Soakemore 2016

Discussion of past, present, and future water war events.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SSCBen » Sat Apr 23, 2016 12:19 pm

I just posted a link to this thread to the SSC news. If any of you all could post it elsewhere as appropriate, I think we'd get some more attendees.

Right now I'm not going to advertise on anything for Nerf because I think we should prioritize for people on water war websites, but once the dates are picked then I'll advertise to Nerfers.

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Fri Apr 29, 2016 9:46 pm

Had a lot of schoolwork lately, so haven't had time to go on here. Anyway, it seams like the application for the island party has gone through (haven't actually heard from them, but they normally only e-mail if there is a problem) so I think it is time we set the dates in stone. The war will be from Friday May 20th to Monday May 23. Saturday/Sunday will be the main fighting days, with Saturday being the island day.

I would still like to find a better spot for the war on Sunday, as Carderock is a little plain, but all the other locations I have explored have had major problems. Most recently I explored a large section of Rock Creak park. It is an area on the edges, so was very uncrowded (was there for hours and never saw anyone), but unfortunately it was way too hilly. Many of us being out of shape wouldn't even be the main problem with hills, but rather that most of these particular hills were so long and wide, that they could probably be held by Nerf SS guns, and almost the entire area was like that, with very little flat.

Not sure when I will get to it (it might not be until the week before), but I still want to go and explore Block House Point some more, as if I can find a suitable place to refill, from what little exploring I did there last summer, it looked pretty nice.

Oh yeah and I will try and get an exact schedule/games playlist done soon.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Sat Apr 30, 2016 4:17 pm

Ok, sounds good. As of now you can put me on the attendance list. Only three weeks away, wow.

For schedule recommendations, I'd still like to see a more night-focused war. Maybe a couple warm-up rounds on Friday night, assuming not everyone will have arrived yet, then go long on Saturday night. That would probably wipe people out for Sunday, but if you can't find any good battlegrounds anyway, it's not that big a deal. We could just hang out most of the day. Maybe all pitch in and buy a keg...haha. Sunday night would probably be similar to Friday, seeing as most people will leave the next day.

Hopefully the vegetation will be up at Sycamore Island. At '14 it was like all swept down. As for gametypes, I want to do a multiple-hour 1HS over the whole island, which I've wanted to do for a while. 1HK works as well, maybe as an end-of-day round. CTF would be awesome too, although the last time we did it there, it wasn't one of the better CTF rounds. The ends of the island are really the only places you can put flags, and you can only really attack from one direction. We've never done VIP there though, so that's a possibility. Also, can we fight in or around the clubhouse? I think I already know the answer, but it would sure be awesome.

At the Labyrinth I generally prefer 1HK or 1HS, because objective games tend to keep the fighting in one place. I'd much rather fight over the entire area. We can do mobile objective games though, such as VIP of the non-escort variety. There are several ways to do this: either everyone on the team has infinite lives until the VIP is eliminated, at which point it becomes 1HK for them, or the people guarding the VIP have finite lives, and once the VIP is hit, the game is over (kind of like 1CTF, but defending a person instead of a flag). The latter probably works better if only one team has a VIP, while with the former, both teams can have VIPs. If there are enough people, we could also do more than two teams, or another FFA. The Labyrinth is the only place I've ever played in where a FFA was actually fun. Everyone you run into is an enemy.

I have some more suggestions, for both daytime and nighttime rounds. First of all, as we discussed earlier this year, I think we should purposefully imbalance teams for 1HK and 1HS rounds (maybe some objective as well). For example, giving one team better weapons, more people, or even both. This should theoretically give us more action, as the under-equipped team will be forced to fight hard for their lives. This probably isn't as necessary in the Labyrinth, where things are never dull anyway, but I would definitely recommend it for the island.

Secondly, as I've said before, continuous fighting with no downtime between rounds would be great, but that seems to be a tall order. I mean, it's unavoidable if we want to switch teams and guns and stuff, like if we're changing to an imbalanced 1HS round from regular CTF at the island. But if we're going from 1HS to double-sided VIP at the portables, then just make the transition instantly after a certain amount of time has elapsed. Strategic placing of each game in the schedule would help. I'll be happy to offer suggestions/improvements after you post the playlist.

How many local friends are you planning to invite? Hopefully they won't quit on us again. But the community member attendance list looks quite promising, so maybe we won't even need the extra guests. I know a bunch of people who might be interested, but they aren't going to want to go all the way to DC for it.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by marauder » Mon May 02, 2016 7:45 am

I may not be able to go anymore. We had a mishap where Tiffany no longer has health insurance, and because you only get 1 time a year to enroll in health insurance we had to pay several hundred dollars. It's pretty ridiculous. I will try to see what I can do.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Tue May 03, 2016 4:17 pm

OK so I finally heard back from the island, the large party coordinator was out of town, but it is all good, and we have the reservation.

I would definitely be open to having long night wars Saturday night, I have yet to find any really good locations for Sunday, and even if I do find something better then Carderock, I doubt it could be better then the labyrinth. If it is going to work though I would need others to bring supplies, I probably have enough water bottles, but I don't have enough backpacks to carry them all.

Not sure about doing unbalanced rounds, unbalanced works for objective based rounds, but in OHS I think it would result in one team completely wrecking the other. We could certainly try it in some form though, maybe a round where the vets get light guns, and the newer players get anything goes. As I have stated for previous wars, I am willing to try anything, so we could try doing a straight up unbalanced round, with the idea of cutting it short if one team is having a miserable time.

I have always wanted to have "continuous" rounds, where one transitions seamlessly into the next, but the fear in the past was that this would lead to confusion among players. Again, I am certainly willing to try it, with the amount of time we often spend arguing over whether a round will work, its probably more efficient to just try playing it.

And no, we cannot fight in or around the clubhouse. We can't fight in it for obvious reasons, but I make the area around it off limits because the brick walkways become extremely slippery when wet. I don't want any of us slipping and falling, but I also don't want to get the bricks wet as I worry non-combatants might slip on them too. That is something we have to remember, having to reserve for a large party means that there wont be more then one large party at once, but that doesn't mean that there wont be other people there.

As for local friends, I still need to ask around to see who can/wants to come. A lot more of my friends can drive now then two years ago, so even if they get tired early, at least one of them should have a car with them and could drive the others back to my house.

One additional thing, I plan on exploring the island just to the north of Sycamore Island. Previously I had thought that the underbrush there was too thick to fight in, but apparently after talking to someone else who has explored it, the underbrush isn't as solid as it looks. We would have to ferry people over in canoes, and bring drinking water as there is no clubhouse like on Sycamore, but it might provide for a new and interesting battleground. Even if all of my local friends can make it, I doubt we would have enough people, but I have always wanted to do a CTF between the two islands.

I'm going to be crazy busy with school for the next week because of exams, but hopefully I will have time to get a schedule and playlist together. Worse come to worse, I have nothing planned the Monday before the event, but I'd rather have plans in place before then.
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Van: "What happened?" SEAL: "Scott Happened"
Alex: "But the stream is cold." Me: "It's fine, my feet really hurt, now they're numb!"

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by DX » Tue May 03, 2016 6:13 pm

Honestly, I don't even care if rounds between the islands don't work out that well, I just want footage of boat battles lol. If people don't want to fight on Sunday, there are many thrift stores in the DC area, and maybe more schools with portables to scout out.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Tue May 03, 2016 8:08 pm

Well I think the minimum we would need for between island battles would be 6v6. So long as the river isn't flowing super fast like it was that one year, and there isn't too much wind, we can try it. In fact if there is wind blowing up stream it might be helpful, as it would counter some of the current. As usual though, if any canoe starts floating down the river on its own, the battle must stop immediately so it doesn't go over the dam (which would probably take half an hour, but still). As for thrifting, I have yet to make a huge run locally, but having looked it up, just about all the good places are near the beltway, and Sunday should have very little traffic...
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Alex: "But the stream is cold." Me: "It's fine, my feet really hurt, now they're numb!"

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Wed May 04, 2016 12:43 pm

marauder wrote:I may not be able to go anymore. We had a mishap where Tiffany no longer has health insurance, and because you only get 1 time a year to enroll in health insurance we had to pay several hundred dollars. It's pretty ridiculous. I will try to see what I can do.
That's lame. Hopefully you can swing it. I mean, I'm pretty much broke but I can still probably scrape up enough money to go.

Yeah, Carderock wasn't the greatest battlefield ever. I liked Westmoreland better, although it was kinda crowded where we fought last time. Maybe there are better, more secluded places? I'd almost rather just chill out on Sunday though, unless you do find a really good spot. Not that interested in going to thrift stores, but I'm sure we could find something to do. Just as long as we get back in time to fight at the Labyrinth again. I want to use all three nights, haha. But the long haul would only be Saturday. I can bring an extra backpack or two to help carry stuff. My brother Chief was talking about coming too.

I think we should definitely try unbalanced 1HS at least once. I can't speak for everyone, but if I were on the weaker team, I wouldn't even mind getting destroyed if there was lots of action. I'd rather have that than two perfectly balanced teams that can't make any progress against one another. I mean, if we're seeing scores like 11-0, then yeah, that's probably a bit much. The trick is in how you set up teams. From experience, vets vs. noobs pretty much always ends in the noobs getting wiped out, regardless of the weaponry. I think it would be better to balance skill, but unbalance numbers and weapons. I like to use the AP-only 1HS round at MOAB as an example. We had a big weaponry disadvantage, which basically had us on our toes the entire game. It was never boring, and we weren't entirely outmatched either.

Naval CTF between islands sounds interesting. I know that was talked about before. But I agree that we need lots of heads. 6v6 at the minimum, but preferably more like 8v8. You'd need at least three boats on each side. If we get enough and it isn't too windy, I'm totally down for that. It would need a long time limit though, like maybe two hours. Speaking of wind, hopefully that won't be an issue like it was the first year where every battle was a race to the upwind side of the island.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by HBWW » Wed May 04, 2016 4:30 pm

^ Would be down for a light primaries vs standard/anything goes.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by marauder » Thu May 05, 2016 8:04 am

SEAL wrote:
marauder wrote:I may not be able to go anymore. We had a mishap where Tiffany no longer has health insurance, and because you only get 1 time a year to enroll in health insurance we had to pay several hundred dollars. It's pretty ridiculous. I will try to see what I can do.
That's lame. Hopefully you can swing it. I mean, I'm pretty much broke but I can still probably scrape up enough money to go.
I know. It's just that, when you are trying to buy a house, and you bring in medical bills, etc. it becomes more complex. I want to go. We will see.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by marauder » Fri May 06, 2016 7:50 am

*Worth the double post*

Good news, I'll be there Saturday morning to Saturday night. If anyone else gets up early, or is just going for Sat, we could meet for breakfast.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Sat May 07, 2016 3:24 pm

Cool. I pretty much always wake up early when sleeping in a strange place, so I'd probably be down for that as long as it's not unreasonably early. We should try to get to bed before midnight on Friday though, which means start the night rounds as soon as possible.

This is only two weeks away!
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by marauder » Tue May 10, 2016 8:36 am

Rob, how many people are you bringing with you? Would you have room to bring Danny and Tony if they can come?

Scott, can we get an official attendance list? I may just edit the first post to account for everyone.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Wed May 11, 2016 9:40 pm

marauder wrote:Scott, can we get an official attendance list? I may just edit the first post to account for everyone.
Thanks for staying on top of things marauder, with final exams I've been pretty busy these last few days. I added a few local friends to the attendance list you made.

I am working on getting the scheduled finalized, when do people expect to arrive on Friday? If people want we can play a few rounds before dinner.

Any more ideas on what rounds we should play and when/where? I kind of like the idea of having rounds transition seamlessly into each other, but we should decide what kind of rounds we want to do that with and how scoring would work.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Wed May 11, 2016 11:14 pm

I believe my brother Chief is coming as well. I have to stop at my parents' anyway to pick up guns, so I'd be picking him up too. Not sure about my other brother. Either way, my car doesn't have a whole lot of room in it.

I will try to arrive somewhere around 5PM I suppose. Might try to shoot for earlier to avoid rush hour, but that depends on how fast I can get on the road. It's actually a longer distance to DC from my parents' house than it is from here. Unless I take I-95 according to Google, but like, no.

See my long-ass post for round suggestions. In addition to that, I would like to try a couple hostage games like I posted about in the Games forum. I think it's probably a good idea to come up with a rough initial playlist, and then have everyone offer suggestions for improvement.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SSCBen » Thu May 12, 2016 12:04 pm

I'll probably only be able to stay for the days on Saturday and Sunday, so I shouldn't be there Friday.

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by DX » Fri May 13, 2016 12:47 pm

Currently, arrival is still up in the air, could be anywhere from around 6-10 PM. I'll probably have David. Don't really care what rounds we play, as long as setup time and gear are minimal. I've got about 6 2L soda bottles for the night rounds, but I don't want to bring a ton of guns. Do you want me to bring the PVC flags?
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SEAL » Fri May 13, 2016 2:46 pm

So I made a list of games I'd like to do at each location:

Sycamore Island:
-1HS
-VIP
-VIP Defense
-Hostages
-1HK?
-CTF?
-Naval CTF?

Labyrinth:
-1HS (2-team; multi-team; FFA)
-VIP
-VIP Defense
-Freeze-Tag
-1HK (FFA)
-Infection
-Outpost
-CTF?

To go into slightly more detail:

Sycamore Island:

I'd like to play two different 1HS rounds at the island if possible; a 2-hour one, and a purposefully unbalanced one.

To explain my VIP notation: what I call "regular" VIP, is where each team has a VIP. Everyone else on the team has unlimited lives until the VIP is hit, at which point it becomes like 1HK.

VIP Defense is like 1-flag CTF, but defending a mobile person instead of a stationary flag. The defenders have three lives, but if the VIP is hit, the game is over and the attackers win. The defenders win if they keep the VIP from getting hit until the time is up.

Neither of these are the same thing as VIP Escort, which is what we've been playing. I don't think either of these battlefields are best suited for it.

Hostages is the kind where you have to capture everyone on the enemy team. I don't think Hostage Rescue would work as well on the island. We still have to nail down exactly how to handle it, which we've been doing in the other thread. Do we want capture upon making the hit, or should a second step be involved? If so, how should capturing be done?

Naval CTF between islands would be dope, but we'd need enough people, and it might take a while to set up. We could try regular CTF, but I wasn't that big a fan of it on the island last time. I'm thinking if we do it, the flags should be moved closer to the center of the island so that people can sneak around from behind with greater ease. 1HK is a possibility as an end-of-day round, but I feel like we'd be pressed just to get all the rounds done that don't have a question mark.

Labyrinth:

It should be easier to get lots of fighting time in at the Labyrinth, 'cause we'll be there more often. Most of the rounds are similar to the island ones, but I added Freeze-Tag 'cause I feel like that would work better in close-quarters. The FFA 1HK round would be at the end, and could just start up at a certain time during 1HS FFA.

Infection could be like Zombies where one person starts out as a zombie, or we could do that Brainwash game where once you're hit, you join the other team. Maybe both.

CTF might work, but we'd have to pick good places for the flags. My main concern is that all the action will center around the flags, and it might be difficult for the attackers just due to the nature of the battlefield. Outpost might be interesting though, with like 10 capture points. Could be very chaotic. DX, definitely bring the PVC flags.

I didn't include anything for Carderock 'cause I don't even know if we'll be fighting there at all.

Proposed Schedule:

Friday:
-People arrive
-Go to the Labyrinth as soon as it starts to get dark, and play until 11 or 12 at night
-Get to bed ASAP

Saturday:
-Get our lazy asses out of bed
-Go to the island and fight until dinnertime
-Have dinner, then head out to the Labyrinth as soon as it starts to get dark
-Fight at the Labyrinth as long as possible, maybe to like 3 or 4 in the morning
-Get back to Scott's and crash

Sunday:
-Get up whenever
-Fight at Carderock/Westmoreland/wherever, or just hang out and have fun
-Get to the Labyrinth as soon as it starts to get dark, and play until 11 or 12 at night
-Go to bed

Monday:
-Get up whenever and most likely leave

We just have to figure out where to put each round. Preferably in such a way as to start the next battle instantly. This won't be possible with many of the games, but we should definitely do it for the ones where it is possible.
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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by SSCBen » Sun May 15, 2016 9:31 pm

Seems there isn't a car I can drive at my parents' house (they're all stick shift, and I never learned that), so right now my plan is go only on Saturday. Might do Sunday too if possible, but I think I'd be stretching my luck if I tried to go then.

The plan right now is to learn to drive stick so I can go other places later, so hopefully this will not be an issue in the future.

Is everyone okay if I post this on r/Nerf and some other places? It's a little late, but we might get some interested local folks to attend.

Also, is there a rough time to be there on Saturday? I'd like to get as much battle time before dinner in as possible.

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Re: Soakemore 2016

Post by scottthewaterwarrior » Wed May 18, 2016 12:35 am

SSCBen wrote:Seems there isn't a car I can drive at my parents' house (they're all stick shift, and I never learned that), so right now my plan is go only on Saturday. Might do Sunday too if possible, but I think I'd be stretching my luck if I tried to go then.

The plan right now is to learn to drive stick so I can go other places later, so hopefully this will not be an issue in the future.

Is everyone okay if I post this on r/Nerf and some other places? It's a little late, but we might get some interested local folks to attend.

Also, is there a rough time to be there on Saturday? I'd like to get as much battle time before dinner in as possible.
How are you planning on getting here then? I could come get you and you could sleep here if it meant being able to battle with us Friday and Saturday nights. My dad just sold our SAAB a few weeks ago, or else I'd offer to teach you to drive stick too!

And it is fine if you post about this other places, I would do that myself, if I thought any of my places could get decent participants.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Schedule for Friday and Saturday is up, haven't done Sunday yet, as I want to know how late people want to night war and whether we would even want to battle Sunday. Feel free to post suggestions, I was busy with a train show last weekend, but now my attention is fully on this and getting the house cleaned up. Only a few days now!!!
"If you are wet at the end of a water war, you are doing it wrong"
Van: "What happened?" SEAL: "Scott Happened"
Alex: "But the stream is cold." Me: "It's fine, my feet really hurt, now they're numb!"

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