I’m just curious at to why Ghostbusters Pro was moved to the B bank at this years PAPA. I was really looking forward to seeing the various strategies of the best players in the world on this table. Would it take crazy 6x staypuft jackpots to win (1 billion+) or would a solid we came we saw be enough to put pressure on your opponent? Is the video mode too valuable and easy to achieve if you’re behind by less than 60 million on ball three (yes)?
I assume the TD’s felt like it’s too boring and slow to watch everyone short plunge without validating the playfield. Is there an exploit beyond that maneuver?
If they fix it, I hope they only fix it in tournament mode. It’s fun to exploit it on location. You can start 6x, then shoot your 10% skill shot for 60%.
Saw one completely lock up at the start of mass hysteria last night. The bug where the ball kicks out of the right saucer before starting a video mode is still there too. Hopefully the code gets a little more love.
I’m surprised to see these kinds of problems in a modern machine. After all, playfield validation issues have been around for a long time, and I would expect them to be well understood by now.
It would be interesting to a programmer’s perspective on this. Is this just carelessness, or is there more to it?
I might be wrong about this, but I think that exploit is actually worth 120% of your score since the right orbit skill shot is an additional 10% added to your score. Every completed skill shot adds 10% to your score and a separate award (mode starts, pke start, video mode, etc), while the right orbit awards 10% + 10%.
I manage to pull this off on a ball 3 last week for a hilarious 600 million skill shot. To be fair it’s easy to miss the 2x or 3x targets and hit the ramp or orbit, cancelling your chance at the exploit and you do need to manage to plunge for the K on the previous ball or earn the multipliers from the captive balls and drain before you start either 2x or 3x, so it its a trick that will take 2 balls to line up correctly.
I honestly think at this point this is a design decision, not a unforeseen bug in the code or layout. How hard is it to add another switch at the top of the shooter lane before it drops down into the orbit, to confirm the ball has entered the playfield? GB is a tough unforgiving game, especially when you fail to start a mode on your first ball and have to shoot the dangerous ghost target and slimer to relight the modes. Giving the player a few chances at the mode start extends a bit of an olive branch in that regard.
That being said, the short plunge technique is something you’re only going to see experienced/serious players attempt, so it’s a bit unfair to the casual pinballer who’s playing on a friday night with his/her buddies asking themselves “how the hell do I get anything going on busters?”
Do I think the designers of Jackbot intended to allow the short plunge? Hell no. We should know better now though right?
Frequent exposure to games is really a key to success. I’ve played GB a handful of times and know what the concept of playfield validation is, but I have absolutely zero idea how to go about exploiting anything on that game. (Elwood: I’ve been exploited my whole life)
Does the exploit involve bypassing the sound bite " ok, who brought the dog? "
Basically it involves wailing on the things that aren’t major shots, primarily the captive ball. Captive ball all day, light your stuff (locks, multipliers) and no fear of drain. I was told the GHOST target also counted as an option, which would mean you could also make progress toward 100 ghosts without validating.