltaire drama all over again.

Some drama is worth suffering through though, and this qualifies in my mind. But I've thought about the casual players' reaction if TZ suddenly regained its challenge, and I may have found a solution to keep everyone happy, if FarSight is willing and able to implement it. Head on over to the General section and read the Suggestion for the Table Difficulty Issues thread if you want to know more.

 

[Metalzoic]

Ugh... You guys are making me not even want to try it even though I get it free from the kickstarter.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Ugh... You guys are making me not even want to try it even though I get it free from the kickstarter.

Go ahead and play! It's still quite enjoyable, it's just a bit easy, that's all.

 

[Matt McIrvin]

Yeah, it's still a great table, with all the stuff you love. But it's obviously easier than the real one.

I noticed that the Powerfield seems much easier to win, too.

 

[BlindSpider11]

The ball skins are awesome!

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I noticed that the Powerfield seems much easier to win, too.

Funny, that's the one part of the table I'm having trouble with, although I'm not the greatest with touch controls. (On the PC beta with a 360 controller, I can battle the Power like a boss.)

 

[Mike Reitmeyer]

Hello Rob and thanks for everything! Quick question for you or anyone else. I watched the credits scroll and didn't see any kickstarter pledge names. Are the pledge names not on mobile devices like android that I am using?

I think the credits update got in right after the submission, so in the next patch it should be updated. Sorry about that.

 

[inspector42]

If I am using ball control mode, will it register table goals and high scores? I am hoping not, but it doesn't say anything one way or the other (unlike the operators menu). Thanks.