Yeah it’s in the Premium/LE development build
It’s great to see the modes and other scoring get sweetened on BKSOR! Love the mode boosting potential as well as the incentive to go for (potentially ridiculous) WAR Hurryups. I’ve put together an analysis and review at my new blog.
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Thanks for the blog write up
Remember that a full POWER meter adds 2x to the current mode scoring as well and I bet we can start seeing mode champion initials of 50-60 million plus. Not bad for an honest minute’s work!
From what I’m seeing in the stern arcades these would be the minimum high scores and the ceiling is much higher. Thanks for the writeup!
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Cool analysis! I hadn’t played BKSOR (Pro or Prem) to realize the Super Lanes exploit in Retro MB. I thought the Flail activation during Retro was more for preventing the Upper PF exploitation on the Prem. But now I see that it could also be used for safely exploiting Super Lanes on the Pro.
@timballs What’s the upper gate logic in different scenarios? (when are the gate(s) open for full orbits and when are they closed to feed the upper lanes + pops)
Plunging/auto-plunging: Closed unless you are holding in left flipper for super skill shot.
Gameplay: Closed until you shoot it once. Then it lights up the bottom orbit arrow to start the combo. Combo continues on a timer or until a shot that isn’t an orbit is hit.
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You can tell when you’re ready to start combos when the orbit arrows are lit red. Flashing orange (or other color if you’ve hit combos) indicates that combos have started.
Honestly, I’m excited to see buffs to gameplay elements used for balance instead of nerfing the Retro and Supers combo. There’s a good amount of gameplay options that have opened up and I’m excited to try it at INDISC!
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Aside from the buffs to modes and WAR, my favorite thing about the new code after playing it at INDISC:
“WAAAAARRRR!!!”
“RAAAAAAGEEEE!!!”
Is this code revision going to be available to the public or was it an INDISC special?
It will likely be public soon - I know there were considerations being made for the Prem/LE upstream in the conversation. There were likely bugs to fix, so it might be a day or two.
Was reading through this and thought it was addressed before but playing the current released code and for DANGER warnings for your second danger it doesn’t visually show DANGER DANGER does it right now? Is that something that can be added @timballs?
It’s a big ask, but having finally made it to black castle mode, it feels impossible / anticlimactic to have one ball for the whole thing and then having to start ALL over again after it drains. Almost like it needs like a 4 minute timer and infinite balls, or at least have it start a 3 ball multiball or something. Or maybe just complete a series of shots to start the mode back up again rather than all the freaking monsters from scratch
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Or maybe just a short initial ballsaver (par for the course like most single ball wizard modes).
@timballs
Tim, first of all congrats on the new code release and thank you for all the hard work!
Loaded it in last night and love the refined lights, voice call outs and info on the screen. The new music choice is a fun option, too.
Curious about two specific thingS and one general thing.
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what was the driver behind the major change to the way that super bonus is collected, from the left VUK to the magnasave method? Seems like a pretty major shift with some notable pluses and minuses.
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can you elaborate on the “auto” loop extra ball setting?
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in your experience playing in the shop, are your scores higher on the new code, lower, or about the same?
I played three games on the new code last night, and two of them were amongst my best seeming games in 400+ that I’ve ever played, yet I was a solid 100-200m below registering a new high score. For example, I got 4 or 5 catapult multiballs (never had more than 3 before), 2 triple knight multiballs (only ever gotten 2 in one game once before), retro multiball, 2 war hurry ups, and 2 extra balls. Also got 10 KNIGHT letters for the first time and defeated 5 monsters. I realize the jackpot/bonuses in the multiballs can vary wildly, but all the above “only” netted me 304m. It felt like a solid 450-500m game on the old code.
Initially I was set on wiping my past high scores since it might be unfair with the new scoring changes, but now I’m a bit hesitant to do that.
Looking at your game, here’s how the changes impacted your scoring:
LOSSES
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Supers changed prevent as-we-knew-it Super/Knight stacks. Can be a stack of points lost, even on the LE.
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Loop value resets between balls, making high value loops harder to maintain/obtain.
GAINS:
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Doubled (approximately) mode scoring.
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Increased WAR hurry up potential.
The differences may be down to execution as well - I have a list of questions that might clarify:
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Did you execute your Multiballs well?
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How many drains were in the middle of a mode?
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How many times did you effectively use Power?
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Did you collect your WAR Hurryups quickly?
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How did Knight play out?
These actions can definitely help explain the score differential as well as the general changes to the game scoring.
Thanks, excellent post.
Overall the balls and modes were played “average” I’d say. You know how you can Eventually generally gauge how a game is going by the time of it, and this was a 25 minute game. Don’t think I’ve ever scored that low while going for that amount of time.
Stupid rules question that I should know but I confused myself last night. In retro multiball, what makes a shot worth the max purple multiplier? In the past, I feel like I’ve ripped it up the spinner and then smacked the center target to activate one (ie loops would light as purple in the circle. Last night I did that a good 3+ times in retro mode but nothing ever went purple.
Nothing. You can’t advance Super levels in Multiball anymore, and all new Supers default to level 1. In single ball play, shoot the VUK to advance all active Supers 1 level.
Oh man. I missed that change. Well that has to be a big nerf to the points for anyone used to piling them on in retro mode.
Can’t you start some super modes before going into retro MB?
The driver was just from watching people play the game. Nobody was ever in a situation really where they had to think about it. I just wanted it to be a bigger decision-making part of the game than it was. It also made shooting the drop targets and using the magna-save decisions you may think twice about now.
The Auto extra ball adjusts based on the extra ball % you set in the standard adjustments. Every so often the game will check to see if people are getting enough extra balls. If you have the extra ball pct set to 25% and your location averages 17%, the u turn extra ball will get easier.
My scores are much higher in the new code. So are Steve’s. The mode scoring, the way you can build the mode values, and POWER getting easier are the big factors in that. War Hurry ups help too and i’m glad I set the priority of that mode higher again so people can see the hurry ups.
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