Post
by DX » Sun May 08, 2011 11:09 pm
The water may or may not be visually dirty…but in terms of it being actually dirty…think of it this way…all the air pollution generated from the West Coast, the Heartland, and the interior East Coast rains down on my head every time it rains and you don't see me wearing a body filter or avoiding going out in it. Judging by the battlefield pics and the overall area, that's likely to be hard water, which is pretty good for your skin due to the mineral mix it would contain. I live over a huge aquifer that delivers among the best class A flowing water in southern New England and it's hard as hell, but so clean you could drink it straight and has superior taste over filtered water. You know what's way worse for your skin, chlorine and its related products, which you intake every time you swim in a pool or take a shower. Oh, it's in tap water, too (unless you use a filter). Swimming in the ocean within the continental shelves of the lower 48 is worse than either of those two. I'd be willing to bet that you wouldn't balk at taking a shower, swimming in pools, or the ocean.
So what if natural water is more visually dirty? It's a free and fast resource. Who wants to wait in a line around a skinny-ass tap or an even slower-flowing fountain in a war with a good amount of people, when you can scoop it up from a stream or something and have everyone be done with refilling in a matter of seconds? Not having to worry about preset refilling stations also opens up more of the area to fighting. You can go fight in more places if there are sources around. Also makes refilling more strategic (The only time I've ever had free refills is when your whole side gets taken out in the same firefight, as a gesture to help them get back onto their feet). There's so much stuff that goes down when one team has to refill desperately and the other doesn't. With just one known source, the latter can just camp it. But, if everyone has free refills all the time, it is just lame. How many shooting games give their players free reloading, restricted to just one place? None. If you consider water warfare a shooting game like Nerf or airsoft, it makes no sense to make such rules. If you consider water warfare a tactical game like chess or football, it takes a huge element of strategy away. If it is a little of both, it detracts from the experience twice.
Now, obviously as M4 as noted, there's a natural limit. There's some stuff I wouldn't ever put in my rubber-bladdered CPS guns, like marine water. There's also stuff I wouldn't fire at other people, like Jersey orange fungus water, New York street corner puddles, sources downstream from untreated sewage entry points, etc. However, that stuff tends to be extreme and away from the type localities that serve up water warfare. And sometimes it can be gross, like the Jersey orange fungus water, but harmless. Harmful stuff is usually invisible and often in clear water, like in bottled water that is tested only 4 times a year.
If the concern about water is not about health, but simply appearance only, well it's an outdoor water war. I plan on getting dirty. Dodging in and out of cover, rolls, ambushing, and the occasional fall make a player dirty. Braver souls than I have used refilling as an opportunity to also rid themselves of dirt and mud (and others unintentionally by falling in lol).
marauder wrote:You have to explain things in terms that kids will understand, like videogames^ That's how I got Sam to stop using piston pumpers
and I don't use muddy water in my 2000. 