BOMB Super Jackpot & Battle Royale haven’t registered for me either.
1 Like
I wonder if those types of bugs are code revision-based or if Stern can update something on their servers to address it.
I’d be surprised if it didn’t need new code.
In our local Facebook group someone started a thread for people to post their usernames.
We’ve discovered two things:
- Search is case-sensitive
- User names are also case sensitive. You can register the same user name if you have different capitalization. i.e. pinballplayer and PinballPlayer can BOTH be registered.
Not sure if that’s a feature or a bug?
I’m in the process of obtaining 1,024 new email addresses so I can register every capitalization iteration of my username.
8 Likes
Well that stinks.
It’s a feature. Early on, you could search on a single letter and get every username that included that letter. I was surprised and expected them to tighten that up. They certainly did.
Not really much of a search feature if you have to know exactly what you’re trying to find
1 Like
I don’t know anyone that’s gotten any of the advanced skill shot achievements on Iron Maiden, just the regular skill shot achievement. I’ve hit the secret skill shot several times and never had it count. Another achievement bug discovered? Is there a thread for these? I looked here and on Pinside and couldn’t find anything.
UPDATE: it didn’t give me the achievement for the secret skill shot until I got a super skill shot. That was after several games though. Not the same game or even the same date.
this whole system feels like someone’s first-ever coding project. Stern should be embarrassed by the lack of features and the poor implementation of the features that do exist. it’s a social network with no networking and no social aspect. search isn’t useful. achievements don’t work. this really shouldn’t be this hard.
1 Like
Right now Insider Connected feels like it’s in an “open beta” state rather than the finished product. The forum they announced wasn’t on the site at launch and currently isn’t even listed on the page, I’ve noticed some articles & pages that were glitched and wouldn’t load properly, some instruction guides are missing (or refer to out-of-date code), and the achievements not registering is definitely rather odd (is there some code in the games that isn’t cooperating with the registration?).
I understand that I’m in no place to criticize what they’re doing, and that a lot of work goes into this site which I’m sure is going to pay off sooner rather than later, but the first impressions aren’t as good as they could’ve been. I understand that part of this is because of the ongoing COVID pandemic and the risks involved in paying for Insider Connected accessibility at this time, so doing an “early access” kinda thing is justified but I would’ve preferred if Stern used that wording from the start.
Going forward, if I were working at Stern I would try and get more people to work on Insider Connected regularly, especially considering the All Access videos / articles they want people to sign up for. If the forum is still being worked on, I could imagine it would need some proper moderation so this would be another benefit of expanding the Stern Insider workforce.
All in all I can’t say I dislike the platform, I like being able to save all my high scores and it’s impressive how they’re able to keep track of lifetime statistics, but I think it’s going to need a bit more work to truly become successful.
5 Likes
Another small update: version 1.06 of Batman '66’s code is out and the game now supports Insider Connected. Here’s the list of achievements.
I think you are being a little harsh here, as a first release a pinball company that makes mechanical pinballs building an online platform isn’t their core talent area but I’ve seen many others who had no excuse do a lot worse as a first release - I think Stern have done a fantastic job! And supporting games that are 6 years old with new code etc is an amazing commitment (especially as a B66 owner!)
I’ve got it on ten games and the achievements work ok for me - I have not yet installed it on IMDN though.
Good things:
- Support for all Spike 2 games
- Consistent look and feel from a UX perspective
- Achievements are balanced with hard and easy for different skills ok players.
- Useful Stats for operators
- High score records
Areas of improvement from my perspective:
- App based solution needed; and a solution that doesn’t require just the QR codes to login; i.e. login from the app, I’m surprised that this wasn’t at launch because when Stern do launch an app, they have to go through UX and UI pain all over again.
- More than one dimensional Achievements that link to each other on different games, for example, if you have super skill shot on all 20 odd Spike 2’s you collect a Stern Skill Shot Superstar badge
- Make it possible for Operators to create achievements in their own locations
- Reliability of the platform, too often the platform isn’t working and something in the brain of it needs a kick
- More social functions but also crucially more privacy and opt out as the default for your data as a player, operator and owner.
- Partnership/Integration with Scorbit. I love the guys at Stern but in this they seen to have an allergic reaction (based on answers to questions at a few events) that I personally struggle to understand; Look how far JJP have come by leveraging experts who’ve built multiple online platforms who are also pinball passionistas! I believe they could work together and Stern not loose out on any objective they have for SIC but bank their outcomes hundred times quicker; and in a “API Web 2.0” world I find it disappointing. Stern could include all their back catalog for a low amount of effort. They could also also get Matchplay and DTM support via this route.
I’ve been using Matchplay (in beta) and DTM with Scorbit and its fantastic:
It grabs all the scores and does the scoring with two clicks! (still in beta for the new matchplay)
As someone who builds networks though its great seeing all this online connectivity coming from pinball!
Neil.
5 Likes
I know apps for everything is the norm these days, but I’m very glad Stern didn’t go that route.
App coming in 2022. But I assume the web version will still be there.
3 Likes
I still want Qr Reader-less support for the home environment and possibly something like linking accounts with your home games so you can select an account without scanning in.
2 Likes
I’m not saying app only but something more sophisticated in addition to the scanner.
Out of curiosity, what sort of login mechanism do you envision being enabled by a native app? The only thing I can come up would be something Bluetooth based, but that would require additional hardware on the game side. Pretty much anything else could be implemented as a webapp. Heck, on platforms with a real chrome/chromium available (that’d be anything but iOS at the moment), a native app isn’t even required for Bluetooth.
I’m also happy they went with a webapp first – it’s significantly less intrusive than a native app, and doesn’t alienate the tiny segment of folks who don’t use iOS or Google Play Services.
1 Like
if both machines are connected to the internet then just have a list of machines that you can click on it it arms the game with a credit (from Apple Pay or Stern Pay :D) and puts your into the game. No other devices needed.
Neil.
I really hope we don’t head done the road. Stern should not become a payment processor. Then you start getting into touch tunes territory.
3 Likes