Lazer Tag Team Ops Tips, Tricks, and Training

Training Videos

I'm working on a set of training videos for LTTO users. This list will include a complete hosting tutorial as well as individual tagger tutorials. For now, it has my first training video. These videos are shown using the YouTube service. If you have a YouTube account, feel free to add a comment, give the video a rating, or make it a favorite and stuff.

Quick Hosting Tutorial

This quick, four and a half minute video will give you a simple run-down of how to run a hosted LTTO game. Look forward to a complete tutorial with everything spelled out next spring.

Tips and Tricks

Here are some tips that I've discovered or been told about for using your LTTO equipment. As new products are released, new tips will emerge.

Use good batteries

Using cheap, low quality batteries, or batteries that are not fresh is the surest way to have a bad time. Poor quality or low charge batteries result in short range and poor hit detection. Use new, brand name batteries for best results. Lazer Tag endorses Energizer Max batteries, but Duracell and other good quality batteries are fine. Steer away from the cheap ones. Some store brands are ok, but if you're not sure of the quality, do some range testing against some name brand batteries before having many games with the cheap ones. If you have a stockpile of batteries, be sure to check their expiration dates and/or voltages using a battery checker, to ensure optimum performance. Note that the TMB does not have this requirement. Voltage regulators in the TMB allow it to use any decent battery until it's almost completely expired. Use the TMB to eek out the last several games worth of energy in batteries you've pulled from the pistols for losing range. :)

Leave the speaker on

While turning off the speaker or muting the sound on your tagger might increase overall battery life a little, or make it harder for your opponents to spot you in hiding, the battery life of LTTO taggers is exceptional, and the sounds are much too valuable to not have. There is a sound for almost every action and status indicator in the gear. With practice, you'll know everything there is to know about your situation merely by the sounds your tagger makes. Learn them, and use that knowledge to your advantage.

Use the HUD if you can

The HUD includes a speaker mounted near the ear for the sound effects. With the HUD plugged in and in place, you can turn the speaker on the tagger off, and still hear all the sound effects to help you play better. Also, with the tagger speaker off, only YOU can hear the sounds it makes, such as out of ammo, shields, or overload. This helps prevent nearby opponents from knowing your status by the sounds your tagger makes. The HUD also has status LEDs that can help you by keeping you informed. Learn to recognize the LED indicators and the sound effects that go with them. With practice, you'll almost never need to even look at the LCD on your tagger. Unfortunately, the HUD is not comfortable for a lot of players. As a result, there are mods that involve improving the comfort of the HUD, or even relocating its functions.

Learn how to aim

Aiming the LTTO Deluxe tagger can be tricky because the sights are on the left side rather than the top. Practice getting the sights lined up on your target while holding the tagger in its proper, vertical orientation. If you hold the tagger sideways, or "gangsta" style, other players may not be able to see your sensor, and claim that you are cheating by blocking the sensor. Then practice keeping them lined up while the target moves, and while you move. Then practice bringing up the tagger and getting the sight lined up quickly. The LTTO taggers are fairly accurate for "toy" laser tag guns, and so properly aiming it is very important for long range tags. You can also practice shooting from the hip if you like, but landing tags is usually more important than looking cool. ;-) The IRT-2X and Tag Master Blaster taggers have "iron" sights on the top of the tagger, with the notch above the screen, and the post on the transceiver dome. Simply line up the post in the notch and put that on your target for an accurate shot.

Add a scope

Since LTTO has such long range for a toy, people don't realize that you really DO need to aim them, or how far away you can land a tag if your aim is true. If you can snag an LTTO 2-Pack Accessory Kit somewhere, even as part of another set of LTTO gear, GET IT! The Thunder Pack provides excellent feedback, and the Scope really does help improve your aim. Note that for perfect aim with the LTTO "Virtual Scope" you need to put batteries in and turn the green dot on. Center the green dot on the crosshairs in the scope, then put that on your target. You'll be landing tags over 250 feet away with ease. Also, if you've got a scope from some other kind of toy or something, see if it will fit on your LTTO tagger, maybe with a scope ring or some other simple modification. You might be surprised to see what some players have managed to put on their taggers. ;-)

Learn the interface

The LTTO interface is considerably more complicated than previous Lazer Tag and other laser sport products. Take the time to sit down and learn what all the indicators mean, what information is available to you before, during, and after a game, and how to navigate the screens and read the information. If you have no idea what you're looking at or how to get some information, you'll be slowing down the hosting/joining and debriefing process for the rest of the players, not to mention putting yourself in danger of tags if you spend too much time trying to see how many tags you have left or how much longer the game will last if you don't know how to check for that information quickly.

Make a Zone Tagger Tripod

To play games where there is any kind of Zone, such as the Own the Zone and 2/3 Teams Own the Zone games, it's helpful to have a way to set the Zone Tagger down such that it will remain level and not fall over. Some people have found that propping one against a wall, or in the branches of a small tree, or even certain camera tripods screwed into the Thunder Pack mount will work. If you find those unavailable or unreliable, here's a quick and easy, and most importantly, cheap way to keep your Deluxe Tagger in a good position to serve as a Zone.
 
All you need is a wire hanger, a pair of heavy wire snips, and some pliers. I don't have any measurements for you, 'cus I just kind of fiddled with it until it worked well enough. The main trick is to only make it "pinch" hard enough to remain in place. If you have the hanger pinch too hard on the tagger, it will want to twist and fall over as the hanger attempts to close together. Anyway, a few strategic bends of the hanger, and it's ready. Just put the ends of the hanger into the little notches on each side of the tagger's barrel, and it will stay. Pretty nifty, eh? :)

Here's another version. I did this just to test, and plan to make a longer one with more slots out of wood. Basically, it's a stand for multiple Deluxe taggers to be held in a space efficient manner, such as during games when people aren't actually playing, or at an arena that uses the taggers. Anyway, just an idea I thought of.

Basically, I just took some cardboard and cut slots in it at appropriate locations. The grid on the first image is a 1" grid, which tells you all you need to know. Note that the stand is for Deluxes with the accessory pack. Without the Thunder Pack, the stand wouldn't be as tall, maybe take an inch off the bottom.

My next one will be all wood, and permanently mounted at the correct angle, so that when it's completely empty, it's still ready to have taggers put into it. The only problem is that this technique doesn't work at all for the IRT-2x/Drone model. :\

Get a holster for your IRT-2x

Sometimes you need to do other things with both hands, and you don't want to put your tagger on the ground where it can get stepped on or dirty. While the Deluxe design doesn't lend itself to a holster very well, the IRT-2x (Drone) does. One clever player discovered that cordless drill holsters were large enough for the Drone. You can get these from hardware stores that sell such things (Lowe's, Home Depot, etc.) and there are generally two kinds: the heavy nylon fabric kind, and the leather kind:

As you can see, the green nylon holster looks pretty good with the green Drone. It fits really quite well, also.
The leather holster isn't quite as flexible, but as it's leather, it will break in over time. One of the nice things about the leather kind (the light leather like in the picture, that is) is that it can be molded and formed to the shape of the tagger to fit better. Check my Mods page for instructions on how to do that.