Spawn_selection_override
So the new patch introduced a new entity which allows to define spawn configurations. So I thought I would look into it and see how it works and document it.
This might not be exactly how it works, so if an inside man could confirm it would be nice.
-Spawn_selection_override overrides all possibilities defined by the tech points.
-For all pairs of spawn you want to define, you will need one of these entities.
-To weight one possibility more than others, duplicate the entity to desired weight.
To summarize, when Spawn_selection_override entities exist in the map, the game will randomly choose one of these entities to set up spawn locations.
This might not be exactly how it works, so if an inside man could confirm it would be nice.
-Spawn_selection_override overrides all possibilities defined by the tech points.
-For all pairs of spawn you want to define, you will need one of these entities.
-To weight one possibility more than others, duplicate the entity to desired weight.
To summarize, when Spawn_selection_override entities exist in the map, the game will randomly choose one of these entities to set up spawn locations.
Comments
Because this way you retain the random bases on the map, instead of having aliens only random spawn or marine only random spawn. You can still have the spawns any where in the map but also control the unwanted spawn setups where the bases would spawn next to each other, which is the purpose this entity was made.
It does negate some of the randomness though. For example in tram, where this is used, the team who spawns in either warehouse or server will know the other team spawned in shipping, while the team who spawned in shipping doesn't know if the other team spawned in warehouse or server. What this sort of does is take the ns1 situation and allows it to flip. It could be the aliens on fixed and random marine or other way round in the same map.
You could say it is a controlled random spawning system, and complements nicely the system already in place. The spawning possibilities are now extensively complete for vanilla NS2.