I attended the Games of Foam Invictus Battlegrounds event on 5th June and had an absolute blast of a time. It was a great site and I posted a full after action report about the site here. However, I wanted to extract my comments on something that I'm growing increasingly concered about and post them here. This is the basis of my comments and I'll probably expand on them in further posts with some more fleshed out template rules and the like for Game Organisers.
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Elsewhere, the CQB games were entertaining but I think we need to have a discussion about power ratings and safety equipment. Too often, I was finding myself up close and personal with 220+FPS Longarms at 20-30ft ranges. Indeed, I took more than a couple of hits within that power bracket at less than 15ft but the sheer amount of gear and my layers mean I'm not carrying too many welts today. There are multiple options for dealing with this problem and I think it's a wider community discussion GOs and players need to have.
My personal preference is to diversify blaster choices and request minimum engagement distances of 40ft for anything over 220FPS so folks carry a suitably lower powered side arm. If you're in buildings or close quarters, I'd rather players be forced to swap out to sidearms and PDBs that are lower powered to engage in those spaces. It should be obvious if you're entering maze spaces and areas like the containers at Splatoon that it's time to transition and keep your Longarm at the door. Marshals can highlight these zones at the briefing in the same bracket as not using smokes in buildings.
It keeps lower powered stuff relevant, is a much safer option and forces tactical choices to be made. For example, if you're only carrying a Longarm then you're going to want to back off and suppress through windows and cover exits at longer distances than going in and clearing rooms. This option also prevents negligent discharges by suprised players that might otherwise have used hand tags or bang rules.
I'm increasingly concerned with the ongoing FPS creep and higher powered tech creep that we're going to get broken teeth or airway problems from close up shots to the mouth and teeth. The cost of failure rises rapidly with increasing power levels. This goes double for higher FPS MEGA which has been in play at ~250FPS which is 7J compared to a half dart at 4J or a paintball's 5J. Now, we could force everyone into paintball style face masks with a mesh mouth protection but I'm concerned about compliance while the cost of failure remains the same. If we're moving into longer form games then keeping your mouth covered is a nightmare and compliance will drop rapidly.
It has been part of my longer term blaster plan to ensure that I can engage safely in the sub-40ft space once I acquire something that will fire 220FPS+ because it's just good manners not to belt someone up close with something that powerful.
More solid hand tag, bang and melee rules would help mitigate this problem as well. There's a lot of kudos in using the rubber knives to get tags in longer form games and some folks seem to really enjoy that aspect of the game.
This isn't a problem that's from bad or misbehaving players, I'd like to be clear. It's a problem that comes from a combination of the gap that COVID has forced in our play experiences added to the fact that consistent 250-300FPS play has actually started to become a reality. The technology has moved from theoretical, experimental 'chronograph queen' blasters to actual practical service rifles that can layer down effective fire at those velocities.
We're lucky that we're early enough in the community's development that we can steer this particular ship to mould an example that we want to see. However, as we start to grow as a community, the barriers to entry will drop and players that aren't necessarily as responsible by virtue of not having worked to develop the technology will begin to play. That's not a bad thing, of course, but we need to make these choices now and give them the example to follow when they join us. We've done a very good job in being open and welcoming in all areas so this will be no different.
My vote will always be for recommended MEDs, melee options and zones where higher powered stuff needs to be dialled back in order to give us the widest array of tactical options. Enforcement then comes along our traditional route of positive example, positive reinforcement with marshals only needed to periodically tap folks on the shoulder with a gentle reminder. Yes, face shields are a simpler solution but far less elegant in my opinion. Plus, we'd have to enforce a minimum standard on eye protection on top and I'm not sure everyone's gear is EN166 rated.
