Zero Talent

Right, so as most of you Vancouver kids know, BeWierd and Whisper are up in Vancouver around the 8th to the 12th. Now, it would hardly be proper for them to swing by an active Nerfing area and not get a war, so I'm going to try and arrange (with the help of all you Vancouver regulars) a fun day war sometime during that period. I'll cut to the chase:

We need to know: one, when this can happen, two, where this can happen, and three, what extra arsenal is available to BeWierd and Whisper.

1: Post the times you're available during those days. Here's my set:

8th - 00:00 to 13:30
9th - 00:00 to 24:00
10th - 00:00 to 24:00
11th - 00:00 to 24:00
12th - 00:00 to 17:00 if I feel like sleeping at work (graveyard shift).

As you can see, I'm pretty much available for all viable days, as I have no concrete plans for those. I doubt we'll have such luck with everyone else. The idea is that we get the times possible, superimpose, and select the best day for the war.

2: There's always Carisbrooke, but it would be nice if we changed things up a bit. I might be in Vancouver the night of the 4th, so I can do a little night time recon. If all else fails.. Well, Carisbrooke isn't much of a failure.

3: With all hope, I should have two Lock 'n Loads, a BlastFire, a Max Shot, a Wildfire, and a Secret Shot 2 in rotation. I would recommend our REN friends bring their barrels if they're bringing their own ammo, though this is easily avoided if they just use our ammo/barrels. I'd be happy to contribute some darts to our American friends. I'm not sure how much luck you kids will have getting Nerf guns across the border, what with paranoid parents and other assorted authority figures.

4: There is no four.

Unfortunately I haven't been working on anything remotely Nerf, so I'm going to feel a bit lame at this war, but luckily Hunter isn't coming, so I won't have to deal with getting pwn't by these newfangled autoloading barrels.
Though I do wish he was coming out, good kid, him. Hunter, any chance you can get the rest of your friends in on this? The more the merrier, after all.

[Warning to Vancouver crew: REN's going to kick our ass. Yes, even if there are only two of them. No more of this unable-to-hit-a-stationary-target tomfoolery. ]

Anyone have access to anything this size, or slightly larger diameter (such as 2 5/16")? For the [smarter] metric kids, that's about 6.61cm or so.

I could just wuss out and use 3"ID pipe, but that's no good for seal, and I don't feel like throwing a foam collar around 355mL pop cans. I've been searching for something this size in the meantime, but my local hardware stores have become very limited in the past month.

I'm looking for any type of rigid plastic or metal pipe, so long as it's the given diameter or slightly larger, within 1/8" [3mm] or so. If anyone has any references, please toss in the name of the pipe, where you got it, and perhaps some specs: What it's used for, what colour it is, what company manufactures it...

If anyone has a reasonable facsimile (This particular pipe will be used as a barrel as well as shells, and thus does not have to hold constant pressure, so it could be constructed and glued from something, though I don't want to shovel out large sums of money or make a 25L boiling pool), please describe it, and any pros/cons you can think of for it. Thanks for everyone's help!

Also, if anyone has the type of pipe that closely fits regulation Tennis Balls on their mind, please note that; I'll be searching for it myself as soon as I snag some tennis balls.

[Well, I'm an idiot. Rather than 179/64", the actual measure is 83/32", which is 2.59375"... My face is quite red, I assure you. I would blame my spunky new calipers, but it takes a special kind of idiot to mix up 1/32" and 1/16" indices. Sorry about that. See the second post for any changes this makes.)

Well, for my application to the University of British Columbia's Mechatronics (Electromechanical Engineering) program, I was asked to compile a portfolio of any and all relevant design experience. Any of you here who know me well may also know that I have little electronic aptitude, and thus I had to rely on past mechanical designs. I'm sure they don't expect too much from us; A lot of my peers only have website design and the odd lark to display.
So -- you guessed it -- I had to fall back on Nerf. I tried to sort of expand on the fact that I've been designing silly systems like this for almost 8 years now:

http://www.geocities.../EYlauncher.txtHee hee...

And followed up with airguns and such that I've built. [Tried to sort of downplay the leitmotif of "guns," though it was quite, quite challenging. ]
I can only hope this helps me... My grades are less than fantastic, and this program is pretty much why I applied to UBC..

However, this can't be a topic about me. Rather, I'd like to ask you guys if your experience with Nerf ever lead to anything externally useful. Sure, there's always the garnered knowledge from applied design, but anything related to your official education/career?

Or, better yet, has the reverse happened? I'll refer to Boltsniper as an archetype, though it can encompass any kind of involvement.

Right, after being contacted by Gaebo on the NHQ forums, we've decided to arrange a small Nerf war. With the help of these forums, perhaps we can arrange a larger one. Anyone in the lower mainland of BC, or really anywhere, is welcome to attend. This is going to be centrally a planning thread for all parties involved, to give a graphical representation of availability and such.

I think I'll set a few basic ground rules while I'm here;

Eye protection optional (Pending darts and guns involved)
Cheating will be punished with... Well, kickeage, insult, and all those other fun things.
Homemades are allowed, pending power.

I'm not sure what range limitations Gaebo wants to set on guns, if any, but I'd probably be happy with a 110ft PTG cap, simply to reduce the strength of guns used, and thus the possibility of eye injury. We can argue this out, I guess. I just don't really want to play with any guns that can shatter sunglasses.

I'm fine with any mods or dart types, really, unless they're directly intended for injury. Stefans, arrows, zero darts, Nerf micros... No problems with any of these, just so long as they don't have exacto blades protruding from the tip, sharpened tips, little bits of exposed metal, or anything like that.

Now, the important stuff, availability and location. I still need to rack up some times for my 3 other friends that may be interested in a war, but I know I'm available this Thursday and Saturday, and the following Sunday, Monday, Friday, and Saturday. I think, to make things a bit more convenient, I'll make a calender table, where days unavailable are shaded. From there, some layering could provide superimposing of these tables to find available spots. I'll have these as soon as I talk it over with my friends, which will probably be Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday. Sorry about the poor availability, Gaebo, but myself, and most of my friends, work fairly regular jobs, so this is going to be one of the harder areas.

Location; I'd suggest Mission's Centennial Park, given it's mostly abandonned at all times, while at the same time offers many different environments (crowded woods, creeks, fields, hills, playgrounds, tennis courts, and a large building at the top of a hill), but that's a bit of travel for your people in Burnaby. I'm just worried about the number of people that are going to be at any other parks. Scout out some places, and I'll see if I can check them out on some of my off days.

If anyone else wants to join in, speak up. Same goes for any additional rules or locales, and availability info.

Also, while I'm here, what is your friends' age group, Gaebo? My friends and Myself are all roughly 18. Also, are you guys going to be using modded guns or homemades? We're probably just going to be using modded guns, two integrations, maybe one or two hybrids, nothing special. Info would be handy, for team balancing details.

I'm going to post mirrors of this topic on NHQ, NE, and Nerf Center, for good measure.

Hope we can plan a relatively cool war.

Happy even more belated birthday.