Intelligent spawning controls

[ghost]

Instead of the current Spawnpoint system, can we look at this system perhaps?

1) Editor of the map chooses/saves an "RVSF" zone and a "CLA" zone (from here-in, named "spawnzones").

2) AC randomly spawns players in those zones, using factors such as:

• Nearby walls (for cover).
• Nearby enemies (to avoid).
• Clips/plclips/model clips (to avoid, so that spawning will work and free movement is possible).
• Nearby allies (to a lesser extent, so that they're not in the way).
• Nearby pickups (to a lesser extent, so that players don't automatically spawn with an advantage).

For any FFA players, AC will spawn based on similar criteria to above - but with no zone needed. Maybe adding in these factors though:

• Spawning them further away from where they died (to avoid spawnkill).
• If KTF mode, spawning them a fair distance away from the flag.

3) Maps with the old Spawnpoint system work as-is, but we depreciate the ability to set these up.

Advantages of this system:

• Spawnpoints are not accidentally setup incorrectly (i.e. an RVSF spawnpoint in a CLA zone).
• We can setup AC to automatically designate zones if an editor does not pick them (i.e. it looks at "boxes" in the map and picks ones that are far away from each other, or it figures it out based on already picked flag locations).
• No more spawning in the middle of the map due to no spawns being placed.
• Quicker map editing/play testing, due to spawns already chosen by editor (i.e. you just edit the zone, if needed, afterwards).
• Less collisions and spawnkills. Fairer spawning.

Disadvantages of this system:

• If it's setup to auto-generate the zones upon starting the map, it will freeze AC (like "wpflood" does) for a short moment (hence, it's more preferable that it auto-generates them upon savemap).
• Much testing needed before zones will be appropriately auto-placed.
• Probably a PITA to code?
• AC might choose really bad zones for non-boxy like maps with huge WQD's.

[Felix-The-Ghost]

I personally don't think anything is wrong with the current spawn system. Yes some maps have them poorly placed or not enough of them but that is not a fault of the system.

[ac-stef]

I thought that an experienced mapper would know, that there's much more to placing spawns than throwing them near the base: it's a way to control the gameplay on a map. While an AI may do better than an unskilled mapper, or a mapper who doesn't care, an AI will never be as good as an excellent mapper who put a lot of thought into placing the spawns. ...which is why we screen maps before they become official.

btw, "No more spawning in the middle of the map due to no spawns being placed." is not a fault of the game: the server refuses to accept vote calls for game modes without sufficient spawns unless an admin or owner overrides that. In the future, the server will refuse that. period.

[GreenLunar]

Is there a progress on this matter?