iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

(Copied and slightly edited from my thread on the WaterWarfare boards)

Hello, good to see that the soaker community is still alive and well!

I used to be on the isoaker forums back in 2003 under a different alias (can't remember it for the life of me now...) but lost interest once Hasbro released the glorious EES series. isoaker.net was the first ever forum I joined, and I have very fond memories of my time on here 6 years ago. I'm now in my first year at university and recently got back into water guns after having a look through my old box of soakers and having a water fight with my sister and her friend.

Living in New Zealand, we only get the offshoots from the Australian market, so I've been rather lucky to find so many good Water Warriors soakers around my town recently; considering the dire situation of stock water guns when I left in 2004 I've been really impressed.

Lately I've been scouring Trade Me (NZ's largest online auction site) for old super soakers but have had little luck. It seems that over the past 6 or so years, there have been less than 10 CPS soakers listed on Trade Me; 2x 1200s, a 1700, 2700, 3000, 1000 (which I've just bought), Splashzooka (currently listed, I don't think I'll get it though) and then a few super soakers that I can only assume are CPS because they're described as having straps/are very big. I did find 2x NIB original SS 50s on an antiques website for $125 each ($92USD) but aren't that into collecting.

New Zealand tends to be a year behind in terms of stock water gun availability; the main retailer (The Warehouse) is stocking most of the 2008 WW models this year (+ the 2009 Pulse Blaster and SS Quick Blast/Bottle Shot) while Farmers is the only retailer that has an extensive WW 2009 range (and I've even spotted an SS Arctic Blast in one store). The remaining two retailers (Kmart and Toyworld) seem to only sell the 2009 SS line (SS 50 20th Anniversary/Quick Blast/Bottle Shot), albeit at higher prices. Water guns in general cost much more here than in the US, presumably because of the higher shipping costs retailers incur. My re-interest in 2003 was started from spotting brand new CPS 1200s at my local supermarket for $27; they were at such a ridiculously low price that I had to have one. I later realised what a good purchase it was, considering it was first released in 2000 and that about $25NZD would only buy you a Max-D 3000 or something in regular stores back then.

Pricing is still ridiculously high here, but WW offer better value for money that the old SS line did in 2003. Back in 2003, a new CPS 2100 from a store would cost $70 ($52USD at the current exchange rate) and a 4100 $100 ($74USD). As a comparison, nowadays Tiger Sharks are $40, Orcas $50, Pulse Masters $50 and Vindicators $70. Super Soakers today have horrendous prices when compared to the WW line; a Bottle Shot is $15 and Quick Blast $25, when the WW Shark is only $10 and performs much better anyway (I assume this is a similar situation in other countries too).

Since I've recently bought so many, I'll divide my armoury into old (bought pre-2004) and new (bought in the last few weeks because of sales):

OLD:
Mini-XP Series - CPS 1200
SS 20 (broken, likely unfixable sadly)
XP 215
XP 110 (broken, currently open and in the process of being fixed)
XP Backfire
CPS 1200 (broken trigger valve)
CPS 2100 (broken trigger/pump); originally I had a CPS 4100 but after returning several with snapped triggers I eventually opted for the 2100 instead. Damn that mark 2....
Max-D 3000 x2 (one with a trigger that sticks quite badly)
Max-D 5000 (broken trigger)
Max-D 6000 (broken trigger)

NEW:
SS 50 20th Anniversary
SS Quick Blast
SS Arctic Blast (currently open in the process of being fixed; pump intake tube came out of its glued position)
SS Helix x2
SS Vaporizer x2
SS XP 215 x3 (couldn't resist buying a few more, why on earth would hasbro make the reservoirs opaque though?!)
SS CPS 1000
WW Argon 2008
WW Tiger Shark 2008
WW Orca 2008
WW Equalizer
WW Renegade
WW Vindicator
WW Pulse Blaster
WW Pulse Strike
WW Pulse Master
WW Steady Stream 2008
WW Shark
WW Barracuda
WW Power Shots x2

Contrary to what the 'old' section might indicate, I've always been careful with my soakers and gone through basic care procedures after using them. It's just that the Max-D triggers suck in general, my 1200 got a LOT of use and my 2100 broke for no apparent reason. Since we have summer over Christmas in the southern hemisphere, I'm planning on opening up some of my old broken guns over my holidays and have a shot at fixing them.

Back in 2003 I wasn't confident enough to open up my water guns and attempt to fix them, so now I want to do the whole thing properly and maybe even try a few mods if possible. I'm currently trying to fix my ancient XP 110, and am really enjoying the experience. There's a thread about it in the repairs section at the SSC forums if you're interested.

I'm currently organising a large-scale water fight at my old high school for sometime in December, so that should be fun. Ideally it'll be 20 or so people with a water gun each, split into two teams and starting at opposite ends of the school. At this stage I've said that if people want to participate they'll need a water gun of their own (even though I'll probably end up lending a few of mine out) so with any luck many of my friends will buy water guns and enjoy the event enough to warrant more. A large group of us are going tenting up north around Nelson (one of NZ's warmest places) for New Years and I've recently informed them all that myself and my girlfriend will be bringing a selection of water guns up with us to keep them in a constant state of wet over the trip. I assume the rest of them are scurrying around now buying their own soakers so that they can put up some vague form of defense

Anyway it's good to be back, I faintly recognise a few aliases here and there...I won't be very active until mid-November since I'm currently studying for exams, but will likely be around a lot over summer (that is, NZ summer...)

I'd say welcome back, but I joined in 2006, well after the decline of the SS.

It's been off-season for me (I'm in Michigan) since September due to organizational issues. Last summer was almost a complete flop actually; I only got in 2 wars, one of which got screwed over. (not the first either) Best of luck as the season starts up for your area.

That's quite a stock of WW's you have around. You seem to have avoided poor blasters pretty well too. (like the Arctic Shock) I'd still say that the FF is recommendable if available, but as you probably know, they tend to break after 1 or (if used less), 2 seasons. It seems that your Max-D's have met the same fate.

My 2100 MKII also needed a trigger repair. I came up with a somewhat effective solution, but I still have to re-glue it every year. Details are posted around SSCentral but I basically cut up 2 metal pieces that connect the plastics together. This is a very common repair that you probably know about anyway. Max-D's are sometimes trickier to repair, unless the only problem is the spring. Still, I haven't searched for replacement Max-D springs before, and never successfully stripped out the Max-D system.

Try to repair your stuff if you can though. The additional waterpower does add up.

Yeah, I'm really looking forward to having a go at fixing all of my old soakers over summer; with any luck I'll get a few of them working again. My XP 110 currently looks closer to working than its ever been which is a good sign, considering it's my first attempt (though I have already done several things wrong such as accidentally cracking the reservoir...)

Wars are indeed very hard to organise, mainly because they're dependent on good weather so it's difficult to pin down a specific date weeks in advance unless you live in a very warm place. As pathetic as it sounds, I've used facebook to organise the water fight at my old high school, and just said that it will take place sometime between the 3rd and 20th of December, most likely on a Tuesday or Wednesday. I've had a pretty positive response so far with 14 yes responses, 8 maybes, 4 no and 10 yet to respond. I'm aiming for at least 10 v 10, and since a strict date hasn't been set yet I assume the day chosen won't suit everyone, meaning I'll likely end up inviting more people to get the attendance numbers large enough to hopefully guarantee at least 20....I'm not holding my breath yet though because it could still turn out to be a complete disaster of course, but at this stage things seem to be going well and I still have over a month to plan it. I wouldn't call it a war by any means, since it'll just be a group of friends (many of whom I assume may have never used a soaker before) split into two teams, running around shooting each other. Even though it'll likely slip into an all-out soakfest rather quickly, hopefully it'll be enjoyable for all involved and will lead to bigger and better things. Personally, I'm sick of late-night parties becoming the default large social event from age 16 onwards, so a return to basics could prove very successful.

I'm currently trying to think of a game type that will structure the water fight somewhat (at the beginning at least...) Current ideas are CTF or a domination-style game, where each tap at school represents a control point at some sort that the two teams fight over. It could be cool if I mixed the two gametypes together and had a CTF/domination type thing where the teams start at opposite ends of the school, and capture control points on the way to the opposing team's 'base'. The only problem in my mind is setting up fair and easily followed rules regarding what happens when someone gets shot. At the moment I'm thinking it should be that if you get hit at all, you have to retreat to your team's closest control point before being able to shoot again, and if you're at your team's control point when shot you have to give up that control point (if you're the only person guarding it) and run back to the next one. If the defenders guarding the base are shot, they should have to run to the closest control point before being able to shoot again. If a defender have no control points to run to in this case, maybe they should have to empty their reservoir (if they're using a piston gun) or fire the rest of their shot at the ground until their gun runs out of pressure, at which time they can begin pumping and shooting properly again. (Thoughts?)

The only problem is that since I'm the only soaker enthusiast of the bunch, it's unlikely everyone will stick to the rules since there's a LOT of room for cheating....For some of them it's been a push just to persuade them to their their own soakers so hoping they'll stick to a strict set of rules might be wishful thinking.

I've been really surprised by the amount of WW soakers I've been able to find and their performance so far. BBT is certainly outperforming Hasbro in every regard at the moment and I applaud them for doing so. Now that I've got all of the 'good' modern day soakers (that I can find at least, no sign of any Flash Floods over here sadly), I've turned my eye to some of the still modern, but slightly older Super Soakers on Trade Me. I currently have my eye on a Vaporizer, Bottle Shot, XP 215 Twin Pack, Helix Twin pack and Arctic Blast (all NIB) as well as a WW Hydro Pulse and XP 20 (both used, but in seemingly good condition), but worry that I'm just interested in them for the sake of buying more soakers rather than because I want them for a specific reason:

- The only reason I would be buying the Vaporizer/Bottle Shot would be to lend to other people for the upcoming soak fest (I don't think I'm prepared to risk lending any of my friends any soakers with triggers considering some bad experiences with lending people my guns back in 2003) and that they would be good soakers to take for New Years since we'll be at a camping ground so there is the risk of them getting stolen/broken (meaning I wouldn't want to take any of my important ones, might take the Tiger Shark though...) That in itself is not a good enough reason to justify their purchase I think, considering I have soakers like the Quick Blast/Shark/Steady Stream that already fit that purpose. To be quite honest the only reason I'm even considering the Bottle Shot is because it's the 2008 version with the cool green pump handle, rather than the awful brown colour for the 2009 version which is in stores, that's not a very good reason either haha...

- The Helix twin pack would be bought partly for the same purpose as the Vaporizer/Bottle Shots, but also because the Helix is actually meant to be a fairly decent soaker (at least, compared to other modern Super Soakers, which admittedly doesn't say much). I was thinking it could make a good backup soaker (though really, considering none of my other friends are as enthusiastic as me and a war where a backup other than an XP 215 in the pocket is required is very very unlikely) and the Soakertag targets that it comes with could be fun to duel with over summer. This would be higher on my priorities than the above two soakers, but again the purchase wouldn't have much justification.

- XP 215 twin pack is tempting because even though I have 2 of them already (one original and one new), I love the 215s and the possibility of having a 4 person free for all water fight somewhere indoors sometime, with each person having a 215 is great. The problem is that that will likely never happen so I'd just be getting 2 more 215s for the sake of getting 2 new colours, which probably isn't enough to justify their purchase either.

- The Arctic Blast would be bought specifically for modification; ideally a PC expansion and nozzle drilling similar to what Ben did in this thread. SInce it doesn't perform too well in its stock form, a modification would be justified, and since I would be buying it specifically for modification, if something happened to go wrong it wouldn't be the end of the world (if I modded one of my important soakers and something went horribly wrong I'd be distraught)...This one seems to be the most justifiable purchase, something I can cut my teeth on and ease myself into the world of modding with (though, problematically, the mod I'd be planning would be much more difficult than your regular k-mod or whatever....)

- The WW Hydro Pulse I'm basically set on getting, it's very cheap and has been only used twice. Also since it has a backpack, it could make quite a good backup soaker even though it's just a piston gun (providing I can find a place to stow the gun when not using it)

- Undecided on the XP 20. While it's good as a collectors item, its performance seems to be pretty underwhelming...Not sure about this one.

Ugh, I've written another long post again. Damn. Well, if anyone has any thoughts/advice on what rules I should opt for in the December water fight and on my possible Trade Me Soaker purchases (especially if you have any experience with any of the soakers mentioned) that'd be greatly appreciated. This is probably the wrong place to ask but I guess this post could be considered as an 'extension' of my profile?

Heh, you post a lot like I do; huge chunks of text (with certain areas in parentheses for detail) and paragraphs.

I use every means possible to organize a war. I used to go with emails, but no one checks their inboxes very often so now it's all Facebook and phone calls. Facebook turns up a load of maybe's and no replies, which is where the phone calls come into play. Of course, I can also invite via AIM. Weather is generally not a problem for me since it's nearly always warm in the summer, and we play regardless, rain or shine. Rainy weather makes games more epic and drives people away from parks and playgrounds, but when there's a dangerous thunderstorm, we have no other choice but to cancel. The real problem for me organizing wars is people. Sometimes, my effort to get as many participants as possible ends up bringing douchebags along who screw things up. I invite someone I don't know that well, thinking he/she will want to war, and then next thing I know, he takes lead and the other team is completely gone, out to paly volleyball or something. I'm fine with, and often actually prefer late night parties (sometimes they can follow a water war) as long as there's Nerf and/or at least XBox. If all people want to do is drink or play pool/Poker, then it's boring as hell. I'm just not into those. (plus I'm underage)

I have also came up with domination type games similar to what you mentioned. However, I never bothered to really try any (even simpler ones) since they are just too complicated to give rules out to and get people to play properly. Instead, I went with assault type games inspired by Halo and Counter Strike, as well as 2-team respawn/deathmatch type systems, complete with a team scoring and player spawning system. These could've worked but apparently, the idea of a game more complicated than elimination is beyond half the people who were at the last war. (well actually, they just didn't give a damn)

I've used a Helix before and it's pretty useless. The Vaporizer also isn't the best piston soaker around, though I simply just don't like piston blasters in general. XP215's are amazing. A friend gave it to me, and I gave it back, but then he lost it. Big regrets there as the 215 was, IMO, the best concealable for pulling pranks or just plain screwing around. It's pretty useless in a war unless you engage in a squirt gun duel (or something of the sort to settle a dispute or just for fun), but I'd take the 215 over any squirt gun or other such compact piston blaster any day.

I haven't had too much trouble with lending blasters out. There were one or two exceptions to this, one where some idiot lost the cap on a Piranha, but BBT replaced it for free. Otherwise, most people seem generally smart enough to handle plastic toys.

At this point, I would simply suggest avoiding soakers just for having more soakers. You want each one to fulfill a certain purpose or niche as best as possible. The only reason I have an Oozinator was because it was $6 on clearance when I got it, and it actually performs reasonably and hasn't had trigger problems for it's 3 years of use. However, lending only lower-end blasters to people may result in unbalanced weaponry and/or complaints, and since I still have a substantial line of CPS's and good primaries, those tend to make the bulk of team armories during the wars. The small soakers are reserved as backup in general. They are also great for...

Zombies. It's a little gametype I came up with which worked excellently the first war, and got completely crashed by douchebags on the second war. Basically, zombies are only allowed to use bottles and squirt/piston guns to attack, while humans may use anything. (the best setup is 2 hoses together) The match typically starts with one person as the alpha, or first zombie. If he successfully attacks someone, they must drop their weapon and pick up a zombie weapon. Spawns, locations, and other setup is up to the players.

It's been a few months since I've water warred so I'm pretty much dead on the subject at this point so my suggestions may be a bit rusty and incomplete. During the off-season, I get into Nerf, but not hardcore (that is, using modified long range blasters in large outdoor fields) yet, which I may progress into this winter. The gap between modified/homemade blasters there is much larger than in water warfare, which has made things a bit rough to work with, but as this is a water warfare forum, I'll limit discussion of Nerf to this; it's (for me anyways) an off season activity when it's too cold to water war.

I'm hoping the weather is as perfect as possible for the day my event eventuates (blue skies, very warm, no wind etc) so that people don't mind getting wet. I'm hoping that this one goes well so I can possibly turn the thing into a weekly/bimonthly event over summer or even organise a night battle or something.

In terms of gametype, I think I've almost arrived on a decision after reading some of the articles on isoaker.com...I thought that first game could be a team-deathmatch type jail game where the two teams fight and anyone who is "hit" goes to the jail of the opposing team; they can be releasing by either a team-mate slapping their hand or shooting them with their soaker (making the jails more difficult to guard). The game would end when either team had no 'free' members left.

Following that could be the CTF game that I described above, but then I realised that it would probably be cooler (and maybe even less complicated) to merge the two games together; CTF with jails. It would mean that teams wouldn't have to specifically "control" taps along the way, and simply use them where needed, and it would probably be easier to make a hit person go to jail instead of having to find their closest control point. A team would win when they capture the opposing team's flag or simply by sending all of the other team to jail. Right now I've just had the idea of making the jail one single area instead of one for each team, which could potential be quite awesome. It would mean that the jail area (in the middle of the school) would be very dangerous as both teams would have to keep an eye on it to prevent the other team from releasing their prisoners and means that no one would be stuck on boring guard duty (or at least, guard duty would be much more interesting and action packed). I think it could work, providing I wrote out the rules clearly and made everyone read them before the day. What do you think?

You sound lucky to have alternative parties (though I'm more of a Nintendo fan )! Since the age of about 16 or so, nearly all large social events have been drinking parties for me. Now that myself and my friends are all at least 18 now (and legally able to purchase alcohol) it seems that it's only drinking parties or going into town at night that happens sadly. I'm not big on drinking and get bored by that kind of stuff quickly, so hopefully this will take off. Another of my friends has also recently organised a night of playing old games like go home stay home and sardines at his old primary school one night over summer, so I'm all for new (albeit old) and interesting ways of having fun.

Regarding the online guns I've been looking at, I ended up getting the Arctic Blast and Helix pack tonight. The AB auction was ending so I won that, then the same seller offered a fixed price offer for the Helix pack of $5 less than they were listed as. I emailed the seller and said I'd be happy to get them for a few more dollars off, and she agreed. I'm not going to get the Vaporizer or Bottle Shot though, still considering the 215s, XP 20 and will likely get the Hydro Pulse. Also, the guy that I'm buying the CPS 1000 from emailed me saying he'd tested the gun again and found that there's a small stress crack in the nozzle that sends out a small jet of water (other than that it still shoots fine though). He said he didn't mind if I pulled out of the trade but I said I'd still buy it in the hope that I can fix it or something. I won't know until I get the soaker as to how fixable the crack will be, but it was so cheap that I thought I'd better get it anyway. If the problem seems difficult I'll definitely post a thread on SSC or something...with any luck it'll be manageable!

@ncog: Sorry for my delayed reply, but welcome to iSoaker.net! You've made some great posts so far and looking forward to hearing more 'bout your water wars and water blaster experiences, especially since you're just in the beginning of your "on-season" while the majority of members here are entering the winter-phase. I also wonder whether you'll see some new products that won't be released here until 2010. Time will tell...

Soak on!

I have never gone with using jails in CTF, since it's possible to just use a spawning system instead. The focus of the game should be on flag capture instead of on team elimination and jail guarding (or "camping", a common term for a looked-down-upon tactic in first person shooters), and of course, no games (that inspire a lot of water warfare games I set up) use jails in their CTF modes. I guess they could work out for water warfare though, but it's not something I'm going to bother with.

I used to be mostly a Nintendo fan as well, but dropped out after the Gamecube. Many of the repetetive Mario games loose their novelty quickly, Nintendo never jumped onto online gaming very well, and the Wii and DS are pretty lacking in decent 3rd party support. IMO, N64 was pretty much the best, and nowadays, the XBox 360 (despite it's ridiculous flaws and failures) is pretty much taking the role the N64 took in the old days. After all, it's the most common console for gaming parties. (whilst PC is, IMO, the best for such parties but only if you can set it up well) The drinking age in the U.S. is 21 and I'm not interested at the moment anyways, so I avoid those. (unless such parties are accompanied substantially by games, movies, nerf, whatever)

For the auction, like I said, the Helix is pretty useless, so I hope you aren't paying too much for it. Avoiding the Bottle Shot would be a good idea, though I can't say much on the XP 20. Can you find a Vindicator, Tiger Shark, and the like around? Those could be good to lend out during wars rather than giving them pathetic piston blasters while you wield the 1000.

Does New Zealand carry PVC? That's the most common for making homemades and may actually give you the best value as far as I can tell. (I don't know how much those water guns are costing) However, creating something ergonomical (easy to handle and effective for using in a war) is quite tricky and I don't know if I can recommend this solution just yet...

Cheers isoaker, it's really nice to be back. I applaud your continued work; the level of commitment you put into this community is truly commendable. I was particularly flabbergasted/amazed/impressed/awe-struck/ecstatic when I read your article on attending a BBT product meeting. I feel that's a giant step for the community and a very positive indication of BBT's attitude towards us enthusiasts. I'll definitely try to write up a few articles based on my experiences over summer (assuming, of course, that the soaker-related events I'm planning don't turn out to be a complete shambles..) and maybe provide some soaker reviews as well if I have the time.

As for new 2010 soakers, I'd say Australia would still be the best bet regarding first glimpses of them (if the recent trends of the Pulse series continue). New Zealand seems to get things such as soakers a few months after the Australians do, since we usually get our stock from them (admittedly I'm just assuming this based on personal observations so I could be completely wrong) New Zealand is generally pretty behind when it comes to technology etc so while it's possible, I'd say its probably unlikely sadly. I was genuinely surprised when I found out Farmers was stocking *shock* the 2009 WW line considering trends back in 2003. Earlier this year (I'm fairly sure it was this year at least) I checked K-Mart and found them stocking the Soakertag line; soakers like the Triple Aggressor, Helix, HydroBlade and Vaporizer which admittedly delayed me returning to my former interest until I did some research on the new WW soakers. In saying that however, K-Mart now is stocking the 2009 Quick Blast, Bottle Shot and SS 50, so in a matter of months New Zealand seems to have become quite up to date with soakers...There may still be hope yet!

C-A, regarding jails, I've still got a month to mull over them but at the moment I think they could be quite a good idea for simplicity (I can see many people not adhering to or becoming confused with the if-you're-hit-run-back-to-the-closest control-point respawn rule; jails seem easier) as well as the social value (having an all-out game for an hour or so may bore/wear out people; by having a common jail it breaks up the action a bit and they can simply relax and chat with fellow inmates). I also think it could add an interesting dynamic to the game and by having a single jail the risk of spawn-camping (i play TF2, so very familiar with spawn-camping...) reduces. Once my exams are over my friend and I are planning on biking around school to map out the various taps and hopefully sort out good areas for the bases and jail, so it will all depend on how that turns out I think.

I still have a large fondness for Nintendo. My first Nintendo console was the Gamecube, which I think was criminally underrated (I hope you're enjoying all of the prison-related puns by the way...). I still have a large library of Gamecube games because when it came to selling them i found I simply couldn't part with many. I currently have a Wii and DS as well, but have been fairly disappointed with the Wii so far. While most of the 1st party games are good as always, there are much less of them than the Gamecube, and Animal Crossing was disappointingly a rehash of the previous games with a few trivial new features thrown in. I am really looking forward to a new Pikmin game though (if it ever releases). The DS however is a great machine with a good selection of games I think though, I really do need to use my Wii/DS more but I always end up playing TF2 online instead when it comes to videogames...Most of my friends have Xbox 360s, but I've never been much of a Halo fan (especially after playing the 3D Metroid games!) and that's the game that we always used to play. Several of them have moved down south for university this year, so it's only really in the holidays when we all get together and we spend a lot less time playing videogames together now than we used to (something that I'm not overly despondent about...) Usually we just have a game of poker when we can now, and that's fine by me as it allows for a much better social experience in my opinion (hopefully water fights might become common this summer too).

I did get the Helix pack for a fairly good price, and am curious to test the SoakerTag targets as well so that was another drawcard for me. I have a part-time job now, so it's slightly scary and weird for me to be able to look at a soaker and think "i have the money to buy that" compared to the "If I save my pocket money up for a few more weeks I could get this" of 6 years ago. it's now a matter of placing restrictions on my spending, so after this Trade Me campaign I think I'll stop buying any more soakers for a while, unless another CPS comes up on Trade Me of course.

As for the lending of soakers in the upcoming water fight, I thought about the issue before organising the whole thing and decided from the start that I should make it clear that I wasn't going to lend out soakers and that if anyone wanted to participate they would have to buy their own soaker if they didn't have one already. I did this for several reasons:
- Firstly, considering the scale of what I was planning (20 people+) I knew that I simply wouldn't have enough to lend out to everyone. If I'd put "I can lend some of my soakers out" I'm sure many people would just assume I could lend them one and on the day there would be more soakers than people. If I outlined from the beginning that one needed their own soaker to participate, I would be able to see clearly who was enthusiastic about the event and serious enough about it that they were prepared to buy themselves a soaker.
- Secondly, if the event is a success I would like to organise more in a similar manner. People being forced to buy their own guns (and lets be serious, a $10 minimum for a soaker is less than the cost of a movie over here and half the cost of a 12 pack of decent beer) meant that they would be equipped for future events; I wouldn't want to make a habit out of lending out my better soakers to people and if I did so in the first water fight I'm sure they would likely expect it in the second and therefore possibly be even less willing to buy their own afterwards.
- Thirdly, it's not like buying a soaker is a completely redundant purchase, to be used once for the water fight and never again. It is summer after all, so soakers are handy in many general situations. I wrote out a price list with all of the soakers I've found in my city and directed anyone interested to isoaker.com for more in-depth information. In making my friends buy their own soaker I'm attempting to get them actively interested in water guns and the best way for them to do this I think is to show them what soakers are available and let them look up reviews and things to choose what they should get. Nothing gets you into the hobby more than owning your own soaker, so hopefully some of them will enjoy the experience enough to buy themselves a second or even third one.

The above reasons are why I've chosen to only lend out my piston guns to any friends that need soakers in the water-fight; if I lent them my good ones it would firstly be very unfair to those who had gone out and bought their own, thus undermining the above explanations, and second would not encourage them to buy their own soakers if they know they can ask me if they can borrow my Renegade for each event. By giving them piston guns (and hoping that my other friends opt to buy some of the higher end soakers), hopefully they'll think "hey maybe I should get myself my own decent soaker for next time". Also they shouldn't perform too badly considering the majority of the soakers will probably be light, so it'll only be a slight disadvantage. Also I'm quite protective over my soakers and have had some bad experiences with lending in the past (6 years ago, but still relevant). In my experience, people just don't seem to treat things that aren't their own with as much care as their own possessions. I've already told one of my friends who wants to participate but is currently unemployed that he can borrow one of my soakers if he "treats it like glass". Since we're all older now I'm sure it'll be fine but I'd rather limit my lendings to soakers that aren't overly important to me just in case something happens.

As for PVC, I haven't checked yet but I assume we would. I'm currently very under-equipped when it comes to tools required for repairs/mods so plan to visit a hardware store at some stage to stock up. Homemades might be an option later but at the moment I just want to become well-versed in repairs before trying my hand at modding. If that goes well the homemades might be on the cards but after all I did abandon science to pursue the arts at university (though I am doing psychology), so all of my previous physics knowledge from school has likely taken extended leave from my brain. We will see!

The way I play CTF, we either play it entirely soakfest, where the goal is more to find the flag, but this is pretty disfavorable and hasn't worked well in the past. (and that's no surprise either) Otherwise, the CTF we play now is based on single spawn points; no control points or anything to have to decide where to go; both teams have a set point and go there. To prevent spawn camping, the spawn areas are fairly large and anyone in their spawn point is invulnerable. True, one could come up with elaborate hit and run tactics and exploit loopholes in this, but at the moment we haven't even had any bases heavily attacked before, and if it gets to the point where spawn camping becomes possible, the team being camped will loose the flag anyway.

I don't give the DS that much credit since it's still loaded with lots of mediocre games. Still, the touch screen is a more robost control system than what the PSP offers (for shooters and such) though I have heard that people have connected USB thumbstick to the PSP. Another plus to the PSP is that a widescreen setup is considerably more favorable than 2 low-res screens and I believe the PSP also has video output which the DS lacks. The Wii's disappointment is no surprise; the 360 has more good series than the Wii has games, at least IMO. For Metroid, I've played Hunters on the DS, while specifically avoiding the GCN Metroid games (despite their high ratings and popularity) due to the horrible control setup they use. (which I tried out at someone's house once; dual thumbstick is the only way to go for first person games, period) Personally, I like the Halo storyline and setting better since it, well, has a more "real feel" to it, though neither series are terribly realistic at all. However, Halo follows a more conventional, tried and true combat system, and you don't spend the game hunting around for health packs (Metroid's equivilent being energy) as a priority. (or not at all in 2 and 3) I'd also consider, like many others, Halo to be basically a Star Wars of our generation though I'm sure a ton of others would disagree.

You make some good points on requiring players to bring their own soakers. However, that's not plausiable for me as that would discourange many players and attendance would be too low. (most people are already aware that I have an armory as well) And unless you stock away most of your guns at each war, I wouldn't be surprised if people started complaining at your wars. That actually could be a good idea; keep some guns stashed away. That would make cleanup (for me) a much less pain in the ass so I won't have to bring so much stuff inside after each war. (I keep soakers, bottles/equipment, etc. in my room; there's nowhere else since the family room has basically been hijacked into my own personal workshop and the garage is the second to worst place you can store water guns)

Now if only I had a job... I'd get a ton of stuff for my drumset, build a >$1000 computer, get a stockload of games, and get a ton of airsoft and nerf guns along with stocking up on water war supplies. I've been constantly dreaming of all this crap for a while though, and I'll still be getting a decent computer soon along with a 360. (yes, I actually don't have any of the 7th generation consoles; the newest console/handheld I have would be the GCN and DS.) The worst aspects of the 360 are having to pay for everything (from gameplay itself to new maps that some games basically require in order to continue online with any fun at all) and the red ring of deaths. (aka permanent hardware failures) Still, I don't have, nor can afford an HDTV, and the 360 is the only system that supports VGA and various monitor resolutions, so the 360 is the best option in that respect. (no, I will not play those games on standard definition, [i]especially[/] when split-screening) I find it pretty funny, when playing on the Gamecube, that the FAQ I'm reading is in twice the resolution than the game itself.

The only problem with having set spawn points (at least, If I used them for the event I'm organising) is that the school is rather big and it could take one a good 5mins to walk/run back to spawn if they get shot near the enemy base. I don't really see a casual group being bothered to run all the way back to spawn when they get shot when the obvious temptation is to simply avoid the rules and keep shooting. On a smaller location that would definitely work very well though.

You should really give Metroid a go, especially if you like the sci-fi aspect of Halo. They're completely different games really (well, at least Metroid 1 and 2 on GCN); Metroid is a first-person adventure and rather than strictly shooter as it involves many innovative puzzle as well and non-linear exploration. Playing through some of the single-player in the Halo series for me was very underwhelming because it's linear running and gunning; Metroid Prime (the first one) is simply on of the best single-player experiences I've ever had (and I've even finished it, unlike many of my games). The controls are no barrier once you get used to them, and they actually work very well considering the type of gameplay Metroid is. You won't feel alienated at all after 10mins of using them. I'm not too concerned with the hardware abilities of gaming consoles personally, as long as the games are fun I don't mind what resolution or anything they're played at.

Attendance will likely be lower than it could have been if I'd said from the start that I'd lend out soakers, but that's a necessary evil I think that's needed to enable any chances of growing and expanding the water fight scene here. I'm only planning on taking the soaker I'm using, the soaker my girlfriend will be using, and my piston soakers to the event for lending to anyone that doesn't have a soaker on the day, so it's not like I'll be laying out my entire armoury and then saying "sorry guys, just for me".

Part-time jobs are great; the increase in money from not having a job is staggering. I can actually save now, which is quite important when at university (student loans suck). It also makes me value my free time more, which I think is actually a good thing. Before I had a job I would often waste entire days doing nothing, but now I'd like to think that I use my free time much better.

For your school's water warring environment, I'd think that having just one jail would also be considerably demanding on walking. What if someone goes "behind enemy lines" and takes out some people who were assigned to stay back and take on a more defensive role? Then they have to walk all the way to the center of the battlefield to get to the jail. While I haven't personally played on larger areas, I'd think a spawn system that depends on either nearest control point or "squad leaders" would work. I'd have to think about it and try it out though, since I've only played between me and my friend's house.

The controls on Metroid are simply counter-intuitive for any first person game. Despite all the puzzles around, there will no doubt be a time you have to shoot things that float around in the air, and unless the lock-on system works as well as Legend of Zelda series targetting (which actually doesn't work that well if the target is moving), having to click buttons/triggers around to be able to look up (while being unable to move at the same time) would be a problem. (and who the heck uses the A button to shoot in a first/third person game primarily centered around shooting...) Metroid Prime Hunters has a much more robust control system, though sniping is pretty rough unless your hand is very steady. Also, try playing Halo on a higher difficulty level, specifically legendary. The focus is combat, weaponry use, and story without any puzzlework intended at all. I'm sure you won't be "running and gunning" so much at that level; instead, attacking and getting past a checkpoint requires some forethough, trying different things, and a little bit of luck. The only reason I insist on HD is mainly for muitiplayer. Higher resolutions allow you to see farther and attack targets from farther away, and when playing 4-player split screen, each screen is about as clear as one full screen in standard definition. (whilst 4-player split screen in standard definition, it's impossible to see anything farther than water gun range.) If the console isn't capable of HD and the game(s) aren't designed for it being a necessity, I don't care so much. Many games (like Halo 3) are designed for HD and look bad on SD due to lack of antialiasing. (resulting in huge pixelations)

Since it was forecasted to be 27 degrees today I had a waterfight with 3 friends at my house in the afternoon. It was great fun, we played 2v2 and used my Vindicator/Pulse Master/Orca/Tiger Shark/Renegade, swapping soakers and teams every round (I used the Renegade for the first two rounds but it was abandoned for the Tiger Shark fairly quickly).

To begin with we played OHK elimination but abandoned that after several rounds due to how short they were and the difficulties in accurately defining a "hit". From then on we had an all-out 2 v 2 soakfest, which was much more enjoyable. I live down a long drive, so my house made for quite a good location.

The Vindicator quickly became the weapon to fear, and the Pulse Master didn't really perform as well as I thought it would (possibly because since there was a lot of close range battles, the largest nozzle wasn't as effective as I'd hoped because it made one vulnerable after shooting..It'd be much better in longer range battles I think). On the other hand, the Tiger Shark performed really well on its middle nozzle, my friend used it throughout most of the waterfight and opted to keep using it instead of trading it for any of the "better" soakers.

Indeed he used it very well in fact; in one memorable instant myself and my team-mate got completely sandwiched between the other two. We were both hiding behind a wall down one side of the house, when an enemy turned the corner, saw us both and completely soaked us with his Vindicator at a range of about 6ft. While my team-mate fought him with his Orca, I ran the opposite way to escape and try to get the other enemy, who I knew had gone down the same side of the house in retreat. He hadn't actually retreating like I thought he had, and sprung out of nowhere with his Tiger Shark, shooting me in the face and making me retreat back to behind the wall where myself and my team-mate got soaked from the Vindicator again.

In other instance I caught an enemy following my team-mate along the side of the house out into the driveway. He hadn't seen me, so I followed him quietly, silently switched my Pulse Master to its largest nozzle and blasted him from about 6ft as he hid in a bush waiting for my team-mate to appear from the drive-way. He got such a fright that he actually squealed, it was hilarious. Those three friends (who were already planning on buying large soakers for the school water fight) are even more keen for it now I think, and we're planning on having a night battle at some stage in the holidays at a different school on a warm night. I actually wrote a lot more about the water fight today for this post before deciding it was too long...I might turn it into a Battle Story to submit to isoaker at some stage.

Today has made me think that it might be better to just make the school water fight a simple team-soakfest from the start, as I can see the "hit" rules being disputed or downright ignored with an even larger group of people. It was still great fun stalking around the house trying to find the other team today, and it should be even better at the school due to its mixture of narrow alleyways and large grass areas. I'm still going to think about it, but today has really made me appreciate the fun of a simple soakfest and realise that tactics are still just as common in one.

As for Metroid, in my opinion Hunters is definitely the worst game of the Prime series as it strips away everything that makes Prime so great (non-linear exploration, innovative puzzles, in-depth log-book, difficult extra pick-ups etc) and replaces it with what is basically a straight shooter game. Sure, it's okay in its own right, but I much prefer the regular Prime games. There's lock-on targeting in Prime that is more intuitive than Zelda, meaning that you'll only ever need to hold the R button to look upwards in rare instances where you're exploring and want to look at something high up (never in combat, that would be terrible!) I cannot urge you enough to play Metroid Prime, it's certainly pne of the best games I've ever played and I've played many great games.

EDIT: Also, over the past few days I've been talking to a friend of mine who stocks shelves at the biggest soaker store here (it's basically a large department store, similar to Walmart I assume). He was saying that his and his workmates often have to throw out water guns that have been damaged during shipping or stocking out to make room for new products in storage area, and that he and his work-mates have the option to keep any of the stock that's being thrown out (or pay a small price for it if the damage is only minor). He said that lately they've thrown out a few Barracudas and Orcas, and that one of his work-mates chose to buy an Orca with a broken handle for $1 instead of throwing it out! I said that I'd happily make use of any water guns that are being thrown out, and today he came round and gave me 4 that he got for free. They're all non-branded ones ("Super Shooter 2009" etc) but are fairly large (Around the size of an XP 310) and 3 of them work perfectly well when I tested them (the smallest takes a LOT of pumps to get going, but functions fine when it gets there). The three biggest ones came with straps, and the only problems with them are a slightly broken pump handle on one and a missing reservoir cap on another (the reservoir neck is the same size as a soft drink cap though, so I'm using one of those). I think they're all pressurized reservoir guns (one which is styled very similarly to an XP 310 has two pressure chambers, but they're ornamental) but they all shoot solid streams of about 1 - 1.5x at a decent range (at least 30ft). Shot time is very good and they all have working triggers (for the moment anyway). I'll be lending them out to people without soakers for the school water fight along with my piston ones, and can use their parts for other things if any of them break (quite likely, their construction is quite poor). Overall I'm really pleased though, if my friend can get any Water Warriors/Super Soaker ones it'll be even better!

Sounds like a fun war. I haven't done a pure soakfest in a while, just the zombies games. For us, soakfests aren't too tactical since only serious waterpower (i.e. 2 hoses nearby each other) can tactically "stop" someone. This was demonstrated by the zombies game I've played; the 2 tactics are to 1: run like hell, or 2: bunch up together, horde the CPS's and hoses, and hold out in a base. With that much firepower, it's hard for a zombie to charge in and get a hit, though I managed by shutting off a hose that was attached to the front of the house.

I agree that soakfests, pure and simple (not even necessarily teams, but that would make it more fair), work best for large crowds without water warfare experience. There will almost always be hit disputes no matter what you do, but with clearer rules defined, as well as troublesome players not present in a game, such disputes can be minimized.

Interesting info on the department store. As far as I know, I don't have any access to any option like that though; the stores just seem to like to throw stuff away. (it's american culture anyway)

Regarding weaponry, it seems that for the past few years, high powered CPS have been too dominant, rendering lower end blasters not very useful. This is made worse by the battlefield we play in, where cover is more sparse and distant, and setting up successful ambushes/traps is difficult. I've found that zombies and light-weaponry only games helps allieviate this though, and gives variety to the games we play. Of course, this fun ends when you get idiots who take CPS 2100's and Monsters as "light", then complain when a 2500 is taken in reaction to that.

Yeah, the ambiguity of what defines a hit has put me off being too ambitious with the December thing. I was keen for trying CTF/jail after reading a few water warfare articles, but now that I've tried it in practice I've realised how potentially catastrophe trying something like that could be with a group of strictly casual people. Maybe a group of more interested people will emerge out of this December event that I can organise more series games with.

American culture is quickly spreading throughout the developed world through the transmission of cultural goods and western capitalist ideologies, it's interesting yet very scary (Sorry if that offends any Americans here!) Large department stores will usually do what's easiest over what's right (in saying that however, I'd assume that most large department stores have fairly robust recycling programs nowadays, but only because of changing public opinion and the profitability of being seen as caring for the environment). Everything is a corrupt, it's a sad reality. Nearly everything that we buy (including soakers) is Made in China, which does nothing but to reinforce the status quo of capitalism sadly. These workers get paid next to nothing to make these goods, resulting in a product that costs a fraction of its retail value to produce in terms of labour and materials, and gets sold at a ridiculous mark-up that benefits the guys at the top the most.

I agree that fun can be had using lower powered weaponry. My sister and I had two great water fight rounds yesterday on her school playground; we each had an XP 215 and WW Power Shot, but were only allowed to use one at a time. Good fun.

I've just submitted my report of the team soakfest to isoaker, so with any luck it'll be up at some point soon. Since I should have been studying for my last university exam on the 10th instead of writing a 2000-word water fight report, I'm going to stop posting on all of my forums until my exams are over. Have a good week!

For us, a hit has often been distinguishable; it is not uncommon for a full, big shot to be distinguishable over ravaging droplets. However, we may not be strict enough and may have to adapt the "anything you can feel" method, but I've wanted to avoid that for sake of combat limitations. The first 1 or 2 years I started water warfare, we played mostly soakfests though, then it became mostly 1HK elimination. Now there's no choice but to experiment with more game variety; elimination is not that fun.

Your analysis on American culture is spot-on. Part of it is the reason water warfare is not popular; people make bull assumptions on it (unable to see beyond the plastic shell of the blasters), and/or would rather just play xbox or paintball.

College... I'm getting behind on calc and have some upcoming assignments. Meh.

Right, I am back (and free from education for the next 4 months!) Thank you for kindly posting my description of the 2 v 2 water fight, isoaker!

Lately I've received the CPS 1000 and the new Helix twin pack and Arctic Blast in the mail. The CPS 1000 will need a bit of work, with a stress crack on the top of the nozzle piece that shoots a small stream of water upwards vertically when firing and a pump rod that comes completely out of the pump shaft when pumping (the pump cap keeps it from coming out entirely though)...I've taken the pump cap and nozzle cap off, as well as all of the screws except two very rusted/stripped ones, so am thinking I might have to use a power drill to drill through the screws to get the gun open (any other ideas for removing difficult screws? I've tried all of my small phillips/flathead screwdrivers.)

The Helixes work fine and I've actually been fairly impressed with them; on the narrowest stream setting they could actually be quite useful and the range is much better than expected. I'm going to swap their pump handles round tomorrow to mix the colours up a bit, they should look better.

The Arctic Blast stopped working on my second refill of it; the pump intake tube came unattached from where it was glued. I opened the soaker up with a friend tonight and am trying to figure out what type of glue would be best to stick the tube back in (thinking epoxy would be the obvious choice, but I think I'll ask about it in a thread on SSC since I have no experience with glues and will have to go out an buy some for it anyway.) The seller of the Arctic Blast has agreed to send me her last new AB instead of a straight exchange since I said I'd be happy to cover for the postage (since I think I can fix my current AB so it's a waste to send it back.)

Tomorrow should bring a delivery two XP 215s and two Vaporizers (I'd like to try a minimalization mod on one and possibly paint the other.) and with any luck I'll be able to pick up a Hydro-Pulse I won online as well. No more soakers for me for a while now!

I may have mentioned it already (so sorry if I have), but I'm going to Australia with my family from the 23rd of November until the 2nd of December. I'm going to keep a look out for new soakers over there, especially since Fox was the first person to spot the WW Pulse series in Australia around this time last year. If I manage to find anything I'll be try to take some pictures.

Nice to see a NZ'er on here! I grew up there but moved to Aus a couple of years ago.

Keep persevering with Trade Me and hopefully more will show up. I'm not sure how common soakers are on it now, but I got quite a few good CPS's on there between 2004-07. Of course now that I'm in Oz I can't really use Trade Me any more, so it's good to see someone else get good use out of it. Keep checking regularly and also use various search terms (like water gun, watergun, soaker, water pistol etc), it took me a while to find the ones I have but it's worth it.

As for soakers in Australia, where I am it's a lot harder to find them than in NZ. Probably to do with water restrictions or something. Aus eBay isn't much good and the department stores have pretty crap selections. Been trying to find a Vindicator without success, best I've found is a Pulse Master for $60AUD (ouch) in Toyworld. Depending on where you go you might have more luck.

Hey Fox, it's good to know there are other enthusiasts on this side of the world...I've got all of the related searches saved, so if any CPSs come up on Trade Me I"ll definitely try to nab them. I found some really old Trade Me auctions for CPS soakers through google, so you were probably the winner of most of those!

$60AUD for a Pulse Master is terrible, that equals about $75NZD....Over here Pulse Masters are $50NZD and Vindicators $70NZD. Where in Australia are you? I'll be in Maluli Bar (Sunshine Coast) and Brisbane from this Monday, so if you really want a Vindicator and live close enough to where I'll be to pick it up I could buy one here for you and bring it over on the plane if you're happy to pay $65AUD for it. If you do want to do that let me know asap and I'll try to pick a Vindicator up before Monday!

Hi ncog, I really appreciate the offer but unfortunately I'm down in Victoria so that's a no go! Thanks though.

Yeah, prices here recently have been weird. Last year the Tiger Shark was $25, now the Pulse Master is $60. Also this year XP215's are around $8, yet XP220's are $37! I couldn't believe that at first, but checked every box and the price was the same. Needless to say I didn't buy one.

No worries, I knew it was highly unlikely for you to live where I'm going but since there's no way I'll be using all of the 20kg baggage limit for the flight I thought I may as well offer just in case.

Those prices are really weird, but $25 for a Tiger Shark is good (they're $40 over here)....A lot of stores are now getting in shipments of soakers for the summer now (Farmers, who were stocking only Water Warriors now have the Super Soaker 2009 line and the Warehouse got WW Equalizers the other day) so that's quite good.

What stores in Australia would be the best to check out for new 2010 soakers? I'm only really aware of the big department stores (Target, Toys R Us, Kmart, Big W etc) but if there are any smaller ones that sell soakers as well I'll keep an eye out.