I believe the manual will be updated soon with more detailed rule set information.

There's no mystery about how the steins help tents. Every stein is associated with a specific tent (shown on-screen when selecting a stein; also, when choosing a tent, the stein icon will show up on the door if you have it). If you have one stein, the associated tent is scored at 2X. If you have two steins, the associated tent is scored at 3X. And if you have three steins, the associated tent is scored at 4X.

Try coil adjustments for both of these... for the first issue, slightly increase the coil power for "Drop Target". What you describe can happen if there's not quite enough power to lock the drop target in place when resetting it.

For the second issue, try decreasing the coil power for "VUK". You want enough power so the ball consistently gets up the vertical and onto the horizontal wireform, but no more power than that. At that point, if balls still fly off the rail instead of dropping cleanly into the inlane, you might need to slightly bend the wireform... contact American Pinball Support for help with this. <https://www.american-pinball.com/support/service/>

This is exactly what we're doing. "Family Friendly" is the default setting, but owners/operators can turn this setting off if they want the spicier A/V.

There is only one backglass.

Otto loves STTNG.

Nah. Once in awhile when you make the left orbit -> upper ramp combo, Otto will say "The Picard Maneuver! Nicely done." We're just having a little fun.

Hopefully there's no stein *exploit* (but I'd love to hear about it if there is)... but multipliers, we've got those a-plenty. Tent scoring multipliers via steins, playfield scoring multipliers via the top TAP lanes, bonus multipliers via duck targets.

There's a pretty decent, though still incomplete, rule sheet over on TiltForums: http://tiltforums.com/t/oktoberfest-pinball-on-tap-rulesheet/5353?u=joe

I may have fixed this a week or two ago, but Josh and I will examine the logs you sent and make sure it is indeed fixed. Apologies for the trouble.

Paul_from_Gilroy is correct, bar hit switch is when the ball is on the metal plate and touches the metal of the bar door. Make sure the plate is firmly pressed level onto the playfield so the ball doesn’t hop.

@aniraf, who sold you your playfield protector?

We certainly want the default for this to remain as it is now, but sure, we can make this timer be adjustable in the next release.

Do try the latest code update first to see if that resolves buzzing of the bar door.

That is not normal.

I believe that's a masking line that I meant to fix but obviously didn't. It's not a problem with your LCD.

Yes, two solutions:

1) If it's ball 2 or later, you can press and hold the Start button for a few seconds until the game ends.
2) You can open the coin door and hit Enter, Exit to pop in and out of service mode, which ends the game.

Can you provide more details on what you're observing? Under what circumstances does it happen? There is at least one GI lighting effect that looks like blinking: any time playfield X is active (T-A-P lanes), all GI do an alternating pattern.

I have the same suspicion as @PokerJake, as that was indeed a bug in Duck Derby in previous releases. Make sure you're running the latest code (19.10.27)... if you're on an older version for some reason, you can avoid that bug simply by allowing the Duck Derby intro sequence to run normally, not double-flipping to cancel.

We want to make sure our customers love their American Pinball games!

And although LTG doesn't work for us, he's freakin' awesome! (or should I say... Great!)

Ducks do indeed increase the scoring of tent modes. It's not a straight multiplier in the same way that the stein/tent pairings are... as a very rough rule of thumb, playing a tent with 20 ducks will score about double the points of playing that tent with 0 ducks, all else being equal (same steins and shots made).

Yep. Pretty much any tent mode can be worth mongo points with enough ducks. Also, remember that winning a tent mode gives ducks too -- 5 + 5 for each additional tent won on the same ball. So basically a feedback loop: doing well makes it easier to do even better.

Calories from the Food Stand serve the same purpose of boosting multiball (Corkscrew, Beer Barrel) scoring, that ducks do for tent modes. And yes, you've also got the steins for increasing scoring for those two multiballs.

Y'know, there are so many viable strategies on the game, that I change it up with some frequency. I'll often start with Frosty Ferret, because 1) hey, that's my stein and 2) it pairs with Duck Hunt, which gives additional ducks while you're playing it, and isn't too hard to win for the +5 duck bonus. So I hope to come out of Duck Hunt with a dozen or more ducks, which sets me up nicely for better scoring on future tents. It's tempting to also take Abby Nirmal Cider ("Easier to get ducks"), but that pairs with the Bumper Cars tent, and I usually try to defer that until I have a multiball ready, so I usually don't grab that stein until I've locked a ball or two. Engler Pale Ale (more tent time + Chugging) is often my next choice, although I also like Ish Pale Ale (easier to collect steins + Sky Slide). Sky Slide isn't too hard a tent to win... so now if I've got a couple tent wins on the same ball, I'm eyeing Reclab Redrum Stout (more bonus X + Stein Race) because the Tent Win Bonus is multipliable and can get very juicy. You'll note that I haven't really mentioned multiball to this point... I find that the PROST and OKTOBER FEST targets kinda take care of themselves from random bounces... when I'm getting close to having locks lit, I'll definitely do a couple spinner rips if needed to open the Food Stand and get a food feature running to get some calories. (And if you're doing that, might as well visit the Rockin' Express tent at the same time...) By design, the even numbered food features are the lucrative ones, so if you want nice multiball values, you sorta have to survive the first Food Stand to reach the second, or survive the third to reach the fourth. If I've gotten good calories and have locks lit or nearly so, for sure I'll take Freak Show Rooster and/or Frosty Ferret to amp the respective multiballs. Through all of this, one important thing to remember is that you can take multiples of the same stein... have you really crushed some tent modes and therefore have a serious Tent Win Bonus? By all means, take some extra Reclab steins to crank the bonus X even higher. Same idea with the Freak Show and Frosty Ferret steins if you have lots of calories.

But all that is my answer right now. Ask me again in a month and I'll probably say something different.

I'm so happy that you love the game!

I rarely post pass on Oktoberfest, because the tent scoop serves that need for me... if I have the ball on the right flipper but I want it on the left, I shoot the scoop, and let it eject and dead-bounce to the left flipper. If I have the ball on the left flipper but want it on the right, I shoot the scoop and drop-catch the eject on the right flipper. This works great since the scoop spots T-E-N-T letters (unless you're already playing a tent mode) so these passes also give me progress towards the next tent mode start.

But certainly reaching Flipper Meister or Stein Slinging is not easy to do... which is why we have intermediate goals like Duck Derby.

Every tent has slightly different behavior on how scoring increases with more ducks, because we had to balance the scoring of modes with lots of potential shots (e.g. Fud Frenzy, Bumper Cars) vs modes with few shots. And I just realized I misspoke in my previous comment: it's actually that WINNING a tent with 20 ducks scores ~2x WINNING that tent with 0 ducks, based on Medium difficulty, all else being equal.

But the scaling due to ducks is linear, not exponential.

In the end, don't overthink it too much: "More Ducks = More Points" is the key takeaway.

Actually, in normal use, duck targets are inactive until you complete the set of duck targets. The "can't repeat the previous target" rule applies during Duck Hunt.

As soon as you complete the four duck targets, they all unlight so you can immediately start collecting them again, and Mystery immediately lights on the scoop, and Bonus X is increased.

True... unless you hit the High Striker immediately after a left orbit shot. (i.e. Left Orbit -> High Striker combo) That always gives a MagNab even if not lit.

pinballslave is correct.

No worries at all, I'm happy to talk about the game!

The "?" is lit green to spot an OKTOBER FEST letter any time it's possible to collect OKTOBER FEST letters. It'll light yellow to collect a duck target when you only have one duck target left to complete the set.

Oh, and my (legit) high score is around 45 million... a mere shadow of some of the boss scores I've seen. I believe Joshua Henderson posted a score approaching 700M!

For mid-level scores (double-digit millions) either tents or multiballs can get you there.

For monster scores, I think absolutely the way to go is crushing tent modes. Tent Win Bonus can become very, very lucrative if you win several tents on the same ball. Never start a multiball without starting a tent first, and spend the first part of the multiball using your balls to win and then run up the score of the tent. The multiball jackpots will be waiting for you when the tent times out.

Also, here's a random tip for boosting multiball scores: start a Food Stand mode, then start Juggling. Pay no attention to the Juggling shots -- in fact, avoid them as much as possible -- and use the multiball to rack up calories. As I mentioned earlier, the even numbered Food Stand features are the juicy ones, so for example if you can start the second Food Stand feature and then stack Juggling, keep throwing the balls into the pops and try to rack up as many calories as you can. That'll position you well for big scoring in Corkscrew and Beer Barrel MBs.

But certainly there are lots of strategies for big scores in this game, and I'd love to hear any other approaches y'all discover!

Hey, great score! You're not competing against the entire universe, you're just aiming for great scores on your machine. 4M points is definitely above average.

I hope that your wife giggling means that she was having a great time! Or maybe that she was having fun teasing you.

That is not currently an option in the API system. Extra Balls get played right away, as has been done in pinball for decades.

Yes, I think that’s the concept as JJP has implemented it. IMHO my concerns with it: everyone needs to pay very close attention to what’s going on. After 3 balls complete for everyone, suddenly perhaps it’s player 2’s turn after player 4 (because P2 earned an EB but P1 didn’t) which breaks the established pattern “it’s my turn after Bob”.

Also, if you plan to play more than one game with your group, it does not actually save other players from having to wait to play, it just moves around the wait time.

If we receive a lot of requests for this behavior, we certainly would consider making it an option, but to my memory this was the first such request.

That English word is "impolite". "Unpolite" would seem to make sense but is not correct, because English is weird.

13 smaller tents have to be played (not necessarily won) to qualify the big tent wizard mode, Flipper Meister. (14 is a number you'll see throughout this game, representing the 14 primary tents at the Munich Oktoberfest.)

Yep, 4 of them.

Don't expect "major" updates, but we do have an update in testing with some bug fixes and minor improvements.

Congrats and thanks for your purchase, I hope you'll love the game!

Interesting comment, since all three of those are Joe Balcer designs.

Very happy to hear that you're loving your new game, JonCrox !

And you also, FtrMech !

Doesn’t it kind of take away the “specialness” of huge multiballs if they’re easy to get?

You can get to 5 ball play in Juggling by making enough shots.

Besides that, 5+ ball play is reserved for the advanced wizard modes like Stein Slinging and Flipper Meister.

We put out a beta release a few months back, but we were all-hands-on-deck getting Hot Wheels ready and polished. Now that HW is out, doing great, and has had a couple post-launch updates, we have turned our sights back to the lingering beta updates... rosh on Houdini and me on Oktoberfest. Here's what's in store (a few additional things may join the list):

CHANGE LOG

20.08.13 (TEST BUILD)

NEW -- Settings > Oktoberfest > Lock Switch Compensation: if set to YES, the game will be more tolerant of erratic lock switches. Only enable if you know your lock switches are malfunctioning. ** NOTE ** changing this setting requires a game restart to take effect.
NEW -- Settings > Oktoberfest > Selection Timeout: now adjusts or disables the timer when selecting steins or tents.
NEW -- Settings > Pricing: added new pricing plans and support for Tokens.
NEW -- Settings > Replay: added Automatic Replay Percentaging.
NEW -- Attract: add score award (Replay, Extra Ball) info page to attract mode.

MODIFIED -- Beer Barrel Multiball: slightly increased scoring (again).
MODIFIED -- Boot: improved speed of powering up the game.
MODIFIED -- Calorie Coma: now shows total points earned when the mode concludes.
MODIFIED -- Coils: some defaults and ranges were adjusted; current settings will not be changed.
MODIFIED -- Coils: should be smarter about trying to free balls from devices when release doesn't immediately work; also don't retry forever so coils don't burn up.
MODIFIED -- Match: improved choreography.
MODIFIED -- Presets > Competition: now sets "Juggling Shots to Win" to 1, to discourage players from intentionally losing this tent. (Not that doing so was ever a good idea...)
MODIFIED -- Service Mode: minor improvements to UI.
MODIFIED -- Tap It: earning a replay or extra ball by score award during Tap It will skip the usual animation so the video mode isn't obscured.
MODIFIED -- Target Shooting: improved choreography.

FIXED -- Calorie Coma: scoring should now be working as intended.
FIXED -- Duck Derby: fixed a bug that could incorrectly award a player victory when their duck actually lost the race.
FIXED -- Duck Derby: losing the race should no longer cause loss of turn.
FIXED -- Duck Derby: don't allow the Derby to continue after a tilt.
FIXED -- Mystery: Points award now honors current Playfield X.
FIXED -- One Handed Play: no longer activates ball search if you hold balls on the left flipper for a long time.
FIXED -- Service Mode > Audits: now correctly tally Games Played - All Time.
FIXED -- Service Mode > Tests > Lamps: fixed a bug that could have broken normal game lighting after running Lamp Test.
FIXED -- Settings > Standard > Tilt Bob Settle Time / Tilt Warnings: now take effect immediately, instead of waiting for the next power cycle.
FIXED -- Stein and Tent Selection: cancel selection if the game is tilted while on the selection screen.

Oh, BTW: the guy on the Rotor is joined by friends as you make more shots in the tent mode.

Also, the monkey tends to get sick on rides. You do NOT want to clean up after he rides the Rotor...

What is the green tent arrow bug on Re-entry? Do the arrows all get stuck green or something? Don't think I've seen this one.

Oooh, using the knocker to simulate the anti-rollback, that's a neat idea... I'll have to fiddle with that to see if I can make it sound right.

We already do fire some shaker as the coaster goes down the hill... not too much, it's a smooth metal coaster, not a woodie.

Hot Wheels

Try reducing the power to the Upper Right flipper, via Settings > Coils. If it's going airborne, it's getting too much juice.

The targets over each outlane that can qualify ball savers... the first few (adjustable) outlane saves are “easy”, but then you have to earn the save via Last Call or Re-entry.

Still looking at that lighting issue in Last Call... it's one of those weird/annoying ones that isn't readily reproducible, but I'll figure it out.

We're good with our beta pool right now, but I'll ping ya if we need additional testers... thanks for offering. Enjoy the game!

I like to think that it’s because more people have gotten a chance to play the game, especially with later code revisions, and they’ve come to realize that it’s really a great game! So much to do, infinite strategy options, interesting playfield design. And of course, who doesn’t love festivals and beer?

Heh, cross-post jinx

Not sure of your question, but there is an active beta test cycle right now for Oktoberfest code. It's currently in the hands of the beta testers, and will be released to the public before long, hopefully.

Jayzerblade ... hmmm. I thought this was fixed, but just in case: do you have Match turned off? If so, please try turning it on and see if that problem persists.

Well, nuts. That was fixed and verified, but apparently did not get packaged into the build properly. Sigh. Sorry for the inconvenience, we’ll figure out what happened and get it fixed.

Meanwhile, if anyone else experiences a crash at end of game, please try turning Match back on in Settings > Standard.

Thanks.

No need to wait unless you're severely bothered by having Match enabled.

And y'know... hopefully things like a significant code update 1.5 years after the game is released, the tweaked coil stop, etc give you a good feeling about how American Pinball supports our games.

Oktoberfest does use its 4 magnets a lot, so balls -- especially "shiny" ones -- are prone to becoming magnetized and doing weird things in the trough. Certainly checking for magnetized balls should be one of the first things to try if you encounter any weird trough feeds or lock behaviors.

Hmmm. I played several games a couple days ago and did not notice anything unusual with the magnets. Of course an occasional fling can happen, as well as bad timing for manual MagNabs (since it IS a skill feature) but the auto should be successful easily 90+% of the time... is this not your experience?

And you believe this coincides with installing the latest game software? There were no changes to how we pulse the magnets in the recent code release, so that would be quite unexpected... but stranger things have happened...

Hop-Pac ... are you seeing this on both player-controllable magnets, or just one of them?

OK, please let us know. It could theoretically be something as simple as the connector for that magnet being a little wiggly and needing to be reseated. If you're bored, you could potentially try downgrading to the previous software release and see if things improve, then reinstall the latest and see if it gets worse again. I really have no idea why that would be, since as I mentioned, our belief is that we didn't change anything about how the magnets are driven... but more data about a problem is always interesting.

I don’t believe any audio volume mixing happened in the last code update.

Unfortunately, we don’t currently offer the ability to change the volume of speech vs music separately.

Hey, thanks for making Oktoberfest your first pin, NIB or otherwise, Filimurz ! You can only ever have one "first pin" and we're honored that you chose Oktoberfest, and very happy that you're enjoying the game. Prost!

The most common times for this are either an inlane -> orbit combo (which might auto-grab at either the upper flipper magnet or the TAP lane magnet, depending on what is lit on the game), or if you hit X number of pop bumpers and then have the ball exit the pops toward the upper flipper... this is the case where Inga will call out "Eins... zwei... drei... strike!". Hits on the High Striker (captive ball) are worth extra at this time, but of course you can also shoot the bar, the beer barrel ramp, or even the tent.

I'll take a peek at this for our next code release.

It's very easy. Here are the instructions:

http://s4.american-pinball.com/img/support/2019-9/Oktoberfest-Shaker-Installation.pdf

If you have the latest code, try turning on Settings > Oktoberfest > Lock Switch Compensation. Exit the service menu, THEN POWER CYCLE THE GAME.

Let us know if this helps.

Gah, I fixed it so that Extra Ball (or Replay) AWARDED displays would be suppressed during Tap It, didn't think about Extra Ball LIT... I guess that is from winning the tent and earning enough ducks to light EB? Thanks for the report, added to to-do list.

An occasional fling by the magnets is not unexpected. We don't have specific stats, but it'll happen. Just shouldn't be "frequent".

Huh. Not sure what to tell you about that. Can't even ask you for the logs, wouldn't really tell me anything about the magnet's effect on the ball. Are you seeing that on both the TAP lane magnet and the upper flipper magnet?

Oh, for the ball save thing: make sure your trough switches are all working properly, and that the balls aren't magnetized. A high percentage of problems with unexpected ball launches wind up being caused by magnetized balls.

Yeah, the food plate during Füd Frenzy once you've made a few shots looks spot on for Thanksgiving.

Hmmm. Mac or Windows or other? Make sure your USB thumb drive is formatted as FAT32. There should be nothing magical about the update file, it has no weird metadata or forks or anything, it's just a typical compressed/encrypted archive.

The on-screen visuals, callouts, and music of the game are vastly different from when it was first revealed. I think most people find them much better now.

Hi chatplume51 ... congrats on your new game, but sorry you're having problems.

A couple things to try:

- Remove the balls, make sure they're not magnetized. (Touch a metal paper clip to each ball and see if it "sticks".) Magnetized balls can get gummed up in the trough and confuse the system, sometimes leading to extra balls getting served. Also make sure 6 balls are installed.

- Using the Switch Test, make sure that each trough switch lights up correctly when you drop the balls back into the trough... when all the balls are back, 6 trough switches should be lit up, no more, no less.

Odds are that it's something simple, like magnetized balls, or a wiggly connector somewhere since you just moved the game... we'll getcha sorted out so you can get back to playing.

Also don't hesitate to submit a service ticket requesting help... <https://www.american-pinball.com/support/service/>

Thanks!

So just to clarify... you changed balls and your problem went away for awhile, and then returned with a different symptom? So now instead of spitting out too many balls, it's spitting out too few?

I can't quite tell the colors (yellow vs amber is kinda subtle) but could this be from you selecting the Pin Wiz Pale Ale stein? When you choose a stein, it lights up the corresponding tent insert in an amber color (it's supposed to look like beer ) until you play the tent... which of course could be awhile for Flipper Meister.

Did you have a chance to try the test I mentioned above: ejecting all the balls, then going into Switch Test and dropping the balls back in one by one, monitoring the trough switch status as you do so? I'm curious if any of the trough switches are acting up.

Merci!

That's Settings > Oktoberfest > Lock Switch Compensation. Worth a shot. Note that if you change that setting, you need to exit out of service mode and then power-cycle the machine for it to take effect.

Try visiting Service > Tests > Switches and see if any of the lock switches are firing unexpectedly, including if you jostle the playfield (e.g. try thumping the playfield lightly with your hand) ... both with and without ball(s) in the lock.

FWIW, you don't have to "beat" tents (turn them green / get the confetti celebration) to qualify Flipper Meister... though certainly Meister scoring (and end of ball bonus) is much more valuable if you do.

Sorry for the tough drain, though. Done that more times than I care to mention...

There are a few “spicier” callouts if you disable Family Mode. But in general we had family friendliness in mind. @cheeks’ description is probably spot on.

Do tell.

Thanks for the kind words, folks... so glad that you're loving the game!

Lock Switch Compensation makes the game software a bit more tolerant of errant switches in the Beer Barrel and Corkscrew locks. Since these membrane switches aren’t really adjustable, and many folks may not have spares in their parts box, enabling this setting can help keep a game with a glitchy lock switch running until you can get a replacement switch installed.

Suuuuper highly guarded secret, LOL. The details are somewhat gnarly without having some background in the logic that supports lock device management... the Q&D summary is that setting changes around some timing and debounce parameters, and also adds some compensatory logic if the switches report any "unexpected" states. Most pinball code generally tends to trust whatever the switches say, but that setting tweaks the code to be a bit less trusting of the switches if they report anything weird.

Re: ball ending unexpectedly if the trough fails to eject... if you encounter this again, please capture the logs if possible and send them to myself and/or @rosh, we'll be happy to take a look at what's going on. I can't say that you're the first person to report that, but as I recall, in most cases the culprit turns out to be (wait for it) magnetized balls.

Thank you for your feedback about the game! Happy to hear it's a keeper for you.

You're correct, @pinstyle, except there's not even a menu option involved... the system will copy off the logs when you insert a formatted USB stick. I'm sorry to hear that you had a lockup.... if you can send us info on what you were doing at the time, we'll try to figure it out. If it was just tonight, you should still be able to capture the logs -- we retain logs for the last 10 power-ups of the machine. Thanks!

Hi @pinstyle, I'm very sorry that you've been having problems. Certainly what you describe are not normal behaviors, so we need to figure out what's going on with your machine and help you get it fixed. Please submit a support ticket at <https://www.american-pinball.com/support/service/> and our team will work with you to get things sorted out. Thanks for your patience, and looking forward to you being able to enjoy your Oktoberfest smooth and problem-free.

Shooting the Beer Barrel ramp always spots a letter in PROST if possible. It does this before deciding whether lock is lit, so the dirty little secret is that you can just light 4 letters of PROST and then shoot the ramp, and you'll get your lock.

If you shoot the left orbit and combo that directly into the Beer Barrel ramp, you'll get 2 PROST letters spotted instead of just one.

(There's a similar perk if you combo left orbit -> captive ball: this awards you +1 MagNab, even if that shot isn't currently lit for MagNab.)

I have heard this a couple times... it seems to be very infrequent and doesn't seem to hurt anything, so identifying and fixing it hasn't been a priority. Maybe the player is just drunk and hearing double.

Settings > Oktoberfest > Beer Barrel Lock Difficulty.

However, the Beer Barrel has a feature where locks can be "stolen" across players and even across games (unless you turn on Settings > Oktoberfest > Release Beer Barrel Locks at Game End, which disables the "across games" feature). What this means is that if you have a ball or two in there and you lock another ball, you qualify locks for whatever is in the barrel, so you may not need to qualify those locks again. PROST stays solidly lit if you don't need to qualify any more locks.

Can you provide some more context to your inquiry? I tried enabling and disabling Otto (Settings > Oktoberfest > Otto), and when enabled, he spun around, generally following the ball during game play... when disabled, he remained still. I had no reboots. This was on the latest code (20.09.23). Can you give specific repro steps for the reboot that you describe? Thanks.

Ewww, yuck. Confirmed and fixed. Thanks for the report!

That item, and several of the others that you remark don't seem to do anything, were actually supposed to be hidden on that list, but the hide flag was not set correctly... that will also be corrected in the next code release.

American Pinball has a strong history of supporting our games. We've had code updates for all of our games within the past few months ... even our oldest game, Houdini, got a huge update earlier this year. Of course, eventually there comes a time for every product where you've just gotta say, OK, this is it... but we try our best to give our customers a great experience and great value from their purchases.

Thanks for supporting American Pinball!

Yes. If you're seeing other behavior, use Switch Test to verify the behavior of the beer barrel lock switches with various numbers of balls installed.

BTW, to your other question: a lot of conversation about Oktoberfest also happens on the "Joe Balcer confirms Oktoberfest as American Pinball's next pin." thread.

Yes. Winning several modes in the same ball can be insane points... it's all about Tent Win Bonus. And then you start thinking about some Reclab Red Rum Stout.

What's the secret to Chugging?

Yep. That's why I'm wondering which secret you're talking about.

There are a couple of them. Settings > Oktoberfest > ...
Mechanical Knocker on Shooting Modes
Mechanical Knocker on Bumper Cars

Ah, good catch, the balloons are supposed to go away during the Match sequence... adding that to the list. Thanks for the report.

6 degrees pitch is what’s recommended by the designer, yes.

X number of ducks collected, X number of steins collected, X number of tents played... these are all adjustable via Settings > Oktoberfest.

EB lit is also available as a Mystery award.

Random tidbit: my favorite way to shoot the bar is actually a ricochet off the PROST targets (typically from a left flipper shot).

Yeah, once you find the proper angle on your machine, it’s surprisingly easy to hit the bar that way. I rarely shoot the bar with the upper flipper — save that for the ramp or striker shot.

Very glad that you're loving Oktoberfest!

There are SO many strategic options, but the single monster strategy is probably: WIN several tents on the same ball. Tent Win Bonus can become incredibly valuable.

Obviously, easier said than done.

Sorry! Didn't mean to kill your competitive edge.

We got a Hot Wheels at our league location... I've been sharing every detail I can think of with everyone who asks. So far I've had the edge just from sheer knowledge of rules... but I know that won't last long, as players with superior flipper skills get the hang of it and take over. I'm OK with that...

Ducks increase the base scoring levels of all tent modes. (The exact details vary for each tent mode.)

Each stein acts as a scoring multiplier for the one specific tent mode that it's paired with. These accumulate linearly, so for example, if you have 1 Frosty Ferret, Duck Hunt scores at 2X; if you have 2 Frosty Ferrets, Duck Hunt scores at 3X; etc.

Calories increase the base scoring levels of Corkscrew and Beer Barrel Multiball jackpots. No effect on tents.

Bonus X is increased by hitting each of the 4 unique duck targets. (This also lights Mystery.) When you do this, Bonus X increases by 1 + the number of Reclab Redrum steins that you have. Just having a Reclab Redrum stein doesn't automatically increase Bonus X, you still gotta shoot the duck targets.

If you can send us the logs, that would be great to see if they shed some light on what went funky there. Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience.

That’s the clever part of the Oktoberfest business plan… we get the entire world to advertise for us (for free!) every year.

Check your Left Orbit switch. It looks like it's activated, and the ramp won't go down if it thinks that switch is closed (so it doesn't trap a ball behind the ramp flap). Of course, it would affect the game's ability to award left orbit shots if that switch is malfunctioning.

The Coaster Lock switches are probably red because balls haven't been able to reach the upper lock if the ramp flap isn't dropping.

Hope this helps!

Sorry, I do not know the answer to that, beyond the obvious things I suspect you've already checked like "make sure all the connectors are seated firmly".

But @brenna98's API Support probably knows.

You can file a service ticket here:
https://www.american-pinball.com/support/service/

Sounds good. I'm very sorry to hear that you've had a lot of trouble with this, but hopefully you're able to get a solution that fixes it once and for all.

Actually, both Stern Star Wars and American Pinball Houdini had video modes a year or so before Oktoberfest debuted.

So happy that you love Oktoberfest!

Latest Houdini code lets you avoid the giggling if you don't like that. Bring it back into the fold!

Hot Wheels is pretty dang fun too!

There is indeed a bug that can cause a crash if you have replay levels = 4. It’s fixed for the next code update… meanwhile, try going down to just 3 replay levels and see if that resolves the problem.

Sorry for the inconvenience.

Please don't hesitate to capture logs and send them in to us for analysis if you encounter any game bugs or crashes. We can only fix the problems that we know about. Thanks!

They are obfuscated, yes. Seriously, you wouldn't really want to look at 'em anyway, they're quite a PITA to slog through.

Feel free to send us the logs along with the time stamp of when you observed the error, we're happy to help.

Yes, Juggling can get to 6 balls. I believe both Stein Slinging and Flipper Meister can, also.

Yep, already fixed in the upcoming code release. Thanks for the report!

Probably a score replay. I believe this is fixed in the upcoming beta. I think the variant that RipleYYY mentions was the slightly different version if you LIT EB during Tap It, which was fixed in a previous release.

Great idea.
https://store.american-pinball.com/products/membrane-switch

No, that level of game logic misbehavior would not be expected even if the lock switches were acting up.

If you'd like, feel free to capture your logs and send them to me at ferret <at> americanpinball.com, and I'll be happy to take a look and see if I can identify what happened there.