Soakemore 2014

[SEAL]

Schedule looks okay, though after Downpour I am more in favor of simply having a list of all the planned games and their durations, as opposed to a (even semi-) precise schedule. Some suggestions:

Friday:
Not much to say here. I'll probably shoot for getting there at 4ish just like last year. The drive wasn't too bad for me last time so I'm definitely up for night wars. I guess simple 1HS is what's on the menu?

Saturday:
-I can bring some firecrackers if people are having trouble waking up.
-I'd rather do 1-flag CTF than HTL, but it's not extremely important. I can't really think of any good places to defend on the island though. Can we defend the clubhouse?
-I think zombies are better left for night wars. That said, I also want to play manhunt at night as well, if we have enough people.

I didn't hate Carderock really. The main issues I had with it was all the rocky hills that teams would just climb and defend (you could see pretty far too), and the lack of accessible water. Though if you can find a better place (in Carderock) to fight, then by all means use it. Otherwise, meh. But if you think that Westmoreland won't be much better, then I guess it doesn't matter (unless you can find another spot). Maybe if it's too windy for Sycamore Island we could go to Westmoreland on Saturday and then Carderock on Sunday, or vise versa.

I will try to find out who I'm bringing soon. When I do I'll let you know ASAP.

[HBWW]

^ On the contrary, I think a playlist works better as we ran Frozen Fury, although what we have is close enough; the games don't have to be played in order. You can't time unpredictable events precisely, unless you factor in literally every detail, such as the number of steps to a certain battle location and the slowest person's (i.e. mine) walking speed.

Also, Mario Kart 8 comes out on May 30th! I could bring my Wii U, grab it on the way there, and we could play it after night wars! Although it's more likely that we'd just play it after the weekend of wars lol.

Carderock's alright. I didn't get to play the better part of it, but have nothing against it, just curious as to where Westmoreland leads. If you think it's really that bad, then I guess we can go to Carderock. I do like how some of the terrain formations provide good cover. Hopefully my shins get well by then so I can attack those hills! (Or perhaps, I can attack the hills more easily if I get my secret weapons working by then, muahahaha.)

[HBWW]

*bump

I think it's a good time to get more in-depth into game setups.

I, for one, would like to try more mixes of attack/defend objective games. One possibility is attack/defend-style outpost, where the defending team starts with all the outposts on their side, but cannot re-capture them once they are taken. That said, I have to admit I didn't like the spawn system for it that much. Perhaps the alternative is multi-flag attack/defend, with perhaps some SnD objectives. (Are we using Attack Targets? Or Container Targets? The former is easier to tag, the latter takes more time.)

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Got the full schedule up now, still need to get a head count from a few local people, some probably wont know until a week before.
SEAL: Are ether of your brothers coming? If you don't know I will put them as maybe.
If any one else is bringing people (friends, relatives) please let me know. If we are going to have more then 12 people staying the night I will need to bring in the RV, and that is the kind of thing I need to know ahead of time since it will probably take half an hour to get it in the driveway (its 27 feet long, I'll have to make a 197 point turn, lol!)

[HBWW]

Good format with the schedule. I'm not sure how many people will want to play OHK or any elimination variation thereof, but it's something we can try. I'm more in favor of elimination by objective, i.e. outpost where owning all of them means the loosing team is progressively eliminated.

I agree with SEAL on objective style games (such as 1-flag CTF) over HTL. HTL is very stale at this point; I still haven't played an instance of it that was amazing, although it's by no means a bad game either.

We can fill up at that Carderock recreation area again like last year in order to go easier on the water bill.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Update on the event. I have asked my local friends and I have four yes and two maybes plus one very bummed out no (he really wanted to come). Anyway will probably need help driving people to battle locations since I have been unable to fix our minivan and our next car is only a 5 seater. I thought I had the breaks fixed after I installed the new master cylinder, but during testing one of the break lines broke and I doubt I will have time to fix it. If everyone locally shows up I will need 3 extra seats. I am also calculating sleeping space and need to know if you are bringing any additional people besides yourself (friends family). Don't not invite someone because you are worried about room though, the more people the better since I could fit 20 people if I park my grandpas RV in the driveway (it wouldn't be a big deal, I'd just want to let the neighbors no so they don't freak out about the huge 27 foot long eye sore for the next 3 days.).

I also need to do a lot of cleanup to make space for everyone or else the limit to how many people can sleep will be limited. Gun repairs will also need to be made, though most just require lubrication (those Vindicators require constant work, but at least they are simple to fix).

[HBWW]

One more week, w0000000t!

Well for me, 3 more days. Perhaps I'll get photos of the King's Dominion trip.

Also, Scott still needs to see the Frozen Fury 2013 video. We'll probably play it back for everyone around the TV while we're there anyway. (Does Scott have an HDTV? lol.)

Anyway, I don't see the car space issue being a big problem. Rob has car space and Brandon can drive his brother(s). I can ride with someone else if Scott has too many local friends to pick up to the wars. Of course, we don't want to mix things up too much, but my stuff is already going to be all over the place to begin with anyway.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Dang it! I'm starting to have the same problem SEAL had with people bailing last minute! Callan can no longer come (he was a maybe before) and now Sam (the local one) forgot about it and has made other plans. I am trying to get him to cancel them, but who knows what will happen. Unless a bunch of other people bail out, it should still be fine, but we needed at least 11 people for the naval war so that the attackers could have three boats with two people each. I can try calling a few other people, but the friends I didn't invite ether don't like water wars or I didn't bother with because they never answer the phone. Even if all my local friends drop out, there will still be enough community vets for a pretty awesome war, but I am starting to get why SEAL doesn't want to hold Downpour this year because this is @*&$#%^-annoying!

[HBWW]

Well, quality over quantity. Naval wars are tricky to get right anyways.

Edit: On the road!

IMG_20140527_085908.jpg (687.62 KiB) Viewed 14269 times

Sun's out, guns out.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

Ha you think you can defeat me with those ancient things, I just bought the latest and greatest Nerf Super Soaker and I am going to own you! (just kidding, lol) Last week I had a battle with some people using those new "Super Squirters," I tried to be fair by using my XP 105 but I still wiped the floor with them. Then I decided just for fun to get my Vindicator out of the trunk... Hope you have a nice trip CA99, I still have a bit of cleaning to do to get the house ready for guests, but it is better then its been in months already.

[HBWW]

Unfortunately, I didn't have space for the APH, so I won't be able to help you clean the house with that. =p

[SEAL]

Hey guys (Scott especially), I'm thinking we should have a chat sometime before the war to go over things. I should be around most of the time in the days before the war. Might not have much time today, but maybe we can shoot for tomorrow or Thursday.

[scottthewaterwarrior]

OK, CA99 and I will try and get on sometime tomorrow.

One other thing to note, if you have blankets/pilows/sleeping pad please bring them. Between beds, couches, and the sleeping pads I have we should be good on that, but I don't think I have enough pillows and blankets to cover everyone.

[SSCBen]

I'm ready for this war. I'll only have time to do one day, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Normally, I ride my bike with some HD cameras (two Contour ROAMs). I've attached one camera to a helmet and the other'll be a blastercam. I'd be happy to lend out the helmet to someone if they might want to get a video of a round or two from their perspective. I've tested both out and they work fantastically. (The cameras are water resistant and can definitely handle a direct shot. I've rode in heavy rain with them without any issues, and I've seen ads where people take these cameras surfing.)

[scottthewaterwarrior]

I'm ready for this war. I'll only have time to do one day, but I'm really looking forward to it.

If you can only come one day I'd prefer Saturday. We plan to do the naval war on Saturday and it will work better with more people.

[marauder]

I'm ready for this war. I'll only have time to do one day, but I'm really looking forward to it.

Normally, I ride my bike with some HD cameras (two Contour ROAMs). I've attached one camera to a helmet and the other'll be a blastercam. I'd be happy to lend out the helmet to someone if they might want to get a video of a round or two from their perspective. I've tested both out and they work fantastically. (The cameras are water resistant and can definitely handle a direct shot. I've rode in heavy rain with them without any issues, and I've seen ads where people take these cameras surfing.)

We may end up getting 4 different perspectives of the same battle, since Rob and Sam both have action cams. That last video Sam put together was amazing. With 4 different perspectives to choose from... woahhhhhhhhhhh !!! Totally awesome.

[HBWW]

IMG_20140529_132940-s.jpg (123.84 KiB) Viewed 14205 times

Look where Scott and I went today!

Hooray for more cameras! Scott got a new one too.

[HBWW]

Scottthewaterwarrior
Duxburian
SEAL
Chief

Thanks for an awesome week/weekend.

That is all.

[SEAL]

This was one of the best weekends I've had in a while. Huge shout-out to Scott for hosting and thanks everyone for showing up. The war was way better than last year's, and I think it's one of my favorites so far. The only thing that I found kind of annoying was that many people (mostly the guests) got tired quickly and didn't want to fight or do anything after the first day. We got a lot of fighting in Saturday, but not so much on Sunday because of these issues. Sadly I don't really see any way around that, except to not invite the more casual players, which would put us down to like 5 people.

Most of the rounds we played were actually quite intense. There were no scoreless ties at all. I adopted a slightly more aggressive fighting style this war and got more kills than in almost any other war, while my death count didn't go up by too much, so I'm happy with that. However winning rounds was rather difficult most of the time because of the amount of newbies/casual players. It was a little annoying fighting with people who don't listen to you and just go off doing their own thing (and usually getting killed). Team tactics were almost nonexistent this war, except when there were several experienced players on the same team, at which times the enemy would be practically slaughtered. But the overall quality of the rounds themselves were definitely up there, and I had a lot of fun. This was also the first war in which I did not use my 2700 even once, preferring to use my 2000 instead, since it seems to be the most reliable primary I have right now. Nothing broke this time!

We also did other awesome activities, including driving around the DC area looking for adventure and places to skirmish, and exploring a MASSIVE abandoned factory complex in PA on the way home. I also wanted to stop at a Ferrari/exotic car dealer near NYC that we passed on the way down, but sadly we went a different way going home (plus it was getting late).

I am pretty tired today after all the fighting and exploring and driving, but I will see about starting a writeup for this war. Until then, here are a couple pictures from my camera. We didn't really take that many still photos; mostly video.

All of us on Friday night at the middle school we fought at last year. This was actually the only night we used it, as it was starting to get a little old. Instead we found some other schools which were better, at least for now.


The tail of a big ol' snake on Sycamore Island, which started disappearing into the bushes as I raised the camera. It was probably 3 or 4 feet long, and it was all black. Not sure what kind it was.


The whole group minus me with our gear on Sycamore Island, taken before the first round.


This was taken after the day's fighting on Sunday. Fortunately I didn't lose my car keys this time, haha.


Thanks again for the good time! Definitely worth the trip.

[HBWW]

Hey, I'm missing a lot of photos from Sunday night's footage trade. What's going on?

I strictly require full resolution pics. (Mainly for cropping purposes.)