I'll go, just to practice photography. Out of money already. Well, might be able to play.

What time is it?

@ yeehong : Mask maintenance isn't that hard. I have a Vforce Grill, bought because of the really quick lens swap ability.

1. Take the lens out (and the foam/padding out if you can), then douse the whole mask in a bucket of relatively warm water. Room temp is okay, but no soap or any chemicals like that. Weakens it.

2. If you have the foam/padding separate, you can wash it in some soapy liquid, makes it smell nice without compromising mask integrity.

3. Do not dump the lens in water. If it's a thermal lens (like it is), use a towel or something to wipe the front of the lens (use water, but no soap etc). Don't wipe hard, do it softly or you'll damage it. Then use a piece of kleenex or some thin tissue, dab with water and then work on the inside of the lens. Do not wipe it, you'll scratch away the anti-fog coating. Just dab at the dirty spots and leave them to dry.

Never use windscreen wiper fluid on the lens, no matter how good an idea it may seem.

This post has been edited by Catfish0122: Feb 12 2008, 04:14 PM

May have to be at TT sports park. I think Astaka is taken for NPL.

Whoah, wait. It's a thermal lens?

And you ran it through water?

You know thermal lenses are two sheets of lens stuck together... so running it through water may mean that some water seeps in, and you can effectively destroy the antifog.

My maintenance tips are for general masks. Not all masks are the same. I find that washing the foam is a neccesity.

It depends. If the lens is well made, it's not likely.

The way it works is two sheets of lens with an air gap in between.. if water gets into the air gap, the mask will fog up.

It depends... running it through water and dumping it into water are different things, I guess... but generally, just dab your mask with a moist, soft cloth to get rid of the paint splats.

Also, dump your barrels in hot water. Washes out gelatin residue buildup due to paintballs breaking in your barrel(and yes, if not cleaned properly, builds up over time, even if you run a squeegee through). If you don't do it, it'll result in bad accuracy, over time.

I'll be there to photograph, maybe.

It's not just leaving the lens out to dry... if you've ever dunked a watch underwater by accident and water got in... notice how the water starts condensing on the inside of the glass? That'd be what would happen to the lens.

In any case, I don't have my own marker either. What I plan to do is buy an SP Ion 2nd hand, upgraded completely (with tank and e-hopper). But failing that, I'll just buy a new Proto SLG or Ion XE with a SLY CF 16" barrel and an empire magnadrive. Need to keep the gear costs down.

Your first marker should be an E-marker. I know it doesn't sound logical (because you don't need that sort of firepower right now), but E-markers actually last longer than mechanicals in the pouring rain (the board won't fry, but mechanicals will jam up). Also, getting an E-marker means you don't have to buy a new marker later on... makes sure your marker lasts you longer.

Haha. I wish I could play. If anyone's willing to sponsor me for a few games or lend me their marker... I'll go.

I'm broke, sort of. All my money comes from my parents, and I don't get enough school money to save up.

And, whahay, my camera's in for servicing. Something I completely forgot. I'll come anyway and referee or something.

P.S. I can come with around 50 ringgit. That's about it, really.

P.P.S. If anyone has a camera that uses XD Picture cards, can they bring it along? (proper ones please, semi pro or DSLR (HAHA)) I only have XD cards.

This post has been edited by Catfish0122: Feb 22 2008, 09:58 PM

EDIT:

Good game... I'm still beating myself up over total crap accuracy.

Thanks for lending me the marker + paint.

See you next month.

This post has been edited by Catfish0122: Feb 23 2008, 12:25 PM

Lol.. the other group didn't want to play with us.

Maybe you should enforce a rule... house marker only? Otherwise you end up with people using e-markers or better maintained markers, and it just gets annoying when you get hosed down by a hyped up kid.. and hurts a lot too

I know you won't get hot water on tourney grounds. I'm talking about when you go home after the whole event is over.

Of course ball to bore matching is important. But if you use badly maintained markers, even when run through with a squeegee, their accuracy is crap.

Also, MacDev barrels don't get that happening.

Also, that < 5 metre stuff is sort of fake. I've asked around... it's only if you see cracks that you need be worried. Lenses are pretty expensive, depends on how much money you have lying around. For someone who doesn't have a job yet, it's pretty expensive.

There are anti-fog solutions for paintball masks. VForce has one at least. Looks to be about the same as the ones I use for my swimming goggles.

A SWAT vest as in the real life vest, or a paintball specific vest?

Well, I think it's just the guy promoting MacDev, being on a MacDev team and all, but apparently it has some polymer inside that doesn't retain the residue, so all you need is a squeegee.

Doesn't Malaysia use .689 field paint though? I'd think that'd be what they use.

Seriously though, Astaka has really well maintained markers. Not the best accuracy in the world, but it's not as bad as some places *cough*... I can still get pretty good groupings at mid-longer ranges.

Yes, we're very lucky. Especially since I plan to enter Division 4 next year (which is like... suicide, since I'm getting my car next year as well, and yeah), and I only need 8-10 boxes of paint for a 5 man team, or so.

@tkt:

What does it carry then? I mean, what paintball gear.

I'm pretty stumped on how to quote in this forum.

This post has been edited by Catfish0122: Feb 24 2008, 11:45 PM

generally yes. but cheap paints have irregular shapes and swell easier after exposing it to air.

astaka site is new, hence markers are of course looked better in condition. TT sports, xtion and a few places more are already there for years.. hence it's normal the markers are not in good condition.

[/quote]


I guess. But I don't base my judgement on looks.. some markers look like they're about to die, but shoot pretty well.

Then there's TT Sports.. I think it has the worst markers I've ever used. Bukit Tinggi has pretty good markers, and they're the first ones in Malaysia. Xtion is okay too. NPNG is great.

@tkt:
It's good to wear a vest, but if it's heavy and has pockets that can't store equipment on field, there's really no need to wear it (unless you're desperate for protection). Sure, it looks shocking... but if you're going to have to bunker someone and end up getting tired from the run, there's no point.

The TDP guys I played with at Isi Rimba wear pod packs or harnesses (and they are the most awesome woodsball/milsim players I've seen in Malaysia). Well, one of them wore a dagger vest on the day, but the rest were just wearing plain camo or simple things.

If you want a proper vest, it's ideal to get the Special Ops Dagger Vest. That's good for milsim, carries pods and has a tank holder for going remote.

This post has been edited by Catfish0122: Feb 25 2008, 12:29 AM

Still, you'd totally own virtually all of my schoolmates when it comes to woodsball.

What I'd take is an Ion with a DeadlyWind kit. Then I could leave it on and have a scope when it comes to woodsball, and leave the stock and scope off for tourney.

I liked any type of paintball, except target shooting. That depresses me.

Let's all go to Crossfire at the SDC and pay large amounts of money for very little paint.

Astaka, IMHO has better fields. I think it's probably because they have to keep changing it since so many teams train on it for NPL. And you don't end up with a face full of mud if you dive into a bunker. It depends on what you want.

I wouldn't suggest TT sports to anybody. The paint is bad, the markers are horrible accuracy wise (do they never clean barrel breaks?), they fill their airbunkers with sand (don't slam into one) and their ground feels strange.. like sinky in some parts and completely hard in others. Also, their customer service kind of sucks... waited for ages.

Isi Rimba/Tanamera/Rimba Harmonis would be for people who want to go into the woods. This is okay as long as everyone is a newbie, because it gets really sucky when people with gear are virtually invisible and you stand out, even with subdued colour clothing. The paint is cheaper, but the markers are in really bad condition... sometimes the markers at Isi Rimba have jammed safeties . Expect to die if you're not in relatively good physical condition, and bring bug spray.

Astaka/Xtion/NPNG are better for more organised, speedball type games. This is probably better for newbies, or those who have no experience in jungle trekking etcetera, it's a cleaner environment, but you do fire a lot more paint. A game in the jungle can last an hour or two, speedball games can last 10 seconds to around 10 minutes. But it is easier to work out more tangible tactics on a speedball field.

Price wise, Xtion is only SLIGHTLY better than Astaka. At higher end, like 500 pellets, Astaka is cheaper. True, you need to pay 60 for marker + mask + field charge, but I'd say that the people at Astaka are generally friendlier. They're willing to help/teach newbies basic skills, at no extra cost.

If you want to talk about pellet consumption, games with less people, evidently, will mean you use less pellets. You also feel like you get more out of the day, since you get more games. Don't bother with 1 v 1, it gets really mediocre because it's literally a 50-50 chance of winning and eventually one person will continue winning... Strangely, playing in the woods results in less consumption too, even on massive scale games...

That's my... 40 cents, or so...

There's no smoke... it's rarely used. You'd use smoke to cover when you move across wide, open areas... I think only tanamera has that, but the markers rarely have enough range to hit you if you're doing something like that.

The gun sounds is no different from that of airsoft. It can be as loud or as quiet as you want it to be. Well, admittedly, airsoft can be pointlessly quiet, which makes it a bit strange when you're expecting loud gunfire, but the only times you'd ever encounter a lot of noise is if somebody brings an automatic marker in.

Yeah, speedball is expensive if you spam shots pointlessly. 2 v 2 games can be over in 10 shots, you can play 50 games at that rate. 1 v 1 games can be over in 3 shots.

You have a borg? My friend bought a borg second hand, not sure what year it is, but it shoots so well ... planning to buy a Droid second hand if I can find one later on... with an NxE JRNY hopper... I guess the newbie crowd won't accept me either

Yer... my crowd has just gotten used to it, it's good practice anyway.. and if they start complaining like mad we just toss the marker at them and let them use it for a few rounds... it's not like it makes a difference, you need to control how much you fire since it's really tempting to just let loose a whole hopper. It'd only be horrible if you carried like 4 pods on field and just fired continuously... then yeah, I'd be annoyed too

Oh LAME. We were at Tanamera last Saturday... I thought this thread was dead.

Tanamera still does the 125 for 1k pellet deal. Chances are you won't shoot all of it... My team got overrun... it was so nasty...

Dude, using a MacDev Droid, I still didn't finish it all. And a lot of my friends using E-gripped A5s, whatever.. they couldn't finish it either. It's not so much a question of not shooting enough, it's finding targets. If you can see them, you hit them, it's easy. Take out maybe 4 people before you get taken out yourself... it's not like speedball with constant suppression (and nobody wants to play speedball at tanamera).

I went home with 3 pods of paint. That's 1 bag. That means I shot 1 bag, +/- 50 pellets.

If you have your own gear, the charge would be 115. Not 75.