Feasible Paintball Advancements?

[zabbu]

my 2cp worth

1) i do not think the hud will help, because there are always people who will cheat, even if the reff has the same system. think hackers here.
2) Paintball tech does need to go up, but its not the materials, its the methods that need to change.
3) More adjustable triggers? i can set my eblade so short that if i sneeze while its on the floor it shoots. this also leads to very wicked bounce, so i dont do it. Bounce is for loosers.
4) Speaking of bounce, why would jersies that bounce more paint be better? do you own stock in RPschere or maybe DraXXus? just wearing my standard jersie i bounce enough to fill my 9 pack again.
5) Affordable shoes would be cool, the DYE shoes are kind of worthless, they look nice, and work great untill you walk on pavement.
6) barrel advancements are what i see as being big. Not the barrels that you can buy, because several companies make nice barrels. I mean STOCK barrels. i am tired of getting extruded aluminum (nope i dont spell so well). /cough Crown point/cough stockmag /cough
just my 2 cp here
brandon

[JonDaAzn]

bouncing means not getting out, therefore allowing you to play even more! also, i have noticed a trend of paintballs and barrels becoming bigger from the birth of paintball , .50 to now, .692 and over

[Slimm Jimm]

the HUD

i think the full GPS IFF map system would take up way too much room on the lense. it would probably create some serious tunnel vision. until we get some masks that allow the player considerably more peripheral vision, then we'll start to see displays built into the mask. and even then, while it would probably have to come with a cpu pack, it would still probably only have players eliminated, game time, maybe how many points have been accumulated, and some sort of display indicating when you've been eliminated.

an integrated radio system would also be nice in the mask, and could be used not only for ref type announcements, which could automatically override any current transmissions, but also from teammates and potentially coaches.

And then paintballs, i agree that you can't make them a new shape all of a sudden, but maybe something other than gell could be used to create the shell, like a thin type of plastic or maybe a sort of egg-like shell.

i dont think you could make a jersey capable of detecting splatter from paint, the only way i can think of to implement such a system is a pressure sensing harness. unfortunatly, it would probably be triggered just by sliding into bunkers or bounces. maybe if the jersey's were cheap and disintigrated from the paint when it broke?

anyway, i'm done rambling now

Slimm

[SlartyBartFast]

Originally posted by Kellen_p8nt
The simple fact is we are using a very old method to produce these paintballs that originally no one though would work. Making the paintballs is an expensive venture but the true problem lies in aquisition of the materials nessecary to make them(or at least this is my understanding from the DraXxuz guy's statement) If we could find cheaper chemicals to use in the paint that would most certainly cut costs and make our sport much more widly accepted(cus its affordable to play).

The contents of a paintball are increadibly cheap. A collegue works for the distribution company that supplies a manufacturer and gave me a quote for the materials costs for an 18-wheeler truck load of paint. Somedays most of you would probably be carrying enough cash to purchase it.

What is expensive is the machinery and the time required to make paintballs. The encapsulation machines are a million dollar investment. 80-90% of paints cost is the labour, machinery, and distribution cost.

[DonkeyKong]

so to improve apon the methods of making paintballs we need to change the proccess of encapsulating the fill. which wouldn't be that hard, we just need someone to come up with the new idea!

[SlartyBartFast]

Originally posted by DonkeyKong
which wouldn't be that hard

I think you're over simplifying there! RP Scherer made and patented the first encapsulation machines. The same method of encapsulation is used for all medication and cosmetics (I believe).

And you still wouldn't solve the problems of transport, distribution, and storage.

[DonkeyKong]

well paintballs right now don't have a very long shelf life, so if there was a way to make em last longer b4 going bad then we could solve the storage problem

and also by increasing the shelf life of the paintballs you could ship more paint at a time reducing transport costs

is it just me or is distributation the same as transport?

[FooTemps]

Originally posted by DonkeyKong
is it just me or is distributation the same as transport?

Nope, transporting is getting it to where you are distributing. Basically, transport is part of distribution

[aut911]

im still not sure why people havent gone to magnesium for a decent replacement for aluminum. the automotive and forest industry have for years, now its paintballs turn.

Its about half the weight of aluminum right? and it is easy to keep from igniting. so why not? body rails could weigh about an ounce, mabye less. a cocker could weigh about a pound. it would be amazing. Only problem i see is that you cant anodise magnesium but thats what a powdercoater is for.

just an idea.

aut

[FooTemps]

Originally posted by aut911
im still not sure why people havent gone to magnesium for a decent replacement for aluminum. the automotive and forest industry have for years, now its paintballs turn.

Its about half the weight of aluminum right? and it is easy to keep from igniting. so why not? body rails could weigh about an ounce, mabye less. a cocker could weigh about a pound. it would be amazing. Only problem i see is that you cant anodise magnesium but thats what a powdercoater is for.

just an idea.

aut

People like anno better than pc... lol there might also be some wear issues or something, i don't know

[xatle]

magnesium might be better for some parts but its not a superior metal in an all around sort of way.
consider that aluminum while averaging around 1/3 heavier happens to also be in the neigborhood of 3 times the tensile strength and more than twice as hard.
i havent had alot of opportunity to play with magnesium so i really couldnt say how useful it might turn out to be.

[ScatterPlot]

...or maybe a sort of egg-like shell.

They already have those, theyre called Brass Eagle

[Slimm Jimm]

my bad

how could it have slipped my mind?

[sinistershame]

im still not sure why people havent gone to magnesium for a decent replacement for aluminum. the automotive and forest industry have for years, now its paintballs turn

try to mill fine threads into magnesium and you will know why it's not used.

what about air systems (HPA) they seam to be the newest members into the paint industry. Very heavy but a whole lot lighter and better than they were before. I'm thinking of a titanium fiber wrapped tank with a regulator like an angel AIR led display. calculating effeciency or possible a small leak in your system. Or how about a harness for a remote HPA tank that is comfortable and doesn't bounce around. Another question, I saw in a APG cartoon several years ago a system "autolotoballs" which if my memory serves me well was basically a warp feed attached to a case of paint on a players back. why haven't i seen one of those maketed lately? It would be great for "rec" players. But then we have to ask ourselves is rec ball where we sink our development dollars?

[Drake]

I would think that the next feasible paintball advancement will be in the field of electronics. Right now most electronics take up the entire grip frame of a marker, hopefully in the future the electronics will be smaller, so that more measures can be used (such as a tamperproof plastic capsule similar to IR3 Angels, and more durable wiring) to protect these vital components.

I think another advancement will be in the actual size of markers. But to a certain point, because you still need to have a tube that is .68 caliber. I would hope that we could find a way to make the markers smaller.

I think another thing that would be useful, is find a better anodizing technique (application, or chemicals used) to color markers, and have the markers be scratch resistant, like cars are today. I mean, there are some beautiful anodiing finishes, but they are so fine that they can be scratched easily.

In my opinion, you could put all kinds of new wow-zow gadgets in markers, but I think that markers should have a rennisance, in looks. Kingman is leading the way, because their Spyders are starting to get creative anodizing and milling options, and everyone can afford one. I would hope that the age of black and boxy markers will come to an end soon. And perhaps some interesting milling and artistic expression can enter the field of paintball.