I’m trying to produce an experience in which the player can operate a simple pinball machine. My current focus is on the flippers at the bottom of the machine (I’m starting with the left one). I’d like it so the player can use A and D (or Left and Right) on their keyboard to operate the flippers.
Right now I have the flippers managed by the client entirely, since I figured it would be best not to have each keypress fired to the server to have it handle the motion instead.
At least that was the approach I was hoping to take. I’ve now reached the problem of communicating the position of the flipper to the server so that the ball knows how to act when it reaches the bottom of the machine. Since the motion of the ball is managed by the server, it treats the flippers as though they are always downwards. I don’t want to communicate every keypress as i’m concerned it would cause some lag. Nothing considerable of course, but enough to disrupt gameplay.
Excuse any spaghetti…
local userinputservice = game:GetService("UserInputService")
local ts = game:GetService("TweenService")
local leftFlipper = workspace.machineParts.leftFlipper
local leftOr = (CFrame.new(Vector3.new(-18.235, 56.257, 8.759)) * CFrame.Angles(math.rad(-8.649), math.rad(-120), math.rad(5.038))) -- Position of the flipper when it's released
local leftFlipped = (CFrame.new(Vector3.new(-20.831, 56.72, 8.759)) * CFrame.Angles(math.rad(-8.649), math.rad(-60), math.rad(-5.038))) -- Position of the flipper when it's flipped
local fliptime = 0.1 -- Speed of the "flip" motion
local leftFlippedValue = leftFlipper.flipped -- "flipped" is a BoolValue instance
twinfo = TweenInfo.new(fliptime, Enum.EasingStyle.Linear, Enum.EasingDirection.InOut)
local function flipLeftUp()
local t = ts:Create(leftFlipper.flipperBody, twinfo, {CFrame = leftFlipped})
leftFlippedValue.Value = true
t:Play()
end
local function flipLeftDown()
local t = ts:Create(leftFlipper.flipperBody, twinfo, {CFrame = leftOr})
leftFlippedValue.Value = false
t:Play()
end
local function onpress(input, _gameProcessed)
if input.UserInputType == Enum.UserInputType.Keyboard then
if input.UserInputState == Enum.UserInputState.Begin then
if input.KeyCode == Enum.KeyCode.A or input.KeyCode == Enum.KeyCode.Left then
flipLeftUp()
end
end
end
end
local function onrelease(input, _gameProcessed)
if input.UserInputType == Enum.UserInputType.Keyboard then
if input.UserInputState == Enum.UserInputState.End then
if input.KeyCode == Enum.KeyCode.A or input.KeyCode == Enum.KeyCode.Left then
flipLeftDown()
end
end
end
end
userinputservice.InputBegan:Connect(onpress)
userinputservice.InputEnded:Connect(onrelease)
I’m just really not certain on what the best approach would be here… Would it be feasible for me to fire every keypress to the server and just hope the player doesn’t decide to spam away at their keys? Could I have the ball managed by the client as well and have it communicate all interactions to the server? I apologise if it’s more of a brainfog situation on my end, but this is new territory for me 
.