Williams Pinball App Data Collection

[shutyertrap]

The stopwatch icon hasn't been doing anything for me either since last night. Grinding since the the new tables have been released, I don't have a single part for for White Water, or Road Show. But if I get another Safecracker part, I'm going to throw my iPad out the window.....

So did you not play the special challenges for the new tables this past week? They were only available for 7 days, thus why the stopwatch is no longer active. Had you played those, you would have gotten parts for the other two (I know I did).

 

[Lord Boron]

So did you not play the special challenges for the new tables this past week? They were only available for 7 days, thus why the stopwatch is no longer active. Had you played those, you would have gotten parts for the other two (I know I did).

Yea, but all I got were parts for Hurricane.

 

[HighFive]

Ok, was wondering why these season 4 challenge are no longer available. They were time limit on them... Guess now there is no way i can either play them ( no 2 star tables ), or buy them...

Hoping a new good offer will appear by next week, cause its becoming kinda frustrating as i just want to play season 4 pinballs and i just cant.

 

[shutyertrap]

Yea, but all I got were parts for Hurricane.

From playing White Water, I always got 3 Hurricane parts. Playing Road Show challenge netted me 3 Hurricane parts first few days, then 3 White Water thereafter. Hurricane challenge gave two sets of 3, again started as Hurricane and Road Show but then swapped Hurricane for White Water.

Makes me wonder what conditions of your game dictated that all you’d get is Hurricane parts. Speaking of, how many did you wind up with? I’m at...

Hurricane - 28/50 (48 earned)
White Water - 42/50 (42 earned, 20 from coin redemption)
Road Show - 16/50 (36 earned)

In other words, 126 Volume 4 parts in the span of time the limited event was active. 374 more parts are needed to reach max. So yeah, I too am waiting on the game to start issuing parts on iOS in daily challenge and I’ll be sure to post when that starts happening. It’ll be very obvious, as I get coins currently since all my other tables are maxed. Our Android brethren have said that changed for them a few days after the limited event went away.

 

[Scared Stiff]

So did you not play the special challenges for the new tables this past week? They were only available for 7 days, thus why the stopwatch is no longer active. Had you played those, you would have gotten parts for the other two (I know I did).

I got parts for all three tables, but not enough to where I can play Roadshow or White Water which are both at one star still.

This is what I do not understand. I do not understand a company that releases a product and then does not give you access to it. And then yanks things around and changes things, and goes days with gaps where you cannot earn parts at all.

It is a VERY strange business decision and like nothing I have ever seen from ANY game company before. Usually with an update, a company wants you to be able to play their new stuff which they have worked hard on. Zen rather bottle things up and keep it on a shelf. People are ready to pay money for the new tables like the earlier ones, and Zen doesn’t take it. People like me say okay, I’ll watch as many ads as you want me to then and Zen still shrugs and doesn’t want that either. What DO they want? It’s very bizarre and I can’t figure them out.

Meanwhile, if you read both comments here and on facebook, people are just walking away from the app altogether because of this. So now they are losing sales and ad revenue. I have said it before and I will say it again....the mobile product is being horribly mismanaged.

 

[shutyertrap]

I made mention to Mel when I interviewed him that it was a bit silly to hide the new physics from players, when that is the selling point for "what's new" compared to previous Zen apps. He agreed and said he'd look into it.

I play Clash Royale, and whenever they introduce a new card, they have a special tournament featuring it that lasts a few days. After that, it's purely by luck if you get the card as a reward, and you wisely won't play with it until you've leveled it up to level 9 unless you feel like essentially throwing your game with an under powered card. So no, this kind of thing is not unique to the Williams app, it's quite common in certain styles of mobile game.

 

[Scared Stiff]

I made mention to Mel when I interviewed him that it was a bit silly to hide the new physics from players, when that is the selling point for "what's new" compared to previous Zen apps. He agreed and said he'd look into it.

I play Clash Royale, and whenever they introduce a new card, they have a special tournament featuring it that lasts a few days. After that, it's purely by luck if you get the card as a reward, and you wisely won't play with it until you've leveled it up to level 9 unless you feel like essentially throwing your game with an under powered card. So no, this kind of thing is not unique to the Williams app, it's quite common in certain styles of mobile game.

Well, not in any that I have ever played (and I play a lot) and certainly no pinball game. And again, they are losing players because of it. Not something that any business should go out of it’s way to do.

I have now completely stopped watching ads or even playing the app now because of this. So, a customer that they could earn a lot of money on (I bought EVERY table that Farsight sold except Twilight Zone), they are now earning a grand total of ZERO on. Zero.

 

[shutyertrap]

You are not seeing all the data though. You are purely basing this analysis on your own experience and the few anecdotes heard here and in comments. The people with complaints will always seem to be more, as people that are satisfied rarely comment. Zen knows the numbers, and they purposely designed the app in such a way that you can play without spending one penny. I’m a prime example of that, and I own every table of Vol 1-3 for my efforts. Now that Zen has eliminated the ad watch for Advanced challenge, the only ads I watch are to flip a card. From my perspective, they are doing lots of good that is keeping me coming back to play, daily.

The app is 6 months old. There’s going to be kinks to work out, formats to change. Again with Clash Royale, it has had vast changes to the app since it launched a few years back. These things evolve or they stay stagnant and die.

 

[HighFive]

There’s that. Yes you can absolutly work your way to earn the tables and get them for free. But these challenges is not the part i like about pinballs, on console as example, im forcing my way to get the 5 stars requirement to get the skill powers, and after that, the challenge section is collecting dust.

And now, even if i wanted to do these parts challenges, well now, for what, 5 days?, they havent reset yet, and there is absolutly no way i can do these challenge to get to play these tables. I really love the IOS version of it, control feel right, the tables are uncensored, visual are very good, but what i want to do is play tables, buy em, try to get better with each and rank as high as i can in the high scores. Im just imagining someone downloading the game atm, wanted to play White Water as example, and he will see he just cant play it or just buy it in any way.

EDIT: Actually, there is one way. Buy a ticket booster at 20 Zen coins for 5 table parts, and since it is random, there is no warranty to get each tables at lvl 2 requirement for 80 coins each ( 5 lvl 1 , 15 lvl 2 ). Could end up getting more parts of one table since its random. I got the tickets to upgrade, but still it will be totally random if im gettings my tables to lvl 2.

 

[shutyertrap]

Yeah I wouldn't do 20 coins for 5 random parts either. Coins are way too hard to come by unless you are in my situation of having all maxed tables and getting coins every time instead of parts. Once the new parts spring up, I'll stop getting those coins and figure it's gonna take between 30-40 days to collect the 374 Volume 4 parts I still need.

You know, I'm the same way with how I play on Steam. I play the challenges and max them (I hate seeing a task not fully completed) and then never do them again. I'm not a high score or leaderboard chaser, so my attention then shifts to tournaments. I guess I had my fill of regular 3 ball games after playing TPA all these years. Once we get something that was not in TPA I'll probably be good for regular play, but I just don't do it that often right now.

Zen did the limited buy it now option for the first 2 releases. I haven't heard what the logic was in not offering it this go around. All you can do is politely ask for the return of that on Facebook or Twitter and hopefully they'll listen.

 

[Ironmike]

Just started receiving parts in challenges on iOS. No coins anymore. Enjoy!

 

[shutyertrap]

Well alright then! Now to see how generous or stingy they are with them...

 

[HighFive]

Well, iv ask on Facebook on a return about this situation, well see how it goes.

 

[Ironmike]

Well alright then! Now to see how generous or stingy they are with them...

3 challenges beat…1,2 then 3 Hurricane parts. Nice!

 

[HighFive]

Just started receiving parts in challenges on iOS. No coins anymore. Enjoy!

Oh! Ok, just tried an Easy challenge on AfM, got 1 tickets, plus 1 another for 1 zen coin. Its going to take some time i guess, but its better than nothing!

 

[shutyertrap]

that follows the parts pattern I last saw.

Basic = 1,2, and 3
Advanced = 1, 2, and 3
Pro = 2, 3, and 3
Premium = 2, 3, and 3

 

[HighFive]

Ok. Zen coins are not ganranteed parts. Just got a ball skin..

Edit: Reset the 1rst challenge, and watching adds, zen coins doesnt give parts. Got 1 part out of 5 tries with zen coins. Guess ill save em.

 

[HighFive]

Ok, im literraly drain psychologicly about doing challenges. Not only it is a stressful process because you dont want to waste too much time, considering its what im feeling im doing doing this , its not just still giving me a proper way to feel pinball. Im just not having fun repeating over the process, like at all. Sure, iv unlock Hurricane to two stars, but now im raging when i put time on challenge and getting freakin Hurricane parts when i want other tables parts.

Im done for today. Like really... Back into TPA playing Mustang! ( strangely got hook at that table lately! )

 

[twopossums]

I think maybe some of the people ticked off at having to grind to earn the tables need to take a small step back. I think we are all so focused on getting all tables to level 4 but you don't need level 4 if you just want to play. You need level 2. And level 2 is very attainable. Yes there is still some grinding but really not that much. 20 table parts? Not really that big of a hurdle. Yes it would be nicer to just buy them (I would prefer that too) but they aren't' asking us to grind for weeks on end really. Level 2 is all you need. That gives you arcade play and you can play normal 3 ball games till your hearts content.

Personally I don't mind the grinding. I enjoy doing the challenges each day. I love the new update. I went from only having 2 tables at level 3 (rest at level 2) to all 10 being maxed out. Now that the new tables have dropped into the daily challenges I'm just earning parts for them. I have enough coins to update them when I get them to level 4 and then I can start earning for the next pack. I never watch adds anymore. The rarely of getting a table part or coin is enough for me to just use that time playing another game. I used to watch them every time because I was racing the clock.

I will say I don't know why they limit the free table part to once a day. Why not every 2 hours like the tickets. What they want is for us to watch ads, right? Why not allow us to watch more if we want.

The 20 coins for 5 table parts somebody mentioned. Wow I just noticed that. What a friggin' rip off. That's insulting. At worst 5 table parts is 4 games (if you have all four challenges unlocked, beat the easy level on each then one medium). More likely 2 or 3 games. I would have to play almost 20 games with all my tables maxed to recoup those coins. That is simply insane that they think anyone will go for that.

 

[shutyertrap]

Personally I don't mind the grinding. I enjoy doing the challenges each day. I love the new update. I went from only having 2 tables at level 3 (rest at level 2) to all 10 being maxed out. Now that the new tables have dropped into the daily challenges I'm just earning parts for them. I have enough coins to update them when I get them to level 4 and then I can start earning for the next pack. I never watch adds anymore. The rarely of getting a table part or coin is enough for me to just use that time playing another game. I used to watch them every time because I was racing the clock..

This is exactly what I’m talking about! When were you mostly at 2 stars? Volume 3 release or later? I want a time frame so people can understand what is possible and what it takes to get there.

You are spot on about only needing 2 stars to play. Others have shown what it costs to buy the pro upgrade and difficulty that essentially makes any table have 4 star options. So there are work arounds to the very issues people are upset about, but stubborn resistance to anything that looks like freemium play means they’ll never take advantage.