Marker technology
- Thread starter timmyh007
- Start date
Think of it as a hill, we're currently say... 80% of the way from the top to the bottom, we already passed the top.
Once prices start plummeting for cheap, (not highly reliable as it is impossible to do with cheap and mass produced) feature packed markers, that's when we roll down into the valley and the majority of the manufacturing industry's death sentence is signed.
Cheaper markers = no sustainability for manufacturers
No sustainability for manufacturers = no innovation, no new products
Granted, it will not happen immediately, but it will eventually kill the hard goods manufacturers.
There's more but I don't want to bore everyone to sleep, so I'll save it for another time.
I believe that we're going to see alot more custom options available again to the general paintball market. It's allready starting to leak into the hands of mere mortals even though the execution isn't quite top notch yet; it is getting there.
In paintball you have to spend hundreds for decent equipment where as in the other mentioned activities all you need are some balls.
I don't see for a second that the demand for highends will deminish for the next few years, agglets across the globe will continue to buy $1k+ markers because they think bespoke this and ultralite that will help them grow as players.
Some companies right now are pulling the heck out of the midrange market leaving only two options for players, low- and highend.
Even though I hate to admit it, that numbnut over at techpb had a point the other day; paintball is a luxury sport unlike football\pocket tennis\basketball.
In paintball you have to spend hundreds for decent equipment where as in the other mentioned activities all you need are some balls.
I don't see for a second that the demand for highends will deminish for the next few years, agglets across the globe will continue to buy $1k+ markers because they think bespoke this and ultralite that will help them grow as players.
Some companies right now are pulling the heck out of the midrange market leaving only two options for players, low- and highend.
I agree with you. We don't need faster guns and we don't need lighter or smaller guns. More consistent and efficient.....possibly, although I personally think most top-end valve designs are as good as we need already.
I think that modularity is going to be the next big thing. Look at Airgun Designs - they've not launched a fundamentally new marker in terms of valvetrain/actuation since the E-Mag, 9 years ago - and yet they're still going and a large community of small aftermarket suppliers has appeared, generating small runs of custom bodies, rails, grip frames etc. Only the valve itself can be considered an OEM part.
People want their markers to stand out from the crowd and at the moment the only way to manage this is anodising. Manufacturers should start producing more modular markers with a wide range of add-on/replacement components (and providing CAD details to 3rd parties to encourage an 'open source' component community).
Technology in the marker is about as good as it can get, considering that it follows on from outside industry improvements (eg the mac noid). I reckon the next big thing is going to happen with the paint. This is already happening with the whole 50 cal dealio (which could be terrible, but that's been done in another thread) and the tiberius first strike. All markers chuck paint reliably out the barrel these days, it's when it's left the barrel that needs improving. Unfortunately, all the current markers are designed to use the existing paint. So I reckon if someone decided to radically change the paint industry so we were shooting a very different projectile, THEN we'd have changes in the markers and fresh innovation. Like that's ever gonna happen.
New materials,
Ceramic, CF bodied markers maybe certain mixtures of Ti for the next SL Type R POOWWWEEERRR markers.
I think budda has hit the nail on the head.
Looking at two of the most popular the Ego10 is not that much different from the 9 and Dye have released the DM10 and the DM11 at the same time
The Geo 2 could be good but then again we are still waiting on the SL91 so how different can we expect them to be.
How about in 5 years everyone just digs out there old Impys, angels and cockers and just has a laugh.
Ceramic, CF bodied markers maybe certain mixtures of Ti for the next SL Type R POOWWWEEERRR markers.
I think budda has hit the nail on the head.
Looking at two of the most popular the Ego10 is not that much different from the 9 and Dye have released the DM10 and the DM11 at the same time
The Geo 2 could be good but then again we are still waiting on the SL91 so how different can we expect them to be.
How about in 5 years everyone just digs out there old Impys, angels and cockers and just has a laugh.
on the outside yes.
the only person being short sighted here is you. the improvements to the marker and board is not just a bigger screen. its a whole new board. redesigned with greater proccessing capabilities etc. making it extremely religable and opening up future advances in technology to be added with ease. its now a platform for future improvements.
im still unsure why people are judging the ego 10 by its looks. oh i forgot......these make you a better player
i think you have it there
AGD peaked with the level 10 anti chop and their X valve,but no two mags look the same
take the ion and the tippmann while they may not be be the very best markers themselves,you can have 1 tippman that looks like an AK and another that looks like an MP5. 1 ion can have a deadly wind body and another something more tactical, both of them can swap out pretty much every single component as per users desire, but bare bones they are still the same marker.
to be honest i think those egos and eteks that every second person has are dog ugly to look at but they are great markers apparently,so why not take them and other markers like dye and bob long and all the very high end types and redesign their internals and tech to fit into an ion type body that can then be chopped and changed till your hearts content??
alot of people hate the ion but i think its awesome simply for the fact that if you have a picture of your perfect maker in your head somewhere out there, there is an ion mod that can make that dream marker happen.
not sure how it would work with licenses and what not but they could even generate more cash but making them to fit inside a tippy, im sure those woods ballers would love the thought of shooting a tippmann bodied ego,
but like you say you need something that stands out and one ego looked pretty much like the next one no matter how its anodized