Change Spawning to assist Different Roles

Just throwing this one in to test the general feeling.

At the moment, it is difficult to have front line players and support players because the monsters spawn everywhere. So everyone is a front line player.

I vaguely remember a while back playing a mod where on a CTF map, the monsters would spawn in one base and the players in the other. This meant the monsters were coming from a set direction, so you did have a front line.

The LWs could then take the front, with the medics/AMs behind supporting/sniping. Low levels could also stay back a bit (if they wanted to).

Obviously to get a really high score you would stay in the opposite half.

Now just spawning in the base could be a bit excessive and too open for camping, but each side spawning anywhere in one half of the map each could be ok.

just a thought.

The problem here is that some maps have choke points (like a narrow hallway), which would make it pretty easy to mow monsters down. If all weapons are aimed at one point, they won't last very long.

However, if players also spawn at a centralized area it would ease the process of healing and handing out weapons.

But you're right, it would definitely give the game a different feel with the differentiation of front line and supporting characters. Might be worth a try.

I think it would work effectively in CTF, ONS and DOM maps, but might create problems in DM maps.

Also, you would have to counterbalance it with what Echo said, a designated area for players to spawn. If all the LW's are off in the monster area it wouldn't allow medics, particularly low level ones to heal them much. Also, this kinds further alienates LA's, I know they ideally attack from afar, but I think they would prefer that the monsters are spread out more so they can move around freely and not be forced to watch LW's slaughter monsters while they throw lightning bolts into a room.

There should be a way to keep people from spawn camping the monsters and a way to keep somebody from going in alone and attracting all the monsters and killing them all.

Maybe you could get teleported back to the base if you're a certain distance away from the spawn or too close to monster spawn. If you're to far from another teammate, then you're teleported back to the spawn, unless you're X distance from the base anyway, or last alive.

Monster mover would have to be modified so the monsters don't spawn in the base.

The monster would have to be upped in level to force players to actual make a line/base.

Obviously, when engineers are added, they could build walls to hide behind.

sounds fun

I like the idea. I'm not sure if I would want it to replace the current invasion, but could certainly be interesting as another voted gametype.

A possible way to keep the people together could be some chain effect. Say all the players spawn at one central pylon or some similar thing that acts as the thing they are defending from the invasion of monsters. Depending on the number of people left alive and the number of people in the game, every person would either have to stay a certain distance from the pylon or another person to form a chain connecting back to it. As less people are alive, the individuals could go further away from each other. Or maybe that wouldn't be necessary with the addition of the pylon they want to protect. That could allow people to move off into different groups, but I'm not sure how the experiance could be devied up. Possible the experiance could be moved along the chain of people? So you have the LW in the front getting experiance, he is getting supported by an LA using magic who is getting some experiance from the LW and his own damage, then a medic in back getting some from both and some from healing. With balance I could see that being possible, but am uncertain how it would function coding wise.

supertoast wrote:

I'm not sure if I would want it to replace the current invasion, but could certainly be interesting as another voted gametype.

Agreed.

Fro13 wrote:

The monster would have to be upped in level to force players to actual make a line/base.

Agreed. And if the monsters were significantly more difficult, then it should be unlikely that you will get one player camping out in the monster spawning area. We would need to pitch it so even you can only last 30 secs by yourself, so for the rest of us it is suicide. Could even give the monsters 5 or 10 secs invulnerability when they spawn.

ECHO wrote:

The problem here is that some maps have choke points (like a narrow hallway), which would make it pretty easy to mow monsters down. If all weapons are aimed at one point, they won't last very long.

Agreed. Some flying monsters may avoid the choke points, and queens can currently teleport anywhere. It may be that rather than always spawing in our different bases, 90% of the spawning is in the base and 10% in the opposite half - just so you get the occasional sneak attack. That could be configurable anyway. But as you say, the map choice will make a big difference.

I do not think that the game is currently configured in a way that you could defend a single point, or form an effective battle line. Not without some pretty major changes.

Change keeps things fresh and exciting, but there have been quite a few changes lately and I would like to get used to them a little more before it changes once again.

That said, I think that you have some very interesting ideas here, Some maps would not work well at all for this but others might be highly suitable. It kind of reminds me of monster assault tho.

Sounds like assult. Why not just play that then....
I know, it's linear in play. But you would need such a map to keep those bottlenecks or DM layouts from making it too combersome.

Plus, what would keep people from just launching all the nukes, follow the map and just attack that way since all the monsters are in one place, perdictably every time. First nuke there gets all the points cuz it clears the room...depending on the map. DM maps dont have a designated "side" like CTF and BRs do.

The idea has some appeal, but I dont know how realistic it would play out for everyone.

I'd think this would make an interesting change from regular invasion. I doubt it would replace invasion on the server, but would be nice for a change sometimes. I'd assume it would take a lot of work to implement it, so that brings up the question if it's really worth it?