Bonuses... how many?

[Cold Iron Charlie]

How many bonus targets do you like on each stage? Do too many bonuses slow the pace of a stage or too few make it too fast? Should there be a mix of the number of bonuses? Cold Iron

[Black Jack Traven]

If I had my way, every shot would be a bonus shot. Watchin shooters get negative times is cool.

I have heard the hot sticks say that they do not aim any longer at the bonus targets. The white draws the focus and tends to center up the shots.

Now me (as opposed to the hot sticks) being a sight nazi (sight submissive?, sight compulsive?), I enjoy some reward for my slowness.

How about you Charlie?


Cheers,
BJT

[Cold Iron Charlie]

Jack, for me to do well I've discovered I have to shoot for bonuses. However, this slows the pace and makes the stage seem long. Earlier in this game we shot less bonuses and more big targets you could walk and shoot, also seems we had more options to shoot the stage. I would like to see a mix of these types of stages. Cold Iron

[Irish Red O'Toole]

Under the way we do things currently, 15 or more bonuses per stage seems to require that the shooter get 75% of the available bonuses to compete.  When the stage has less....say 10 or so.....the bonus tally means far less than smooth operation of the firearms.  LAst Sunday there were 20 bonuses on each of 5 stages and only 10 on one stage.  On the 10-bonus stage (since it was shotgun heavy), the key to a good stage time was how well you shot your shotgun.  Any bonuses you got were just gravy.  On the 20-bonus stages, you had to hit 14-16 to stay in the hunt.  Cold Iron and I were almost dead even on raw time, but he was up on my by 10 bonuses.  He beat me in the match by those 10 bonus seconds.

So, what's my answer?  Maybe I don't have one.  Other than we might need to continue to mix it up on total bonuses on a stage and not let them get to top heavy.  Yes, negative times are cool to see (and do if possible!), but I'm not sure if I want the slowing down to hit bonuses to outweigh the action side of the event.  My jury is still out on this one.  When in doubt, shoot more and figure it all out later.

[Cold Iron Charlie]

And Tex Fiddler beat me by 3 seconds raw and 10 MORE bonuses. I still prefer faster paced stages (less bonuses) to a bullseye type stage, I would like to see a mix in an effort to please the most shooters. I also think the odd stage (12 shotgun, wigwag, etc.) keeps us on our toes and makes the match more interesting. Even the dreaded Texas star. 12 SHOTGUN! Red, did we do that? Cold Iron

[Excalibur]

I think mixing it up would be way more fun.(variety is the spice of life)

I liked the shotbun stage 'cause it was different, the thing that was a bit boring was taarting EVERY stage with the pistols.

I'm not complaing cause the stages were set up VERY well and it was all fun to shoot.

[Irish Red O'Toole]

I agree the 10-shotgun stage was fun.  It was originally supposed to be an all-shotgun (20+) stage.  That would have been fine too.  I could have done without the "ports" though.  Width wasn't the problem.  It was purely the height issue.  Shooting positions need to be height neutral to not cause unfair advantages.  They should be short enough for the shortest of shooters...like juniors....and tall enough for us freaks 'o nature to shoot without stooping.  There was one bank of targets on the left hand side that didn't have a height issue.  Why?  Because instead of "ports" we shot through the narrow opening between two barricades.  No artificially-imposed height limitations.  I wish the other two positions could have been so.

Sammy......can you hear me NOW??

[Black Jack Traven]

A quick thought on the shotgun stage.

W3G has a flavor of movement while shooting. The shotgun ports dampened that flavor by anchoring the shooter to a very specific position to shoot and not allowing targets to be taken on the move.

Of course the world will not stop spinning because this showed up once but I can hope it is not a trend.

And I still think every target should be a bonus target. Yes this comes from a sight nazi BUT even with bonus heavy stages the sight nazi will not prevail because speed AND accuracy are required to win. A good thing, yes?

Very Best Regards,
BJT

[Cold Iron Charlie]

Jack, all bonuses? Even the shotgun? Cold Iron

[Black Jack Traven]

Naw, not the shotgun, but rifle and revolver for sure!!!!