FOMO fighters

True, but he had a creative studio prior to pinball and now has a 10-year deep dive into pinball. So he has a solid creative background plus a good feel for what makes a game fun.

Now add to it that he built a homebrew, and with his background and homebrew design Gomez chose him to be the next Stern design. I’d trust Gomez’s judgment on who to hire as a designer. Pretty good track record so far.

Nothing is guaranteed but I think, with all that, there’s a better than good chance he’ll do well designing games.

And this looks nothing like the other design. This is a standard outlane design with a mechanical post to sometimes give the chance at a save vs. a curved ball guide in the outlane always offering the chance at a save.

Yep, and the curve is only where the ball turns the corner. And the length of ball guide leading up to the post is a standard straight outlane setup vs the deeply curved design for the entire outlane guide in the other one.

Can't wait to see this. Layout looks like tons of fun with good flow & combos. Left Ramp to Right Ramp to Crossover Ramp to Upper Loop to Middle Ramp and repeat back to Left Ramp. Should be a fun one!

There isn’t any science to it. Version 1.0 usually means all main modes and features have been put into the game and usually anything after that will be bug fixes or other maintenance items. Version numbers leading up to that are fairly meaningless but usually give a progressive idea as to how close they are to having all features in, but again it depends on the programmer or company as to how they number it.

Area 51 MB on the LE last night was:
1) hit the two lock targets on the upper playfield
2) then hit the upper playfield inner orbit to light MB
3) then started MB at the target on the outer loop of the upper playfield that gets exposed by the diverter that lifts up

Jack said he didn't want the upper playfield to be a grind where you feel like you're living on the upper playfield so he's deliberately kept it pretty quick and clean.

Yep, all those points are spot on. GnR looks good to the eye. But playing it is a different story. The upper right flipper is almost not even necessary to have in the game. I decided to never buy another JJP again after the playfield issues and lack of code support on POTC, but even if that weren't the case I wouldn't want GNR at home with the way the code and the flippers play.

I'm really looking forward to fighting some foo in my basement though.

We've got spirit, yes we do!!! We've got spirit, how 'bout you??? lol

Perfect!!!

^^^ This. The best answer you'll get will be the one from asking your distributor what your options are.

Yep, I think the market message seems to be that a pin primarily needs to be fun above all else. I'm looking forward to getting my Foo because it looks like a blast to play with the license freedom they had in creating it. Pulp has access to all movie audio clips and the handful of songs you really would want in the game to make it fun to play. Make a game fun with good rules, good layout, and a package of entertaining callouts and people will want it.

PSA for future fighters of foo. Looks like the wire returns drop the ball directly onto the inlane switch slots. Can cause chipping in that spot over time. I have a couple of these for protection when mine arrives. Here's a link to the item on Pinball Life, but it looks like they're currently sold out.

https://www.pinballlife.com/universal-cliffy-slot-switch-protector.html

Yep that can work too. Point is to think about protecting that spot.

Yeah I think I’m remembering on stream Raymond saying something like 12 or 14 shots for the modes. If it is then that seems like a lot. Maybe it will play shorter with a van powerup though. I think one of the powers is fewer mode shots.

Foo code update .91

V0.91.0 - March 23rd, 2023
=============================

= BUG FIXES =
-Fix bug where van modes didn't reset properly
-Fix overlord lock light effects in Overlord 2 and Overlord 3
-Fix final shot animation when you completed the mode with 0 seconds on the timer.
-Fix bug where area51 and overlord lights would flash during Austin or DC when their multiballs couldn't actually be started
-Fix bug where bot targets would be disabled during Area51 Multiball
-Fix overdrive behavior during multiball: it will now instantly save it upon hitting left outlane switch.
-Fix bug with Rock-O-Meter being lit when it shouldn't
-Fix display issue where the penultimate mode shot would not display its award animation
-Fix bug in roswell where the "too slow" animation would sometimes play after the mode was finished
-Fix UI items showing on screen during Match sequence
-Improve overlord lock device behavior

= RULE TWEAKS =

SKILL SHOT
-add instant mystery award when you get the radio targets skill shot
-left inlane, right inlane, right outlane, Rock-O-Meter now instantly validate playfield
-change Rock-O-Meter skillshot:
level 1 = 1x value
level 2 = 2x value + 1 Rock-O-Meter advancement
level 3 = 3x value + 2 Rock-O-Meter advancement
advancement means turn a light that is off into a blinking light, or a blinking light into a solid light

VAN MODES
-Every van mode now can get one shot awarded from the upper playfield inner loop and upper playfield outer loop.
-When you make the first shot in a city, 6 units of progress are awarded instead of 1.
This number decreases by one for each van mode you have completed.
-Roughly double the scoring in all van modes
-Tweak NY Van Mode so that the spinner value doesn't reset between collects
-NY Van Mode now lights the upper spinner to always build value.
-Tweak Final Shot scoring so completing it with less than 10 seconds on the timer will score a guaranteed minimum award value
-New award display added to Chicago

OVERLORD Multiball
-Change re-lock feature to only bump the jackpot (no longer awards a double jackpot)
-The Right Arm Foobot part will now be awarded upon playing Overlord 2 or Overlord 3 (in addition to getting a super jackpot in Overlord 1)

UFO
-Fixed UFO Button Tractor Beam calculations to more accurately find the most valuable shot
-Do not allow progress towards UFO Buttons on captive ball during multiballs
-UFO base value now 250k
-UFO bonus now lit via the left crossover complete (all the way through to upper flipper) shot, 2x if hit from the upper flipper

DC
-you can now visit DC upon saving 3 cities. If you do this, Austin will be available once you save the other 3.
-add a ball in DC each time you get a unique super jackpot

AUSTIN
-change / balance rules and scoring:
-each red shot increases the multiplier on the blue shot (super jackpot)
-the first time you score a 7x super jackpot, add a ball
-each super increases jackpots by 100k
-new formula for starting jackpot value: 1,000,000 + 500,000 per van mode completed on the
-The Overlord shot will always be lit for 250k and change the location of the blue "bot" shot

COMBOTRON
-tweak Combotron scoring
+10k per band member combo made this ball
+5k per band member combo made this game

AREA 51
-add text over area 51 advance animations so you know the award value

SOUND
-add some missing switch and shot sounds
-add some missing display sequence sounds

LIGHTNING
-reset lightning value after the lightning mode ends
-add display effect for lightning awards
-lightning mode no longer raises shot value with each hit. value is determined by how many lightning shots made up until mode was started
-lightning mode timer 30 seconds --> 40 seconds

MYSTERY
-Allow van mods to be given as mystery awards if you're in a van mode
It will act as though you cleared the drop targets instantly (either adding time, value, or progress in the current mode you are in)
-Fixed Advance Spinner mystery award
-added some missing mystery audits
-add competition mystery award sequence in this order:
-2.5M, Engine Upgraded, Raise Spinner, Speakers Upgraded, Max Tractor Beam, Bomb Upgraded, 5 mil, Bonus X, Light Ball Save, Light Extra Ball
-if it can't award a van mod because you are in a wizard mode, 250k will be awarded instead

BOT FRENZY
-allow Austin and DC to start at the same time as Bot Frenzy or while Bot Frenzy is running.

OVERDRIVE
-the Overdrive points award is now disabled during multiball. The Overdrive post save will still activate.

EXTRA BALL
- When Extra Ball is disabled, Extra Ball consolation points increased from 500,000 --> 10,000,000
This value is affected by Playfield and Raygun Multipliers.
Show consolation points in text on top of the extra ball video

MULTIPLIERS
-Playfield X and Raygun X apply to ALL scores

= ADJUSTMENTS ADDED =
ROCK O METER DIFFICULTY,
-add adjustment ROCK O METER DIFFICULTY, difficulty will go up each time you end a playfield x session, default EXTRA EASY:
Extra Easy: Battery (right orbit) always lit
Easy: Hit the Mod-ulator paddle (target behind the drops) to light battery, battery stays lit until playfield timer expires
Medium: Hit the Mod-ulator paddle to light battery, hitting battery turns it off, unless playfield x timer is running
Hard: Same as Medium but battery is on a 30 second timer, unless playfield x timer is running
Extra hard: Same as Hard but battery on a 15 second timer, unless playfield x timer is running

ADJUSTMENT: PLAYFIELD X SECONDS
-Added adjustment PLAYFIELD X SECONDS, default 40, competition install 30
-Added competition mode adjustment back to standard adjustments
-Added target game time back to standard adjustments
-added adjustment "NUM VAN SHOTS SPOTTED" default 5
-added adjustment "VAN MODE STARTING TIME" default 40 seconds
-added adjustment "TIME ADDED PER VAN SHOT" default 3 seconds

- SYSTEM 3.35

New machines come with it installed. No paying account needed.

Have you tried adjusting the end of the ball guide on the launch lane? It's designed to be adjusted.