IN DEVELOPMENT · NOT YET AVAILABLE

Payload
Mk I Networked objective prop for CQB airsoft and laser tag

A networked objective small enough to run with. A countdown, a code, two team buttons and a lot of light — so a game can run across a whole building instead of around one case.

A design target, not a spec sheet

The Payload is specified but not being built: the Nuke Case Mk IV comes first. Everything on this page is what we intend to build — any of it may change or be dropped, there is no release date, and nothing here can be ordered.

// OVERVIEW

Not a cheaper Nuke Case. A different kind of purchase.

The Nuke Case is the objective — one per site, and the game is about it. The Payload is an objective, one of several, so the game can be about a whole map instead. A site with one case and six Payloads plays something a site with two cases cannot.

// WHAT IT DOES
Complete on its own
All five modes run on a single unit — no second box, no marshal, no network. One Payload is a whole product, not half of one.
Plays with no network
Plenty of sites have no usable WiFi. The console adds the live view and the scoreboard; it never gates the game.
Readable across a room
Four light strips carry what the screen cannot. Every colour is paired with its own motion, so the state still reads for players who cannot separate the team colours by hue.
Built to be shot at
Indoors, the objective is what everyone is aiming at, at three metres. Screen behind polycarbonate, shrouded strips, and mounting points so it straps to a wall or a barrel.

FIVE GAME MODES

Every one of them playable on a single unit.

MODE 01

CodeBuster

Your team has a four digit code, and putting it in takes the point. Every unit carries both a keypad and an encoder, and which one a round runs on is set before kick off: the keypad is over in a second, the dial has you turning to pick each digit and clicking through them out in the open. While somebody is part way through a code the owner’s clock stops, so getting in the way is worth doing even if you have no idea what their code is.

MODE 02

Search & Destroy

One team plants, the other defuses, and nobody has to decide who is who beforehand. Whoever gets their code in first is the attacker for that round. A fuse starts on the plant and only the other team’s code stops it, so an attacker cannot cancel their own bomb. What a defuse is worth is set before kick off. It can end the round there, hold the win to the last second, or let the attackers plant all over again.

MODE 03

SittingDuck

The bomb starts safe. Hold the buttons down to flip it live and it starts banking time for whoever flipped it. The other team can flip it straight back, and it can change hands as often as the clock allows. Whoever had it longest when time runs out wins, and if it is still live when the clock hits zero it goes off.

MODE 04

Tug of War

Either team can take it, over and over, for the whole game. Nothing blows up and there is no round to lose. There is just a clock, and whoever had the bomb for more of that clock wins it. Good for open days and respawn games, because the prop stays in play all afternoon instead of being one ten minute event.

MODE 05

Hot Potato

Taken exactly the way Tug of War is, with one line changed. Time banked along the way counts for nothing. All that matters is which team had it last when the clock runs out, so a game can turn over in the final seconds, and it usually does.

MODE 06

MeshControl

Two or more units, linked, and they win or lose as one. Arming any of them takes the set: from then on only that team can arm a unit nobody has touched, and the other side has to go and capture the ones already armed. Hold every unit live when the clock stops and the whole set goes off together. Clear every one of them and the team that cleared them takes it in silence, with nothing to show for it but the lights. A set still split at the whistle is a round nobody won.

// HOW MANY YOU NEED

ONE IS A GAME. SIX IS A MAP

Planned pack sizes — not prices, and not hardware tiers. Every Payload is the same unit.

One

A COMPLETE PROP

All five modes, standalone. The cheapest way into the range, and where most sites will start.

Six

A WHOLE SITE

Enough objectives to spread a game across a CQB building — rooms, floors and corridors, each one worth fighting over.

// WHERE IT SITS

PAYLOAD OR NUKE CASE?

They are bought for different reasons. Most sites that own both will use them together.

FEATURE
Payload Mk I
Nuke Case Mk IV
Its role
An objective — one of several
The objective — the game is about it
How many you buy
Half a dozen, across a map
One per site, maybe two
Display
Two-line character display
Colour screen, or four-line character
Position
Beacon anchors — indoors and CQB
GPS and beacon anchors — anywhere
Radio between units
Direct unit-to-unit link, plus WiFi
Long-range mesh, no infrastructure
Body
Printed box, made to be carried
Rugged flight case
Game modes
Five at launch
Fourteen
Where it is strongest
Indoors and close quarters
Open field, and indoors
// WHAT IS ON THE BOARD

PLANNED HARDWARE

The intended build. Expect it to move as the design is tested.

ESP32 controller
WiFi and Bluetooth on the chip — no add-on radios
Two-line character display
Readable in daylight, and the timer holds one fixed place that nothing else may claim
4×4 keypad
Code entry only — digits, clear, confirm
Two team buttons
Green left, red right, on every unit. The legend is a colour, not a word
Rotary encoder
The setup control. A game master turns it; a player never does
Four light strips
The state, readable at ten metres by someone who cannot see the screen at all
3 W speaker
Countdown, callouts and alarms — loud enough to give away a carried bomb
Beacon anchors & player tags
Position indoors, where GPS cannot reach
WiFi & marshal console
Live view and scoreboard. Never needed in order to play
Direct link between units
Objective modes across a building, with no site network at all
Airsoft LiPo, 2S or 3S
Cell count detected on power-up; a day of play on one pack
Mounting points
Straps to a wall, a barrel or a doorframe rather than sitting on the floor
Impact protection
Screen behind polycarbonate, strips shrouded, and made to survive being dropped

WANT PAYLOADS
ON YOUR SITE?

Tell us how you play and we will let you know when the Payload is real — and what it would take to run it on your site.

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