/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>310421

Its going to be a lot more expensive then just buying the equipment. Materials, time invested and the knowledge you would need would be phenomenal.

IF you want to rent your land out then paintball is a much better option at the moment. Its just a lot more current and popular.

I know a site that runs paintball, laser tag and airsoft days. The paintball is by far the most popular for single events and the most profitable. Airsoft draws the largest number of repeat customers and the biggest numbers on single days. Hardly anyone wants to play laser based games but there are a few. Its just outdated and not as satisfying as the other two. Its also really, really inaccurate.

>>310447
Not looking to rent it out, just for me and my friends. Any estimates for a vest and gun? Time is of no concern.

You'll need at least an arduino with wifi, laser, casings, and a hellaton of sensors per gun/vest. Shit ain't cheap, and the software will be generally difficult to write.

>>310447
In my city, tons of people travel to a neighbouring municipality to play laser tag at local facility. It's always booked up on weekends and you need to plan to play a few weeks in advance.

Google 'milestag'. There was a good looking system being developed about 10 years ago that I was building but it kind of ran out of steam.

>laser tag
>over paintball
*sigh*

Oh well, good luck OP!

Frankly I don't understand why laser tag is stuck in the eighties. I mean even the newest stuff is tron level retro, I guess it's there thing.

Been looking into the potential of this tech for a while. The commercial set ups are horribly abused and inaccurate built from transistor radio parts. Why it hasn't been properly modernized and popularized is beyond me.
In laser tag you can upgrade your weapon on the fly, switch weapons with a push of a button, use shields, heal, and auto sentries/ remote drones are so much easier to implement. No ammo/ propellent costs, no damage to play areas opens up more venue possibilities.
Miles tag is a great resource for understanding the basics and what has been done. From what I've learned there methinks hardware and software has changed a bit since last updates.

Proper systems really don't use lasers anymore it's all about ultrabright IR LEDs behind a lens stack. Been holding on to the guts from a two telescopes for this for some time now.

Optic-Tag has the potential to be live action Team Fortress. No other system has this potential.

Live action video games FTW!!

I have been kicking around the idea of damage representation through rgb LEDs. Put one on each sensor package so you can get "winged" (red LED on your arm turns on), or even "bleed out" with the led blinking on a death timer. Put a button that resets the timer next to the led so you can survive longer if you "apply pressure to the wound".

Since the system works by throwing 16 bit data packets back and forth a wide range of effects can be achieved with one tagger. Health shot? Uber-ray?

Mix that with wifi packets, gps, and a programed online map. One might see the potential of virtual/hyper reality live action gaming. Maybe play in a real environment with interactive virtual game elements. Mix gps locations with "power ups", what about roaming invisible monsters that will send damage packets to your rig via wifi if you get to close?

Tossing ideas out there. Map out a park virtually. Program "radiation zones", throw in a few "anomalies" that randomly appear on the map. Go play live action stalker.

Or I dream of mapping out a full blueprint of a place and virtually haunting it with ghosts that can be only seen through a smartphone or tablet. Go ghost busting.

I see more hear than bang! Your dead!

Ultimately I would say $100 dollars a player is a safe bet financially. Depending on how many people you have to want to play (start a club, you got a club house already you lucky bastard) for bulk buys of parts.

Really it's on par with paintball if you just want to get started but you never buy ammo (batteries/electricity sure), no face masks, and no psychedelic bird crap everywhere.

>>311141
This is actually a really good idea..

>>311108
>>311141
continued...
Not OP but been thinking about this for some time and I'm just gonna spew a bit here.

The lens from a kids kaleidoscope/bug eye lens works in reverse allowing light to ome in from many angles and focus to a single spot. A single IR receiver under this can cover a wide field of view this way. This can be mounted in elbow/knee pads, chest rig and helmet/headband.

An arduino is pretty cheap and has plenty of I/O both digital and analog. Flex/bend sensors are dirt cheap to make and can be stitched into elbow and knee pads real useful for reminding players of limb injuries, maybe even with a prerecorded "ouch!" that plays when triggered.

This is where I get crazy. An arduino can hold onto and execute code. If everyone is wearing one, anyone in the game is holding a potential "virtual character sheet".
The miles tag system already has examples of how damage and healing can be handled via packet transfer so the system already keeps track of hit points. The advanced systems run the packet through a program before counting hits. Factoring signal strength of a three packet burst to judge accuracy of shot (all in milliseconds of course).
Why not add in "character augmentations" RPG style like fallout? Example: higher dexterity means your squirly giving you a better chance of "dodging" a shot. High strength could give to hit bonuses when firing heavy weapon modes/ powered up shots. and so forth.

So much more potential than paintball.

More crazy idea rant involving Optic-Tag technology.

Now I've established my notions of:
Virtual character sheet
wounded limbs
combining virtual elements into live play

All of this incorporated into a personal system with sensors, lights and switches on each limb, body and head.

The other thing I was thinking about more for live RPG than run and gun would be a bar code reader to read printed codes for food, medicines, bandaids, drugs etc. Pretty much any modifiers from items you can imagine from every vidya you've played can be thrown in this way. This gives an automated inventory of consumables which don't have to be, but can be physical props, found, stolen, traded, what have you.

Optic-Tag lets you build team based auto turrets by assigning a specific packet for turret "Bullets" which your team ignores. This lets you build a sentry which doesn't even have to be motion activated. Just left pulsing could lock down an area.

Since your playing with light it has different properties than projectiles. A stack of lenses will give you a long range shot but by diffusing or using a cluster of low grade LEDs you can cover a wide area in a short distance like a flame thrower. A short range LED sending the "instant kill" packet on a rubber/foam knife makes for "stealth kills". Mines and grenades are easy to build and reuse also no chance of harming bystanders. So play nearly any were.

Can't believe no one has mixed optic-tag with electric go-carts. Damage adjusting tension on individual wheel coaster brakes, steering response and or engine power.
Drive around on a black light racetrack, put power-ups onto the tack with projectors so you can drive right through them. Every weapon is one the cart just not available till you activate it.
Get some real life mario cart up in this B.

>>311141
>no psychedelic bird crap everywhere.
You, sir, are my hero.


>>311274
>optic-tag
>electric go-carts
We've done better, imo.
dunebuggies + paintball
Throw in jeeps, helis (has happened, fucking crazy) dirt bikes, as well as crazy awesome mortars and potato like launchers, and you have an amazing game.

>>311333
Not to mention setting up a "respawn" point so if you're killed, you don't just hide and wait for 10 seconds for your gun to work again—instead, you have to huff it back to the respawn point, have some sensor there spit out the "unlock gun again, reset damage tracker" signal.

buy a bunch of those one dollar lasers at the dollar store, throw it at kids in a dark room, tell them if they get hit in the eye they lose.