When the ball hits the top of one of the slingshots...

[pseudokings]

Okay, so I love TPA, as anyone who has read any of my post can certainly tell, but I have to say something about the slingshots. More specifically, about when the ball hits the top of one of the slingshots. It (the ball) seems to have an about 85-95% chance of draining out the outlane (except on BH) when it does. It's almost automatic. And that is not realistic at all. I've played a lot of TPA and I've played a lot of real pinball this year, and this has become the most frustrating thing that most/all of the tables have in common. I don't know if it's about how the hit box for the top peg/post on the slingshot is shaped, or if it's more about the fact that the ball speed is often much faster than it should be when it hits that peg/post, because ball speed is the most obvious issue with TPA's physics, or maybe it's both. What I do know is that basically every time the ball hits the top peg/post of one of the slingshots it goes down the outlane, especially on MM, TOM, TOTAN & Bride - Ripley's isn't as bad on the right side, but is just as bad on the left side, Funhouse isn't as bad for some reason, but will still do it on the left, The Same phenomenon exits with the "outlane pegs" on CV (as it's configuration makes everything in the region a little different). Much of the time even a timely table bump isn't enough to save it as the ball is traveling too fast (ball speed issue), or the bump is too generic. On a real pinball machine the ball hitting the top of the slingshot or an outlane peg is not an automatic drain, common sure, but not the almost automatic that it is in TPA. I didn't add the "Bug" prefix, because I'm not sure you'd really classify this as that, but it certainly is a difference between TPA, and real pinball, and since FS is all about as realistic a simulation as possible, and "preserving pinball", I thought I'd finally bring it up as an issue.

I imagine some will claim this is all my imagination or some other thing, but it is not. I get out to play real pinball as often as I can manage, which is every couple weeks or so, and this is a real, noticeable difference, and I'm sure a fixable one. I hope Mike, or someone at FS will at least read this and look into it some. Just trying to help them make the best pinball recreations around even more "sim".

 

[Fungi]

Nope, it's not your imagination. I've hated this since the beginning. I notice it more on the original 4, as if the programmer thought this was the only way to do it. One would like to think that a game like this would be more random, but it's so obvious it's not. It doesn't even matter what the ball speed is. It's as if once the ball hits the top of the slingshot, a canned routine automatically kicks in and carries the ball to the outlane. Seriously, the last thing the outlanes need is help.

 

[DrainoBraino]

I never noticed this. I only play ps3 version.

Could you be more specific? What exactly do you mean by top? At what angle is the ball hitting it?

 

[pseudokings]

To be more specific, I mean "dead center" on the top of the slingshots. On real tables a lot of the time the ball will bounce straight back up, depending on angle of course. I don't think it has ever done that for me on any of the tables on TPA, except Black Hole. Also, anytime the ball comes at great speed it seems to deflect from the top of the slingshot into the outlane almost automatically. I also would be shocked if which device you play it on had anything to do with it at all.

Glad to see that at least Fungi has also experienced this, and actually took notice that it is not realistic.

Now if we could get Mike or someone from FS to do something about it.

 

[pseudokings]

The recently released (on 360) Table Pack #3 is not immune, either.

 

[pseudokings]

Really hope they get to tweaking on the issues I, and others, have raised (physics, slingshots, etc.), before the fantastic new series of officially announced tables (STTNG, E&TPM, SS) are released.