Even the way flicks are detected have changed quite a bit, with two settings tweaking things further to suit a player’s style.
I found out over the stream of comments I’ve received that showing one how exactly to flick properly increases his/her skill, even when he/she plays for the first time.
For instance, most people score low on their first game, maybe below or in the low hundreds. But when a friend, who had been watching us play for a while, tried it for the first time, he scored 987 points. While upgrades may have been a factor, I believe the bigger impact came from the fact that he knew exactly what to do and exactly how to shoot the balls.
This blog is an attempt to explain how to be a better flicker by showing you how it’s done, and explaining the two flick detection settings in detail.
Video
The best way to show you how to flick is, well, to show you how. My wife and I decided to create a simple video that shows her playing. It wasn’t her best game, but it did showcase strings of Perfect Shots.
The settings she used (Quick Polling and Aim Assist both ON) have now been set to the app’s default since they seem to be the most newbie-friendly.
As you can see, short and quick flicks from the upper left corner of the screen seems to work best. The ball travels in a high-arcing shot (which is great once the Monster Blocker shows up) and either swishes the net or bounces in gently.
See for yourself:
How to (Hoop) Flick Like a Pro
It may look simple, or silly even, but one tester has already sworn to its effectiveness, saying the video instantly raised her score to at least a thousand per game (from the low hundreds), and also taught her how to use Aim Assist. Now, as of posting, she holds the all-time high score by a wide margin. It’s so wide, I found it amazing.
Aim Assist Explained
The name Aim Assist may sound like an Easy Mode, and it might very well be, but this was actually how the game was originally designed.
Enabling Aim Assist hard caps the ball’s speed. This means no matter how strong you flick, it can only go so fast. In addition, it makes the ball feel light or bouncy, and slow, like it’s being guided into a parabolic path into the hoop, hence its name. When Aim Assist is on, even if you flick almost horizontally, the ball would still follow a parabolic trajectory.
Because of this, some testers have noted that it didn’t look realistic, like you weren’t actually flicking the ball, and they’re correct, of course. To satisfy them, I added the option to turn off Aim Assist. What this does is, instead of a hard cap, a soft cap is placed on the speed, meaning, above a certain cap, the velocity is greatly reduced. However, how fast you can get the ball to go only depends on how strong you can flick.
Aim Assist OFF also removes the “guiding” mechanism, so the balls look more lively and bouncy, and they generally move more realistically. While it all sounds nice and fun, it also makes aiming that much harder. Sure, you can shoot the ball, but most players will have a hard time shooting the ball perfectly.
So why is this option still here? Well, I believe it eventually comes down to preference. Aim Assist was OFF by default before, but to help newer players, I’ve set it to ON by default. Those that prefer realism can still turn it off.
Quick Polling
The game checks the position of your finger from time to time, and when you let go of the screen, it calculates the speed of the ball based on the last two checks on the position of your finger.
To make flick detection more sensitive, in one of the versions, I decreased the time interval between these checks from 0.5 seconds to 0.1. While it was fine for my phone (Nexus 5) and my wife’s HTC One, in my tablet (LG G Pad 8.3) and in one of the tester’s Note 4, sometimes, the flicks weren’t detected and the ball just went straight down.
Although I’m not certain about this, my theory is that these devices were able to actually check every 0.1 second, while the other devices took slightly longer than that. 0.1 seconds may have been too fast, such that the last 2 checks may be at the same position, even though you were actually flicking.
On the other hand, the original setting felt too slow, like your flick force was being significantly reduced. I found the sweet spot to be 0.25 seconds, where it works on all devices I’ve tested it on, and the ball seemed responsive. However, some users, like my wife and just recently I discovered, myself, prefer the original style, which is less sensitive and does not significantly react to slight changes in your flicking style.
Still, the faster polling seemed right. Because of this, I introduced the Quick Polling setting.
Setting Quick Polling to ON, which is the default, sets the time between checks to 0.25 seconds, while setting it to OFF reverts it to the original 0.5s style.
Again, in summary, setting it to ON makes the ball responsive but also more sensitive. Slight changes in your flick will visibly change the ball’s trajectory. Setting it to OFF makes the feel of the ball “heavier”, like you can’t move it easily, but also makes your flicks more consistent.
Which Setting is Right for You?
The following are the four possible combinations of these two settings, arranged by, in my opinion, their difficulty. In the end though, it all comes down to feel and personal preference, so I would invite you to try them all.
- Realistic (Aim Assist OFF, Quick Polling ON) – The ball will feel like you’re actually flicking it, making scoring highly dependent on your flicking skills. This is the hardest setting, in my opinion, and is perfect for those looking for a challenge.
- Kinder Realistic (Aim Assist OFF, Quick Polling ON) – The ball will still feel like you’re actually flicking it, but with a certain threshold. Slight changes in your flicks won’t significantly change the ball’s trajectory. This is an easier version of the previous setting, but is still very difficult to hit Perfect Shots.
- Old School (Aim Assist ON, Quick Polling OFF) – This is the setting used in the very first alpha (0.0.1a) and is still the preferred version of some of the oldest players (i.e. me). The ball feels floaty and heavy, and is perhaps the most unrealistic of all the settings, but this setting might also be best of kids who like to swipe wildly.
- Default (Aim Assist ON, Quick Polling ON) – This has been set to the default setting for a reason, I believe it’s the easiest setting to learn. The ball is responsive and sensitive, but is also guided to the hoop thanks to Aim Assist. Perfect for new players.
The Latest on Hoop Flick
Actually, there are a lot of new features that I should have discussed. Again, I’ll use the excuse that I’ve been so engrossed at developing the app that I couldn’t find the time to blog. But here are a summary of them and hopefully I get to explain them in detail in the next posts:
- New Bonuses – There are now a total of 10 bonuses. Only 3 of the 5 original bonuses were kept. One of the bonuses, Avid Supporter, is free and requires the user to watch or view an ad in exchange for a “buff” that increases points earned by 10% on their next game.
- Custom Avatars – Your avatar can now be changed. Most Custom Avatars can be purchased using points, while some can only be unlocked via achievements.
- Combos – Shooting Perfect Shots in succession grants additional time.
- Big Boss – Unlocks at around 3300 points, capable of blocking a lot of shots.
- Improved Attributes
- Icy Veins – Now also extends the crunch time duration.
- Hot Starter – Now also grants extra Money Balls at the start of the game.
- Booster Mode – A system used to help players struggling to progress at the early stages of the game.
- Hidden Skills – Unlocked when an attribute is fully upgraded.
- Banner Ads
- Google Play Games Services has been published.
Again, more details will follow. Right now I’m working on a real-time multiplayer component, but it’s not a priority at this point. Hopefully I can get it to work, if not, I’ll work on more polishing next.
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