Pinball Deluxe: Reloaded News

Quick fix for
- Fastball hit ramp capture sometimes not letting go of the ball
- Visual spacing between frames in the car animation of the Hi-Way matrix game in Thrill Ride skin

Table layout, rules and logic changes:
- [Brix] Slightly toned down the difficulty of the last few level
- [Jukebox] The Rhythm game will now award a 'Perfect' bonus if 95% of the max possible score is achieved instead of 100%. The reason for the change is that it was basically impossible to achieve before (4 players ever managed to do it before now)
- [Brix] Changed the target score for the High Score III achievement. Instead of 50M, it now ask for 40M. It previously had a completion rate of 0.01%

Other changes:
- Preventing the Mail screen from closing if it is waiting on the server to respond
- Fixed an issue that would allow a reward message to be closed while the game is waiting for the server to confirm, preventing the reward from being disbursed
- Removed the Lights Out play mode
- Fixed an issue that would make cloud save unreadable for some French and German players
- Removed the frame rate debugger which was causing trouble when mapping flipper keys to - or =
- [Fastball-Issue#1] Fixed an issue with the running lights
- [Fastball-Issue#1] Changed the batting cage Triple label from 300 to 500 to match the scoring value
- [Fastball] Fixed an issue where the ball coming out of the Hit ramp would collide improperly with a ball rolling right underneath

Small patch to remove dependencies on previous servers

- New 'Thrill Park' skin for Carnival
- Fixed an issue with the powerball button triggering the song change on the Jukebox
- The connection to the Nakama servers will now be cached for faster reconnects

Updates 2.3.0 through 2.4.6 (rolled into a single one for Steam)

This update includes a new skin for the Wild West table: Desperados.

We received notice from our current online server provider (used mainly for Daily Events and the Ladder) that they will stop operations later this year. The replacement we found required a lot of re-coding but we are almost done with it. This update includes both the current (GameSparks) and new (Nakama) code. Over the next few updates we will slowly move all functionality over to the new server.

IMPORTANT – SEAMLESS TRANSITION: We are importing player data to the new server so that you will not lose data associated with your account. In addition, the new server offers the same functionality: Daily Events and the Ladder will work the same way as they do now.

You can see that your game profile is properly synced by going to Settings->User and clicking 'Check Account Status.' The screen will list your current (GameSparks) account info and the new (Nakama) account. If all is correct, both accounts will be in green (indicating the player is connected to both servers) and they will show a green checkmark to indicate that the accounts match each other.

Here is an outline of the migration process to the new server:

• Migration of historic data from GameSparks to Nakama. (DONE)
  
• Automatic copying of new data from GameSparks to Nakama. (ONGOING)
  
• Update A (this update): support for both GameSparks and Nakama. All online games still run on GameSparks. Players can view account sync status. (DONE)
  
• If required, hotfixes to Update A will be released.
  
• Switch from GameSparks to Nakama. If you already have Update A nothing else is required. If you don’t have the update, online functionality will require updating to the latest game version.
  
• Update B: will still support GameSparks and Nakama but will default to Nakama. Continued access to GameSparks during the transition should assist with any account sync problems that may arise.
  
• GameSparks will turn off their servers in September 2022.
  

Table layout, rules and logic changes:

• [JurassicLinks] Changed the pushback applied by the slingshot on the powerball (this does not affect normal balls). There should be less bouncing between the two slingshots and the ball is less likely to end up bouncing in the outlane.
  
• [Jukebox] Slight adjustment to the Award capture return. The bounce should be a bit more consistent.
  
• [Space] Fixed a spot where the ball could get stuck (in the right outlane)
  
• [Apparatus] A very rare occurence of target multiball triggering at the same time as Ultimate was causing an infinite balls bugs. This should not happen anymore.
  
• [Tradewinds] Raised the ball save time from 15 to 20 seconds and the max score from 25k to 75k. Powerballs will play better with the ball save now.
  

Other changes:

• [PC] Steamworks library update
  
• [PC] To help with support of virtual pinball cabinets, it is now possible to request a specific table to be loaded at launch via the -loadTable option: '-loadTable carnival'. The table short names are not always the same as the table names: carnival, space (for Space Frontier), brix, celtic (for Celtic Jukebox), wildwest, baseball (for Fastball), underwater (for Treasure Hunter), apparatus, tradewinds, golf (for Jurassic Links) and bagaball
  
• [PC] Fixed an issue where the backslash key (\) did not show up when used as an input
  
• [PC] When assigning inputs to the space or return key, the UI will be more responsive
  
• on startup the game will check to make sure the 'End of the Universe' achievement is correctly awarded
  
• [WildWest] The message "Mission Start" will not show up anymore when there is already a map mission in progress
  
• [Fastball] The batting cage ball display will now only show the balls that are left. It doesn't include the ball currently being played
  
• [Fastball] Fixed an issue with the animation of the 1B/2B/3B/HR tracking lights: they were not indication the correct state of the field
  
• Fixed the wrong Bronze 3 ladder icon
  
• [WildWest] Added some stats to the table. They are accessible in the same manner as on Jurassic Links
  
• [Bagaball] The score breakdown will now list the different large pockets separatedly
  
• The 'Reset to Default' button on the Input setting screen (on PC or when a keyboard is attached) will now only reset the active selection (Keyboard, Mouse or Controller) instead of all of them
  
• [Fastball] The ball is less likely to escape the batting cage (and cause trouble) than before
  
• Trying to start a daily event match when internet connectivity has been lost (but the app has not realized yet) should not result in being stuck in a "contacting server..." loop anymore
  
• [WildWest] if you were to lose the last ball while the dynamite fuse it lit, the sound effect should now stop correctly at the end of the game
  
• Scores between 1 and 10 billions will now be abbreviated to 2.4B instead of 2B previously. This affects abbreviated score displays (stats, score analysis) pretty much for for wild west only
  
• [WildWest] The Shootout matrix game will now completely fit in the screen on phones with aspect ration 10:21 and the like
  
• Leaving a game before Game Over will now reward the tickets accumulated so far
  
• Modorific mod will now check for completion when the game starts (in addition to the checks while it runs)
  
• [WildWest] The dynamite fuse could be visible beyond the edges of the matrix if the timer was larger enough. Fixed.
  
• [Space] All rollovers will now count toward the daily challenges
  
• [Tradewinds] The powerball shouldn't stay stuck in the Mill exit lane anymore
  

This update adds a new skin for Fastball: check out Issue #1. The underlying game engine has been updated and should bring a boost in performance and bug fixes for some devices. Sometimes the same game data would be saved multiple times for no good reason: the logic governing saved data has been reviewed and optimized.

Table rules and/or logic changes:

• [JurassicLinks] A change to the Better Ball mod behavior to limit times when all the balls are locked in captures for an extended period. During Raptor MB when a ball gets captured in a hole, we now check to see if it is the last ball in play (not captured). If it is, we apply a 1s lock instead of the full mod duration. That way, a ball will return to play faster and not break the game flow.
  
• [Jukebox] Count It Down mod to start at 500k (as indicated in the mod description) instead of the current 300k
  
• [Brix] Bonus balls cannot spawn when there is already one of that color in play. That has always been the case but we are adding a 100k "Double Bonus Ball" award. This happens very rarely but is visible when the X-Ray mod is in use. This change also applies to Lucky Breaks bonus balls.
  
• [Carnival] Added a second safety pin to the outlanes to prevent the powerball from squeezing through in some circumstances
  
• [Wildwest] Added a blocking pin to the left outlane to prevent powerballs from wiggling between the previous 2 pins.
  

Other changes:

• [JurassicLinks] Fixed some text descriptions
  
• [JurassicLinks] The range lights will not blink anymore during range bonus (when the Range mod is in use)
  
• [JurassicLinks] Fixed Palm Springs spelling
  
• Updated reset information for Ladder
  
• [JurassicLinks] Stats for the 5-iron shot will now be collected correctly
  
• Sometimes, the simulation thinks a ball is still on a ramp when instead it should be on the playfield. This has to do with a missed trigger in some edge cases. The game will now put those balls back at the plunger instead of draining them.
  
• Fixed a bug in the cloud data save system (bad float serialization)
  
• [PC] Left and right navigation buttons should work better with the mouse
  
• [JurassicLinks] Raptors should not appear on the initial golf ball position anymore
  
• The score breakdown screen will now display the table the game was played on
  
• Swapping a Brix's checkpoint or Jurassic Link's golf course will not ask you which mod to replace anymore (it didn't make sense since there is only a single slot that would work)
  
• [Wildwest] The saloon music will now play as long as there is a ball in the saloon
  
• [TreasureHunter] Modified the ramp entrances to catch balls that are not correctly released from the ramp
  
• The underlying game engine has been updated in order to get access to bug fixes
  
• The way data is being saved in-game has been updated to limit instances where it would get saved multiple times in a row
  
• Achievements are now being saved in the cloud
  
• [Jurassic] Fixed hole #5 on Water World
  
• [Jukebox] Repositioned a ticket that could be collected from too far away
  
• [Brix] The X-Ray mod will now detect if Lucky Break will generate a bonus ball and show it.
  
• [Carnival] The Big Ride mod rollovers will now count as rollovers for the purpose of anything triggering other mini-games/mods.
  
• [Carnival] The Ride Again mod will now show a "POINTS UP" message instead of the previous "+20,000". The point value was often inaccurate.
  
• [Fastball] Reduced the chance of a powerball triggering the Batting Cage twice in one capture
  
• [Space] Fixed an edge case where the physics simulation would think the ball is still on the ramp when it shouldn't
  
• [Space] The DEFEND music will stop playing correctly on game over
  
• [Apparatus] Triggering BBBB configuration when exiting Ultimate will now mark that configuration as discovered
  
• [Apparatus] Better checks for the situation where there would no balls in play
  
• [Fastball] New skin: Issue #1
  
• [Apparatus] Powerball 2x bonus will now apply when cycling a fuse
  
• [JurassicLinks] The plunger will not activate anymore with dragging while there are no balls to plunge.