Do you think the learning curve for paintball is high?

[-=Squid=-]

damn... so what IS cool now?

It's complicated, really.

[tony3]

Cool=this picture






Learning curve wise, it is really easy to look like you know what you are doing, but actually doing it is a different story. Lots of kids will try to look good but don't do anything on the field. For me it has been you first see tourney players and you can't believe how much they shoot. You start playing with them and the whole game changes. Nothing else is the same now as playing with those guys. You start doing damn good against them and are better then most of them. Then you are the best in your group and the next step is the hardest. Lots of good players and lots of good teams. And the pattern starts again. You get on one of those better teams and play your butt off and are one of the better ones. It just keeps going. The hardest is to jump the levels, you start with the crappy local kids, then finding a good local team to keep going is one of the harder jumps since not many local teams are dedicated. Finding a dedicated national team isn't hard since most are very dedicated, the hard part is making one.

[Carbon]

tony 3

i tend to agree with ya man. Its defenitely is a distilling process. Going through it, you find people who are dedicated and so in to the sport, that it sucks you in even more.

I also think in terms of the learning curve of working in a team and how it relates to you as an individuall. From what i gather, watching a lot of the well funded local teams, the only thing that is really apparent is the lack of trust among teamates.

[gc82000]

Cool means being the first person to say that the other person's stuff is lame.

You cant say that one style of pb is harder then the other. There are to many different aspects of each style to say one is better then the other. But if you want to only go with the basics for both, eg accurate shooting, ability to cover or make oneself smaller, and knowledge of when to move or where to move. Then you would also need to take in the idea of individual positions of each style and the responsibility each position has during a game.

this is why when I see threads going into flame wars over which style is better, I usually stay clear. Just thought I might put in my 2 cents in before the flames get started.

[frop]

The fundamentals are really quite easy for anyone with half a brain. It's the polishing of those skills that's the hard part.

[shartley]

I was able to learn about paintball and how all my guns work very quickly.(Then again, Im not afriad to break them).

Well, IMO, speeball takes longer to learn all the little stuff and perfect it.
Woodsball, how you have to know how to do is hide, and be quite.

[fullofpaint]

Now that is the cool stuff to wear(Spec ops Fusion Gear)

I think that there is a learning curve. When you first start it's not too bad. I mean let's be honest you point and shoot. But as you play more you start doing more than just leaning out a bunker and shooting. You start crawling to the 50, leaning out of your bunker at different spots, bunkering, and shooting with both hands.

[Aslan]

My take

I agree. I play primarily woodsball and when I tried X-Ball I suddenly realized a whole new aspect to the game. It wasn't necessarily "harder", it was different. Camoflage and stealth were less a factor, but moving up un-noticed was. Snap shooting and lowering your overall profile seemed very important in X-ball, not as important in woodsball...but not necessarily unimportant either. The two kinda tie together like that.

I find that the learning curve is actually quite fast. In woodsball, you learn communication and what not to do. You learn the basics like flanking and leapfrogging. Then you learn about the field...places that are best to go first...places where you can get trapped...then you learn some places that provide the best angles...then you learn to lower your profile and snap shoot.

The biggest trouble I had when I trie speedball was the angles...it seemed that the speedball form of playing was heavily reliant on angles. In woodsball...if you can keep the action in front of you and find decent cover...you're fairly safe. On an X-ball course, no matter where you are at...somebody on the other team can work their way into a decent position to hit you...which was nerve-racking for someone used to woodsball.

About the last thread...why wear camo if you are going to wear a red mask and red gloves? :spit_take

Edit: Oops, I forgot to answer the question...no, I don't think the learning curve is too high...if you think it is...try golf...then get back to me.

[rabidchihauhau]

Paintball's learning curve is never-ending; there is ALWAYS a new way to look at things, a new 'trick', a different way.

With that said: back in the day, a GOOD woodsball team wasn't 'good' until they had at least two seasons under their belt.

Speedball/airball was just something you did to get a couple of quick games in, waste some paint and do a little running around.

The woodsball skill set is competely transferable to airball fields.

The airball skillset is not transferable to woodsball

Without exception, every single top present day tournament team has a coach, a leader or an owner who was a top woodsball player. In my opinion, that fact alone lays to rest the question of which is 'harder', which requires more skill - its woodsball and it always will be.

Woods ball encouraged thinking on your feet; you needed to know distances at a glance, you needed to have an intimate knowledge of all different kinds of terrain and how they 'played'. You needed to know psychology. You needed to be able to shoot (as in AIM), you also needed other shooting skills (snap shoot, rapid fire, blind shooting); you needed to be able to run, dive, crawl, crouch, duck walk, slither, climb. You needed to be able to hide - you needed to be able to make a team-sized ruckus.

Woods skills, logistics, timing, shooting skills, movement skills, concealment skills, psychology, gamesmanship, analytical skills, dead reckoning, etc, were all required to be a good player.

On the airball field you (used to) need a fast finger and fast legs - and that's about it.

The better players and teams (all legacies of woodsball) apply field reading, psychology, timing and all the rest TO the airball game, which is why they are constantly on top.

You'll NEVER master this game (no one can) and you'll never get good if all you know how to do is spin around, pull the trigger while running, slide behind a balloon and then fire into a shooting lane.

[frontrunner]

i think the woods is an easyier place to start x-ball isn't harder its just a faster game and can be more over welming. where in the woods you can just run behind someone for a few games till you figure out the woods and how the games normally run. x-ball you need to take your own prop then not stick out too bad which is a hard thing to get to a new player9untill they've been shot a few tims)

[fullofpaint]

The mask and gloves were Chritsmas presents, they were supposed to match my team's colors but it fell through, I've never actually had anyone tell me they saw me in the woods because of my mask or gloves tthough.

[Aslan]

The mask and gloves were Chritsmas presents, they were supposed to match my team's colors but it fell through, I've never actually had anyone tell me they saw me in the woods because of my mask or gloves tthough.

Oh. The reason I mentioned that is I often see guys go out in the woods "half-dressed" and I always thought that was funny. I've seen guys with camo pants and an orange t-shirt...I've seen guys in full camo with a red gun and red hopper...I've seen guys with full camo and a red mask...

It's not that I haven't done it. On hot days I just wear a camo t-shirt because the long sleeved is too hot. And sometimes I feel like using my all silver, shiny, Prodigy...which might as well be used to signal planes...but it's just funny when I see a kid come to the field who has a great camo outfit on then he slaps on a red mask. To me, the mask, gloves, or gun are usually the targets because they are what gets exposed out from behind a bunker. I camo paint my masks and hoppers and wear camo gloves. If I continue to use the Prodigy, I'll buy a ghillie rifle rag kit to put on it for woodsball. Camo isn't a must, last time I went a couple good players with fancy guns won almost every game and one of them was wearing a blue Dye outfit and the other had a shiny blue shocker...but camo is just yet another tool that can make the difference in certain situations (depending on playing style) It's a nice camo outfit though...I gotta get one that breathes more than what I got now...microfiber or mesh or something.

[Muzikman]

I have been playing, umm, 13 year this July and I still suck, so I say the learning curve is high

[Konigballer]

" I will admit however that it is easier to remain a bad (or less skilled) woodsball player than it does to remain similar in other forms of play. But with that said, I have seen my share of speedball players who simply sucked no matter how good they thought they were. And they played others who sucked as well."

To true, thats why I think it better for new players to be brought into the game through woodsball rather than marched to their deaths in the cut-throat hive of villiany known as the speedball field! Not that woodsball is not competitive, but it is so much less 'image driven', and slower paced, that it does'nt overwhelm them as much. We've all porbably seen noobs almost shut down on a speedball field when they hear the rapidfire 'pop,pop,pop,pop' of paintballs against their bunker, and there sitting there with a beat up rental gun they just learned how to fire a couple of minutes ago.

Generally, I think the learning curve in speedball reaches the same apex as the learning curve of woodsball, that is that the theoretical 'best' speedballer is really no less skilled than the 'best' woodsballer, but the actual 'curve' in the learning curve in speedball is much steeper. The current speedball scene, markers, fast pace and structure of speedball games make it so. Not saying that the majority of speedballers are experts, most suck, but the learning curve in speedball seems to seperate 'the men from the boys' REAL quick once the game starts.

[-=Squid=-]

Woodsball is harder than speedball?

That's retarded. Neither is harder.