I work on pinball machines for a living, but I play mostly VP at my place (weird, I know) and I’ve found that if you play a lot of VP your brain will eventually start to adjust on the fly. So if the ball is a little too heavy or light, or the gravity is a little too strong or weak, we can adjust and not notice it.
That’s why I have a pro player test my games when I’m done tweeking them. He hates video pinball (as he calls it) and I’ve found he absolutely cannot adjust if the physics are off, he’s spent years and year of his life learning how to do minute movements. I’ll watch him miss the same shot over and over and get frustrated, then I’ll ask him what’s wrong, “I’m aiming here, but it’s hitting there!” he’ll say. That allows me to adjust things to his sweet spot, which is the real sweet spot. He knows if the ball is too light, or if the flipper power is too low. Personally, I find it hard to tell anymore. VP10 has a great feeling and I’ve found I have to adjust things less than any other version so far. The main problem I’ve found on games is hitting shots off a fast roll, meaning the ball is rolling fast down the lane to the flipper and I just punch it. Fren’s games feel about the best in the respect. Some of the games like Robocop or this Walking Dead, I find very difficult to hit a ramp off a fast roll, but I can do it on a real machine over and over without thinking about it. It’s a fine line to tune flippers, I’ve yet to figure out how to adjust for this.
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