User blog:Entertainmentz/Just a few more fixes to the Angry Birds Pinball tables

I sure hope that the Angry Birds pinball tables have had enough tinkering with, and I want to feel satisfied with the way I made them, but there are a couple more changes that I had to do with each table this spring, as shown below:

The Angry Birds Movie Pinball
 * After learning that the term "super jets" is the proper term for boosted bumpers that award more points, I have renamed the "bumper boost" feature (activated with a 5-way Rage Combo) to "Rage Super Jets". The Rage Super Jets will still function as originally intended, awarding more points and providing a chance to earn a multiplier hold within a limited time.
 * Looking back at some of the Zen Pinball tables, I have discovered that there are several of them that allow the player to make multiple skill shots on the same ball, like after a ball is locked. This turned out to be a feature that the Angry Birds pinball table should have because the original game is all about shooting pigs, so I have granted players the chance to make multiple skill shots on the same ball, (far more than the typical, measly three skill shots that you can make, one at the start of each ball) so that players can have fun aiming the slingshot plunger and shooting the pigs far more often than not, and best recapture the spirit of the original game.  I also assigned a scoring system to the skill shot: your first skill shot is worth half a million points, and the next successful skill shot is worth half a million more than the last one.

The Angry Birds Movie 2 Pinball
 * After some consideration, I decided to make the super skill shot more appealing and worthy to go for by adding an instant random reward to it. That's right - this is the one way you can instantly earn a random Achievement Award from Silver without having to spell her name on the crossramp.
 * The process of lighting a lock for Teamwork Multiball has also changed. Instead of executing a certain number of Team Combos, you shoot all major Bird and Pig lanes once to light the lock.  You can also earn a fast Teamwork Multiball lock as a prize from Silver's Achievement Award.  This lock-lighting method is similar to the one used for the Army of Ants Multiball in Zen's Ant-Man pinball table.  The target to shoot to lock the ball is also changed to the Hatchling sinkhole, to avoid potential problems with the toy submarine popping up to block most lanes.
 * The abovementioned fast lock also replaces the Teamwork Level increase in the pool of possible awards for Silver's Achievement Awards, meaning that Teamwork Level only increases when longer Teamwork Combos are achieved, and they always indicate the longest Team Combo made so far in the current ball.

Angry Birds Stella Pinball
 * After reviewing how Zen Pinball tables implemented a magna-save system and discovering that they mostly abide to "standards" to make it work properly (such as a 4 return lane layout, as well as audio and visual cues to prompt using a magna save), and then discovering that the magna-save system on the Stella table doesn't meet those standards, I thought up of a way to fix that, but was reluctant to make the change permanent. Thus, I wrote out a special modification kit that redesigned the Stella table so that its magna-save would become more like the typical magna-save systems in certain Zen Pinball tables.  This change removes return lane spelling and renames the Friendship ramp as the Stella ramp (so that it now spells her name) as well as altering the way magna-saves are activated by requiring the player to make quick shots prompted from "action inlanes" used in Zen's Rogue One pinball table.  However, there is one permanent change that I know for certain that I must make to the table for the player's convenience - adding audio and visual cues that trigger when an outlane rollover is hit to warn the player that a magna-save must be used to save the ball immediately before it's drained.
 * I also reworked the last mission, "The Storm", adding a final part where Stella has to fight Gale, like right at the end of that episode. To win the fight, the player has to lock one of the 2 balls in the mission into either sinkhole to help Stella knock Gale down.
 * The activation method for the "Own the Sky" video mode is now assigned to the right orbit. Five shots up this lane (instead of five combos that are 3-way or longer) will light the saucer to start video mode.