What are We Actually Trying to Do?
Posted: Wed May 06, 2020 2:03 am
Vague question title, I don't have a more specific way to put it right now.
I've been slowly looking into paintball, which got me thinking about the umbrella category of imitation-gun hobbies. Water warfare, paintball, nerf, airsoft; I feel like none of these hobbies would actually exist if we could shoot real guns at people without hurting or killing anyone. They're all war simulation games/sports that involve shooting guns at people. One thing I've noticed is that there's always a call for something to mimic a different type of weapon to what's available. Paintball enthusiasts love it when shotguns are actually useful, this forum alone has so many designs trying to create sniper rifles. If we could safely shoot real guns at each other, I think that's what we'd be doing. If nothing else, they're much better funded and have more diverse technology out there.
With that said, our reality is that we can't separate death from firearms, so we have our hobbies instead. I love our hobbies, they're lots of fun, and provide us with the fun challenge of trying to create those CoD arsenals (or in my case, Helldivers). Water Blasters excel at close ranges, in fact that's all they're capable of. This and the Homemade forums are littered with people (myself included) trying to expand that. I've got things on the way to experiment with making water balls, using the recipe I linked in the Mini WBL thread, because I want to make something that can operate at ranges otherwise inaccessible to us.
Again, I don't really know what I'm looking for in this topic. I want to start a discussion about something related to this idea of mimicking actual warfare. I can confidently say that every member of this site, active and inactive, has at some point or other thought of putting a water blaster on a vehicle. We've all thought of making something resembling a bomb, with more splash damage than a water balloon. Because I referenced Helldivers, it's a game with turrets, railguns, drones, plasma guns, airstrikes, and it's really well balanced so each weapon has a use. Of course that's my dream for water warfare. I hate the idea that a CPS is just overall more viable than a Hydroblade, I hate it in every hobby I've had, where someone says "Never take X, Y is so much better".
So, I guess I'm not necessarily saying I want to find a competitive use for the Hydroblade, I'm more saying that I want to diversify the type of arsenal we have access to. That's what's been occupying me these past few days. We basically have light assault rifles and SMGs, I want someone on a hoverboard with a SCII with an on-board reservoir to be our heavy support. We know that WBLs don't work, one water balloon that you see coming from two continents away is always going to miss, and doesn't threaten enough splash damage for it to be okay that it misses. If you're firing something at that range, it needs to be 10 or 20 water balloons at a time: basically I want a WBM (Water Balloon Mortar). Shotguns! What about shotguns! Basically something with a useful fan blast. I've wanted water swords since before I knew what water or swords were. I want everything.
Because it's my current project, I've been looking over my Mini WBL thread a lot, and one thing that strikes me is wetmonkey's first comment on that thread,
I've been slowly looking into paintball, which got me thinking about the umbrella category of imitation-gun hobbies. Water warfare, paintball, nerf, airsoft; I feel like none of these hobbies would actually exist if we could shoot real guns at people without hurting or killing anyone. They're all war simulation games/sports that involve shooting guns at people. One thing I've noticed is that there's always a call for something to mimic a different type of weapon to what's available. Paintball enthusiasts love it when shotguns are actually useful, this forum alone has so many designs trying to create sniper rifles. If we could safely shoot real guns at each other, I think that's what we'd be doing. If nothing else, they're much better funded and have more diverse technology out there.
With that said, our reality is that we can't separate death from firearms, so we have our hobbies instead. I love our hobbies, they're lots of fun, and provide us with the fun challenge of trying to create those CoD arsenals (or in my case, Helldivers). Water Blasters excel at close ranges, in fact that's all they're capable of. This and the Homemade forums are littered with people (myself included) trying to expand that. I've got things on the way to experiment with making water balls, using the recipe I linked in the Mini WBL thread, because I want to make something that can operate at ranges otherwise inaccessible to us.
Again, I don't really know what I'm looking for in this topic. I want to start a discussion about something related to this idea of mimicking actual warfare. I can confidently say that every member of this site, active and inactive, has at some point or other thought of putting a water blaster on a vehicle. We've all thought of making something resembling a bomb, with more splash damage than a water balloon. Because I referenced Helldivers, it's a game with turrets, railguns, drones, plasma guns, airstrikes, and it's really well balanced so each weapon has a use. Of course that's my dream for water warfare. I hate the idea that a CPS is just overall more viable than a Hydroblade, I hate it in every hobby I've had, where someone says "Never take X, Y is so much better".
So, I guess I'm not necessarily saying I want to find a competitive use for the Hydroblade, I'm more saying that I want to diversify the type of arsenal we have access to. That's what's been occupying me these past few days. We basically have light assault rifles and SMGs, I want someone on a hoverboard with a SCII with an on-board reservoir to be our heavy support. We know that WBLs don't work, one water balloon that you see coming from two continents away is always going to miss, and doesn't threaten enough splash damage for it to be okay that it misses. If you're firing something at that range, it needs to be 10 or 20 water balloons at a time: basically I want a WBM (Water Balloon Mortar). Shotguns! What about shotguns! Basically something with a useful fan blast. I've wanted water swords since before I knew what water or swords were. I want everything.
Because it's my current project, I've been looking over my Mini WBL thread a lot, and one thing that strikes me is wetmonkey's first comment on that thread,
Which is true, water warfare has a certain character to it that makes it different to the others which is what keeps it fun, but I can't shake this idea that there's so much more we could be creating.My suggestion is that if you really want this type of long range combat, you get into airsoft or paintball. Water warfare is just a different game.