As Steve Ritchie says in No Fear "Play Better"

He says that in NF too? I know he says it in AC/DC, he tells me that all the time when I play.

He also says ..........."draino"!!!!!! or laughs quite sarcastically

While a good idea, this game doesn't need it, it isn't even close to being a drain monster. I bought the Monsters Premium yesterday, played about 30 games with the posts in stock position and had one game over 100 million. Decided to move them in to see what would happen, first game was 147 million, second game was 104 million. Way too easy with posts moved in.

I'm using aggressive nudging to prevent side drains. I will leave my outlanes difficult, and my coffin lock set at 5-10-10, thank you very much.

The occurrences I have have seen with Metallica draining doesn't seem to have anything to do with the post size. Most of the drains that are frustrating to me are on the left side where the ball hits the wire between the return lanes and then hops out. If this wire were a bit lower in the lanes or less bouncy...it wouldn't be the frustration that it is.

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Heh, there's a bunch of SR quotes in AC/DC that are totally ripped off of No Fear

a pinball machine where the balls DRAIN???
no way!

The premium i played drained out the left worse than any machine i've ever played.

All your scores don't count now, and you might as well put the game on 5 ball too

I did change my coffin hits to 5-5-5 though...but it's more like 10-10-10 because of the glitchy magnet haha

And your scores now count?

Haha yes mine still count towards nothing

My feeling is that whoever brags on this forum about their Metallica achievements, scoring or otherwise, should also post the easyness mods that they have done to the game.

Head to head is all that really matters, or playing on the exact same machine. Well none of it matters really, as it's only pinball

I agree that is one of my biggest frustrations with Metallica as well.

Also when I broke 300 on my Metallica I did it about 3/4 drunk and about an 8/10 "highness" level. That evens out the 5 5 5 coffin setting right?

Someday we'll be able to link games, just like X-box.

I look forward to playing you when that day comes, and many others here as well!!

And yes, we will be on the same level.

I just wish I could hear "You're Smokin'" and "Do it Again" more than I hear ....... "play better", "your skills are so bad I'm giving you your ball back", "play better" lol.

Cosigned, gentlemen. I know of a change that would make it play much better (fairer?), but I'm not brave enough to take a drill to my LE playfield. Look at Tron's right inlanes. Mirror image of Metallica, with one huge exception: there's a rubbered mini-post above the in/outlane divider. That's why I've had almost no inlane divider bounce drains on my Tron in two years, but get several a day on Metallica.

I think Metallica's left side would be a lot more fun if the post above the left outlane was moved down to the Tron position. The left outlane would be the same size, just shifted up to avoid those inlande divider bounce drains that feel cheap & unfair, especially after hitting a Fuel shot.

Thoughts? Anyone brave enough to try it, maybe on a Pro?

Hell no, the game was designed that way IMO. If you see it about to hit that lane divider, just do a light nudge. Easier than drilling a hole

And if that don't do it, take another drink and nudge it harder!

Perhaps wrapping the metal post edge with a double layer of felt tape may help. If I had the pin I would give that a try wouldn't be hard to reverse if it did not help.

Why in the world would a pin be designed to have a flipper lane diverter bounce balls to the outlane? Sometimes a nudge does not do it and IMO a lane diverter should not kick the ball to the outlane as often as it does on this machine.

I don't know but it's not the only game that has this "issue". To me it's just part of the game. Not something worth drilling a hole over.

Chugalugga

It happens more so on this pin than most others IMO. I don't think it is a par for the course type of thing at all. I never mentioned anything about drilling holes I believe I mentioned felt tape so not sure why you would mention that.

*edit*I would never recommend drilling a different hole to remedy this. I can always agree to disagree. Guess we may have to here as there is no way you can convince me this was a good in lane design or par for the course. I think it happens way too often on this machine. Love the pin but don't love that at all.

It does occur on TAF but way more often on Metallica IMO. But don't want to post another so added it up here.

_{Post edited by The_Dude_Abides : Clarification.}

Here is another VERY famous game that does the same sort of thing. Happened to me MANY times on it. Also one of the best games of all time IMO.

TAF.jpg

Yancy mentioned drilling a hole...

I do agree it's not the best design, but I will leave mine as it is. I hardly ever get a cheap drain as I give it a little nudge depending on the speed of the ball to avoid it..

I know I was responding to you and the whole thread haha...

a chooch and a gurgle always helps out a lil!

http://www.marcospecialties.com/control/keywordsearch?SEARCH_STRING=a-17986

I had thought about something being done like that also. It doubt it would take much of a change at all to deaden the hop a bit. Maybe even wrapping some string or dental floss around the top of the return lanes divider.

If I could get my hands on a HUO Metallica locally I would buy it and try felt tape and your suggestion out. Doesn't look like that is going to happen though.

Just stumbled across this thread. This issue is a big annoyance to me as well. For now, I'm going to live with it and see what unfolds...

It is annoying but it's just part of the game. It's not a drain monster to me at all! But concerning the left inlane/outlane, the only game that is worse is Avatar....

I put in the bigger star posts today. I'll let you know how they work.

image.jpg image.jpg

I replaced the original Stern post with a larger blue star post. I kept the star post in the original "open" position, so it's somewhere between the open/closed position with the original post. I've played a dozen games and it made a huge difference. Still drains on the left side, but very few really cheap drains (which have been frustrating me since getting the pin). Big thumbs up!!

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I'm not really having any trouble with the left outlane, and mine is still factory open. The more I play it , the less it happens. Practice makes perfect. You guy's might want to try that first.

My biggest drain issue is balls being launched by the right sling over everything and into the left outlane, everything else I can live with but that happens every couple of games to me and I've turned the coil setting down

You know, you could just remove that inlane divider...

^^this^^

I know the play better aspect is always there with any gameplay complaint. However, IMO from the pretty extensive time I have on it the inlane creates a cheap drain too often for my liking. If your not having any trouble then that is great I just have not have the same experience with that at all. Possibly the set up or pitch differences may have something to do with this I don't know. Until I play one that does not have this happen pretty often I'm gonna say it could of been designed better and agree to disagree.

Tron and Metallica:

tron_inlane.jpg metallica_inlane.jpg

It takes a while to get the feel for it, but just like any punishment, you learn to avoid it.

Don't agree. I have some really tough pins in my collection and I think it's a design flaw. DCFAN draws the analogy with TRON (which sits beside my MET Pro and I play a lot). TRON has a post/rubber that avoids the "cheap" drains, so the 2 aren't really analogous.

I read somewhere that John Borg said the Crypt shot on TFTC was a design flaw. It's one of the more satisfying shots for me. I get a similar feeling when I save Metallica from a left drain. So, to each his own, I guess.