Skillz Pinball Tournament app

[shutyertrap]

So who out there is playing the app Pinball Tournaments that FarSight put out using the Skillz platform? Now that there are some players on it, I'm starting to see how this can be fun and maddening at the same time.

The tournaments are very short, so that makes it fun. I'm starting to understand the leaderboard and how advancing up and down it can be rapid based on how often other players play. I kept getting paired with one particular player who was in 3rd place, and because I kept losing, I essentially vaulted him to first! Just wish for more random pairings than repeatedly seeing the same person despite others being on the board.

I however cannot figure out the scoring. Some games, I can take all the way to the end of the timer and my score is what it is. Other times it cuts the game off early, with say 20-10 seconds left and suddenly there's ball and time bonus. How are those being earned? One of those times I wound up losing by 5000 points as it cut me off early, while I had 3 ball multiball going no less. It's so random when this happens, but maybe someone from FarSight can explain?

Anyway, I encourage more people to hop on. There's no money involved (yet) and the tickets you earn also carry over to other Skillz games, including the eSports app Zen has.

 

[MadAxeMan]

Links?

I can't find anything goggle or app store

 

[shutyertrap]

Links?

I can't find anything goggle or app store

The name of the app is ‘Pinball Tournaments’, so just search that in the Apple App Store and it should be first thing listed. Not available for Android.

 

[shutyertrap]

Since the initial post, I have figured out the scoring a bit.

At the end of game you'll notice in addition to your actual table score, there is a ball bonus and time bonus. If you play and lose all three balls, you won't get either of those. If you play until the timer ends and score less than 50,000 points, you won't get either of those. If you score 50,000 points at any point in your game, it will end and THEN you will be awarded the bonuses. What sucks is, because the game suddenly ends you might still lose the match if the other player scores higher in the bonuses than you. Here's the breakdown:

Time Bonus = 250 points for every 5 seconds left on the timer
Ball Bonus = 5000 for every ball remaining (if on ball 1, earns 15,000 points)

You can earn more than 50,000 points on the table. Say you were at 49,000 and then you hit the ball lock for 5000. Game will immediately end and your table score will be 54,000.

I can't say I'm all that thrilled with the score capping, but I also get why it's being done. My issue is only when I lose due to the game ending suddenly. Let me earn the win, because this kinda feels like a roll of the dice instead!

What I am still very confused about is the tournament leaderboards. Today, I am in 3rd place and have no way of challenging the leader. If I play a game, it does not match me with anyone and just holds my score for the eventuality of someone matching to me. Fortunately tournaments are only 1 day each, but it is frustrating sitting on a low win count because nobody is matched to you. Even worse, the tourney I did win was worth only 2 credits, while the one I'm sitting in 3rd for is currently worth 5. How is that determined? By number of players in the tourney?

All this is fairly benign right now, but if I were playing a cash game I'd be royally ticked. There really needs to be something in game that gives a clear description of how this all breaks down. I didn't notice any of this during the beta, probably because there was hardly anyone to play against. Now that it's real world, these things are coming to light. Glad the cash game hasn't been implemented yet so that FarSight has a chance to make things crystal clear.

 

[ksmmspt]

I've been playing off and on lately. I'm always playing against you! Seems you're the only one playing. LOL. I wish they had different tables to play. Seems like they could incorporate a head to head tournament in TPA if they wanted to.

 

[shutyertrap]

I've been playing off and on lately. I'm always playing against you! Seems you're the only one playing. LOL. I wish they had different tables to play. Seems like they could incorporate a head to head tournament in TPA if they wanted to.

You’re always playing against me because we’ve played ourselves into the top of the field. Nothing more frustrating than seeing other players on the board yet can’t get a match game cause you play too good!

By the way, I will play every rematch requested just because I like the challenge. And yeah, another table or two would be nice.