Thunderstruck?

[irebal]

Over almost the last six months of playing thunderstruck, I've averaged bonus every 142 spins. Over the last two weeks though (since tomb raider made its debut), I've averaged a bonus every 416 spins. And I'm getting terrible amounts on the bonus to boot. I know slots are not predictable, but it had been pretty consistant....but now lately it's been a real bankroll-killer. Is it just me?

 

[morose]

I played thunderstruck today, only 1 bonus in 350 spins.......

 

[Simmo!]

Over almost the last six months of playing thunderstruck, I've averaged bonus every 142 spins. Over the last two weeks though (since tomb raider made its debut), I've averaged a bonus every 416 spins. And I'm getting terrible amounts on the bonus to boot. I know slots are not predictable, but it had been pretty consistant....but now lately it's been a real bankroll-killer. Is it just me?

Ah my favourite subject

Actually, and I'm hoping its just coincidence but i've not had the luck on T'struck since the "change". The game *has* changed - its obvious from the laborious spin time and the "judder", but i think its more likely that its the "engine" thats been affected as all the "free spin bonus" slots have suddenly slowed down - Secret Admirer, Tally Ho, Tstruck and obviously Tomb Raider all run slower than a snail.

Why Microgaming would want to take the best slot machine they have and make it more boring to play is beyond me. Perhaps they are hoping Tomb Raider will take over the mantle but at $3.75 a spin and only 10 free spins in the bonus, i'm staying well clear.

If you assume the reels aren't weighted, then the bonus should still appear the same number of times (1 in 123 spins to be exact) as there are still 30 symbols per reel.

Tstruck will still remain my favourite slot but running at half speed it's not nearly as much fun as in "the old days", pre-Tomb Raider.

Until yesterday Ladbrokes still ran the "old" version but now they've upgraded and its totally unplayable as the s/ware there runs full screen and it takes 8 minutes to run 50 spins on my PC as opposed to just over 3 minutes before.

But i discovered today that Vegas Country casino still runs the "old" version of Tstruck. Much more fun.

It'll amaze me if it stays this way though. The casinos must all be seeing a vast reduction in the wagering amounts on Tstruck now. Its so slow and i bet like me, people wander off and play lower house-edge games like Video Poker to relieve the boredom of watching the wheels sluggishly drop! That said, its saving me a fortune

KasinoKing suggested we start a "Bring Back The Old Thunderstruck" campaign I'm all for that. I emailed one casino's support dept. and they said the game hadn't changed - upgrade DirectX!! I don't think so. maybe Microgaming have kept them in the dark.

If i was a Microgaming casino operator, i'd not be too chuffed that one of the players favourite games and potentially among the most lucrative had taken a hit like this.

Ah well. What can you do?

Thunderstruck R.I.P

 

[Slotster!]

IMHO, Thunderstruck and Spring Break have DEFINITELY been adversely affected since the 'upgrade'. Yes there's the obvious judder effect, but neither are anywhere near as fun to play as they were. I agree on the bonus thing, but it may just be that it's taking so much longer to play, it seems like it's taking longer to spin them in.

Stopped playing all of them altogether, and been giving the straight five reel slots a go instead (Big Top, Truck Stop etc..) nowhere near as much fun without the bonus to look out for though

I'm in with any campaign to Microgaming... Can't see them listening, but I agree their casino's must've lost an awful lot of money since the change. I know for a fact I've gone through far less bankroll since it changed...

 

[sw2003]

I'm in with any campaign to Microgaming... Can't see them listening, but I agree their casino's must've lost an awful lot of money since the change.

Finally a voice of reason here! Why they changed it, because their casinos lost too much on TS! That is why!

 

[Slotster!]

I've been keeping an eye on the percentage payout reports for the casinos I play at regularly. A couple of the slots percentages edged almost to 100% and, on one occasion, just over! I'm intrigued to see the figures for November!... If I were a gambling man D) I'd hazard a guess at the 90-95% mark.

 

[RobWin]

Microgaming needs a BIG SHOUT OUT !! Fix the Damn problem with the best games, this slowness and no bonus rounds for 300 to 400 spins will ultimately cost the casinos in the long run...what part of this equation does Microgaming not understand.

PS. I have a T1 connection line so I know its not my connection speed !

 

[Simmo!]

Microgaming needs a BIG SHOUT OUT !! Fix the Damn problem with the best games, this slowness and no bonus rounds for 300 to 400 spins will ultimately cost the casinos in the long run...what part of this equation does Microgaming not understand.

PS. I have a T1 connection line so I know its not my connection speed !

Funnily enough I emailed Microgaming support pre "D-Day" thru their website (about two weeks ago) asking them if the reels were in any way weighted. If they are, or i don't get a response, then i'd be inclined to suspect that the game payout percentage has altered aswell like you guys suggest. No response. I'll let you know if i get one.

Thunderstruck Statistics Pre D-Day
Pre D-Day, i ran some background tests to get 200 bonuses while i built my strategy (previously published). This took 29,529 spins to achieve giving a bonus round on average every 147.645. The average payout for the bonus rams was 41.57 times the total stake. 4 Rams appeared 17 times, 3 rams the remaining 183 times. (NB: Bonus rounds inside bonus rounds were not counted in the spin count or 200 bonuses, however they did contribute to the win).

But now the game runs at snail-speed, that'd take about 3 weeks to run a comparison unless we all ran some and pooled the results?

It may indicate if teh game has changed other than visually?

 

[KasinoKing]

Ah well. What can you do?

Thunderstruck R.I.P

SIMMO! - DON'T you DARE be so defeatist!!!
There may be only a few hundred regular readers of this forum, but there will be THOUSANDS of other people who are as pissed about this as we are!

If we all 'pitch a bitch' with Microgaming about this, with others that are bound to complain as well - they must hear and react to our global voice!

Give us that e-mail address so we can all send MG our views!

This fight is not over - it's only just begun!

PS: You said you were phoning them - did you discuss this?
PPS: One strange thing - I would swear that Secret Admirer is actually playing slightly FASTER after their change!

 

[irebal]

secret admirer

I'll second that KK...Secret admirer has always run at a snail's pace since its inception...it now seems faster (or maybe Thunderstruck's mind-numbing new speed is throwing off my perception ).

 

[Simmo!]

But i discovered today that Vegas Country casino still runs the "old" version of Tstruck. Much more fun.

...until today

The Curse Of The Tomb Raider Slot strikes again.

 

[Vesuvio]

I've just been playing Thunderstruck for the first time since the change & it's as everyone said, a very addictive game turned into something so slow it's completely tedious. Not getting the bonus feature in 615 spins didn't help either! If I wasn't forced to play slots because of the offer I was playing I'd have switched to a game with a much lower house edge (say VP) after a few spins.

I was trying to think of possible reasons for MG ruining a game with a high house advantage & came up with:

1) Bad programming/an error they're trying to fix - but this seems unlikely (maybe for a day or two, but not weeks).

2) They think that people will feel less cheated/think they're getting better value for money if it's slow - this is possible. If they've also reduced the payout the slow speed might help to disguise it?

3) Some stupid focus group told them the wins came so quickly they couldn't see what happened... but surely you can avoid this by just not playing with the autoplay, or changing the speed setting?

4) ...actually, I haven't a clue! Still, it means there won't be any temptation to lose money playing slots in future, so I suppose it's for the best!

 

[irebal]

My luck with it continued to be awful, particularly with the rate that the bonus spins were appearing. I finally gave up, which is sad since it used to be my favorite thing to play....but it's really screwed up now.

 

[Simmo!]

My luck with it continued to be awful, particularly with the rate that the bonus spins were appearing. I finally gave up, which is sad since it used to be my favorite thing to play....but it's really screwed up now.

I hazard a guess that the bonus spins still appear the same number of times, but because gameplay is now so much slower, you see them less often therefore giving the impression they don't come up as much.

Its definately less fun this way. Any money says they'll put it back to how it was at some stage...takers?

 

[irebal]

Not for me it's not. Before tomb raider came out, I had been averaging a bonus every 142 spins over a period of about 6 months. In the post-tomb raider period i've averaged a bonus once every 400+ spins. It might just be an extended bad streak, but combined with the slow speed, is no fun at all.

 

[Casinomeister]

I was playing Summer Break today (virtually the same game) at $9 a spin at Maple Casino and hit all five scatters within the first 20 spins. $9 = $4500. I tried to do a screen shot but I effed it up because my F-lock wasn't in the on position on my keyboard.

Nevertheless, I owe an apology to Spearmaster since it was his affiliate account that I wiped out. Sorry spear

I agree that the slowness really bites though.

 

[jetset]

I'm trying to run this down through MGS contacts. Can you guys confirm that this slowness and juddering reported earlier is still bedevilling Tomb Raider, Thunderstruck etc please?

 

[Simmo!]

I'm trying to run this down through MGS contacts. Can you guys confirm that this slowness and juddering reported earlier is still bedevilling Tomb Raider, Thunderstruck etc please?

Hi Jetset - i'll check tomorrow but it was certainly still the same on Saturday. I can take a good guess as to why this has occurred being a hobby programmer myself: the backend code that drives the reel movement is obviously a single block of code called by all "bonus spin" 5 reel slots. They altered it to make Tomb Raider slick, but as a result, the other slots of a similar ilk use the same code and hence show the same characteristics.

Should be a case of inserting a simple

if (tomb raider) then { slow; judder; annoy; }
else { fast; nojudder; happy_bunnies; }

...effectively

...IMHO

Oh and presumably there's another MG update this week to bring in the new VP games and new slots so maybe they're on top of this one and thats when we'll see a change!

 

[nightwalkeriam]

Thungerstuck/Secret Admirer

I haven't hit on either lately they both seem very tight. I primarly read here, but my 2 cents on this subject is about the same as the rest. I have went up to 500 spins with no bonus round, kinda fishy if you ask me, and nothing in regards to a bonus round on secret admirer

 

[Slotster!]

I was playing Summer Break today (virtually the same game) at $9 a spin at Maple Casino and hit all five scatters within the first 20 spins. $9 = $4500. I tried to do a screen shot but I effed it up because my F-lock wasn't in the on position on my keyboard.

Nevertheless, I owe an apology to Spearmaster since it was his affiliate account that I wiped out. Sorry spear

I agree that the slowness really bites though.

Cor! Result!! Well played!!! What did you get from the bonus spins??? Five beach partys. Nice one!!

 

[RobWin]

Microgaming's Silence ?

What is up with Microgaming's Silence ? Why have they not sent someone here to this forum to address this BS ! What does Wim over at Fortune Lounge know about this problem...... Why the hell is no one fixing this problem...this slow running S**T , and NO BONUS ROUNDS is driving me CRAZY ! WHO KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PROBLEM ?

 

[jetset]

Hi Jetset - i'll check tomorrow but it was certainly still the same on Saturday. I can take a good guess as to why this has occurred being a hobby programmer myself: the backend code that drives the reel movement is obviously a single block of code called by all "bonus spin" 5 reel slots. They altered it to make Tomb Raider slick, but as a result, the other slots of a similar ilk use the same code and hence show the same characteristics.

Should be a case of inserting a simple

if (tomb raider) then { slow; judder; annoy; }
else { fast; nojudder; happy_bunnies; }

...effectively

...IMHO

Oh and presumably there's another MG update this week to bring in the new VP games and new slots so maybe they're on top of this one and thats when we'll see a change!

Thanks, Simmo - I'll fly that past them, along with Vesuvius's earlier observations which I felt were well thought out.

RobWin, I can understand your frustration but please try and chill a little - this will be sorted.

 

[Casinomeister]

...this slow running S**T , and NO BONUS ROUNDS is driving me CRAZY ! WHO KNOWS SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PROBLEM ?

Obviously a dedicated player, but at this point we should reaccess your caffine intake

Cor! Result!! Well played!!! What did you get from the bonus spins??? Five beach partys. Nice one!!

Actually the bonus round was a little less than normal at $9 a spin x 15 spins. I believe the total win for the bonus round was $153. But I didn't care at all about that...

I'll contact MG as well to give them a heads up on the slots situation. I'm not a happy bunny either.

 

[smverduzco]

What's A Bonus Round???

At first I thought my streak was over. After reading this, I am in total agreement that the bonus round slots have taken a turn for the worse. It has been weeks since I hit a bonus round on Thunderstruck, playing over 1000 spins at one sitting. In all fairness I will say that Good to Go has been generous, though not my favorite.

I found a slot Fastball at Bet Game Day and Vip Sports that pays off fairly frequently. I hit for $575 twice in one night.

Has anyone found the slots at Intercasino to be stingy lately?? Or am I being greedy after hitting the Rapid jackpot three times in a week??

 

[KasinoKing]

Has anyone found the slots at Intercasino to be stingy lately?? Or am I being greedy after hitting the Rapid jackpot three times in a week??

You're being greedy.