I’ve been thinking about this for a while, but i’m not sure if it’s worth starting a thread. One reason is that this site is relatively quiet, and most discussions happen on Discord. However, I think this platform is actually better suited for in-depth conversations. Another reason I’m hesitant is that I don’t want to come across as a nanny telling people how to play.
Recently, I read Goldorak’s older post “Destroying block with guns,” which effectively highlighted the issue of spawnkilling driving players away. It’s clear that this problem makes it harder to retain existing players and attract new ones. The responses suggest that others share similar concerns.
In my opinion, the problem is two-fold. Firstly, there’s the technical aspect, which could potentially be addressed with a short spawn protection period, at least a couple of seconds. However, implementing this might have unforeseen consequences, and it’s unclear how it would impact the game.
The second, and more important, issue is gaming style and behavior. As a competitive game, it’s natural to want to win, but this game is at its best when played with many others (20+). If players continue to leave because they’re getting killed immediately after spawning, we eventually lose enough of them to make the game unplayable. To keep the game enjoyable for everyone, we need to find a balance that prioritizes overall fun over the fun of spawnkilling noobs.
The issue of spawn killing has been brought up over the years since the introduction of the aloha.pk and my stance is pretty much the same since 2013. I see spawn killing as a tactic and we can use and that can be easily defeated by teamwork and skills. Imo spawn killing is a slippery slope as yes it can make new players unhappy and possibly leave but I don’t think it’s such a huge issue and we should focus on other factors to improve gameplay. We should be more focused on both bringing new players as well as improving gameplay
Technically this could possibly be coded in but it’s a bit complex conceptually IMHO. Like, during that spawn protection the player that respawns shouldn’t be allowed to kill the enemy spawn camping it they are not able to be killed or that could be an unfair advantage (in this scenario I do not see spawn killing to be an advantage)
Like I said it’s a slippery slope. Spawn killing has been the same for the last decade and probably wasn’t much of a big deal in the past since we had thousands of players at any given time (vs the 10-100 players now).
One way we try and find common ground is our map rotation trying to get a balance of maps that sometimes favors spawn killing and other times making spawn killing more skill required.
Overall, our main focus is building up the player base, improving gameplay and overall experience while not hindering gameplay for others or making to much changes
Yeah, implementing spawn protection would definitely make some changes in gameplay. The question is, would it be a good change or not? Honestly, the overall gameplay wouldn’t change that much, except for this one aspect. Snipers would just find new ways to annoy the enemy, so it’s not like they’d be out of a job. Trying it out and seeing how it affects the game could be an option.
And you’re right, the issue with spawn killing is more of a recent problem, since it’s harder to find servers with enough players. Maybe that’s why we need to do something about it.
It’s frustrating when an unbalanced game leads to a bunch of players leaving, which can lead to a game that’s not fun for anyone. We might win a match easily, but we’d still lose the opportunity to play more.
So, my thinking is that if I want to keep playing the game, I need to make sure others are having a good time too.