Had a nice bit of playtime with it last night thanks to
@chris b , and with a few sets of eyes watching what was going on it becomes easier to figure things out.
@Wayne J 's post is pretty spot on, but just to elaborate on a few points:
Skillshot can be changed with the ring button
- Hit the moving drop target (in DWARF bank)
- Hit the LOCK rollover/s
- Hit the ELF target bank
- Hit the lit inlane
Once you're started you'll want to qualify and start a mode. There are a number of ways to qualify modes
- ELF drop targets (lights multiple Elf modes)
- MAN drop targets (lights multiple Man modes)
- DWARF drop targets (you see where this is going...)
- Left ramp (Gandalf modes)
- Right ramp (Bilbo modes)
- Radagast hole (Radagast modes)
..and so on for the major shots
Once modes are qualified it lights a number of hexagons in the grid in a grey colour. One of them will be blinking, and shooting the right ramp (when it is lit as 'MODE') will start that mode. You can change the lit mode by shooting the left ramp (BOOK)
If you've already spelled LOCK (by hitting the rollovers on the playfield) then you can use the ring button to toggle whether the right ramp is lit for LOCK or MODE. We were generally starting a mode before multiball, though as Wayne says, you can start multiball and then bring a mode into it. With a long enough multiball it looks like you can actually qualify and play through multiple modes whilst in multiball (which is fair enough I think given the huge number of modes) but only one mode running at a time.
There are LOOOADS of modes. The little book on the playfield gives a short summary of what you should be shooting for in the mode and how it scores. The mode countdown timer can be boosted by shooting the left ramp (TIME)
Software I would say is much more complete than people give it credit for. Huge number of modes are implemented and playable. The only things we noticed were
- One of the modes (Windlancer was it?) wants you to shoot the right ramp, where it should then bring the ball to the kickback on the left, but it wasn't activating the kickback (so it sent the ball to the drain!). Time out this mode for now!
- There are magnets at the top of the orbits that don't currently seem to be used
- Right orbit is a deadly shot. Whips round and brings the ball right between the flipper gap. (This could be where those magnets come into play).
- There is a diverter at the top of the ramp which currently isn't used.