Table of the Week Club...Week 52: TAXI

[invitro]

Oh man, I'm on a ToTW roll for sure! Aside from Star Ship Troopers which I still don't get, I nearly doubled my Space Shuttle score and now reached 97M on Taxi for 4th place on the leaderboards! My previous best was 54M so I nearly doubled that too. I had the luck of scoring the special while playing with two balls (only draining one), so that netted me an extra extra ball so to speak.

The main strategy I used was essentially always working towards a lock for MB by shooting for lit Passengers. Then activating MB with a left ramp and as soon as possible park one ball back into the lock and with the other build up towards the Million shot (or CAB rollovers if I was close to an extra ball). Don't go for the Express Lane (that's shooting Drac after locking the first ball, shot "2" in MB) because you will get locked out of the Million shot as Viking already pointed out above. It's very fun trying to control both balls in play and I had my share of cool moments in that 97M game but in the end a double-drain is a real risk so I always try to control one ball and keep that safe. The choke point in this strategy is when you only can shoot for Pin-Bot to lock. This happens if you collect Jackpot and the passengers light in a different order and one-by-one. I tend to go for the Jackpot anyway because it's good points especially over a long game and with only Pin-Bot lit I just go for the Million and hope that the Joyride will pick "spot passenger". I felt comfortable enough with the ramp shots and Million shot to wait for Pin-Bot to be spotted. That took a while in some cases, and I now can say for sure that I never got an extra ball or special directly from Joyride in this game or any other Taxi game I played. I must have activated it more than 50 times in this game alone and in 95% of the time it gave out 10.000 or Mystery Shot (which can top out at 200.000 which is no chump change). I did get 4 EB's from CAB rollovers and that was quite some work (I think I had to light CAB 7 times for that last one). I don't know if more is possible, I didn't get to find out. I more or less concentrated on scoring the Million shot at the end of the game, not trusting the risk/reward ratio for that 5th EB. But I'm real happy with the result!

GG, Slam! Sounds exactly like my best game, except I got "only" 67M. I need to increase my mental fortitude enough to pound away at that million and not be distracted. The Pin*Bot drops are easier since the impossible-shot update and I actually collected them on purpose a couple of times. My last extra ball was for "7X" too, or maybe "8X".

 

[Slam23]

Funny, I feel pretty good about myself if I get more than 20% of Tarek's first-week score...

Example: I have 510M on Hurricane (was #3 when I made it, already down to #5), Tarek has 2587M. I suppose I need to give Hurry another run, but I'll be playing it in the tournament in twelve hours. What to do?!

Twelve hours should be just enough to crack that first place... And provide a nice warmup for the Tournament! Hurricane feels like that table in which you can just squeak out a new highscore every time you fire it up. Just keep that MB going for all those ramps.

 

[Slam23]

I have been trying to go for Pin*Bot directly also, but it doesn't feel any different to me in comparison with playing it when it came out. What's that impossible-shot update that you mention there? Did I miss something? The only change I saw over a couple of updates is to the skill shot. A full pull would always net you 100K when it came out. Then after a few updates, you had to aim for a 3/4 pull with varying result. Now you can do a full pull on iOS and either get 75K or a 100K with a very slight chance of tipping over to the 1K (had that twice in that 97M game).

 

[invitro]

I have been trying to go for Pin*Bot directly also, but it doesn't feel any different to me in comparison with playing it when it came out. What's that impossible-shot update that you mention there? Did I miss something? The only change I saw over a couple of updates is to the skill shot. A full pull would always net you 100K when it came out. Then after a few updates, you had to aim for a 3/4 pull with varying result. Now you can do a full pull on iOS and either get 75K or a 100K with a very slight chance of tipping over to the 1K (had that twice in that 97M game).

I mean the update that fixed the AFM right ramp, HRC right orbit, etc. vikingerik reported Taxi's lowest Pin*Bot drop as impossible, and I'm pretty sure I hit it in December, so I'm assuming it was part of the update, but I may have assumed too much or may be mis-remembering.

The Taxi skill shot is random, and I seem to often get that deal where it's about to stop on 75k, but then jumps to 1k while skipping 100k, so I barely even try for it any more, meaning that I haven't tried to find the best pixel to launch from.

 

[Extork]

I mean the update that fixed the AFM right ramp, HRC right orbit, etc. vikingerik reported Taxi's lowest Pin*Bot drop as impossible, and I'm pretty sure I hit it in December, so I'm assuming it was part of the update, but I may have assumed too much or may be mis-remembering.

The Taxi skill shot is random, and I seem to often get that deal where it's about to stop on 75k, but then jumps to 1k while skipping 100k, so I barely even try for it any more, meaning that I haven't tried to find the best pixel to launch from.

Your impossible

 

[Axlsgolden]

Hello folks,

for a better understanding of the Totm tournament:

I open my TPA (steam version), scroll to the relevant tables, make two games each and sent 4 best scores (steam screenshots) to the relevant link? I have 24 hours time, but only be allowed to do two attempts each pinball.
Thank u very much for answers. I´m new to this stuff. I`ve just started two times Taxi with a decent result.

 

[shutyertrap]

Hello folks,

for a better understanding of the Totm tournament:

I open my TPA (steam version), scroll to the relevant tables, make two games each and sent 4 best scores (steam screenshots) to the relevant link? I have 24 hours time, but only be allowed to do two attempts each pinball.
Thank u very much for answers. I´m new to this stuff. I`ve just started two times Taxi with a decent result.

You don't have to send a screen shot unless requested. Your scores have been recorded into the database, so now you just wait and see how it all shakes down! Frequently on tourney days there is more activity in the IRC chat room if you feel like connecting with some of the other forum members in real time. Just click the 'chat room' tab at the top of this page, enter pinballarcadefans as the room channel, and in you go!

 

[Axlsgolden]

You don't have to send a screen shot unless requested. Your scores have been recorded into the database, so now you just wait and see how it all shakes down! Frequently on tourney days there is more activity in the IRC chat room if you feel like connecting with some of the other forum members in real time. Just click the 'chat room' tab at the top of this page, enter pinballarcadefans as the room channel, and in you go!

thx shutyertrap