Oof, harsh. That's the soul of the machine right there in that voice

I like this idea of the 'fading' score multiplier after multiball a lot: reminds me of Doctor Who. Something like 10-20 seconds per playfield X, until it reaches 1X again.

The transition between two multiplier levels could use a sound effect though, so the player hears that his multiplier level has changed. Not sure if that is a possibility. Could be a single sound effect at the moment of change or maybe the voice that counts down the last 5 seconds that a multiplier is active. Or a combination of the two. That might be too much, though.

slochar Do the sound roms have any (unused?) sounds on them that might be appropriate to incorporate?

Very cool option! But for this instance, I don't think you'll need to. There's a a nice, subtle sound effect already in the game that I think might be appropriate. It's used 7 times in a row after Valhalla Time is over, right in between the voice call 'Valhalla Time Over' and the bonus count. One instance of that sound effect every time a playfield X drops can be a subtle indicator of that happening. Maybe in combination with the '10 seconds left' voice call 10 seconds before it happens.

Curious to know what you think.

To clarify: in my head, the sequence now goes something like this.
A. Multiball ends (possible with a sound effect indicating that) with (for instance) 4X Playfield lit
B. A 20 second timer starts immediately (only inside the machine or also visually, on the playfield display, like in Valhalla Time)
C. At 10 seconds, the machine says '10 seconds left'
D. At 0 seconds, the sound effect from my previous post sounds, and the playfield X goes to 3X.
E. Repeat from B until 1X Playfield.

Or, if 20 seconds per Playfield X is too long, change that to 10 seconds per value, so it becomes:
A. Multiball ends
B. A 10 second timer starts immediately
C. At 5 seconds, the machine says '5 seconds left' (If this is possible. Not sure if the '10 seconds left' is one single effect or a combination of '10' and 'seconds left')
D. At 0 seconds, the sound effect from my previous post sounds, and the playfield X goes to 3X.
E. Repeat from B until 1X playfield.

Please know that I like to think conceptually and am definitely not a coder. It could very well be that my thoughts are not technically achievable on these basic machines.

That's great news! I'm copy/pasting the info to the Lightning club

Great to hear we have stable code without balls re-locking!

The playfield X loop remaining active when multiball ends and only one ball left in play and starting multiball with no locked balls still lighting playfield X is a personal preference thing, I guess. For me, it's not logical to have multiball rules while there isn't any multiball play.

Following general 'pinball logic' (and my personal preference), multiball rules should stop once multiball is over. For Lightning, that'd mean that the possibility to boost playfield X only exists in multiball play. However, the achieved playfield X during multiball can stay active for the remainder of that ball, also during single ball play.

I think it'd be cool to get a fairly high amount of points for making all standups during single ball play without any balls locked. Maybe accompanied by a distinctive sound effect once you've hit them all. Think of it as a single ball jackpot. This would make going for the standups without any balls locked a strategic goal. But, again: no playfield x boosting during single ball play, imho.

This alll sounds very cool! I wish I had a Lightning close-by to experience it on.

I understand that, after Multiball, the PFx now stays on until the end of the ball, correct?

Here's a thought to play with:
Would it add to gameplay if the PFx would slowly decrement once you're back in 1-ball play? Something like -1 PFx every 10 seconds, accompanied by a sound effect for every PFx that gets decremented?

This would make it worthwhile to go for Multiball again during that same ball.

I mean, in the end the question is how much of your time you want to spend on this code. You've already put many free hours in it, which is amazing as it stands.

That being said, I do think the decrement of PFx would be the icing on the New Multiball Rules-cake for Lightning.

Reason 1: When it comes to 'pinball logic', it would make sense that playfield X is on a timer (or decrements per X seconds) when in 1-ball play. The machines with this feature that I can think of all have this. Doctor Who comes to mind as an excellent example.

Reason 2: It's more fair towards other players if you're playing multiplayer: the player that gets multiball will almost always win, because of the unlimited playfield X scores that can make his score so much higher, even in the 1-ball play that follows after multiball.

Reason 3: It gives the player that already achieved Multiball a reason to go for Multiball again during the same ball.

That, and the decrement of PFx just gives a very nice polish to the code, imho.

But again: it's your free time. So you are the boss!

I don't see it as stealing: it would be a temporary award to start with. The decrement would be quite slow, and only start when Multiball is over.

But, in the end: different strokes!