Tilt settings for SCS

What’s everyone’s feelings on the tilt levels for the SCS? Had a couple of players say they were too tight. Most were setup similar to the level PAPA does. What did the other SCS TD’s set their tilt levels too?

I think they should be PAPA tight. Which is pretty vague. Even at PAPA some games are tighter than others. I like a tight tilt, but I don’t like when it’s so tight you can get warnings from a light slap. The GOT at the IN SCS was super tight. I think I got a warning just flipping. Yikes. That’s too tight. But there was practice time. I should have made notes about the tilts on all the machines.

When hosting the SCS a couple years ago I set the tilts so players could make a save with a warning but wouldn’t tilt out. The road to the state finals is a long one, once there I think the players should get a chance to play.

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As long as you can do light nudges and flip without tilting or getting warnings, you’re good. If you put a move on the game and don’t at least get two warnings (or possibly tilt depending on the move), then they aren’t tight enough imo.

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Gonna echo people here, little nudges shouldn’t register. One good save is where a game ought to be at. What I mean is: whether you only get one danger, or barely escape tilting, there’s that sense that you have to be careful. I tilted out of a multiball the other day, and it was kind of a surprise to me at the time.(Danger danger tilt) You want players to be aware that yeah, they earned that tilt.

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Depends on the game. If it’s a machine where you can make safe shots that feed the flipper then you want the tilt to be a little tighter. If it’s a machine like the walking dead where you’re going to be making more dangerous and wild shots then you’ll want to give the player some breathing room to nudge.

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Agree that it depends on the game. An EM that ends the game with a tilt should be a lot looser than a modern game, among other considerations.

It also depends on the state. Some states, like Cal and Ill (and probably others) have very strong players that compete in state yearly. If you’re a small mid-west state having your first event with no heavy hitters, by all means leave the tilts reasonable.

All the players in state have their record easily available. See how strong your field is before you do setup. If you have one A level player, set them all hard or player A might play some hour long games.

This has always confused me.

Tilts at PAPA (at least since the @mhs years) are determined by game setup. There is no standard ‘tightness’ of tilt for a PAPA event game.

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I’m always in favor of reasonable tilts in any context. Let the players actually play.

My rule of thumb:

  • EM: Nudge/bump = nothing, hard whack = tilt
  • Non-EM: Nudge/bump = nothing, hard whack = at least 2 tilt warnings, or tilt

I believe that bumping and nudging is an important skill vector in pinball and I don’t like to see games give warnings for small moves.

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I don’t think the phrase refers to a specific setting - that would be tough to quantitate anyways. In my experience location and home games are usually set up with tilts much looser than the ones at PAPA. So in a tourney if people ask the TD how the tilts are - if they are set up similar to PAPA the answer would be “PAPA tight”