The Complete guide to ROME

[Cloda]

I don't believe you. The five key isn't next to the three key, the wizard modes differ greatly, and it sounds like you haven't made it to Rome's wizard mode.


One of the achievements is to complete Romulus multiball with at least 50 million remaining.


The g-a-r-r-i-s-o-n-s aren't t-o-t-a-l-l-y self-e-x-p-l-a-n-a-t-o-r-y.

Some of them require action a few seconds after they begin. It's easy for a player to fail a garrison mission because he has no idea what to do.


That sentence contradicts itself. Either you're being lazy, or you haven't completed all the garrisons.

How's that for Christmas Spirit!!!! Jeez Blue.... Hopefully your next year starts better because it seems like something got up your nose deep and got stuck there firmly!!!! Your assumptions that Logic_FTW is lazy, cheating.... and what ever else you conjured up is just plain absurd and so very rude.

I am so very grateful for the guide and using it over the last couple of hours has made playing the table so much better and clearer for me. I managed to get to wizard mode (playing on easy with 10 balls) very easily (on my 3'd ball) and got some nice points for that. The bulk of the guide is very accurate and very logical in it's layout and could only have been written by somebody that have spent hours playing and figuring out the table!!!

I like the extra info (history background etc.). If you can't follow the Garrison mission explanations on the DMD you have serious problems because it is very self explanatory e.g. hit the lit ramps, avoid the holes. How much more would you like it to be explained.

So please.... you have a few choices:

- Avoid looking at any posts by Logic_FTW.
- Add constructively to his guide (e.g. nicely point out mistakes/missing information and add to it).
- Do your own guide that will take you a couple of hours to type out and correct. That is if you have completed everything on the table.... Am I right in assuming you have?

I don't know you from a bar of soap, but you really ticked me off and made me felt supper ashamed for your part. Logic_FTW, just ignore this guy, don't even respond to his comments and please carry on with your great guides. I for one, and I know many other people, are really appreciating it. In my following post I have some questions and some feedback for you.

[Cloda]

Following your guide Logic_FTW I managed to complete a huge amount of what is possible on the table and it felt so great to actually know what I was doing and then working towards a goal!!!! I have some questions and comments for you on the guide and the game-play:

- With regard to the Janus hole, do you have any idea what or who the two sides of the head (male/female) is suppose to represent?

- I am not getting the "scale of justice" thing. I have completed it a couple of times and even managed to do it twice in a row and all that seems to happen is that you get points (and not even a lot). You are pointing out that something will happen if you complete it. Am I missing something?

- I have not been able to light the extra ball with the Mock Warfare (doing it as fast as I can). Is there something more to it?

Thanks, looking forward to your response!!!

[blue]

How's that for Christmas Spirit!!!! ... Your assumptions that Logic_FTW is cheating

I don't celebrate Christmas.

I never claimed he was cheating. His bogus comments led me to believe he'd yet to activate Rome's wizard mode.

If you can't follow the Garrison mission explanations on the DMD you have serious problems because it is very self explanatory

By that logic, so is much of the information found in his guides (i.e. each table's rule sheet).

Parts of the garrison missions are not explained in the dot matrix display, like alternate methods of completion and bonuses.

So please.... you have a few choices:

Avoid looking at any posts by Logic_FTW.

I can respond to whomever I please. It's Logic's responsibility to ignore my posts if he doesn't care for my feedback.

Add constructively to his guide (e.g. nicely point out in-corrections and add to it).

I made suggestions and pointed out corrections. I don't care for sloppiness, bias, and atrocious grammar/spelling, so I see no reason to be nice. I was honest, not mean.

Do your own guide that will take you a couple of hours to type out and correct.

Working on it.

With regard to the Janus hole, do you have any idea what or who the two sides of the head (male/female) is suppose to represent?

The Romans stole their gods from the Greeks (Hecate) and the Etruscans (Ani, who was often depicted with two faces), so there's no definite answer to this question. Here's what I remember from studying antiquity:

While Logic is correct about Janus being the god of "doors and gates," the Romans mostly considered him to be the god of beginnings and endings (hence January), especially in relation to human life (fecundity). One head looked backward to the past year, the other forward to the current year. Janus was rewarded with the ability to see into the future and past after he was hospitable to Saturn in disguised form.

Janus is very closely associated with Jupiter, as is Diana with Juno. It's possible that the two faces represent the pair of deities. It's likely that Janus is simply a corrupted form of Dianus (Jana being Diana--they're all derived from the same root meaning bright). The two heads may have represented the male/female forms of Dianus & Diana (who some scholars equate to Jupiter & Juno, Zeus & Dione, Janus & Jana, etc.).

It's also likely the Romans were heavily influenced by Ani, who the Etruscans used to protect the entrances to cities and gates (two heads that looked both ways). This is why Janus is occasionally depicted with a key for opening gates and a rod for expelling intruders.

[Solitude]

Blue - good feedback, bad delivery. You can disagree with people, and you can point out mistakes and omissions, but you have to do it respectfully. No more posts that drip with contempt for another poster. Last warning.

[Logic_FTW]

Thanks Solitude, for the record I have no problem with the critiques, it's my first guide for PBFX, it's all about the delivery. Fortunatly I've gotten alot of positive feedback, so my feelings are in tact

The free ball from doing the mock warefare fast may be eaither random or a fluke. I've done it a few times but have not been able to repeate it since, although I'm still working on it, (Ive been play excalubar alot latley, not Rome) I'm 99% sure the hole was not lit before I started mock warfare, and after quickly completing it was. It's possible it was somthing else, but I'm working on retesting the theory. I really can't think of anything else I did to light that FB light, I'm sure I had not made the 6 shot combo at that time.

What it may have been was doing the mock warfare and subsequent neptune multiball multiple times, I'll test this tomarrow as well. Thanks for the heads up!

Just to be clear I have completed the wizard mode for this table, I have no reason to lie about it, I even mentiond I did it on easy mode.

[Cloda]

I have been playing Rome quite a bit and am beginning to see that there is different possibilities in how you complete the Garrison missions and the amount of points you can get for finishing a mission (as blue pointed out in his replies as well). I think it might be worthwhile to add some guidance for the Garrison missions as well in your guide. Would be good to keep it more general and more vague (as you have done in other spots in your guide) but just so that people are aware that there is different "ways" in completing it.

One thing for example (might be obvious for some) is by activating the "Blessed" at the right time during the mission (by completing the Hand of Jupiter shots), you can double your potential mission score. I have not done it on all the Garrison missions but it definitely doubled my score on the Coastal mission when I completed it just before the final right Conquer ramp shot. Would be great if somebody could confirm if it is possible with the other missions as well!!

With the Southern Mission (Scales of Justice). I will also mention that each of the three holes (Janus, Scales of Justice and Romulus) that you can hit scores differently..... you can thus achieve a much bigger mission score by hitting the right one (remember you have to do it 5 times in a row so the difference adds up). The final shot also makes a difference in the points you get (Janus head or Jupiter orbit).

[nebhusker]

I don't celebrate Christmas.

How shocking.

[nebhusker]

Well done nebhusker for emerging as Logic_FTW's editor and publisher for his guides!!! You guys are definitely giving me the Christmas present I sorely wanted (only thing that will top it is more tables from ZEN!!!!). My wife is already convinced that Pinball FX2 has brought about a permanent change in me.... don't know yet if she think its for the better (don't worry, I'll convince her that its the best thing ever for you other married/in relationship people ). Anyways the guide is going to take me further down the full blown junky road!!!!!

Just some thoughts on the pdf guide: - I suggest you add something like: Guide by Logic_FTW. Layout and Editing by Nebhusker. Also think of adding your email for people to give input and add to the guide and then also a version number and date to reflect when changes to the guide was made. You know that there are many unscrupulous people that will very easily take it as their own work and this guide is going to be posted everywhere!!!

This request is going to take a lot of time, but I suggest you add appropriate screen images, especially at the description of each element of the table, showing clearly what is being discussed. If you are up to it, I would be very grateful. I would also not mind if the resulting file ends up being bigger so that the images is clearer.

Again guys... thanks a lot. You are definitely embracing the the Xmas vibe.

Thanks Cloda for the input/feedback! Those are all great ideas. The first part will be easy to add the ownership info. I also love the full screenshot idea and thought of trying it, the problem is I don't have a way to get screenshots from my XBox, I would need to find high resolution shots online, I'll have to open those shots I put in the guide using PhotoShop and see if they will work.

[nebhusker]

Okay everyone, give this one a look. It is not complete but will give you the idea of where I am headed with the screen shots. I'm not great with photo editing but I think I can make it work.

I also made a few edits based on feedback so far. Please continue to post any required edits and I will get it updated. Thanks again to everyone who has offered constructive feedback!

http://www.mediafire.com/?m19fpcz77i18ewh

[Cloda]

Great stuff Nebhusker!!! You photo editing seems spot on and the new images looks great!!!! The completed guide is going to be even more helpful with the images added!

Glad you liked and incorporated some of the ideas I had. One small point with regards to the version number. I think, as some changes to the wording of the actual guide has already been made based on feedback provided, the version number should be something like 1.01. I am not 100% sure of the correct way to reflect updates in the version number but in my understanding if you have minor updates e.g. the correction that was made for the multi-ball from 5 to 3 then you make a change to the second digit after the full-stop (e.g. 1.01) but if you have a major revision like adding a completely new section to the guide e.g. adding the Garrison missions, then you change the first digit after the full stop (e.g. 1.10). So with this current revision and say Locic_FTW add the Garrison missions the version number can be something like 1.11.

Anyway, I'm being pedantic about this!!! Please carry on with the good work

[heathenSauce]

The free ball from doing the mock warefare fast may be eaither random or a fluke.

One of the rewards for a successful shot with an onager in mock warfare is extra ball. The rewards cycle in what appears to be a random fashion on the DMD. I tried for a while to consistently time a shot to the correct onager if it was lit while watching the DMD to catch the extra ball, but most of the time it shows up on the wrong onager, or time runs out before it comes around. It's fairly random (at least for me) to get this from mock warfare.

Also as Cloda pointed out, blessed does in fact double your mission scores, which in your guide you say it doesn't. As far as I can tell, blessed is a universal x2 score multiplier for all scores, much like the flaming ball in Blade. The only shots I have not tested this with are the wizard mode, and the Romulus jackpot, but seeing as the flaming ball in blade does double everything, including wizard mode points, I would expect Rome to work the same way.

I also think it would be a good idea to detail the garrisons, as they are the core aspect of the table.

Romulus multiball definitely starts at 100m jackpot. Time decreases this jackpot, while hitting any other shot increases it. It is possible to raise this jackpot well above 100m before collecting it, although this is hard to do. This is a very high risk/reward mode, as you have the potential get 100+ mil, or nothing.

[Logic_FTW]

One of the rewards for a successful shot with an onager in mock warfare is extra ball. The rewards cycle in what appears to be a random fashion on the DMD. I tried for a while to consistently time a shot to the correct onager if it was lit while watching the DMD to catch the extra ball, but most of the time it shows up on the wrong onager, or time runs out before it comes around. It's fairly random (at least for me) to get this from mock warfare.

Also as Cloda pointed out, blessed does in fact double your mission scores, which in your guide you say it doesn't. As far as I can tell, blessed is a universal x2 score multiplier for all scores, much like the flaming ball in Blade. The only shots I have not tested this with are the wizard mode, and the Romulus jackpot, but seeing as the flaming ball in blade does double everything, including wizard mode points, I would expect Rome to work the same way.

I also think it would be a good idea to detail the garrisons, as they are the core aspect of the table.

Romulus multiball definitely starts at 100m jackpot. Time decreases this jackpot, while hitting any other shot increases it. It is possible to raise this jackpot well above 100m before collecting it, although this is hard to do. This is a very high risk/reward mode, as you have the potential get 100+ mil, or nothing.

For the Romulus Multi ball ou hit the captive ball (the one to start mock warefare and justice) to rotate the Janus head, then hit the ball in the head to collect. I was honestly unaware that other shots increased the jackpot.

I'm working on a garrison section like the 250K 500K 1M shots in justice. Not all of them have alternate ways of completing them it seems. Take costal for example. Although you can shoot targets in different orders, the end result is still the same. When I add the Garrisons section I will go through and edit some of the other things pointed out. (Like the 10m for romulus, and the free ball, ect.

@Cloda - You asked about the justice shot, it gives you points and increases the justice jackpot.

@Nebhusker - Awsum job man, thanks again.

So thanks everyone for the feedback, hopfully I'll finish this up tonight. Im going to play around with thge garrisons a bit and make sure I'm not missing anything. If theres anything else you feel should be added eaither post in here or PM me.

[the1rishway]

Wow, thank you so much!

[xi Wheeler]

Great guide bro!
Ignore those who flame too because i don't see their guides anywhere lol. (They're just jealous of yours!)
You've done a good job and i appreciate it =)

Also, i know this is off topic but does anyone know a sure fire way to get the ball into the Doc Ok lock hole on Spiderman because sometimes it shoots down the Mysterio ramp and sometimes it doesn't and the only way I've got it into the lock hole is when it doesn't. Any advice? Thanks.

[XtremeIzHellaGAY]

Great job on the guide(s) Logic! Your hard work is much appreciated, keep 'em comin'!