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**gabe** · 07-27-2021, 11:34 AM

Man we're really upping the stakes. First it was $1MM to throw away in paintball and now we're talking $100MM. Nice big numbers, I like it.

I like fullofpaint's field idea. Bring people back by sheer force of having cool fields instead of bland airball fields. That's why folks play, for the experience, not for the balanced gameplay and intricate knowledge of angles. I'd also start a tournament circuit that's mech only on themed fields with barrel cams and drones and the lot for fun. Maybe with that kind of force behind paintball "for fun" we could see it become what it used to be again.

**vijil** · 07-27-2021, 04:19 PM

The idea of appealing to the gamer crowd by replicating popular game maps, and bringing in big name streamers, is a good one.

Starting a pro team or three under recognized names - ie. have the official BDS or FaZe Clan paintball teams, would be a good idea.

I think (honestly I'm not sure) 100m would be enough to set up the definitive global World Championships or series or whatever, in whatever mode or style you wanted. You could attract all the top teams with ridiculous prize money just for attending the first one. 100k for the lowest placed team, up to 5m for the winners. That alone would pull major eyeballs, and probably teams from esports orgs and major brands too.

You'd have time and money to properly train and pay (like, really good money) the best imaginable reffing crew, and you could have some advanced video reffing to supplement it and check bias. You'd certainly have enough of a marketing budget, and 30m for an amazing field complex (with permanent grandstands etc) would do it. Might also be enough to buy out the NXL, or just kerb stomp them.

The hard part would be momentum after the first event.

**fullofpaint** · 07-27-2021, 04:25 PM

Yea that'd would be the hardest part of a league without an additional revenue stream IMO. You could dump insane money into it for the first event or the first year, but keeping enough momentum to continue offering such a prize quickly becomes a challenge. Look at OWL, Blizzard dumped mad money into it, even built a dedicated stadium and it's flopped pretty hard.

**vijil** · 07-27-2021, 04:39 PM

The other thing I'd like to do would be to make a modular marker system. A basic core that would work mech or electro, magfed or not, and could be built into just about any body style you can think of. Everything would be built in - reg, a spot for electronics, eyes if wanted, etc. - so If it breaks, you can swap the whole core out, or upgrade to a better newer version or whatever. It probably wouldn't be as llight/tight as a dedicated marker, but it would be a big deal for modding.

I'd like to try building something with a faraday bolt too. As in, the reciprocating bolt motion charges the battery like a linear generator. So the air supply effectively powers the electronics. Nobody has tried that that I've seen. Depending how much spare energy you had, you could also power a loader (major weight saving) through feedneck contacts. It seems too obvious, maybe it wouldn't work or would reduce efficiency way too much... I'd patent it, but there's no money in paintball

(and now you can't patent it either, nyahhh

)

(seriously, has anyone done the math? Part of me is like "that could never work" but then again, you have to do the math to find out...)

Then build that system into a bunch of stuff. A magfed, a mech, a speedball gat, some really nice 50 cal magfed and rental stuff, and buy out Airowgun and make an FS shooting version that fires as fast as you can keep pulling the string back, no need to reload anything or twist anything between shots.

Make a nice simlified pistol version too. 50 cal pistol, 68 cal revolver, all with adjustable velocity and easy maintenance.

**coyote** · 07-27-2021, 05:03 PM

Start a company that makes bikini girls barrel covers.

Hire a lawyer and wait the Gardner's to sue me.

**Jordan** · 07-27-2021, 06:26 PM

Buy Nummech and CCM. Make stuff, put it in stock, sell it to people. Rinse and repeat.

Oh, and hire someone to answer @#&%ing emails.

**Knuckle Dragger** · 07-27-2021, 07:41 PM

I’d buy all the paintball patents and sue everyone into the dirt. Then only I’d be king of....paintball.

**Chuck E Ducky** · 07-27-2021, 11:14 PM

I would develop a better large bore paintball.

**Tolgak** · 07-28-2021, 12:09 AM

It was about 17 years ago that I drew out my perfect field and game format to go with it. There honestly isn't much I would do to change it. I'm sure various elements of this have been incorporated at venues since I thought of this concept. I've certainly seen video games incorporate these mechanics and those games can be very fun.

The player density (controlled via game format and limited ticket sales) would be metered to prevent wall-o-paint style standstills like we see at Fulda Gap or Camp Blanding. You would have to be careful at most features but there would still be the ability to make undetected progress in all but the biggest of battles.

The field would be laid out in a balanced manner, with small-town/city battlespaces throughout. Also in the mix would be special sites, where occupation gets your team a benefit. I'm talking clinics/hospitals, a refinery, airport, laboratory, etc. These may be features of the towns and cities, they may be entirely independent sites. In the center of the field are two major cities (each the 150% size of a typical MOUT town) with suburban terrain in between. The whole field has a road/highway system that links towns together in a semi-realistic manner. Under the field is a network of tunnels that have entry and exit points at and in between each battlespace. These are used to insert live players and for eliminated players to leave the field. Some sites/capture points are located under cover of foliage, finding these will require recon throughout the game. There are cameras located in typical security camera locations, as well as extra (but hidden) cameras to film for memorabilia. The lighting scheme is to allow for people to play at night safely and enjoyably without having to worry about NVG type dominating. The urban areas have lights with impact sensors to allow for "shooting out the light" (it goes dim but not completely out for safety, and some lights just can't be shot out and will be indicated accordingly). There will be darker areas for concealed movement but will otherwise be pretty bright. The whole field will have an artificial extra-bright moonlight to make woodland play workable and enjoyable for the non NVG equipped.

To keep it interesting, the buildings would be designed to be reconfigurable (decor, certain annexes, interior) so that each can be realistic as said structure. Aerial photography wont give away where the sites are, and there are no pre-game walkthroughs.

The game format is like Viper's RTS, with the occasional mission assigned to generals. It starts with allowing each team a 12-man recon unit 1 hour prior game start. Both teams chose their LZ on a map and submit to the game director, so that both teams don't spawn within sight or knowledge of each other (if both generals chose the same LZ, the players will be escorted out-of-sight from each other, using the tunnel network, to different entry points as equidistant from that coordinate) The General can chose any location on the field for their HQ (or no HQ, or a distributed HQ), because there is no assigned location. The only requirement to occupy specific spaces (field comms equipment, more on that below) would be when the General needs to communicate gameplay actions (some use of battlefield perks) to the game director.

The main game starts with each army inserted at the field boundary on their side of the field. The idea is that the recon unit can be used to gain whatever type of advantage the general wants, to give the team the desired starting condition. They can be used to capture as many capture-points as possible, padding the points at the beginning of the game. They can be embedded on the enemy side of the field. They can be used to scout the best starting position(s). General's choice. Players flood the field at the starting bang and it's up to field leadership to drive the hordes. Eliminated players are directed to the nearest tunnel entrance.

Players can gain points by converting capture points to get points-per minute, and separately capture sites for perks. Like in many video games, there is a delay from the first player showing up to the location being captured. The capture node will flash with the color of the team that's in the process of acquiring it and remain solid once the location is taken. As incentive for individual players to advance team goals, their player IDs can be used to scan at capture points to take scalable levels of credit for each capture (first gets the most points per minute, second gets some lesser percent). If you keep scanning over a longer duration of time, you can re-up your bonus. Even better would be automatic detection of players but reliability might be an issue (plus badge scanning gives players active feedback). You can see your stats on various leaderboards time you leave via an elimination tunnel. Prizes are available for top or top 3 in various categories, the prize being related to the relevant stat and to the significance of it. Some would be straightforward like "most captures" (the type of stat that could win you a marker) or "most time spent defending" (top prize could be a mask and pads). Other stats could be things like longest distance between capture points (going to the guy who took it) or "most locations visited" with accordingly obscure prizes. If players are earning points where the team general commands troops to go, they get multipliers, as do actions that turn the tide of the game. There would be a significant data analysis element to this system, such that actions can be determined useful after-the-fact. Players with roles (medic, JTAC, engineer, demo, etc) get multipliers for role-specific actions and have exclusive leaderboards to compete within.

It's important to note that none of this is relayed automatically to the players or Generals. The reporting of battlefield progress still depends using the provided comms locations (so any player can report home or potentially lie to the enemy), or through use of personal radios as is typical in scenarios. This can be bolstered, however, by the use of battlefield sites.

Capture/occupation of sites can bring bonuses to the General and/or the individual players. Overall capture would be a multi-step process, such as turning the generator on, breaking into the building (the locks would be minigames or accessible via keys or codes that can be discovered), and playing a minigame or using a role player in the right room to unlock the benefit.

Individual comms locations are the most basic. There's one or two per town or site, located in a logical building (police/fire station, radio station, truck stop, air traffic control tower, etc). Radio stations don't need to be captured and don't win you points, they can simply be used by a player with the correct roll card at the console. There will be some manner of selecting the radio channel but the player needs to know what channel to select. The system will be designed such that players can't just jam all frequencies to spam the system.

Some buildings have surveillance equipment. This equipment allows you to see through cameras in the same town and sometimes in surrounding towns or even faraway. These feeds cannot be relayed anywhere else. Use of the surveillance equipment requires either a specific role to unlock the console, or that any potential user unlock the system by playing an on-screen minigame. The point of this (and other mini games) is not for difficulty, but to induce delay if anyone other than a prescribed role wants to use the station.

Clinics / Hospitals can do anything from shorten the spawn windows to increasing how many times a medic can heal people before restocking his medkit (which would happen at such facilities). Hospitals can function as mass spawn points. The minigame to unlock would be something medical themed... maybe a game of operation.

Airfields/Airports, depending on size, allow for spawn of players, tanks, and use of UAVs. They also allow for relocation of people from one airport to any other friendly occupied airport via the tunnel system. The functions of the airport cease if the runway is occupied by live players. UAVs are represented by a prop on the runway that can be destroyed (with satchels/rockets/airstrikes) and fixed (with engineers). When one is desired for use, an actual RC plane with camera pod onboard is launched (from offsite and monitored by professionals) and that feed can be relayed to anyone with the right equipment. Whoever is controlling the UAVs can select a waypoint for the UAV to orbit around and directly control the camera pod. The UAV flies for 15 minutes max and has a 45 minute delay from landing to next takeoff. Capture of multiple airfields with UAVs will allow for use of more actual RC planes.

Laboratories, Factories, Refineries, Powerplants, you name it... these things and all the aforementioned can be used to accomplish missions, earn capabilities, add to atmosphere, whatever. The point is that any player can find something more interesting to do than whack-a-mole with the enemy when they go anywhere in the map. A lab can require mixing of test tubes (ten round tubes) to get a specific color of water, then the player can transport that "chemical" back for mission success... or they find themselves outgunned and decide to grab what they can and boogie, and risk mixing the "chems" in a place where instructions don't exist and mistakes can't be rectified. A factory might require players to assemble a vehicle from parts scattered from across the building (nothing crazy complicated).

In addition, hidden locations can be discovered. A sniper's hide might have a first-strike enabled marker (chained to the thing), and detailed instructions on how to adjust aim for the likely-target-rich environment ahead. A gold stash could be found to get points. An abandoned FOB could have detailed instructions on how/where to progress across the field to maximize point gain in a short period of time.

In addition to all this, I've got an idea for airstrikes and artillery. Yes, I have thought of designing artillery type weapons that drop paint-grenades at safe speeds via parachute from the sky. These can be assigned to certain role players. The other thought I had was to pack buildings with paint cannons. Calling in an airstrike will launch a vast amount of orange paint into the sky and onto the streets, anyone marked is eliminated. The image of a building "blowing up" would be a sight to behold.

The rest of what I've thought are all random details that don't add much to the overall vision. Really I just love the idea that one can be part of a 1000+ player team while still feeling like your individual actions are helping win the game. I also like that teams don't know what they're getting into, that exploration and communication will keep players engaged.

**Brokeass_baller** · 07-28-2021, 12:13 AM

Right off the bat, I'd build a shop and start manufacturing .688 paint.

Then I'd probably build a wicked field, and forget about the rest because I'd be too busy playing.

**Number six** · 07-28-2021, 01:30 AM

Paint manufacturing facility and equipment.
Rookie/amateur leagues coordinated with existing fields in as many states as possible (maybe open a field in a state where there isn't one, also).
That's all I've got.

**scrounger** · 07-28-2021, 03:34 AM

Id go with two different business that compliment each other

first id form a company in the way that SMART PARTS used to be before the "sue everyone for the most far out claim you had the patent and lets think we can make it with a new gun every year" mentality
to those who dont know or remember they were the GO TO company for paintball gun parts.
they made sure no matter what was made from the oldest models to the newest electro chunkers you could find any part to fix, maintain or upgrade .
from regs to tanks, barrels in adapters, and everything inbetween
while coming up with NEW ideas .. like the freak barrel system.

then make a field that not only has different styles of play from woods, tournament , scenario , but with the latest tech so people can watch it.
from drones, hidden cameras , audio (when possible) and towers with the latest video.
that way the players may not see each other, but from above and around the audience can view them
just think of the viewer excitement watching two teams in say an urban "walking dead" event seeing them not knowing what is coming up, but they do.

then use the field as a "test bed" for new accessories for the company.

scrounger

**vijil** · 07-28-2021, 04:27 PM

One thing I'd do would be to build a paintball specific guncam/s

In the forwards direction, you'd have at least a 3x zoom at high res.

Attached and behind the feedneck, you'd have a 360 cam.

You'd then build in a bunch of features:

automatic switching between the 360 cam and the zoomed cam, depending on gun orientation. When you lower the gun, it goes to the 360.
- The 360 cam isn't used as a 360 cam though - it outputs a standard frame (unless you choose otherwise). The cam is 360 so you don't need it to physically gimbal.
automatically looks at your face when you're talking and the gun is down. AI powered, it also frames anyone else you're talking with if they're nearby.
streams via 4G to whatever, or your phone, etc.
Is as tiny as possible
Has multiple mics, and can automatically reduce firing noise so you can still hear what else is going on
ditto hopper noise
Built in optical stabilisation on the zoomcam, and automatic software orientation-lock on the 360, so it's not making people sick to watch

To follow up, I'd make a mask with built in AR features. Not so much for what's been done before, no, mostly so you can:

read your twitch/discord/youtube stream livechat
see camera output, optionally
see teammate camera output if you like
Have reachable in-mask buttons for live edit. Just a few, like an elgato deck. Enough to play pre-recorded stuff, start-stop the stream, toggle overlays, toggle selfie mode, whatever you set it to do. Most cuts and edit are handled by AI however.
Built in mics, naturally
Built in 360 cam, as above. More angles are better angles. Ideally including the ability to use AI to fake a third person view.
Ideally, built in lower and upper face cams, and the AI ability to recreate your face in a natural way to go in the bottom corner of the stream. Gotta show expressions.

I think I've probably run out of cash by this point, and most of it spent on the software.

**DocsMachine** · 07-28-2021, 04:57 PM

Interesting that everyone has a sort of "if you build it, they will come" mindset. Like, it's the field not being cool and fancy enough that really holds people back from attending.

For the most part, if your local area can't easily support a shoestring-operation field, there's no way there's enough people to support a big fancy high-dollar field. Look at all the things over the years that companies put millions, or even billions into, and couldn't get people to buy or use them. The Zune, Google+, Apple's Newton, the Pontiac Aztek, Battlefield Earth, etc.

There's two ways you could do it: $100 million properly invested could provide enough operating capital for a pretty damn nice field, that you could operate basically at a loss.$5 field passes, $20 rental packages that include a whole case of paint, cases for $10, and so on. Hire some actual employees as refs, managers and techs, pay them a pretty fair wage, and just sit back and enjoy it all.

The other way is a proper, full-blown investment, top-down. $100M is plenty to launch a full industry. Set up an encapsulator and start making "full bore" paint, as noted, about .688" would be ideal. Shoot for old R.P. Scherer quality.

Invest in a production shop and start making parts. I'll guarantee you Simon of Inception didn't start with $100M- I'd wager he started with less than half a mil. One of the things SmartyParts had going for them was they were players, and, while they had the morals of a drug-addicted used-car salesman, they had some good ideas. Simon, too, is a player, and knows how to engineer parts not only to work together, but to last. Start with parts, work your way up to a full gun.

Spend some cash in advertising. Not stupid, annoying advertising like pop-ups and garish banner ads, but local promotionals at fields and the like. More costly, but I think better.

Then 'seed' a chain of fields. One thing we've never had in this sport is any kind of solid organization to fields. We need, basically, something like a Chuck E. Cheese or McDonalds type of thing. A field that players can go to and know what kind of experience they're going to get- proper reffing, solid management, the tourney-wannabes are encouraged to tone it down without driving them away, pumpers and stockers can have a good game without getting lit up, bonus-ballers are penalized, etc.

And of course make them all work together. The production shop makes a budget- but reliable and well regarded- marker that the fields use as rentals (and the chains are heavily encouraged, but perhaps not required to use) the encapsulator makes a tourney-quality paint and a budget ball specifically for the fields, and so on.

Will it all work? Probably not. The manufacturing house and encapsulator? Certainly, if the product is good. The chain fields? Maybe not so much. Good refs and enforced rules means manpower, and interested manpower. Not just some kid getting paid a case of paint a day. That means expenses and that meas field prices go up. Said prices go too far up and attendance drops.

As in the other threads, paintball is simply not, and likely never will be, a widespread sport. The example is usually bowling, and that's pretty much spot on. There''s a TON of people who will bowl a few times, and will enjoy it a great deal, but that's it. They've tried it, they're done. They're not going to rush out, buy some shoes and a custom-fitted ball and join a league. It's something you do for a birthday party or a family reunion or something.

A great many people see paintball the same way- it's great for a one-time thing when little Bobby finally turns 16, or to keep the kids happy when the family is in town for Suzie's wedding. But only one in fifty might decide to do it on a regular basis.

THAT is the hump we'd have to get over. And honestly, I'm not sure you can do that even with $100 mil.

Doc.

**Tarsun2** · 07-29-2021, 08:41 AM

the fact that paintball "kindda hurts" dosent make it any easier.
there are, of course, other niche sports out there.

Downhill mountain biking and sailing are the two that i was involved in. both were very expensive and took a lot of energy but neither of them really left welts or bruises. (as long as everything went well)
Paintball on the other hand... you get the point.

right now, im just glad its still around for my occasional use. I haven't stepped foot on a field in over 3 years (had two kids) and working full time at a hospital during the pandemic meant i was extra busy (while most of my friends were able to get home reno projects completed.)

i just hope it dosent go the way of the roller rink. id be happy for just that.

Announcement

You have 100mil and the mandate to start a paintball company - what do you do?

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