Exactly. That’s why I’m still a fan of the DMD. Good enough pins mean any normal player isn’t looking at the screen except when a multiball is loading or a ball is drained. Make the games good, not the screen.

Personally, I’d like to defeat him once. LOL

I think I’m a pretty decent player. Couple hundred games on it. Farthest I’ve gotten is the last monster “reset” (the bunch of shots you need to move on to the next thing). And that was with two extra balls. Sadly I don’t see that it’s feasible for me to really fight him much less beat him once.

Thanks! I figured by now this would be the case but then saw a recent post about adding "ending animations" (whatever that must have meant).

Glad I asked.

Hmmm. That wasn't really what I expected.

Same - Despite putting over 900 games into my Pro, I've never managed to reach the Black Castle. The closest I've been is 1 hit away from locking it in (on 2 occasions). I've never reached the second retro mode across those games either - I think i've been within 2 letters on my second Knight spelling, but that's it.

With new code not too far away (hopefully), I decided to take a bit of a break from Jurassic Park this week and put some more time into Black Knight to freshen my memory on what I like and don't like about the current rules. The game is just as punishing as I remember. I'm curious how people use the supers? I've never found them to be of any real value outside retro mode where you have the 2x and 3x scoring multiplier. Even then it's a bit random as to what supers I manage to enable during the retro mode and I can't really tell what it's worth (in retro mode) until I collect it. Outside retro mode I'd be lucky to collect maybe 5 million from supers across a game. I recall people mentioning that you can level them up or something (via one of the spinners spinner?) which gives them different colours to make them more valuable. Is that correct?

Further to that, the individual flashing shots in retro mode don't seem to be all that valuable for a wizard mode. I'm too busy focusing on the playfield to watch the score tick over on each shot, but without activating supers in retro mode, I don't notice my score jump up by much.

I've also tried spending time attacking the flail before going in to a monster battle. On the pro, this seems to be the only way to level up the base value of each shot in a mode. I find myself draining more as a result and it's often better for me to get into modes quickly and push though as many as possible before ball 3 is up instead of leveling up a mode before starting it.

I have a LE coming next week. Are there any must haves? (Mods or fixes). Topper is on order

Is there a need for the anti airball plastic

ThankS, Greetings

Really? Any idea what the setting is called. I'll turn that on immediatly. It happens that a second player is added and I have no idea why.

https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/bksor-looking-for-best-mod-ideas

On my side I have a couple of mods installed; by order of "Coolness"
-Art Blades
-Pop Bumpers topper
-Fluo Orange Plastic Protetors
-Swords flipper topper
-BattleShields (They look great, but they don't hold very well, and the paint chip. I might have to remove them soon)

I can't stand protectors that change the color of the plastics. Clear is the only way that I roll.

The orange ones look amazing on this playfield. Matches perfectly.

Added Standard Adjustment "ALLOW LEFT+START TO END GAME". Values are:
"NEVER", "FREE PLAY ONLY", and "ALWAYS". Default value is "NEVER".
During an active game, if the the LEFT FLIPPER+START BUTTONs are held for
two seconds, the game will be ended

The LE is built to show off those 5.25" speakers and they already have the decorative surrounds around them. Yet they stopped lighting them from the factory after Deadpool LE? Why not add the lighting that they dropped from the LE bill of materials at Stern? Plus...it's way better lighting than what they did have with the games they did light from the factory (Batman 66 Super LE and Deadpool LE).

Speaker Light Kit (Deluxe 5.25" - type 13):

or maybe a Speaker Light Kit in a Speaker Light Kit (Deluxe 5.25" - type 13 in a Deluxe - type 12):

Doug (SpeakerLightKits.com)

I don't like them.

The cool the multi color GI is, it's allready kinda *meh* that you have a lot of areas on the plastics where you loose any coor and everything is just red.
If you add in those protectors the whole artwork is tinted.

I like that protextors with games like GoT, Star Trek or my Johnny Mnemonic because there are more or less only patterns on the plastics, not a painted artwork. But if there's an artwork I don't want that to be "rainbow puked".

Anyone else swapped the rubbers for Titans or other brand?

I've switched all my rubbers to Black Titans and noticed a small difference in the bouncing intensity. I think it make the game a bit easier since the ball bounce a bit more near the outlanes. I particularly like the effect it does on the long upper PF rubber, it make the ball bounce more after a loop or when it come slower.

I also reduced the outlanes size while I was doing the work. Now, it might have made the game a bit too easy with the Titans - small outlane combo. I need to test more, but for those looking for an easier game, this might do the trick.

Whelp, officially no mention of code in the January stern of the union. Not good.

Updates, updates, everywhere
But no BK code proper;
Updates, updates, everywhere
And nothing 'bout our topper.

This is what I get for laughing at the ghostbusters crowd when they were whining about a code update.

Its sad to see a game with great potential get shafted.

I switched to orange Titans awhile back and have found the game difficulty increased due to the greater bounce. I have a lot more side ways movement happening and faster play as a result. My playfield level maybe different to yours though. What level is your playfield set at?

I'm straight at bubble level, so I guess 6.5°.

It's true that it's faster, but on my side I find that the ball bounce a lot more near the outlane posts instead of just auto-enter the lane like before. Also, you can nudge the ball better near outlanes because of that.

I guess reducing the outlanes size helped too, it might be the combo of both. I'm under the impression that the multiballs last longer now.

Also the UPF rubber swap behind the knight really help to keep the ball up there longer.

My previous high score was 276m, and on my first game after the swap, I did a 330+m.

My bubble is a little higher than the default. I found at the 6.5 angle, the ball felt floaty. That was before I installed Titans, so it may feel faster now at the original height.

IMG_5538 (resized).JPG

Stick with your new set up though for a bit and see how it goes over time. The important thing is - do you enjoy the set up. If so, keep it

Disappointed to see the Black Knight code and topper were both absent from the January update If the topper is held up in manufacturing, seems like it could be a good time to release the code update now and have it receive some solid testing. Then there is time to fix any new bugs that get reported between now and when the topper is ready to release.

I'll provide a short update on my flail ramp mod instead The sensor arrived and I've now got that hooked up. The code has been updated and it now changes the animation being played on the LED strips based on the flail state (for now it's just me manually moving a ball across the sensor). This means I can play an animation for when the flail is closed, open or moving. At this point, I want to play a glow type animation when the flail is blocking the path, a chaser style animation when the flail is open and a random decay style animation when the flail is moving. I expect the values I use for smoothing out the state changes will need some tweaking once it's installed in a machine with a real flail in front of it. The flail can move and several different speeds and I need to be able to handle them all.

Apologies for the loud PC power supply fan in the video. I'm using it to supply 5V to the sensor while it's set up on my desk. It won't be present in the final version.

I wonder if the LE\ Premium lightboard would work in the Pro.

Right there with you. I've reached the BK2K wizard mode several times, but I've only made it to the Black Castle twice, and the first time I drained almost immediately. I've driven up replay to 237M and my GC is in the 700M range, but there are still three of the champions that are still the stock scores: the two involved with the Black Castle, and the War Hurry-up (I'm terrible at that mode, sometimes I consider trapping the ball and letting the mode expire since it often induces drains).

How are you getting to RANSOM more than Black Castle? I have been to the castle multiple times, including beating him once, and the closest I have ever been to RANSOM is to the G the second time (and usually more like the N). Since you only get one letter per monster, are you doing a ton of War hurry-ups to do it? Like you say, I am also terrible at WAR, often leading to drains, so that really limits my KNIGHT letters. Am I correct that the only way of getting letters is one per monster and one for finishing each WAR hurry-up?

I'm with you guys - WAR hurry up often leads to drains for me and I avoid it for as long as possible. The possible points to be gained aren't worth the increased potential for drain in my view. In fact I'll often do my best to keep just the 1 WAR letter lit for as long as possible. If I'm going in to a multiball, then I'll aim to get WAR hurry up over and done so it doesn't interfere with Retro multi ball or triple knights.

From what I understand, yes you just get the 1 KNIGHT letter from each monster and 1 for completing WAR hurry up. Fail the WAR hurry up by timing out or draining and you miss out. In the current state, I'm not sure i'll ever see the second retro mode

I avoid war hurryup unless I'm in multiball. I've gotten to black castle twice, but never came close to beating the black knight. It's so hard. I love the challenge though.

Glad I’m clearly not the only one who feels like WAR is a trap and instant death lol.

Anyway, hard to believe the default settings on the new code will make it even tougher to beat monsters. I think most will be changing the setting to Easy, to keep it the same as things are today.

Just joined the club!

Premium on the way, hopefully arriving early next week. Already ordered my standard list of tacky mods. Bring on the topper!

That's 3 thumbs up, sadly I can only give one!

Of all the things this machine could benefit from, tougher monsters wasn't one of them...no idea who thinks the game needs to be harder.

Nice scoring tweaks though. So there's that at least.

What we really need is more ways to earn KNIGHT letters. And at least one more multiball or interesting side goal would be good. Especially for the pro. Just port catapult lock to a different shot even!

It needs more modes and more monsters IMO. Even if they just add more monster colors with different shots to hit it would be great. Something about the game is just repetitive. I love the light show, the personality, and the music, but the depth and variety is lacking.

I can't disagree there. I love the game, but it just needs more to do rather than making what is already there even more difficult. I'm all for having a very tough to achieve wizard mode, but with how difficult Black Castle, RAGE, and RANSOM are, that just doesn't leave much else to do for the average or even above average player. It really needs another layer.

Just thinking out loud. Maybe one idea for another small multiball would be a 2-ball for filling the rage sword and then hitting the Power center target during a monster mode?

Theyll be livestreaming the new code on a pro at INDISC 2020 this weekend, maybe tomorrow. On twitch.iepinball

Now that would be awesome! Never thought of it, but yes! That would add some nice strategy, risk/reward, and more strong reason to shoot the right side of the playfield.

Thanks. Yeah just a two ball so nothing crazy, but it would help get those new increased monster hits, and not drain instantly on a WAR if you happen to have it going during the monster mode, and both would contribute to those valuable KNIGHT letters.

I said that many time, it's a technique they use a lot in the video game industry to save cost. Change colors and make them "elite monsters". Add some spikes, or any accessories to make them look different, different shots/insert colors, pulsings leds, etc...

Yeah wouldn't be bad especially if you think that the previous BK2K had indeed a 2 balls multiball (double knight challenge). Everything from the previous tables has been ported so far as an hommage (ransom, last chance...) everything BUT.... The 2 balls multiball

I wonder why they chose a pro to do it on?

Because i guess they couldn't get hold on new code for Premium/Le yet.

Because the Premium/LE plays too long in tournaments.

I can understand making the monsters harder for the le/premium games, but not the pro. Its already way too hard to beat this game.

Further to these two methods I commented on yesterday, I was reminded while playing today that Mystery can also award you a Knight letter. Although this seems to not happen all that often. I've seen far more 250K and 750K mystery awards (thanks Tim). So there are 3 methods I know of for being awarded Knight letters.

With regards to the difficulty being "increased" to medium in the up coming update. It looks like the new "medium" difficulty is the same as the current easy setting for some (but not all) monsters.

-----------------------------------------
Tweaked the number of mode shots required to complete modes.

Molten Fire (Magma Beast)
- Easy: 6 shots to complete. 2 shots for KNIGHT letter.
- Medium: 8 shots to complete. 3 shots for KNIGHT letter.
- Hard: 10 shots to complete. 4 shots for KNIGHT letter.

Wicked Cavern (Hell Hand)
- Easy: 6 shots to complete. 2 shots for KNIGHT letter.
- Medium: 8 shots to complete. 3 shots for KNIGHT letter.
- Hard: 10 shots to complete. 4 shots for KNIGHT letter.

Mud Bod (Hydra)
- Easy: 3 heads sealed to complete. 1 sealed for KNIGHT letter.
- Medium: 4 heads sealed to complete. 2 sealed for KNIGHT letter.
- Hard: 5 heads sealed to complete. 3 sealed for KNIGHT letter.

Deep Freeze (Lich Lords)
- Easy: 3 liches defeated to complete. 1 defeated for KNIGHT letter.
- Medium: 4 liches defeated to complete. 2 defeated for KNIGHT letter.
- Hard: 5 liches defeated to complete. 3 defeated for KNIGHT letter.

Burning Sands (Sand Worm)
- Easy: 6 shots to complete. 2 shots for KNIGHT letter.
- Medium: 8 shots to complete. 3 shots for KNIGHT letter.
- Hard: 10 shots to complete. 4 shots for KNIGHT letter.

---------------------------------------

As it is right now on easy mode from the 1.00 code, the current hits for Mud Bog is 4 heads. In the up coming update, medium is 4. Similar deal with Deep Freeze. Currently you need to defeat 4 Lich Lords on the "easy" setting in 1.00. The upcoming code has 4 hits for medium.

I think they have increased the hits for molten fire and Wicked Cavern though.

Coming purely from a prem/le perspective the scoring inbalances is one of my larger gripes... tkc I use only as an insurance policy to get through a monster and progress to catapult.... war hurry up is a waste of time other than to get a letter... supers out of retro mode are a joke and poorly coded. No enhanced sound, callouts, lighting... Nothing extra added to the super modes which is quite frustrating. Also last chance with super catapult mb should happen more often as it is pretty cool.

I agree with some other suggestions on here that the game needs something else as in a side mission or objective... I think wanting more monsters is unrealistic but we can dream I guess.

Even some kind of rule set change or addition involving the supers. For example qualifying a super but having the choice to stash it and not start, then collect more then start them at once so effectively starting 5 supers at once or something... And not having the collection method the left saucer but maybe lock down button or something cool like that.... more risk reward element playing around with the supers... would make the game so much more interesting and more strategy.

The left saucer collection method becomes out of your control particularly in mb when you have a super running and don't want to stop it, too easy to accidently hit the saucer which ends the super... like Jack danger said on his premium live stream it's a real bummer. It's not a good rule.

Can you elaborate on this a bit? Sorry I’m not picturing what you mean happens here. To me, when there is a Multiball, the left drop always is up (drops and instantly fires back up), so the saucer is inaccessible during the multiball.

I think that's a good thing to balance out just going for MB and stacking supers. If you can't keep enough control, you dont get the stacks / points. Also helps that it's the add a ball shot. (Pro)

I just got an LE ... I *LOVE* this game. Your criticism rings true. If they fix the depth/variety aspect of the game, this game will be a masterpiece. I like it as is, but, with some more depth, it'll be awesome.

Regardless, this game is a keeper for me ... it works well with BK and BK2K ... same but different than those two in so many ways .

Good idea, what does the rage sword even do? I always have it filled within 2 monster or so and I don’t know what to do with it?

You can only activate it during a battle with a monster (by hitting the target directly below the Black Knight).

It makes the shots in the battle worth more and the mode easier to complete. If you're going to use it in a battle, always best to make it the first shot of the monster battle as once you activate it, you will lose it once the mode completes or you drain.

It lights "power"