238 replies to this topic

[luvthatapex]

We played a couple of hours of Pokemon last night. What a great table JP! We love it !!!! A couple of comments/questions ....

 

1.) Multiplayer. It would be helpful if there was an indicator when you added a player. In the meantime I just added your pika callout when another player is added at the start of the game.

                If(bFreePlay = True) Then

                    PlayersPlayingGame = PlayersPlayingGame + 1

                    PlayRandonPikaSound

                    TotalGamesPlayed = TotalGamesPlayed + 1

                Else

                    If(Credits > 0) then

                        PlayersPlayingGame = PlayersPlayingGame + 1

                        PlayRandonPikaSound

                        TotalGamesPlayed = TotalGamesPlayed + 1

                        Credits = Credits - 1

 

2.) I noticed the scoring is HUGE when you have upgraded balls and hit the jackpot ramps. We were getting 80-100 million per shot during multiball last night when we had the 4th pokeball upgrade. I didn't think this was very difficult to do, whereas capturing pokemon was much harder. My sons score was over 750 million, yet we couldn't capture any pokemon characters. We were always 1 or 2 shots away from capturing them although started many different characters and several multiballs.

 

3) According to the rules manual the scoring for capturing pokemon is it 50k * pokemon caught. This seems low! Do they stay captured for the entire game(pikachu icon on the dmd)? Do you have all 150 pokemon in the game?

 

4) There are 4 arrows at the scoop (pikachu, squirtle and 2 others) what do they do?

[jpsalas]

Thanks for you input luvthatapex

 

Yes, I need to add en extra sound when adding players, the same goes for the Slimer table.

 

And yes, the scorings are quite high during multiballs and the updated ball, and capturing pokemons are difficult, not to talk about hatching eggs

 

Yes there are the 150 pokemons on the table But the captured pokemons are counted only for each ball, since that number is used for the end of ball bonus.

 

Those 4 characters give different awards in the scoop. Some of the awards are the same for all 4 characters, but they have their own awards.

[luvthatapex]

Thanks JP,

 

Would you consider this? Make the Pokemonbonus for 4 players. Change the Pokemonbonus to PokemonBonus(CurrentPlayer) and init 4 players, etc. Also don't reset the pokemonbonus(currentplayer) at start of the next ball. This would give each player an opportunity to collect pokemons until the end of the game, trying to collect all 150. It would be impossible to collect 150 pokemon in one ball.

 

The 50K for each pokemon would give a larger score, but this gives you the strategy to try to collect as many as possible on your first ball so they carry over to subsequent balls. I didn't check if you have a unique pokemon check so you don't collect the same one more than once, but I guess that would be needed too.

I think a HIGHEST POKEMON TO DATE leaderboard entry would be cool too! For those that play multiplayer it would be nice to compete.

 

This would make capturing the pokemon a greater scoring opportunity and in line with the higher scoring of the multiballs/upgraded pokeballs.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for you input luvthatapex

 

Yes, I need to add en extra sound when adding players, the same goes for the Slimer table.

 

And yes, the scorings are quite high during multiballs and the updated ball, and capturing pokemons are difficult, not to talk about hatching eggs

 

Yes there are the 150 pokemons on the table But the captured pokemons are counted only for each ball, since that number is used for the end of ball bonus.

 

Those 4 characters give different awards in the scoop. Some of the awards are the same for all 4 characters, but they have their own awards.

Edited by luvthatapex, 21 December 2016 - 07:04 PM.

[jpsalas]

Yes, that's a good idea. I'll do that

[luvthatapex]

ok JP more feedback from the kids! They are really enjoying it and letting me know it!

 

They noticed a few bugs:

1) If you drain with upgrade pokeballs, current player should lose one upgraded pokeball, but in mutiplayer, the next player loses an upgrade ball.

2) Bumpers take points away after 5 or so hits.

3) When you upgrade a pokeball, the upgraded ball says the current ball name instead of the new ball name

 

A few more ideas:

Prevent venosaur or picachu multiball restarting until you are down to one ball. We were literally able to restart venosaur 3 times in a row.

Stop the main music when ball drains and have a sound for each bonus that was achieved, then start the music again when a new ball is delivered to the shooterlane.

Would it be possible to show the Pokemon captured at end of ball (maybe in a quick flip show on the dmd...)? If so, to keep the timing you could decrease the flip time based on the number of pokemon to display.

[jpsalas]

Thanks for the ideas. I guess next week I'll have time to make some updates to my tables, and to this one too

[imajonzin]

JP...thanks for the great tables!!!  My neighbor kids love the Pokemon table.   

 

I recently downloaded the latest version (Dec 30), and am now getting a UltraDMD error in the script.  I am not running UltraDMD.  This is different than the script of the older version.  I attempted to comment these out, with no success.  

 

Any assistance with this issue is appreciated.  

[jpsalas]

JP...thanks for the great tables!!!  My neighbor kids love the Pokemon table.   

 

I recently downloaded the latest version (Dec 30), and am now getting a UltraDMD error in the script.  I am not running UltraDMD.  This is different than the script of the older version.  I attempted to comment these out, with no success.  

 

Any assistance with this issue is appreciated.  

 

You have two choices:

- Install the UltraDMD (it is included in the full VPX 10.2 release), or download it from the author and install it (the latest release installs using a msi file so it is very easy to install, after that you will be able to play America's Most Haunted table, don't miss that table, it is awesome )

- Remove all the lines in the script that has to do with UltraDMD, they are just in three places in the script

[luvthatapex]

JP I just noticed you updated this great table! We had some time to play it last night.

 

We are very pleased with limiting the multiballs to make them more special and focused. Saving the pokemon caught for each player is fantastic, along with seeing the actual pokemons caught at the end of the game. This makes the creatures found so much more fun! The kids loved to see their captured characters. We also found it less difficult to capture the pokemon with less 'hits' required. Well done!!! On one game played we captured 5 pokemon, with an average of 3 caught per game. Still very difficult to capture alot of pokemons, so perhaps we need to find ways to get extra balls to have more chances. Play better as it were

 

We still see the bumper hits decreasing points. Perhaps it's the lower bumper, not sure, but it happens everytime. I didn't see any issues in a quick glance of the code, so perhaps somewhere the values based on bumper hits are getting subtracted.

 

The upgraded pokemon balls now identify POKEBALL updated instead of the wrong pokeball, but maybe it would be better if the actual upgraded pokeball was displayed in the pokeball upgrade onscreen, since the first pokeball is POKEBALL. The upgraded ball is immediately shown as the ball image on the balls so everything else is working correctly. So, IMO it would be better to show that upgraded ball onscreen, instead of just POKEBALL when an upgrade happens. 

 

Perhaps if you decide to upgrade this great game again, you will put in the end of bonus music, like you did with Ghostbusters. Its very pleasing and dramatic as each bonus is identified at the end of ball and feels like a real game.

 

One more suggestion: Make the pokemon worth different values. Right now no matter which of the pokemon you collect, you get 50K per pokemon. I am told by the kids that some of the pokemon are very tough to battle, especially as they evolve, so perhaps hatched pokemon are one value which others are another value and some of the real tough pokemon are a third value like Articuno. This would make it special to capture the tough ones. I assume there is a pointer to each individual pokemon so a value or a range of values could be associated with each.

 

I'll tell you JP, this game gets more play than any other on my cab lately Thanks so much from all of us.

 

 

 

Thanks for the ideas. I guess next week I'll have time to make some updates to my tables, and to this one too

[jpsalas]

I'm glad you are enjoying the game

 

There are 3 groups of pokemon in the game, that's why you need now 2 hits, 3 hits or 4 hits the catch them. And when you catch a pokemon it will give give you more or less points depending on the group he belongs to. It is only the bonus that it is the same. I guess when you catch a pokemon the points obtained need to get more visible on the DMD with big numbers, so you know what you accomplished. But maybe it is more dramatic to just get a few points when catching the pokemon and get more points later in the bonus round.

 

Hatching a pokemon is very difficult in the game, at least for me I find that shot quite difficult to make, that's why you get a lot of points when you hatch an egg. Here again maybe it will be better to get less points when hatching the egg and increase the bonus.

 

I see Stern use to give a lot of points in the bonus round, maybe that's better.

 

I'm very pleased to get this kind of feed back, I always learn a little more what works and what doesn't

 

I'll see if I can make the game better (I won't forget the sounds during the bonus count )

[jpsalas]

Updated to version 1.2.1. Only code updates:

 

- Fixed UltraDMD using too much CPU when running in FS mode
- Changed the scoring when hatching eggs or catching Pokémon so more points are diverted to the bonus.
- Fixed bumper lights so they follow the Pokémon levels (they weren't reset, but the score were reset after catching a Pokémon)
- Added sounds to the bonus count.

 

The UltraDMD runs on its own timer, which will be more gentle to the cpu I have updated also my other tables which used the UltraDMD when running in FS mode.

 

Ball Upgrade: it seems to be working as I wanted. When you have 250 coins then the upgrade ball light on the playfield is lit. When you shoot the center ramp it will upgrade the ball, then the new ball is shown on the DMD, and the ball/s in play change their appearance. What I have changed now is that only the new ball light is lit at the bottom of the playfield. Now it is clear which ball is the active one.

 

Bonus sounds: added some fanfare sounds to the bonus count.

 

Catching Pokemon: lit extra ball every 3 caught Pokemon (changed from 5 to 3)

Scoring when catching Pokemon and bonus: inverted the scoring and the bonus for a better feeling. The scoring when catching a Pokemon has been reduced to 50000, 100000 or 150000, depending of the Pokémon level. The bonus has been increased, starting at 250000, up to 1000000 points, depending of the Pokemon level.
This pokemon bonus is not reset between balls.

Scoring when hatching an egg: the scoring has also been distributed between the hatching of the egg and the bonus just as catching. The points has been transferred to the bonus round were they can be easily identified. The egg Bonus is also held from ball to ball. Still you get a lot of points when hatching an egg, but you also get higher bonus. All the eggs have the same value.

 

I think those are all the changes in this new version, which I guess will be the last (at least for now )
 

Edited by jpsalas, 07 January 2017 - 01:59 PM.

[luvthatapex]

JP I just played a bunch of games with the new version and I really like all of the changes! Great job!!!!! Thanks so much!

I commented out the UltraDMD, since I rather enjoy the graphical display on the playfield DMD. Since its so high up its fine.

 

First game I caught 5 pokemon and now with an easier way to award extra balls, we have a greater chance to get more pokemons.

Awesome!!!!!

Edited by luvthatapex, 07 January 2017 - 04:32 PM.

[akau]

Hi, just installed visual pinball 10.2 and tried this table, because me and my sons just love pokemons.

I have old xp computer with two monitors, so I try to make cabinet. I got table running and it looks great,

but I have one problem, I don't see balls, I put credit, press start and white square try's to come front

of plunger, but it goes back. But no actual ball.

Is this somekind common problem with visual pinball or is it in this table.

 

Thank you for any answer

[kiwi]

Hi, just installed visual pinball 10.2 and tried this table, because me and my sons just love pokemons.

I have old xp computer with two monitors, so I try to make cabinet. I got table running and it looks great,

but I have one problem, I don't see balls, I put credit, press start and white square try's to come front

of plunger, but it goes back. But no actual ball.

Is this somekind common problem with visual pinball or is it in this table.

 

Thank you for any answer

Try disabling "Enabled brute-force 4x Anti-Aliasing" (VP video options), if it is enabled,

if not solve attached the specifications of the graphics card and the video options.

[akau]

Thank you for reply,

it is strange but it started to work while I do other setting like ultradmd to right place and so on.

So now I can see ball and play

I even try to put that "Enable brute-force.." on for test and it still works, nice table.

[Andypc]

1.2.1 has a frame rate problem with adaptive VSync "2" have the same issue on both Pokémon and Ghostbusters 1.2.1. going back to 1.2.0 and it's fine rock solid 60fps.

 

1.2.1 frame rate jumps all over the place 300fps one second then 50fps the next. Really broken for me, but previous version is fine

 

Double checked and all the setting are exactly the same.

Edited by Andypc, 04 February 2017 - 01:24 AM.

[krille81]

Hi JP thank you for the wonderful table! But i have a question. I have a 3 screen setup on my cab, can i disable the dmd on playfield and only run with ultradmd on my 3rd screen?

[jpsalas]

Hi JP thank you for the wonderful table! But i have a question. I have a 3 screen setup on my cab, can i disable the dmd on playfield and only run with ultradmd on my 3rd screen?

 

Yes, it is easy, but you will miss a lot of info. UltraDMD is only for the scoring, so that place on the other screen is not so empty

To move the playfield DMD you need to select the reels on the desktop, remove the lock, and move them away from the table.

[krille81]

Ok, that was very easy to fix. But i will keep it on the playfield anyway. Thank you very much! I will try some of your other original game too. Pokemon is a very fun game, but hard to master it. My children like it too

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[fwiler]

Thank you!!  The kids are going absolutely crazy with this one.  And so am I.