You have to start Super Loops from the wheel before progress with Bo Peep loops is counted towards Carousel
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Is Super Loops required to start Bo Peep progress for each Meet Me at the Carousel or just a one-and-done qualification?
Game by me has a sticky Woody spinner too, it randomly settles horizontally (and never really rips at all)
It is one and done currentlyā¦ You do not need to get it again the second time around to make progress
Iām guessing the spinner is getting stuck on the alien plastic over the captive ball have the op loosen the plastic a bit and move it away from the spinner
2 Likes
Any TDās out there looking to keep game time down and give a nice challenge to players follow these steps. I currently only have a sample size of 1 tourney doing this but I watched a handful of the games and I thought it was defending itself nicely in this setup:
Competition Mode Setup (work in progress)
- Install Competition mode preset (this is important donāt just turn on competition mode in the settings actually install the preset, it will also turn on the competition setting when installed) This will make multiple rules harder in addition to removing the randomizing. Installing Medium Difficulty preset after tourney will set back everything to default.
- Adjust the right outlaneās āleftā adjustable post to its highest position (games will soon be shipping this way by default)
- Remove the rubber on the post between right inlane and outlane
- optional Depending on the level of players you think will be thereā¦you can also move the ārightā right outlane adjustable post to its highest position.
Thatās it for now as it is a work in progress feel free to let me know how it goes or if you have additional suggestions. I will continue to tweak the competition mode preset as well to find what works best. And yes competition mode does apply a timer to unlimited kickback (30 sec)
This likely is more information then you really want but I picked out a handful of the changes (the others are not as critical to explain to people) so far.
Relay some/all/none of it to players up to the TDā¦ This will probably be more interesting to people after people actually learn how to play it.
Competition Preset Changes
- Chase Ball (OFF)
- Ball Save (OFF)
- Tilt Warnings Added not available via Mystery
- Mystery Difficulty (set to HARD and not lit at Game Start. Requires a decent amount of switches to light the first time, it also has an alternative table of awards that one day I will tweak some more)
- Buzz Quick Multiball Qualifying currently requires 5 saucers (4 to light it, and 1 to start) (I tried this at 6 at the tourney and thought it worked ok I may update this to 6 but it is not available yet)
- Buzz Quick Multiball set to HARD for Super Jackpot qualifying (more jackpots required to light saucer for Super Jackpot - 10 currently may tweak this in the future to 8)
- Buzz Quick Multiball Intergalactic Jackpot difficulty set to Hard (15 second hurry up and the Intergalactic will timeout after it reaches the floor (normally it will just stay lit until awarded or mb ends)
- Duke Caboom Jackpot - 6 inner loops to light (still 3 jumps in a row to be awarded the jackpot, normal difficulty 3 loops to light)
- Carnival Mode Timers for the 3 different levels of difficulty have been decreased a bit (the insert at the left ramp indicates current difficulty (and cost to play) blue (easy, less tickets to start) to yellow to red (hard more tickets to start) more points and time is given to harder versions
- Kickback off at game start no Forky targets spotted at ball/game start
- Gabby Gabby Multiball Qualifying 3 letters spotted instead of currently 5 (may tweak this but this is how it is now) (0 letters spotted after the 1st MB)
- Unlimited Kickback - 30 sec timer
- Road Trip Multiball Qualifying Requires a drop target shot after each locked ball (instead of just all 3 locks lit after first drop target) This is the difficulty after you play it the first time normally
- Road Trip Multiball - virtual locks ON, Increased number of Jackpots to light Super Jackpot (from 6 to 8)
- Super Spinners Increased spins to start Super Spinners (from 250 to 350 for each character)
- Tiki Party - Sudden Death at the start of the virtual pinball. One drain and no Multiball
- Meet Me At The Carousel - set to HARD (more shots for each stage)
- Ducky And Bunny Double Trouble Jackpot - is just a set value and not a carry over value across games
3 Likes
Once finalized, can you detail the changes that install competition makes so we can communicate it with participants?
Absolutely. I will edit my original post at the bottom to point out the difference and try to keep that up to date.
5 Likes
do you mean the left inlanes here?
No the post between the right inlane and outlane. Feel free to experiment with the left but the game is heavy left drain happy so Iām trying to increase right side mostly. Not having the kickback lit at game starts makes left even more dangerous then default.
so then the rubber between the inlane and outlane?
yep, corrected the typos in other posts to avoid confusion
These two alone nail some of the larger pressure points that Iāve thought about when it comes to putting a TS4 in competition. Unlimited Unlimited Kickback can make balls go super long, and physical Road Trip locks can really kick the Bonus scoring into overdrive.
I assume this is going to be some pre-determined reward list?
Yes truly unlimited kickback would not fly in a competition.
Virtual Locks for Road Trip for bonus scoring because of more skill shot attempts is what you are saying?
Yes its a predetermined list its pretty basic right now: (I want to add My Good Friend Benson mode somewhere near the top but havenāt yet and possibly some other stuff)
small points (5k)
add bonus x
medium points (10k)
hold ball bonus
large points (25k)
tickets payout
small points
hold jump bonus
medium points
hold loop bonus
large points
hold gabby bonus
small points
hold tickets spent
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Now what is better unlimited kickback for X time? for multi ball only? or stack up say X of number of kickbacks?
have the stack up say X of number of kickbacks that getās wiped to zero on drain?
I think it maybe easy to have the game code not offer an skill shot after an physical lock or have that be itās own setting.
Yeah - being able to boost your Skill Shots for Bonus X, being able to hold said Bonus X, and potentially then collecting the bonus from Mystery is definitely an extremely strong feature. I have a very solid score (21.7M) with no visits to Meet Me at the Carnival (thanks to the Forky Combo denying me an opportunity by diverting to the right inlane more times than not) and over 65%+ of that score from Bonus collects (with no Hold Bonus X - I drained off a reject from that shot 
).
Not having a deterministic Collect Bonus in Competition Mode is big, honestly.
Edit: without competition settings, TS4 is a game where I would opt to go first because of the benefits of physically locking balls for skill shots. In that 21.7M game, my most beneficial skill shot contributed over 10% of my score by itself - with Hold Bonus X, it could have been nearly 4M.
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Thanks for that great breakdown much appreciated.
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Can confirm, I had like 7 in a row go in the saucer off the pops. Itās not over powered though since you have to direct hit the between the pops target multiple times to requalify the Buzz MB after the first one.
I was the TD at this 1 tourney btw, time stats from TS4 that night:
Ball saves/EBs were not on eitherā¦our games usually average 15-25 minutes so these settings felt good. We have a smattering of top 200 players as well as several in the top 50 or so.
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@PinballKatz - my struggle with setting up competition mode via presets isā¦ I then need to go back and undo all these settings, or load a preset and go back and tweak things again. We largely keep settings default except when it comes to EBs and giving out creditsā¦ so if you are encouraging TDs to load presets, just make sure there is some sort of preset they should load back to normal too 
We had a tournament with kickback not enabled by default and the comp settings loaded and we heard tons of complaints about the outlanes. Once we went back to default settings, scores doubled and it was more enjoyable. The slings+open outlane was the main complaint. Our left post is in the factory lower position.
And why the virtual locks in comp mode?