Disagree... My skills need to get better in order to enjoy the game. Not everyone goes home with a trophy in my book.

That being said... I think I need some nudging skills. I polished up pretty good on shot skills, not that I can make them all but I know which to shoot at when. Obvious room for improvement on them though. As for nudging, I have no skills.

We've had our TWD Prem for almost 2 weeks now. After the first week I felt similar to you, and my wife also said she didn't like it. She wouldn't have cared if I told her I sold it, just out of frustration.

Fast forward to a week after that, and this machine will not be leaving my home any time soon.

Did I "cheat" by making adjustments? Maybe to some people. I got down voted earlier for stating the things I adjusted.. Which I'm fine and the hardcore pinheads don't like. But the custom adjustments I made to the game made us have more *fun* with the machine and we now play it all the time and my wife is now consistently hitting new Grand Champion scores over 200M (beating me!) and having FUN. Which matters more than anything. We are not great players, and frustration drains SDTM and through the outlanes made me want to get rid of it. I'd have 20 horrible games and 1 great game which after that game I'd love it.. Then 20 more horrible games I'd want to sell it.

After my adjustments I get a much better great to horrible game ratio lol.

My recommendations:

1) Slingshot rubber mod on the tunnel entrance metal rails- it's mentioned in this thread. Definitely helps the ball going in the center drain just by the ball exiting the pops. Reduces drains by 50% over factory I'd guess.

2) lean the machine to the right 0.2-0.3 degrees. This helped a lot.

3) get fatter star posts and close the outlanes as far as possible- trust me you aren't cheating! It still drains out the sides more than my Metallica.

4) give yourself an extra ball reward at a fixed score amount- ours is at 35,000,000

5) Change ball save to 15 seconds. This allows you plenty of time to either open the prison doors (and get a SDTM drop but your ball back) or get the drop targets down to start a mode- or both. WAY less frustrating when you can safely go for these items.

As you get better and better than you can turn the ball saves down- but seriously, we play pinball to have fun- if the game layout and cheap drains are ruining it for you, make adjustments so you have more fun games more often. I'd say it's now just as fun, if not MORE fun than our MET Prem. I'd have never said that before making the aforementioned adjustments.

Dupe post

I'll "cheat" and have fun before I get frustrated on a $5000+ toy.

Now I will admit, I won't touch the outlane short of factory adjustments. To me, that is where nudging skills really start to develop. Make it too easy, and your skills will never improve. Make it too hard, and you'll be more frustrated than have fun.

Remember, everything is reversible. So have fun and improve at your own rate. Bowen is a top 10 player for a reason. Don't try to compare yourself to him. It is not fair to you to judge yourself to someone else...your journey is different than his.

I agree that the Titan post sleeve aren't the best option for that spot. I just completely changed out every rubber in the game with Titans, but I put a red Stern post sleeve there.

I have 6 second ball save, extra balls at 25, 100 and 200 mil. No other adjustments.

I like that idea!

How do you go about making that change? Is it a Dynamic replay adjustment, and messing with the Replay levels?? I want to have multiple extra ball rewards like that..

Fixed replay with 3 levels. Replay boost off.

So what do you guys think of the shaker in this game? My premium is on order and I'm trying to decide it its worth it here. Where exactly does it active in the game?

Oh hell yes!!!

Definitely get a shaker it implemented really well in this pin

I have a shaker in mine and its much weaker feeling than the one in my MET. Both were purchased from Pinball Life, both games set to Maximum use.

TWD's shaker effect works pretty good, but after a while you just get used to it and don't realize its working. I'd say it is still worth the $120 bucks or so just to have it in there though.

Did you check the positions of your weights?

I had to turn my tremor way down it was so active and way too strong.

I have mine on max and here are some of the shakers interactions:

Prison Multi Ball
Well Walker Multi Ball
Walker Kills
Well Walker Hits
Bit
Blood Bath Mode
Bicycle Girl Hits
Arena Mode
Barn Mode
Riot Mode
CDC Mode
Multi Kills
Jackpot Hits
Skill Shot
In the Pop Bumpers on certain modes

and much more just can't recall....

Thanks!

Add horde to that .. absolutely incredible effect.

Yeah, they are both pointing down. Screw is in set position. Strange because my MET shaker is so hard I had to mess with the cabinet just to calm down all of the squeaks and rattles. The shaker in my TWD seems like it takes a bit to get started and actually shake the cabinet.

Same here... Met shaker is nuts, hardly tell there is a shaker in my TWD. Shaker so worth it for Met... TWD, I could take it or leave it at this point but I feel that it rounds out the Premium idea more to have a shaker, if that makes any sense.

OK. I’m in!
I just ordered my TWD Premium from J.J. at Games Exchange. Super nice guy!
I have two questions: I see that there are two crossbow mods available – one from MezelMods and another. Does anyone have an opinion on which of these are better? I’m inclined to buy the MezelMods one just because I’ve had great experiences with him in the past.
Also, What the heck are these “Walker Bombs” I keep seeing in the discussion and how are they used?
Thanks in advance. I can’t wait!

I can't get rid of my phantom well walker hits and I'm at a loss. I have checked and adjusted the switch a hundred times, doesn't seem to be directly related to the switch. I replaced the 'Z' connector on the wires as I saw that mentioned in a thread somewhere and no help.

I don't know what else the hell I could possibly do to make them go away but they are ruining all my fun!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thats crazy bc my walking dead uses the shaker better than my met .lol and its much more powerful in twd for me . Both are set up the same and are the same brand also

Congrats - you're going to love it.

Ive got yoyokopter xbow installed and very happy with it. I wasn't sure about the laser before I got it, but once it;s installed its cool. Easy to fit and looks 100% stock.

Cant speak for MezelMods (except that it's more local to you - YOYO's comes from Europe).

People need to get over the ocd of thinking that tweaking their game to be more fun is cheating. First off, all games play differently. I had a walking dead LE that was brutal out of the pops. The game frustrated me and I sold it. My premium a year later played great and almost never drains out of the pops. I believe this is how the game was meant to be played. If yours is draining often out of the pops, perform every tweak people have posted until that's mostly solved. The game is not meant to play that way period.

The left outlane also varies in game to game. My pro I owned (yes I have owned this game 3 times) drained out the left out lane a lot but was reasonable. The premium I upgraded to was so frustrating that the left outlane was ruining the game. I added a post to the left outlane front and removed one from the back. The left outlane opening is actually larger than it use to be now but the angle of the outlane entrance is better and the game is more manageable.

Keep in mind it's your game and it should be fun for you to play. It's meant to be brutal but not overly frustrating. And the high score table is for everyone that plays so it's not cheating when a better player can come to your machine and bunk off your high score.

I see horde about 1/4 games. I see bloodbath about 1/2 games. I have seen last man standing twice and terminus about 1/8 games. You should be enjoying the awesomeness of the rules not being frustrated by silly stuff like pop drains.

I had to do the same with my TWD LE including adding some felt to the glass under lock bar for it was rattling the shit out of it. I guess the same way that not all tables play the same maybe not all shakers rumble the same.

I couldn't agree more, especially for something like SDTM drains out of the pops. It's hard to imagine the designers wanting the game to function that way, and in any case, whatever is more fun more you is best! My Premium virtually never sends the ball DTM from either pops or prison, but that may be thanks to Gio at Pinball Refinery giving it some extra attention for me.

Does your well walker switch register during switch test if you bang on the playfield? This was the case with mine, and I tried everything you did to no avail. Ultimately, I had to replace the switch in order to fix the issue.

Interesting. Do you have a digital leveler you can verify your leveling pitch and side to side numbers???

Period end of story.

Blood bath is crucial, I've been to LMS 4 times now, beat it once, terminus maybe 4 times overall and never gotten Siege.

Most fun pin ever!

Yea I agree mines usually pretty nice to me also

Mine is level from side to side and is a 6.7-6.8 . On the bubble level the bubble is touching the top line and maybe a tiny bit over.

Oh snap this just happened! (I'm in the club) scored an LE NIB from a good pinsider

Let the modding begin so far I have:
shaker
Lit prison tower
Cliffys
BG light mod on way
Laser crossbow on the way
New isn't cards
Mezel ramp lighting
Barn awning
Psw10 sub
Red super bands
Mirror polished balls

image_(resized).png
image_(resized).jpeg
image_(resized).jpeg

I'm at almost the exact same place as bigd- level from side to side and about 6.9 top to bottom. The Pro WD I've played at Modern Pinball is just a nightmare coming out of the pops, drains at least 20-30% of the time, so I know how frustrating that can be.

There's a pro on location nearby where shots to the Woodbury hole get rejected about 9/10 times. You hit it perfectly up there, then it bounces straight back out. It's killing me as it's crucial to get the extra ball on this game. Not to mention Horde - I actually got to Horde on ball 2 today and had 5 good hits to Woodbury which all came back to me and I eventually drained without seeing Horde. I could have smashed the machine!
I am going to ask the operator to fix it. Has anyone had this issue? It would be great to know the fix so that I can pass it on to the operator.
Also, it is currently on V1.41. Is V1.56 worth upgrading to on a pro? I'll ask him to do that to if so.

Yes - it is.

Ok so I just re-leveled the machine again, for the 20th time in 2 weeks, and I think it made a big improvement. Beat my walkers killed record, along with putting down a few of my highest scores ever.. Consistently.

I think the steeper pitch helps with the side drains and also the drains from the poppers. I really think 6-9-7.0 is the pitch it needs to be, while leveling the side to side dead level. Thank you for this, I'm going to leave it like this for a while. This game is so sensitive to leveling it's crazy.

I may jack mine up a few degrees bc I get alot of outlane drains. Its funny people set pins up super steep bc they think it nakes it alot harder ....it makes them faster but it also makes them less prone to side drains which makes it easier . I think 6.7 -7 is the perfect set up for speed and side drains

Really? I only ask as I just bought a pro with 1.53 on it with all the show callouts added in. 1.56 just looks like crossbow stuff.

This is was the question I think

V1.56 - Dec. 1, 2015
====================

- Added the crossbow mode timer to the background display effect for the
crossbow shot (when it is ready to be made).
- Paused the crossbow mode timer while the player is allowed to make a
crossbow shot.
- "Other" switches not part of crossbow awards during crossbow or crossbow
mode awards during crossbow mode no longer kill off the sequence during
multiball.
- Added background art for crossbow HSTD in attract mode and the crossbow
mode total page.
- Multikill scores carryover at HORDE start set to YES for competition
mode.
- Knocker sound/q24 option synced better with the replay effect.
- Crossbow mode was not blinking the crossbow lamp. This has been
corrected.
- Combo was not recording the combo champion properly. This has been
corrected.
- Crossbow mode was not un-lighting itself after it was started. This
has been corrected.

V1.53 - Nov. 23, 2015
=====================

- Added a background image for the crossbow HSTD display during the
attract mode.
- Center crossbow walker "killed" image for the background display
effect was incorrect. This has been fixed.
- Y coordinate for crossbow walker "killed" images 1-4 for the background
display effect were incorrect. These have been fixed.
- Added a mode for killing "crossbow" walkers. Once lit, it can be
started at any time (while any other game mode is running) by shooting
the right ramp.
- Changed the scoring for the combos. 250,000 + 25,000 is now
500,000 + 37,500. Now maybe someone can get a combo champion HSTD.
- Changed the HSTD music so it is not so repetitive with the game
over music.
- Removed the display of the playfield multiplier timer (prison
standups completed) while it is running. The timer is not allowed to
be reset when it is running.
- Fixed a bug that was causing the Magnet device driver(s) to ignore
the "disabled" adjustment.
- Changed sound levels for HORDE sounds -- these were too quiet.
- Added a lamp effect for the burning pile of zombies in the bonus.
- Cleaned up last man standing reset, along with walker kills. Walkers
killed are reset to 0, so bicycle girl and extra ball awards can be
cycled through again. Walkers killed champion still keeps track of
the total number of walkers. Bonus accounts for the sets of walkers
not counted via the burning piles (1 burning pile for each time last
man standing is started).
- Added burning pile of zombies to bonus for completing a set of
walkers (115, adjustable).
- Changed the arena collect value from 1 base value (~1M) for each right
ramp shot to 1/2 of the unmultiplied value (~3M/2, ~4M/2, ~5M/2, ...,
etc.)
- Cleaned up some issues with horde and last man standing when the balls
are collected. The trough kick now waits until the "player X keep
shooting" effect runs. Horde "keep shooting" effect was being queued
instead of requested, which caused it to never be seen, because the
horde lost effect would never exit (it now times out).
This has been corrected.
- Added speech for last man standing (add-a-ball).
- Added art to the shot multiplier (X) champion HSTD display in the
attract mode.
- Added a large celebration effect for winning last man standing.
- Left target bank initialized at the start of every ball (instead of
just the first one). This way, the supply is never locked in at the
start of a new ball.
- Added artwork for X lane shot multiplier.
- Changed Arena scoring from 1M, 4M, 8M, 1M, 4M, 8M, ... to 3M, 4M, 5M,
6M, 7M, 8M, ... Lowered previous mode shot award for Arena from 500K
to 250K.
- Added a setting to multiply the zombie kills when the kill is made
with a multi-kill (MAX=2X).
- Added an adjustment for the number of zombie kills needed to light
last man standing.
- Added breakdown (source) of scores to the attract mode HSTD display
for the X champion.
- Walkers remaining for next level during HORDE was being rendered over
the score. This has been corrected.
- Added a sound for an already-lit top lane. Removed a duplicate sound
request for completing the top lanes. The duplicate request was tying
up a track that could have been used for the pop bumper sounds.
- Added narrative w/ Rick speech.
- Reworked the prison doors driver to re-fire the doors coil 1 time per
request to open if the doors fail to open. Added logic for compensation
(detect stuck closed / stuck open) so awards can be given if the doors
are unable to open or close.
- Raised the volume of the horde music + shooter music.
- Added speech for lighting the tower (2x playfield + jackpot).
- Set some defaults (not ABC) for the HSTD tables.
- Added criteria for BIT speech. The speech is only requested if the
drain will probably result in end of ball.
- Last man standing was not being stopped properly. This would cause
the total for last man standing to be displayed at the end of every
ball. This has been corrected.
- Added crossbow sounds and speech.
- Added lamp effects for bicycle girl.
- Added a lamp effect for combo award.
- Prison letter effect was not requesting the prison sounds when the
prison yard feature was started. This has been corrected.
- Prison yard walker killed effect was not requesting the yard walker
killed sound when prison multiball was started. This has been
corrected.
- Added art to the prison multiball total display effect.
- Well walker was occasionally repeating the same phrase. This has
been corrected.
- Changed multi-kill mode carryover scores adjustment default from
YES to NO.
- Added HSTD speech for near-timeout. Fixed other HSTD speech from
being too repetitive.
- Prison doors were allowed to re-open via the flippers after being
closed at end of ball but before bonus (and also during test mode).
This has been corrected.
- Added speech to the terminus mode.
- Fish tank lamp on the entrance to the right ramp is now lit solid when
ready to collect heads #1 and #2 and blinks only when ready to collect
head #3 (to light woodbury).

There is a link here to v1.56 with all the show callouts as well.

I'm also waiting on one of these fresh from the factory floor models also. It' a hard wait.

Someone is going to be a happy killing boy

What number is it, it looks close to mine in the 400's

Where did you get the prison tower from? I looked all over and they are gone everywhere. I contacted Mezalmods and it looks like they won't be made anymore because of some sort of hangup at Stern.
I like the way it looks back there enough that I'm considering fabricating my own.

I am LE # 439.

Grab one here looks like he still has some left...
ebay.com link: itm $99.00

The auction says ended and their site no longer shows them. I'll contact them just in case.

nice, #464 here

Shoot sorry man it showed 10 of them when I grabbed mine a few days ago, those went fast.

Yah he replied back that he's sold out. I think with the new runs, people bought up what was left. I'm going to make my own. Should be a fun project, it's just that my time is limited right now. First I have to get my game....Stern...HTFU!

Yep, the same day that link was posted they were out. I bought one, and then was told someone bought it off their website before I bought mine on eBay. That's how close I was and how fast they were gone.