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Modern Stern - what game settings do you use? For home use

What game settings do you use on your machines - Factory or do you adjust settings?

  • Factory game settings

  • Adjust game settings

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M

Matt BRU

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5Years
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Jan 18, 2016
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Oxford
I currently have my Star Trek Pro game settings set as factory (3 balls), but understand you can tinker with different game settings which adjusts the difficulty and things like frequency of extra balls, number of balls etc. My high score is 193M on factory but usually I score around 40M, I've only reached the first wizard mode (Kobayashi Maru) twice. Do most people just keep the factory settings for home use? Or do you tinker...

More than 3 balls had seemed like cheating to me but if it means longer games and experiencing more of the modes....

I'm sure its down to personal preference but interested to hear how others have their machines set up!

Cheers
 
You need to keep it 3 balls, but provide extra balls for hitting replay scores. You can set these replay scores to whatever you want but can also set them to automatically change based on your historic scores.
 
I'm not a superb pinball player - fact. But that doesn't mean I don't love the game. So I keep the settings on my Walking Dead on Extra Easy (That's on the Utilities -> Installs menu) plus a generous Ball Save timer and up to two extra balls for high scores.

That way I get good, fun games with an outside chance of getting to a mini wizard mode and/or a thumping great score.

There's lots of great things about owning your own pinball and one is you can tune it to exactly how you like to play.
 
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I keep at 3 balls, only thing I change is special awards gives extra ball instead of credit.

Disabled the orbit posts on Tron and IM to speed the game up too.
 
I keep mine stock, just removing the function to restart a game after ball 1.

You only get better by learning how to reduce risk. I found if I played on my own I'd restart games if I had a bad first ball, which resulted in few games getting played through all the way. Also, just like computer games with cheat modes, you're only cheating yourself as once you can easily run through a game it loses its pull. Keep the longevity and the challenge by playing it as the designer intended. That way when you do eventually hit the wizard mode, it feels like a much bigger achievement.

I asked Steve Ritchie about 4 ball play and he looked at my like I'd just propositioned his missus.
 
3 balls with just one or 2 extra balls available. Points for specials. Default difficulty settings. Ball save normally 5s but 8s on the harder machines ( IM, Avatar ).
 
I don't currently have any modern Stern machines, but in the past I have kept my Sterns to factory settings with a couple of minor tweaks such as adding a couple of seconds onto the ball save. I would turn off certain annoying features on games such as the Cave Troll on LOTR and the initial cannon shot for a Song jackpot on AC/DC.

I always keep my games on 3 ball play, none of that silly 4 ball setup for me! :tut: I like to be rewarded for good play and to be able to see most of what the machine can offer, but without making things too easy, so I normally would set up a couple of replay levels awarding an extra ball at a certain good score, plus none of that restricting tournament mode setup either! I would normally leave the match sequence on and set up the Special awards to sound the Knocker.

On AC/DC I set the replay levels to extra game as well, as I just loved hearing that knocker crack when collecting a big Song Jackpot. :)

Certain recent Stern games I might tweak the flipper and coil power settings slightly up or down if required.
 
I had a stern that came with 4 balls from the previous owner - I quite liked that, it led to longer game times (I'm **** at pinball so need the help)
 
Maximum incline (front legs all the way in, back legs all the way out). 3 balls plus EB for replay and special. Moderate difficulty on every option. Outlanes halfway open.

When kids are round to play, I set to 5 balls. If young kids then I put rubber bands over the outlanes or they will get fed up with pinball within minutes.
 
I base it on two factors. Number of balls and length of game

Uk league is 4 balls with no extras. So i apply this

In terms of time, that is obviously hugely subjective. Too long, i move the outlane posts or steepen the playfield.

On my stern world poker tour I found the ball times so long that i removed both outlane posts. It sharpens your skills
 
Thanks for the recommendations, I tinkered with the settings last night and have gone with the following for now:

- 3 balls
- EB at Warp 6
- EB at replay score 75,000,000
- EB at replay score 150,000,000

I've been thinking, perhaps I should have only one replay score, as the warp 6 and a single replay score gives two EB opportunities! Don't want to make it too easy....

I also reduced the left eject and slingshot power by a tiny amount which has - i think - improved play.

And anyone know what the Replay Boost Yes/No means? I noticed on one game when I got past 75M it then said Replay EB at 150M and 300M - but I had not set 300M...
 
Completely depends on the game and situation, however mostly 3 ball with extra balls available at 2 replay levels and off the special. My only modern Stern is LOTR and to get even close to the end of it you need those extra balls.

The closest I ever made it was 5/7 Elf gifts, 2 DTR's played (1 completed). Played all multiballs 3 times (1 completed) and got to There and Back Again but not finished.

Matt BRU said:
And anyone know what the Replay Boost Yes/No means? I noticed on one game when I got past 75M it then said Replay EB at 150M and 300M - but I had not set 300M...
Click to expand...

Replay Boost is a bit of clever maths the software does depending on the scores being achieved by players. With it on if you are consistantly getting scores way above the replay level, or at it, for example a replay is set at 40m and you are getting games consistantly around the 80m mark after 1 or 2 games the software will automatically push the value of the replay up to match or go above those scores so it is harder to earn them. Conversley if nobody is making the replay score after a number of games as it is now too high the software will drop it back down.

If it is set to Off, whatever replay levels you set in the software are set in stone forever unti the option is changed. So if you set a replay at 75m it will always be 75m.

Likely yours is turned on so that's why it went up to 150m/300m.
 
Mine are always set to 3 balls.
Specials award points rather than a credit.
I don't limit number of extra balls, mainly because unlike older games they're not easily repeatable and the difficulty increases exponentially to try and get them.
Every setting that can be set to automatically reflex is set as such, that way the difficulty ramps up as you get used to the machine.
On MET for example, this includes Ball Save Time, Combo Extra Ball (currently need 30 combos for an extra ball - Combo Champion is 23!!), Coffin hits Extra Ball (currently need 25 - which I think is the max. 2nd extra ball requires 100 hits). All other settings are factory EXCEPT rather than the ball auto plunging after a coffin lock, you get to plunge yourself. I did this to allow myself a breather, but it has the added bonus of letting you have another skill shot.
I never set replays to extra ball. If you're having a bad game and need an extra ball you won't reach the score, if you're having a good game you shouldn't need an extra ball 'donated' to you. I think you should have to work for the extra ball.

The most ridiculous machine (IMHO) I've ever played for ease of play was a BSD on site. It had little or no tilt, 4 replay levels which awarded extra ball, every other extra ball was set on it's lowest setting, the ball save seemed to go on forever. I managed over 13 Billion on it.
A close second was a MM which I had on loan for a bit. When it first came to me it managed to give me 10 extra balls (Video Mode, Destroy 2nd Castle, 10 Hurry Ups, 2 from Castle MB, Completing Royal Madness and 4 from achieving (fixed) replay levels), as well as being set to 4 ball to start with. After a couple of games I quickly changed it back to factory.

Having said all of that. It is your machine so set it up how you want so that you get the most enjoyment out of it.
 
RudeDogg1 said:
Speaking of which on yours is it hard to hit the large moving ramp and getting the ball under it when it's raised? Or is it because it's on max incline? Or just my **** skills?
Click to expand...

It's gotta be a damn nearly perfect shot man, otherwise the ball just rattles around the plastic part and comes back down. It's quite a steep ramp with a sharp curve so the shot needs decent power as well. Can be backhanded on the occasion if you're lucky :)
 
Rudi, your BSD was the very machine Wayne was referring to that was set up way too easy a while back (not by me I may add) ;) You should just be able to backhand the ball under the ramp from the right hand lightning flipper. The flippers were never that powerful on your machine. Maybe it's time for a flipper rebuild? Ah, Sam just commented the same...

The incline of a game is another example of how a game can be set up to be harder or easy to play. Normally steeper incline makes things harder by making ramps more difficult to shoot and a faster return of the ball back to the flippers, although if the game is set too shallow and floaty it makes things harder again due to more sideways movement of the ball.
 
I TiltAlot said:
Rudi, your BSD was the very machine Wayne was referring to that was set up way too easy a while back (not by me I may add) ;) You should just be able to backhand the ball under the ramp from the right hand lightning flipper. The flippers were never that powerful on your machine. Maybe it's time for a flipper rebuild? Ah, Sam just commented the same...

The incline of a game is another example of how a game can be set up to be harder or easy to play. Normally steeper incline makes things harder by making ramps more difficult to shoot and a faster return of the ball back to the flippers, although if the game is set too shallow and floaty it makes things harder again due to more sideways movement of the ball.
Click to expand...

This machine has been totally stripped and rebuilt and flipper rebuilt. That ramp wasn't working properly and also had hell of a lip where it joined the plastic ramp. Needless to say it doesn't now. And no longer on extra easy infact it has never been on extra easy since I've had it

Funnily enough since posting this I've managed to hit that ramp loads with both flippers and even got coffin multiball Sod's law lol.
 
RudeDogg1 said:
Speaking of which on yours is it hard to hit the large moving ramp and getting the ball under it when it's raised? Or is it because it's on max incline? Or just my **** skills?
Click to expand...
The machine I have now don't really have any problems on making the shot. On past machines though I can remember it could be a 1 in 5 shot. A bit of tweeting should sort the problem for you buddy.
 
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