Top Secret (?) maybe some secrets shouldn't be kept

[m0rp]

Top Secret (?)

I play in Utah but I've been enjoying the ASC forums for over a year now . I'm having a small dilemma I wanted to run by you guys for commentary before I bring it up with my home forum just so I can get an idea how people are gonna react to my prose or lack thereof.

Here's the deal...

We use a "country system" where each team is a very general impression of a specific nations armed services. Basically we just wear the cammo for team distinction though sometimes it goes further than that. We have fun with it. No rank or prize tournaments, just 50-100 guys shooting each other twice a month and (hopefully) having a laugh about it during and after. Sometimes bigger games and "overnighters".

So herein lies the problem...As a creator of airsoft wierdness I occasionally find myself in the position of having to see if something is "approved". By that I mean that I need to have some people in positions of "responsibility" on TAC4 (as thats my organisation) look at the thing and tell me if it can be used in a game involving all the countries... or not.

Before the country system this happened in the form of everybody watching the thing get tested and saying how much it sucked or not.

Now that I'm on a specific country team (the German team) I want to make cool stuff to give the German team an edge. Sometimes it would be nice if these things were a surprise and I'm not so sure getting the "approval" of the leaders of other teams is such a good idea as the surprise factor could be lost. On the other hand I'm also a little uncertain about how each country feels about "surprises".

My feeling is that anything that tosses bb's COULD MAYBE be approved by individual country leadership as long as they were sure nobody would be hurt by it and everybody understands that you put on your orange cap (our signal for "I'm out stop shooting") and walk away when bb's smack you.

I'm curious how the people that frequent this site (particularly old hands in the sport) think about this. Should there be general leadership persons that should be consulted as well? Should everybody in the whole organisation be included on ALL the stuff and a sort of "patent" be applied so only the Germans can use the thing?? Or should stuff just be thrown out there and if people refuse to call their hits then, well...it's not working for the game etc. etc. I don't know thats why I'm asking.

I could see an arms race where everybodies hurrying to create the next bb doomsday weapon being a bad thing for your basic airsofter. I could also see it being a good thing for realism and added excitement in the sport.

I can easily think of half a dozen solutions to this from including everybody all the way to me jumping out of a bush and yelling surprise while I smack somebody in the back of the head with a bag of airsoft elites .25's on a rope (you know what I mean)..

Maybe a "secret stuff" group that makes sure everythings kosher and doesn't tell anybody? Of course then you wind up with guys that seem to have a special "sixth sense" about impending danger. I dunno maybe that would be a good thing too.

Anyway, just curious to hear your comment before I start a big fight in my home forum about it. I've noted you guys generally come up with some pretty good comments and I've appreciated your opinions in the past.

later,

m0rp

[Arvara]

A giant arms race would be kind of cool, expecially because scenarios could be develped around "disarming" other countries (steal their weapons during a game). As for people who know what the other countries weapons are but just don't tell anyone, have you thought about a spy system?

Let's face it, BB mortars would be kind of neat.

[concept_8]

I'd say if it's a large enough game tell the other team leaders and show them and just get them to help advertise the surprise to the other ppl on the teams and you do the same, so there's only a few ppl from the opposing teams who know and everyone else just knows that there could be surprises for the to look out for.

That way team leaders know about it and can help judge if it's safe enough or a good idea but everyone else including ppl on your team have a surprise during the game and it's still fun for everyone.

Either that or screw the other teams, and like you said if it tosses bb's safely, and as long as they call out why should it be that big of a deal if they don't know about it or see it comming.
It's not like there isn't plenty of grenades and mines or claymores or even launchers on the market as it is.
Why aside from being surprised by one during a game should it be a problem when anyone can have one with enough cash or enginuity.

[Skruface]

Heh. Each "country" probably has 1 or 2 guys like yourself - the "engineers" so to speak who like to tinker and build things. It would be cool if you could designate 1 or 2 players from each team as engineers and just get together for a safety meeting every before games to test any new "top secret" projects together to ensure they're safe to use.

What you think is pretty cool, they may not; however, it's mainly about safety anyways, so as long as the group consesus is that a particular weapon/item is safe, you should be able to use whatever you want, regardless of cool factor. A big ugly compressed air panzerfaust, unpainted/unsculpted and made of roughly glued PVC may not look cool, but as long as it's safe, you should be allowed to use it for effect. Besides, you'll need a lot of R&D before any project is "finished". and the most valuable place to get that is during a game anyways.

[Tankdude]

Nothing wrong with an RC plane taking off and do strafting runs on the opposing team. They would never see that coming.

[Sgt_Lynch]

It's been my experience that you will find the majority of Airsofters will sit around and announce phases such as 'man, it'd be cool if we had one of those' or discuss in great detail on how to get a certain device built or functioning... but that's as far as it goes. It's just really talk.

Showing up with a home-built thingamagig at a game will get alot of attention, but won't create a windstorm of people running home to make their own that you are worried about.

Very few people posess the tools, understanding, time and tallent to actually do it. In fact, you'll probly get sick of hearing people asking you to build them one.

[m0rp]

Avaya, this is why I post stuff in the ASC forums. http://72.14.207.104/search?q=cache:...s&ct=clnk&cd=1

I HAD COMPLETELY FORGOTTEN ABOUT THAT (mainly the stuff at the bottome but it's not a bad read overall) ! Thanks for reminding me. That used to be in the ASC forums for the same reason I posted this stuff. I got a lot of really good commentary then too.

You nailed it screwface, there's one on every team, and some of them have hinted at "surprises" as well now that I think about it.

I agree with you Lynch, There only seem to be a few that actually build stuff and most of it's crap anyway. Hopefully enough people will ask me to build them one that I can charge them part of an arm eh? heh...

Keep it up, this is good stuff.

m