I hadn’t seen this discussed elsewhere, forgive me if it has.
The newest updated GotG code has the mode timer run for balls other than the first ball at initial ball launch when the ball is just resting in the shooter lane. I promise that sentence made sense to me
While this can lead to interesting strategic choices of letting an unwanted mode time out, to me it begs the question of: is this a bug or a feature?
The mode timer also doesn’t pause for pop bumper hits - again, bug, or a deliberate choice?
As I sarcastically asked some friends recently, have we learned nothing from the X’s and O’s skill shot, in terms of not having the need for a player to rush up and plunge the ball in a multiplayer game to take advantage of a limited time offer?
As game is < 1.0 in code, I’m interested if anyone knows about these things, especially for stern games going forward.
It all seems unintended to me, the code is in rough shape. There are also issues with the mode changing from flips after you plunge, activating super skill shots after a locked ball, etc.
I think they tried way too literally to ensure that the timer of each mode is exactly as long as it takes to play the video scene. Quill’s Quest is 159 seconds long.
And yes, I’ve had times where I choose a new mode on the plunge, but plunging doesn’t lock the mode in, The Button doesn’t lock the mode in either, and the flippers will still switch modes, so I’m frantically trying to “flip back” to the mode I want before a switch hit occurs and locks it in for me.
Speaking of code fixes, there outta be a Kiss-Demon-like 2-sec ball save after you hit the Rocket target. On the GotG I’ve played, every time I hit the Rocket [which I’ve learned to try Not to do], the ball instantly center drains. There’s thus no point in playing any mode where you need to hit Rocket to finish it.
Sounds like a leveling problem. GoTGs I play do not have this issue. They do have a general “Oh shit, ball is flying at 100 mi/h at my flipper” problem though.
Code bug. Mode timers don’t stop when you get a ball in a scoop and the game is going through it’s add-a-ball, extra ball hoopla (and you totally could have made that last shot you needed to complete the mode). Also, the timer doesn’t stop when the game goes into ball search.
I suppose you could super skill shot to garauntee you lock in the mode you want.
I don’t mean to sound critical/snobby, but it surprises me that things like this aren’t part of a general library of code that would would go into each game by default. Some of the bugs on recent games really feel like the wheel is being reinvented each time.
I would think there are a lot of concepts that are universal at this point (things that come to mind: examples above re: timers, built up values not carrying over between players, etc). But, I don’t know anything about pinball code development, so maybe I’m being naive.
The timers used to freeze in the initial release, but this changed from v0.73 -> v0.80. It seems like they changed the timers to match the length of the voice/audio clips, but this had the side effect of making them never stop…!
