New

Hey guys, I new to the paintball sport, and I see myself playing it for years to come.

I'm currently in the market for my first marker, a Tippmann 98. I'm ordering one online, and will soon have it.
I plan to have it with this set-up:

Response Trigger
Remote Line for CO2
M4 Collapsible stock
Laser sight


I was reading around and watching videos that remote lines actually are high maintenance, is this true?
And for the response trigger, I want to get a hopper that will work well with it, maximizing my balls persec.

Any tips?

I'll agree with FE about playing more than upgrading at first. You need two upgrades your first year.

1) An agitated or forcefeed hopper. This will keep the paint flowing without you having to miss fire and shake a few balls down the stack. New on the market right now (as a new player) I would get either a Tippmann SSL200, Spyder Fasta, or Invert Too Halo. VL Revolution Eye Forces are ok too. Do not get a VL Revolution Force, or VL Revolution CAT. These are "always on" hoppers that will drive you crazy with the amount of noise they make. Invert Reloader 2's are pretty good for the money as well. Put those in my list. Don't drop the money on a Prophecy or Rotor yet.

2) Barrel. Like FE said, a good barrel is important, mainly because Tippmann stock barrels might as well be .75" ID pvc pipe. Find a good .687 Lapco barrel, or one of the new Apex barrels (I need to get one of these.) It'll make a noticeable difference in shot consistency.

Other than that, spend your money on paint, air, and entry fees. The more you get out and play, the better you'll preform regardless of the equipment you use.

Oh, and what mask are you using? A decent mask can be the difference in a great day of play, and a fogged lens induced day of not so fun paintball.

Learn to shoot your marker with your non shooting hand.  This will be very useful to you if you get bunkered (and you will). 
Use every bit of available cover.  The smallest scrub brush can be some excellent cover, the branches break the ball before it can reach you.
Learn to low crawl.
Try to plan your moves ahead maximizing the cover and fields of fire.  Cover is no good to you if you can not shoot from behind it or see what your enemy is doing.
Most of all, have fun.

The barrels being longer is really just happenstance. The stock barrel isn't bad because its short, its bad because its got a huge internal bore. Longer barrels happen to be popular, so we get sold longer barrels. Personally I prefer 8"-10" barrels, but I'm in the minority.

Run the stock hopper for a day, but note every time you have to shake it because you just shot a "blank". Simple motorized hoppers are great things.

http://www.actionvillage.com/020-134-0021
You might be able to find a better price somewhere else, but this is the goggle I recommend to newcomers to the sport. It's got a great lens in it and is a rigid mask that isn't too small. Most of the "in" masks right now are either tiny, or have soft parts that encourage bounces. The exact same lens (Spectra) is still being used in the most popular goggles today, the Flex/Proflex series.

The 98 is less complicated since it doesn't have the cyclone. I would get it over an A-5 too.

Edited by Dazed - 08 February 2011 at 1:05pm

Bad e-hoppers break a lot. I've got a 10+ year old revvy thats trucking along just fine. Invert Too's fixed the biggest problem with old halos, the brittle shell. Empire Reloader 2s are pretty good plastic, I haven't heard of any breaking.

I worry more about making sure I have a paintball chambered when I'm playing woodsball than speedball. On a speedball field, one more sound added to the insanity doesn't make much difference. In woodsball, if you shoot at someone (regardless of if anything comes out) typically, they'll notice. Better to have paint in the air than be stuck shaking your marker while the other guy draws a bead on you.

Shoot, I even run an e hopper on my pump when I'm playing in a big game. Short of a fogged over mask, there is nothing so irritating as pulling the trigger, and having nothing come out. Reliability is one of the reasons we like Tippmanns, after all. All ah ehopper does is give you a reliable feeding solution.

Oh, and like I said in my first post. I'm not talking about the whiz-bang $100+ hoppers. Just a nice agitated gravity feed that does the shaking for you. It's all you need on a Tippmann, but most people agree that its really nice to have if you play regularly.

I'm going to invest in the cyclone feed system first, then down the line when I get more into the sport, the E Grip.

A mask that doesn't fog is my biggest concern. When I played with rental equipment, the mask wouldn't stop fogging up. I had a blast, but couldnt see 6 feet in front of me.
I dont want to spend toooo much on a mask, so any brand/model recommendations?

I was thinking about an A5 instead, but after reading around a bit 98 seems better.
Since I originally wanted to convert the 98 to look like an M4/M16, I'm going to buy the Project Salvo.
I'll stick to the G-Hopper for a while and see how it works for me, but a longer barrel is a must after reading around