Changes in Pinball FX3 tables - by Deep

[DarkKodiaK]

hey Deep.

Just want to say, whatever tables you've made, they are my favorites.
Love your signature style of multiball stacking.


*cough*
what up with the no south park table?!
*cough*

:P

[shogun00]

what up with the no south park table?!

Viacom and their annoying contracts.

[DarkKodiaK]

Viacom and their annoying contracts.

I guess they just wanted to hold that fart contest with Ubisoft.......

[Skode]

So far I've only really played Spider Man. What I noticed is that the J Johan Jameson loop is easier to hit
This is a bit of a mixed bag. I found it annoying to hit in the previous versions; but now I end up hitting it more than MJ's shot. However, the rooftop is usually the more desirable target (especially when I want to start Clone Chaos - definitely not a fan of that change!)

One general request that I have: with the bumpers being more "sticky", can there be more instances where the timer pauses when bouncing around?

I rarely miss that shot, it's about letting it roll to turn hitting the ball with the tip end of the flipper rather than center. Once you nail that shot it's actually a particularly easy shot this you can freely get both shots based on what your after with ease. I'm happy for the change though I never found it too bad previously - the Excalibur Merlin shot on the other hand... (Awesome tweak there Zen, my fave table got a lot less frustrating)

[OriginalEther]

On Sorcerers Lair, the ball saver no longer activates when locking a ball.

[Storm]

I fired up the Skyrim table for the first time in FX3 and I gotta say, I LOVE it when it's night time. The lighting is perfect. I don't recall it being like that in FX2 unless I'm mistaken.

[OriginalEther]

X-Men : When auto launched (after a ball save, start of multiball, etc) instead of travelling to the left inlane, the ball now arcs to the upper left flipper.
Makes a for an easier run at the Storm cross ramp, but takes away the lined up shot up the Iceman ramp for Magnetic Frenzy.

EDIT: it appears that the above only seems to happen during the Challenge modes. When I played a few regular games today, some launches did go to the left inlane while some others hit the outlane/inlane divider.

The Nightcrawler orbit seems easier to hit, IMO.

As an aside, I've hated the juiced up slingshots since I first saw them on the Return of the Jedi table. I've - to my surprise - tolerated them on most of the tables, but they really stink on this one, to the point where the table is almost ruined for me.

[SiggR22]

Sorcerer's Lair / Earth Defense / Excalibur:
These otherwise great tables also suffer greatly from obstruction syndrome. Objects like tree/spinner/saucer/building/catapult are poorly placed in the ball's pathway leading to a flipper arm. Camera doesn't help. So I guess we gotta 'guess' where the ball is and how fast it's travelling? As timing is crucial in pinball, being forced into blind shots is utterly unacceptable... totally unfun. ED is the worst offender here, to the point it's completely ruined. I get that these old tables' layouts will not be rearranged anymore, but how about tranlucent or semi-translucent objects, or maybe ball silhouettos, as seen on newer tables?

Adventure Land / The Walking Dead:
Another visual issue.
AL's Ikarus flame ball is barely visible, similar to the scout ahead mode in TWD. While this is intentional in WD, I'd happily accept the added difficulty, but in AL it seems a bit out-of-place and non-thematical. A simple palette change from red to any other color would certainly be well appreciated.

Mars:
1) The kickbacks are terrible! They take pride kicking the ball out again. One has to manually nudge to dissuade them! However, resorting to nudging somehow defeats the purpose of a kickback in the first place. On top of it, our lovely but lazy space spider takes ages to act. And since almost all Mars missions are under pretty hard time constraints, it begs the question if the player would actually not be better off without any kickback at all and instead taking the death-save chance. Even considering this in all seriousness just shows how shockingly bad they truly are...
2) When flipping the upper right arm in order to travel up the pyramid ramp, after a perfectly aimed or any other clean mini-orbit shot, there doesn't seem to be a single frame at which to hit the ball. It will never get there no matter what. Missions involving this ramp even indicate and suggest this faulty route, whereas you're certainly better off taking the big orbit or some botched shot.

[SiggR22]

3) During Zero Gravity multiball, while gravity is disabled, a 'dead' (located in drain zone) ball is considered 'on table' and will not be replaced when gravity sets back in again. While being fun watching some weightless floating, a rather awesome effect, it stops being fun when you helplessly 'spectate' your ball draining. Insult to injury, when you're foolish enough to complete this mode with a dead ball around, your ball/game will be completely lost.
4) The Pyramid is simply the most ridiculous mode there is, period. We are supposed to first light, then hit six (!) indirect targets, which unlight eventually, while desperately juggling the balls, because it takes so long that ball-saves and kickbacks are used up soon. Can we really blame them for wanting to escape this horrible scenario? Granted, it will take many many attempts to accomplish. But then we're not done yet. We still must now lock the remaining shots, in the, guess what, most difficult ramp on this table. Should we, at any point in this mode, fall back to the required ball amount, we must start all over again, unnerved and annoyed to the core! What? Seriously? Have the devs actually tried this mode themselves, without their tools? And do we really need this kind of hardcore difficulty, driving even the most dedicated pinball wizard crazy, on an alleged beginner-friendly, forgiving table like Mars? And put a full stop to any hopes for wizard mode? I'd suggest balancing this mode if possible to either 'failed but done' (no must-complete, as seen on other easy tables) or at least allow restarting subsequent attempts with the progress made so far carrying over.
On a positive note, this mode is good for riskfree scoring (score, fail on purpose, restart), but that's not exactly what it's meant to be. That should be the wizard mode's job; the very mode denied by the unsolvable pyramid!

[SiggR22]

El Dorado:
This venerable old table could still be very much enjoyable if it wasn't for the fickle statue which doesn't want to eat what's being fed! Such whimsical behavior we'd expect from a toddler or a physical machine but we know a program works different. Mouth hit, ball locked. Simple. Nothing in between. We don't appreciate and won't tolerate a 'coin flip' deciding if the ball's taken or not. And no, lack of precision is not the issue here either. The old dusty statue *figuratively* screams for a long overdue patch lest its table will not become some forgotten relic as well.

Castlestorm:
Maybe it's just me but the castle mini table seems off balance, almost unfair. While not being half as difficult as Excalibur's, and can be effortlessly destroyed sometimes, especially with a storm ball, there is something irritatingly fishy about it: We can never storm the castle in a reliable way! Its sides are safer but players must shoot the middle, provoking ball loss, due to insane drop-target respawning. As it's basically only the wall that counts. The vikings are doing an incredible job defending their keep, but for the detriment of the players enjoyment. Maybe the first hundred castles it was fun shooting them, but eventually you want a more serious approach, and try out this or that strategy, hoping for consistency, until you finally conclude there's none. Noobish chaotic flip-spamming works best, sadly, with mixed results. If only the soldiers would take a measly single second longer to reappear. So here I'm asking, what's the point of Castlestorm when a successful castle storm is a matter of luck instead of skill? And a rather poor chance, to be true, so the 'fun' core element becomes a redundant waste of time and not worth flipping at all?

[SiggR22]

Might of the First Order:
First of all, I will not complain about what everyone is expecting here: The drain-happy right outlane and its ravenous wide maw. As hungry as a table is, that's how it 'stands'. It's the designer's choice to be so and I'm fine with that. There are workarounds and nobody wants to play forever anyway. However, it's the very 'standing' that's so deeply disturbing: The table is simply way too steep. But the balls just being faster is only the minor issue: Much worse, it's that constant shouting "Hit it harder!" each time the table is blaming, rightfully 'mocking' us for its own insufficiencies and misconstruction that's utterly outrageous, as if we didn't hit the ramp perfectly and need to be reminded and then punished with a missed shot and a dangerously fast ball rolling back towards our middle drain... If it was a physical table, i'd happily carry out its commands! Or put two books under its front legs to save me some nerves. With a table like this around, voices who demand more options regarding tables will become louder. Although I don't think that's needed in general, I can't help to agree that this is exactly what this table needs to be playable. Because right now, it's not.

[steven120566]

El Dorado:
This venerable old table could still be very much enjoyable if it wasn't for the fickle statue which doesn't want to eat what's being fed! Such behavior we'd accept from a toddler or a physical machine but a program works different. We hit the mouth, ball is locked. Simple. Nothing in between. We neither appreciate or tolerate a coin flip if the ball's taken or not. And no, lack of precision is not the issue here: This old dusty statue figuratively screams for a long overdue patch lest its table will not become some forgotten relic as well.

Castlestorm:
Maybe it's just me but the castle mini table seems off balance, almost unfair. While not being half as difficult as Excalibur's, and can be effortlessly destroyed sometimes, especially with a storm ball, there is something irritatingly fishy about it: We can never storm the castle in a reliable way! Its sides are safer but players must shoot the middle, provoking ball loss, due to insane drop-target respawning. As it's basically only the wall that counts. The vikings are doing an incredible job defending their keep, but for the detriment of the players enjoyment. The first hundred castles we took fun shooting them, but eventually you want a more serious approach, and try out this or that strategy, until you finally conclude there's none. Noobish chaotic flip-spamming works best, sadly, with mixed results. If only the soldiers would take a measly single second longer to reappear. So here I'm asking, what's the point of Castlestorm when a successful castle storm is a matter of luck instead of skill? And a rather poor chance, to be true, so the 'fun' core element becomes a redundant waste of time and not worth flipping at all?

As a fan of the classics, I LMBO at this post. It be so true that Excalibur is pure awesome until you start talking about that ridiculous mini table LOL. AND... I went back and played Eldorado, another fave, on Zen 2 on Wii U. That doggone statue IS easier to hit on there

[SiggR22]

While talking about improving older tables, two minor flaws in Sorcerer's Lair strike me as 'just not right' and they could be easily fixed: For one, the invincible cellar spiders. The green lane lights indicate they're ready being shot, and they're taking their sweet time. Appearance and vulnerability should be simultaneous. The second issue are the ghosts. These 'bastards' respawn even during the mission's very last seconds and that's not fair.
Sure, am kinda nitpicking here, yet still SL being the only free table it should be flawless, as it's the most popular by far and also advertises the other ones, right?

[Slaphammer]

One thing I was hoping to see that's not on here was that the Darth Vader main modes would be easier to start. It always feels like I have to play FOREVER to finally get to one of the modes.

[zaphod77]

On Sorcerers Lair, the ball saver no longer activates when locking a ball.

I am 100% sure this is intentional.

the reason the ball saver was put in is to deal with loosing the ball right after a lock out of the bumpers down the left outlane.

since all balls that do that are now saved automatically, the ballsaver after lock is no longer needed.

Now if they will just exploit proof spiderman. J J J mode never gets any harder, and the reward for finishing it gets better each time. eventually it just dwarfs everything else on the table, AND boost the wizard mode to ludicrous levels

I'd fix it by having it's starting score equal to 10MX(number of other modes won this game)+1, and not let you start it again until you've increased it's starting value.