Thanks @vireland. Just placed my order this morning. Had my first +600M point game today and the fade was noticeable and frustrating. It made it really hard to hit any ramp. During MBs, the balls seemed stuck in the lower part of the playfield since I couldn’t get much power behind any shot. Could have scored much higher. Just missed getting to Battle Thanos.

Looking forward to getting these installed to push to tres commas (1B).

Yeah, fade is frustrating for sure. You'll definitely notice a difference once the kit is installed to keep the coils at temps below the fade threshold.

Thank you for the kind words. Love modding good playing pins!

Next up is a Hulk mod holding a pinball. This is an older picture just for possible placement.
Oh and had to add Spiderman. I know he is not in the game but he is in the Avengers movies.

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PiperPinball - really solid work on the mods. Can you detail out how you treated the rails? The orange and purple rails are probably the coolest thing I’ve seen on AIQ so far. Are you seeing any sort of wear on them? Thanks and keep up the great work!!!

I have games with powder coated rails for years and no wear.

7+7+11=24

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Apparently math is hard for Stern....

First Trophy was a participation trophy?

Can anyone confirm the fit of swink’s standup target bracket for AIQ’s sanctom target? I spoke with him directly to look at a solve for my air balls-he said it should fit but hadn’t received feedback from an install on our games.

Where do you recommend getting the micro pico LEDs in all those colors? I see some of them on amazon in a kit but missing purple and orange.

Just found the perfect 'mod' for the outlanes!

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How much?

I literally cannot fully explain how badly I've been tempted to do this

I was exchanging all the rubbers for transparent silicone, and I couldn't resist to try a game with them on
It's definitely a game changer, and I think it's a good solution for when friends come over so they will enjoy playing more than just 1 game because it seems like nothing is happening without the balls fly out all the time. Here the record is when someone gets over 20M in 20 games
Elwin makes really nice games, but because he's such a damn good player, his games tend to be less fun for novice players...
Iron Man is favorite over both Iron Maiden and AIQ, so I think that says enough....

A friend of mine I helped get his first pin (Game of Thrones) set it to 10 balls until he understood the game and could keep the ball in play then gradually reduced the ball count until he got it down to 3 ball. He recently sent me a 1.3 billion score, so I think he has the hang of it now.

Lesson? Don't be afraid to crank up the balls per game if novice users will be playing. It's more fun for them.

Has anyone changed the settings on their slingshots?
Mine are crazy powerful and many times end in a side drain.
Anyone find a magic setting/number?

I did. So far the best way i found is to set them at 8, which is the minimum

mmm for some reason my game just started with guided setup, just pressed exit and tried to start a game but apparently the settings are lost because it is no longer on free play....

I have not changed the sling settings

Sometimes (maybe even most times) the issue is that the slings are too sensitive, not too strong. You can try backing off the triggering leaf switches using a switch adjustment tool so that they are less sensitive. It’s a simple but subtle adjustment that can make a big difference, and only requires taking the glass off (and the special tool, not recommended to try it with needle nose pliers!).

I just did the other day for the heck of it, and because at least half of my drains were from the slings shooting it back and forth until it hits an outlane. Yes, I know, nudge up to dampen side-to-side motion, but the slings were so powerful it barely mattered. Sorry, I forget what I set them to, though. 16? 18? 22? Something like that. The sling-to-outlane still happens (which is fine, that's pinball), but it's not as constant.

Lots of us are frustrated by the bad geometry with the outlanes. The slings are positioned too high resulting in them steering balls to the outlanes. The bouncy trap up area near Antman always results in the ball bouncing off the inlane divider and out - a terrible design element. It's not "challenging" if it's going out this way 95% of the time - it's bad design. And you know this because the outlane gap is not even particular big, it's just that the design of the game fits balls there perfectly.

I've waffled with lots of ways to adjust for this without nerfing the difficulty too much, and I found removing the rubber from the lane divider (ala Deadpool) reduces side drains by just enough to feel it's more fair. I think the larger outlane adjustable post is too much of a fix, although I think we can all agree that Keith messed up in having even the easiest/default outlane settings still with a pretty wide gap. I get that he's good...I'm good...but not-good players don't find this to be fun at all. On TAF, the left outlane post can be adjusted to where a ball almost doesn't even fit through. That's too extreme, this is the opposite. Give the players more choice.

Yes, the slings are definitely higher in relation to the outlane post than other games. Many, many cheap drains.

I also have Deadpool and going without rubbers on the outlanes was supposed to make it harder, but I tried with and without (settled on without) and it was similar number of side drains either way, but the ball reacts differently.

I still have the rubbers on my AIQ premium, but may try going without and see how I like it. I can still put up good scores (top 4 scores so far, all over 1 Billion) and make decent progress most games, but some games I put up less than a million on a ball because of the side drains...

First batch is ready to ship ....you've been pmed if you made the first run. The play testing I've done has made that shot so much more enjoyable and comboing it is fantastic

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Anyone tried the outlane post mod with the larger star posts? I have them on order and was hoping it might keep a few more balls in play.

It definetly keeps balls in play a bit more but its not a huge change. Theres still tons of side drains and its still frustrating!

Send me 2 please.

-Dan

PM me...
It's the only way I can keep track of everyone

Agree with mbrave77 - It definetly keeps balls in play a bit more but its not a huge change. Worth it as it keeps them in play a bit, but not significant.

My favorite game right now!

Just watched a video from dead flip were this game is played for 2 hours. Did not notice any flipper fade.

How fast you get the coils hot enough to fade depends on play style, although trapping isn't as big of a problem on Sterns compared to JJP/Spooky. For ME, Avengers took a long time to get to definite fade. I think it was over two hours.

Some are saying within 30 min of play.

It depends heavily on the machine (software and coils used) and the player's style. The more I test, them more I realize there's no hard line, but there may be a formula or something eventually.

Games like jjGnR and Rick and Morty get hot very fast, definitely within 30 minutes. Stranger Things also gets hot quickly. Other ones like Avengers, TMNT, and Maiden take longer - sometimes 90 minutes to 2 hours or more.

Had an amazing skill shot occur, would be really neat if the software devs made this into a thing.

Full plunge, flip, bounced off the top drop target and went up into the hawk eye orbit.

Prior to the new code this was actually a backwards way to get the secret skill shot (bouncing off a post rubber). Now with new code, the drop target skill shot awards and it goes into the normal game state before the ball finishes it's trip. Would be really cool if making this particular shot awarded a DOUBLE SECRET skill shot or something.

Do you really think this wasn't done on purpose? I`m sure Keith knows exactly how high he wants the slings.

Hmm...I think you can still get the secret skill shot as I did something similar the other day. I'm not sure what I bounced off of, but I think it was the post above the drops. I am pretty sure actually hitting the top drop target (or any other switch for that matter) cancels all skill shots. Keep in mind the drop target skill shot is only awarded from the center drop, not the others alone. So in your scenario above, hitting the top drop target would have cancelled all skill shots, which is why you weren't awarded the secret.

Hmmmm I have made (and been awarded) the secret skill shot this way several times (ie banked off the top drop target into the upper loop). I am talking about the skill shot that awards a portal lock. I go for the target skill shot more often now for precisely this reason!

I tend to only try the tower skill shot when it is also lit for a lock, and\or I am close to soul gem and want the mystery shot lit. I am hoping future code updates introduce a second award after you’ve made it once, instead of just a few points and more ball save time.

There are any number of secret and ultra secret skill shots possible with this layout (heck, maybe they are in there but we haven’t found them all yet). For example, soft plunge then hit hulk shot.

It's definitely possible that I'm wrong and the secret skill shot doesn't cancel out after the first switch hit like I thought. It just always seems for me that if I miss my first try, it's over. So yeah...I could be wrong.

I’ll keep a closer eye on it too. Something similar can happen on the Hawkeye Challenge....if you graze the disc post on the way to hitting the target or the inner loop you still win the challenge....it looks like any other switch will result in a miss (as will a few seconds of flailing with no switch hits). If you are really lucky, you can miss the first try and still make the challenge on a second try!

Of course it was done on purpose. And he messed up. It isn't fun. People don't find ST:TNG particularly fun for the exact same reason. JP and IMDN are fun games, that are also challenging, and neither have gaffed outlanes. Just because someone designed great games before and/or is a great pinball player does not mean they can't make mistakes. I mean, releasing a turd like LED Zeppelin was a bad idea - but Stern still did it, on purpose. In fact, most modern Stern's are shipped with design mistakes that require major intervention by the user (eg. just on this game: subway mech, spinning disk, captain marvel ramp, and so on). How about the demogorgon hole on Stranger Things? I know there is a heavy amount of designer fanboi worship on here and Keith's IMDN is a masterpiece, but this game suffers from some design flaws that will keep it from reaching IMDN-level popularity and it's OK to acknowledge that.

There is defintiely a short "grace period" for the skill shots. Many times I've bounced off the drop targets up into the Hawkeye loop for the award as you guys mentioned.

I've also knocked down a target and had a quick chance to shoot at it again - hit the center down and still been awarded the Secret Skill Shot.

I agree on many points, however i dont think the outlanes are too bad. TMNT has a really bad left outlane.
AIQ has a very forgiving design over all, shots far in the back with nearly no risk when missing the shot and extraball gallore.
If something kills it for me, its that I'm getting no emotional connection to the game. It feels cold and cheap with loveless plastics.
...and the extreme flipper fade- flippers start to feel like sausages after 30min of gameplay.

I guess it isn't so much that this game fades its flippers so much as they need to be strong all the time to hit these crazy shots, right? The marvel and black panther shots are super hard to hit on a medium strength flipper. Most games can have weak flippers and the shots are just as obtainable.

My game is supposed to ship from Stern on Friday. I contacted technical support to ask about the subway mechanism and the ball guides and needing to add the Cliffy protector or washers to protect the playfield.

I was told according to the production team, all premiums built will have all the latest updates. They said that spacers have been added to the rails and the subway lock assembly has been updated.

I still have several hours of work to do before I'll play the first game. My topper, game blades, and shooter rod are on back order until the end of March.

I have PinMonk 's Flipper cooler fans on my game and there's abosutley no flipper fade at all. I even sometimes accidentally backhand the captain marvel ramp lol.

The outlanes are hungry, I agree. I find that the more comfortable and better I get with the shots, the less bad outlane drains I have.

I couldn’t agree more, this game would be far too easy if it weren’t for the difficult outlanes.

Yeah...sorry the outlanes are a bit tough, but not unfairly so and certainly not a "design flaw". That is kind of a ridiculous statement. Overall it's a fairly safe shooter with pretty long ball times compared to something like a TMNT or Iron Man or something.

Hey folks

Keep having a stuck ball issue with my AIQ Pro on location. A slow shot to the captain marvel lane will get really stuck in the wire gate. Ball moves fast enough to get about half way into the gate, and the metal tab that swings the gate closed just puts enough pressure on the gate to prevent the ball from going through. No amount of shaking the machine moves the ball, glass has to come off.

Anyone else have this, and is there a fix?

I'm also waiting to hear back from my distributor on this issue. I put in a warranty claim. Serious weak points on this design ...

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smokedog - I have this issue quite a bit but usually can get it dislodged with some force. Never had to remove glass. Tipped it sideways once, so that was a little aggressive, but 99% of the time I’ve shaken it free.

Finally blew up this game a bit after so much frustration. Cleared just over 800mil and that was with my last ball draining right after save cleared.... Got 5 gems and fended off Thanos attacks protecting both my gems which was awesome.

What triggers the final battle with Thanos? I did all the gem quests and black order multiball. The game didnt really give me a hint as to what to do next....