Zen Original Sneak Peek

TL;DR

Han Solo VR table has timing bugs and brutal spell-heavy rules design.

Summary

Key Claims

• Han Solo table was added free to Star Wars VR for VR owners

  high confidence · Chris states 'Zen went ahead and uploaded a new, well, new to the game. A new to VR table for free. It was just an automatic, which was rather cool. And that was the Han Solo table.'

• The Han Solo table has been 'confederated over' to Unreal Engine from FX3, and timing/physics issues are specific to Zoltan's designs

  high confidence · Chris: 'this version is now wholly made in Unreal Engine. That's right. It's been essentially confederated over.' Later: 'all the ones are actually playing just as they do in fx3 like i've noticed zero difference in timing zero difference in flip of behavior they're all very consistent but you're right it seems to be zoltan's tables'

• Saucer ejects in Zoltan tables feel softer/less forceful in VR vs FX3, making timing nearly impossible without watching the flasher light instead of the ball

  high confidence · Chris describes the upper saucer: 'It ejects basically just kind of going bleh. It's not like it's going BAM! It's just kind of burping it out more or less.' And later: 'i was not looking at the ball i was looking at the light. That's the only way that I started making that shot. That's not how you should be playing pinball.'

• Han Solo requires spelling COURAGE 21 times (C-O-U-R-A-G-E at 6 letters per spell, 3 times to start multiball) before accessing the main multiball

  high confidence · Chris: 'You have to spell courage, and that then gives you a ball... You have to do this three times... C-O-U-R-A-G-E. 21 times you have to hit that ramp in order to start the thing. That's a ridiculous amount of times to start a multiball.'

• The Falcon minigame (claw/arm mechanic) lacks visual feedback (reticle/spotlight) showing where the ball will drop, making it nearly impossible to control

  high confidence · Chris: 'if you don't land, let alone landing in the correct hole, if it doesn't land in any hole, there's no ball lock... you just wasted it... They need to add it in. It's so frustrating.'

• One Discord player reported playing Han Solo for 1.5 hours and only successfully completing the 'lit on the playfield' mission 4 times out of 8 total

  medium confidence · Chris: 'I know one of the guys on Discord, and I want to say it's mbeaching... he was saying that he had a go on this table an hour and a half long... he only successfully lit so when you light on the playfield... four four and I think there's eight total'

Notable Quotes

• “It's the ball that gives you the timing, not a light. The light should alert you to the fact that a ball is about to eject, but it's not a timing point.”

  Chris Friebus @ N/A — Core criticism of Unreal Engine conversion—flipper timing is broken because players must watch lights instead of ball physics

• “You're bashing your head against the wall trying to complete and start or just, excuse me, trying to just start any mode on this table. Just experience the mode for the first time.”

  Chris Friebus @ N/A — Encapsulates the brutal spell-o-rama problem: new players are heavily punished before experiencing content

• “Mandalorian is a punishing table but it's fun the entire time. But it's easy to get things started. Whereas while I'm playing Han Solo, as soon as I fail a mode, I'm like, do I really want to try and load that one up again?”

  Jared Morgan @ N/A — Highlights the difference between challenge and fun—Han Solo's design is punishing AND unfun

• “I don't think either of us are saying make it easier that's not what we want we want challenge but just make it more fun”

  Chris Friebus @ N/A — Clarifies critique is about fun/engagement, not difficulty reduction; advocates for code updates as solution

• “These are living tables now. Yeah. Not just treating them as a one and done, no more fixes. Like, they need to rethink how these tables work.”

  Jared Morgan @ N/A — Advocates for post-launch code updates to Zen tables, similar to Stern's iterative approach

• “It's their first foray into Unreal. They are absolutely experimenting in the wild with this.”

  Jared Morgan @ N/A — Suggests VR is being used as a beta testbed for Unreal Engine conversion issues

• “When the ball pops out of the falcon, hold it in space so we can see it... hold it so we can go okay now i can get ready for the shot right and actually have time to aim”

  Jared Morgan @ N/A — Specific mechanic proposal to improve saucer eject usability—add hang time/magnet hold

Entities

Signals

• ?

  product_concern: Han Solo and other Zoltan-designed tables exhibit broken saucer eject timing in Unreal Engine conversion; ball ejects too slowly/softly and flipper window is unforgiving, forcing players to time flips based on flasher lights rather than ball physics

  high · Chris and Jared both independently identify the issue across multiple saucer sequences and describe balls 'burping out' instead of being forcefully ejected; timing windows are binary (hit or wildly miss) rather than forgiving

• ?

  design_innovation: Han Solo features experimental minigame mechanics (Falcon claw arm, Quad Laser tracking) that are poorly implemented, unintuitive, and lack necessary UI feedback (reticle, spotlight, hold-time)

  high · Chris extensively criticizes Falcon arm minigame lack of perspective/reticle, Quad Laser requiring simultaneous button presses not designed for pin sims, no ball hold time for aiming

• ?

  gameplay_signal: Han Solo's ruleset requires excessive repetition before accessing modes: 21 successful ramp hits to start Courage multiball (6-letter spell × 3), 7-letter Smuggle spelling, 4-bank target spelling, and brutal Falcon minigame failures reset progress

  high · Chris detailed breakdown: 'C-O-U-R-A-G-E. 21 times you have to hit that ramp... Three times you have to do this... That's ridiculous.'; Discord user mbeaching reported 1.5 hours play yielding only 4 successful mode completions out of 8

• ?

  manufacturing_signal: Zen appears to be using VR as a live testbed for Unreal Engine conversion issues; bugs on VR tables not present in FX3 suggest incomplete QA before deployment

  medium · Jared: 'You can pretty much guarantee it is, Chris... It's their first foray into Unreal. They are absolutely experimenting in the wild with this.' Chris confirms multiple timing issues disappear when comparing same tables in FX3