Ssqdd

[punkncat]

Been asked a million times...gonna get the latest take on it....

Where will paintball technology go from here?

Can it go anywhere?

We have seen the lack of impression made by the new propane marker. There's the Evolt...that hasn't been seen anywhere this side of an advertisement....can't really think of anything else.
Seems like the only thing thats cool to use is what companies remill every year and tell players its the new hotness. Even though its the same stuff thats been available for years.

Aren't paintballs themselves really the limiting factor, given that loaders and hoppers feed them right to the edge of their physical limitation?

Meh...same stupid question..different day.

[Cow hunter]

disposable HPA cartridges?
something better than eyes?
pneumatic trigger is old, but new to many people
mainstream pump play?

just a few ideas that i think might develop

[Jrhan762]

disposable HPA cartridges?
something better than eyes?
pneumatic trigger is old, but new to many people
mainstream pump play?

just a few ideas that i think might develop

How could pump go mainstream? Dye can't make money off of pumps!

[evildead420]

mainstream pump play?



im so with that. :headbang:

[Cow hunter]

well, the electros have pretty much reached a pinnacle, and where else is therre to go? semi is way far done, and pump seems a mostly untraveled route......

[Pyroboy597]

I do not see pump going anywhere 'new' in the next few years. I see more companies making guns for far less than are comparable to many more expensive guns. I see new alloys making guns lighter, and new valve/bolt setups that will make the guns smaller. I see guns that can chrono themselves (or atleast tell you what FPS your shooting at).

I see speedball taking over more and more, and pump getting less and less of a factor. Of course it will still be around however.

[punkncat]

There has been a lot of chatter here and a few other sites about pump play growing. I cannot think of a single person that plays with a pump on pay or renegade fields anywhere around. I have never seen a pump at any game I've been to including many scenarios.*

I hear the talk, but just aint seeing the proof in the pudding.


* Allow me to qualify that by saying anyone playing with a good pump or that actually wanted to....as an example, Talon's didn't count.

[camilion705]

Force fed loaders that will feed at max rate at any angle? Warps don't exactly count...

[p8ntball72]

There has been a lot of chatter here and a few other sites about pump play growing. I cannot think of a single person that plays with a pump on pay or renegade fields anywhere around. I have never seen a pump at any game I've been to including many scenarios.*

I hear the talk, but just aint seeing the proof in the pudding.


* Allow me to qualify that by saying anyone playing with a good pump or that actually wanted to....as an example, Talon's didn't count.


http://www.oscseries.com/

[RRfireblade]

"Practical" and "compact" fully integrated loaders and air systems.

Increased efficiency.

Integrated video and 2 way communications.

[RoamingStorm]

lighter more compact guns, with digital read outs, maybe even pong personally Id love brick in my trigger frame

[Cow hunter]

lighter more compact guns, with digital read outs, maybe even pong personally Id love brick in my trigger frame
lets put a phone in the grip frame! music, games, phone, camera and a marker all in one

[RoamingStorm]

Hey agd should team up with Itunes to come up with the Igrip, it can be like a shuffle with tiny speakers!!

no takers?!

o well

all I want is brick or tetris

[jenarelJAM]

I really think that until new batteries come out, the electric(completely) marker will never take hold because it will be too bulky and ugly. Once someone figures out how to charge our guns while we play with them, so we only need small rechargable 9v's to be our power supply, I think we could do away with air tanks. I mean, air tanks are cool, but having 4500 psi a foot away from my head(even if its safe) is something I could do away with.

Oh, and paintballs for laser pointers! :rofl:

[pachytriton]

roamingstorm- Me and a friend were joking about things like that. Our best idea was one of those tiny game boy advances, lol. I'm still trying to figure out why my matrix has a thermometer in the lcd.

[RoamingStorm]

wow, thats odd, Id like a 3 inch plasma screen tv

[Lenny]

I got it! The next big thing in paintball is the electro-pump! It'll have 4 modes of fire, ramping, and a really sweet tiny LCD screen that'll play movies and get TV reception in case you're bored in between games.

And it'll work like... like... How would it work? My plans have been foiled again... *sigh* :(

That'd be way cool if pumps had ramping... and a TV...

[Cow hunter]

I got it! The next big thing in paintball is the electro-pump! It'll have 4 modes of fire, ramping, and a really sweet tiny LCD screen that'll play movies and get TV reception in case you're bored in between games.

And it'll work like... like... How would it work? My plans have been foiled again... *sigh* :(

That'd be way cool if pumps had ramping... and a TV...
wouldnt ramping bring us EXACTLY where we started.......... :rolleyes:

[Lenny]

wouldnt ramping bring us EXACTLY where we started.......... :rolleyes:

How? Have a circuit board telling the gun to fire two or three balls per pump cycle (autotrigger) over say 4-6bps. That'd be wicked cool and give pumpers a chance in modern speedball! And everyone would be all like "Dude, that guy is so agg for a pumper. Totally agg." and all the pumpers would rejoice because they would finally be considered cool among all the agg-ers, and the agg-ers would, like, warn newbs and be all like "Watch out for that dude." and the newbs would be all like "What, the pump guy? I have a rental Tippmann! I can beat him!" and all the agg-ers would be all like "whatever kid, I'm on his team" and the pumper would finally have a place in modern tourney paintball society, and world peace world finally happen via an international treaty, and boy scouts would start helping old nannies across the street again, and cancer would be cured, and TV wouldn't need censorships because no body would ever cuss, and annoying little sisters would cease to exist, and I'd win the Mr. America contest (and if there isn't one, one would be made up for me).

Or something like that...

[usagi_tetsu]

In the near future, as one of my TOG buds predicted, now that we've comfortably achieved 15bps in markers, feeders, and air systems (yes, gotta have a good, reliable source of propellant to keep those high rates of fire), everyone will begin focusing on technology to get those 15 paintballs to land inside an area smaller than a coffee can. How are they going to do it? Well, as we all know from Mr Kaye's foray into military/police equipment, it's going to take more than slapping a fancy hunk of barrel-shaped metal on the front end. Not sure exactly what that's going to entail, but it's going to be interesting.

As for tournament formats, Durty Dan posted an article a while back that looked at getting paintball on TV. It had some interesting concepts, but boiled down to a one-on-one stock class format, which even I think would be too boring. So I started tinkering around with what I thought would be the ultimate in both technology and tournament format, and came up with this (http://www.tribal-paintball.com/tog/showthread.php?t=500) diatribe over on the TOG (http://www.tribal-paintball.com/tog/).

Since I posted all that, I don't think even what I proposed would really paintball as a sport really that great to watch on TV, but it would remove a lot of the cheating elements that just seem inherent to the tourney scene nowadays. I think paintball could be incorporated into a reality TV show and made palatable to the masses. Hey, it would be the first reality show I'd actually watch, and I don't even watch the current paintball shows on satellite/cable.

[REDRT]

I see speedball taking over more and more, and pump getting less and less of a factor. Of course it will still be around however.

I don't think so. I see pumps making a come back. Speedball is dwindling some. High pressure, attitudes, big business, the money. I have a large group of friends that are all talking about buying pumps this year and play for pure fun insted of the speedball field all the time. Tippmann's C3 might not be off the mark too far. I think if we see a new marker from AGD it is going to be a new super fantastic pump. A better chance of that over a new E-marker.

[ThePixelGuru]

I think people are looking the wrong way for paintball's future. Paintball's grown up, and we've got markers that are pretty damn close to perfect. At this point, paintball's got to mature. In terms of gear, I think we'll see lighter and more reliable setups for cheaper and cheaper. The Ion set a hell of a trend, and even if you don't like SP you've got to like what they've done for the price of markers. $500 will probably get you a top-end marker soon enough. This is probably going to suck for a lot of companies, since a race for lower prices usually means a lot of people get screwed. Look at most pro sports these days. Ask yourself how many baseball equipment companies you can name - what about soccer, football, or lacrosse? How about paintball companies? The only reason the numbers are so different is because of how much younger our sport is.

Paintball needs an audience, too. The format as a whole needs to change to something people can see and understand on TV, and let's face it, if you've never played paintball before you're going to be pretty damn confused watching the NPPL. Smaller games with ramping could become the norm. Fewer players means it's easier to keep track of, and it's just easier to see a rope of paint than a couple shots on your TV screen. We're already seeing this trend; 10-man is almost dead, 3-man is becoming more and more common and many fields are beginning to allow ramping.

This isn't to say that recball doesn't still have a place, but it'll certainly be taken less seriously than the speedball scene. Tournyball will be to the NBA as recball is to pick-up basketball games in schoolyards - it's the same game and both are enjoyable, but one's taken far more seriously while the other would never make prime-time TV.

This doesn't answer the original question at all. You've asked how much better paintball equipment can get, but I think that's the wrong question. We should be thinking in a more general sense and looking toward the future of the sport as a whole rather than sitting around wondering if someone can make a better paintslinger.

[MoeMag]

I have definitely seen a surge in pump. My local shop has their own little pump tournament league. It seems to be popular. Last time I went to a real field, the speedballers were doing “one shot” games, trying to imitate pump play. It was actually a lot of fun. There might be a market soon.

Personally I think that hoppers still have a long way to go. The fact that 99% of hopers are still giant blobs of plastic on the top of the gun messes with me. Q-loader is close, but 100 per pod isn’t. I have to give the warp credit for at least giving us a sight line over the gun. But there has to be something better.

I used to think that higher-pressure tanks would be cool, but now that guns are running lower and lower pressure, the 45-45 will be considered a big tank in a few years.

I think propane is really cool. If Mr. Kaye could make a fast semi auto propane gun… :wow: .

I just finished writing /\ /\ /\ when I read the Pixelgurus post. I think he might be right.
Thanks to the Ion, I can get e blade cockers and Timmys for cheap. But I have to ask… for my sport, I can go pick up some X brand saddle for $100. But for competitive riding I am looking at custom-built $6000 saddles built with carbon fiber cores. I think there will always be a place for truly “high end” guns.

As far as TV… I would love nothing more than to see good paintball action on TV. However, the league that WGN has is like watching paint dry, I’m sorry to say. You cannot even see the paintballs.
If they can make golf an audience sport, someone sure as hell will figure out how to make paintball TV marketable.

[REDRT]

Well no matter were the sport goes I hope it doesn't go on tv. I can't stand the sports that are on tv now! Also I think with are ever growing stupidity in the country it might be just as negative as it could be positive. I'd say it would have to make the Olympics before it could be branded a household name, excepted and share air time with the likes of NBA or NFL.

[lather]

Paintball is already popular enough without it having to be on tv.

I dont understand the big push for more tv exposure.
Does something you enjoy doing have to be on tv in order for you to justify it? I dunno, I just never felt the need for tv exposure to validate what I like to do in my free time.

Im actually starting to wish it reverts back a bit to become less mainstream. Im beginning to think this sport was better when it was just a large group of enthusiasts. Im hoping that the whiny, pasty 14 year old "street gangsta" (most of whom, quite often, live in $500,000+ dollar, gated-community subdivisions) segment of paintball will discover airsoft.

[usagi_tetsu]

I have definitely seen a surge in pump. My local shop has their own little pump tournament league. It seems to be popular. Last time I went to a real field, the speedballers were doing “one shot” games, trying to imitate pump play. It was actually a lot of fun. There might be a market soon.

Probably a good market move on LAPCO's part to bring back the Grey Ghost recently. Get a jump on the competition.

[Phantom_Mag]

55 cal paintballs

Shoot farther
Smaller hopper
Light marker
Maybe Less Painfull.

[Jotsy]

I'd say it would have to make the Olympics before it could be branded a household name, excepted and share air time with the likes of NBA or NFL.

skateboarding never went to the olympics (did it? i'm not sure). but yet its gone really "mainstream". i think we're going about this the wrong way. everybody's been trying to get paintball on ESPN, when mebe it would be easier to get it onto MTV. (although sometimes i cringe at the thought of paintball being exposed to yet more of the mtv generation :p )

things i'd like to see happen, i'd like built in loaders so i don't have to worry about snapping the feednecks. intergrated air systems, shaped to be like stocks. high end processors and touchscreens in the grip frame to adjust all the settings (cos i'm a gadget whore lol). i also think it would be cool if there were light reflecting tracer rounds that look like they're radiating in sunlight. (mebe a special fill with a transparent shell.)

more of a what if question now but imagine what if speedball introduced respawns? we'd prob need a dedicated pit crew refilling pods and air tanks, and the rules would have to be changed a bit, but i think the respawns would introduce a sense of urgency to get that last guy out before the respawns or that last guy could be a hero and hold out till backup arrives.

[marpat]

55 cal paintballs

Shoot farther
Smaller hopper
Light marker
Maybe Less Painfull.

i agree maybe the way is to have smaller paintballs.. look at the RAP4 series of markers almost 1:1 scale and it's clip fed! if it weren't for the small size paintballs that aren't allowed on a standard field i would have picked one up very long time ago.

I don't know why .68 should be the standard .. maybe Tom can answer that since he has a patent on paintballs :headbang:

Aside from the where paintball is going i believe we have reached the pinnacle of the marker as we now know it..

maybe they'll come out with a voice activated marker system or better yet a biometric marker that only works with your fingerprint. so no marker will ever get stolen again.

anyway..

my 2 cents.

[ThePixelGuru]

Paintball doesn't need to appear on TV for me to enjoy playing, but it's getting to a point where paintball needs to be on TV to get money in the industry and keep it alive. We play a damn expensive sport, this isn't like skateboarding where you just need a board with wheels and a random jumble of concrete to play around on.

As for the painful part of paintball, I think it's a good thing. Paintballs don't hurt much at all (sometimes I don't even notice a hit, but then again I was a lacrosse d-man and lacrosse balls carry a little more oomph), but they hurt just enough to make people flinch when they get hit. With all these skilled wipers around, looking for that telltale flinch is one of the best ways for a ref to spot an elimination.

[Cow hunter]

mark your calenders

ESPN2 april 10th 10:00
maimi something or other

[pachytriton]

Jotsy-I'm friends with the son of the ceo of mtv/viacom, I'll talk to him and see what he says, lol. I was a junior counselor at a camp this summer and he was one of the older campers, cool kid, we hung out, he hates mtv :rofl:

Seriously, I don't think mtv would be good for paintball. I hate just about everything about it, the music, the attitude. Paintball doesn't need that kind of publicity. Watching paintball on tv is fun, I hope this new espn thing works out. Maybe there's a place for it on espn 8: the ocho :dance:

I don't think smaller calibur paintballs will ever take hold. The MIGHT work better, but the transitional phase would be way too awkward with both types on the same field. It would make any older gun completely obsolete which I think is wrong. Loaders and air systems are the two parts that have the most room for improvement. Other than gadgets, what could be better than what we have now? Hopefully I'm wrong and something will be released that beats the pants off our current markers, but I don't see how.

[usagi_tetsu]

They tried smaller paint, remember the .62 caliber stuff used by Tippmann's SMG-60? Yeah, it flew slightly straighter and a little farther than the .68cal stuff of the time, but it tended to bounce a lot more as it weighed less. Ultimately the reason why even Tippmann let it drop and everyone went with the industry standard .68cal paintball. Not like that's saying much when you've got barrel sizers from .679 up to .690.

[Jotsy]

Jotsy-I'm friends with the son of the ceo of mtv/viacom, I'll talk to him and see what he says, lol. I was a junior counselor at a camp this summer and he was one of the older campers, cool kid, we hung out, he hates mtv :rofl:


LOL.

i'm sorry, i think i phrased my sentences wrong. what i meant was it would be easier to get it on TV that way, but it wouldn't be good for the sport.

btw, i'm not talking about televising the matches, but rather musical clips like in Cereal Killers or 300FPS. you know, short clips of fast action with rock music.

[Xenocide]

I was thinking about this the other day. I have a super reliable gun, (05 proto) its super small, its super fast.

I was wondering what it would take for me to buy a new gun. I have never been about the looks. I always preffered the matt black markers.

If I am going to buy a new marker it will have to be as good as what I have now, plus one or more of the following:

1.Super efficiency
2.So low presure/ low bolt impact that it can shoot the ****tiest of paint, misshapen and all.
3.Smaller/lighter. By a significant amount. I am looking for a grip frame and a single tube, 3 inches long, just a little thicker than .68, with a feedneck. Like a mag, but tournament ready (please dont flame me, i love my mag, i tried playing with them in tourneys, I am not making this statement lightly)
4. zero kick/negligable reciprocating mass.
5.+0-0 consistancy.

So when a gun can do all of that, or meybe just 2, i might pick one up.

The industry deffinately has improvements it can make, its just a matter of putting together the killer package. We have some great technologies out there, there just isnt 1 company making something that does it all. Killa detents, 2 liter regs, scp inline regs, efficiency, speed.

All this talk of where do we go next? How about getting the new stuff nailed down first :)

[kayvon]

how about heatseeking paintballs
wahahahahah :shooting: :shooting:


well ok i dont know
but do you think this was discussed with like cars in the 30's and then computers and tech. 10-15 years ago, and other sports. cause if it was then it means that painball will continue to grow.

i believe something big will change soon again
kinda along the lines of X-ball and legal ramping changes

[Jotsy]

ooh one thing i would like to see in the future are new advancements in paintball manufacturing technology which produce tournament quality paintballs for $10 per box of 2000 rounds.

... and tracer rounds ;) maybe even a paintball that makes a whistling noise as it flies through the air.