Quoted from djreddog:I wouldn’t claim that you suck. Every game is setup different(not taking anything away from Eskaybee). But game setup can dictate a lot. For example, I’m a pretty decent player (IFPA rank 350), and I have owned IMDN Pro since launch, so a little over 2 years. Just until last month I had never battled the beast due to my game setup. 7 degree angle, semi-tight tilt. No rubbers on posts, set to Tournament mode, EBs off, initial ball save at 3 seconds and all MB ball saves lowered by 10 seconds.
Last month I decided to set all my games to default. I’ve now had 3 attempts at the beast in 3 weeks. Almost every game is over 500 million.
One other thing, prior to quarantine, every time I played the game I was only going for maximum score. Everything changes when you go into the game with a specific game plan.
So, loosen her up a bit and enjoy and explore the $6000 piece of equipment you have!
Agreed. Also, another thing to consider is playing the same machine with the same setup for hundreds/thousands of plays and learning all the bounces. That’s why it’s important to clean your game and replace rubbers, to throw off the timing a bit. I recently cleaned my Maiden, but it’s been awhile since I’ve replaced the rubbers. Ultimately, You gotta find a balance for your skill level. I’ve been playing a lot of maiden lately and that game the other night was just the encore of a long week of playing. I’ve toyed with the idea of making mine even harder, but this game thrives in its modes and rules. So it would appear my next challenge is how can I make this table harder, yet still enjoy what it has to offer. Example, I had no problem turning extra balls limit to 1 on my Star Wars which was only awarded with 100 tie fighters, and having Mode stacking off, and shutting down all the long multiball ball saver times. Or removing outlanes on Deadpool, taking out weapon stacking, set 1 extra ball to 60 weapons, and giving a tilt so tight one fart will give you a warning. To me, depending on what the rules and layout have to offer, a game thrives on whether its physically brutal or not. IMDN reminds me much of LOTR where it thrives on deep mode skill play rather than breadth like SW or DP.
That said, my IMDN hasn’t changed too much from factory. The only changes I’ve done is increase sling coils strength (I like it wild), set REVIVE to extra hard with it giving only one save instead of double, and Power modes reward EB at 4 (not 3). The only change I made to make it easier, which I did the other day is what another pinside suggested, and take off the grind of having to relight Eddie for 2M2M - that shaves off 2-4 minutes of grind and well worth it. But, need to find the balance to offset that change it seems - So should I move the left outlane open, put in lightning flippers, or turn off power modes extra ball. I’ll probably start with the latter as that’s the easiest and I typically set most my games to 1 EB max anyway so makes most sense.
But, knowing that you have a 9x 15’ish mil power jackpot and no playfield multiplier And going for all 4 targets twice to light 3x, then start 3x, then hit the power jackpot, all while not hitting the orb during that setup, is pretty freaking exhilarating; and something I’ve been trying for probably close to a year. I.e. the 300+ mil power jackpot club