As a pinball freak, I can never workout whether which side to nudge a ball about to hit a passive bumper near a side exit. Either way it seems to always make things worse and make it rebound down the exit. Any pinball maestros out there? I suspect it may depend on the precise geometry of the exit area. My normal reflex is to try and nudge the side closest to the exit, but I suspect that might be counterproductive
I always bumped the machine straight backwards with my hands on both sides. What happened when it worked was the collision, instead of being passive, tended to give some energy to the ball and made it less likely to slide down the side chute easily.
Makes me wanna go play some pinball…
The ball will actually move very little when you bump…the machine moves. Think of it as moving the machine ever so slightly under the ball. You would bump the machine opposite of the desired direction of travel.
If you want the ball to drop to the right, nudge left. If you want the ball to drop to the left, nudge right.
as I thought I was probably bumping the wrong way. It is hard to fight the instinct to nudge the side closest to the ball