The difference of the game: Constant Air

[Lohman446]

In all sports there are certain advancements that revolutionize the way the game is played. Maybe there small steps at the time and there impact is not as readily visible, that being what the impact is over the long term.

The topic of discussion I would like to see is Constant Air - how would the game be different today if constant air had never involved, if things like the six pack were still our "best"
air source.

[FSU_Paintball]

Oh, I'm sure constant air would have been developed even if the originator hadn't thought it up. It's a pretty logical step... you run out of air fast on those tiny little cartridges, so you want a bigger tank.

What I think may not have been developed otherwise was use of HPA on our markers. That would have certainly made a difference. I think more companies would have made regulators like the Stabilizer and electros would have been made much different.

[BigEvil]

Paintball would never have taken off like it did without constant air. Like the guy above me said, it was the next logical step.

Once you had a sufficent air supply to power the markers, then feed rates had to increase.

Once feed rates increased, then refinements were developed, such as compressed air, and eye sensors.

Now, even more refinements are starting to hit the market. Guns are lighter and more efficent. (And faster than ever)

The real question is now, "What is the NEXT logical step?" Where does it go from here? WHat do we need? Do we need faster, longer, straighter or what?

I dont think anyone has that answer right now.

[Lohman446]

The question was not if it would have developed or not... I am fully understanding that the technology did and would have developed. What if the hardcore rules (in those days it took some time for CA to be accepted in competetive play) had never allowed it - and thus stalled it in a neat "for fun" thing.

[Death of Rats]

In the words of Einstein I do not know what WW III will be fought with but I do know that WW IV will be fought with sticks and stones.

Im not sure when it will happen but the speeds on the guns will start coming down. I don't think the days of the Nelsons, phantoms, grey ghosts will ever completly resurface other than in groups, small tournaments, that crazy guy who plays speedball with one (Myself) or the scenario games but I do belive that the speeds are going to start dropping. Otherwise we will eventually drive everything that is good out of our sport.

Now in the words of Dennis Miller. That is just my opionion. I could be wrong.

[MarkM]

In a way the forcing to use 12grams in competition was actually a self regulation since you couldn't run a semi on 12 grams and the need to change 12 grams limited the amount of balls in the air as everyone had to stop.
I had to buy a Micro CA to enter tounaments since I bought my phantom with a 7oz tank which was fine for walk on days but not competions. The 6-Pak was to all intents and purposes a Constant air tank anyway albeit only 72 grams of CO2 but you didn't often have to refill the cartridge holder, plus they came with a backcheck valve which had to be removed from the setup since you could charge the airline with up to 3 12 grams and the shots would of course be hot worse case senario or it would mean that you could stay on the trigger for 3 times longer than your opponent. It is interesting as AFAIK this ruling about backcheck valves is still on the rule book...now have you ever removed the air tank from your electro and then pulled the trigger? There is still air in the system so the inline regs etc act as a backcheck valve so by the letter of the rule books all electros are against the rules. Be a very brave Ultimate who tried to enforce that paragraph
With all the rof caps we have now you could argue that the Halo for example is overkill since in standard form a Halo should delivery 16-18 balls per second...if it really did that, then aftermarket mods/boards wouldn't exist. But for a few years now as the speed race has escalated the constant complaint was that the loaders were the weak link and couldn't keep up with the super electro's, well no longer but now that a ROF cap has been introduced why do people still use a feed system that on paper is faster than the ROF cap. Simple really the loaders never did what they claimed to do.
To the real question of the thread though. The shots per 12 gram would have increased and in a way it would have been nice if the development had been forced to look to this avenue since if valving systems had become much more efficient than the older nelspot based systems then the Matrix would be super efficient which it isn't but this is over hauled by the availablity of All Day Air. Is it Moores (??) law that is applied to PC's wouldn't it have been great if the same thing had been applied to Paintball efficiency

[Jeffy-CanCon]

Without CA, we would have no electros, maybe no semi-autos at all. Hopper size would probably stayed at the 100-150rd mark. Motorised hoppers would probably never have been developed, since the motion of pumping, and changing 12gr would have been enough to keep a gravity fed hopper feeding well.

Without CA & semi auto (later electros & HPA) to soften the learning curve, paintball would not be near as popular as it is. And thus prices for paint & gear would be higher. I have no idea if the big companies would have still gotten involved like they did, buying up small independant paintball outfits like VL & WGP. It probably would not have been big enough to merit thier attention

I don't think that the move out of the woods to speedball would have been affected. The desire to shed the militiamen image would have still been there. And while nowhere near as impressively noisy, pump/stock speedball is a pretty good show for spectators.


If CA had still developed, but the tourney organisers had stuck with the 12gr rules, I think we would see a lot fewer differences. The tourney scene would not be as big as it is, but it would probably get more respect, since only experienced players would try it.

(edit: Thanks, Lohmann, for bringing this up!)

[Maggot6]

If CA hadn't been developed, I'd love to see the markers engineered to get over 60-70 shots a 12 gram.

[Glickman]

If CA hadn't been developed, I'd love to see the markers engineered to get over 60-70 shots a 12 gram.

thats something to think about, what if manufacturers were forced to work with 12 grams? maybe that technology couldve been applied today

[Barjack420]

if it had never evolved, (though I agree with FSU_paintball that it was a natural advancement) paintball would still be played as a stalk/kill game in the woods with pump guns.
Ghillie suits and 2 hour games.......

even though Ive kept my phantom from all those years ago, im glad the sports gone the way it has.

[Jeffy-CanCon]

if it had never evolved, (though I agree with FSU_paintball that it was a natural advancement) paintball would still be played as a stalk/kill game in the woods with pump guns.
Ghillie suits and 2 hour games.......

I doubt it. There is no profit in that style of play. The money is made on the consumables, not the field fees. Field owners were evolving to smaller fields & shorter games before CA came along. With a small open field, and aggressive players, stock play is pretty furious.

[Counterfeit_Syn5304]

In my eyes the real next advancement in paintball would be efficiency. In reality speed is not an issue anymore. Accuracy is better than what it was a few years ago due to better designed barrels and paint being higher quality. Weight isnt an issue since most higher end guns around 3 lbs or less.

Everyone struggles to get the most out of their gun. Efficiency would be the logical way to go in my opinion. More shots per fill would make many people happy. Wish I could get a case of paint off one fill lol. Hopefully, there will be an efficient gun that can shoot a lot of paint off a small amount of air. IE: 2 cases of paint off a 45/45 or something in that nature. That would make my day..

[FreakBaller12]

Do you guys think we'll ever play a game with air in the future? I know JT made a gun like that, but that's far far away from being practical, maybe this is the next technological advancement. The next advancement I would like to see is more regulation, maybe turning the sport into something like most normal sports. A team from say LA goes to play a team from new york in a "stadium" and then the World series at the end of the season. Although I don't see this being practical. It's just an idea I had.

[mobsterboy]

Paintball would never have taken off like it did without constant air. Like the guy above me said, it was the next logical step.

Once you had a sufficent air supply to power the markers, then feed rates had to increase.

Once feed rates increased, then refinements were developed, such as compressed air, and eye sensors.

Now, even more refinements are starting to hit the market. Guns are lighter and more efficent. (And faster than ever)

The real question is now, "What is the NEXT logical step?" Where does it go from here? WHat do we need? Do we need faster, longer, straighter or what?

I dont think anyone has that answer right now.

There will be next steps, but they wont be logical. In this hectic sport known as paintball, we have done our best to be competetive on everything from speeds to weight, to the point where the old guns are almost "prehistoric" and "unusable" to the general paintballers.

What we have here is a common case of overcriterialisation, where, for example, we only use guns if they have ramping, or they can cap at unreachable speeds while shooting true semi, or even if they look nice and weigh under a certain ammount. By doing this, newer guns are competing with their older counterparts, and private lable doesnt mean crap anymore. The market has plateaued to a point such that the next step would be a cellphone in your intimidator, or access to the web via your DM eightymillion

Its sad, but true

[Counterfeit_Syn5304]

The market has plateaued to a point such that the next step would be a cellphone in your intimidator, or access to the web via your DM eightymillion

Its sad, but true

The part about the cellphone or the web acess seem almost possible with Angels these days...