Dead Man's Flaps and Combat Efficacy

NOTE: This is a long and rambling one but I get asked about this stuff a lot so I thought I'd answer it all here. I'm a Humans vs Zombies player first and foremost so much of this stuff is taken from that angle but is very applicable to a number of other games.

How not to play Humans vs Zombies

Designing for Nerf is weird, I've said it time and time again when posting here and around the company's general social media bubble. Unlike the military spec stuff around, most Nerf wars are fought in parks over the course of a single day. The hardest use most of our equipment will see is a week long Humans versus Zombies game once a term but even then players will return to base to rest and refuel. It's extremely unlikely (and outside of our design scope) that people will be camping up trees for days playing Nerf games. If you are in the latter category, let me know - I just want to know.

I've been asked a couple of times, why no flaps? Our pouches have that funny shock cord and toggle thing going on while our rig and holsters are totally absent of them, relying instead on MOLLE and friction respectively. It used to be that infantrymen would refer to the flap on their holster as a 'dead man's flap' because it would get you killed in the time you took to get around it and draw your weapon. Quick draw is essential for BUZAN players and given they're a reasonably average Nerfing group, I'd wager it's important for everyone else too. Even the MkIII only has a small fixed retaining strap after we literally exhausted every other option (I'm not joking, you guys only saw the mag locks and the plastic buckles, our better ideas!). Why? Because I want to get to my blaster as fast as damn possible, I've just realised my Stampede has just jammed and I've got less than a second to get this shot off before I get turned. Fumbling with a flap in that situation? No thanks.

MilSpec M4 Multicam pouch, damn flaps!

There are other reasons why flaps are unnecessary. Drawing a clip isn't as life or undeath (geddit?) as a side-arm but it's annoying to have to fiddle with things when you're trying to concentrate on the horde that's charging you. Besides, many of the flap designs are there to keep dust, grit and other crap out of magazines that, in a fire-arm, would probably take your head off if the round were to get stuck in the chamber. The worst you'll get with Nerf is a scratched up brass breech that you'll need to clean up and service. Any one who has a one knows this and ought to be sensible enough to maintain their kit correctly. Cost is another factor that puts flaps out of the equation: it costs a lot less for a 45cm length of shock cord, a golf toggle and a pair of 25mm webbing squares than it would for either a side release buckle or velcro followed by the extra binding, Cordura and such that a flap would need. We have a very strict pricing policy here to cater to our market so if we can make it cheaper without compromising quality, we will. Flaps are a nuisance and get in the way when things get heated.

Combat Efficacy (or how your Longshot might not be as badass as you might think)

That brings me onto the second part of what is now looking like an essay: Combat Efficacy (CE). This is a nebulous term I made up sometime in the early days of BUZAN's armoury team. It is a rough metric of how something will perform under the stress of combat. A blaster is a tool to help you play the game, you need the right tool for the job but you also need to know how to use it. A lot of this might seem obvious for experienced players but I'm still going to get this off my chest because it's important.

Where's your singled Titan now?

For example, a Brass Breech Longshot with a stefan accepting breech, 24kg firing spring and 150ft+ range is all well and nice but its CE is bugger all when you're playing Humans vs Zombies. That slow rate of fire (RoF) is going to get you killed and you'd be better off wrapping the LS in some LARP safe foam and clubbing the zombies to death. A well balanced Stampede on the other hand is much more effective. The full auto feature shouldn't be used in of itself but using it semi-automatically can remove the distraction of needing to re-prime between shots and allows you to concentrate on threat assessment. Even outside of HvZ, rate of fire and ease of use need to be considered probably more than range. It's a personal beef of mine that large portions of the NIC (Nerf Internet Community) see range as the hollowed factor  often at the expense of everything else. The nature of foam darts is that they are reasonably easy to dodge at range so while you can lob a dart at me from across a field, I'm still going to saunter away if I see it coming.

It's important to note that CE is a broader thing that just how good an individual player is with something. For example, a Raider is a brilliant anti-horde blaster because of that slam-fire and drum magazine. It has a brilliant CE rating in that regard but a left handed user is going to struggle because of the asymmetric design. DDespite being highly efficacious in the given situation, it isn't for that player.

Finally, let's bring this back to what BSUK does best: tactical gear. Combat efficacy of flaps is minimal, they get in the way and serve no purpose for Nerfers. Secure yet accessible clip holders, are essential as are accessible side-arms and the like.

I've rambled on enough now, if you're still reading, thank you. At the end of the day, it's all about compromise and play-testing to work out what fits for our market - that philosophy has served us well so far, long may it continue! Now where's my Stampede? I've got zombies to hunt.

- Mike, BSUK MD

POST SCRIPT: I've just remembered my Stampede has a drive train fault and currently doesn't function. Consequently, I am just about to be overwhelmed, send help - or LARP safe foam, whichever. :D

MkII Tactical Vest Development - Design to prototype beginnings

We've taken a commission from someone to develop a full tactical vest for military style LARP characters. This is a custom item that won't ever enter full production so we've obtained permission to blog about its development. I thought it'd offer a nice insight into one method of development. This way is much looser and less combat focused than our usual method but it's still fun to write about an item from beginning to end.

The brief we received was reasonably broad and is paraphrased as follows:

• Military style vest replete with PALS webbing and stuff
• No cost limit, just build something amazing
• Must include all amenities for a day in the field including water and food storage
• Character will take the same attitude to camouflage as Warhammer 40K Space Marines
• Red and Black or White and Blue colour schemes

From that reasonably broad brief, we developed a specification:

• Use a military pattern MOLLE system plate carrier as the departure point and build from there
• Include hydration pouch pocket with appropriate tube fixings and access points
• Inside pocket for secure storage for keys and the like
• ALL of the MOLLE webbing
• Morale pouch attachments points on the front only
• Tactical belt attachment in the same way as our production MkV tactical rig
• Lightweight breathable mesh and foam to be used on the back plate if possible
• Front zip for easy doffing and donning
• Rank slide attachment points
• Easy to disassemble and clean parts separately whilst being completely adjustable to fit the client
• Thick padded front plates to provide a physical representation of Osprey style body armour
• Use red and black colouring because we have all of the black Cordura fabric floating around
• Medical pouch to include quick access glove pouch and space for basic first aid kit
• Catering pouch to include cutlery pouch and space for rat packs
• Production clip holders made in custom cloth with custom edging

Some not-final scribbles

We didn't have a military style plate carrier to hand so we had to improvise. Using waistcoat patterns found on-line, the Nerf tactical vest and some scribbles on a piece of paper we drew up our own pattern. We had to take measurements from the client to give us a broad outlook on how big the vest needed to be but with that we were able to proceed.

Wild scribblings on some fabric

This is my personal favourite stage of any development project. We take some cheap calico fabric and cut out a very rough version of the item. This one, as you can see opposite hasn't even been hemmed or sewn beyond the very rudimentary lines to give it a rough shape. Black marker pen is then used to mark out the layout of key features on the final vest itself. That's what's so fun about it, you can stick it on someone and draw on the fabric, adding things in and crossing stuff out. This item is very feature heavy in line the client's brief with lots of expansion and storage space hence a lot of black about. The 'SRB' text stands for 'side release buckle' which will allow the product to be readily adjusted and disassembled for cleaning and maintenance. It also makes the production team happy because the three components (two front plates and one back plate) can be worked on separately. The double width Velcro MOLLE serves two purposes. First it allows for the fixation of Velcro backed morale pouches. Second it's wide enough that it will serve as a loop to feed slings through and prevent neck chafing and other things. Not sure if it will work yet but it's a prototype for a reason! :)

In case you're still wondering, MOLLE is this stuff. I think I elaborated on it in a previous post but it's a webbing format that allows modularity and customisation in our, and a lot of other companies', products. Nearly all of our kit is MOLLE compatible in one way or another and it seemed logical to continue with this theme in our custom work. There is a huge amount of space for locating pouches and such on this design with including plenty of space for morale patches and ID stuff. There is only one fixed pouch on this one and that's for an ID pouch with optional cover flap.

The construction of this vest will differ from our current production items. Many of them are built inside-out and then turned about to give rolled seam and softer edge than would normally be expected. In this instance, all the extra pouches and additions would favour a different method. The attitude to camouflage item of the original brief came into play here so we elected to edge the vest with bright red textured binding tape in the style of a lot of DPM pouches and stuff. What we'll do this time around, rather than turning things, is put together all the layers to form a sandwich and then sew them together in one big run. If successful, this could become a mainstream construction method as we develop the 'look and feel' of our products in the coming months.

Any seaming or sealing method like this is needed for two reasons. One, to stop fabric fraying. The ballistic nylon we use isn't prone to it but in the field it might well get tattier quicker so it needs doing. The other advantage is that it covers a great many sins when cutting the fabric by hand. Cordura is a nightmare to work with (not as bad as calico but that's for a different reason) at the cutting stage because it can be so inflexible. There is a third reason (one I discovered when discussing this with my Production Director) suggesting not needing seams is likely to induce some kind of panic attack in your haberdashery trained staff followed swiftly by a thick ear and a telling off! :)

Rough Cordura prototype

Still, the third stage is the prototype: opposite is a pinned together shell of the three body components to give a general idea of what we're looking for. Remember, this is only a prototype and it's pinned not strapped together as it will be in the final version. The pin in the middle is knocking the whole thing out of shape making the final shape difficult to see from just a simple photo. It's why we do this, having things in your hands you can work with is much easier than having to do it all in your head. You can see the beginnings of chalk drawings as we thrash out the layout of all the layers, more have been added since this photo was taken and they will allow us to add bits and pieces as they are made. It's all a long, step by step process to get to the end result. No different from anything else we've put out on the market really.

I'll continue to update the blog with how this commission progresses over the next few weeks. The item itself won't enter production but the opportunity to reflect on three solid months of development work with such freedom is guaranteed to yield results as methods and ideas are exchanged between the two separate development threads. This sort of custom work will be one of two engines of growth for our product portfolio over the next few months. I'll blog about the other one when BUZAN starts up again.

Tactical Rig: It's been a long road...

So we've got a release date for the MkV tactical rig. I wanted to put this out here because someone is going to ask why we're launching with a MkV and not the logical MkI. Well, here we go.

MkI - Vest
The MkI was essentially the current Hasbro owned Nerf tactical vest with MOLLE webbing on it. The problem with that is the difference in body shape between men and women makes a vest next to unusable for women. We were faced with a choice between building two separate rigs or building something that fitted everyone. We chose the latter. There's no sense only designing for 50% of the population when a few simple changes will open it up to the other 50%.

MkII - Yoke
The MkII was essentially a yoke system with a belly rig. It was thrown out because there wasn't enough space for it to carry awesome stuff.

MkIII - Tactical Rig Micro

MkIV sample rig

The MkIII was the hybrid tactical rig. It's a cross between a vest, and a yoke. It has a back plate and plenty of space to get stuff attached to it but there was a SNAFU with the anthropometric data and it would have only fitted 2 year-olds.



MkIV - Tactical Rig Proper
The MkIV saw the addition of a belt to maintain shape, expand capacity and increase integration with our broader tactical gear range. It also saw a redesign of the straps and D-rings.

MkV - Release Edition
The MkV is the edition you will see out in the field. It has had nearly 2 months of solid development work and field testing. It has a wide range of compatible accessories and has a number of changes over the MkIV. Following community feed back, the back plate has been stiffened with an extra layer of Cordura Nylon fabric to allow for extra weight to be fixed to the it. We added built-in pouches to the belly rig to remove the need to buy extra stuff to make the rig useful: it adds a nice platform beyond storing stuff in your cargo trousers while you're saving for the next item in your collection.

So there you go, the full development pathway of the BSUK Tactical Rig. I'm reasonably nervous about letting this baby onto the market especially when there are so many other good offerings from military companies but we're the only people within our market segment at this price point, I believe. It's sort of like letting a child leave home, you're worried what everyone will think but in the end it'll turn out to be fine. Hopefully.

The MkV is available for order on 10th April 2013 at www.blastersmiths.co.uk.