Hydropocalypse Official Thread

[marauder]

I like your idea for games DX. We could be on the same team for OHS any weapon goes.

CPS1200fann, you're just 1 state away man. You should try to make it.

[DX]

So, I have some bad news: at today's nerf war, I utterly destroyed my left quad while running away in a VIP round. It's a 2nd level strain, where more of the muscle fibers are damaged and it takes longer to heal. I'm probably looking at a couple weeks before being able to run, and a couple more weeks before being able to sprint. This is the kind of strain that would end a college track season. I ran a 100m in 11.72 with a mildly sprained pez-antine junction, whereas right now walking is kind of difficult. That's how much worse this injury is than a mild one.

This shouldn't affect my ability to run around at this upcoming war, but I might not be able to bring the high end speed.

[the oncoming storm]

Sorry I would have to miss church and i don't think my parents would drive me.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

I would really like to try out a conquest round, possibly a OHS game with capturable spawn points. I am going to try and get some of those timers to use as bases, I know they would have flaws, but I still think it would be fun. We could make it so you get 1 point for killing someone and 2-3 points for capturing a base. At the end of the time, the team with the most bases wins.

Not sure how good I will be at running at the war ether, while I haven't pulled anything, I was sick for a week and am having trouble restarting my workout program. Right now I can't sprint very far and can only maintain even a slow run for half a mile, and I'm gasping by the end of it.

I might bring more guns then this, and I don't know what guns Bela will want to bring (though their all my guns anyway), but these are the guns I know I will bring:
Vindicator (x2) - One of these is broken, but I am hoping someone will be able to help me fix it.
CPS2500 - Still not sure whether I will use this or my "Vin" but I am bringing it none the less.
Colossus
Equalizer (1-2)
PowerSoaker Pumper II (basically a mini stream machine with a tank on top)
At least two pistols of some sort

[marauder]

I want to kill 2 birds with 1 stone when it comes to the naval battle. I want to do a D-Day like invasion, and I want to film it from all sides.

The 2 teams will be on opposite sides of Big Lake. They will have 15 minutes to strategize before the attacking team needs to take to the boats. During these 15 minutes I want the planning to be filmed. Make it dramatic if you want and film someone on your team brief the rest of the team on how your attack or defense is going to go.

I want 1 camera to go with the attacking team, in the boat of one of the WBL crews, so we can get them shelling the coast, and so we can get the landing/invasion. The camera with the defensive team will film their preparation, and their WBL(s) firing at the incoming ships.

We can ask Scott's dad and my brother's gf if they will film. I want this to be a 1hk battle. The attacking team is out in the open on the lake, so I think they should have more people, and we can split the 2000s 4 with the attacking team, 2 with the defense. I also think it'd be cool if we had all but 2 members on the attack. I'm willing to defend the coast outnumbered, just give me 1 member who has a WBL.

[HBWW]

Can't make it, sorry guys. I'll help with whatever I can from here though. Let me know what you guys need.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Actually,as long is at it not too long a battle, I think we should do the D-Day thing twice so we can get more shot angles. The first time, the cameras will be with the two WBLs, the next time, we should have it with individual people to get some in battle footage. Like I have said, my idea of taping the camera on doesn't work that well once it starts to get pretty wet, but by that time I would be out already so I could just take it off and film every one else. The one thing that worries me about the naval battles is fully loaded water guns don't float, do we have some sort of floatation devices to attach to them, or would we just not fill them all the way? (list thing I want is my 2500 to sink to the bottom of a lake, I'd hate to loose my Vindicator ether, but at least that didn't cost $75).

I just want to have this thing already!

[DX]

Tether the soaker to the boat, all of them have at least one place you can run a rope through. If more footage is desired, we could always stage a battle, to maximize the number of boats or launchers. I also think it would be cool to film one boat shooting off a compact wbl onboard, or other superweapon.

[marauder]

I really want to have a camera in the same boat as a WBL and it sounds like everyone else does too. We will make it happen. I'm in Kuwait at the moment, should be home in a day or 2 to start getting things ready.

[SEAL]

I'm not going to stay at my uncle's house anymore, due to the fact that he'll be in Oregon. However I can still be at M4's house by 3:00, since we're planning to leave on Thursday morning so we can poke around in D.C. for a while, because I've never been there, and I want to see the White House and other national memorials. Then we'll stay overnight at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, and leave there on Friday morning to go to M4's house.

I want to bring a video camera, but mine isn't waterproof, so I don't think I could get any heat-of-battle action shots. The D-day thing sounds epic, and I would actually like to have two rounds (If we have time.), so I can play as both the offense and the defense, because both sides sound like they'd be awesome to fight for.

[DX]

You have no idea how excited I am about this. My quad is also healing at a rapid pace because I've been pursuing an extremely aggressive rehab protocol. The first 5 nights were 15-16 hours of sleep plus icing sessions 4x a day. Then I switched to 12 hours of sleep and ice in the morning, with heat at night. Recovery has improved on a noticeable level every single day. On day 1, I could barely walk, an area of the muscle the size of my hand was inflamed, and it would twinge painfully every other minute. Today is day 9 and I am capable of maintaining a "run" pace for several minutes without pain (a distance runner might consider this "threshold" pace). Much faster than a jog, much slower than a sprint. High end speed will take the longest to return, but by the war I should be able to have most of my speed available. I've already lost practically all of my endurance, haha. You have to use that just about every day or you lose it. Scott will probably be in better shape distance-wise

My camera is not waterproof, either. BTW, the anticipation caused me to have a dream about that naval war just this past night. I found a flaw in the 2 person defense setup - ROF of the launchers will not be high enough to be effective or photogenic, even if the boats start way the hell back in the lake. Of course, this assumes that everyone power-paddles aggressively like they did in the dream. They also synced the landing so that the defense could not really hit them in transition. So, when we play this, there should be more people back on D, preferably the same amount as there are WBLs available. At least one launcher should be with the offense. I definitely agree about having the round twice and switching sides so that everyone gets to shoot a WBL and paddle a boat.

This means BUY LOTS OF WATER BALLOONS and BUILD WATER BALLOON LAUNCHERS!

[SEAL]

I'm going to bring close to 800 water balloons, but I don't have any extra money to build another launcher. Speaking of launchers, I have a concern. If we use the launchers in naval battles, what do we do about the sabots? If we're shooting at each other on the lake, the sabots will inevitably fall into the water, and while they're easily light enough to float, if they fill with water, they may not. I know they're not too hard or expensive to make, but if we lose them all in the first round, we won't be able to use the launchers for the rest of the war.

DX: Glad to hear you're getting better. I don't have much endurance either (when it comes to sprinting, anyway.), but I'm trying to work on improving it.

[DX]

I am testing sabot-catcher technology this week. If the initial run is successful, it may be possible to operate a WBL with just one sabot. However, this technique is almost guaranteed to reduce range - I don't yet know how much of a drop to expect. It could be negligible or noticeable alike. I can always switch barrel types simply by unscrewing them, so there's no harm in experimenting with different sabot-catcher setups.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Doubt I will be have a water balloon launcher by the war, I'd really like to hold it in my hand and see how it works before I even try and build one, since I'm really not confident in my ability to do it correctly. I have no idea if this would work, but what if you attached a string on the inside of the barrel and the other end to the back of the sabot. Then when you fire it, the string will keep it from going to far. i have never even seen one of these fire, so there might not be a good enough way to mount it where it wont break off.

I will try and rig that water balloon filler I have up with a new valve (the one it has is really unreliable), and bring it to the war. It at cuts in half the tying time for me, and I've only used it once or twice.
Sounds like I have the only water proof camera, so I guess the other shots will just be from a distance. Ideally I would like to tape it to my gun (even though it it will probably fall out of position once it gets shot), and be in the back of one of the bouts to get a nice veiw of one of the landing operations. Not sure how I will do that while paddling, but maybe I could just stop paddling, grab the gun, and hit record 100ft out (or even better be in the middle without a paddle and get the shells falling all around).

Less then 2 weeks now!!! (we need a smily that looks like a crazy person that is very happy, that is my state of mind right now)

[HBWW]

If you have access to the part of a barrel that goes behind the sabot when loaded, I don't think it'd take much to hook up some string to it without affecting range too much. As long as the string doesn't affect the seal or anything, it shouldn't be too bad.

However, I've always simply opted for the make-more-sabots approach. You need sabot designs that mass-manufacture as easily as possible.

I look forward to seeing the footage from this. I will be, um, working on Project Soaking Trident and setting up my Linux box in the meantime. It's the best I have right now.

I might have a chance at Downpour this year though, regardless of how low that chance is. At this point, I think of it as this: I don't know that I can't make it to Downpour 2012 yet.

Edit: Since I can't attend Hydropocalypse, I'll be doing the next best thing I can: a day of free play and rental at Lone Wolf East!
https://www.facebook.com/events/294750190544235/
http://www.lonewolfpaintball.com/events.html

I felt a surge of deja-vu, and then remembered that I did the exact same thing during the community war last year! It was a lot more expensive last time though, and I went to Lone Wolf West. And no, I'm not being a cheapass sellout here; I'm much more likely to be able to make a drive (or ride with a friend) to somewhere 30 minutes away and spend $15 at most than to be able to afford flight tickets and leave for 2 or 3 days.

[marauder]

I'm going to Umstead tomorrow, and I'll be taking some pictures of the areas I want to fight in. There's a lot more that I want to do to prepare for this war, but I simply won't have - no, actually, I won't make - the time. I have several mods and custom gun covers that I want to do, but I don't want to spend my entire leave working on this, especially since I'm engaged now. So, probably to the greater advantage of my foes, I won't be pulling out all the stops this time around; I'm going to be winging things more or less... I had some really big things planned. Will have to do them in the "offseason" when I get back for good.

Battlefield scouting to be done tomorrow!

[marauder]

Ok everybody, I need your help. Yesterday Tiff and I went to Umstead and took some videos of potential fighting areas. Watch the videos and tell me where you'd like to fight.

Sal's Branch
http://youtu.be/HEqfiOhY9lw
This is about a 1-2 minute walk from a parking lot. There is a small creek running through the middle. It should be jumpable in most areas if you are athletic. It's about a 5 minute walk from the visitor's center, so if you prefer tap water you can fill up there. http://youtu.be/M2jyINQ79MM short little battle there.

Sycamore Trail 1
http://youtu.be/JVApVhtKhKY
This is at least a mile from the nearest parking. The creek is much wider, there's no way you can jump it. There's some ridges and a BIG stone wall. You have to watch the video to understand.

Sycamore Trail 2
http://youtu.be/Me6CwjIV_14
Probably a mile and a half, or further, from the nearest parking. The creek is just as wide, but deeper here. Most of the area around the creek is a low lying flood plain, with fair to good ground cover/concealment. There's a bit of a hill on the opposite side of the creek from the trail's side.

Sycamore Trail 3
http://youtu.be/56KM-ZwC_js
Maybe 2 miles from the nearest parking. Not only is there the big creek to the right of the path, but there are 2 small jumpable streams going into it at a 90 degree angle to the big creek and the path that follows it. There are some small bridges going over the streams, which are pretty cool. The ground on the path/stream side of the creek is a low lying flood plain with medium high ferns and grass, and tall trees. The forest floor is kinda open in most places, but there are some thickets for ambushes.

Sycamore Trail 4
http://youtu.be/QYDLrcSExRM
Maybe a mile and a quarter from the nearest parking. The path runs alongside 1 or 2 of the smaller streams. There's a few small bridges, and hills on either side of the flood plain. The flood plain here is like the other flood plains, except that the streams meander a bit more. They aren't big enough to refill everywhere, so refill points will be much more tactically significant.


My recommendation is to play any games with a diverse armament up at Sal's Branch, then leave the extra guns back at our cars and hike into 1 or 2 of the Sycamore Trail locations with the serious guns, WBLs. We will need to fill up waterballoons with our guns. I will be bringing a backpack full of snacks and drinks, cuz it's a long way to the parking lot from there. I will upload a short shot of the lake later on.

[SEAL]

I love them all, but Sycamore Trail 1 is definitely my favorite. Sal's Branch will probably be the most accessable, so we should definitely have some rounds there. All the rest are aways in, so we'd probably only be able to fight at maybe two of them. Also, what's it like at the campground? I assume we'd probably have some night battles there, and I'm sure there'll be spigots to fill from, like at Wilson.

I am really pumped up for this. Right now I'm working on making a list of things to bring.

[DX]

Right now I am preferring areas where I wouldn't have to run much. I went out to a Nerf war today and was mostly fine, but near the end tried to do a little too much and re-tore some of the repaired quad fibers, setting back the full recovery. It's not nearly as bad as the original injury, I can still walk fine, but it sucks and adds more weeks. It will be pretty fragile this weekend.

[marauder]

Sycamore Trail 1 is still a ways in, be prepared to walk at least 30 minutes to reach it. We will need some kind of bridge to cross if anyone is going to cross the creek to the stone wall. It is impossible to run across that, you will fall and get yourself hurt, possibly even pretty badly. There are some logs around there. I want to drag them out and lay them over the rocks so that we have more of a playing area. Of course, we don't have to play exclusively in the rocky section, there is a small green strip of grass next to the pond behind it, and there's the trail and a hill in the opposite direction.

There aren't as many campsites as at Wilson, and there's no big green area in the middle. The best thing to do for night fighting would probably be to drive everyone down to the welcome center. There is a big grassy area in front of it, a hill with pines behind it, and Sal's Branch1 is only 2 minutes behind that in the woods, so you could actually have night fighting there. Camp sites in the 18-22 ish range are probably the best if you want to fight at the camp area. They have the most woods behind them and they are at the back of the campground road. I may actually be camping out now. Tiff really wants to camp out, but she has to convince my sister and or my brother's gf. So, I won't be reserving a spot for everyone, but I may end up joining you/reserving my own. You need to call the park office to reserve campsite(s), they are very helpful.


Also, I found 3 or 4 cabins along the trail to Sycamore Trail1. They would be a lot of fun to use, but they were all boarded up.

Lastly, I think everyone will really like the lake, it's BIG. I talked to one of the park rangers and they said that the boatshop will be open next Saturday so that we can use the boats. EPIC.