We need to be able to make our own custom tables.

[Plantman Knows Where Plants Grow]

Do you have any idea how good it would be for this game to log in and have new pinball tables every day or make your own? I've never seen it in a Pinball game either. It's a game changer.

I think Happy Wheels is the example here. Players can make their own coarses and upload them to a server, the community rates them and the best ones end up at the top of the list.

This would be a good move for PA because it gets around the issue of copyright'd machines so this game could have a large free library of pinball boards. And in styles that would really only apply to video-pinball, like for example I think a 16:9 pinball table format would be fun to play on.

It would require development, and development does cost money so I would understand if the pinball level making software had a price cost and access to the massive library of free player designed pinball tables had an additional lesser cost but if prices were kept reasonable I think the market would be there.

What kind of interface would I like to see? Kerbal seems to have it down pretty well with custom designing. They give a bunch of parts in different categories, for pinball we would also need to add sound effects, textures, lights, animation frames, and skins.

I would also like to see the tables be exportable across multiple systems as it would seem designing on a computer would be easiest and then being able to give access to the table through the entire pinball network would be very good for the product line as a whole.

A trick I would like to see available in the PC version is to have place holder graphics, sounds, and music BUT outside the game if people copy and paste from their OS they could have those place holders link to copy righted material. This allows for a demo table that you aren't legally liable for but at the same time if it's very popular you could take those results to the franchise holder and tell them that You have no control over this but you could release this under your product line and make sure they get their royalties in exchange for the rights to use the fan selected graphics, sound, and music.

Licensors permitting, they may allow you to sell a third option for their table where people could "remix" or redesign them for themselves and other people who have purchased the table previously. This way if people already own the table and a enthusiast comes along to redesign the table they have a replay value to expereince that table's content in a new way.

People that design machines should be protected enough to get a little bit of royaltee and credit for their design if the design is used in production tables or sold in a game pack but not as part of the free library, please don't make people sign their designs away in EULA or something.

I think this is very good for both this game and the real world Pinball sport played on machines. This is basicaly Computer Aided Design pinball making, it also falls in line with the revolution of my generation being designers that make stuff for eachother through the internet(much like youtube and facebook), and with thousands of people participating I think some really amazing designs could come out of it.

[MWink64]

It sounds like you're looking for something more like Visual Pinball [www.vpforums.org]

[Plantman Knows Where Plants Grow]

I guess so I did not know that existed. But on the other hand VP seems to have seom frame rate issues and the graphics are not as good.

[locksley777]

Its been mentioned on podcasts and such that there is some interest and thinking done by Farsight to have a builder done for TPA but it is just one of those things they are kicking about not really having the manpower to implement.

Building things are fun and I think it was Jay (CEO) that mentioned an old pin creator and how he was thinking how neat that would be to have in TPA.

Guess all we can do is spread the word and get more interested in Pinball so there is a bigger incentive to get more manhours into the game; and I am thinking PC/Mac here.

Nice post AGENT, I like it :)

[Wizard Steve]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Construction_Set

1983 called. It wants its idea back.

[Plantman Knows Where Plants Grow]

Originally posted by Wizard Steve:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball_Construction_Set

1983 called. It wants its idea back.

Is this a practical solution? I know steam is pretty prolific but I don't think steam will run on an Apple II or a Commodore 64, sir.

[all2easy]

Steam would run but it would look very different and would run slower.

Thankfully : http://www.c64forever.com/ will run a c64 on emulation so you wouldn't need Steam at all.

Also PCS is an EA title so it would only be available on Origin :)

[Jimbob]

I love the idea AGENT. But it would probably take an age to get right, as i imagine it would slow the game down to a standstill. haa!

[Plantman Knows Where Plants Grow]

I think the game will run better in time if they continue to work at it. It's all speculation but I think the dev staff moved from PS4 ( Sort-of OpenGL It's like Sony preferenced instruction sets and a few of their own proprietary instructions mixed in with the guts of OpenGL) to other platform like windows that use DirectX instead.

As their experience with DX 9 and 11 grows I imagine they will optimize the game with better codes. Heck, the DX 11 version is in beta but seems to run great for me except for a few frame rate hiccups now and again.