Check to see if your coil settings are set to normal. Also. Just because you have upgrade coils, doesn't mean you will necessarily have good power...make sure the coil sleeves are clean and flipper mechanism parts are in order.

Adjust your outlanes to make them narrower if you want a longer game.

Do a factory reset, make sure everything is working and in good shape, rebuild flippers if necessary. Update to the 10.0 ROMs if you don't have them. Set it at 6.5 degrees and give it 25-30 plays. I doubt you will think game times are too short after doing this.

I believe Steve Ritchie has some advice on how to achieve longer ball times, I forget what it was though.

Check spinner at base of ring ramp, if it's damaged or misaligned it can make that shot much harder.

You don't need that. You can put some of the lockdown bar seal there and it stops the ball from rolling back just fine.

I would do a factory reset and then pick director's cut to have the best settings for the machine.

Yeah, if that thing is tipping towards the flippers and the bottom looks peened, then time for a new one. PBL has them for $15. Well worth it.

I've never heard of someone complaining of short ball times on LOTR!

As for the flippers, if you are hitting the ring fine at the beginning, but then it slowly starts to get weaker, that is the common problem with this machines's gameplay. I've tried the heatsinks, which seemed to make a small difference, but from everything I read, the under mounted computer fans are the only way to constantly cool down these coils. With the heatsinks from towergames, I have no problems hitting the ring ever, but there still is a noticeable reduction in force to the ring from a cold game to 30+ minutes in.

If the ring is hard to hit right away, especially with the upgraded coils, and the machines is routed, do a full rebuild. Set the flipper power settings back to default. Those settings are weird, my friend tinkered with them, and it just seems like you can never get them to do what you want.

Do you have a link for this? I googled towergames heatsink and found nothing helpful...

Maybe it's towerhobbies... There are many motor heatsinks, but one that was the one that everyone used. Try searching here, there are links to it, sorry I can't recall which one.

5 ball play, maybe.

Have you waxed the playfield? That always helped speed up the ball. Also check to see the angle of your flippers. I had one that was previously on route and the flippers were lower than the dot they should be aligned with. I adjusted them and it made a HUGE difference.

I align all flippers with the inlane guides.

And I'm just highlighting what these guys said. Because yes, if the bottom of the spinner is towards the flippers it kills all the speed of the ball as it gets to the ramp. The ball just pinches between the spinner and the ramp and loses all its momentum.

I cannot remember what I lined it up with but was amazed at the difference it made. I was ready to add the upgraded coils but once I adjusted the flippers I was able to nail the shot so much more easily. And like others said checking to see if the spinner is not damaged is important too. Mine was a little damaged and on occassion it made a big difference.

What are the differences with director's cut? I can't find a good resource.

Disables Balrog bash and probably some other presets. I just know this is what the programmer thought made the best game.