Are Zen Making Their Tables Too Easy?

[Chili]

Hey cantankerous! We are glad you are back We highly appreciate our loyal fans, so it was a painful decision us to ban you, but sometimes we just have to set our boundaries However we always enjoy to read your constructive critics and honest opinion!

[cantankerous--]

Hey cantankerous! We are glad you are back We highly appreciate our loyal fans, so it was a painful decision us to ban you, but sometimes we just have to set our boundaries However we always enjoy to read your constructive critics and honest opinion!

It' all good bro, I was being an asshole, and deserved it.

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

I recently mentioned wanting a badge for completing wizard modes visible in the main table selection menu. For me it’s more of a reminder of which tables I have yet to complete the wizard mode. With over 80 (?) tables it gets difficult to keep track of these things.

Did you receive a reply to your feedback? I understand your main reason is a little different but it might also shed some light on how (or if) they plan on doing something about the the balance issue (skill vs endurance).

Talk about it has come up multiple times since the game’s release but I’ve yet to read a serious response from a Zen dev.

[McLovin]

^This. Exactly.

Even receiving an in-game badge for beating a table would already be a welcome addition. They’ve still got enough hard tables in their back catalogue. Give a player a beer and a badge when he/she manages to beat Doom, Clone Wars or Dr. Strange.

And to keep the game interesting in the long run, they should definitely consider adding more achievements/trophies too.

This Wizard mode badge is not that outlandish thing to ask for, I wrote it up to the suggestions. Regarding the balance issues of tables being easy-harder I guess we always try to aim for the middle ground so casual players can enjoy and pro players can find cool tricks and some more hidden strategies in each table.

DOOM has a difficulty selection, is that something you guys (and Muddy) liked?

[Pentanick]

Hello mclovin, Doom is definitly not too easy. 😀 Yes on this table it was a nice option, to change the difficult. This option on all tables.. hmm i m not sure.. in general the tables are balanced. et, backtothefuture, and now the new star wars looks like optimized for android and apple. Hope this is not a new trend...

[Tech101]

This Wizard mode badge is not that outlandish thing to ask for, I wrote it up to the suggestions. Regarding the balance issues of tables being easy-harder I guess we always try to aim for the middle ground so casual players can enjoy and pro players can find cool tricks and some more hidden strategies in each table.

DOOM has a difficulty selection, is that something you guys (and Muddy) liked?

I like the risk reward option! Every table doesn't need it but for those that make sense sure!

[MuddyWolf_Beta]

This Wizard mode badge is not that outlandish thing to ask for, I wrote it up to the suggestions. Regarding the balance issues of tables being easy-harder I guess we always try to aim for the middle ground so casual players can enjoy and pro players can find cool tricks and some more hidden strategies in each table.

DOOM has a difficulty selection, is that something you guys (and Muddy) liked?

Thanks for the reply Akos

What I mean with ‘balance’ is not so much the difficulty level of individual tables but the focus of the game. Right now, after you’ve maxed out the Rewind or Score Multiplier, there’s not a mode (I’ve come across) that is particularly hard to beat for an average/above average player.

So collecting all the stars/table mastery awards basically comes down to grinding(endurance). There’s no incentive to master the missions and beat the Wizard modes (skill). You don’t get rewarded for that. In fact, on the leaderboards, you’ll get punished for it because rarely is beating a table the best way to score high. Usually it comes down to finding the one mode/multi ball that scores the most and then spamming the h*ll out of it (endurance).

I’m not saying this is easy or wrong. Even when you know what to spam, it takes a lot of concentration and (usually) multi ball skills to score high. But spamming strategies are almost always endurance strategies.

What goes for the normal rankings, goes for the tournaments too. They greatly reward endurance. You don’t get one chance to set a score. You can try over and over, 24/7, until the tournament ends.

And then there’s the match up mode. Enough has been said about this mode in other threads. Some like it, some hate it. But whatever the personal preference, most players agree that this too is an endurance mode.

Which leaves the 75 table achievement for players that like to play for skill rewards...Minus a few. Some of the achievements are so terribly easy (El Dorado, Earth Defence, Biolab spring to mind) that not collecting them is probably harder than collecting them.

The sad thing is, it isn’t like the game isn’t capable of offering more challenges to players that like to experience and be rewarded for playing the missions and beating the wizard modes.

On the contrary. And adding a table specific badge for beating the wizard mode of a table would be a great start.

Ultimate would be a time challenge mode with a timer that doesn’t count down but up and stops when you beat the wizard mode of a table. The leaderboard of this mode would be based on times and not on points of course and it would take a while to fill up but in the long run, I think the effort of implementing such a mode would certainly pay off.

Speedrunning is becoming more and more popular. On my pinball FX channel my wizard mode runs are by far the most watched and highest rated videos.

I haven’t made any for FX3 but every FX2 wizard mode run video I’ve made ended up in the top 25 overall Steam video feed. Effortlessly pushing Counterstrike & GTA clips aside Not bad for a niche game/genre.

Thanks for noting down the suggestions and sorry for the wall of text.

Btw
Doom’s Hellwalker achievement is probably my favourite medal in FX2. I guess I’m not the only one because the video of my Nightmare wizard mode run on the table is the highest rated video on my youtube channel with the most views.

[durrdevil]

Considering those Star Wars tables aren't on the Switch version I would say no.