Quoted from markmon:After owning my TWDLE a couple weeks, I am on the fence. I have had some good games on it but also a ton of frustration playing it.
It's not just short ball times but the way the plunges that can be frustrating. From the start you plunge the ball right into chaos not control. The ball plunges into the pops which can take a long time to come out and is very dangerous. It is not uncommon to plunge, wait on pops, drain down center, ball save repeat, on to ball 2 without ever hitting the ball.
As for flow, the ramps are buttery smooth and easy to hit. But the left orbit shot is ruined by the right pop bumper. The ball will hit the skirt on the right pop preventing left orbit from properly flowing back to the flipper. The right orbit is a fun shot and flows back when hit.
The game is evil on the outlanes but that's not my main gripe. I think the pop bumpers are really what takes away from the game more than anything else.
The rules are starting to come alive and really have some awesome stacking. I don't yet find the strategy common in other Lyman games like spiderman, Acdc, or Metallica where you always have a couple things you're trying to do. But that could be just because I don't fully understand the rules. I often get to points with massive scoring opportunities with 4 or 5 things stacked at once. That's when the game is fun.
I've made some tweaks to my game to help the flow. I added some sticky back Velcro to the exit rail on the left orbit shot directly above the right pop bumper. This seems to send the ball back towards the flippers far more often. I added a superband sleeve on the post exiting the pops which helps the pops exiting unhittable down the middle to happen less often. I removed the rubbers on the inlane of the left outlane area. This opened the outlane more but also prevents balls from hitting the inlane then bouncing out as often. These improvements all helped but I'd still like to see the pops less.
Great write up by the OP and Mark. Mark, you put your finger on my issue with the orbits. You hit a great shot on the left orbit and are rewarded with too much pops. The right orbit is a rewarding shot.
I love the ramps and the bash toys are fun to me.
The option to short plunge to a flipper would be nice. Maybe if you held the left flipper to turn off pops for a quick skill shot.
I haven't changed any settings other than free play and my best score is just over 80 Mil.
Once Metallica was a little more advanced with the clear rules, I was able to enjoy it more. Looking forward to the same thing with TWD.