The Pinball Thread

[Sly Reflex]

What tables are in your league this week? We've got Biolab, V12, Archer and Lando Calrisian.

 

I too am trying to climb up the leagues, but fuck me if it doesn't' break ones testicles once you get to the mid point. I've managed to hold fast aside from one week where I could barely play and dropped a league, but getting through gold is rough. My initial target of Gold III has happened but getting any higher that that has been just out of reach. I've been squeezed out by the last minute push a few times now, the competition is  pretty ruthless, there's only like 35 promotion spots out of the nearly 200 players in this league and while that sounds like a lot it really isn't.

 

Ironically the time to go up is when the shit tables are on. V12 is a shit table and I'm packing away points to try and secure a place in Gold II. It's a bit of an underhand tactic, but it's working for me. It worked on Excalibur, Fantastic Four and Wolverine and I'm not about to quit on my master plan just yet.

[Jimboxy]

 

It's tough at the top in the Diamond 1 league on Switch.

I've gone for Portal as it was only £2.59 and I'm pretty decent at it.

[Sly Reflex]

 

A pretty big clue for what will be packed in with Attack from Mars.

[Sly Reflex]

 

Played a bit of Black Rose in TPA last night. It's alright. Going to have a look and see if Party Zone is there too. Going to be worth jumping in for Attack From Mars alone.

[Jimboxy]

Nice. Attack from Mars is a great IRL table. I've not played Party Zone and not heard of Black Rose. I'm sure they're good though. Good to see a steady stream of these coming through as well.

[Sly Reflex]

Just had a peek to see if Party Zone was on TPA and it was. So of course I had a go to get a head up of what to expect when it finally hits FX3.

 

What a weird table that is. It's like peak 1990's. If it was a person it'd be wearing a comedy tie to work. It's completely off the wall, but not in a Taxi sort of just being bizarre as fuck way, more a "We're so high and this makes sense to us" vein. I have no idea what the hell is going on. I feel a bit violated by it. When it comes out it's going to be one of those tables that makes people go WTF?

 

Speaking of Taxi, I hope that's one of the tables that gets the FX3 treatment. That table is so slick.

[Sly Reflex]

Have you seen the type of competition I have to face here? I'd be happy with top 1000 being honest. 

[Sly Reflex]

5 minutes ago, RoboticMonk3y said:

good podcast, 

what's all this unlock business I'm opening up? table multipliers and shit? how long's that been in pinball for?

 

It was introduced in FX3. I'm not really a fan of it myself, although, and this is a big although, in some modes it gives you something tactical to think about.

 

For instance in 1 ball mode. Do you go for the double score power up, or the reverse time power up? In timed modes what comes in most handy? Can you race t unlock the multiball to get the bigger scores from that perk, or is it a case of getting a bit of extra time so you can continue abusing combos. Not only does it become a game of have quickly you can thrash through the table, but also brings into question of what power ups and perks you should bring in. It comes down to how you play the table and where you think the bonus score will generate quickest from.

 

I prefer the mode that is free from all the power ups because it's just you 3 balls and a table to conquer. I've only really just started playing that mode though since everything seems geared to the levelling up side of it. Classic Single Player is the most even playing field, it's just you and your skills there. You're the same as everyone else, the only difference is putting in the time in, learning the table and exploiting it.

[RoboticMonk3y]

Agreed, 

I didn't realise I was in an "arcade" variant of pinball.

Nice to spice it up, but I think that if the table is well made, then it's got the bonuses already baked in, right?

[Sly Reflex]

It depends how the table divies up score. Sometimes stringing huge combos are the way forward. Sometimes it's racking up jackpots from a multiball. Other times you might be better off raising the multiplier and then cashing in the bonus when the ball eventually drains. Or it could be that all of those are shit and the real points lay in reaching the wizard mode and creaming score off that.

 

It's stuff like that that meant me and @Jimbo Xiii has stuff we were good and bad at. On one table I might be the best and on another Jim might be best because it favours the way we play. Similarly when we talked about not having fun it would be because the parts where our skills don't overlap means that one of us is beating our heads on a wall. Each player has a path that they prefer to follow that varies from table to table. No two players are alike.

[RoboticMonk3y]

So, I fired up the playstation last night for a quick look at pinball.

I initially tried to see what's going on the vita, but the vita shop is a massive heap of burning tyres.

Found that there are a couple of free tables, which is good as I'm currently in  the process of trying to smuggle an XboxOne past the bank account.

I was quickly reminded of how much I used to enjoy playing pinball on the 360. First think I was doing was trying to work out just how far to pull the plunger for the skillshot, then onto working out where you need to move the ball to start up missions.

I was playing on Scorer's lair, and it's a lovely table, I managed to play on a few on the sub-games, where you go under the table. There was one with gears, which I managed to fail instantly, and a few variants of playing on a smaller pinball table.

Oh man, have I been bitten by the bug! lol

[RoboticMonk3y]

https://blog.zenstudios.com/?p=8432

 

and just like that... my wallet melted...

[Sly Reflex]

I know someone that just bought 70 odd tables in one hit on Steam Thanksgiving sale. You think he'd have picked them up sale by sale instead of jumping in head first. He's bought them all before on PSN and iTunes as well. He's a committed player. 

 

If you're (or anyone else) is having troubles always remember that there's a rulesheet you can read through to get a better understanding of what the tables requires you to do. In more complicated tables that have tiered modes sometimes it makes sense to complete the mode step by step and as you're doing this refer back to the manual for the next step. 

 

A lot of cases it's self explanatory, but sometimes it's not clear. For instance in The Getaway when it says shift gears you need to press the launch to go up a gear and continue your progress into the modes. 

 

Same with Medieval Madness, you can stockpile bombs to blow up the trolls. It's easy to miss stuff like that unless you're told or you read up on what the table offers. 

 

The tables where you have different balls I'd suggest reading the rulesheet as well, there's an Avengers table where each hero's ball has a speciality behind it and just playing around like you normally would isn't going to cut it. 

 

Tables like Doom and Skyrim are the same. You can change weapons for fights and alter your path through the games, Skyrim especially can end up in a mess because you need to level your character correctly as you would in the actual RPG. You're going to have a hard time trying to kill demons with only a pistol equipped or go fighting dragons with a mismatched build. 

 

[RoboticMonk3y]

Watching your video Sly, You nudge the table a lot.

Is that regular thing I need to learn to do?

I've noticed in Sorcerer's lair, that I'm draining a lot when I don't quite clear the "citadel" ramp, and the ball comes flying back down the field. 

I keep trying to catch the ball on the right flipper, but it seems to breeze right past and drain. I think I need to let it bounce off the right flipper when it's down, then catch it on the left. 

Need to start working on that muscle memory

[Sly Reflex]

Nudging is a really hard thing to discuss without watching a load of pinball. Having seen it it makes more sense than having someone explain it, but for the sake of anyone unable to do that, here goes.

 

So there's a couple of types of nudging.

 

There's under contact where the ball is either in contact with a surface permanently or temporarily. For instance in FX3 when the ball comes down the inlane you can nudge the table and hop it over to the other flipper. You can also do this when facing an outlane drain to do a 'bang back' by lifting the flipper up on the side the ball drain down and trying to bounce the ball up to the lower flipper to save it. Some tables even offer a bonus for this, Solo being the most recent edition. Pushing the table straight up gives you height, but pushing up and a direction gives you more direct control. You can also use "inlane friction" if you need to hold the ball and take a breather. Nudge the ball while it's coming on the underside of a slingshot and hold the flipper up to cradle the ball. Ball cradling. Never not funny.

 

The next is side contact. The easiest bit to explain is when the ball is touching a surface, such as an outlane you're about to go down, you can use the surface to push the ball away. You can also fit the ball down inlanes by putting the inlane under it, so if it looks like you're going to have a bounce on the post of the slingshot or the outlane you can avoid that. Table to table you have some things you can do with side to side nudging, stuff like receiving a better return on a ramp, or deviate a ball to an upper flipper. Have a play about and see what you can come up with.

 

The final is none contact. You know when the ball is at the top of the table and it looks like it's going to go straight down the middle. a side nudge will bend the balls trajectory. The earlier you act the better here, so it takes a bit of reading to get your eye in for it. You can see instances of nudging in my TPA stream where I do an assortment of nudges. I specifically point them out as well because we're talking about the differences between FX and TPA. It's a long stream, you can probably glean all you need in the 7 tables I play, I have like 1 or 2 credits in each table to show off what to expect from future tables coming to FX and the differences between the tables that have already made the jump. It might be interesting to some people if they're wanting to learn.

[RoboticMonk3y]

Had a prod at the android version.

It's pretty good.

 

[RoboticMonk3y]

What view do you guys use while playing? I'm finding that in my old age, I need to make the view a little zoomed in for me to be able to see what's going on.

Oh, also, I halved the music volume and found it a little easier too...

[Sly Reflex]

View 2. Depending on the table I turn the score pop ups so they only show up above certain scores. It cuts down screen pollution and shows you where the biggest scores are coming from.

[RoboticMonk3y]

Dammit!

so bloody close.

So, I can run overwatch on my laptop at almost max settings at a steady 30fps, but I've had to put pinball fx3 down to minimum settings on everything to stop it stuttering like netflix on a dial-up connection

[RoboticMonk3y]

managed to push up to 57M

I also realised there is a flipper at the very top left on the table, can't believe I missed that for so long!

 

I managed to do my first death-save last night too.

I've found that I'm starting to feel a little more focused in the game now, and there's not so much panic. I was having problems with the ball draining when it didn't quite clear the citadel ramp and came back down the table at full speed right at the gap between the flippers. I've swapped from trying to tag it with the right flipper at the*exact* time it goes past, to remembering that the left flipper is the safer way to catch it, to now knowing that you can do literally nothing. The ball bounces neatly off the left flipper, and bounces gently onto the right flipper. 

 

I might browse youtube to see if there are any good "how to basic" pinball videos. I looked for a guide for the sorcerer's lair table, but it was clearly done by someone that wasnt' great at pinball.