Zaccaria Pinball - Favorite Physics Settngs?

Since the 1.3 and 1.4 updates, has anyone come up with some favorite settings? Have you slowed down the ball, changed the machine tilt, etc.? What's working for you, and with which machines?

Any thoughts about any of the specific settings, and their positive or negative impact on realism? What else might be needed?

I had perfect settings for 1.2, but haven't come up with anything substantive for 1.3, and I've been too busy with Champion Pub today to even check Zaccaria 1.4... Perhaps I'll have something worth sharing in a few days (if someone doesn't beat me to it).

I feel like 1.4 made it MUCH harder to shoot towards the middle of the table, even on a trapped ball. Does anyone know a setting we can tweak to give us more ball control? Being able to actually backhand shots would be a godsend.

Okay, been playing a little Robot this morning, and here are the physics settings that seem to be doing okay for me right now (and only on this table):

Game Mode: Custom (of course)
Playfield Tilt: 4.5
Flipper Force: 5.25
Rubber Elasticity: 65
Ball Friction: 50
Slingshot Force: 3
Bumper Force: 3.5
Ball Velocity: 325

I started out with the ball speed environment as slow as possible (Playfield Tilt & Ball Velocity all the way left and Ball Friction all the way right), and force inputs (the other four items) all in the middle. Then I tweaked things, one setting at a time, until I got something that feels decent. Please try things out and post your findings/corrections!

More notes: These settings are a bit slower overall than the "Arcade" setting. If you want faster, crank Ball Velocity. Setting Ball Velocity to midline and decreasing Ball Friction got better bumper action, as did a slightly above-midline Bumper Force. Increasing Playfield Tilt very much seems to give the ball unreal downhill acceleration. I am nowhere near satisfied that I've got even above-average settings here, but methinks they're a good starting point.

Those settings are a huge improvement for me getting the ball slowed down. Most of my games were frantic affairs that were over in 60 seconds - not fun. I've had a few games on Pinball Champ and Robot that lasted much longer than they have in the past. So thanks for that.

The default physics on the game is the single most thing that's preventing me from enjoying it. Everything else is fantastic.

i know this may not be the ideal but i want to play pinball not spend hours playing with settings. settings need to be reasonable on the default settings. I set them all to lowest setting EXCEPT bumpers all the way up and flippers all the way up. It seems with in reason keeping in mind i am NOT playing this on an actual pinball machine but rather the limitations of a touch screen . this works pretty good for all except time machine which i dont play much anymore anyhow.

I think the most frustrating thing is that good physics settings seem to be different table to table. My settings for Locomotion simply don't work for Robot. I kind of agree with norbert26. This needs go be addressed in default settings.

inspector42 said:

I think the most frustrating thing is that good physics settings seem to be different table to table. My settings for Locomotion simply don't work for Robot. I kind of agree with norbert26. This needs go be addressed in default settings.

Click to expand...

That's why we need the option to save these settings per table. Perhaps sooner than later..

I can't remember my settings, but I experimented mostly on Hot Wheels and I Think my settings are good now. Not perfect mind you hehe. Will post them when I get home.

DeeEff said:

Okay, been playing a little Robot this morning, and here are the physics settings that seem to be doing okay for me right now (and only on this table):

Game Mode: Custom (of course)
Playfield Tilt: 4.5
Flipper Force: 5.25
Rubber Elasticity: 65
Ball Friction: 50
Slingshot Force: 3
Bumper Force: 3.5
Ball Velocity: 325

I started out with the ball speed environment as slow as possible (Playfield Tilt & Ball Velocity all the way left and Ball Friction all the way right), and force inputs (the other four items) all in the middle. Then I tweaked things, one setting at a time, until I got something that feels decent. Please try things out and post your findings/corrections!

More notes: These settings are a bit slower overall than the "Arcade" setting. If you want faster, crank Ball Velocity. Setting Ball Velocity to midline and decreasing Ball Friction got better bumper action, as did a slightly above-midline Bumper Force. Increasing Playfield Tilt very much seems to give the ball unreal downhill acceleration. I am nowhere near satisfied that I've got even above-average settings here, but methinks they're a good starting point.

Click to expand...

Ok, I changed it a bit towards these settings:

Playfield Tilt: 6 (At 4.5 the balls moves to slow I think..)
Flipper Force: 5.25
Rubber Elasticity: 65
Ball Friction: 50
Slingshot Force: 3
Bumper Force: 3.5
Ball Velocity: 400

I'm still tweaking as well, but keep updating!

I find Robot frustrating hard to play. I can't manage to keep a game any longer than a couple of minutes, IF I am lucky.. No other table gives me such a hard time. Not sure why this is.

I'm fairly close to your settings.
Tilt 6
Flipper 5
Rubber 60
Friction 60
Slingshot 2.5
Bumpers 3
Ball velocity 300

Robot is tough. I'm have a hard time getting the robots to rise out of the table.

Kolchak357 said:

I'm fairly close to your settings.
Tilt 6
Flipper 5
Rubber 60
Friction 60
Slingshot 2.5
Bumpers 3
Ball velocity 300

Robot is tough. I'm have a hard time getting the robots to rise out of the table.

Click to expand...

Good settings! I'll keep them.

These settings work well for Locomotion. With either set of standard physics you can't really hit the middle of the playfield very well.

Tilt 6
Flipper 5.4
Rubber 66
Friction 52.4
Slingshot 3.4
Bumper 4.6
Velocity 299

I have been really working on the physics settings the last week. Tweaking a lot with the help youtube Zaccaria videos to emulate the behavior of the ball as close as possible. 2 Things I notice on original tables: lots of rubber elasticity and frantic slingshot and bumper force! One youtube of Robot really shows some fast hardcore action. This table is a *****, I'll keep coming back and I get spanked all the time.
The slingshots are notorious for shooting the ball right into the outlanes. I wonder if there could be some more randomness into that. But I don't want to be a pussy by tuning the slingshot force down.

Take a look at this vid.


Anyway, I like to share my latest setting, this is what I have boiled down to after days of fine tuning and tweaking.

Tilt 6
Flipper 5.8
Rubber 80
Friction 60
Slingshot 3.8
Bumper 4.8
Velocity 322.09

Setting friction right down to 50 and velocity around 310 (or up I suppose) seems to allow easier access to the bridge on Robot. I suspect there's something not quite right about the entrance to the bridge. The ball seems to catch on something there and bounce back out when it shouldn't...

Zevious Zoquis said:

Setting friction right down to 50 and velocity around 310 (or up I suppose) seems to allow easier access to the bridge on Robot. I suspect there's something not quite right about the entrance to the bridge. The ball seems to catch on something there and bounce back out when it shouldn't...

Click to expand...

With mixed results, there seems to be a difference with various settings. I have tuned the friction all the way to the left as I am still fine-tuning and I think I see little advantage in 'friction' other than the ball gets less smooth in behavior. (I wish TPA had a friction setting, it desperately needs this option to cut down their overly smooth physics). Anyway, like you said, the 3D element that catch the ball needs adjustment. But before the update things where much better, so I have no clue what has changed..?

Yeah it's still a mostly impossible shot to make on purpose. If I get it it's basically a lucky accident...

Kolchak357 said:

I'm fairly close to your settings.
Tilt 6
Flipper 5
Rubber 60
Friction 60
Slingshot 2.5
Bumpers 3
Ball velocity 300

Robot is tough. I'm have a hard time getting the robots to rise out of the table.

Click to expand...

I just tried your settings and the games are so much better to play. I agree with night. Thanks very much for posting these settings. They work on all of the tables for me. They should be the default settings.

Glad you dig them.

Robot Physics Settings and Commentary.

I was wondering about the default physics settings for these games. As much fun as I've been having playing them, (I bought the gold membership so I'll be playing Zaccaria tables for awhile) I wish there was just a bit more documentation with the game. What is the difference between "Arcade" mode and "Simulation" mode? It seems Arcade is a bit more casual, less frantic, with fewer ball drains. The physics on pinball tables is really complex, so sometimes changing a setting that would seem to make it harder makes something else easier. For example, the more tilt to the table, the more acceleration as the ball moves down the field, so faster speeds and more ball drains, right? Yes, but if you flatten the table completely by reducing the tilt, I find you get a lot more balls sort of gently rolling off the flippers because it's harder to catch them in the crook of the flipper. Just an example.

I've been playing around with the settings a lot on Robot. A couple issues I've noticed with this game is right out of the chute, the ball gets whapped back and forth between a bumper in the upper right, the bank of three ZZZ drop targets, and a slingshot that you can't see (might just be a rubber bumper.) It will just bop around up there for ages, and if you nudge the table, you can keep it up there almost indefinitely. It actually gets kind of boring, so I reduced the bumper force and that helped. I lowered the slingshot force to keep the ball from being slung out the right and left outlane by the opposite slingshot, which was happening a lot. Amping up the velocity a bit and reducing friction helps make the Robot bridge shot a bit easier, but it's still tricky. I added a bit more flipper force, at the midpoint between the Arcade and Simulation setting, which might help a bit. I find the trick to the Robot bridge shot is to let the ball come to a complete rest on the right flipper and then flip it up to the upper left, not off the very tip of the flipper, but just a bit back, which takes it into that purple tunnel to the three lit rollovers. It's one of those weird shots that when you get it right it feels effortless and it goes up the ramp to the bridge. It need to be a direct shot. If it hits anything on the way in, it slows it down so it doesn't have the momentum to make it up that loop-de-loop onto the bridge. Once you make the shot, be careful as it comes pretty quickly down the right inlane to your right flipper, so be ready to catch it. Without proper written rules, I still don't know exactly how the robot bridge shots are supposed to work. If you get all five "towers" before the ball drains, a light for each stays lit, but missing one or re-activating the bridge before you get them all seems to leave some unlit. I think you're trying to get all five lit three times which then lights R.O.B.O.T but what happens then I have no clue as I've never made it that far. Fun times.

Here's the settings I've been using. I've only tried it on Robot, so not sure how it plays on other tables. It's still a fast-paced game, but not just an exercise in watching your balls drain in five seconds one after another, which Simulation seems to be. Remember, though, when installed in arcades these games were designed to make money for the operator. The more ball drains, the more quarters. Or liras, I guess it would have been.

Playfield Tilt: +6.00 degrees
Flipper Force: +5.40 A
Rubber Elasticity: +60% (as close as those ****ing sliders will let you get)
Ball Friction: +50.00 %
Slingshot Force: +3.50 A
Bumper Force: +4.00 A
Ball Velocity: 315.20 cm/s (approximately)