It’s true.
Stern, please add a an unlimited ball save time to account for the machine double house balling
So damn frustrating to compete on this game.
Rant over.
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Have you tried short plunging the ball?
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Let’s for the sake of not arguing about having to short plunge on a game to avoid a house ball… that the auto plug to outlane drain should not end your ball.
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I was just remarking about this the other day. I feel like fully half my plunges/autoplunges result in a drain down one of the outlanes. The Death Star mini loop shot (left to right) is extremely sensitive to bad machine setup and rocketing straight down the middle. I want to like this game more than I do, but I can’t get over the feeling that I’m fighting the game every time I play.
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What gets me is how consistently it happens on some machines. I’d give anything for “Thing Flips” style training to adjust the auto-plunger power when it happens repeatedly.
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I like how multiball start is like a modern mist multiball. You have one ball in play, the rest of the balls continually launch down the left outlane. To get you multiball you need to hit as many as you can in flight before the ball save expires. 
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I’d really like to have a rule like that, but I wonder how exactly it would work without being cheatable? Some SW it hits the standup on the left before going to the outlane, some it doesn’t, etc. You’d need to have a special set of switches (3 bank, standups, shooter lane, outlane) that don’t validate the PF?
Definitely something that should be there to account for malfunctions like this though, especially when it’s a known issue on SW that aren’t set up properly
I’ve been fighting with our SW at league for weeks. We’ve tried everything from 6 - 8 degrees and even pitching it left or right. The damn thing is a drain monster. Nail the left loop, boom STDM. Hit the Death Star shot and viola STDM. Don’t even bother hitting the Hoth shot or that’s coming down the middle too.
If I get one resolved, the other 3 go STDM. I hate that game.
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Have you adjusted the guides? I re-aimed my shooter guide and left orbit guide and fixed all my drain issues. Well, except for left ramp rejects 
Star Wars is pretty much a dice roll - what feeds the center, how is the plunge, etc. Doesn’t help that the game has shooter lane validation as well - errant short plunges to the center are punished hard with validation.
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Anyone else noticed that the ball consistently hops the right flipper when coming down at a fast speed? Particular when the ball U-turns around the Death Star/Hoth shot and occasionally when looping around the orbit. It’s happened to me on at least three different Star Wars Pro machines.
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Our Pro plays pretty well. We did have to adjust some lane guides to get this, but we don’t get any feeds that go SDTM. I have played one where nailing the left orbit results in a center drain and it is frustrating as hell. Most new Sterns that we get require some tweaking out of the box, it is all part of the game for us at this point.
Is there an adjustment for the guides around the orbits? I briefly checked and didn’t see anything obvious.
I think the left orbit wall where the autoplunge lands becomes magnetized somehow. Or I am just imagining things, but that’s what it looks like to me when it goes into severe drain mode.
I agree that SW Stern full plunges or auto plunges often lead to multiple drains… But this is an issue that owner and operators should only address for novice and casual players.
For experienced players: plunge better! You have complete control of whether you want to go for the skill shot award and deal with the inherent risk, or whether you want to skillfully plunge to put a ball on your flipper.
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So for experienced players it’s all good for a ball save to go right out the outlane, but not for casual players? I totally disagree obviously.
I watched a number of top 50 players skillfully plunge the outlane at circuit finals. At least with no ball save you didn’t have to worry about the auto plunge draining your ball.
Also adjusting a Stern on location lasts about a week before things start to fall out of calibration.
The Iron Maiden at the same location auto plunges into the tip of the mini flipper 50% of the time. That is annoying but does not result in a drain 99% of the time.
My point being that a plunge should not have geometry that puts the ball on a path to the drain. Unless it’s a Congo.
Maybe they can make the left outlane a super skill shot. That would solve all the problems.
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You don’t have to let an auto plunge actually auto plunge your ball. There’s plenty of games where it’s beneficial to try to manually beat the auto plunge to the punch (whether that’s a ball save, or the start of a multiball, etc).
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Hold mini flipper up.
Are you saying this particular SW the auto fire goes on a rainbow to the outlane? That’s definitely not right. Or does it hit the stand ups then head toward the outlane? If that’s the case either beat the autofire as recommended or nudge to change the path of the ball when it hits the stand ups.
My firepower left outlane kickback puts the ball on a similar path. Skillful nudging saves these balls.
Speaking of someone who plunged the outlane at circuit finals
This is true, but the time to react in SW is pretty short and I am usually wasting the first milliseconds cursing at the fact my plunge just resulted in a drain.
It’s just a really frustrating design. I posted this in the midst of losing a game by almost no points with 34 tie fighter and the tie fighter hurry up active. And it got double drained by the plunge. It’s just unnecessary.
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Of the reasons I find this game annoying to play, the plunge design doesn’t even make the top 5
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