In pretty much any shooting game, be it with Nerf, Laser Tag, Paintball, or even videogames like First Person Shooters, lag is bad. From the time that you react to pull the trigger, if the device doesn't react the second you do, you suddenly have a wall between your own reaction time and your intended target. If your target is stationary, lag doesn't really have that much of a negative effect on your performance. However, if you're trying to hit a moving target (of which you should already be leading to account for that) and it lags, it becomes increasingly difficult to hit your intended target.
In the Nerf Games I've had, be it indoor or outdoor (though almost all of mine are indoor), I've found that a player with a quick reaction time will always beat one with a slower draw, regardless of the blaster. Our house rules are a 1 hit kill, so in a fight between a fully loaded Hail Fire and a Jolt, it doesn't matter how many darts the Elite blaster can dish out if the user with the Jolt manages to hit them first.
In the fast-paced games I have played with Nerf blasters, speed is always the key. I have seen players be wildly successful with single-fire blasters even when they are outmatched in firepower by something like a Stampede or Vulcan. It doesn't matter how much ammo you can dish out at once if your first shot doesn't beat your opponent's. I have often wondered about doing a mod with a Stampede to have it chamber the first round when a clip is inserted to avoid this kind of lag, but manually-primed blasters still work better for reaction speed since the dart is released the second your trigger is pulled. This is why the advantage of being "First to Fire" is so important to me. The Speedswarm, of the blasters I have mentioned that suffer from this lag, is the slowest of them. This lies at the heart of my distaste for this blaster. Like I've said before, if you can manage to work with a blaster like that, more power to you. However, in my experience, the edge of connecting your reaction time directly to the firing of that dart will always reign supreme.
I totally get your point of view. But lets just say you are battling a person that has a Recon and you have a Speedswarm, you can possible dodge the opponents first shot and if you have a Speedswarm you don't have to worry about cocking the gun, so you might be able to corner them and win!
ReplyDelete(Just my theory)
Dodging darts is a must for these games. However, it doesn't seem wise to rely on being able to dodge every shot just to fire your blaster ;)
DeleteThis makes a lot of sense. I've seen entire teams fall because they chose Nerf guns that were automatic and slow to quickdraw than those with out. Using the same logic would potentially render the Rayven and other flywheel blasters a double edged sword though.
ReplyDeleteSo far as stock electronic blasters are concerned, Vulcans are best in terms of startup lag on the first shot, since you can manually prime it in a bit of downtime, since if it's manually primed there's zero startup lag, even in automatic mode, because it's already primed.
ReplyDeleteI never even considered that remedy for the Vulcan. Great idea!
Deletespeedswarm is OK, it has nice range but yes the lag is what lets it down 4 me.
ReplyDeleteIn your third sentence in the first paragraph, you used the word "effect" where it made no sense. "Effect" means to accomplish; maybe you just got it mixed up with "affect" which means "To have an influence on".
ReplyDeleteBy the way, I have found that, unless you have them already revved up, flywheel blasters have the longest lag time.
P.S. I like your picture of all the blasters on the ping pong table.
Thanks for the English lesson. Just an honest mistake on my part.
DeleteFlywheel blasters like the Barricade that are constantly on don't have that issue but yes, the blasters with an acceleration trigger can cause the biggest lag issue if you're not prepared to fire.
And that shot of the collection on the ping pong table is about a 6th of my collection.