31 replies to this topic

[Doom]

Note: I am not running this war. I'm just mentioning it because I keep getting asked about it. Questions about the war should be address to those running it at the link below.

http://www.facebook....130283630340919

There were some major issues with campus reservations, but everything is set now.

I asked about whether Slug darts can be used and the club president will get back to me. Edit: Any darts are okay.

Edited by Doom, 07 July 2010 - 03:45 PM.

[T dog]

I am so pumped for this. I've never been able to make it to a Dart of War due to always being out of the country when it happens. That being said, I did nerf in the Art/Soc building once years ago before all of this reservations nonsense and it was sick. Can't wait to do it again!

[Talio]

So let me get this straight. We can use any nerf gun as long as it's firing nerf darts correct?

Also in regards to bandannas. If you give me one will it be clean? I sweat enough for 10 men, I don't need the essence of some unwashed 19 year old all over my head.

Talio.

[VACC]

Christ, they have no intention of making this thing convenient to attend do they? I'd love to make it, but stock dart restrictions and 11 days lead time make for a pretty uninviting scenario.

[T dog]

Let me preface this post by saying that I'm not involved in any planning or decision making associated with this event. However I have been coming to UMD nerf events for over 3 years.

So let me get this straight. We can use any nerf gun as long as it's firing nerf darts correct?

Also in regards to bandannas. If you give me one will it be clean? I sweat enough for 10 men, I don't need the essence of some unwashed 19 year old all over my head.

Talio.

No worries, the club doesn't really use true bandannas. They just use strips of red fabric which they do not reuse. That being said, yours will be dirty.

As far as the blasters are concerned, the rules page says that paintball, airsoft and titans (they probably mean singled) are banned, but I'm sure that other insanely unfair guns will be banned on a case by case basis. The club takes safety very seriously so don't bring anything that will hurt people.

Edited by T dog, 07 July 2010 - 07:59 AM.

[Zack the Mack]

I'll be there, and I'll be bringing a purpose-built indoor primary.

JSNO and Dart of War in one weekend... that's 500 miles of driving and 12+ hours of Nerfing. I love it!!

Edited by Zack the Mack, 07 July 2010 - 08:59 AM.

[Doom]

The president got back to me and said all darts are okay. He said this was the earlier policy for Dart of Wars to appeal to a wider range of people.

Edited by Doom, 07 July 2010 - 03:51 PM.

[Talio]

Holy fuck! This thing is on the 18th? You gotta be fucking kidding me. You couldn't wait till maybe the day before? This is the same shit you guys did last year. I'm not coming. This is clearly not intended for people who don't go to the school.

[T dog]

This war is definately intended for people outside of the school. I know that it is complete garbage that information about this event is always so last minute, but I think that this is in part due to how insanely bureaucratic it is to get anything done through the university.

Just trying to rent a room for a couple hours is a long and arduous process frought with peril, but for a student run organization who is already on the rocks with the university to reserve a whole academic building for a day with the intent of having 30+ people running around shooting each other with fake guns and then to have to get the campus police to approve on top of that boggles my mind.

To me, the fact that Dart of War 3 is happening at all is remarkable. This is going to be an amazing nerfing experience and if there is any way you can get there on such short notice, I recommend making the trip. You won't regret it.

[Talio]

Well we got the okay on darts, but without a definition of what an "insanely unfair gun" is it makes the decision difficult. Most of what people use on the east coast are plusbows. And in my case, that's really all I have. If 90% of the group is running around with stock guns a plusbow is just going to have a huge advantage. I mean this is the third time this is being hosted and I'd expect all these little issues would be hammered out by now.

[dizzyduck]

I went last year and had a blast. It was definitely a change of pace from typical outdoors wars.

A lot of people who attended last year didn't have modded blasters. The ones who did mostly had the most basic mods - AR removals, CPVC barrels, etc. It didn't put them at a disadvantage most of the time unless they were in the atrium or the mezzanine (and even then, there's plenty of cover).

You could use a +bow, I suppose, but honestly I think it would be pretty unwieldly. A lot of the action happened in tight corridors, narrow hallways and stairwells. Being able to maneuver and having a high rate of fire will probably be more important than range alone.

As for restrictions, I think they do it on a case-by-case basis.

[umdlancer]

I went last year and had a blast. It was definitely a change of pace from typical outdoors wars.

A lot of people who attended last year didn't have modded blasters. The ones who did mostly had the most basic mods - AR removals, CPVC barrels, etc. It didn't put them at a disadvantage most of the time unless they were in the atrium or the mezzanine (and even then, there's plenty of cover).

You could use a +bow, I suppose, but honestly I think it would be pretty unwieldly. A lot of the action happened in tight corridors, narrow hallways and stairwells. Being able to maneuver and having a high rate of fire will probably be more important than range alone.

As for restrictions, I think they do it on a case-by-case basis.

+bows and similar have been used to great effect in prior Dart of Wars. Yes, there's plenty of tight corners that lead to intense shootouts, but there are also several long corridors and a wide-open atrium perfect for taking potshots at range.

[VACC]

Shit, most of my excuses are now exhausted. I just have to figure out how to make it back from this damn thing and get to work on monday morning.

[badger]

I will have to talk to my wife. I think there is a slim chance of me attending, but don't count on me for now.

I do have to ask though...will you guys allow my "Crowd Pleaser" again? It was allowed at the first Dart of War. For those that weren't at the first one I attended, it is simply a rechargeable confetti cannon loaded with stefans. It only fires out about 40-50 feet with a spread of about 30 degrees and took forever to reload (no way it could be reloaded in the midst of a round), but it did take out 3 members of a 6-man team in one shot. It's disadvantages clearly outweighed its advantage, plus it was unwieldy to carry.

[Zack the Mack]

I'm driving in from South Jersey on Saturday evening. If anyone wants to carpool and split the gas, send me a PM.

[DX-Robert]

I'll be there. Just have to figure out where is where (I get very turned around at that campus).

[Zack the Mack]

I found some pictures of this war's venue on the UMD NAS's site:
http://www.umdnerf.c...ew09/index.html
The pics are too big to embed, but check them out if you're undecided. They'll change your mind.

Edited by Zack the Mack, 15 July 2010 - 03:40 PM.

[badger]

Well, I'm officially out for this one. The wife has to work tomorrow and I am beat between the Nerf event in NYC and Meat Loaf last night.

[Doom]

This was a fantastic war. There were a few problems (safety, sometimes, and time management), but they did not detract from the experience significantly for me.

I was very impressed with the venue, and this is coming from someone who took a class in that building before. The building added a number of dimensions to the game that you don't get from other places. The hallways, stairwells, doors, atrium, elevators, etc. really made the game a lot more enjoyable.

I'm going to ask the club president if there's a possibility of hosting more than one war at this location every year. We need more wars in buildings; Nerf is the only sport that really can be done indoors like this, so I think we should take advantage of that fact.

Some folks were taking video, so wait for that if you want a better idea of what the war was like.

[Split]

I'm going to ask the club president if there's a possibility of hosting more than one war at this location every year. We need more wars in buildings; Nerf is the only sport that really can be done indoors like this, so I think we should take advantage of that fact.

Disagree. Your Free Thought Club is hosting a homemades-only war. Get to it.

[VACC]

Your Free Thought Club is hosting a homemades-only war. Get to it.

Yes, don't you want to use your Fang, Doom?

[Gears]

Woooooooooooooooo!

[VACC]

Well, once again, the venue is without peer.
- Endless corridors pouring out into dozens of staircases connecting 4.5 floors in a labyrinthian fashion.
- A huge glass balcony with a center cuttout looking down unto a sprawling entryway.
- gigantic double doored freight elevator!!!!!!!!!

The only issue is that the rest of the attendees are more prepared for HvZ than for a nerf war. They are some very fun people, but they are alltogether unaccustomed to the kind of weaponry common to NIC events now-a-days, and they are not used to throwing wars with multiple rounds. These things are easily fixed.

The 2 items that would make this war much much more enjoyable would be:

1: Get aquainted with modern weaponry - I know most peopel there play primarily HvZ, but that weaponry doesn't translate super well into nerf wars. There just weren't a lot of blasters capable of taking full advantage of the venue. I'm not saying they all need hoppered plusbows, but hardly anyone was using anything I could even feel through a t-shirt. That's fine for HvZ when you're charging your opponant head first, but it's not ideal for shooting down corridors and accross open spaces at someone who may have no idea you've fired or hit them. Why not encourage the attendees to make some slug darts? Not only are stock darts insufficient for a lot of the building's open areas, but they're sigificantly more expensive. Some RSCB'd BBB's or PAS's might be just the thing to liven it up as well.

2: Get it moving - I drove nearly 9 hours round trip, got their at 10, left at 5..... and got 3.5 rounds in at roughly 45 minutes a piece. That's less than 3 of the 16 hours spent nerfing. The non-deathmatches didn't work very well, and there was a ridiculously interminable amount of time between rounds. I just wanted to nerf. A set timer between rounds and a rough idea of round sequence would be excellent steps towards elminating this problem.

All in all it's a unique experience that I want to return to, but it's a little furstrating to see so much potential going unreallized. With some tweaking, that building and the dedicated group of nerfers UMD has could regularly produce the greatest nerf wars anyone's throwing anywhere. It's THAT good, and there's really no question in the matter.

Hopefully someone takes that as a challenge.

[Naes Draw]

Awesome time. I'm still exhausted, but it rocked. The rounds that I saw as the biggest issues were VIP and HvZ. They were fun, but they also somewhat dragged on. VIP for somewhat murky rules, and HvZ had people hiding in their own corners of the building.
I think for some game types, more restrictions on the number of floors might help keep the action up. Having 3-4 large floors seems to spread people out. I remember there was someone who was still in lurking the halls after the rest of us had called it and gone on a sweep.

I love this event, and I also think that they are the best I've been to. I endeavor to get the HCC club to this point someday, although I don't think we could get as good a location.

*Naes Draw shuffles off.

o/' All we wanna do is eat your brains... o/'


P.S. Someones Slug darts, (The washers with the felt?) kept falling apart. I had one hit me dead in the pinky, and I saw it blow apart on impact. There were also a lot of blanks with the heads missing laying around.

[Naes Draw]

Carp. It double posted.

Edited by Naes Draw, 19 July 2010 - 08:33 PM.