I don’t have any supporting evidence for this, but I suspect the code already accounts for this possibility.
The moment the shooter switch is opened after it has closed, the choice is locked in.
So might be best to adjust the switch so that it doesn’t close until the ball is at rest in the shooter lane.
As someone whom shares the deep knowledge of this game and appreciates the rules. I’m surprised to read this. I would very much prefer Lannister vs Stark as being stuck in a house. With Stark all I get is increased value of WIC of which the value of WHC was nerfed. But with Lannister I could at least try for the super jackpot exploit/bug. I know you can blow up a WIC value with 4 or 5x shot and PF but on a tournament pin that’s asking a lot to get your PF multiplier that high.
In this particular instance I liked my option of restarting the game and giving player 1 their points after 2 balls. This option only in this situation where player 1 literally had 2 million points, had zero lock progress and had not qualified a single mode. I do know that would disadvantage player 1 a little bit but it seems that disadvantage outweighs the disadvantage player 2 was faced with (myself). It’s hard to think out of the box though since it was me being impacted. I understood the ruling. While not happy with it, I didn’t really put up much of an argument as I couldn’t think of another solution that would work.
For the event we were playing in yesterday, not a huge deal. But I would hate for someone to get penalized for this in a finals situation of a major tournament thus why I posted my feedback. To bad we couldn’t get stern to make a tournament code update but something like how Keeper discussed the POTC process would work fine for GOT. House is locked in via the lockbar button (and auto plunging) or after the PF is validated. You could juggle the ball in the shooter lane to lock your house even if you wanted to short plunge as well.
To funny, and probably true. But as long as people are faced with the same challenge then it’s at least a fair assessment of the skills of the players.
Maybe they could make tournament mode default to Greyjoy. Would make a lot more sense than any other house. Makes all the modes (but martel) harder not to mention as the player you can start to collect the houses that you want their powers for first.
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But that’s the issue with rules: you can’t design a rule that’s only a good solution for one potential instance, when there are a myriad of instances that could be in play: P1 blows up the game on ball 1, and has HotK qualified. P2 gets auto-selected as House Stark. Your solution of restarting the entire game and giving P1 their points plus two balls would take away all of P1’s progress on ball 1.
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You’re forgetting all the casual players. They picked Stark for default because it’s an easy mode and the Stark’s are kind of the stars of GOT (the TV series). Also, I’m pretty sure no more Martell’s are even alive in the series.
Seems like they could fix it in another way though. Maybe don’t lock in house until xxx ms after shooter switch opens/ or after it has opened more than once. Maybe not qualify the playfield until a second switch is triggered just for ball 1.
I’m surprised this hasn’t been fixed. The shooter lane has been described as the most unreliable switch in the machine - why use it for something so important?
If the shooter lane switch is disconnected, does the game still perform normally WRT autolaunching balls in MB, etc? If so, perhaps disconnecting it and letting the first playfield switch set the house is a solution.
I doubt it would work right.
I tried this but every third lock starts Red Line Mania across all players . . . 
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The shooter lane switch isn’t any less reliable than any other switch, it just gets hammered more than any other micro switch.
Maybe I’m imagining things, but it seems like programmers are discouraging short plunging more these days. No ball on a flipper with the ball saver not started yet on most every game, like the old days. GB being a recent exception (that can sometimes take a long time to get a ball in play). Can you short plung to a flipper on IMDN or DP without starting the ball saver?
You can on IMDN. Just checked.
It doesn’t trigger the ball save but does burn your skill shot. Draining will auto-launch and start ball saver, as will any switch on the pf.
Yeah, I’ve got that and know it for the most part. Just wish TD’s would be able to have more room to make judgements that would improve the situation, thus the suggestion. I know why it was ruled as it was but I could also tell you knew that it wasn’t a fair situation and probably wanted a different outcome but were limited by the rules (just an assumption based off how the conversation went at the time of the event).
After more thought, I think one potential solution would be that every remaining player is forced to play as stark and anyone that had already selected a house and it was Martel would not be allowed to use the add a ball later in their game. If they picked Tyrel, you could ask they not purposivly use the PFX ability but that would be really hard to do and manage thus why it wasn’t part of the scenario above. The other houses don’t pose a significant advantage over Stark so, I guess play on.
This kind of nerfs things for the whole group and others may claim it as “not fair”. But my logic was based along the lines of why is it OK to disadvantage 1 vs putting a disadvantage to as many as possible in the group. Still not idea but I couldn’t really think of any other options that didn’t severely put one player behind the curve ball more than the others.
Still wish we could auto start with greyjoy
I don’t think that’s doable. Mashing the button to collect my Iron Bank is so habitual now I mash the lockdown bar on games that don’t have a button.
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Speaking of which, when is the Iron Bank worth anything? I have no clue how to use it.
Combos made increase it. Playfield multipliers affect it when you collect it, but it also completely resets all multipliers when you hit it too.
So no point to ever hit it unless you’re doing it for add a ball, or draining. The value doesn’t carry ball to ball.
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I’ll use it sometimes if I have 4 or 5 playfield X and it’s about to run out and I don’t have the ball in position to extend it (if available). I generally play as Tyrell so shot multiplier isn’t nearly is important to me as it’s easy to build back up. Otherwise just as you drain.
Key note though. No Iron bank for Martel. All other houses gets it but not them.
Another Key note. There is no way to extend the PFx timer if you’re at 5x. Once the timer is up, you’re done. Any other pf x can technically be extended forever if shots to the ram are timed right.
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Yup, not sure why Dwight did that but it does pose for some extra thinking strategy wise on when you build your PF multiplier. Would be a good add to one of the weaker houses that the PFX either last longer or can be extended at 5x. Maybe something good for Stark or Baratheon.
Still not sure why this game doesn’t get more love. Code is really pretty crazy when you sit down and look at all the options and paths a player can take.
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