DANG!!! I knew I should have bought your game.

I just discovered a Super Skillshot. Hold the left flipper and plunge the ball, that disables the ball diverter up top BTW. Capture the ball and hit the scoop. It awards 1 million points

How about Avengers Stern!
were still waiting

It's still not SUPER. Ropp and company should be using Pat Lawlor values for the REAL skill shot 1 MILLION (aka Plunged) or AT LEAST add a freaking upgrade + 500K. Super Skill shot is more difficult, probably 10 times harder than Metallicas and Lyman gives away the world for accidentally hitting something. Lyman's hit or miss with his risk reward for "skill" shots, but mostly miss...but I digress. Mustang's Super should be 1M plus 500K for every completed mode.

No idea why almost every game shits on the Skill Shot...it's the way you start EVERY FREAKING BALL!!! How hard is that to understand from a design perspective?! Make it great not...laborious.

End Rant.

Sorry to rain on your rant, but the Super Skill Shot of value on MET requires skill. Look for the one (and only one) of the major shots that has all its inserts flashing. You get a whole lot more than just the 500K+ points. It's pretty super imho, and often requires a live catch, a loop pass, or a well timed flip on the fly to nail the appropriate one.

Plus, you've always got the option to soft plunge your super skill shot into the top lanes (no post) for 2x or 4x the Lane Skill Shot value.

Even further, you can loop pass or short plunge to set up Super Skill Shot to the piston dead-end shot to immediately qualify 2x scoring. Once again, requires skill, and a significant reward.

Enjoy!

Um...sure you can get it on purpose but if every (IIRC) shot is lit for Super...is it really SUPER SKILL? Don't get me wrong it's a step in the right direction..options are good, especially with the top lanes getting love for hitting a Super, but come on now...let's just call some of them regular skill shots instead of Super.

You're lying to yourself if you haven't hit a Super by accident 50% of the time you miss the one you aimed for. I never said that hitting a specific Super wasn't skill on MET, but accidently hitting them on the regular shouldn't be Super. Maybe if you selected it pre plunge, ala BDK, THEN it would be SKILL.

OK, fine, if you want to bust Lyman's chops over nomenclature, then fine: Calling every shot you can hit on a left flipper button plunge a "Super" Skill Shot might be overstated.

But to use your words -- "Lyman gives away the world" -- is grossly incorrect. You get, what... 500K (+250K) for each (and subsequent) "accidental" Super Skill Shot? I don't call that giving away the world for a pin that scores like MET.

And you're still missing my point that the truly "Super" Skill Shot spots you complete insert progress and qualifies that shot's hurry-up on in ONE SHOT. It takes quite a bit of skill to hit the randomly-chosen-on-the-plunge Super Hurry-Up Skill Shot (my words -- not what you'll see on the DMD). No offense, but I get the feeling you have no idea what I'm referring to, and haven't realized that such a Super Hurry-Up Skill Shot even exists. Go try it. You'll like it.

Nor is the piston dead-end Super Skill Shot trivial or "accidental" to hit.

Snailman, I don't think I've ever seen what you are referring to. If you hold in the left flipper, does it reveal the shot to you before you plunge or only after you send the ball up the shooter lane?

Only after you plunge, including a partial plunge that stays in the shooter lane -- your clock to collect it is already ticking even if the ball hasn't left the shooter lane. Look for the one shot with all three inserts flashing (chair, snake, and cross). Any shot that you already completed on a previous ball (solid inserts) will not be selected for your Super Hurry-Up Skill shot.

Hey guys take it outside and let's get back on topic....about MUSTANG CODE.

So does anyone know what's with the doughnut time captive ball... More specifically, when do the lights above it come into play? Do they count up or down during a specific mode? I haven't noticed them being used much, but maybe 'cause I'm too busy trying not to get my ass kicked.

I've only been able to complete 3 modes in a game so far. Fun game that keeps you coming back for more!

100% correct. Collecting a super skill shot is easy on MET. Collecting the most valuable super skill shot is usually not.
If as a player you haven't yet learned what all the skill shots (particularly the hurry up one) can award you in MET, and why one it's worth so much more to a player than 500k+ points for just thrashing away at anything on the playfield, then you don't get to complain about Lymans rules yet

Now, back on topic!

On Mustang, they really need to make it more obvious when you're in 2x scoring, and also more obvious when the timer on 2x is about to run out.

Agree 100%...I took me awhile to figure out how to get 2X going because when you hit the lit Nitro the text on the DMD is a little confusing. I forget exactly what it says but I got the impression that even though I just started 2X...it said to hit all the targets to get it going....um I just did that thanks.

I haven't confirmed how to get 4x going, but I THINK you just keep hitting them or Stack two 2X's to begin 4X...

Anybody know how to get 4x going? (I assume because I've had Supers that are 30M+).

The ONLY thing I see the Dount doing is registering a Super Jackpot on the right side of the playfield when it's also lit on the Left Ramp. I don't think you actually have to do a Donut and light all three of the 180 lights--just hit the captive ball when Supers are lit on the left and boom...Super Jackpot.

I did not know there was a "Super Hurry Up Skill shot" and I understand that hitting Sparky's Super makes it easier to start his Multiball (any others?), but You kind of make my point...Lyman needs to change the text to state SUPER DUPER SKILL SHOT or just be more clear with all the skill shots...kinda like Mustang not telling you that you have 2X scoring going.

It would be nice if Lyman would make the gates and posts on the orbit Emulate how Mustang treats a plunged skill shot: Too much plunge and it goes all the way around=missed regular skill shot. It makes the regular plunge that much more interesting. Nice job there and if applied to MET I think it would improve ALL the skill shots.

P.S. I'm critical of most machines treatment of the Skill Shot because very few realize all the possible skill shots available on a playfield--Transformers is a PERFECT example. This 250K+ shit for just hitting the player select able lit lane and then into the pops has got to die and is just plain LAZY when you include this in EVERY game. NO ONE LIKES IT! NO ONE--There is little to NO skill and has run it's course. When the best skill shot is the short plunge AND it's not recognized on the screen aka not hitting anything--that's an EPIC FAIL for any game. Sometimes you can blame the PF Layout, but usually it's the programmer...aka Lyman and Ropp.

RESPECT THE SKILL SHOT.

Not a good example for a couple reason. The easy skill shot is actually fairly valuable to me as you lite two of the four lights needed to start a 2x playfield marker. But I say it's not a great example as if you hold the left flipper when you plunge the ball will go past the pops and requires you to immediately hit the right ramp. It a tough shot to make consistently. There is also a short plunge skill shot which is shooting the lane that feeds Megatron. TF has 1 boring and 2 tough ones.

I guess I don't mind some subtlety and required discovery on modern pins to find out what all is there and available for the player to go for on the skill shot. While the DMD text doesn't differentiate hitting the Super Hurry-Up Skill Shot vs. the Super Skill Shot, I'm guessing it's because the points are the same (can someone confirm?). The difference is in the insert progress, and this is displayed to the player via that shot's inserts pulsing just as it does when you complete all three the hard way.

I never realized that hitting Sparky on the Super Skill Shot did anything remarkable toward Electric Chair. Does it spot you bonus progress on top of what you'd get from the fact that you just hit him? (keeping in mind that in normal play, you do get more progress for a "center" sparky shot vs. a "foot" sparky shot)

Couldn't agree more! And Stern seems to be listening, as ST revised code took away this Skill-less Shot, and Mustang doesn't have the Skill-less Shot, correct? I'm guessing that it was put in either out of laziness or to cater to first-time players to coddle them with the notion that they just did something "skillful."
But sadly, on the pins that actually have cool skill shots as an option to the Skill-less Shot, it just duped new players into not trying to discover the true skill shots, because they just got rewarded for their Skill-less plunge + lane change.

Wow! I didn't pick up on this when I played it.
Just to confirm my understanding, during Gear Shift MB, when the ramp is lit for SJP, you can shoot the captive ball as an alternate way to collect the SJP?? This is huge, because during the initial ball launches and during the ball-save period at the beginning of GSMB, balls are auto-plunging >>under<< the raised ramp, preventing you from claiming a qualified SJP.

Yep, left ramp or captive for Supers during Gear Shift.

No it's a great example of how not to do skill shots:

The Super awards: 500K...but like you said THE REGULAR SKILL SHOT is MORE VALUABLE and EASIER.

Add to that that there are two other skill shots that don't do shit: Soft plunge down the right orbit, and soft plunge down the Optimus orbit.

What does the "Super" give you? I haven't played it since they implemented that on Transformers? Let me guess 1M...and that's it right? Regular plunge skill shot is STILL king in that instance and requires ZERO skill.

I'm surprised you didn't notice anyone getting JP's for that at TPF. That was the only time I was deliberately shooting for the captive ball... I would still prefer to hit the ramp because it's isolating a ball for a good long while, but did get a few off the captive ball.