iSoaker.net :: Soaking the world!

Stream Macine is a brand name.

Glad that page is over. It took forever to load.

That is until I put up pics :p They aren't that great really, just the FFA in the field because I was too busy fighting in the serious games.

DX wrote:That is until I put up pics :p They aren't that great really, just the FFA in the field because I was too busy fighting in the serious games.

When it comes to pics, if you don't have time/easy access to hosting, I'll be happy to push pics online if you are willing and able to email them to me. Just a thought!

I finally have a good host, but the delay has been compressing and scaling them, which is annoying. My camera takes pictures in dimensions of 4320 × 3240, which is gigantic.

DX wrote:I finally have a good host, but the delay has been compressing and scaling them, which is annoying. My camera takes pictures in dimensions of 4320 × 3240, which is gigantic.

If you're willing to FTP things, I can do fast scaling and compression if you're interested.

Sure, PM the details.

DX wrote:Sure, PM the details.

Shall I post the link or will you?

Will post late tonight with my full report. Been putting it off because the thing is massive.

DX's Full War Report

For starters, here's some pics, mainly from the Saturday afternoon soakfest. I was far too busy fighting during the good rounds, haha.

http://www.isoaker.com/Gallery/WaterWar ... WarDX.html

I hate most of the pics and videos of the war where you can see me because I look a good 6 years below my age. Normally I have a large goatee, but it was shaved for a job interview a few days before the war. But, I digress...

So, we met up at the campground on Friday evening and set up the tents, checked out the place, and went out for dinner. There's two things you can do in Kingston: Find food and see Dr. Richard Wood at the Incontinence Center. Ask M4 all about it…

Anyway, we arrived back when it was dark and I mean DARK. When I lived in Jersey, it simply didn't get dark at night. Here in Conn, it gets dark, but there's still some light pollution around the area. Now, in Hurley, NY it gets DARK, there is absolutely no light anywhere. The moon was 3/4 full and you couldn't see 10 ft past your face. Of course, the one vital thing I'd forgotten to bring was a flashlight, just had my dying cell phone. That would come back to haunt me in the very first fight.

We decided to do a night soakfest. There was a set of bathrooms down the road to the right, about a 5 minute walk from the campsite. The building was placed in an open field near the edge of the woods. We ended up using the handicapped shower to fill and refill, as the sinks were kind of small. I figured out that the plastic trash can could be filled and used to put water in when the sink couldn't keep filling a gun (the trash was in a liner bag, with the actual container surface clean). Simply put, I didn't feel like waiting for the shower and this way I also didn't get the whole gun soaked while trying to fill it.

We fought no rules FFA for probably half an hour continuously. 2000 on 2000 was a lot of fun except for the pumping. By the end of the soakfest I was holding the pump in place and shoving the gun back and forth with my right hand. Repumping a 2000 in a fast-paced soakfest burns. There were some good duels. I preferred to block or dodge when someone came at me head on with a longer lasting stream. I saved the full load for someone else when they weren't looking in my direction. The choice target was M4 right after he unloaded his 2000 :p There was one duel where I remember Will charging me with his 1500 and loading everything, only to have it all miss to the right. My MK2 didn't miss in return, but someone else then got me from another direction. You don't emerge dry from a FFA no matter what you do, haha.

Andrew's 21K ran into issues and he returned with M4 to the campsite for a while. Rambo, Will, and I were all thinking the same thing: ambush the crap out of them when they walk back. At this point, the battle became 3v2 team soakfest.

So, we reloaded and took up positions between trees across from the door to the bathrooms. We let M4 and Wetmonkey walk in, fill, and walk out. However, triggering the ambush was a bit late, I thought the closer person was going to trigger and they waited.

M4 and Wetmonkey got away and ran into the fringe of the woods. With the big lights on the bathroom, it was impossible to see into the fringe. Rambo, Will, and I kept our distance and I reminded them to stay out of "water gun range" from it. We patrolled back and forth, but didn't have positive ID on anything. I was reluctant to enter the woods given the lighting, so we walked around to see if the enemy would mirror.

At one point, I was in an ambush position behind the bathroom and came within a fraction of a second from soaking a random stranger from inches away. It was the same person that M4 had already hit point blank with the same gun, lolz. He came around the corner as I lunged out, it was so close that my nozzle was almost on his chest and I don't know how I managed to abort pulling the trigger.

At some point, I saw some light from the right side woods, across from the street. We set up near some big rocks at the road in anticipation that the enemy had gone there. However, the lights stopped and nothing else happened. I let it go, but never stopped glimpsing in that direction and wouldn't go within water gun range of it.

I then assumed that they must have back up to the road and were going to ambush from it. We were near the corner of the place and on a dark road with dense forest on each side. This is when they were really spread eagle on the ground to our right, just out of range. Thus, my decision to pull back and refill might have saved a blindside.

We took a while to refill, which was a mistake, but like a quarterback who doesn't pick up the blitz, I didn't expect them to come out and set up an ambush at the door. The video is really funny, you see me open the door, take a huge blast to the chest, and recoil back inside.

On Saturday, we got up bright and early to head to the war site. Now, as previously leaked, M4 and I had visited the site a month earlier and mapped the place. It paid off to know the terrain.

Our team started in the woods. We decided to go all the way back to a gulch near mining tailings. We traveled quietly along the far side, stepping on moss to avoid making noise. There was no trace of the enemy, but at one point we heard someone (which may have been Scott). When we were way on the left of the battlefield, it was time to cross the small swamp/stream in the center and go up the other side at a wide trail covered in ferns. While resting behind a huge boulder on the right side, we saw nothing.

We then moved up to the fringe of the open rock pile area and still saw no trace of the other team. There was still no trace even when we circled the park from the narrow strip of woods out in front. I thought they might be waiting in ambush in a thick area of bushes, while M4 thought they might be doing the same thing we were. That ended up being the case, but we wouldn't know that until later.

Now on the extreme right of the battlefield, right of the entrance road, we moved through the woods back to the main area and up some rocks (near where my base was for CTF). We swept the woods in the area and saw no trace. It was a good formation, with M4 at point with a 2000 and me at rear with a 2000. If attacked from the rear, my position would become point with no changes necessary. If attacked from either flank, we could wheel around and the 2000's would then be on our flanks.

On our way down the center path, Wetmonkey's gray shirt came into view. I signaled that I'd seen it and we hit the deck. The enemy was actually coming up to the same path we were on and would be at our position in a matter of seconds. We had almost no cover there, not even real trees, so we booked it out of there and into a ditch with good tree cover. Amazingly, the enemy did not see or hear this pretty messy retreat.

After that we lost them, but reacquired visual while in the woods closer to the baseball field. We saw their whole team moving to the left (right side of the park). We mirrored them and again, not quietly at all (it was a full run). M4, again at point, got us off the path quickly, near a row of pine trees. We got behind deciduous trees behind those, about 60ft from the path. We'd only been in ambush position for about a minute and a half before we saw the enemy coming down that path from the left, walking single-file. Wetmonkey was at point and had to have seen us, but I guess he couldn't convey that knowledge to his team without giving away that he knew. They kept on walking and when the last person passed my tree, I leapt out to trigger the ambush, unloading my full 2000 blast. However, they were just out of range, maybe less than 5 ft, and I didn't get anyone. I stood aside to pump while the rest of my team rushed. The enemy ran away, but Seal tripped and M4 got him.

M4 noticed that Keith ran to the right and was isolated, so he took off after him. I covered his left with his cousins and came very close to walking into an ambush from a high rock position at a bend in the path. However, we'd scouted the place and I knew about that, it came back to me in a flash of panic and I literally stopped dead, right as a stream, possibly Scott's or Wetmonkey's, flew by in front of me. Two more strides forward and I'd have been dead.

I dodged two shots and got out of there, around to where the position is weaker. M4's cousins and I gradually pushed forward and drove them from the rock. They fled down into thick stuff a good distance below. We did not pursue, as we needed to block access to M4's left. Again, we did not make any kills, but M4 got Keith on the right while the rest of the enemy was distracted with us. M4 called for us to regroup and we met on the path.

We advanced down the path and got ambushed again, from thick stuff on the left. Wetmonkey came really close to hitting M4 when he trigged the ambush, but M4 got him. In bushes fighting, Will killed John, leaving Scott to make a last stand. We surrounded him, but he had a thick tree. I moved up to another tree and got in range. He was taking spray and droplets from me, but not enough to cross the threshold into a kill. Finally, I got a solid shot in that was plenty enough and the game was over. As far as 1HK rounds go, that was picture perfect with no losses on my team with the short stack.

The next round was attack and defense, with the rock pile as the base. I went all out on offense for this one, with Douchenator, APWC, and water balloons. The fancy stuff, however, was not very effective. Douchenator had an air leak and did not hold pressure, so it was never even fired. I did manage to get in close and unload APWC, but its inefficient, 5 year old design did not allow for a decisive wave of water. There was not enough water in the wye, so air got into the shot and made it mist too much. Hand-thrown water balloons were also ineffective, as the defense was able to move too much, so they missed at range. Water balloons may have been more effective in a base with cover, making the defense less able to move as much.

Again, my team came out of this without any losses. It was with lives and we took hits, but were able to eliminate the defense at full strength. The back ridge was supposed to be out of bounds, but it ended up getting used by both sides.

The next round was 3 team elimination limited only to air pressure guns. We'd talked about this before the war and decided to go for it. The main area of woods was used as the battlefield. My involvement in this round was rather brief, as M4's team and I went at each other in the beginning. We were both out in a flash, having gone for each other in traffic. I managed to take 2 XP 150 shots in that round. It ultimately came down to a 1 on 1 shootout between Seal and John. It took a ton of skirmishing, but Seal finally won.

The round was so much fun that we did it again, this time in 2 team format, still 1HK elimination. This time, I didn't die right at the start, but did get blindsided. I laid down a couple of kills and was moving in on the enemy center, having just told the person on my right to watch the right because there was an enemy there. Next thing I know, I'm being shot in the back from the right, but my teammate wasn't dead or there. Go figure. The endgame was the same as the first, with Seal and John in a looooooong shootout with Seal finally winning.

That concluded Saturday's fighting and we did not have a night battle. Seal's parents made us lunch and ordered pizza for dinner at the campsite. That stuff hit the spot after a long day of fighting.

We got up earlier on Sunday because M4 had to leave around noonish (NY to NC is a bit of a haul). The opening round was 2 team, 2 flag CTF. I have to kind of apologize for the unannounced change of flag position, as M4's ended up in a really great position, while mine was lying at the edge of an open field in front of a path with bad cover. That wouldn't have lasted 5 minutes, especially the way the enemy opened.

Thus, I moved the flag/Goblin to a low branch of a pine tree on the rock cliffs in from the field, a much better base. The thing was still in plain sight, but only if you looked up, lol. There was a sign prohibiting people from climbing the rocks, so that was one less flank to worry about.

M4's team started right in front of our base when time started, a good tactical move. However, he had the short stack and we repelled the attack. After dealing with that, we divided up offense and defense. With Seal back on D with a 2700, I wasn't worried about our defense. I went on offense and for the first wave, went alone to prod. Sneaking along the edge of the main path in the woods, I got up very close before M4 turned around like a sentinel. I managed to get in even closer, to pretty much the only good approach angle, resulting in an almost point-blank CPS 2000 duel behind trees. Luckily, I am skinny enough that my tree provided enough cover. However, he had one other person back and was calling him in. I couldn't stay there, so I rushed to M4's tree and wrapped around the right of it, shooting wildly. He got me when I ran out of pressure , diving for the flag. This solo attack was surprisingly successful, if he'd missed I would have been off to the races with the flag.

On my way back to respawn, I noticed that Wetmonkey was sneaking up near the rocks on the right, in the woods area where the park no longer prohibits it. I ran in to respawn and he had to get outta dodge. Trusting Seal to break that up, I turned back to the field and saw Will coming in to attack. Someone with me countered and we stayed between Will and my base to deny him entry. When my teammate went off to duel Will further out in the field, I saw an open road to M4's base and took it. This time, M4 was the only one on defense. However, I was out of breath and in the open. We again dueled 2000 on 2000, but in the open I could feel the MK1 asserting its will and in close droplets his stream was better, enough to send me back. It was not a waste of energy, for now I knew nobody else was defending.

Back in my base, there was a lot going on, but with all 5 of us back, the enemy attack was broken up. Now, I went on the offense for a 3rd wave with Scott and John. The plan was to dupe M4 into thinking I'd be the flag runner, using my 1st route and using the others as distractions. I was the actual distraction, with the serious approach to draw M4's attention. Scott would take the open approach in the field and be the one to actually kill M4 if I didn't. John would be the flag runner and go way off on the right, coming up from below the fringe unnoticed and take the flag when M4 was dead.

This worked pretty much on script. I came up to within feet of the flag like the first time and I dueled M4 2000 to 2000 at that deadly close range. The MK1 bested MK2, but Scott took M4 out from the open. I couldn't see what happened next, but in the chaos, John did get in, grabbed the flag, and took off. But, I went too far left and couldn't find the path. From where I was, I could see M4's attackers walking back in the field and suddenly could account for his whole team, meaning John would have an open road back to my base if he could get on the path and run. I was yelling for him to just drop everything and sprint (he had a gun and backpack). Unfortunately, he did not hear me and when he did get back to the path, took off with everything. Although all day had passed, maybe 2 whole minutes, I was worried he wouldn't make it because now M4 was alive again and running at a much faster rate.

Later, I would learn that M4 caught up to John and killed him, returning the flag, but that John had actually made it pretty far, almost back to my base. The time limit expired with no winner.

The next round was 2 team OHS in the gulch that the 1HK action the first day had started on. However, we took out the big CPS's and required 2 piston guns for each team. Respawn was also only 10 seconds. This made for a round of OHS that was unlike anything I'd played in 24 wars' worth. The score ended up being ridiculously high (see M4's report for how high), but it was a ton of fun. Fast-paced, with a lot of attacking, dodging, and dying. Deaths were kept track of instead of kills. Luckily, there had been so much rain lately that the gulch was full of water to refill from. When M4 and I first visited the war site, the place was tinder dry everywhere.

Poor Scott. He got cut off on the left and killed a bunch of times. I got him at least 14 times during the dueling alone on the left. My 12K was flying long range and wasn't missing much. To put the novelty of this round in perspective, my 3 deaths were lowest of anyone for the round, but more deaths than in my past 7, full length OHS wars and more than all of the 2007 season. The fast pace was not a detractor though, instead it resulted in M4 dropping the camera to take part in the next round, a repeat of this one.

Wetmonkey filmed for the next round, with otherwise the same teams. THunder boomed during this round, which made it epic. The Battle of Thunder Gulch was born, and it was intense. The rain did not help and eventually we stopped the round as it poured. I knew 2 people at my old summer camp who were killed instantly by the same bolt of lightning in 2006 in an open field, so now I am afraid of it in the open. We had to cross the wide open baseball field to return to the pavilion and I booked it the whole way. The odds are lower than winning the lottery, but still, there's that primal fear. I was fine with it in the woods, but open field carrying a water gun == lightning rod.

So concluded the community water war of 2011. But, this report ain't over yet, you're stuck with me for a little while longer.

The community war was a great chance to play the major gametypes and see how they worked out. We played three games recommended by the iSoaker Water Warfare League and not giving feedback on how things went would be a wasted opportunity.

The first was Team One Hit Eliminates. My first comment is that the recommended time limit is actually too short. We didn't have teams larger than 5 a piece and our game ran way over an hour. Of course, the whole first hour was spent just trying to find the other team, but nobody really had a problem with that. I would recommend either having a 1-2 hour time limit, or no time limit and letting the game play out. In a tournament setting, the area of play would probably be small enough to allow for one team to get eliminated in a reasonable amount of time, without being clocked. They can't just run away after an engagement and they can't stalk for long without coming to battle. Plus, momentum turns hard against one team once it starts losing more players than the other. Think about 3-15 in Nerf wars, where the smaller team rapidly gets beat down. I would never do just 15 minutes, even 30 min may be too short. The size of the teams also does not determine how long the game should run, it's the size of the area of play and how aggressive the teams are. Big area of play, long time limit and vice versa. Large teams that clash hard could get to an endgame after that single engagement. Special rules like air pressure only also allow for time to naturally be lengthened or shortened. Honor-based hits worked for the most part. We went with direct hit (could be angled). Everyone was pretty cool and honest about hits, so we had no major disputes, only the routine questioning of whether an amount was enough or who shot first.

The second was Team Capture the Flag. This was a pure type as specified in the League gsmetype, with no scoring and no elimination. Only flag capture could win the game. We did a time limit of 25 minutes, which was long enough to get in 3 series on offense. The league recommendation should stand: no shorter than 20 minutes. 30 to an hour might be the best length, it would have been interesting if each side could have gotten in one or two more series. Our hit system was the same as with 1HK, with respawn points about 30 seconds away from the base. We did not do the recommended end game, as it was pure CTF. We just decided on a draw since no flag was taken all the way. In a tournament, sudden death might make sense. Either that, or better yet, move the flags to an open field and do a sort of overtime game of about 10 minutes, with 1HK elimination for players. That way, it's easy to get at each flag, plus elimination could end it as well. I don't think that bases and spawn points need to be designated with flags. Two flags are all that is needed, but all players should know about the location of both bases, both flags, and both spawn points. Our change of flag location messed up the other team and that was not the intention, only defensibility, but that was a result. We started the game using prior agreed-upon time. That way, we didn't have to bother with audible or visual signals or have to make people move to give/see them. The league text about multiple flags is interesting, however, unrealistic given how hard it was just to touch one flag and live. We had a good playing area for CTF, allowing routes to sneak through the woods, but also in the open. It was very interesting with that combination.

The third type was my darling, Team One Hit Scores. While, we played it with pretty standard OHS rules, it turned out much differently than what I was used to. This indicates that there is potential for greater variability in this game family and a lot of possible gametypes. All we did was change the time limit to 30 minutes, the respawn time to 10 seconds, the guns to piston/air/low grade CPS, and look at the result. An RM-Waterbridge OHS war could have score as low as 1-0 after 3 hours of fighting, vs 46-21 in half an hour in the community war. The total score in half an hour was more than what Waterbridge scored in 4 seasons worth of OHS wars (24 wars, 59 points). In this community war version, the league time limit of 15 minutes to 1 hour is appropriate. In the unlimited version, with a larger field, longer respawn, and bigger guns, the time limit is way too short. OHS suffers from the need for refs or major honor. In a game this fast paced, it would have been impossible to track team level score like in unlimited. Thus, we had to track deaths. There are a ton of hits dished out and a ton more chances for disputes to arise, although I don't remember any hit that was seriously disputed in either of the OHS rounds, despite how many hits there were. In a tournament with moon on the line, you want refs I think. M4's camera commentary actually helped, because it was like having a ref as he called out all the hits that he saw go down. This was a less tactical OHS and a more shootout one. Thus, I would recommend more use and experimentation with the parameters of the OHS game family to determine what style would be best in a tournament. We know a lot about OHK, OSF, and FFA and they don't tend to change much, but OHS gives us very different results when we change little things.

So that wraps up my book, lol.