Thursday, September 6, 2012

Post Game Report: 9-3-12

Loaned my OMW Longstrike to a friend for the game
On Labor Day a few friends got together to have an outdoor Nerf match.  As you know, I play games indoors, so this was an interesting opportunity for me.  We had plenty of space, even parked a few cars out in an empty lot to act as barricades and cover during the match.  No-one had any homemade blasters, just stock and modified Nerf-brand blasters using stock darts.  It was what I expected, lots of dodging darts on poor trajectories, getting the jump on folks caught reloading, and a massive cleanup.  However, after we were done with our outdoor games, we moved indoors and had a blast in a large unfinished basement.  The whole event really just solidified why I do what I do: Nerf indoors, Laser Tag outdoors.

The game host, decked out a little TOO much
There were 10 of us total at the event, nothing big or fancy.  I didn't manage to get a full group shot of the players, as I was just too busy playing the game and finding all our darts.  It was fun, but I definitely preferred the indoor games.   The indoor setting was a large unfinished basement.  We would have one team start inside and have the attacking team enter through the double doors to the walk-in basement.  The doors were metal and rusty, so we would actually kick open the doors to start each round.  From there, it was a lights-out battle to clear the room that was fun for both sides.  A large room to enter into, a second large unfinished room, and a long narrow unlit hallway to connect the two areas made for some exciting games and interesting strategies.

However, there was a casualty amidst the fun.  The OMW Longstrike's breech broke, in the same place as it had before.  This is the replacement part Orange Mod Works sent me and even while the blaster is using thew 5kg spring instead of the original 6kg spring and using the Xplorer top-grip to single-hand prime the blaster while keeping pressure even to both sides, the kit still failed.  I am extremely unhappy with this result and will likely not even bother asking for another replacement from them.  It also has me rethinking the long-standing pre-order on the Immortal Longshot kit, as my faith in OMW has been dwindling ever since the kit delays in January of 2012.  It has been nothing but overpriced products with long delays and failing parts the past few months.  I'm seriously reconsidering doing any future business with OMW when it comes to their kits (aside from springs, which I don't think they're capable of screwing up).  After every precaution was taken with this Longstrike, the same failure happens.

3 comments:

  1. So a single part of one kit breaks (after OMW has announced that the longstrike has a poor structural design at that point regardless, even with the polycarbonate) and you're ready to write them off as a whole? Right. Because that entirely defines everything they make.

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    1. Sit in my shoes for a minute. I waited through months of testing for quality to avoid problems and half a year later when it did finally come out, it still had problems. Blame it on the design all you want, but OMW still went ahead and sold Longstrike kits that fail and fail often. NOW consider having a pre-order for a Longshot kit, another bolt-action polycarbonate-based kit that is taking ages to get the kinks worked out of it. How much faith would you have in a company that made you wait for a different kit only to have it break twice on you later? It just doesn't seem like a worthwhile investment anymore based on my experience with waiting for the Longstrike Massacre kit.

      I like bolt-action blasters. The Longstrike and Longshot are among my favorites, which is why OMW's kits seemed like a good idea at the time.

      Yes, a single part of one kit broke... twice. OMW should've cancelled the Longstrike kit and refunded money instead of continue to take orders on a design they have proven to be flawed.

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  2. Just spend some extra money on Xplorer stuff.

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