Setting up Oktoberfest for league?

The bar where I run one of my leagues has and Oktoberfest on loan (as we lead in Oktoberfest).

Anyway, anything I should be doing settings wise to make this approach for best game league night?

The biggest issue weā€™ve run into when using Oktoberfest in tournaments is that the game can play long if the only strategy people have worked out is Juggler, which is a multiball mode that can be picked over and over until the player completes the mode(?). Itā€™s not necessarily the most lucrative strategy on the machine, but weā€™ve started pulling it because everyone just took forever starting a multiball, then immediately relighting TENT once theyā€™d drained back to one ball, then starting the multiball again.

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jack it up; turn ball saver of (including on the modes) and remove inner first post rubber and you are good to go.

one feedback for American pinball is they need to do a lot more on the settings option of their games.

Neil.

Doesnā€™t increasing the pitch render the beer barrel ramp impossible to make?

quite possibly. We had some pre-tournament games and found one ball went on for 15-20 minutes, I didnā€™t have time to finesse the game for tournament play (was at a venue that wasnā€™t one we use regularly) so I just went for what usually works. game time was much more acceptable.

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Even without Juggler all day, the game plays long. Taking at least 1 +TENT Lanes stein makes lighting modes take 2 scoop shots, which can be dialed in to a consistent bounce-trap-shoot cycle. Thereā€™s enough other features that patient players will measure shots and pick apart the multiballs methodically. Good balls also ramp up quickly into multiple multiballs (ducks).

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This is a terrible strategy for points, but if you want to nerf it anyway, Juggling Shots to Win can be set to 1ā€¦ meaning that as soon as a single lit shot is made, the tent is ā€œwonā€ and canā€™t be played again.

Besides lowering the standard ball saver time and the ball saver times for all multiballs, consider increasing Settings > Oktoberfest > Initial Outlane Target Hits for Save. Default is 3, but perhaps go to 5 if you think games are running long.

Or, yā€™know, the typical Install Competition, Install (Extra) Hard should pretty much do the trick.

Can you clarify this request? I donā€™t think itā€™s a lack of adjustments; there are about 70 Feature adjustments on Oktoberfest, and a pretty familiar set of Standard adjustments. Also the expected array of Install {Extra Easy, Easy, Medium, Hard, Extra Hard}, Install Competition, Install Home, etc. Each of the preset installs summarizes exactly what settings are installed by that preset before you execute the install.

What are we missing?

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Joe,
The first thing I looked for was the install hard settings and I couldnā€™t find it - but in your defence I was up against it time wise (15 machines that needed to be looked at!) so could easily have missed it. If thatā€™s there then perfect (and apologies) and withdraw the above request! American Pinball games are rare in the UK and this was the first I had come across one in a tournament. Good news is folks loved the game even though Iā€™d made it very challenging.

Neil.

For your future reference: Settings > Presets. Itā€™s a little ā€œgearsā€ icon.

One of the nice things you can do in that menu is save your current settings off to a USB stick and then restore them laterā€¦ so for example if youā€™re taking over a location machine for a tournament, you can first insert a USB stick and choose Settings > Presets > Save Settingsā€¦ then do your installs and/or adjustments for the tournament. When the tournament is over, put the USB stick back in and choose Settings > Presets > Import Settings, and the previous settings will be restored.

Great, glad to hear it!

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Just to clarify, you can save the current settings right on the system, you donā€™t need a USB. This will replace any existing saved settings. So from the service menu to go settings->presets (small gear), do ā€˜save settingsā€™, make changes for your event, then after the event ā€˜import settingsā€™ and things should be right back to how they were.