Even before I got my Godzilla pro, I was wondering "wouldn't it be nice if the pro had some kind of diverter." I also thought that the building was disappointingly plain. When I found some video showing the interior of the building, I saw there was lots of space inside. That led me to decide to go ahead and pick up a pro, thinking it would be fun to experiment with improvements. Figuring out a proof of concept that worked mechanically did not take too long. But from there, the challenges got bigger. I found a way to activate the diverter under player control with the handy action button already on the game. But I decided a dynamic mod like this deserved a higher level of integration, and it would be nice if it worked similar to the premium, keeping the intended gameplay design. That is the one that was the huge challenge, integrating the operation with game play. But after several months of research and development, the DMCS was born, and solved this.
The DMCS is the Dream Mods Control System, which has a computer at its core, and provides a revolutionary level of interactivity to mods. It can basically handle a large number of inputs in novel combinations and control and trigger numerous mods. But enough about the DMCS for now, let's look at what you're interested in, the Godzilla mods at hand.
Back to what got me going down this path in the first place: adding a diverter and making the building more interesting. That resulted in two individual mods, that each leverage the DMCS. The diverter is probably self-explanatory, but some more details about its operation shortly. The other mod is the burning building mod. As with all DMCS mods, the intention is to bring a new level of dynamic effect. Are you ready for real flames coming out of the building?! Ha, okay, not quite, but it is more than the traditional lighting mod. The added interactive lighting effects show the increasing building damage and emulate the realtime game progress. Additionally, how could you hit the building and have no effect?! Now you get light up explosion effects! Although each of these mod stands on its own, they go so well together, at this time they're only being offered together as a package.
Back to the diverter. When the building is mostly engulfed in flames, the ball path through the building gets diverted, similar to the behavior of the premium. In addition, when your heatray is charged, hit the action button for a miniblast which will divert the ball selectively under user control, or cancel an auto-divert. It's rare that the mods you imagine are exactly what you're able to implement, but the DMCS made it possible.
More definitively, these are the 3 rules governing the diverter behavior:
1. When the building is burning 2/3rd or more, the diverter is automatically triggered on ramp shots. This is similar to the premium, except I decided to make it happen a little earlier otherwise you barely get to experience it.
2. When your heatray is fully charged, you can hit the action button for a miniblast which activates the diverter for a short time. It's enough time that you can trigger it before executing a ramp shot.
3. When your heatray is fully charged, and autodivert is qualified as per rule 1, the action button can cancel a divert. IE. the ramp shot activates the diverter, then press action before ball reaches building to cancel. I've found it's most effective to quickly, repeatedly hit the action button while the ramp shot is in progress to achieve this successfully, so that you don't have to focus on exact timing.
This seems to work well: simulates the main scenario from the premium, and in addition, offers several varieties of play with user interaction, that I find add to the fun. But I got some feedback wanting other behavior as well. So I'm offering a couple of configuration options. The above rules will be the default, but you can specify whether or not to have the auto-diverting based on the burning building progress. You can also specify whether or not you want the actioin button to trigger diverts at all, and whether it always works or only when you've charged up your heatray.
I'm offering both mods, along with the DMCS computer board for $595. In the future, I will likely offer the mods and the DMCS board a la carte. You only need one DMCS board and it can control many mods.
Here's an introductory SPECIAL: the first five purchasers will be able to buy up to two more future GZ DMCS mods at half price. The very FIRST claimant can choose to get one mod FREE if preferred! Claim the specials by posting in this thread and following through. (* This offer is now expired)
Did you say "more mods"? Yes, more about that in a bit. But first, have a look at the videos demonstrating the existing mods below. The second one focusses on canceling diverts, which isn't shown in the first.
NOTE, if the diverter is your primary interest, I'm only going to make a run of 20 of these at this time. I'm not sure if I will make more than that: they're labor intensive to make, involving metal work and welding, and I want to get to the other mods. If I do offer more, it might be a while before that happens.
London
St. Louis, MO
