Static Spawning

Now take everything I said about Spawning in the lesson on Symmetry and put them aside for a moment. I want to talk about depth that is added through Static Spawning. And then I want to talk about depth that is added through Dynamic Spawning. I want to bring both of these to your attention so that you are aware of both of them and so that you can decide for yourself what you wish to implement on your maps.

Rewarding Skilled Pushes

As I mentioned in the lesson on Symmetry, Static Spawning – teams spawning only on their side of the map – is only required for those Game Types that have objective goals tied to team bases. But there is a case for including it in most other Game Types.

Dynamic Spawning – teams spawning in the safest location anywhere on a map – provides for safer spawning above all else. The intention is to allow players to spawn as far from the enemy as possible. For example, if blue team overruns red team’s base, then red team would spawn at blue team’s base. This approach simply makes spawning safer.

But a side affect of Dynamic Spawning, especially for Slayer, is the counter intuitive rewarding of the team that is being overrun. Out skilled by the blue team (for example), the red team will be pushed back against their end of the map until suddenly they begin to spawn behind the blue team. The spawn engine suddenly begins to reward the red team with the ability to flank the blue team from behind. This reward is counter intuitive, as it rewards the less skilled team and penalizes the more skilled team for being aggressive.

The consequences are severe for the blue team. They can feel pressured not to overrun the red team’s base – their movement becomes deprived. This is no small issue that you need to consider.

But there are those who feel that if the teams are so unbalanced that the red team would wind up spawning behind the blue team, then it would be better than having the blue team crush the red team. I would disagree with this, but it is open to opinion on how a Game Type should play out.

Dynamic Spawning

I used to think that Spawn Traps were bad, bad, bad. But I read a post somewhere in which someone advocated that Spawn Traps could create a healthy meta game in some cases. But what was really surprising was that he went on to say that Spawn Traps in a Dynamic Spawning experience was where real skill shined. (The discussion revolved around an Arena style map.)

I can imagine.

It would take real skill to Spawn Trap when a small change in your position can force a player to spawn behind you. Or in the case of Reach, just killing them on one end of the map causes them to spawn behind you on the other end.

The point of this is two fold. Firstly, Spawn Traps, when done correctly, can be considered a meta game – forging the ability to prosecute Spawn Traps under very carefully executed procedures is forging depth into your map. On the other hand, making it easy to prosecute a spawn trap is ridiculous.

Second, the skill gap is increased if you allow Dynamic Spawning on the map that allows for Spawn Traps from a single Power Position (for example) so that a team can drive the trap and then prosecute it through carefully played out strategies.

Summary

Static Spawning rewards skilled teams that push the other team back against their base. But this type of Game Play may be considered too brutal or unbalancing.

Dynamic Spawning rewards higher skilled players on some maps that allow them to drive and then prosecute Spawn Traps all around them.

You should be aware of the depth each of these adds and decide if your map should include either to increase the fun and the skill gap on your map.