Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back

[haltux]

scoring issues

Hi everyone,

I have recently bought Star Wars pinball episode V, and I am amazed by the quality of this pinball.
However, not being a pinball hardcore gamer (best score 51M), I have a few comment on the scoring system. My problem with this pinball is that:
- Scenes are very hard and they do not pay much.
- Scenes lead to wizard mode, which I guess pays well, but it is unreachable to most players anyway. My best score is 51M, and I never finished more than 1 out of the 5 mission. The rankings (on android) say that the 25th best score is only 3 times mine, so I am pretty sure only an unsignificant proportion of players actually reach wizard mode.

So for the average player, the best way to achieve high scores is to never start a mission and to play the training, frenzies, multiball and so on. Now I only start scenes by mistake and I think it is a bit sad because I miss a large part of the game. So it is a real dilemma: doing scenes for fun or not doing scene to try to achieve higher scores.

I think the choices made for Sorcerer's Lair were much better: you have 8 missions, they pay well and even when you fail some (or all) of them, as long as you try them you reach the final mode.

[Beliskner]

Hi everyone,

I have recently bought Star Wars pinball episode V, and I am amazed by the quality of this pinball.
However, not being a pinball hardcore gamer (best score 51M), I have a few comment on the scoring system. My problem with this pinball is that:
- Scenes are very hard and they do not pay much.
- Scenes lead to wizard mode, which I guess pays well, but it is unreachable to most players anyway. My best score is 51M, and I never finished more than 1 out of the 5 mission. The rankings (on android) say that the 25th best score is only 3 times mine, so I am pretty sure only an unsignificant proportion of players actually reach wizard mode.

So for the average player, the best way to achieve high scores is to never start a mission and to play the training, frenzies, multiball and so on. Now I only start scenes by mistake and I think it is a bit sad because I miss a large part of the game. So it is a real dilemma: doing scenes for fun or not doing scene to try to achieve higher scores.

I think the choices made for Sorcerer's Lair were much better: you have 8 missions, they pay well and even when you fail some (or all) of them, as long as you try them you reach the final mode.

Well for one thing it's a lot harder to play Pinball on a portable device than on a big TV. On the PS3 there are hundreds of players that have well over 100 million points on this table.
I don't know how many tables you already played on Zen 2 but I'd say the difficulty on the Episode V table is pretty average. Some scenes are harder than others but all of them are managable if you know how to do them and that missions only count if you successfully complete them is the normal way on Pinball tables (real ones or video games). I think the only tables besides Sorcerer's Lair where you can actually fail missions and still get credit for it are Ghost Rider and Excalibur I think.
Pinball is a hard thing in general and needs a lot of practice. That's just the way it is

[Croftanator]

I think the only tables besides Sorcerer's Lair where you can actually fail missions and still get credit for it are Ghost Rider and Excalibur I think.

Avengers will also let you progress to the Wizard Mode, even if you fail the missions - but completing them gives you a 500,000 point increase to your Mission Bonus / Jackpot values.

[Beliskner]

Avengers will also let you progress to the Wizard Mode, even if you fail the missions - but completing them gives you a 500,000 point increase to your Mission Bonus / Jackpot values.

right almost forgot that one

[haltux]

Well for one thing it's a lot harder to play Pinball on a portable device than on a big TV. On the PS3 there are hundreds of players that have well over 100 million points on this table.

I play on a nexus 10 and this is a great device for pinball playing: portrait orientation, amazing resolution, and the interface (thumbs on the right or the left of the screen) somehow gives you a better pinball feeling than any pad or keyboard. I don't know whether you guys are using some kind of dedicated interface for pinball playing.

I don't know how many tables you already played on Zen 2 but I'd say the difficulty on the Episode V table is pretty average. Some scenes are harder than others but all of them are managable if you know how to do them and that missions only count if you successfully complete them is the normal way on Pinball tables (real ones or video games). I think the only tables besides Sorcerer's Lair where you can actually fail missions and still get credit for it are Ghost Rider and Excalibur I think.
Pinball is a hard thing in general and needs a lot of practice. That's just the way it is

Well I know I suck at pinball and I don't really complain about the overall difficulty. I played some hours on Sorcerer's Lair and Star Wars and before that last time I played pinball was on Amiga on the 90's, my experience with real pinball being close to 0.

However, I wish missions could bring a little bit more points so that trying to accomplish them would be more rewrding even if you know you won't complete all of them. I find rather strange that the empire's recompense, or jedi training, or star wars frenzy which are really easy to achieve, often brings you more than a complete mission.

[Beliskner]

I play on a nexus 10 and this is a great device for pinball playing: portrait orientation, amazing resolution, and the interface (thumbs on the right or the left of the screen) somehow gives you a better pinball feeling than any pad or keyboard. I don't know whether you guys are using some kind of dedicated interface for pinball playing.

I'd always prefer buttons over a touchscreen. Better control overall and I can't see how nudging the table could work fine on a touchscreen

However, I wish missions could bring a little bit more points so that trying to accomplish them would be more rewrding even if you know you won't complete all of them. I find rather strange that the empire's recompense, or jedi training, or star wars frenzy which are really easy to achieve, often brings you more than a complete mission.

The value of a completed mission varies a lot. If you want good rewards for missions play World War Hulk. That table gives you 25 million for every mission much more than any side mission has to offer.

[deep]

However, I wish missions could bring a little bit more points so that trying to accomplish them would be more rewrding even if you know you won't complete all of them. I find rather strange that the empire's recompense, or jedi training, or star wars frenzy which are really easy to achieve, often brings you more than a complete mission.

You can rise the achievable score for each scene mode via hitting the STAR WARS targets.

[gold wheelchair]

esb

Big lol, the French team begin to be crazy players... There's a lot of bugs on this table too, I make a wish, fixing these one...

[ER777]

You can rise the achievable score for each scene mode via hitting the STAR WARS targets.

This is a good point to mention because it adds some strategy into how you progress through the scenes. It saves what you've raised the reward value to when you reach the mission checkpoints too right?

[hunter328]

right almost forgot that one

Almost?

[hunter328]

Hi everyone,

I have recently bought Star Wars pinball episode V, and I am amazed by the quality of this pinball.
However, not being a pinball hardcore gamer (best score 51M), I have a few comment on the scoring system. My problem with this pinball is that:
- Scenes are very hard and they do not pay much.
- Scenes lead to wizard mode, which I guess pays well, but it is unreachable to most players anyway. My best score is 51M, and I never finished more than 1 out of the 5 mission. The rankings (on android) say that the 25th best score is only 3 times mine, so I am pretty sure only an unsignificant proportion of players actually reach wizard mode.

So for the average player, the best way to achieve high scores is to never start a mission and to play the training, frenzies, multiball and so on. Now I only start scenes by mistake and I think it is a bit sad because I miss a large part of the game. So it is a real dilemma: doing scenes for fun or not doing scene to try to achieve higher scores.

I think the choices made for Sorcerer's Lair were much better: you have 8 missions, they pay well and even when you fail some (or all) of them, as long as you try them you reach the final mode.

Interesting topic about the missions. Now that you mention it I do prefer how tables like Sorcerer's Lair do missions and Wizard mode. I was actually looking at the main screen on ZP2 the other night and thought about how few of the tables I've actually completed. It's my fault since I never go into a game with anything other than besting my top score in mind so the things needed to complete a table sometimes never get practiced. I would also like to see more table either take the SL approach or weigh the necessary parts more in score to make doing these more worthwhile to score focussed players. Too many tables become one or two trick ponies when shooting for high score. (Example: Excalibur is one of my favorite tables but doing much besides Merlin's multiball is pretty pointless score wise. )
I'd be curious to see what more people think on this topic.
BTW I have yet to successfully complete any of the Empire episodes either. As far as they go I find them tougher than average for Zen's missions. I enjoy the table though.
Bring on the Death Star table! I can't wait for that one, if rumors are true.

[Ty-24-]

my problem is getting sidetracked on the multiball modes. the 1st day it came out i beat Vader in scene 6 but drained about 2 seconds later. i think it's a great table overall, especially in multiplayer. sure beats the hell outta Civil War lol.

[Ty-24-]

'An extra ball you should get it hmm'

LMAO! he says it every 5 seconds. gets on my nerves so bad i finally hit it just to shut him up.

[hunter328]

LMAO! he says it every 5 seconds. gets on my nerves so bad i finally hit it just to shut him up.

I find that almost as annoying as when Yoda turns into Confucious during combo's on Clone Wars. How many sayings can one cat have?

[s-carnegie]

LMAO! he says it every 5 seconds. gets on my nerves so bad i finally hit it just to shut him up.

LOL I know what you mean, even the looks of him wants me to give him one good smack. Think its time to change my avatar. 'Yes... an extra ball you got'