Zen Pinball FX3 Williams Pinball Volume One

[Jeff Strong]

You mean now that you have this and have gotten into VPX.

I honestly haven't played TPA for at least 3 years.

Being asked to set up this poll and then being dangled along into believing this was actually going to happen was the last straw for me:

http://www.digitalpinballfans.com/showthread.php/9825-Official-Poll-For-New-Difficulty-Mode

Bobby asked me to keep reminding him about it...after a year, I just gave up and stopped emailing him.

So shortly thereafter, I just went out and bought my own pinball machine instead.

Anyways, it's a new day for digital pinball and I'm loving it.

 

[wilbers]

Noticed in that thread SYT says difficulty settings asked for (and not got) since season 1. Looks like its an advantage I've been late to the 'digital pinball table'; 0 days wait for Zen to do arcade/tournament settings!

 

[shogun00]

I noticed that in FT, MM, and Getaway after some ball saves in a game the auto plunger does not manage to kick the ball hard enough to get it around the outer loop. The easyest way to see that effect is in the challenge modes which have unlimted ball saves. I'm on PS4. Has anybody else noticed that? Is it intentional or is it a bug?

It's intentional! Several of Zen's own tables do the same thing during the challenges too. It's to prevent a potential exploit from happening.

 

[dmil666]

It's intentional! Several of Zen's own tables do the same thing during the challenges too. It's to prevent a potential exploit from happening.

That sounds like a reasonable explanation. It's still annoying as hell though.

 

[bmsuseluda]

im realy glad that i can play medieval madness on my switch. my tv has a big input lag so didn't play on my ps4 in tpa very often.
But now, in fx3 on switch, im wondering if im remembering correctly:
- in tpa there was plunger and no button to roll on a ball
- in tpa you have to hold the left flipper, when youre using the plunger to do a skillshot
- in tpa i can choose what i wanna throw with the catapult

all 3 points i didnt see in fx3. is this another iteration of medieval madness?

 

[shutyertrap]

im realy glad that i can play medieval madness on my switch. my tv has a big input lag so didn't play on my ps4 in tpa very often.
But now, in fx3 on switch, im wondering if im remembering correctly:
- in tpa there was plunger and no button to roll on a ball
- in tpa you have to hold the left flipper, when youre using the plunger to do a skillshot
- in tpa i can choose what i wanna throw with the catapult

all 3 points i didnt see in fx3. is this another iteration of medieval madness?

There was no plunger in TPA, it was always a launch button. Holding left flipper does indeed work in FX3 to launch the ball all the way around the orbit rather than stopping at the pop bumpers. You get to choose at the catapult when you hit it 3 times. All these things are very much present, at least on the PC version, but I can’t imagine them being different elsewhere as that’d be completely arbitrary.

 

[bmsuseluda]

ok then it is just my bad memory. its realy a long time ago.

 

[smbhax]

Tournament mode leaving the match sequence on seems weird to me, I don't think you see those in actual professional pinball tournaments.

And does it disable extra balls? (Haven't played the current tables enough, as you can see. : P) 'Cause they disable those in tournaments, too. : D

 

[cjchand]

Tournament mode leaving the match sequence on seems weird to me, I don't think you see those in actual professional pinball tournaments.

And does it disable extra balls? (Haven't played the current tables enough, as you can see. : P) 'Cause they disable those in tournaments, too. : D

I came here looking for that kind of info on what the exact differences are between Arcade and Tournament Mode are.

Seeing the bubble in the level tells me that Tourney Mode has the tables at steeper angles, but haven’t been able to pick up on much more than that.

Anyone got a list going of the specifics?

I did try some GoogleFu before asking. I promise

 

[bavelb]

I remembered this weekend that the tables should've been released so gave it a go both on PS4 and Switch. So very impressed with the Williams tables (still not so much with the Zen originals as I have mentioned in the thread dedicated to those tables).

Both with the 'vanilla' implementation as well as the Zen-bells-and-whistles (the 3 difficulty settings, the 'remastered' gfx and how easy it is to turn off, the different challengemodes and the 'Matchup' mode).

Have a few nitpicks (the dual-videomode-end game bug, the View 8 perspective in potraitmode, and some visual gliches..also mostly in portrait mode). But if this is the standard they set for themselves, I have no qualms rebuying all those tables.

 

[smbhax]

I came here looking for that kind of info on what the exact differences are between Arcade and Tournament Mode are.

Seeing the bubble in the level tells me that Tourney Mode has the tables at steeper angles, but haven’t been able to pick up on much more than that.

Anyone got a list going of the specifics?

I did try some GoogleFu before asking. I promise

The only other thing I recall the game itself mentioning is that Tournament mode removes the random factor from table rewards that are ordinarily random--although as a guess this probably relies on a "Tournament" setting you can set in the operator settings of the actual tables themselves.

Other things real-world tournament set-ups tend to include are moving the flippers farther apart, and widening the top of the outlanes; not clear that this does that.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Other things real-world tournament set-ups tend to include are moving the flippers farther apart, and widening the top of the outlanes; not clear that this does that.

Do they really increase the flipper gap in tournaments? As a pinball machine owner, I’m not sure that’s even possible at least not on one as old as mine (1980).

 

[shutyertrap]

No, flippers don’t move. Stern used to put a tournament button on the machine so a regular player could automatically play under those rules.

In Zen, the slope is increased, the posts at outlanes are adjusted, the flipper angle is shallower compared to Zen mode, and IFPA tournament score settings are used.

 

[Jeff Strong]

Cool, thanks for clearing that up, SYT.

 

[smbhax]

Do they really increase the flipper gap in tournaments? As a pinball machine owner, I’m not sure that’s even possible at least not on one as old as mine (1980).

I could swear they talked about doing that in some of the PAPA videos, I don't remember which tables it was if its indeed table-specific. But I could be remembering this all wrong.

...

Okay I can find nothing on the internet about this so it looks like I was totally wrong! : D Been too long since I was in my Bowen Kerins PAPA Pinball-watching phase. I did find an excellent page on PAPA's site for tournament directors, covering setting up the tables--it basically covers the stuff that should be checked and possibly adjusted, depending on what the tournament director is going for. Main physical things adjusted are table slope, outlane posts, center posts, and slingshot sensitivity:

https://papa.org/learning-center/directors-guide/

 

[smbhax]

No, flippers don’t move. Stern used to put a tournament button on the machine so a regular player could automatically play under those rules.

In Zen, the slope is increased, the posts at outlanes are adjusted, the flipper angle is shallower compared to Zen mode, and IFPA tournament score settings are used.

Thanks for the correction and clarification!

I found the the IFPA's tournament rules here:

https://www.ifpapinball.com/rules/

1. Software Settings

In general, the software settings of each machine will be adjusted to best accommodate tournament play. The following settings will be employed on any machine that supports them:

Tournament Mode
Free Play
3 Balls
Extra Balls disabled
Buy-In or Continues disabled
Game Restart disabled
2 Tilt Warnings (may be 0 on older machines)
Flipper AutoLaunch disabled
Timed AutoLaunch disabled
Standard Factory Settings for Ball Savers, Difficulty, Timers, etc
Specific Difficulty Settings as determined by tournament officials
Automatic Reflexing Features disabled
Replays disabled (no score or Extra Ball awarded)

Please note that older machines may have different settings, such as allowable extra balls, five-ball play, or a Tilt penalty of “entire game” rather than “current ball”. Players will play the game “as is”. For example, if a machine is set for five-ball play, groups may not end the game after three balls. Electromechanical machines will generally be set for five-ball play, but if they are set for three, they will be played as three. While efforts have been made to eliminate extra balls from machines, any extra balls earned should be played unless otherwise noted on the machine. If a machine is awarding extra balls, please bring this to the attention of tournament coordinators, who may need to address a problem with the machine between rounds.

It doesn't say Match function should be disabled, specifically, but Replays, Buy-Ins, and Continues are--and maybe Match is mostly covered in table Tournament Mode settings anyway? Or am I wrong about this? Anyway, from my point of view, it would be handy if it was disabled for PBFX's Tournament mode. : )

And extra balls are definitely supposed to be disabled, I still haven't checked that in PBFX; hopefully they've got that one covered, it drove me nuts in Pinball Arcade (where the PS4 version didn't save operator settings... ; P).

 

[jaredmorgs]

I know that some A and B division games in a Papa event one year had Lightning Flippers on a game like Medieval Madness.

Brutal!

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[Citizen]

Every game should have lightning flippers.

 

[shogun00]

I know that some A and B division games in a Papa event one year had Lightning Flippers on a game like Medieval

There was a tournament player that was over on Zen's forum about a year or so ago. He mentioned that a few of the tournaments he played used Lighting Flippers instead of standard flippers.

 

[bavelb]

Fish Tales has Lightning flippers does it not? I mean the physical machine...not sure if the Zen table does (and/or if the Zen physics have the same flippers as Arcade/Tourney).