Future of Paintball

[SCBrian]

Originally Posted by Sittin_duk

The accuracy thing will never happen because of the shape of the paintball, it's round, and not all paintballs are the exact same, so they're going to spin a certain direction and curve.

That's right, and it's why we look for the better quality paintballs with out the imperfections, seams and dimples, etc...
doing a quick search gave me this...
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5640945.html
patent in 1995 or 97...
describes a paintball with "...According to one aspect of the invention, an improved paintball comprises a shell containing a quantity of paint, the outer surface of the shell being contoured to define a number of contoured recesses. ..."
Think of it like a golf ball meets paintball, also included is internal baffles to stop the liquid from rotating and canceling out the backspin, improving distance and accuracy with out raising velocity.

Also includes a description of a barrel - shaped and ported to produce backspin...

Originally Posted by Sittin_duk

Also, the C3 idea was a great idea. Now they need to be able to put that kind of gas onto a faster shooting marker (sem-auto) without the thing overheating.

Need to build a pretty good heat sink for it, because it really is a 'fire-arm'.

Originally Posted by Sittin_duk

And I have no idea what the guy was talking about by the different shaped paintballs...makes no sense...

What?!?! You've never opened a box of Combat .68 ??

But really, I believe that PMI introduced football shaped rounds in the late 80's for a automatic marker?? Clip feed, plastic backs kinda like the old SMG-60 cals...

For one heck of a good discussion on paintball physics check this link:
http://www.automags.org/forums/showthread.php?t=64669
God, I can't belive I posted that. Skeeter will never let me forget it..

[scpaintballer01]

like, right now, we dont have the technology to use the evolts design, or if we do it would be so expensive it wouldnt be worth the money for the marker, or would cost as much as a DM6+160$ nitrogen tank..The C3 design has good application, but they do need to find a way to let the heat escape, or do somthing with the heat in general lol to find a way for it to be actually useable and not a COMPLETE firehazard.

[SCBrian]

I think Your not going to see much improvement outta the air side of the equation. Only a few options avail, HPA, N, Co2, and propane. Not sure what gasses are left to improve and use. I'm thinking most would be more expensive than currently available, or more unstable. Your still going to need a certain amount of gas pressure to expel the paintball outta the barrel, so you can only regulate it down so far. The C3 is an amazing step in the right direction and totally out of the box thinking, but I don't think they will ever be able to provide enough of a heat sink for it to become feasible as a semi.

NPS was talking about releasing the Evolt for about $250. Although mainly the Evolt is still an air powered marker, (it just has an onboard compressor).

That's why I think the paintballs are going to be the next advance. Look at it from a rec / scenario ballers POV. If you change the size/shape of the pball, and can improve it's accuracy greatly, even if limiting the ROF and how many you can load at a time, I think most would go for it. Heck market it straight to the scenario crowd. Make it 'football'(or whatever) shaped ammo to improve accuracy, and make it clip feed. 10 or 20 rounds. It'd be marketing straight to the sniper (or whatever) in Scenario ball.

-B
(Will respond more tomorrow, it's past my bed time.. us old folks gotta get lots of sleep... )

Originally Posted by scpaintballer01

like, right now, we dont have the technology to use the evolts design, or if we do it would be so expensive it wouldnt be worth the money for the marker, or would cost as much as a DM6+160$ nitrogen tank..The C3 design has good application, but they do need to find a way to let the heat escape, or do somthing with the heat in general lol to find a way for it to be actually useable and not a COMPLETE firehazard.

[SCBrian]

Hey, BTW, Someone point Greg, "NPSG" over here. What's up with the Evolt anyway?

[scpaintballer01]

yeah, thats the thing, it's a small compressor, if they were to make that into the size and form of a modern 45/45 tank or what not, i think it would take off, but it would cost SO MUCH to make a compressor that small, and still be able to give the PSI needed to fire, that, and honestly i think that we've all gotten used to using the tank as a "stock", what happens with that leaves?...jesus i dont want a fad to be "gangsta" style...lol

[Sittin_duk]

But just the material that paintballs are made out of is flawed material. I'm not even sure what the shell is made out of, but there are differences in even great paint. Like a ball can be .689 and anther can be .688. And that's how it will always be, unlike bullets, which are pretty darn close to the next bullet, if not exact. It's how it will always be with paintballs, they'll find ways to make them closer, but never exact.

[thumper]

I look at paintball as being divided into two main camps. One camp is hard set on turning paintball into a sport, with ESPN highlights, big lights and trying to brand players and events.

The other camp is trying hard to preserve the game as a game - fun for fun's sake.

In my opinion, the there is a culture and community aspect to each type of the game/sport. You can see this in how the tourney guys love their bps arguments, and love to hang out fanning and dry firing. And just look at Special Ops, Tippmann and the full force emergence in the warcraft of scenario paintball. Tanks, Laws, Spies - oh my.. Now look again at the stock class guys and the crazy stock class stuff going on in Hawaii and California. In woodsball I see a huge trend in returning to the roots of the game especially in the more experienced players. (The number of old fashion pump markers seems to double each year.) Just look at the prices for a KP3 or Buzzard to see that demand.!

I see the future of paintball including the refinement of these cultures as the manufactures, associations and marketing companies seek to embrace and celebrate the differences fighting to be the first king of the niche. (Bud = King of Beers, Tippman = King of woodsball, Carter = King of Stockclass, Bob Long = king of tourney gear)

Its the cultural differences in why we play, and what we seek that drive the equipment, not the equipment driving the game/sport. It is the competative (and social) beast within us that created this game.

[GTHEWORM]

For now, all I can say is that those of you who say the E-volt is "so ridiculous it's stupid" ; be prepared to eat crow, very soon.

"Woodsballers" make up over 85% of all paintballers. We're not going "back to our roots"; The facts show that we never left. The "speedballers" are still figuring out how to get 2 to 3 thousand players to camp out for a weekend and still have fun shooting less than 6 cases of paint.

It's all about marketability. Make woodsball more "marketable" to the mainstream public (primarily the Gen X demographic) the "niches" will rear their heads and the major "non-traditional paintball" sponsors will be there lined up, checkbooks in hand.

[Bobio]

Originally Posted by Rembrandt

Yeah why don't we just go ahead and run around with dog collars on and set the electric fence around the field.

HEY! What Tamela and I do at home is our business!

[Bobio]

Originally Posted by NPSG

For now, all I can say is that those of you who say the E-volt is "so ridiculous it's stupid" ; be prepared to eat crow, very soon.

"Woodsballers" make up over 85% of all paintballers. We're not going "back to our roots"; The facts show that we never left. The "speedballers" are still figuring out how to get 2 to 3 thousand players to camp out for a weekend and still have fun shooting less than 6 cases of paint.

It's all about marketability. Make woodsball more "marketable" to the mainstream public (primarily the Gen X demographic) the "niches" will rear their heads and the major "non-traditional paintball" sponsors will be there lined up, checkbooks in hand.

I agree. Look at the major manufacturers who are getting into the scenario camp now...Tippman and Smart Parts, both in a big way. They are seeing that the woodsball isstaying strong and are is an under-developed market. Unlike most speedball teams and players, scenario players have jobs and disposable income.