kiwigat

This one is a workout. aka Push the Payload. Take a standard speedball field. On one team's side at the 30 in the middle there's a differently colored aztec or small temple.  Two teams of 4.  Make sure there are clear corner markers and a clear startgate that's tall and can be used for cover. When shot, you respawn by running around one of your own back corners, across to your other corner, then back to your startgate. Wipe yourself down (or sub out) while in cover, then rejoin the fight. Or: wait for teammates to show up and then all breakout at once. Your call. Your goal: push the payload , which is the aztec. You need to get it past the 50 to score one point, to the opposition 40 for two points, and to the opposition 30 for three points and a "delivery", ending the point. Then there's a break between points and now the other team goes on offense and tries to push it the other way.  A match would be two five minute push attempts per team, for a total 20...

The ongoing saga of vball continues. I get feedback, I notice problems, I write another blog. Sweet. Here's the new revision: hangzone - as before. Carry the flag into the enemy zone to win 1 point and end the set. The zone is much like a touchdown zone in NFL. Pull point - Get a point for the first pull, so up to two points per "set" which is what I'll call the old "point". You get points during sets to win games . Centre flag as before. Pass and drop and throw the flag, fine - it's a nerfball. Um... that's it. Otherwise standard speedball, though I suggest a time limit with no points cap and very limited paint (hopperball basically). Carrier respawn was dropped as it creates an incentive to overshoot players walking off. This format incentivises movement, focal point and risk. It's also simple. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE. The problems with paintball include cost, commitment, pain and fun. So I suggest this in addition to the ab...

So you may have heard of the NSL ,  a new paintball league in the USA with a few ideas. The core concept is that of a "live flag" meaning essentially that the flag is in play during the game rather than being an afterthought once you've eliminated the competition. How do you do that though? How do you make teams actually want to get the flag rather than just waiting til they've shot everyone? And even if they do get the flag, why would they risk it all trying to score and push up when there are still opposing players alive? It just makes sense to play conservative most of the time in the current game, since a player that's safe in a bunker and concentrating on holding a lane will be a more effective shooter than one who's out in the open or focussed on moving up. What do the NSL do well? Well, the core idea of a live flag game makes sense. We need a focal point and the flag provides that. The touchdown line rather than a hang station makes scoring feasi...

*Updated April 2015* Paintball is hard to watch. I don't think I need to explain it in detail since being here you've probably thought about it, but most folks will say it's because there's no focal point. And that's probably true. It's freaking hard to watch a sport when you don't know where to look (like football). It's even harder to watch a sport when learning all about the sport doesn't even make it that much easier (unlike football). Paintball is screwed, they say. Let's give up on making it watchable and just enjoy playing. It aint broke so don't fix it. Bah. Yeah, so people have tried. The NSL. Redzone tried too, probably more successfully. Moneyball... let's not even go there. But do we really need a whole new format ? Nah. Just a few tweaks to what we've got. Here's a few potential ways. 1. Make that pull worth something Sexy, sexy flagpull. If you make a pull matter, teams will be more likely to grab the ...

Not next year. Not even ten years from now. Most folks don't seem that interested or seem to assume that things will just continue along roughly the path they've been on so far. Unfortunately for them the future would say otherwise. There's a technology on the horizon that could   will  make paintball, airsoft, RAM, CoD and just about everything else redundant. It already exists in a primitive form and there are no real technological breakthroughs still needed. It will let you feel hits like paintball, will no longer rely on honesty, and it'll revolutionise the spectator appeal of the sport. It's called Augmented Reality, and maybe you already have it on your phone in a basic form. Meanwhiles google are actively developing it in the form of Google Glasses:- A little exaggerated! Here's how it would work. Everyone has some special gear - at minimum goggles and a gun, but potentially more if you want to feel hits via small electric shocks (see IRTac...

If you're going to make a paintball game, you need to do it like this. Focus on one league only, like the PSP. Ignore woodsball because that's better served by games like CoD, and because paintball is a small market and you dont have the cash to throw around on redundant content. Focus on the gameplay first and foremost. Capture the experience. What does a team have to deal with at a major tournament? Weather affects sliding distances and stamina. Refs running around can be distracting. Crowd noise and coaching. Individual skills unique to paintball need to be included to get the feel right. Reloading while shooting is a big one. Slides, dives, running and gunning, communication. All of this could be built into an RPG system *if* you have the time and money. Use a new distribution model like steam, XBLA, PSN. Don't waste money putting boxes on shelves. Get the basic gameplay right before worrying about how many markers you have in the game. You can add that sort of ...

Over the last while I've been considering the problems with tournament paintball as it stands. It's all ended up in this idea that I think could make paintball more accessible as a sport. RaceTo is awesome, but I have just one suggestion. It's very simple: Remove the flags and replace them with touchdown style lines. That's it. Call it vBall for now, just for the sake of having a name. It's not at all like moneyball, bacaball or the new NPPL TVball (or whatever). Those all had a big problem in common - unnecessary complexity for the referees, players and spectators. Bacaball was terrible for this with four different ref flags and four field flags. Moneyball was doomed from the start - everyone knew on sight that it would have massive issues with enforcing the line of advancement kill law. Nobody really seems to know what's going on with NPPL TVball, least of all casual spectators. My system has avoided these problems. Here's the reasoning behind the ...