YHR

Hi Rey

I have tried to get people interested In changing up the status quo, but I have found most people just want to watch their model tanks move, and be engaged in a simple battle. In short, just keep it simple. I think between the variable limiting resistor pot on the IR emitter, and your idea of modding a stock Tamiya apple by simply removing "Parts" of it, are enough ideas to see if people a really interested in changing anything.

These two ideas are available to all and are easily reversible to get the equipment back to stock with no harm done.


Personally I would like to see all tanks set to the medium status, and then use IR range and speed to distinguish from light to heavy.

I think you will see over time some of these ideas may be used for experimentation, and perhaps one off type battles during club meets. My observation over the years is that the standard of the Tamiya system game give 80% of the people all they want. What they want is a system that is rock solid and consistent. Why the Clark and the DBC3 are being accepted is not because of much else other then they can use a Tamiya apple, and blend in perfectly with the Tamiya's. If people are enjoying what they are doing it is pretty hard to gain any momentum to change anything.

You may find a club here or a club there doing something more, but universally it is almost impossible to change the game.

I think it is good for us to continue reminding people of the options available to easily tweak the standard base system, and just see what happens over time. More advanced games are probably best left to computer simulations of tank battles. This 1/16 IR thing is more about scale modelers watching their models perform than it is about realistic battle simulations.

What really changed my mind on this was my Danville experience. There is a lot of preparation required to ensure all tanks meet the Tamiya minimum standard. If you start complicating the set up more then this the logistics of ensuring all the tanks are set up as they should be would be a daunting task for some poor soul.

I am sure people are already discovering the fact of the systems that are using something else other then the Tamiya apple causing some doubts and complaints about how "fair" the fight is. The Tamiya apple has a bunch of defensive characteristics on the one hand, and the work bench built sensors are so random in their effectiveness they cause concern on the other. This leads to meaningless battles where you don't really know if the outcomes are a measure of anyone's skill or just people capitalizing on a non standard quirk of a particular piece of the IR system. There is the inherent problem of trying to advance the game. IF the advancements create doubt among the participants the fairness of the game comes into doubt, and this becomes a very bad thing.. People just don't want to be cannon fodder out there. They want a game system that gives them a chance to win a battle. The basic Tamiya system does that, and very few really care how prototypical the fight is.