Field Operations Codified: The Chrono Station

Every field, that I have ever visited mismanages the chrono station procedure.

The daily chrono session is a serious bottleneck, particularly for large crowds.  Here is how it should be managed.

1. Player steps up and fires a shot.
2. If it's OK, fire a few more to make sure it's not a fluke.
3. If there is anything wrong, PLAYER GOES TO THE BACK OF THE LINE.

Step 3 is kind of the important one.  That entire line of 40+ people is waiting for 1 limited resource:  the chronograph.

There is no reason for someone with a shitty gun to stand in front of the chrono just to fuck with his gun.  He can do that in the back of line while other people proceed to get their guns chrono'd.

That's it.  It's real fucking simple.  Maximize throughput of people through the chrono station.

Field Operations Codified: Turnaround

A lot of fields seem to have issues with game turnaround.  They just don't run the games fast enough, and players are left in the staging area twiddling their thumbs.

The procedure seems to pretty obvious.

1. Walk out for a set of games.
2. After the games, check paint status.  If people need to head up, then head up.
3. When you get to the staging area, start a stopwatch.  Announce when the next walkout is, and give warnings a 2 and 1 minute marks.

That's pretty much it.

Pendleton actually took it a step further and was recording what groups were on what fields, as well as what fields they had already played on apparently.  I was actually kind of impressed by that.

The Efficiency Bullshit Parade

I mentioned what should be the test method for measuring efficiency in paintball guns a while back.

The topic came up again on MCB.  The MCB shitheads, as MCBers always do, proceeded to lie, mislead, and misinform each other with non-information, because that's apparently what decent people do to each other.

This time around, I decided to validate some of my previous findings with the test method.  I've run the test multiple times, and came up with the following numbers:

• Automag - 0.25g per shot
• Invert Mini - 0.25g per shot
• Spyder Compact 2000 - 0.20g per shot

Anyways, I reverse calculated the results and collated them together here:

Y CANT MCBERS MATH

The criteria for accepting a test:

1. They had to chrono the marker.  Duh.  An SL8R can get really fucking good results if you, you know, never chrono the fucking gun.  Idiot.  The most basic fucking thing, and you can't even do that right.
2. They couldn't be using the stock barrel.  Paint-to-barrel match is pretty important, and I figured if they changed the barrel, they might have cared about this.  If they were still using the stock barrel, then all confidence is lost in the tester's ability.

You'll notice a distinct pattern here.  Spools tend to do about 0.25g per shot, and poppets get about 0.20g per shot.  And as a further validation, the two Spyders and the Resurrection are actually using the same valve.

Misc. Takeaways:

1. I'm pretty sure my efficiency test works.  My data matches what others have found, as long as you filter out the shitty results.  The difference being that I didn't have to literally blow through hundreds of rounds to obtain it.  Don't fucking create a test that's so goddamn painful that nobody wants to reproduce it.
2. Why the fuck is everybody quantifying efficiency as "number of pods"?  Fucking pods vary from <140 to 160, depending on fill.  It's a bullshit way to report results.
3. Paintball player impressions are completely fucking unreliable.  For example, the person running the Resurrection test looked at the results and went "meh" when they were actually pretty good.
4. What's worse is the manufacturers themselves are just as fucking clueless as the players.  They have all this fancy talk of "engineers" and shit, but really, the poppet manufacturers could easily be claiming higher numbers.  You know those fuckers would take every opportunity to market that shit if they knew about it.
5. As fucking predicted, damn near nobody ever started from a full 4500 fill.  And yet you look at other threads where shitheads collate the data, and they don't fucking take the partial fills into account.
6. NO FUCKING EXCUSES.  We don't need to hear shit about how your results might be skewed because your gun was leaking or your battery was low or whatever.  FIX YOUR FUCKING SHIT.

Mag to Cocker Barrel Adapter

I've released my Mag to Cocker Barrel Adapter here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9Ub05cFvbYmZHNpUlJFTXRhU0E/edit?usp=sharing


Enjoy!

Sony AS30V/AS100V

Sony released some "updates" to the HR-AS(S) line of sports cameras.  Honestly, the only reason I was even looking at them was for stuffing on my RC plane.

The newer models are slightly smaller.  The AS100V is "splashproof" without the exoskeleton.  No idea if this means it can take a direct paintball hit, however.

They've added some features.  Like GPS, which is not particularly interesting for paintball.

The new remote control is actually kind of neat and I can see myself getting some use out of it.

However, the case and mounting are STILL overall fucked up.

They STILL haven't added even a image flip in hardware.  It's the easiest fucking thing for them to do, and they STILL can't fucking add the feature.  Hello?  Imager has to fill the memory anyways, and if not there, then when the frames are pulled they can be flipped at that point as well, still completely in "hardware" without making the user do it in post-processing.

It is fucking bizarre how inept Sony is.

Field Operations Codified: Team Selections

I think I posted this, or something like this, on MCB, but here's the rundown.

It's real fucking simple.  There's nothing more fair than completely fucking random.  No predefined teams for recball.

All you need is a binary criteria applied to some random (something you had no control over) input.

Even/odd is a binary criteria.

Most people have no control over their date of birth.

VOILA.

Even/odd birth date
Even/odd birth month
Even/odd birth year

That gets you three very quick randomization options.

Once things are broadly split, look over the teams and make sure they're not retardedly stacked, and make adjustments.

Refs need to take the initiative here for the rec groups.  It's rec play, not scenario play or tournament practice.  You all get fucking randomized, no arguments.

You want to play together or some shit?  Make a private game, or go play on the airball field.

Field Operations Codified: Separate And Totally Unequal

The field where I normally play at doesn't have an airball field, which is actually great because it tends to keep the field and players more rec oriented.  There are other fields in town with airball, and that's where those folks go.

The owner has mentioned that he would like to add airball to get that part of the business.

Here's how my take on how to deal with the situation.

The field should strictly be partitioned into two parts:  recball and airball/tournament ball.

Field fee is $20, and this gets you admission to one of the two partitions.

If you're a rec player, you pay $20, and you only play the rec fields.

If you're a tournament player, you pay $20, and you only play the airball field.

Pretty much everybody should be plenty happy and there's no need for the groups to mix, ever.

• The tournament players can be all snotty and claim a field all for themselves, in peace.
• The rec players don't have to listen to the tournament players baiting them to go play the airball field so they can get stomped.  "Oh, you want me to play airball?  Pay my field fee."
• If the tournament players want to fuck up the rec business, they have to pay.
• Either way, the field at least gets some money.

So here are some hypothetical situations:

Tournament baller is getting bored on the airball field and wants to play recball.  No problem.  Pony up another $20 field fee to play the rec fields, and by the way, if you cause any drama on the rec field, we're still kicking your ass off both fields.  No bones about it -- tournament players are second class citizens, and we'll take your money AND kick you off the field if you start shit.

Rec baller wants to get wasted off the airball field?  Pony up another $20 to hit that side of the field.  If you want to have a bad time and never come back because you were too stupid to stay off the airball field, then pay up.

Tournament baller shows up, pays his $20, plays on the airball field.  Airball crowd dries up.  He wants to play with the rec group.  That's fine, cough up another $20, same rules as before apply.

Rec baller pays $20 to play with the rec group, and the rec group dries up.  He wants to play on the airball field with the airball players.  That's fine, cough up another $20.

Private groups play on the rec fields.