Wow... I had no idea how important nudging is.

[Jeff Strong]

Not only straight up, but diagonally up too, which is the proper way of escaping CV's outlanes.

Exactly

 

[Fungi]

Not only straight up, but diagonally up too, which is the proper way of escaping CV's outlanes.

Ok, let me get this straight. If the ball is headed out the LEFT outlane, I nudge up-right or up-left?

 

[Sean DonCarlos]

Ok, let me get this straight. If the ball is headed out the LEFT outlane, I nudge up-right or up-left?

When the ball hits the open area above CV's left inlane/outlane area, nudge up-right. The object is to slam the left wall into the ball from below, popping it up and over the sling onto the left flipper. If you wait until the ball actually reaches the outlane, it's usually too late. You have to clear the sling, or otherwise the ball slams into the side of the sling and bounces right back to the outlane (which is why it's nearly impossible to make the save currently on iOS/Android).

If the ball is weakly falling into the outlane area, just barely clearing the sling so that it will not contact the left wall before finding the outlane, nudge up-left when the ball is about to pass the sling (before it ever gets to the outlanes). This should interpose the sling in the path of the ball, which should (if FS has the physics right) roll down the sling without activating it to land safely on the left flipper.

I should note I'm making this sound far easier than it actually is. You're going to lose a few balls before you get the hang of it, and a few afterwards, too - it's not a 100% save even when you do everything right.

 

[Stormchild]

may i suggest that you don't only nudge when trying to save the ball from draining (center or the outlanes), but also to set your shoots up in advance...

Yes, exactly. It's also an important regular part of gameplay on a lot of tables. If you watch Bowen Kirens' awesome Medieval Madness tutorial video (or most of the other videos, for that matter), you'll see him bumping the table every single time the ball rolls out of the left side of the joust loop to keep it from grazing the slingshot and triggering an unwanted kick. This is a very common technique on a lot of tables. Due to the always-perfect condition of tables in Pinball Arcade (and their total immunity to outside kinetic influence), this problem isn't as common in TPA as it is on real tables, but there are still situations where it comes up.

 

[Fungi]

When the ball hits the open area above CV's left inlane/outlane area, nudge up-right. The object is to slam the left wall into the ball from below, popping it up and over the sling onto the left flipper. If you wait until the ball actually reaches the outlane, it's usually too late. You have to clear the sling, or otherwise the ball slams into the side of the sling and bounces right back to the outlane (which is why it's nearly impossible to make the save currently on iOS/Android).

If the ball is weakly falling into the outlane area, just barely clearing the sling so that it will not contact the left wall before finding the outlane, nudge up-left when the ball is about to pass the sling (before it ever gets to the outlanes). This should interpose the sling in the path of the ball, which should (if FS has the physics right) roll down the sling without activating it to land safely on the left flipper.

I should note I'm making this sound far easier than it actually is. You're going to lose a few balls before you get the hang of it, and a few afterwards, too - it's not a 100% save even when you do everything right.

Ok, so you don't even want it get to the lanes in the first place. Got it.

 

[mmmagnetic]

Not only straight up, but diagonally up too, which is the proper way of escaping CV's outlanes.

Well, consider my mind blown!

I quickly get better at nudging, and it is even more fun now. I agree, nudging is way more than a last resort of trying to turn your luck around during an impending drain, but actually a very crucial way of manipulating shots.

Just today I finally warmed up to Taxi on Williams Collection - a game that used to seem to have magnetic outlanes - and I suddenly realized I can not only nudge to get the ball from hitting the slingshots, but I can just nudge whenever, and even several times in the same direction. Being a newcomer to the whole pinball sim thing, this means the difference between aiming shots and then just waiting to see what happens, and actively being (somewhat) in control of the ball at most times.

...though I can't help but wonder if I tried slamming the machine around in a real arcade like that I would get thrown out On Gofers I got my first accidental tilt, and one of the gophers commented "this game is already violent enough!"

 

[BonzoGonzo]

if you slammed a real machine like that, i'd tilt in a blink... ok, two blinks

 

[Stormchild]

Generally speaking, you'll trigger a 'tilt' long before you actually get thrown out of an arcade for bumping a machine too hard. You might get in trouble for attempting a death save, which (as far as I know) is the only legitimate reason to bang a table fairly hard (though, depending on the table and the playfield angle, this move can sometimes be done without hitting the table especially hard).

There's some interesting history behind the various tilt mechanisms in pinball machines.

 

[BlindSpider11]

Nudging is very hard to do on my iPhone, while on the 360 its much easier to do, which I like.

 

[Kolchak357]

Nudging is so inconsistent and frustrating on my iPad 1. Occasionally seems to work fine, then it won't nudge at all, then it tilts when I'm not even moving. The methods other than shake just don't make any sense to me either. So I have given up. I just have it turned off. I'm at the mercy of sdtm shots and those side drains.

 

[mrhorseshoe]

This is why I would never play TPA on a touchscreen device. The nudging controls are just too wonky and inaccurate. I'd say that nudging is the second most important skill to learn (the most important being the very useful "bounce pass") since it can prevent the majority of drains. Stick to the console or Vita versions of the game.