Its nights like these where i get tired and bored of playing games, watching films, reading, etc, i tend to go back to my dream of owning and running a paintball site (with many crazy ideas which I keep to myself for uniqueness if i ever do achieve it 
)
this has took roughly 6 nights to write i keep the page open and keep adding to it xD
I will most likely update this first post over time, as i come up with more ideas or ideas given to help
(Bare with me on this as i tend not to think proper realism such as starting out costs etc. Im thinking more towards the end with the site established and a good customer feedback/return. Think no budget and you wont be too far off)
Also im going by currently available gear but who knows what things will be out in 10 years or so.
So every site, give or take, has a similar take on gear:
this is just my general sum up
easy to run markers
Camo/ site branded overalls
fog resistant goggles
bog standard gravity hopper
I could go on to list the various types of each but i could be here all day
fast forward this part >>>>>>>>>
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Here's what id offer for my site
Ill cover markers in a mo
Goggles
possibly the most important thing ever for a player, punter to pro. AND being pro or a punter, why supply teh cheap stuff?
I narrowed it down to:
Empire E-vents - i use them personally and are the best in my opinion
JT Pro Flex - used them before the E-vents and loved em
Dye i3 - Not used them but i hear good things
Now if i had to choose one, it would be the Events. Its the one I have used the longest, to me it has the best peripheral view, never seems to fog up (that i have noticed)and is easy to disassemble and clean, All masks would be fitted with the dual pane thermal lense as standard.
Game wise, all masks would all be coloured for easy to identify teams as some players have trouble identifying team mates during a shootout ( who has time to look around for a small armband when under fire by an unknown player?)
Colours would be:
white red black blue
Overalls
This was a tough one for me, thinking of a way to offer more than your standard overalls. Really, it stumped me for a while as there didn't seem to be a middle ground between overalls and proper playing gear :/.
But then i had a thought when cleaning my playing gear: why not kit them out in simple playing gear?
So asking my various paintball friends about how they started out and what gear they chose, i got 3 main answers:
Angel, Enola Gaye and Hanger 18
So by going by those 3 brands, i narrowed it down to EG (as Angel gear is discontinued and hard to come by while H18 doesn't seem to have a top that i could see): Player top and KillStar Camo pants.
I have worn the playing pants when working as a Site Marshall and Id say they are quite comfortable and well padded.
For a punter, I would say they are perfect. They are well padded in key areas, they can take a lot of rough play and stay intact and would give them a sense of owning their own gear (so they might look after it a bit better.. who am i kidding)
So that's the playing gear covered. On to the markers
Markers
Funnily enough, this was the easiest one for me purely because i went through the exact same thing as most people do when they first start playing haha. You know what I'm talking about, don't even pretend not to You or a friend have muttered those words: I'm gonna get the machine gun upgrade!!!! Which then most people who take up the sport, buy a machine gun lookalike marker and go from there,
So why not cater to their wants?
And to achieve that, I decided on one key marker (not including upgrade marker):
BT-4 Combat (the marker base if that makes sense? see below in green )
I chose the Combat purely because of how easy it is to customize, in terms of looks and feel, and easy to maintain, with most problems solved without any major marker knowledge. Plus nigh on ANY picatinny/weaver accessory will fit a Combat, one way or another, meaning many different looks to suit each player.
Now, here comes the genius part and something I quite like as its mostly a unique idea which i dont think any site does or ever will do (decide the reason why for yourself)
Customer created markers!
heres how it works:
After booking in and successfully getting into the safe zone (i will cover a brief day further down), customers will be taken into the Player Armoury by group colour. Each customer will be asked to choose a base marker: CAR stock, Folding stock, Wire/Skeleton stock, Slide stock, Fixed stock and no stock. These options will change due to parts available) from the rack and bring them over to the tech tables. (no barrel, no hopper, no elbow or air attached for safety reasons)
From there, they have the choice to attach whatever they want! from scopes to shrouds to fake mags etc.
easy? simple? unique?
Unique is the sense that no site could ever pull that off! Not even mine! The idea itself would fail BIG TIME!
Just forget what you just read as it would just waste a whole ton of time, cause fights and be extremely costly!
Here's the more realistic genius idea:
Player specific markers
Each player will be able to choose what style/look their marker will have. Options i would make available:
M16/M4 (BT Omega)
MP5 (BT Delta)
G36 (not decided: newly launched BT-36 or Combat with kit?)
AK-47 (Combat with kit)
There's possibly a few more i will have but cant think of em right now and as standard, all hoppers will be Proto Primo's as they rock
Like with teams, its first come first serve and gone when its gone. All marker types will look exactly the same, right down to the unique site ID plate (that would replace the BT name plate) so you possibly wont be able to tell the difference (Dont be a smart ass) Customers will be asked which one they want when they head out through the Armoury (I am toying with the idea of lanes with each marker keep in its own lane for easy and fast deployment.) and they can change their mind or stick each time they pass through to play.
Upgrades
Ok, the above idea was my initial idea to eliminate the need for marker upgrades but hey, i wanna be able to offer them something MORE.... if they feel their options are too limited
now i did strongly consider the TM-7 and TM-15 as upgrades but being basically an Invert Mini in a milsim shell, i felt it might be a bit too much in terms of use for customers. And i have witnessed some odd and bizarre 'incidents' that only seems to happen around or within punter groups to some markers
So my only upgrade of choice, just this one for now but you never know, is the Tippmann X7 Phenom - Assault edition (mech) for obvious reasons. Its more efficient on air, forced air operated loader, its a Tippmann etc.
Moving away from markers, i did consider electric hoppers however for some reason beyond my knowledge, i just dont see it being a good idea. The ones i considered were the BT ripclip, extreme rage overdrive Sonic DB and Halo too. I figured they might be beyond first time players ( i still get questions now about my odd looking hopper on game days) and i know how people like to fiddle with buttons. If i did offer a hopper upgrade, it would have been the Overdrive Sonic as its just a flick on switch and settings cant be accidently changed (apart from maybe the speed)
SO!
6-7 nights later (no doubt many more but cba to work it out....) this is my general sum up of what id offer, marker and apparel wise, on my site. To some, it may seem like a bad idea and to others a great idea but each to their own
one day, i will have my site and it will be my baby for all of time or until it finally grinds to a halt :/
Keep an eye on this as on another night, later down the line, i may include details of field layouts, safe zones, staff etc etc.
) this has took roughly 6 nights to write
i keep the page open and keep adding to it xDI will most likely update this first post over time, as i come up with more ideas or ideas given to help
(Bare with me on this as i tend not to think proper realism such as starting out costs etc. Im thinking more towards the end with the site established and a good customer feedback/return. Think no budget and you wont be too far off
)Also im going by currently available gear but who knows what things will be out in 10 years or so.
So every site, give or take, has a similar take on gear:
this is just my general sum up
easy to run markers
Camo/ site branded overalls
fog resistant goggles
bog standard gravity hopper
I could go on to list the various types of each but i could be here all day
fast forward this part >>>>>>>>>
SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Here's what id offer for my site
Ill cover markers in a mo
Goggles
possibly the most important thing ever for a player, punter to pro. AND being pro or a punter, why supply teh cheap stuff?
I narrowed it down to:
Empire E-vents - i use them personally and are the best in my opinion
JT Pro Flex - used them before the E-vents and loved em
Dye i3 - Not used them but i hear good things
Now if i had to choose one, it would be the Events. Its the one I have used the longest, to me it has the best peripheral view, never seems to fog up (that i have noticed)and is easy to disassemble and clean, All masks would be fitted with the dual pane thermal lense as standard.
Game wise, all masks would all be coloured for easy to identify teams as some players have trouble identifying team mates during a shootout ( who has time to look around for a small armband when under fire by an unknown player?
)Colours would be:
white red black blue
Overalls
This was a tough one for me, thinking of a way to offer more than your standard overalls. Really, it stumped me for a while as there didn't seem to be a middle ground between overalls and proper playing gear :/.
But then i had a thought when cleaning my playing gear: why not kit them out in simple playing gear?
So asking my various paintball friends about how they started out and what gear they chose, i got 3 main answers:
Angel, Enola Gaye and Hanger 18
So by going by those 3 brands, i narrowed it down to EG (as Angel gear is discontinued and hard to come by while H18 doesn't seem to have a top that i could see): Player top and KillStar Camo pants.
I have worn the playing pants when working as a Site Marshall and Id say they are quite comfortable and well padded.
For a punter, I would say they are perfect. They are well padded in key areas, they can take a lot of rough play and stay intact and would give them a sense of owning their own gear (so they might look after it a bit better.. who am i kidding
)So that's the playing gear covered. On to the markers
Markers
Funnily enough, this was the easiest one for me
purely because i went through the exact same thing as most people do when they first start playing haha. You know what I'm talking about, don't even pretend not to You or a friend have muttered those words: I'm gonna get the machine gun upgrade!!!! Which then most people who take up the sport, buy a machine gun lookalike marker and go from there,So why not cater to their wants?
And to achieve that, I decided on one key marker (not including upgrade marker):
BT-4 Combat (the marker base if that makes sense? see below in green )
I chose the Combat purely because of how easy it is to customize, in terms of looks and feel, and easy to maintain, with most problems solved without any major marker knowledge. Plus nigh on ANY picatinny/weaver accessory will fit a Combat, one way or another, meaning many different looks to suit each player.
Now, here comes the genius part and something I quite like as its mostly a unique idea which i dont think any site does or ever will do (decide the reason why for yourself)
Customer created markers!
heres how it works:
After booking in and successfully getting into the safe zone (i will cover a brief day further down), customers will be taken into the Player Armoury by group colour. Each customer will be asked to choose a base marker: CAR stock, Folding stock, Wire/Skeleton stock, Slide stock, Fixed stock and no stock. These options will change due to parts available) from the rack and bring them over to the tech tables. (no barrel, no hopper, no elbow or air attached for safety reasons)
From there, they have the choice to attach whatever they want! from scopes to shrouds to fake mags etc.
easy? simple? unique?
Unique is the sense that no site could ever pull that off! Not even mine! The idea itself would fail BIG TIME!
Just forget what you just read as it would just waste a whole ton of time, cause fights and be extremely costly!
Here's the more realistic genius idea:
Player specific markers
Each player will be able to choose what style/look their marker will have. Options i would make available:
M16/M4 (BT Omega)
MP5 (BT Delta)
G36 (not decided: newly launched BT-36 or Combat with kit?)
AK-47 (Combat with kit)
There's possibly a few more i will have but cant think of em right now
and as standard, all hoppers will be Proto Primo's as they rock Like with teams, its first come first serve and gone when its gone. All marker types will look exactly the same, right down to the unique site ID plate (that would replace the BT name plate) so you possibly wont be able to tell the difference (Dont be a smart ass
) Customers will be asked which one they want when they head out through the Armoury (I am toying with the idea of lanes with each marker keep in its own lane for easy and fast deployment.) and they can change their mind or stick each time they pass through to play.Upgrades
Ok, the above idea was my initial idea to eliminate the need for marker upgrades but hey, i wanna be able to offer them something MORE.... if they feel their options are too limited
now i did strongly consider the TM-7 and TM-15 as upgrades but being basically an Invert Mini in a milsim shell, i felt it might be a bit too much in terms of use for customers. And i have witnessed some odd and bizarre 'incidents' that only seems to happen around or within punter groups to some markers
So my only upgrade of choice, just this one for now but you never know
, is the Tippmann X7 Phenom - Assault edition (mech) for obvious reasons. Its more efficient on air, forced air operated loader, its a Tippmann etc.
Moving away from markers, i did consider electric hoppers however for some reason beyond my knowledge, i just dont see it being a good idea. The ones i considered were the BT ripclip, extreme rage overdrive Sonic DB and Halo too. I figured they might be beyond first time players ( i still get questions now about my odd looking hopper on game days) and i know how people like to fiddle with buttons. If i did offer a hopper upgrade, it would have been the Overdrive Sonic as its just a flick on switch and settings cant be accidently changed (apart from maybe the speed)
SO!
6-7 nights later (no doubt many more but cba to work it out....) this is my general sum up of what id offer, marker and apparel wise, on my site. To some, it may seem like a bad idea and to others a great idea but each to their own
one day, i will have my site and it will be my baby for all of time
or until it finally grinds to a halt :/Keep an eye on this as on another night, later down the line, i may include details of field layouts, safe zones, staff etc etc.
