Topic: Pinball FX 3

@Yorumi I’m a novice myself. So not sure how helpful this will be but...

I view each pinball table as a series of often interlinked or stacked puzzles. The solution to a piece of the puzzle is often accompanied by rewards based on your timing and skill. One component of a table often leads to another, often in stages.

So, experiment. See what shots trigger what response. Each table is different of course but many have set modes or missions for you to attempt and complete in sequence to build up your scoring opportunities. Some tables are almost telling a narrative in this way.

So have a play on a table for a good session or two. Don’t worry about your score, just see what shots you feel come naturally to you and observe what happens on the table. Flashing lights in specific areas of the play field or call outs, instructions on the DMD (display on the top left of the table) will indicate what you might want to shoot for next. Get a feel for the angles of the table and which flipper the ball tends to come to off ramps or targets etc.

You could also look at a tutorial for the table online or read the in-game table guide. I’ve found playing along with a group of like-minded folk in in-game tourneys helpful as we often discuss tips and our own discoveries with a table.

Then the next step is to focus on ball control. This includes knowing how and when to nudge/bump the table. Not too much to get a tilt penalty but not too off on the timing that you can’t impact the trajectory of the ball.

This is really the point I myself am at. To really improve, I know I need to learn the basics of trapping the ball, being able to pass the ball from flipper to flipper what I want to etc. Backhand shots and other techniques, using bumps and nudges to save the ball from draining especially.

Experienced pinball players seem to do all this stuff through muscle memory alone. It’s like a magic trick watching a skilled player play.

That’s probably enough for now. Of course the most important part is to enjoy the game and have fun. If you’re doing that, then you probably are already learning all the time and improving.

@Yorumi Just to add to what @Lroy said, find out what to do to get the kickbacks lit. That can be the difference between a ball out and a saved ball. If you lose a kickback the first thing you should do is get it back. Some tables have horrible outs on those outlanes and you can save yourself. There are a few tables where the kickbacks are often too hard to even bother with. More often then not those tables aren't too bad with outlane drains.

Another method I do it observe where the ball is going to drop. A lot of times you can send the ball around the orbit and have the ball bounce off one flipper and catch it with the other. Nudge bouncing from one flipper to the other to catch is a must often on missions as you need to hit certain lanes and holes. I spend at least half my games with the flippers raised more then down. Play a few games and just learn when you can let the ball bounce off a flipper or when you can catch it. I've gotten to the point where I can see when the ball will bounce to an outlane and nudge when needed.

Lastly, I will say pay close attention to what gives you the biggest scores. Some tables It's the multiball, others it can be getting missions completed, and still others are huge end of ball drops score calculations. For instance on that last part I can get a billion or 2 on Captain America on the Wii U version from ball drains because you get the multiplier maxed and spam a certain multiball over and over again. While that in itself doesn't get you a lot of points the more you can do it before the ball drops the more points you get afterwards.

@Spoony_Tech Some great advice there. Thank you.

By the way, our latest tournament is now open.

THEATRE OF MAGIC (one of the new tables released today). Password is pikman (yes that’s correct ‘pikman’) @meppi64 is our host. Classic/Arcade set-up. Open for 10 days. So go download the new tables and enter our tournament if you’d like some friends to play along with.

More details and chatter over on the Adult Switch Gamers Discord - pinball tournaments thread. Invite link to the Discord can be found in my forum signature.

@Yorumi Cool, hopefully see you on the THEATRE OF MAGIC tourney leaderboard. Feel free to shoot me over a friend invite on Switch as well if you’d like to.

Father of two myself. Totally understand. Offer of friendship on Switch still stands. Best wishes to you and your partner and little one.

@Yorumi Nevermind buddy. I don’t have your Switch friend code. Mine’s in my forum sig if you ever fancy adding me cool. No worries if not or if you forget. Enjoy your new arrival and the pinball when you get the chance, lol!

Mate. Forget about it. I totally understand. No worries.

@Lroy And here I thought I wasn't going to go for the PFX3 Williams tables at all and out they come with Theatre, one of the games that got me hooked on pinball for good. I'll do it...for science! I'm curious to see how different it feels from the real machine.

I'll have to work this in between Samurai Shodown practice for PAX East next weekend, though.

@masterLEON That’s the spirit! See you on the leaderboard.

...The 'realistic' physics is not realistic here. This will be a challenge in resting the urge to throw my controller at the TV! No time to elaborate now, I gotta sleep.

@masterLEON Are you referring to the drop catches and passes? @monkeyspasm mentioned similar in his first impressions on the table too.

Live and drop catches I find near impossible on PBFX3 in general, I am far from skilled though. TOM seems to play VERY fast to me, I've only played one real table for about 5 mins though. But I love it

Spacies Arcade on Youtube has a real table and mentioned a loop passing to the wrong flipper, and the fact that the ball feels and behaves exactly the same across all Williams tables here - it's understandable, but real tables have nuances and 'feel' very different to each other. Given a lot of that is probably down to wear etc, it's a tough ask and probably nitpicking.

I found Attack From Mars harder than the real table too to control the ball, but Medieval Madness and Fish Takes felt pretty much spot on to me. Zen are constantly tweaking and I trust them 100% to get it as close as possible.

I'm by no means an expert - I've played a few real tables and a ton of VPX. When I learn a table on VPX, I can't play it on PBFX3 and vice versa!

What Zen have done overall is absolutely outstanding, there is amazing talent in that studio.

Regardless, the difference from TPA is night and day, although I still have fun with TPA. I'm just really happy that we get to play amazing digital recreations of these classics.

@monkeyspasm Yeah, I’m hoping to travel up to Arcade Club later this year (delayed trip from last year, so who knows) as I believe they have some pinball tables as well as a mother-load of arcade cabs to play. I’ll be heaven.

I’ve only started playing TPA recently. Got one of the Gottlieb Packs and I also own STERN PINBALL arcade physically. I’m enjoying both but agree Zen really have raised the bar with these Williams/Bally tables. Phenomenal.

@masterLEON Very interesting to hear your perspective on this, what with your knowledge of real pinball tables. I know exactly what ball drain down the middle you describe on ToM regarding shots falling down the spinner lane. I am slowly learning to bump the table to rescue the doomed ball but it’s certainly something I need to work on.

Our tournament on THEATRE OF MAGIC has now closed. Will update this post with pics when I can.

For some reason @Cw13 score at the end under @Zkibu has disappeared. But @cw13 takes the honour of choosing our next table and creating the tournament.

Thanks to all who took part and congratulations to our winner @Meppi64

New tournament is set up. Password will be "pikmin" like before. Black Rose, classic, 7 days. Good luck to all! Some amazing scores on last tourney.

How are the new tables? Worth getting?

@rockodoodle If you mean the Williams/Bally tables. Absolutely. They are phenomenal and have the most realistic physics yet seen in a digital pinball game.