Reducing spawn kills

[Dokujisan]

For those who don't know, spawn rape (or kill) is when (usually in 1v1 matches) someone dies and the player who is still alive will shoot the spawn points in anticipation of the opponent spawning. Then when they spawn, they immediately take damage before they can do anything.

Another variation of spawn killing (that wouldn't be called spawn rape) is when you spawn relatively close to your opponent who has strong weapons and armor while you only have a shotgun/laser and no armor.

Spawn camping can also be a problem in team games when people will just continuously fire rockets at a spawn point in anticipation of players spawning there.

I would like to discuss some solutions for this, most of which are probably map design-oriented.

What is the downside to map designers placing many more spawn points on a map? Does it add to map performance somehow?

On a side note, I would like it if Nexuiz had a method to select ideal spawnpoints based upon how many enemies are close to the spawn. Even if that meant a spawn would take an extra second to occur (on a busy map) it could still be a plus. I know on some 1v1 maps, it would allow the players to predict where their opponent will respawn, but that's still better than being spawn raped. At least you have some chance to survive.

Maybe a combination of the above could help with preventing spawn rape, which is one on my top five list of horrible ways to die in Nexuiz (the others being from shooting a wall, from falling off an edge, from a teammate, or from a teleporter).

[torus]

There are 2 possible solutions as far as I can see. First, make nexuiz select the spawn point (in 1v1 matches) furthest away from your opponent. Second (a more general solution), give players 3-4 seconds of invincibility when they spawn. Both of these sound good to me.

[HarryButt]

give players 3-4 seconds of invincibility when they spawn

Butt approves.
It's working for most shooters. I was wondering, why it wasn't already implemented in Nexuiz.

[Dokujisan]

hmm, actually that would give spawners an advantage for a couple seconds.
Perhaps they wouldn't be able to fire for the same period of time?

Maybe there could be various options and server admins could experiment with a combination of settings to figure out the best solution. Of course, map designers should add plenty of extra spawn points as well.

[Xeno]

There are 2 possible solutions as far as I can see. First, make nexuiz select the spawn point (in 1v1 matches) furthest away from your opponent. Second (a more general solution), give players 3-4 seconds of invincibility when they spawn. Both of these sound good to me.

Wouldn't the first of those be exploitable? The other player would be able to force a disadvantageous spawn point on the unspawned player.

3-4 seconds of invincibility could also be really annoying if a player respawns right next to a weakened opponent. Maybe it would be possible to make the spawning player invulnerable to damage from any projectile fired before he's spawned (plus a second or two) while leaving him vulnerable to anything after that. That way the other player can defend himself (3-4 seconds of invulnerabilitycould make a big difference).

[The mysterious Mr. 4m]

Invincibility upon spawn has been introduced before and was implemented on some servers, but 3 seconds is too much. 1 second should be enough time to leave the critical area.

[HarryButt]

Maybe only the first projectile hitting the respawned player in these 3 (2/1) seconds shouldn't do any damage at all. This very first hit should be enough to detect the position of the spawncamper. The following shots could deplete health as usual.
But then there's still the problem with the MG.

[PinkRobot]

How about the first 2 seconds after the spawn, any damage you deal to the just spawned player also gets inflicted on you And if it kills you there should be a centered message saying:

Well you shouldn't spawn rape anyway!

[Dokujisan]

Would this "invincibility" somehow also prevent being pushed off the edge by a weapon? On a map like Soylent, someone can knock people off the edge right when they spawn.

[[-z-]]

Would this "invincibility" somehow also prevent being pushed off the edge by a weapon? On a map like Soylent, someone can knock people off the edge right when they spawn.

I'd prefer projectiles pass through the character.