79 replies to this topic

[Ryan201821]

So I take it you guys did end up hitting the Golden Corral as I suggested?

Melee rounds rule - as long as everyone understands we aren't out to break bones, they just plain work. It is fun to get up-close and in your face - easier to hear all the trash-talk! (I wouldn't want a melee-only war, but a round or two is probably going to be a staple at my wars now!)

And quit hatin' on my state. You're just mad that there isn't a site as awesome as Glenwood Park in your mediocre wannabe state. At least we pronounce all of the letters in our state's name!

Hehe, yes of course. Golden Corral was excellent.

Also, we have Lake Ellyn, which I think is the same park. Although it's only 10 minutes away.

However, aside from it being in Indiana, I'll definitely be attending more of your events! wooo

[Carbon]

And quit hatin' on my state.

I was thinking that driving through Indiana is better than the drive through southern Illinois. In Illinois, you get to look at crazy amounts of corn, whereas in Indiana, you get to look at corn and soybeans!

These, however, are both better than Wisconsin, where the major cash crop is Highway Patrolmen.

[Gettin Nerfd]

Thanks guys for the feedback on the badges + and -, if anything the badges were necessary for (4) good reasons despite the name size.

1) To demonstrate that you are a viable target during the event, I did not know if small innocent children would pop in, and go running through the woods on their way to grandma's house, etc.

2) If you smacked a tree and knocked yourself out, we could at least be screaming out your call sign, name, instead of "hey kid with the Nite Finder" until you woke up.

3) It made you see us first with meet & greet you, and get the legal part knocked down.

4) Gave you a great souvenir to prove that you are now not just a "babbling kid" but you have proof to stick in that war chest that "you came, you conquered".

(So do not go throwing those away just yet, they might end up saving you some cash in the future.)


So now that we know that a hoard of people can and will attend an event like this, next time we will be better prepared, focusing on becoming more streamlined "like a hobo at a hot soup kitchen" (grandpa always said that) get you in, processed and out on the battlefield quickly.

As for the picking of members for each team, yes 100%. 10-15 minutes was spent each time in between rounds choosing sides. It did give some kids a much needed break to drink water, etc. However, I feel this area can strongly be improved upon with the simple drawing of a colored chip like the drawing. For example, form a line, put your hand in the bag, draw a chip color and report to that team. If the team ends up being unbalanced, then draft a trade before play or play with what you got of David vs. Goliath.

As for Ryan and Kane, they are awesome in every way. I do think we need to figure out how to produce backup ammo to help with instant action and lessen the pressure on them to produce what we should already have available. Maybe we can work on a contract to have them produce a large quantity for the FIF series? Ambience can make that final call. Holy crap, writing a book here.

Another question for the clan; are the drawings really needed for the draw or should serious participants like yourselves do more trades? Like a "Swap Meet" / War all bundled up into one big foam party?

I have some feedback from the younger Nerfers that they did not even get to see / learn / trade / or offer to buy what you guys do to your blasters to make them so awesome. (They do look up to you guys.) Hey Coop you should see some of the stuff I took in, the creativity that these kids produce from the stock version, it was worth the trade.

I think what would please me more than participating in the war is having experienced modders like yourselves build and bring an extra blaster to demonstrate / trade / sell with the younger crowd. I was thinking on the butterfly net idea again for a target / range area off to the side, let kids test, tweak, and get distance range throughout the day. (Just a lingering thought, either I'm full of ideas or crap, you can decide.) What I do know for sure is I need to attend other event soon before my lard that I burned off on Saturday comes back.

Nerf'd

Edited by Gettin Nerf'd, 30 August 2010 - 12:15 PM.

[Ryan201821]

As far as I'm concerned, the badges didn't really help at all for me. A lot of people, who presumably showed up late (including myself), didn't have badges. The badges themselves were quite small and hard to read. I'm not sure how this could be fixed, but just a problem that I had.

For picking teams, yes we need a new system. Drawing chips or cards will work fine, but the war host will need to balance out teams accordingly to make sure the blasters are equal on each team. Balancing teams have always been a major factor in determining how well the rounds go. Picking normal schoolyard style works better for balancing teams if the team captains are competent enough to know which players to take based on other's blasters rate of fire, range, and blasters required to complete objectives. I didn't like the way we picked teams either. It seems faster to get one person to pick out all their teammates. It seems people get picked right away and don't pay attention to what's happening anymore (myself included). So this is something to think about. Also, "David vs. Goliath" almost never works out for "David" and results in a round that is undesirable for "David". Balancing teams is pretty important in my book.

A "Foam in the Fort" dart stash would be great. It's hard for us to supply darts for every war we attend to, and are trying to encourage each region to acquire their own dart stash. Right now our current method for making darts, is only one at a time, by hand, so darts are really expensive. Materials are pretty cheap for each dart (roughly 3 cents), but there is A LOT of labor involved, which is usually a premium. Also, Kane and I are particularly strict on dart construction and composition due to durability and most importantly safety issues. So this is another huge thing to consider. If Ambience or Getting Nerf'd would like to discuss this more, we can do so on the ning.

IF ANY OF YOU AREN'T ON THE MIDWEST CONGLOMERATE PM ME WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS.

We've been doing a lot of our planning on that site, and seems like it would be a good idea to discuss stuff like this there.

I felt the drawing was unneeded, but greatly appreciated by all of the nerfers in attendance. Although any ideas to make some extra cash to fund for more wars and supplies would be a good plan. The dart stash itself will be fairly expensive to purchase (or make) initially, and to maintain (replace broken/lost darts).

I had plenty of loaners at the war (though I didn't make much of a point to lend them out). I'm sure a lot of people don't mind lending out their guns, and I will do so in the future.

There's other things I'm missing but that's enough for discussion for now.

[Ambience 327]

Sorry this took so long - but the pics are now available!

I decided to post only a few here, as we have over 100 pics from the war! For the rest of the pics, see my photobucket album at:

http://s205.photobuc.....- 08-28-2010/


We weren't kidding when we said we had 40+ active Nerfers. This pic was taken before several people arrived (Carbon, Ryan, Kane & a few others).



This day had everything!

Frantic action...



...stealth and cover...



...sweet bows...



...tacticool dedication...



...desperate escapes...



...zombie Obama wielding the Overcompensator...



...and the coolest homemade ever!