Pinball FX 2 - bugs/issues and recommendations

[LeanderL]

You get a cuteness reward on Biolab LOL.

http://abload.de/img/2013-09-28_000017csgm.jpg

Bug 1: missing ramp texture (left ramp), already reported by others but now also reported via screenshot and PM to Deep and confirmed

Bug 2: the nurse mode has an English description in the German version

Bug 3: level 3 did not work. I press the left flipper to feed the creature but the X appeared and it was a mistake although I definitely pressed the correct button. It is a bug unless the feed/cheer up buttons are different in level 3 and not the same as in level 1 and 2.

[Roo5676]

Infinite Scoring Bug

Serious scoring bug on Return of the Jedi. I hit this twice in less than 2 hours of play. I don't know exactly what happens, but somehow the Tiberius vari-target gets stuck and starts repeatedly giving out the same score about once per second forever.

Once it happened when I was in C3PO hurry-up and then drained my last ball. The second time I wasn't in that, but I believe I did hit the vari-target. After it started happening I tried hitting the vari-target a couple more times. Each time it would give me a score in addition to the looping score. As the vari-target got pushed back, the position the looping score emanated from changed also, so I'm pretty sure that's what's generating it.

I could have just cradled the ball and gotten an infinitely high score, but I let it drain. The looped scoring even continued after the game was over and through initial entry. It didn't seem to stop counting up until returning to the score summary screen.

[deep]

Serious scoring bug on Return of the Jedi. I hit this twice in less than 2 hours of play. I don't know exactly what happens, but somehow the Tiberius vari-target gets stuck and starts repeatedly giving out the same score about once per second forever.

Once it happened when I was in C3PO hurry-up and then drained my last ball. The second time I wasn't in that, but I believe I did hit the vari-target. After it started happening I tried hitting the vari-target a couple more times. Each time it would give me a score in addition to the looping score. As the vari-target got pushed back, the position the looping score emanated from changed also, so I'm pretty sure that's what's generating it.

I could have just cradled the ball and gotten an infinitely high score, but I let it drain. The looped scoring even continued after the game was over and through initial entry. It didn't seem to stop counting up until returning to the score summary screen.

Thanks for the report, that sounds pretty bad. We haven't experienced this kind of problem. I will check this out ASAP.

[deep]

Thanks for the report, that sounds pretty bad. We haven't experienced this kind of problem. I will check this out ASAP.

Found it, fixed, will patch ASAP. Thanks again.

[LeanderL]

Will highscores get reset because of the bug (unlikely though). Let's just say every score higher than mine used this exploit *joking*

[Roo5676]

Will highscores get reset because of the bug (unlikely though). Let's just say every score higher than mine used this exploit *joking*

As of last night, I didn't see any scores that were too crazy. The game I drained out of with the bug was about 35 million, then later I got a legit 150 million or so and was about 3rd overall. I don't think anyone was over 200m, and I think Cloudhead was #1, so I'm sure his was legit.

Good work on the quick fix, though!

[LeanderL]

My record is only 40 millions. Maybe I used the exploit without knowing because I never reached this amount of points later on. I completed a mission, had two multiballs...still not close to my first score.

Nudging is essential not to lose the ball on the left side all the time.

[LeanderL]

Text and grammar errors, German version:

Return of the Jedi: scene 5 is called "Den Duell" which is wrong. Correct: "Das Duell" (the manual also says "Das Duell" but the DMD has the wrong gender, "Duell" is neutral, not masculine)

El Dorado: "unerwartet Schatz" (unexpected treasure) is wrong. Correct: "unerwarteter Schatz"

Paranomal: "Licht extraball" (light the extra ball), "Licht" is only a noun, not a verb -> wrong.

Captain America: "use the flipper um" (description of castle assault mission)... -> "use the flipper" is English, the German translation is missing

Already reported:

Biolab: there is no German description of the "feed the creature" minigame. An English text is displayed instead.

[nromo]

Never mind the complainers.

[/B]

Farsight's Steam programmer made mention of the Steam issues on the pinballarcadefans forum, so unless we've joined forces to promote an irrelevant conspiracy, you can be sure that the problems did actually occur. And without final testing and all hands available to fix if a major problem occurs afterwards, we're not going to push a patch remotely.

If you total up all the Steam table sales, figure that nearly half of the sales were at 50% off, take out all the royalties and licensing that go to Microsoft, Valve, Marvel, etc., you'll see that it doesn't really buy a lot of extra help, especially when you first subtract the pre-launch development costs of the Steam version. Especially since anyone we hire, we try to keep for the long term, making us more cautious about how quickly we add staff. In this business, fortunes can change very rapidly and sales have lots of peaks and valleys, making it very hard to predict how many people you will be able to employ just a few months down the road.

There's a web of trade-offs between table prices, number of tables produced, post-launch support, number of platforms, etc. We'd like to have people to work on everything that needs making and fixing all the time, but people simply wouldn't be willing to pay what it would cost to support that kind of business. We're doing the best we can - really. And even with these annoying problems, I think our support still compares pretty well to other companies in the same league.

You people are doing a great job! I love the tables. Look foward to all the rest!
Cheers!!!

[LeanderL]

Possible bug but not sure:

Return of the Jedi, 3-player hot seat mode. It was a friend's turn, he lost the ball and it was my turn again. I only nudged the ball once with the left analog stick of my gamepad and the tilt message was shown. Maybe the nudge/tilt counter did not reset for my turn but my friend's counter was used for my turn, too.

[deep]

Possible bug but not sure:

Return of the Jedi, 3-player hot seat mode. It was a friend's turn, he lost the ball and it was my turn again. I only nudged the ball once with the left analog stick of my gamepad and the tilt message was shown. Maybe the nudge/tilt counter did not reset for my turn but my friend's counter was used for my turn, too.

Interesting, I will check. Can you test it on another table? Thanks

[LeanderL]

It's difficult to reproduce. My friend pressed the flipper buttons like mad during his "ball lost" sequence but we don't know if he touched the analog stick, too.

I think the game switched between players earlier than visible. If I press the B button to switch cameras during my "ball lost" sequence / at the end of this sequence it already changes the cam of the player up next.

[LeanderL]

RotJ: Rancor mission, part 2 is called "Den Exekution" (German version) -> wrong -> "Die Exekution".

[LeanderL]

TWO BUGS
========

1) NUDGE/TILT BUG

Interesting, I will check. Can you test it on another table? Thanks

I can confirm the bug. RotJ table...the nudge/tilt counter is supposed to be reset after each ball you lose, isn't it?
The bug is most likely on all tables but we only tested it on RotJ and ESB.

=> we started a 2-player game just to check...(no actual playing but using the nudge function as soon as the ball is in play, then left it drain)

Player 1, ball 1 in play, nudge, nudge.
Player 2, ball 1 in play, nudge, nudge.
Player 1, ball 2 in play, nudge, nudge->TILT
Player 2, ball 2 in play, nudge->TILT

Don't know why player 1 was able to nudge the ball 3 times before the tilt...however, player 2 got the tilt the first time he nudged the ball during ball 2.

2) ROME, OUT OF BOUNDS BUG

The Rome bug has not been fixed yet (I reported it some months ago) and occurs about every ~ fifth game, especially if you shoot the ball up the right lane with the left flipper and immediately hit the ball with the upper left flipper. The ball passes the Janus head and has enough speed to jump out off bounds. All you can do is quit the game as nothing works anymore (no way to get it back).

The ball stays in the lane behind the firepots...you can roll it left and reft (nudge the ball) but can't get it back in play.

Please either add an invisible wall that prevents the ball from jumping out of bounds or add a "search for lost balls" function.

http://abload.de/img/romebugcxd8q.jpg

[sambartle]

Physical LED Board Support

Recommendation/Suggestion/Request:

I'm hoping someone tells me this exists..

I'd love to be able to use a physical LED board instead of the on screen one..

I don't expect to be able to do the graphical elements of the scoreboard.. but the score itself should be fairly easy to implement.

All it would need is either a plugin that can drive LED boards or an exposed function i can call to get the current score... I'd happily write some software if there was a hook into the game to get the data.

I'd even settle for just writing the current scores out to a file and i can poll that and display the scores on the LED board, making it universal.

That would be Awesome.