as far as I can tell paintballs themselves peaked in 1990...
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I agree that paintball gun technology has hit the limit. The best guns ever made are being made now…but they are deeply boring and too often designed for modes of play that ultimately are designed to sell paint. All the innovation is in speedball and magfed, both of which are deeply stupid.
The game itself seems way worse that it could be…or even worse than it once was. Games used to have flags and people would actually…aim their gun. Modern day ROFs mean people hiding all day.
Safety has a looooong way to go. Some of the stories I hear about new fields are horrifying. We have better gear but are stupider about it.Comment
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Im not sure. It seems like paintball divided itself into woodsball/recball playing war in the woods or tourneys. Left or right. I personally love to do it all. But I am one of the people smart enough to enjoy the lovely sport we all play. It seems to fit somewhere in my DNA. That too is the problem. You either play or you dont. I am sure they do exist, the people who dabble in paintball but never commit to it. I sure havent met any that I am aware of. You either dive head in and become it or you just dont. Thats what kills this sport. You either spend a ton of money to get gear to pay a ton of money to get paint to pay decent prices to walkon to your local field. Or you do the same first few steps previously mentioned to play outlaw ball. End of the day, its a sport that requires an investment in to enjoy.
Actually come to think of it. I have the solution.... No shitty rental masks. Give every player who walks onto the field a good double pane goggle system that actually lets them see whats going on as they play. That might draw more people in to come back. I and I am sure most of you have recommended goggles as the very first item to buy. How many shitty field goggles that get dunked into buckets as their cleaning method have you seen newbs take off in matches because they cant freaking see. There. Solved. Paintball would go viral if people could actually see paintball when they played it.Continuing the family tradition of shooting interesting and different people since 1776Comment
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One of the local fields changed their rental package to Emeks and double pane masks a few years back and they are absolutely killing it. Lots of birthday parties and it seems like all the kids are having a super good time -
Two of my favorite field do just that. Offer good masks and emek rentals. They both do fantastic using this method.
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There's always innovations to be made. We've probably hit a limit in what makes sense when it comes to how fast a marker can throw paint downfield, but there's always more you can do for easier maintenance, and reliability. I'd say there's more to be done until we get a marker that never has to be maintained, never breaks a ball, never has to be oiled, etc.
Masks could use some work. The Proflex is still considered the best mask ever made by a large group of the community, and it's from the 90's. Other revered masks (like the Profiler) are similarly old designs, are controversial in some way (Dye i4), or are more expensive (Bunker Kings CMD, Push Unite, etc.). I don't think paintball has a really, really solid budget mask, that fields can buy a fleet of for rental players, as of yet.
The paintball itself could stand to be innovated. But, as we've seen with the First Strike, really changing the round divides the player base even further. Manufacturing, and consistency, are areas that really need to be improved across the board for them though.Comment
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Idk, I thought this was well about 10 years ago and then the whole mech revolution came about and the designs that came out of that.
I'd still love to see a good mechanical hopper. The pals was a decent idea but just not reliable enough for me to consider good. I even have a pals emek and was loving the idea of playing without any batteries and once I tried a few times I realized it didn't feed reliably enough
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I feel you bro.Originally posted by Trbo323 View Post
Not to derail the thread but I've always resisted the idea of electric hoppers... and electric anything in general regarding paintball. Adding a third consumable to the mix, yeah I've always been against that. The current resurgence of mechanical guns, yeah I'm here for it.
The A-5's Cyclone feed had soooo much potential. I got back into the game after my SO found an A-5 at the hotel she worked at, no one claimed it so she brought it home to me rather than follow her boss's instructions and put it in the garbage. I was like "This, right here, is the answer to Teenage Me's wet dreams!" So, I bought some mods and tried to make the feed system work right. The big problem is, the Cyclone Feed system is hella abusive on paint and no amount of modding fixes that. Sure, with an A-5 you can throw paint at ridiculous rates (which most modern fields won't allow) but you're throwing cheap garbage paint that makes you a graduate of the Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy.
I ended up buying a Nova N-1 and loving it, but now...well, I'm shopping for an electric hopper, because my ancient VL-200 cannot keep up with my gun. I sure wish there was a mech option I could buy. Because I still don't like the idea of adding a third consumable to playing paintball.Comment
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I have never seen that design before but clockwork power would count as a "third consumable" in my book. Still, a neat idea...and WAAAAY better executed than any of the wacky clockwork-based feeding systems I saw in the 90s. At least it doesn't seem to chop paint like crazy (Tippmann F/A, take a bow here).
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A mech with an external moving backblock (cocker) could do an old trick I saw years ago. Dude drilled 2 holes into his shake and bake hopper, they were in line diagonally from the front of the hopper upper front nose down to the lower rear hopper. This was in line with the rear cocking rod of whatever gun it was. He put a rubber band through the holes and tapped a wad of paper to the rubber band inside the hopper. Every time he fired, the rod moved, pulled the rubberband, pulled the wad of paper and shuffled the balls in the hopper. Clever as all hell but ugly. I thought for certain something like this would be improved upon. I personally love electric hoppers with the egg being my favorite. Too bad the lids were so damn brittle. This pic is hella youger me playing the 2003 Toulouse Millennium event. That was a 98 Angel LCD with a THOR reg because even back then I knew drop forwards were lame. Original freak kit and the beloved hopper. Those were the days.Continuing the family tradition of shooting interesting and different people since 1776Comment
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A Pneumatically actuated Warp Feed? I think that could fit the bill.Originally posted by Tom Kaye, in response to FS price critics:
Unfortunately all of you have played the one "speedball" game of paintball for so long you can't conceive of other ways to do this and hence any new ideas seem stupid.
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APP made a pnuematicly actuated hopper but recently discontinued it. The only reason I knew about it was because I was cruising their site a while back. I've never heard it mentioned anywhere else. Probably because it only seems to work on blowbacks.
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There are MANY things that could change in paintball. Gun tech, mask tech, making stuff more player-friendly, the list is extensive. Other things could drive innovation and/or change as well, such as changing laws or material availability and/or material prices.
This thread will age like milk. Any time anyone says anything about something hitting it's peak is usually proven wrong. Most things need to be around for much longer than paintball has for it to truly hit their peak.
EDIT: Now in terms of popularity... There might be something to that. And that can be blamed squarely on 2008 and subsequent economic, social and legal events.Comment
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While I agree you can’t predict the future. Without a better ball marker performance has peaked. Manufacturers can claim anything and then could blame the paint. They are already splitting hairs and moving stuff around just for the sake of having something new to talk about. I could see battery operated like an oversized airsoft marker being something. Removing the need for HPA could revolutionize the industry. Pop up solar power generator for power supplies. Then again it’s interesting to see the Airsoft market steer towards paintball style play with HPA conversions.
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I’ve been thinking. How long from the time the modern major sports were created, until they became what we have today. Baseball was being played back in the 1860s and didn’t become popular until the 1900s. At least in a fashion that we know today. How many years of refining rules and gameplay in the early days. We still see refinement in the game today.
Football, what started being played sometime around the turn of the century. It didn’t become popular till what the 50s or so, the superbowl started in the 70s(?).
im not worried about the future of paintball. At some point it may scratch out its mainstream corner like MMA has or it may not. Who cares, enjoy the game as you play it.Comment
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Let's go full MCB here.
12g powered force feeder
Brass drive cone
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A separate 12g to power the hopper??Originally posted by Trbo323 View Post
Part of me says "bro, not the point I was making".
Another part of me says "I...kinda wanna see that. Just, you know, because".Comment
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