From: phaedrus@halcyon.com (Mark Phaedrus)
Subject: Re: Drop Targets (Was re: Cue Ball Wizard Rules sheet request)
Organization: The 23:00 News and Mail Service
Date: Mon, 23 Nov 1992 07:41:11 GMT

In article <16045@goanna.cs.rmit.oz.au> s924105@yallara.cs.rmit.OZ.AU (Cameron Silver) writes:
>jonke@kong.gsfc.nasa.gov (Stephen Jonke) writes:
>>In article <josh.721952316@mowgli> Josh Hayes, josh@cqs.washington.edu writes:
>>1) Ball bounces off differently dependent on whether or not target is up or
>>down (hit target or rubber band behind it.)

>I agree totally ... havent seen drop targets for a looong time. The targets on
>FT (that let you catch a fish) should be drop targets IMHO!

     Much as I like drop targets, I disagree here.  For one thing, the fact
that the bounce off a drop target is different than the bounce off a touch
target isn't necessarily a feature.  When you shoot at a particular point on
a touch target, you *know* how the ball is going to bounce off it; there's
no variation caused by whether the targets are up or down or what shape the 
bumper is in.  That makes a big difference; if I have the ball on the right
flipper and only the right fish targets are lit, I can shoot with confidence
at the left targets anyway, knowing that the ball will ricochet over to hit
the right-hand bank as well.  I would never try that shot into a bank of drop
targets, for fear that a weak rebound would drain the ball down the right
outlane.  Fish Tales is a hard enough machine as it is; there's no point in
making it harder.
     Also, there's one drawback to drop target banks on a multiball machine;
when you drop the last target in a bank and a second ball enters the area
shortly thereafter, that second ball tends to get thrown into the air by the
rising targets when the machine resets the bank.  Think about how often balls
get bouncing around the fish banks during a multiball; do you really want those
balls to start getting thrown around, particularly on a machine that already
has some problems with balls going airborne and hitting those crossover ramps?
(The fact that the fish target banks are hung almost directly over the outlanes
would make airborne balls particularly dangerous.)
     Finally, a couple more objections:  First, as it is right now all you need
to do is hit three times anywhere on one of the touch target banks to catch a
fish.  I presume you would be thinking of replacing these banks with
traditional banks of three drop targets, with the player having to hit all
three to catch a fish.  I think this would have a major impact on the game,
though I'm frankly not sure whether it would make it easier or harder.  On
the one hand, you'd often only have to hit the bank twice to catch a fish,
since a hit into a drop target bank often drops two targets; on the other
hand, then you'd be stuck trying to hit the one remaining target, with a risk
of the ball getting deflected right down towards the side lanes if you hit that
target from the side instead of straight on.
     And finally, a sad fact of life: drop targets break more than touch
targets.  With all the complaints I already have about the condition of local
machines, I for one will take more reliable parts just about anywhere I can
get them. :)
     I apologize if it seems like I'm picking apart a small part of your post
(well, I guess there's no "seems" about it :) ), but I just want to make the
point that I think pinball machine design is much more complex than a lot of 
people on the net make it out to be; different machine features interact with 
each other in all sorts of ways, and you can't just change one feature without
looking carefully at how that's going to impact the rest of the game.
-- 
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Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball