LotusNerf

Alright I completely understand now. I guess I was arguing because of my background of designing OP blasters. Although I won't enter, I would still like to see what everyone has to offer. If I do run my own contest it'll be on YouTube, as I'm pretty respected there and I won't get flamed.

Sorry Ryan, but I don't have questions, and I didn't have questions to start. I just had comments and ideas to try to help make the contest better (in my opinion).

[What he said].

But you're making a write-up on how to make the blaster. The Abp5k, FAR, and all of the blasters of the like had no impact because they had no write-up. Nobody taught us exactly how to make them. I don't think that there would be nearly as many plusbows if Captain Slug did not create that awesome guide with parts lists and everything, we would've had to figure out how to build one on our own. I hope you see my argument here.

[What he said].

That's why I think that the incentive should be scored on how you achieved your goal, so those who create uneasy to replicate blasters and others who create easy to replicate blasters will both have a fair chance at this contest.

If someone has created a generally more difficult to make and costly blaster, but has achieved war effectiveness and creativity beyond the charts, they should receive generally the same amount of points as someone who made a blaster that fit all the incentives decently enough, but not exceptional in them (so like a balanced blaster), who should also receive the same amount of points as . . . well the opposite of the first example. I think you get my point, just there should be a balance that will give all the different types of homemade builders a fair chance.




And on a side note, as Nerf is often considered a craft, and craft is considered an art, I think an Aesthetic/Cleanliness incentive should be added. Maybe not for actual points, but as bonus to make for any lost points that was failed to be achieved.

Also another note, In no way did I ever think about being able to change the incentives, I just wanted to share my opinion and for others to see where I am coming from.

Ryan, something about your criteria bugs me a little.

When I think of homemades, I think of a goal. The goal of the homemade can be various things, and since there are so many fundamentals already available when coming to homemades I believe that the next generation will start to and should be more complex and innovative. I'm not saying basic blasters like the SNAP and plusbow are not great (in fact, it's the opposite), I'm just saying that the "best homemade" should be something that truly amazes us, like how Captain Slug and Carbon did for their time.

If the desire of the builder is to win the contest, he will have to follow everything on the criteria, and the parts that bug me are Difficulty/Repeatablity and Cost/Labor. I disagree with "The more simplistic, the better." Probably the simplest form of a blaster is a springer, and there are so many ways already existent in building one. The builder of the homemade blaster will probably have to come up with another catch method or a new plunger head in order to effectively earn the most points in these categories as well as in the Creativity category. And even then, is recreating another way for a springer really creative? And let's say that someone creates an innovative and efficient fully auto blaster which is totally amazing. Such person would probably lose a good amount of points in the Difficulty and Cost criteria which is pretty unfair. I didn't exactly explain things too well but whatever, I think you get the point.

To close up this mess of a ramble, I'll just say that if someone wants to win the contest, expandability and innovation of new homemades will be quite hindered, which in my opinion, completely contradicts the original point of making a homemade. I think of this contest more as just a community event in trying to create the most cost effective, ergonomic, and easily "replicatable" (for lack of better terminology) homemade blaster and not really about trying to create "the best homemade" as most would expect the contest to be. So that was just my 2 cents on this.

Green = Cash, haha!

But in reality, this is a marketing technique, just try not to fall for it.
I think I summarized everything in that sentence, have a nice day.

Oh my fucking god...that is like the most spectacular thing I've ever seen. I'm so happy that you're still here! You and Slug are like my role models of all homemade blasters!