Incoming! BFS launches new SATR Software

Incoming! Battlefield Sports Unleashes New Software for Commercial Laser Tag Game-Play

honey badger Renowned live gaming software developer and laser tag manufacturer Battlefield Sports is releasing a new version of its patented laser tag system SATR.

Battlefield Sports has a history of tapping into the live gaming zeitgeist with its innovations.

SATR which stands for Small Arms Transmitter Receiver is the company's world-famous patented technology.

This month Battlefield Sports celebrates 20 years in the business with a bang by launching its new SATR3.7 release.

The team has again tapped into the spirit of our time with the addition of upgrades to the firmware and game management software, SATRWARE.

To find out how to get a hold of this new software release, contact your local consultant.

SATR 3.7 FIRMWARE NEW RELEASE

GAME ADJUSTMENTS ON THE FLY

Often operators need to adjust game difficulty on the fly to ensure a mission is not too one-sided. Sometimes it is necessary to adjust so that one team has a much higher chance of winning. With SATR 3.7 the operating staff can change key settings during the game by digital radio for a single team or all teams from the master controller. Performing this by radio is much more efficient than using infrared commands. The most common adjustment is the hit rate, which is the minimum time between hits.

In Battlefield ROYALE theme, for example, the default hit rate is 0.25 seconds, to make it easier for one team, the hit rate can be changed to 0.5 of a second and make it harder for another team by reducing this to 0.1 of a second.

The difficulty level can also be used on the fly which changes the hit rate and also the recoil. The harder the recoil setting, the longer the red dot disappears after shooting making aiming during automatic-fire more difficult.

Another balancing method is to upgrade on the fly the slot 1 weapon emulation, in Battlefield ROYALE theme, this also kicks off the Automatic Slot Management so if the new slot 1 weapon is better than the one they are using, it will automatically switch to slot 1. For themes that support Armor, providing body armor especially a helmet can help the weaker team, in SATR 3.7 this can be added on the fly as needed from the master controller.

EXPANSION IN THE “Battlefield ROYALE” - SCAVENGER MODE & MORE

In SATR3.7 for the Battlefield ROYALE theme, a new “Scavenger” mode has been introduced. This Scavenger mode means if a gamer kills an opponent, then they get the opponent’s best weapon plus they pick up from the opponent a random aid and ammunition. If the other team has obtained all the best weapons from one of the supply crates, this allows the other team to level the playing field.

Automatic Weapons upgrade upon making a kill now an option for Battlefield ROYALE theme is now supported and upgrades based on the weapon rankings.

NEW SFX With the new “Out of area” voice over and using the Battle Box set as a Royale Box with a whip antenna, it is possible to create battlefield boundaries so that anyone that goes out of bounds takes damage, this applies when there are not sufficient natural boundaries, very handy for a mobile operator. Gamers that are out of the area will also take damage after a couple of warnings; the amount of damage and frequency is configurable.

NEW CONFIGURATIONS FOR THE BATTLE BOX

To reduce the number of battle boxes required in Capture the Flag and Heist missions, the Vault and Flag Box can now both be configured to provide respawns and reloads to the owning team. This is especially helpful for Heist which is often played with 4 teams where each team needs a Vault to deposit their funds. Previously with 4 teams, 4 vaults and 4 medic boxes would have been required plus the money dropbox and a radio repeater (in other words a total of 10 boxes). Now you can get the same functionality with 6 Battle Boxes.

SWITCH BATTLE BOXES TEAMS VIA THE CONTROLLER

Battlefield Operators can switch the teams on Battle Boxes via the SATR-Hub software. Now Operators can get the same functionality via the Master Controller.

The master controller in SATR 3.7 can be used to toggle battle boxes from Team A (Red) and Team B (Blue) by radio. This is very helpful when running missions with only one staff member saving them walking over to each box when changing ends.

One of the major benefits of SATR 3 technology over earlier-generation systems is the much better staff to player ratio. With this new feature and correct use of the master controller especially the pre-recorded phrases, it is quite possible to run games of 40 or more players on a single staff member. The saving in staff costs is where an investment in SATR has an excellent return on investment.

EVEN MORE FLEXIBLE CONFIGURATIONS

Permanent Emulation (weapon) statistic change is now available. This means an operator can edit all the details of a particular weapon and this will be permanently recorded on the SD card. This is brilliant for those Battlefield Operators who want to change underlying weapon characteristics.

IMPROVED “SPARE DEVICE”

With the expanded Spare Device a lot of operators running our standard games with standard settings can set their Battle Boxes to Spare Devices and the staff member just selects from a simple list of what is required. This will speed staff training.

IMPROVED LIGHT EFFECTS

Battlefield Operators can now control the lights on the head sensors. The “Any Phaser” or the “Red Phaser” and the “Blue Phaser” resets now by default turn the hit light on while the gamer is alive and turns it off when dead. This is more like a traditional indoor Laser Tag. In this case, the Red Team will have a RED light on in the head sensor while a player is alive and Blue team, the blue LED.

This can be configured or disabled via the master controller. This is great for traditional indoor laser tag arena game-play and this is brilliant for outdoors at night. It means that you can see other players, the red team has a red light and the blue team, the blue light.

IMPROVED SOUND EFFECTS

Automatic-fire sound effects have been improved. They are now enhanced and smoother.

TIMED BOMB (GRENADE)

Some Battlefield Operators are keen to make their after-market satchel charges. The system now supports a device role “Timed Bomb”. This is perfect for people that want to build their grenade. This could be rolled into a room which then simulates an explosion. This bomb uses the digital radio system to create an area of effect.

NEW VERSION OF SATRWARE

SATR3.7 has been programmed to work with the new version of SATR-Hub, especially the new mission setup wizard. Anyone planning to use the wizards needs to upgrade to SATR3.7.

New Version: SATR-Score

The original Scoreboard was designed for most missions to support 2 teams. There is now an option for every mission to have the scores displayed in a tabular form that supports up to 7 teams.

New Version: SATR-Hub

Here is the screen where for a particular mission within a particular theme the operator can specify how the gaming guns should be set. The elements in yellow are anything that is not consistent with the default values for this theme.

Wizard: Step 1

This is step 1 of the SATR-HUB Wizard setup.

RESET GAMING GUNS

This means the gaming guns will be reset back to genre defaults without changing teams. If checked, the user also has the option to set particular characteristics of gaming guns such as unlimited ammunition or different weapon emulation.

UPDATE BATTLE BOX ALIAS.

By default, a mission can be set up so that boxes get particular aliases if the current box alias is to be retained, this is unchecked

TEAMS

The number of teams. This is important because many missions have one combination box or Vault or Flag Box per team

Wizard: Step 2

Here is the screen that can configure the weapons the gamers get.

This example has the weapons related to the Royale Live genre

Wizard: Step 2 (Part 2)

Here is the screen that can configure the weapons the gamers get.

This example has the weapons related to the Battlefield ROYALE.

Wizard: Step 3

The operator can set up what combination of Battle Boxes is required to run the mission.

Here is an example of a Domination Game with two supply crates.

(The team at Battlefield Sports HQ use this option frequently when running our local events.)

Wizard: Final Step

Finally, we assigned specific devices to what is required. The system tries to match up the closest match from the existing list of synchronized devices. In this case, the system has automatically linked the combination boxes and the Domination box.

There are 2 unattached supply crates, so additional battle boxes need to be synchronized in. The Execute command will then upgrade all the gaming guns and devices to the settings required for this mission. The system stores these

Setting for each mission so in most cases, an operator can set this up just once to their liking.

Once all the units are connected you are all set to go.

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