You could keep track of how many people were killed (just after being spawned) by a certain person over the last few minutes. If this reaches some limit, the newly spawned players cannot be killed by the player that crossed the limit.

So spawn killing is allowed to a certain extent but a spawnkiller cannot ruin the game. This of course depends on the type of game... I imagine this could work in a deathmatch type of game.

my only experience with this is in unreal tournament for xbox, CTF with instagib, so keep that in mind...

i enjoy playing that game rambo-style; that is, rushing in and blasting people before they can blast me. i once was convinced to play in a clan match, thinking that a few of my friends and myself were decent enough to stand a chance even against a bunch of people who took the game far too seriously... and we got slaughtered pathetically because they got two guys in one of our spawn rooms and another in the other spawn room, while the last ran the flag during their teammates constant spawn camping. the rounds seriously lasted only a minute or two, and i just quit playing then and there. i was informed by the others that this is how clan matches were played, and never considered it again.

i know for a fact that we could defeat these same guys if they didn't spawn camp us to a point of absurdity (it had happened before, which they attributed to their "not playing seriously", meaning they weren't cheap bastards about it). i still can't believe that anyone even gives a damn about any of these clans, considering their "skillz" are based on who gets to the other's spawn rooms first.

argh. sorry about the ranting, but it ruined the game for me completely, and until then i really enjoyed it.

now for something (possibly) useful:

in a game where spawn rooms are clearly defined and separate from the rest of the level (i.e. a room where you cannot be shot from outside the room, at least not while still standing on the actual spawn points), the spawn campers could/should be punished somehow when they are doing it. i guess it depends on the nature of the game; for a deathmatch type scenario, the kill (and death for the other guy) shouldn't count towards any scores; for CTF, they should either take damage or lose the ability to shoot for a short moment, or their teammate should lose possession of the flag if they do it more than a few times (or just kill them after the third respawned guy they shoot). to account for a couple guys escorting the flag carrier who happens to run through the spawn room, maybe they can safely shoot newly-spawned players only when they are within a certain distance of the flag carrier, so they can help him get through, but can't prevent the other team from ever leaving their base to try and get it back. this would at least prevent the constant-spawn-killing-as-a-strategy "strategy".

just my two disgruntled cents...

Quote:... a CTF style game where kills don't matter so much ...

The thing with almost all CTF or team games where the idea is supposedly about teamwork, players are still rewarded with points for individual kills and placed on a scoreboard by that. Players wouldn't chase scores at all in games with no scoreboard.

In team games its easy to stop spawn camping and things like that, but the problem is that nobody makes team games, they make fps games where half the players fight against the other half.

I do like the idea of ghost players. It lets spawning players sneak up behind any potential campers and take them out before they can do anything. It makes the spawn zone a place for the enemy team to avoid, which is how it should be. Levels where you have to very close or into your enemies spawn area are poorly designed, because either way there is going to be a problem.

Quote:... two guys in one of our spawn rooms and another in the other spawn room, while the last ran the flag during their teammates constant spawn camping.

That is the lamest thing ever. If that was allowed in any kind of contest I wouldn't take the contest very seriously. But then I dont take FPS games like UT seriously at all any more.

The FPS ethos seems to be that if the game jumps out of the screen and spits on your mother then you just have to sit between her and the screen while playing - that's why I don't play fps games any more.

Quote:Original post by Sneftel
I'm confused.... why not just spawn at random locations?

Some games just don't suit this. Take ET, the whole idea is to try to push the enemy team back. This doesn't work if they can spawn anywhere on the map.

ET uses a couple of ways to stop camping, temporary invulnerability, most maps have multiple (and usually capturable) spawn points.

Quote:Original post by johnnyBravo
could make a shockwave when a person spawns, sending all people nearby flying

I like this idea. But whatever you chose to use has to suit the game. Random spawn could work for deathmatch, but would be awful for teamplay.

Quote:Original post by EvilProgrammer
Unreal Tournament has a good system, with various possible spawn points. I have never seen any sort of successful spawn camping in this game.

In facing worlds I was spawn camped.

Speaking of unreal tournament a few days ago I was playing online and there was a mod that made you invunerable but if you shot someone you blew your self up.