Quoted from accidental:I think I need some clarification. Scared Stiff and AFM are 'no-flow stop-and-go' pins?
Is your definition of 'flow' that every single shot must be a loop or a ramp that returns the ball to the flippers? If there's a single scoop or saucer then the whole rest of the design, no matter how 'flowy' is thrown out?
Doesn't sound like a helpful definition to me.
Flow isn't really well defined, either, and I'm just poking fun at the zealotry for it on here.
For SS, if the hole is very important to scoring well and it holds the ball for 10-15 seconds (a la the spider web scoop on SS), then it's totally a flow killer. Also, keep in mind, 1/3 of the game is bashing the crate (both for the multiball and wizard). The dead head shot stops at the top and bounces around before being ejected into the pops (flow killer).
AFM... before you collect the left and right orbits, it stops in the pops, and gets shot out through SOL, which is a flow killer. Qualifying the lock is flowy, but having to wait through animations during a lock? Not flowy. And 1/2 of the game is bashing the center target, which is the opposite of flow.
They're great games. Both of them. I'd love to own both of them, but they're not flowy. I'm just pointing out that using 'flow' as a measure of how good a game is is pretty ridiculous. Most games are not Star Trek flowy, and they're still fantastic games.