What is shared between players in hotseat multiplayer?

[Shoeburyness]

My wife and I have been playing this game for years, mostly in hotseat multiplayer. We're still not very good at it, though, so it's only recently that I noticed that the "progress" toward some modes is carried through to your opponent. I'm referring specifically to the Courage multiball on the Han Solo table; basically, if I capture a white ball, it will remain there when it's her turn to play, even if she never captured one during her turn. I'm pretty sure this happens on other tables too.

So how does this work? Is it only for multiball modes? All of them on every table? Is there other sort of progress that carries to your opponent? Is there a way to prevent this?

[Croftanator]

Hey there

I think that generally yes, it's only multiball unlocks where the progress can get carried forward between hotseat players (I can't think of any single ball modes off the top of my head, but of course, I could be wrong ).

It's done for various design reasons, and are set up on a per table basis - so, no, not all tables have this feature. For instance, the locked balls on Super League Football can also be used by other players after scoring a goal, but the Danger Room Locker on X-Men has per player progress.

Certainly on the tables I've made, this feature cannot be prevented as it's a Hotseat specific feature that's been designed like that - but maybe other tables have an option somewhere in the Operator Menu which can stop it HTH

[Shoeburyness]

Thanks for the quick reply, and congrats on this awesome game!

I will try to navigate some operator's menus to see if I can find something. We don't have the two tables you mentioned, but my first thought was that if a locked ball is visible on the field, then it would not make sense to have it disappear/reappear when a player ends their turn. I'd be interested to know about those various design reasons, if you're willing to share.

Also, what's the simplest way to identify the designer of a particular table? It might help when it's time to choose a new table!

[Croftanator]

Well, you pretty much hit the nail on the head when you said "it would not make sense to have it disappear/reappear when a player ends their turn" as the main design consideration Balls which are visible/physically locked on the table are more likely to get transferred between players than balls which are 'hidden' when they get locked and the progress gets represented some other way (such as with lamps or on the dotmatrix). There can also be technical reasons for doing it one way or the other, but mainly, it's the designer's choice how to handle it.

The list of all the table's designers can be found here:

http://forum.zenstudios.com/showthread.php?12318-Table-Designers

https://steamcommunity.com/app/226980/discussions/0/490121928346825856/

[Shoeburyness]

Allright, thanks.

[Trollwart]

This is pretty interesting...

This seems to be the reason behind one of my requests (hotseat scores counted for main high score) not being instigated. I can see both sides of the reasoning, but would love if this 'shared progression' to be turned off and allow the scores to count.

[Shoeburyness]

You're probably right. I was also wondering why high scores achieved in a multiplayer game were kept separately. Well, it's because my wife keeps stealing and profiting from my multiballs, that's why...