What a challenge!

[iguanarama]

oh mannnnnnn i had my worst TNG moment ever!

i am slowwwly getting better at this table, but it's a struggle.

last night, i managed to hit the Gamma Quadrant in the "Search the Galaxy" mission, and I aced a bunch of other missions too, resulting in me having eight, count em, EIGHT artifacts for the first Final Frontier of that game. Considering my previous high score was only 7 billion, i thought i was on my way to high scoresville for sure. unfortunately, i drained every ball basically the second the ballsaver ended and my final score was under 5 billion, which is insane considering i got 2.8 billion for free just for starting Final Frontier.

if that isn't snatching epic failure from the jaws of epic win i don't know what is.

There should be a forum for great pinball stories like this. I had a great fail story a few weeks back, where I was so panicked about getting a Final Frontier, that from choosing start mission (Q's challenge, the last one I had before FF) at the start of a ball, I tried to trap the ball, only succeeding in it bouncing around stupidly and then dribbling over the end of the flipper and down the middle -- just in time to miss the ball saver and end my game. I felt very small.

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

There should be a forum for great pinball stories like this. I had a great fail story a few weeks back, where I was so panicked about getting a Final Frontier, that from choosing start mission (Q's challenge, the last one I had before FF) at the start of a ball, I tried to trap the ball, only succeeding in it bouncing around stupidly and then dribbling over the end of the flipper and down the middle -- just in time to miss the ball saver and end my game. I felt very small.

It's not a forum, but we do have a thread for your tales of glorious victory and/or ignominious defeat: Random Tales of Glory and Woe.

 

[yuriijos]

The outline drains are killers. Way more than in real life. But what an awesome table!

The outlanes are ridiculous, sometimes to the point where it makes the table no fun. Your tryin to complete missions or even goals and draaaino. Is the real table this harsh on the outlanes?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

The outlanes are ridiculous, sometimes to the point where it makes the table no fun. Your tryin to complete missions or even goals and draaaino. Is the real table this harsh on the outlanes?

The real table can be even worse. ST:TNG is the gold standard for outlane cruelty. Whenever other tables' outlanes are thought to be particularly vicious, they are usually compared to ST:TNG's.

 

[Fungi]

And yet I still like 'em more than the outlanes of CV and FP.

 

[pezpunk]

what a great game, and what a great recreation. it is just as brutal as we asked for.

you have to be SMART. hold the ball and wait out missions in a lot of situations! and you have to be ACCURATE. miss your shot and drain. this is a real pro's table imo.










(which is why i suck at it)

 

[Fungi]

Q's challenge always kills me. I always get lured in and think I can make those shots, only to be treated to a drained ball. I need to learn to wait this one out.

 

[Kaoru]

The outlanes are ridiculous, sometimes to the point where it makes the table no fun.

Yeah, they suck. It's like they're always looking for an excuse to drain the ball or something.

What's most annoying though is the probes blocking the view. Often I feel like I could have saved the ball with a nudge... if it had been possible to see what went on in those corners. Have it happening too many times in a row and you lose motivation.

Not my favourite TPA-table so far, I'm afraid.

 

[Mark Miwurdz]

Hmm. Interesting topic.

 

[smbhax]

Picard's occasionally whispered "Good luck" at the start of ball three just sounds like mockery ; )

 

[Fungi]

Picard's occasionally whispered "Good luck" at the start of ball three just sounds like mockery ; )

I've always took it as mockery, since he says it like that when you're doing really bad.

 

[smbhax]

Oh! Is it actually points-based? That's hilarious : D

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

I've always took it as mockery, since he says it like that when you're doing really bad.

I've yet to figure out where the threshold is for "really bad", since on a real ST:TNG I've heard it when starting ball 3 with 400M. Replay on that ST:TNG is in the low 300s. So I'm doing better than 90% of the full games played on it after only 2 balls, but I'm still doing "really bad"?

 

[Fungi]

I've yet to figure out where the threshold is for "really bad", since on a real ST:TNG I've heard it when starting ball 3 with 400M. Replay on that ST:TNG is in the low 300s. So I'm doing better than 90% of the full games played on it after only 2 balls, but I'm still doing "really bad"?

I guess it's all relative. I just played a game that was absolutely horrible, losing the balls within seconds and not even starting a mission. I ended up with over 200m.

 

[alexk3954]

So I hear about people just waiting and letting modes time out. As far as I have seen, all the point are in TFF with many artifacts. So how do you get artifacts if you are just letting modes time out? Or do you just time out the ones that give you most trouble and complete the easier ones?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

So I hear about people just waiting and letting modes time out. As far as I have seen, all the point are in TFF with many artifacts. So how do you get artifacts if you are just letting modes time out? Or do you just time out the ones that give you most trouble and complete the easier ones?

It's generally agreed that Borg Multiball is where the points are at. Final Frontier can eclipse that, but you need 8+ artifacts to make it worthwhile (2.8 billion to start plus 200M/shot) and you have to keep it going for a long time. For most people, it's easier to start Borg Multiball several times than it is to successfully play the modes and collect artifacts for Final Frontier.

That being said, both my high scores on the real ST:TNG (Grand Champion 2.06B [3 balls] and Officer's Club 4.14B [6 balls]) were done via Final Frontier, not Borg Multiball.

 

[alexk3954]

Hmm, I have been going after artifacts and TFF. I will have to see how my score compares just going after borg multiball, but that strategy doesn't sound nearly as fun.

On another note, it is so hard for me not to tilt on this table as it gives me my favorite pinball quote of all time. It brings a smile to my face every single time

Pinball is irrelevant!

 

[alexk3954]

Well my high score went from 9 bil to almost 17 bil with the new strategy. It is not quite as fun as going for modes for me, but it is not as bad as I thought. There was a lot of sloppy play in that game too, will have to slow it down and go for a higher score tonight

 

[pezpunk]

I've yet to figure out where the threshold is for "really bad", since on a real ST:TNG I've heard it when starting ball 3 with 400M. Replay on that ST:TNG is in the low 300s. So I'm doing better than 90% of the full games played on it after only 2 balls, but I'm still doing "really bad"?

the default replay setting on STTNG is 400 Million. Also, maybe i'm wrong, but i thought the whispered "good luck" was Q, not Picard, which would make the mocking tone much more consistent with the character.

 

[pezpunk]

So I hear about people just waiting and letting modes time out. As far as I have seen, all the point are in TFF with many artifacts. So how do you get artifacts if you are just letting modes time out? Or do you just time out the ones that give you most trouble and complete the easier ones?

You can gain artifacts by completing the holodeck simulation or by advancing to Warp 8 (the first time it gives an extra ball, an artifact all subsequent times).