Hydropocalypse Official Thread

[HBWW]

@ DX: I second what you said about the 2500. Very versatile and useful, and 10X makes for slightly easier/more likely kills if you can get the bead on a target.

Naval wars change everything. I would bring plenty of AP blasters along for them since I don't trust CPS's to that kind of water. And piston pumpers IMO underperform hugely unless they're syringe-style with no check valve to block the flow of the shot. We can do a piston-only game on the ground, but I'm not bringing any of my piston squirters mostly because they are not as combat effective for their size as AP's are.

What I'll probably end up bringing in the event I can make it with my friend:
- 3 or 4 CPS primaries, including my 12k's and a 2500 or 2000
- 3 sidearms: Max-D 2000 and 2 3000's
- A few AP's and light blasters: Flash Flood, XP 270, Max-D 6000
- Stream Machine
- Box/kit of tools, random homemade equipment/fittings/VHS parts
- Both WBL's
- CPH with swappable AP PC

[marauder]

There's no way we will be able to do a piston only game with the number of people coming. I gave my Shot Blast to Jack, so I don't even have a piston gun anymore, and none of my friends have ever brought one to a war before, so I don't think they have any. We may have a round where every team has to have one though - like in Donwpour. The air pressure guns will be useful though, because it will allow us to have firepower advantages/disadvantageous for more strategy based gaming.

Just to warn everyone, the dynamics of the war will be a little different than last year's Community War. Saturday will be split between scouting out the battlefield and fighting smaller battles, but believe me, it will be a lot of fun! Sunday is when the big fighting will be.

[SEAL]

It looks like I'll be coming! That's all I have to say for now; I gotta go soon.

[HBWW]

We may have a round where every team has to have one though - like in Donwpour.

We may not have to if people just don't bring piston pumpers lol. Then again, they're useful for naval wars if you don't want to risk AP blasters' internals getting rusted.

If we're serious on a naval war, I'll definitely bring a homemade or two along where I can dip the hose right into the water. Homemades are better for this than stock because they are easier to clean and you don't have to worry about metal parts rusting.

[marauder]

This is great. Now, I have a question for you all about camping out. We could all camp out in my back yard, but of course if your parents are driving you they're going to need a hotel room. They could get a hotel near my house. If you can't camp out in my backyard, then you can stay at the hotel with your parents nearby and you hopefully can still do some night fighting at my house. The last option is that we just all camp out at Umstead. The advantage is that we'd be right at the big war site instead of 25 minutes away, but the disadvantage is that we wouldn't have Laura, Tiffany, potentially Kirk, and if Scott can't camp out again Scott; plus my neighborhood is better for night battles.

So, just think on what you would prefer. If we have myself, DX, Laura, Tiffany, SEAL, and SEAL's bros camping out we could have serious 4 v 4 night battles - about the same size as last year's Downpour. We can also work on mods on my picnic table/deck the day/night before while eating pizza or whatever we order/my parents cook.

Also, with all the members coming, and the fact that none of the original "Vermin" have yet to confirm attendance, we may as well call this Downpour II or something like that. I say that because Downpour 2012 would be deceiving since we'll have 2 community wars this year.

[HBWW]

So Downpour II happens before Downpour 2012? Heheheh. Or we could call it the Hydropocalypse or whatever other names we came up with earlier, lol.

I really hope this doesn't end up like the Community War for me again where I think I have a 90% chance of making it and then am unable to later on. If this month of April goes well enough, I will be sure I can make it as long as my friend can. Problem is, I don't want to take that junker of a car I have out on a longass road trip all by myself, though if I have enough money saved up by then (given I get a job and can get the time off that I need), I will take a flight over there. Basically, if I have the money and the means to make it to the war, my parents have no say and I will see to that this year. However, being able to have the means is at least as difficult as convincing the parents to let me go.

[DX]

It might actually take me longer than you to drive there. With Google's estimates (based on current Sat evening traffic flow) it would be about 12 hours for you and 10 hours for me. However, I'd be catching morning New York rush on the way out, along with maybe Richmond rush in the evening. The station wagon has about 138K miles on it, but I've taken it 600 miles to DC and 900 miles through New England and been fine. Unless your car is completely falling apart, you should be fine.

You don't have to worry about the means as much. Last year's offer still stands.

[SEAL]

Downpour II? What's wrong with using Vermin War 13?

Anyway, I think either my mom or my grandparents will be taking me, and I doubt any of them would want to stay in a tent. Me and my brothers have no problem with it though. I will see what can be done.

Armory I'll probably be bringing:
CPS 2700
CPS 1200
Vanquisher
MD 6000
XP 270
Arctic Blast (If I mod/fix it by then.)
Sneak Attack
Equalizer
MD 4000 X2
MD 3000
Goblin X2
XP 220
SEAL H2 (SCH)
Douchenator (If it ends up working well.)
Any other decent blaster I may aquire before the event.
I also want to bring some water balloons, water bottles, and flags for CTF.

[HBWW]

It might actually take me longer than you to drive there. With Google's estimates (based on current Sat evening traffic flow) it would be about 12 hours for you and 10 hours for me. However, I'd be catching morning New York rush on the way out, along with maybe Richmond rush in the evening. The station wagon has about 138K miles on it, but I've taken it 600 miles to DC and 900 miles through New England and been fine. Unless your car is completely falling apart, you should be fine.

You don't have to worry about the means as much. Last year's offer still stands.

The car has an oil leak in the engine and I have to put this bottle of leak repair oil/fluid in it from time to time. I suppose I could get by if I stocked up on a bottle or two of the stuff before heading out, but this thing is not holding up well. The muffler fell off on the highway a few months ago (though it wasn't me driving it; it was dad) and that had to be taken care of. Overall, I'm not sure how many or what kind of problems this thing will randomly come up with; I've had to deal with 2 flat/broken tires in the timespan of a month or two but at least the whole tire set is new now. Still, I don't know if I'd depend on this for a long trip. My best bet right now is to try to get my best friend to come and we'll roll over in a Mustang with a trunk full of WW equipment. The gas is going to kill our wallets though, but I'll worry about that when the time comes.

In the meantime, I don't know if I can move forward with planning to come to the war until I know the time range that M4 can host it and until my friend and I finally get jobs and schedule ourselves accordingly when/if necessary. Will have to see how things move forwards for us for the month of April and beginning of May. I do appreciate the offer though, and I'm trying my best to make it.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

As far as camping out goes, I could defiantly do it. It sounds like there are some close hotels so worst comes to worst, my dad could drop me off with a tent and some guns and then go stay in one of them. Should a bring that portable pavilion I had at Downpour last year, or do we need it?

Anyway, I also want to know what the food situation is going to be like, I mean worst come to worst I could just live off PB@J sandwiches, but I am still working on broadening my horizons beyond pasta and other gran based foods. I also have hypoglycemia so if I don't get food about every two hours, my blood sugar gets low enough that I'm pretty unbearable to be around. For the most part, my dad should be there, or at least close buy, but I just figured I'd give every one a heads up.

I think I will bring a piston gun anyway, even if we don't have a round for it. I've been wanting to test my Power Soaker Pumper II. Also, does anyone have a spare stream machine for the naval war, I have on old off brand one that a could bring, but it doesn't work very well.

[marauder]

I will pick a date as soon as they tell me when I'm going on leave. Most likely it will be the 20th or the 27th. Ideally all of you can camp out in my back yard. We would have Scott, DX, Seal, Keith, John, me, my brother, so 7 camping out, plus my sister and my girlfriend who are staying inside, but said they would join in. That's 9 people for night battles, 11 if CA99 and his friend come. Seal's ride and Scott's dad could stay in a hotel near my house in Clayton, then the next morning we all ride over to the park for the day.

but I am still working on broadening my horizons beyond pasta and other gran based foods.

Dude, you crack me up. You shouldn't have to worry about food. If you are staying at my house you will be well fed... but if you don't like fried chicken and sweet tea then we may have to order a pizza I'm going to ask my parents if they can grill up some hamburgers and hotdogs or something while we fight on, what Im guessing will be a Sunday. If not, I will order some pizza or have my parents pick up some Bojangles or something and bring it to us. So, no worries.

You can bring the Pavilion if you want Scott, but the area has plenty of picnic tables in the shade.

[atvan]

Sweet tea sickens me. haha, guess that's what you get when you head south. Unsweetened is the way to go.

I probably have a better chance of making it on the 27th, especially if I don't have to take any finals, but is still unlikely.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

If your going to cook burgers then I will make sure to bring some of the veggie burgers I like. Pizza I am defenentaly (hope you all know what that says, spell check won't help me!) good with, cheese is fine unless anyone else will want black olives.

Any way, I noticed a lot of suggestions that I use my 2500, I might use it for a round, but I have tried it before and I like the feel of my Vindicator a little better, it's easier to run with. But if we play some sort of base defense round that doesn't require much sprinting, I would probably use it then. I used it an a CTF game a played a few weeks ago, its size made it hard to get past a quick jog, I don't know, is there a trick to running with it? It's not even its weight just the fact that it is so long it is hard to throw back in forth to help with running.

[HBWW]

It's all in how you hold it. Point it downwards or point it towards the sky, or you can carry it by the carrying handle. You're probably best off leaving the strap on though.

[DX]

It's probably a combo of physical and psychological factors. An overloaded CPS 2500 has some pretty hefty weight to it, so much so that I can't rely on the strap - it broke off my CPS 2000 several times at 2011 Downpour. There is kind of a trick to running with it, either go long and slow or fast and hard, nothing in the middle. I like to take aggressive bursts of speed when engaging an enemy. Long pursuits are best done at a leisurely pace, if not at a walk. Mid-distance, high speed moves are punishing and even I'll give up if the enemy has noticeably higher speed endurance.

I think that you would benefit from the training concept (don't know the name) where you go beyond the normal level in order to make the normal level feel really natural in comparison (kind of like overspeed training in sprinting). If you run around with something even heavier than a 2500 for a while, the 2500 would then feel much lighter when you return to it. I remember thinking my stock 2100's pump was broken when I pumped it because it slid so effortlessly. What really happened is that I'd become used to the extra force necessary to pump extreme 21Ks.

Some of the problem may be in tolerance and conditioning. Running with a 2500 is essentially a form of resistance training - thus you need to give your body time to adapt to the effort required. At a certain point, you will be able to handle that threshold without trouble. If you don't believe me, keep in mind that I went from a deadlift max of 75 lbs when I started track to 300something in my final season. And I have the skinniest, lightest frame ever, as in long distance material. That power came from persistence and the sheer will to have it. Holding a 2500 for long periods of time is punishing on the arms. I still have no arm strength at all, but I have developed enough tolerance to carry these types of soakers. A lot of the weight actually is felt in my core more than in my arms, and core strength is much easier to improve than arm imo.

If the problem is mainly in the length of the 2500, make your body do the work to swing it around, the way your body powers a golf club. If you make the moves you want, the gun will follow just from momentum. You shouldn't have to fight with it. The 2500 is just another tool, like your arms and legs. I think most of this is simply from not being familiar enough with the model and having not used it enough. I use a pump-action rainbow in Nerf, which is insanely longer than any water gun, but I can get it into whatever angle is desired with ease.

There are other things you can do as well. When rushing with a 2500, you can hide lack of speed by making it look like you're running faster than you are. Slackers in high schools all over the country know this when doing mandatory laps during gym class. Lift your knees, increase your arm action, and bounce more. Chances are, you'll actually start going faster since your goal isn't to slack off. You could also specialize in counters against speed. Speed doesn't have to be fought with speed, it can be fought with stealth. A sudden, improvised ambush can shred an entire pursuing force. This is the sprinters' ambush / speed trap ambush. You bait the enemy into chasing you, create enough separation so they can't see you (or turn a corner, anything to pass out of sight momentarily), then drop down and hide. They come flying by and BAM, they're dead. Ambushes in general make for awesome counters as a class, along with trick tactics. Don't forget that an experienced user will give a 2500 a good deal of respect and you can take advantage of this. The gun comes with preconceived notions of what it can do, so if you can't tap into its full potential as the user, fake it until you make it.

[HBWW]

Well, DX's reply is a lot more than what I said lol. I don't recall having any problems when I picked up the 2500 for the first time, being used to strapping a 12k earlier. However, the 2500's length does make it quite front-heavy as your water supply runs out. Bottom line is, you have to try it out more and find what works for you. If you still don't like it and don't want to get used to it, you can, say, use the 12k or something instead if available. There's a lot of options.

Maybe I'm just mouthing off though, as I've never really had to run with a 2500 through miles after miles after miles. I've carried it at full to half load for hours at a time without any exhaustion, but it's not the same as having to walk or run long distances with it.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

I will have to experiment around. Part of the problem may be I am badly out of shape, I used to be able to run for miles but did almost no exercise over the winter so now I run out of breath really fast. I guess I could try running around with my 3200, that thing has some weight to it! I might forget so if a make any posts after 4:00pm today, some one remind me to do that! Any way, even of I do get fit again, and can run full speed with the 2500, I still might use the Vindicator, there is just something about how it feels in my hands, I can't really describe it. I think it worked pretty well for me at Downpour, maybe it isn't as good as the 2500 to some people, but it is the user not the gun right? Its not like we are talking about a Thunderstorm here, the Vindicator is at least three/forths as good as the 2500.

[HBWW]

If anything, I'm the one who's out of shape. I can't run continuously for very long and it's been a long time since I ran, say, a mile or two at a time. I'm trying to focus my training less on continuous endurance and more on speed, though I haven't had much free time to work out as of late.

Can't say I'm a fan of the Vindicator's handling, but it shoots pretty well and works.

[wetmonkey442]

I know you don't have too much control over when the US government decides to fly you back from the other end of the world, but I'll be starting a new job in NYC on Monday, May 28th, so I won't be able to make it that weekend.

I'd be fine the weekend before, though, and I might be able to bring a couple of friends with me. I should rephrase. If I do come, it WILL be with at least one other person, as I plan on combining this war with a three day backpacking trip with a buddy of mine.

As for weaponry, I'm gonna run pretty light, simply because I drive a tiny clown car and don't have room for such frivolities as "good blasters". I'll probably bring 2x CPS 2100s and possible a CPS 3200 that I am planning on repairing. The real treat will be this: I plan on bringing several new homemades to this war, including a new APH, CPH, Watercannon, and WBL. In fact, I may build and bring multiple copies of each, in case anyone is interested in buying one in person. I'll have more details out in early May once I post write-ups and gets pictures and videos of all the new models.

[marauder]

The best weapon is the weapon which allows you to play your best. I let Amie use my 2000 once, while I was using my MXL. She consistently fired over me, emptying the entire firing chamber in one shot. It was definitely not the right choice for her.

The Vindicator is a very good gun. The 2500 is better in 1hk games and probably in respawn CtF games. If you want to use the Vindicator in May then I don't see a problem with that, train with it, but you have enough time before Downpour 2012 to really train with the 2500 and I think it'd be in your best interest to do that. If nothing else, do some pushups and go running several days a week. It will help you out a lot. I'm also bringing my Vindicator to the war, but I will be using my 2000 again, unless it's an air pressure only game, and then I'll use my (soon to be) backpack modded PPB.

As for weaponry, I'm gonna run pretty light, simply because I drive a tiny clown car and don't have room for such frivolities as "good blasters". I'll probably bring 2x CPS 2100s and possible a CPS 3200 that I am planning on repairing. The real treat will be this: I plan on bringing several new homemades to this war, including a new APH, CPH, Watercannon, and WBL. In fact, I may build and bring multiple copies of each, in case anyone is interested in buying one in person. I'll have more details out in early May once I post write-ups and gets pictures and videos of all the new models.

Only in our community does "pretty light" mean 2 2100s, a 3200, an APH, CPH, Watercannon, and WBL lol. If I have the 20th or earlier is an option then I'll definitely make it then. That's awesome that you got a job in the city.