Kicking the habit.....

[HIKARU]

I went from dumping 2000 rounds of paint per 6 hour day of paintball, to 200~ rounds for 4 hours worth of paintball.

Simple solution, play with a stock class marker, not pump class, STOCK class. Don't play with a tube harness either.

I played last weekend with my mag with no extra pods,very nice feeling, of course this doesn't work for everybody. For those who want to try reducing the number of paintballs used in a day try this method out!

[cphilip]

Oh yea! we play "hopper ball" a lot. Not only makes it cheaper but it increases the movement of the game and your skills.

[shartley]

Yes, we play hopper ball and or hopper with ONE tube all the time. Like Phil stated, it tends to cause more movement and focusing on skills, VS paint dumping. I would rather hear “Wow, great move!” or “Hey, that was a great shot!” over “Wow, you shoot really fast!” any day. ;)

Fear the skills, not the ROF. :D

[cphilip]

Good point alluded too there Sam. It also evens up the markers on the field. Often taking away some high ROF marker advantages. Often a pump marker has an advantage of still having paint left at the end of the game for that final move. We normaly play with no extra pods at all. Sometimes with only one. Often people with out any paint are reinforced by a team mate that dumps a few balls into thier Hopper. This requires an extra move by one or the other. And opens up the game when they do. That can be fun. And fairly often a player without paint makes a move drawing some fire that allows his teamates to make an even greater a move to advantage them. Sometimes sacrificing himself in the process. Great team work builder. Hopper ball is a lot of fun. And I often find myself out of paint! :)

[TheTramp]

Do you find that it forces everyone to play like front or mid players?

[shartley]

Originally posted by TheTramp
Do you find that it forces everyone to play like front or mid players?
Sort of… yes.

When I play on my own field, we don’t really concentrate on back/mid/front.. we concentrate on total team movement and cover fire. I set up my field so that it lends to nice movement with the ability to actually rotate play in any direction, as opposed to standard end to end play. And often times you will find yourself playing where the other team actually started out at, or in odd angles from what you thought you would be playing from.

I wanted to give both defensive and offensive positions and possibilities from anyplace on the field…. And I accomplished that. It lends to a more fluid game… but tends to render classic back/mid/front style of game impotent. :D Your rear player would tend to be bunker bait because of the way play moves around. :)

So, combine that with limited paint, and you get a game that is fast paced, fluid, and loads of fun!

I have actually been thinking of getting a pump or pump pistol lately. :D A pistol would be KILLER on my type of field.

[Evil Bob]

Sydarms at 20 paces...

Hopper ball is great, speedball hopperball is awesome, it goes from a spray and pray fest to one of finese, lots of movement and forcing angles, definitely a big plus if you want to refine your tactical game.

Circular speedball fields are alot of fun, the bigger the better, force the teams to move and hunker down less.

-Evil Bob

[cphilip]

Well what sonetimes to happens is the high ROF markers sacrifice and lay paint while they can from the back and then they move up when paint gets low with a lot more dareing than they normally would and without as much reguard for if there is much open space to go to. They sort of shift forward a lot more as they have not much time in the game to stay and often make charges without paint for the distraction of it. The field can often become front heavy as the game gets longer. And its often a charge at the end.

[TheTramp]

That does sound like fun.

I've been invisioning a field that's completely circular with bunkers that could be played in any direction. That way the teams could move around or across or whatever. Very fluid. It would definatly make the idea of flag stations more difficult but you could just play elimination.

[cphilip]

We don't normaly play Flag on these. Just total elimination. It is a different style of ball for sure.

[shartley]

Originally posted by cphilip
We don't normaly play Flag on these. Just total elimination. It is a different style of ball for sure.
Same here... I never play Flag on my field. It is always total elimination..... usually team against team, but sometimes free for all. :D

With all the talk about higher ROF and the ability to carry more paint, it is refreshing to have a thread like this. I am glad more folks enjoy this type of play. It is actually cheaper to do, you can get in more games with the same amount of supplies (paint and air), and does not come down to an arms race. I have also seen both sexes and all ages play more evenly like this.

Want a great day of paintball….. THIS is the way to go. And you can do it more often…….

I feel THIS is the spirit of paintball. All games are great, but this is IMHO what it is all about.

[TheJester]

yea, we usaually do hopper ball, and suprisingly enough, i rarely run out in speed ball, it's woods that i have ammo issues, prolly cause they last longer. but i'm not 1 much for the woods anymore. the thing w/ hopper ball is you shoot fast, and as you run out, you become more conservitive

[Jonno06]

ha,I am going to start playing hopperball with my cocker..

or I can turn the cocking pressure all the way down,and i have to cock it everytime i want to shoot:p

[Quiet]

I think I want to play on Shartley's field, sounds like a lot more fun to me. I've spent to many games at the front being able to do little more than count the dollar value of paint hitting my bunker. The games are soo much more enjoyable when the teams are moving.

[RetroEclipseMan]

Yeah last saturday when I played I played hopperball for most of the day. I decided after shooting almost a half a case in 3 games was a little much. I hadn't done that for a long time. It actually made the day i little more fun I think. Rather than staying in a bunker for a little while knowing that it would be the safe thing to do and just dumping lots of paint I was taking way more chances and playing a lot more aggressive just because i knew that I had to make those moves otherwise I'd end up running out of paint and being screwed.

[Spray Painter]

i play hopperball at my friends field all the time(never used a harness there)and it make the game alot more fun. i focus on where i'm going to move next instead of where my next pod is in my pack. Like others have stated you move alot more and focus on your game.

[AcemanPB]

While it would be hard to enforce, I think there should be more limited paint matches in the NPPL and other major tournament circuts.

It would be cool if they would just give the whole TEAM a set amount of paintballs per game, then they could divide that up however they wanted between themselves. It would be something different for sure.

[EsPo]

me and my friends cleared out a path in the middle of the woods along time ago, and had 10 shot draws.. whoever got hit the most lost.. good times.

[Spray Painter]

Originally posted by AcemanPB
While it would be hard to enforce, I think there should be more limited paint matches in the NPPL and other major tournament circuts.

It would be cool if they would just give the whole TEAM a set amount of paintballs per game, then they could divide that up however they wanted between themselves. It would be something different for sure.

that's an awesome idea. i think it would make the tournaments more fun too. i like the last part about the whole team getting a certian amount of paint per game.

[Gijim]

Shartley can you post pics or drawings of your field. I'm in the middle of constructing a field and need some ideas. Your idea of a field seems to fit what I want, lots of movement and hopper ball. Or just email me with them, whatever is easier.;)

[Bulldog]

It was pretty funny, I was there with Hikaru that Saturday, and it's hilarious to hear some of the comments people make when they see a 15+ year old PGP being brought onto the speedball field. Playing with a mag for over 8 years, I've heard a lot of negative comments (socal is cocker/angel country imho), but to see these kids make fun of it and then get bunkered by it, was great. I saw Hik take out a guy with a 2000 dollar Angel with his PGP. Granted the guy with the Angel was low on air, but hey, he did it. I definately think playing pump will improve your game. Especially when everyone else is using semi's.

[shartley]

Originally posted by Gijim
Shartley can you post pics or drawings of your field. I'm in the middle of constructing a field and need some ideas. Your idea of a field seems to fit what I want, lots of movement and hopper ball. Or just email me with them, whatever is easier.;)
Sure…. Here are some pictures of it. Keep in mind that it is not so much the layout of the field in itself that makes it so flexible, it is that I made sure when building the obstacles and placing them that they could be used from several angles. I made sure I gabe folks escape routs and ways to move around. These pictures don’t show it all, nor show how each obstacle can be used in multiple angles….. but you asked for pictures… :) These are also take on the first big day of playing on the field. It has been cleared a little more since then. :D

http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=47924

[Gijim]

Thanks that helps me since one of the areas I'm looking at has trees and I like how you combined speedball and woods. By the way, you need to post that link so we can see the rest of the pics of your field:D I've been collecting pallets, old fencing, and big barrels for this project anything that will work, should be similar to yours.;) Thanks again you did a good job on it!

[shartley]

Thanks. I never got around to putting the other pictures online. Sometimes I get quite busy. :)

I will try to take some more this spring when we do our cleanup and improvements.

Yes, I like the combination of styles too. It is VERY fun to play on, and it is always shaded. :D This is something I hear all the time from folks going to speedball fields in the open… they can get pretty hot. ;)