I've been putting a lot of time into Pinball FX3 recently (Williams/Bally tables) in arcade mode (use to be a huge fan of PBA years ago) and I have been wondering if it was just me on this or not. I could not comprehend why the ball gains so much momentum and the bounce on it just does not make sense. Like I've manytimes had the ball hit a flipper (not even active/up) and bounce back up more then half the table. It's actually messing me up a lot now because I use to feel PBA physics were more accurate but now I find them too floaty after getting use to FX3 being way too fast. =(
Have Zen made any comment about the state of physics in arcade mode?
uh, so...
i think there are many things just a bit wrong with those arcade physics. that might get a bit long winded now but i´ve spent A LOT of time with many of those tables in the last weeks and the thing is, every pack has different physics: basically volume 1+2 are fast and furious and feel like playing on an overwaxed playfield. vol. 3 toned it down a bit but the flippers feel strange. in volume 4 they upped the speed again and introduced new flipper physics.
from the universal monster pack on they changed it again to slower paced and more consistent which also includes volume 5 where they adjusted this a little. the concensus is, they want to patch in one kind of physics to all packs sometime soon.
and now is where the story starts, i really love these renditions of the Williams tables as far as digital pinball goes but somehow it is a bit of a mess. there are different sets of physics. Party Zone is hyperspeed compared to Creature for example. there is censorship on some tables which is baffling, there are many missing songs on creature from the black lagoon. there are bugs like in White Water arcade classic arcade you can just press x and it will do a skillshot to the upper flipper everytime. there is still no option to change the background or adjust the room lighting.
there is barely any communication from Zen and i feel they just don´t have enough manpower to handle all this. then, they are in some kind of limbo, there are the casual fans that demand new original tables but now there are also the Williams fans wanting more tables and features. then they release their RPG stuff like Operencia...i feel like they have either too much to do or not enough people.
i think it is a bit of a mess right now. FX3 needs some kind of big update with bugfixes, lighting overhauls/different backgrounds, unified physics on the classic tables and so on. i was legit shocked when playing creature from the black lagoon, there is like one song playing, the machine has much more variety in original. i already think the licensed Williams tables will never happen when they release Creature without full soundtrack.
while i appreciate and really enjoy FX3, there is much more to do and the communication from Zen is near non existent. they ask how people like the physics in the Steam forum where people answer that have no clue or only digital pinball experience...they should invite hardcore real pinball heads for betas and ask them and not the general user....
so...i am really wondering how this will pan out in the future. especially the pace at which those tables get released is superslow...with more people they could pump out a three pack every month, at this pace it will take years till the core Williams tables arrive in FX3.
but after all, i feel like these physics are MUCH better than the rest of the digital pinball games. pinball is relentless and often very unpredictable and that captures FX3 for sure. PBA is not realistic in any way and too floaty. Tales of the Arabian Nights on classic arcade in FX3 is very close to the original pinball feel. i think they are really close to nailing it since volume 5 now, it feels just awesome to play. it is the best digital pinball you can get.