(Topic ID: 153206)

What to do with STLE?

By rai

8 years ago


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  • 35 Pinsiders participating
  • Latest reply 8 years ago by kpg
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#1 8 years ago

I've had STLE for 2+ years. Just recently started to put my head down and try to make progress. Still waiting for the rules document that's in progress. Sometimes (for me) I do better after I can digest the rules. I'm not as well with just figuring it out as I go. I know there's a tutorial video but that with old code. I also think it could use a final code polish but I've not heard if that'll ever happen.

I don't want to say ST is copping wood, but it's more like work to me and doesn't get me as pumped as Met, IM.

I found that I love STLE as for looks, but as for fun it's not my favorite.

My favorites are:

Met pro
Tron
IM
AcDc premium

Now I love all my pins, but STLE is one of my least favorite but has my most value. I can sell Potc or XMLE but they don't fetch as much in return. I don't mind having $4000 tied up in PotC. STLE is twice that (I mean my out of pocket money).

I was curious what advice

1) keep it and see if I get over the hump
2) trade/sell it for TWD or GOT (for example)
3) just wait another several months and see what GB looks like

I was wondering if you guys who have or had ST, TWD and GOT have an opinion on why ST is better or worse than the other two?

#6 8 years ago
Quoted from wellarmed:

I have got all three of them but i like the TWDLE the most.

I was thinking TWD as I've heard it's code is superior (GOT code is still to be determined), and maybe TWD could have more fast build up? (I've not played it much, never played the premium in fact)

To me ST doesn't get exciting that much until you make some progress deeper into the game which I am not able yet.

#9 8 years ago

I've never seen GOT of any kind, so it's hard to say, but the pro does look more like what I go for. I mean with the LE/premium the ball is hidden and get diverted all over the place. I don't understand that. probably would if I saw it in person.

How about TWD pro v premium? Missing too much stuff on the pro?

#16 8 years ago
Quoted from flynnibus:

What I see is the difference between a mode game and non-mode games.
STLE has defined modes, and all the stacking is in the point strategies vs simply stacking 'the running modes'
The games you listed as liking are not defined mode games but more about objectives and more loosely defined 'modes' like multiballs where most of the point strategy is about getting those things stacked together or running with a 'bonus' element to have a 'blow out' where everything is scoring like mad. (playfield multipliers, etc)
TWD is going to be more like MET/IM/Tron in that regard... where GOT is somewhere inbetween.
I still think STLE is a keeper - I'd hold onto it unless you need to fund that next purchase.

Thanks for the explanation, I recently sold SM too, somewhat like ST I feel I need a marathon game to get to the good stuff.

#20 8 years ago
Quoted from AJB4:

I traded out my ST Premium after 2 yrs and I do not miss it. At my current skill level I enjoy games with not as much strategy and depth, like AFM and MB. ST was just exhausting and I never made it far enough into the game to feel like I ever accomplished anything. I enjoyed the multiballs and vengeance modes but frankly I found myself enjoying POTC, SM, IM, Tron, TF much more than ST. Which is funny as a trekkie I figured ST Premium would never leave the collection but when time to trade came the answer was ST needed to go. So I say trade it out and get something else. U can always get one back again if you really want to...

I get this too, with my example of PotC completing the compass is the 'goal' for me, I'm not great so I'm getting almost there. But it's not too difficult almost like SOS on Tron.

I just don't feel like I'm accomplishing much on ST if I get 3 in a row. I guess it's nice to strive for a medal (more points) but it just feels like a grind at times.

I think, what's best for me is to play ST a lot. Give it a chance to speak to me. At one time I listed xmle for sale, I had not played it much due to my lack of skill making the tight Beast shot. So I kind of said to myself at least I should play it more before it gets sold to get some money's worth out of the pin, as I played was able to get some shots down better and found that it was one of my favorites. I also changed the stacking rules to better fit my skill.

Maybe that'll happen with ST, if I can get to KM a few times. See what's doing there, I've only made it once that I can recall.

#21 8 years ago
Quoted from Eskaybee:

Hitting 5+ warps in a row is more rewarding than anything else offered in those other pins and it can be done from the first plunge.

What's that?

This is a reason why I'm looking for the rules document, I have no idea what you're talking about.

I'm sure some people would rather find out as they go, but for me at my skill level I'd rather know ahead of time so I can strive for something, like just focus on one aspect at a time before putting it all together.

To me ST rules are Byzantine, unknown or complex. Maybe if I had a roadmap I'd get somewhere.

#27 8 years ago
Quoted from jawjaw:

+1 on hitting that warp ramp over and over. Getting 6 or 7 warps right at the start of the game is such a good way to start.
Rai, I'm not sure why you are so confused over the rules. One of the things I like about ST is how easy it is to pick up on the basic rules. You have 18 modes - 6 per tier. There are rewards for getting three in a row but that really doesn't matter. The main goal is to finish each mode in a tier to get to the wizard mode. Each mode is mostly shooting the lit shots where the flashing or multicolor shot is worth more. Medals are rewarded for making more shots in level 1 modes and for making flashing shots in level2 and 3 modes. All medals no matter where you got them get cashed in before each wizard mode. Things get complicated if you are trying to go for a scoring strategy where you complete things in a certain order. That's really for the advanced player and hard to pull off. I mostly play to complete modes and try to go for double scoring through warp shots at the right time. Double scoring is started after warp 9.1 and 9.9 (9.9 also kicks out another ball in play). You can also get double the point value of a shot for hitting it on a combo. The only time I keep that in mind is when playing the final vengeance modes where it's fairly easy to hit the left ramp and then vengeance to double the final score.
Away team seems confusing at first. I had no idea what it was about for a while after getting my game. It's just an alternative mode to level 1 modes. You can score more points but not necessary.
Vengeance modes are started by hitting the drop target or by firing torpedoes using the start button when lit. The first vengeance is a mb where you just have to hit the vengeance a bunch of times. The torpedo button also counts as a hit. The 2nd vengeance is a 5 hurry up shots to the vengeance with an extra ball rewarded in the end. The 3rd vengeance is similar with 5 shots needed to sudden death. Sudden death is where you have to hit the drop target and then hit the vengeance within a small period of time. The reward for that is 10% of your score.
Klingon mb is starting with getting 3 locks - typical pinball. The goal is to hit every shot twice (ones lit red) and then hit the moving shot for double super jackpot. That's pretty tough so it's better to just try to use this mb to complete modes.
My play strategy is mostly this - play all level 1 modes in a v pattern so I get two three-in-a-row awards after playing the 5th mode. If I am playing well, I might play a few of the easier level2 modes to get more medals. Locks usually come from just playing out modes but I try to mix it with a mode. Same for vengeance modes - easy to activate. I always go for warps and try to save torpedo shots to either start a vengeance mode or use them in vengeance mb (counts as shots on vengeance to complete mode). I like to go for Away Team in level1 modes but just for fun. I try to keep track of what warp I am at so if I am close to 9.1 I will go for it before starting Kobi Maru. If the ball save is on, I might let balls drain and go for warps in a mb. I might do a few other little things to go for bigger points but that's mostly it. Just shot what is lit, take what I can get, work on ball control, and work the machine to keep the ball out of the outlanes.

Thanks for the synopsis. I guess that part of the problem for me is that the modes seem very similar, I was never aware of the Klingon Battle rules, I guess due to trying to keep the balls alive more than concentrating on what shots.

Is the Vengance MB only hitting the drop target or do the ramps also score hits?

On the higher level missions, what's the multicolored shot? You said it gives you medals, does it complete the mode quicker? I seems to have a trouble with the upper level missions it doesn't seem like my shots always count, like I'll make a few lit color shots but my count down number of shots left doesn't always go down. Maybe there's roving shots and I miss the actual shot but I can't verify this since I've not played a lot of upper level missions.

More so I want the rules so that I can determine what mode play like, I know "hit the lit shots" but do some modes have less shots or more easy accomplishments? All I know is hit the lit shots so I don't really get a feel like they're different modes yet. I think that's what I need. I mean on IM I know I'm in Bogie mode or in War Machine mode or Iron Monger mode they're all quite different. With ST (to me) doesn't seem like there's a lot of differentiation.

#35 8 years ago

What do the LEs go for?

'Like new' condition

I know Mods are not 'that' much added to the price but..
full set of Cliffy's
Blackout mod
lighted Vengeance mod
Cointaker green laser
lighted interactive Vengeance mod
Pinball Refinery Bird of prey
Pinbits plastic protector
starburst under Vengeance light
Warp Ramp Diffuser
maybe something else I've forgotten.

#44 8 years ago

Ok so solid lit shots don't count, that's something I'd like to know beforehand. I didn't know the other parts either. That's why I said the rules were confusing to me.

#47 8 years ago

The past 2 days I got a chance to play both TWD premium and GOT premium to compare with my STLE.

I was not hoping to pick winner obviously not possible since pinball is subjective, and of course initial impressions are not the same as owning a pin for a long period of time and of course I don't understand the rules. So this was more of a get to know you visit and to see what the other pins look like and such.

Both appeal to me as themes, I've not seen all the episodes, but plan to watch them as a block once their run is over that's what I did with Breaking Bad.

Looks:
TWD is appropriately dark with very nice PF art dark and brooding, perhaps a tad bit too dark in places, but actually nicely so since it fits the atmosphere of the genre. Like the GI lighting but didn't find the color changing inserts to be as impressive
GOT the actual artwork was better than I'd thought but more functional than spectacular much lie, ST. I'm a sucker for color changing inserts and this has them in spades. The color changing inserts are better done on GOT than TWD much more impressive and the GI is nice on Blackwater MB, but overall the lighting was too brite, burn my cornea brite. I'm not saying ST isn't brite, but GOT is in a whole other galaxy. I'd hope Stern can include and adjustment but not sure. I like to play in the dark or semi-dark so that's likely a source of the problem.
STLE has the best color inserts to date, the PF while not outstanding like Metallica or even TWD, but it's functional on par with GOT.

Rules (dots, call outs, intensity of play)
This is impossible to say since I've played less than 20 games on the new pins but overall probably like TWD rules, dots better found it more intense and pressure packed. I don't know exactly what I'm supposed to do but still was super fun. GOT was good, not incredible yet, there was a lot of houses to play but they kind of feel generic (I have the same complaint about ST) however that's just my superficial impression. I really like the Blackwater MB great light show, probably more fun than any MB on ST (although I've not really played the level 1,2,3 MB on ST yet so just going by the Klingon and Vengeance MB).

Layout
TWD is more interesting more geometry while GOT seems to be straight shooting for the most part. Probably prefer TWD but were aspects that I didn't like such as BG bash target, barn head bash target both were meh. I was not a huge fan of the barn. It's ok but not awe inspiring. Well walker was nice enough but not my favorite shot since you can hit it without any trouble.
GOT is 'shot poor' although I can say that for a lot of pins that I like such as AcDc, ST, IM, Met etc.. Not horrible but less interesting than a pin like Tspp or TWD I like inner loops or sideways loops while this is more or orbits and ramps and the ramps were less inspiring the right ramp feeds the upper PF and the left ramp is kind of hidden while I know it's a ramp it's just not as satisfying as some ramps. The upper PF add some shots, I wasn't totally satisfied with the upper PF as its kind of repetitive (can say the same thing about AcDc or any other mini PF) but I just don't love it to death when I factor in that it takes over a third of the entire game real estate. IMO, I'd rather have a mini like Tspp let me see more of the main PF. But it does look nice and impressive.

#48 8 years ago

What have I found about these three pins? They're all very nice IMO. I was trying to decide if one clearly is better or worse, but so far they're all nice. Began to play STLE more intensively. Found there's a lot to like even with the rules not being my favorite, the shots are satisfying and while the mode start is difficult that may tend to shorten the games time moreso than a it being a drain monster. Spiderman might have been too long and ST added an element to shorten the ball time a bit with the mode start shot.

I may follow advice here and make ST a 5 ball game for a bit to get to see more of the rules before returning to my preferred 3 ball game.

#56 8 years ago
Quoted from flynnibus:

Both twd and got have way more complex playing strategy than st for even walk up games. Twd especially is not intuitive. Both games you really need a guide to understand the basic scoring objectives.
If stle rules are hindering you... Those games will be worse.
Got goes from 20m to 1billion in a single ball if you have some game strategy... While to walk up player will be happy with 40m. It is a serious game when it comes to when/what to do things

LOL

I got to add my initials on my host's GOT premium for 2nd high score, but I don't even know what I did, didn't even start MB must have triggered some high point shot by accident.

#58 8 years ago

Just been playing my ST a lot (by that I mean a couple of games a day, I'm not a heavy duty player).

Had a very good first ball like 3 modes on ball one, got to the last level 1 mode on my final ball, was thinking should just time out to get to KM mode but didn't and of course lost the ball before I could get KM. Was feeling the pressure no doubt and tightened up.

Only got 58 million points, but I'm feeling more comfortable making the mode start shots, it's starting to grow on me.

Out of curiosity, what is the object of KM for when I get there? How do the previously beaten modes factor into the scoring.

#63 8 years ago

I've got to KM today first time on new code.

As I mentioned I have 7 other pins and I was not playing STLE a lot. Was quite neglected.

Just played all level 1 missions got 11 medals.

Cheated a bit by giving extra ball at 50M and 100M

Don't think I did too well with KM but a lot of points to be had.

image_(resized).jpegimage_(resized).jpeg

#67 8 years ago

Not watched 101 yet, but I will. I'm kind of a skilled hack at this point. I can do some things ok and some things poorly.

I can backhand the left ramp no problem one of the easier shots in the game but the left loop not so good.

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