Feasible Paintball Advancements?

[chesterrc]

Originally posted by Matt_mg
ooo Carbon fiber would really be cool... Of course you can't mill that but I DEFENITIVELY see some glue-on cosmetics (ya know fins and ghills and stuff ) and some paintbrush painting.

Caddy Fins






I am expecting to see more hopper advancments, some more air system advancments, and probably new matirials being used for different purpouses.

[drx975]

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.

RADO (watches) makes a scratchproof watch, using

innovative materials like hardmetal, sapphire crystal, high-tech ceramics or high-tech diamond.

They also use a material called Lanthanum which I THINK is the final coat on their watches, (I can't find where they say which coat is first/last) but anyway they describe the procedure: Rado watches are around $1,000 US and up, so im sure this process is really expensive (not to mention the materials used). But at least it shows you what we know or have available as far as obtaining a scratch resistant/proof paintball gun anodizing.

RADO site (materials used)

[Rumble]

I was just thinking why not have a cronograph mounted on your gun, very small so it wouldent be in the way. Its programmed to beep after 2 times you shoot hot in like 5 seconds. a programmed maximum speed could be put in then locked. Once it beeps, ur eleminated. smple? ya. i think so

[luke]

So, you say the next advancement will be better paintballs, need a new way to make them, I have the answer. M&M's. Yea that's right. M&M's the candy.

The problem is putting the fill in the shell halves, ok, lets do away with them. Heres how I see it, freeze the fill in perfectly round balls then spray the shell on the frozen ball, shell hardens, fill defrosts, and wa-la you have perfectly round paintball.

They do it with candy every day, why wouldn't it work with paintballs?

[drx975]

Well, have you ever tried freezing a paintball? It doesnt really work...the fill never completely freezes.

And we arent about to change the fill becuase right now it is non-toxic, and a water-based gelatin that is easily washable. Plus the approximate weight of a paintball is supposed to be 1 gram, to keep things safe at speeds of 280-300 fps.

But we could still try, since paintballs are the major weak spot for the game of paintball in general.

[CaptaiN_JacK]

idea

instead of having something the ref would use to shut off your gun when ur out, why not have your lense be like a calculaters lense, so when the ref clicks you out your mask gets either all black, or just does random patterns to confuse you. the only problem i can see with this is that it would probably be harder to anti-fog masks? and thatif you were running while u got out you might fall down. but thats why the random-patterns would help because it wouldnt completely block your vision, but confuse you enough so that you wouldnt be able to aim accuratly. this would also be a pretty cheap setup too, im guessing only $15 more than the cost of a mask.(think how cheap calculaters are).

[Konigballer]

Self contaied markers, that is everything like:the marker,feed system, hopper, and power source contained within one package, would be nice. If you had markers packaged within composite shells like they already have in the firearms industry, you could radically change the aftermarket industry for markers. It could be like the import scene, you could buy body kits or new shells to make your gun look however you wanted.

[mquinn96]

Loaders

Having been in the accessory (barrel) industry I have give a lot of thought to what can most easily be improved so here is my 2 Cents:

1. LOADERS. smaller, faster, ligher, more reliable, offset or different locations. Check out the Q-Loader. It is good for front players that don't need to keep shooting while they reload and who don't need a lot of paint (pods only hold 100 rds). Of course price needs to come down too and they are not good for back players. Someday there will be many more offset systems on the market.

2. Smaller, lighter, more efficient markers. Someday all markers will run off just a 9 volt, be the size of a mag and have the efficiency of a worked over autococker. This will also allow use of smaller air systems.

3. Cheaper and better paint. Again, someday all paint will shoot as good as the top tournament paint does today.

[Caffiend]

i think something that would be cool is along the lines of the electronic fence things for dogs, but applied to markers. Have the markers only work on the field and at chrono stations. Exclude the dead box from the "working" area so there's no shooting from there. But you would have to have a special key or jumper wires or something so you could work on them off the field. Or something like that...

[Trigger_Happy]

It's too bad FT threw in the word "feasible"! I've always dreamed of mini compressors built into markers. They would suck power like no other, cost a mint, and probably be loud, but if we could find a way...it'd be awesome!

[atcer]

i think you guys are on to something here with the HUD and all that but i think it would come in more handy for gettting paintball on tv, rather than practical feild aplication.

with a HUD the problem is focal length... mounting a see thru screen on a mask will cause problems with people being able to focus on the intended target/background and still being able to read whats on the screen as an overlay and not just an unfocasable blur.

if everyones marker contained some sort of board (regaurdless of mech or electro) that counted shots per second, fps, location *on field*, team information, and other important information; this could be collected by a wifi computer then arranged with a superemposed map, bring up stats, pics etc... these then could be tailored to the event and broadcast. all player positions would be known to the veiwers.

each player on the teams would shoot a different color paint (im not sure if that would be feasable) so that you could tell who eliminated who... thus making it easy to root for a particular player on a team. (they would allways shoot that color)

im not sure if any of this is really good or not, just some ideas that were floating around in my head reading these posts.
ryan

[Zimbo]

No computers!

1) I play paintball to get away from most heavy electonics (IE TV computers)
2) If you add complex comuters its easier to cheat. If you add remote complex computers that can be operated from a distance youre gonna get hackers.
3) HUD would just be silly, this isnt the army use youre skill.
4) radios could be a good idea, I bought 2 1 for me and 1 for my other mask incase a friend wants to use it. Super easy to communicate in big games since you just tap your fingure to talk and the boom mic is in your mask. But that only makes sense for big games. In speedball communication is a skill thats can only be advanced thru mask technology. Electronics really trouble me.
5) More things to go wrong

[FooTemps]

Somebody hates electronics

The hud idea is still good imo, but some people have a good point that it'd be hard to focus on them. The hud doesn't give anything away, it just gives you data on the things directly connected to it.

[Python14]

I was remembering someones concept drawing and it struck a nerve with me(a good one)....if we had a group of players with stronger equipment. Better protection that is, we could play with high velocities(500+FPS) and therefore extend the feasible size of a field. It would also think this could include HUD, player tracking/information for TV viewers, better ergonomics(fewer injuries and fatigue)

It would be cool.

[ChucktheMAGician]

Originally posted by sinistershame
But then we have to ask ourselves is rec ball where we sink our development dollars?

Yeah there's no money in Rec-ball. Those people hardly ever play and buy stuff!