How Will The Menu Change After We Have Lots Of Tables?

jrolson · Apr 9, 2012

Farsight will have to re-do the menu down the road after we get alot of tables (20+) Because scrolling through all those tables just looking for one wouldn't be fun...

Im thinking they could separate them by Manufacturer in the menu and maybe add a Search feature on top of the menu for searching for a specific table.

Bally>
Gottlieb>
Williams>
Stern>

Brandon Debes · Apr 9, 2012

Bobby King confirmed on the PS blog that it will definitely be changing as the number of available tables grows:
http://blog.us.playstation.com/2012...-on-april-10th/comment-page-2/#comment-705367

No idea how yet; FarSight probably don't know for sure themselves. But just think back to how much the Rock Band interface evolved as their DLC catalog grew.

PinMike8666 · Apr 9, 2012

If I were a designer here's how I'd change it:

For around 20+ tables, divide the tables up in columns by company from oldest to recent; Gottlieb, Bally, Williams, and Stern, in that order. Also, I'd line up the tables from oldest to newest.

Once the table quantity gets to 30-50+, I would keep the previous idea, but have a menu system in place; just like Pinball FX 2, pictured below:

http://www.xblafans.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/09/Pinball-FX-2-tables.jpg

But with each table's backglass image as the icons; obviously the icons would be a little bigger than the pictured icons for Pinball FX 2.

jrolson · Apr 9, 2012

^
Like this idea!

Jeff Strong · Apr 9, 2012

That does sound good. Backglass icons would be perfect.

Bowflex · Apr 9, 2012

I wouldn't mind seeing something like stern's website. Basically small pics of the tables with names below them. But for the purpose of the collection, maybe as you selecta table a larger version of it with some specs (date, company, manufacturer, etc.) could appear on the right side of the screen. This would offer a bit of the current presentation plus a more user friendly graphic based interface. For mobile it would have to be a simple text list. Maybe there could be a small pic that is loaded but nothing as detailed as the consoles.

HeYjOe · Apr 9, 2012

Backglass images would be so cool & neat if they were animated as you scroll over/highlight one of 'em

lettuce · Apr 9, 2012

Do we think that we'll see 40+ tables release before the new genertation of consoles hit at the end of next year??

Fungi · Apr 10, 2012

Backglass as icons is brilliant.

CycOd3liC · Apr 10, 2012

PinMike8666 said:
If I were a designer here's how I'd change it:

For around 20+ tables, divide the tables up in columns by company from oldest to recent; Gottlieb, Bally, Williams, and Stern, in that order. Also, I'd line up the tables from oldest to newest.

Once the table quantity gets to 30-50+, I would keep the previous idea, but have a menu system in place; just like Pinball FX 2, pictured below:

http://www.xblafans.com/wp-content/uploads//2011/09/Pinball-FX-2-tables.jpg

But with each table's backglass image as the icons; obviously the icons would be a little bigger than the pictured icons for Pinball FX 2.

I'm definitely not a developer, nor am I creative. Something I thought was cool was the way Hyperpin does it, where you can hold down the flipper and it would scroll through the tables at a much higher speed to get to where you were going. Another option perhaps would be (on the 360 anyways) to use the right stick to choose sorting options (by title, year, company, etc).

Just my .02

Richard B · Apr 12, 2012

lettuce said:
Do we think that we'll see 40+ tables release before the new generation of consoles hit at the end of next year??

Most likely, yes. First of all, neither Sony nor Microsoft has confirmed their next console(s) will launch at all next year. Even if they do, not everyone will rush out to buy one right away, especially with the problems the early consoles had this generation.

Bowflex · Apr 12, 2012

There will easily be 40 by the end of 2013. 4 at launch, 2 for each month this year from April-December (assuming the first DLC will be for April and not May) is an additional 18 and 24 for 2013 would be 46. Even if April doesn't count and you removed Nov/Dec as the consoles should already launch that is still have 40.

deathindustrial · Apr 14, 2012

I expect that the menus will have to change in a major way since load times are going to become an issue. The speed at which tables load right now suggests that they are already all in RAM. Compare that to Zen or Marvell Pinball where the load time is comparatively huge. I doubt they will be able to fit much more than the current number of tables in memory before they have to switch to longer load screens.

Dumpstar · Apr 17, 2012

I would like to see a favourite's type deal. So the 3-4 tables I am concentrating on at that time can be quickly accessed. The rest I am happy just to have via year or maker.

Epsilon · Apr 19, 2012

I'm a little surprised, frankly, that they didn't just stick with some version of the "virtual arcade" interface they did for PHOF. Even back then, I remember thinking how cool it would be if they added DLC that would just replace the "dummy" machines with playable ones. Considering that this title is literally called "The Pinball Arcade", it's a little ironic that they scrapped an actual virtual arcade interface for a more generic one.

Maybe they thought that the arcade would seem conspicuously empty with only 4 tables to start, but it would be really cool, I think, to see your collection grow through a virtual arcade with actual cabinet reproductions as time went on and you bought more DLC. That aspect was the one really awesome thing about the ill-fated Game Room service.

Jeff Strong · Apr 19, 2012

Yeah, I'd really like to see a virtual arcade added in at some point. I think I remember them saying that they plan to eventually.

The Doctor · May 16, 2012

What improvements would you like to see in the UI?

Farsight mentioned they would change the UI as more DLC appeared.

Once there are a significant number of tables, I would like there to be some filter options such as by company, designer, etc.

How would you guys like the UI to change?

Jeff Strong · May 16, 2012

Hey Doctor, I moved your post to this existing thread.

How Will The Menu Change After We Have Lots Of Tables?

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