Star Trek - Mission Start Difficulty Question

Games
1

I have a tournament at my place tomorrow.
I am including Stern Star Trek LE, and I have tried to make it harder to lower the play times down. Hardware wise I have made it as hard as I would like.

I have changed the Mission Start difficulty to MEDIUM.
I have no idea what this setting does as it seems to be quite random.
There is no mention of this in the manual.

These are the settings I have changed just in case they are somehow related.

  • all level one missions are on a 15 second timer
  • Kingon on extra hard
  • ball save for Kligon 15 seconds
  • ball save for vengence 5 seconds
  • rescure difficulty - extra hard
  • #25 Mission Start difficulty: Medium

Most of the time when the timer is up on a level 1 mission, the mode is available at either left of right shot. But it seems ‘randomly’ over the last week during testing, I have to shoot either shot first to light the mission start shot
I thought it might be something like, if you don’t get a bronze medal you need to light your mission start before the shot is available to choose the mission.
However today I took the glass off today to try and replicate and the mission was available if I got 1 shot, bronze medal, silver medal or gold.
The only way I could get the mission start shot to NOT be available is if I played Space jump, hit 1 shot, away team, and then shot up the middle.

I am sure there are some other cases, I just can’t seem to replicate it.
I just want to know what the rule is for this menu option or if its buggy and I should just set it back to default or hard settings

Thanks

2

Doing stuff like making the modes time out quicker isn’t really going to make the ball times shorter. Ball save/Rescue will. Settings will only affect play time if they make the player make riskier shots.

3

There is almost nothing to do when a mode is over on ST. So I’m trying to force people to play a little bit more on the fly to get points while they can.
Besides the Warp Ramp the 2 mode start shots are the hardest in the game so making people shoot that more should seperate the good and the average players.

4

You might get somebody just going spinner over and over and increase ball time!

2 Likes
5

I tend to agree with @zacaj, making 1st level modes 15 seconds will cause more kobayashi maru. More captains chairs. It will cause more going 3 deep. It discourages going galactic away team. I don’t think this increases the risk.

6

I shortened ball times significantly by taking the outlane posts out, making the tilt very tight and only one warning, and also disconnecting the left outlane switch.

7

You could go to lightning flippers and remove inlane rubber. Move all multiball ball saves to 5 seconds. ST is a tricky one as there are a ton of safe shots on the game but suggestions above and these will definitely make it tougher.

Good Luck

8

Underrated comment really. Never underestimate a player’s ability to say “screw this, I’m going to grind a safe shot all day.” :slight_smile:

3 Likes
9

I can’t see an answer to the original question.

Why is it that sometimes after finishing a mission, you just need to shoot the left scoop or under the upper flipper to start a mode, other times you have to shoot those shots just to light start mode?

The same can apply after you drain out of a mode, sometimes you can start a mode before plunging, other times you need to light start mode first.

There doesn’t appear to be any logic to it.

10

If you have a Vengeance mode ready and a mission (mode) ready and drain, you won’t be able to start a mission before your next plunge. You’ll have to shoot either mission start shot to start it.

This is why it’s a bad idea to use the Punch It torpedos maniacally as the ball is draining if you’re no longer in a mission.

IMHO, this behavior constitutes a bug, and used to confuse the crap out of my players. If a mission weren’t startable in this situation, I’d say it’s working logically and as intended. The fact that you can shoot an extra shot and start the mission makes the whole thing just stupid.

3 Likes