Oh no, I'm REALLY sorry to hear that. I had the same thing happen after 18 years with a company. After a work accident 6 years before almost killed me they came and told me they had no job for me and terminated me. The real kicker was that 4 months after I was "let go" the company was sold. The EEOC would not take the case. I got peanuts from work comp for my disability and it took me 9 months to find a $6 an hour job after making close to $20 at the last job. I feel for ya man.

Mine are still in the box they came in, haven't had time to do an install yet.

Robert

I just realized I don't think I ever got a response on this, but this is continuing to bug me. Is it just me, or is it impossible to post pass left to right on Star Trek?

I can't on my pin. Not sure if it's my super bands or what, but it's not a move I can pull off with any consistency. On most other pins I have solid post passing skills, but not on my ST. Haven't really tried it too much on the few I've played on location.

I have but it's much more difficult than most other pins. I have a funny feeling Steve Ritchie designed it like that on purpose.

Just hit a ramp if you want it on the other flipper....

Yep, he may have designed it that way for just this reason. The flow of the game gives you an ability to get the ball from one flipper to the other. In fact, you have two ways to get from left to right (orbit and right ramp), though just one way from going right to left (left ramp). Perhaps that's why you can sometimes post pass from right to left but not the other way.

Even so, sometimes a post pass can be quick and satisfying and allow you to switch without relying on the accuracy of your shots.

I'm just as likely to F up a post pass as I am a ramp shot.

Only true for the pro. On the Prem/LE the Start Mission shot feeds directly to the flipper.

Quick question. I have a Star Trek premium and I was wondering if there is a way to set an extra ball after a certain number of points. I want to give an extra ball every 100 million points. I think I've seen posts of other people setting this, but I cannot find for myself where this setting is. Thanks in advance for any help.

Yes. There is, but I forget exactly how. I think you need to set the credit award to extra ball, and then set the credit threshold at a certain number of points. If you can't figure it out by playing with the menus, let me know, and I'll take a closer look tomorrow.

This.

Set your reply type to EB. Then set replay at 100,000,000. Both found in the standard adjustment menu. Not sure how you would get another at 200,000,000 though, but guessing it's in the same menu if possible.

I think you can set multiple replay awards at different point thresholds, but again I would need to check to make sure. There is also a setting for the maximum amount of extra balls awarded in any given game.

Found it! Thanks! It's replay type. Standard adjustment #1. I had it set to none. I just set it to fixed. Then set replay award to extra ball. Then set how many levels of replays and the point totals for each level.

Another question tho. Standard adjustment #11 is 'replay boost' yes or no. What does that do? I already set replay type to fixed. No idea what his boost does.

Thanks again!

I think you should set it to no. I'm not sure exactly what it does and what "fixed" does, but I believe if you truly want it fixed at a point value or set number of warps, you need Boost to be off.

Is there a Bowen video out yet with the new code? I've searched but can't find anything.

Just got to Vengeance battle 3 for the first time. (Not sure why it took me this long.) Wow, that is a fun mode now! Definitely gets your adrenaline up. I got to sudden death but bricked the shot on the drop target, and my ball flew down the drain. Still, had a blast!

Anyone know how to adjust what I'll call the transitional ball save feature? It's when you're doing something like a Vengeance battle. You see the "shoot again" light briefly light in case you get some kind of jacked-up super fast middle drano or such. I see it light briefly quite a lot. But it has never worked for me once. Even though it has seemed more than a few times like I should have been awarded a ball save.

I don't want to cheat or make the game easier to get a high score or something but would like to see this work the way I think it's supposed to. Especially in those crucial latter game battles where super fast ball rejects from the Vengeance can absolutely ruin the entire game effort. I think extending it by like 1 second would make it work when it's supposed to. Or am I totally wrong about this and it's not supposed to be a ball save feature for this purpose?

Any thoughts on this most welcome.

Thanks!! COS

I'm not aware of a ball save for the Vengeance battles except for the first which is a multiball.

Well it's there and it's purposely implemented for sure. For what, if not to ease the pain of mid drains in high speed battles, I have no idea. It's not just another blinky light, it can't be. That would be so caustic when you're on your last couple KM shots. I would have to cheat like Kirk and reprogram the freaking simulator. Really, it would be nice to know why it lights up in certain circumstances, if not to give you an oh-so-fleeting chance to continue your chase for epic ... COS

Can we get an SKB take on this? Or a Jester-pinhead or Rob Knapp take also, they've got some pretty good scores and might be able shed some light. . Astropin or Zitt might be the best bet if they are willing. I would really like know as 100M could possibly be in play including the 10% total score bonuses. I just can't believe the brief "shoot again" light is useless.....it's too patterned.

I stand by to be enlightened as I am stuck mostly in the 100-150M range.

thanks, COS

All the inserts light at different parts of the game. It's part of the light show. The extra ball also is like this. Just because it lights for a brief second, doesn't mean you can get an extra ball. It has to be stuck on. Ball save is only on at ball launch, mb start, and add ball.

I agree with this.

Ya it can be misleading if you don't know what's going on and it has confused me before, but when you get used to it, it's better to have it part of the light show. I think it was xmen that they didn't use it for the light show and it confused me more thinking my led popped out or something lol.

I'm pretty sure jawjaw is right about this. There is a difference between it lighting randomly and the normal flashing pattern it does when indicating the ball save period.

That was one of the things they actually did fix with the 1.6 update in regards to the extra ball insert lighting, in that they turned it off in vengeance ready/multiball mode so as not to confuse that there might be an EB available.

This aint much compared to what most of you post but I got Combo Champion and a Gold Medal with a score of 52 million which is a best for me. So post what you guys got so I'll know how much I have to up my game. DAMN this game is fun.

I will defer to the experts on this. But I ask that all of you check it out next time you play. It's pretty much the same on v1.4 as on v1.6. And it doesn't light up in other ST light shows the same way or randomly light at different times. This lights up for a purpose and for several seconds during Vengeance shots, especially when the kick back is on a and a couple other risky circumstances like lock kick-outs and such as if to say "go for it, I've got your back". It only lights up until the shot is over and then it goes out. It must be implemented this way on purpose. Like I said, I've had it drain with the shoot again light still lit, no other light show ongoing. If it's just part of a particular light show why wouldn't it just blink on and off and cycle through the rest of the shows LEDs? And really why use it anyway it's not like there's not 1000 other LED's to use in any particular mode show.

I'll have to take a video to show you guys what I mean. I'm not imagining this. It may just that Stern needs to tweak the use to the Save Ball feature even more.......COS

Me too! It was very exciting! For some reason, I thought it was Khan again on #3, but I got Admiral Marcus.

Did this change in 1.6? From videos I watched, Vengeance #3 had Khan pop up and say "You are so smart, Mr. Spock!"

I thought it was just random who you got, but I'll have to pay more attention.

My best was 320 million, but it was a fluke. A good game for me on the new code is 100 million+. But I play with easy outlanes and an automatic extra ball on Warp 4 and 30 million. Most of my games are short lived and between 20-40 million.

Hey thanks, with 16 games I just can't keep all the rules straight, I don't even pretend to understand them.

Ha! Some day I hope to have your problem!

LOL - talk about first world problems. I don't know where I would keep so many pins. Maybe when all my kids move out I can turn the entire upstairs to a gameroom. By then I will be broke and pins will probably cost three times as much.

206 million high score.. But my high scores through #4 are 118 Million plus. So it's getting harder to get my initials entered again!! Replay is up to 105 million. Still love the game though. It gets stressful over 100 million when I close in on a high score! COS

That's the best part of this game believe it or not. It takes time to get all the rules down and it adds staying power to the game. Getting all 18 missions is damn near impossible and is great fun to keep you going and trying to get better.

be careful what you wish for, that many can really turn into a problem but it is nice when you have more then 10 people over.

Note to self. You can stack extra balls. At least two and it will track them. Of course I did fk all with them my first time. Coulda, shoulda been something. My luck tonight 50M went to all of 60M with 3 balls. I claim the outlines were magnetized cause I had the extras stacked......

ST_GettingUpdates.png

OK so there we have it directly from the horses mouth....I mean Stern. We just have to sit tight and wait.

The news has inspired my weekend play.

Just put up 667 mil. Had 2x going into KM, got awarded ~125mil!
Actually completed KM as well. Had just gotten super spinner round 2 going when the game ended.

The hunt for 1BIL continues...

That is awesome to hear. Love new code updates.

Hey, that's great news. I'm guessing mostly just bug fixes, but perhaps they'll throw in a surprise or two.

I've had the pin (ST Pro) for about a week now and I just want to go on record and say that I really, really, really suck at hitting the warp ramp. My best is 3 ...total ...in one game (3 balls) ...and that's only happened once. My high game is currently 45,462,700. I'm mostly in the 20's. Sigh. I wish I was as good as you guys! I still love it and will keep trying to improve. The fast balls that don't register on the vengeance drop target hurt for sure. Maybe I need to adjust my flipper strength - everything is still factory settings.

P.S. OT: I'll be in Vegas come Sunday morning. The Pinball Hall of Fame is only 1.5miles from where I'm staying - can't wait!

They need to fix the left outlane kick back. When the ball goes too fast and overrides the kick, it should give should you a "ball saved" award. And the BEAM lane scoring is iffy at best, if they can fix that with code it would be nice too.

COS

Don't worry. You'll get better. One week is no time. Have you set the outlanes on easy and given yourself an extra ball at a certain point threshold? I've done both and it makes the game more enjoyable, at least for me.

The game literally gives you a blue print for how to hit the shot. When the ball gets to the dot with the arrows pointing at the warp ramp, shoot! Duh.

Just kidding.

Definitely takes practice, but once you find that sweet spot, it's very makable.

Here's my list of things I hope are addressed:

Lighting issues

1. Nero 1 galactic mode. The red matter targets don't always reset when the mode is over. ie, I'll have purple targets for a shot or two during the start of the next mode.
2. PD 1. Similar to Nero 1. Beam me up lights will occasionally stay bright blue starting the next mode.
3. Nero 2 seems to be giving people issues still. Seems like it might be a lighting issue with the pro's. I play Nero 2 quite often, and don't have any problems. However, I don't bring a mb into it that often, and I think that's where things are going wrong.

Call Outs/Sound

1. Some call outs need adjusting. For instance, when hitting the away team with time in a mode expired, you will hear the call out 'Galactic Mode X Started' and then the next mode will start instead since time is expired.
2. No sound at the end of Nero 2.

Scoring

1. Warp Ramp during Super Ramps. Was previously worth lots, now is worth the same as other ramps. Initially, I thought this was awful, but I have come around to it a little because it levels out the game. I think just a slight increase for warp shots would be ideal.
2. Warp Ramp Skill Shot. Worth 500k. A beam me up lane, 1-2 pop hits and a warp ramp make is worth about ~450k. I think 700-750k would be ideal.
3. Some type of bonus for completing KM
4. Gold Medal awards need a little bump. Not really worth that much more than silver/bronze now, and are much harder to earn.

Dots

1. KB 2. Spock's on the display, and never does anything! I've brought this up before and nobody cared, but it's craziness. Spock is not neceserilly primarily a man of action, but he's certainly not just going to sit there the whole time.</nerdrage!>

Other

1. Some coding to put a ball back in play when the kicker doesn't fire in time.
2. More Black Hole awards. Enough with getting 200k all the time.

Additions to consider

1. Warp 9.9 Mode
2. Another way to start missions

ectobar, That may just be the most visually pleasing layout to a post I have ever read.

Nero 2 and STE2 inserts run on a timer for blink rate, but the missions themselves don't have timers.

In addition there's many tier 2 and tier 3 missions with no sound either. Some missions are worse than others. DTD2 has almost no sound effects that I recall. When you blow up Nero's ship in Nero 3, there's no boom.

Rob

Don't feel bad, I'm in the same boat, but then again I don't play mine anywhere near as much as others.