Spawn Camping

Brave_Ulysses · May 2003

I've played in teams where a comm has made excellent use of distress beacons. But that seems a bit off-topic to me. Just thought I'd mention it.

Ortoch · May 2003

This method of winning is sometimes good for if they come to our base they go right for the ip's for they might be able to get one dead in the time it takes to realize he is in the marine base but running to a hive and shooting it with a lmg is just saying hey i am here doing nothing come kill me. GOOD POST

lolfighter · May 2003

Since escape beacons are the single greatest counter to spawncamping (and a chance to recover from an immensely succesful rush that would defeat an otherwise superior marine team (marines are doing well but a few skulks manage to bring down the Ips while simultaneously a lot of marines die)), they should have their place too in a thread like this. That said, I've only been "escape beaconed" ONCE, which caught me so much by surprise that I spent nearly five seconds finding out what had happened. <img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'>

BreakfastSausages · May 2003

spawn camping is okay, as long as it isn't dragged out just to get frags.

although in 1.04 aliens can't afford to defend the hive early, and marines can.

Pulse · May 2003

Spawn camping still works both ways, all they have to do is eat your observatory and its bye bye distress beacon.

im_lost · May 2003

I don't like the idea of automatically spawning in waves as aliens. If everyone spawns when the first alien would spawn now, then the aliens have a big advantage on spawning, and team suicide missions become much more effective. If everyone has to wait until the last person would spawn, then it is a disadvantage for the aliens. It would be nice to have the option to wait for the next person to spawn, though.

MonKeyTurD · May 2003

i think a big problem is the rate of spawning
aliens spawn REALLY REALLY slow
so if they get their arses kicked, they gotta wait like 2mins to be at full strength
if marines get their arses kicked, they gotta wait 5 secs and go back and kill the aliens

i reckon each hive should act as 2 spawns rather than 1

KEm1KaL1 · May 2003

I am sorry to say that I am completely saddened by all of the replies that I am seeing here. If you are at the hive why not kill it? I hear crap like "stopping the output will help your team". Well, when the hive is DEAD, you have nothing to worry about. Am I missing something? Is killing so damn important to you people so you prolong the game? There is absolutely no reason to withhold fire on the hive if you are there and have enough power to kill any skulk who respawns.

One person spawn camping I can see but more than one is just sad.

Bottom line: A terrible tactic. If it can even be called that. I have yet to see the smallest bit of sound justification for it and am still waiting.

aegix · May 2003

While spawn camping is an effective tactic, its not very fun. Waiting 2 minutes in the alien spawn queue only to be gunned down immediately is not an enjoyable experience. I have no problem with it being used in clan matches, but in public games its bad taste.

Brave_Ulysses · May 2003

One law for them, another law for us...

include · May 2003

I'd say spawn camping is only bad if they arn't trying to kill the objective.

Like...aliens who just sit at IPs, only attacking spawning marines, but not the IPs.

or...

Marines who sit at the hive and just wait for skulks to spawn in, but refuse to attack the hive.

Pulse · May 2003

Objective based or not, spawncamping sucks, even if the spawncampers are waiting for reinforcements, sitting around shooting things that appear and have no chance of hurting you is *not* what I call fun, and said reinforcements may not come for 10 minutes, and thats 10 minutes the entire alien team gets to spend in spectator mode.

Frosty · May 2003

The point of the game is to kill them and there spawn points, in games like tfc or death matches, spawn camping is wrong. In NS its part of the victory conditions.

IMO spanw camping is only aplicable early game, cus once your out of early game, you hive should have oc, and maybe even some web. once your in mid game, if you get spawn camped, there is only one person to blame, you can see em in a mirror

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>I've only managed to break a Marine spawncamp ONCE</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>
wow that must suck, ive broken them several times, and had them broken on me. peice of advise, hit the ground runing when it says "you are now spawning in" hit your side strafe key, youll hit the ground and move, it usaly lets you stay alive long enouph to get your barings and get your bites in. Thats what kills you, you spawn and it takes a second or to to get your barings, in which you've been shot. I personaly am in favor of increasing alien spawn time, but implementing double spawning (when one person spawns the next person in line spawns too, regardless of how long hes been waiting), and wall and cealing spawn points.

spawn camping vanila marines is easy, though wiht upgrades it gets harder, and because ip are soo week, its usaly more efective to bite it, kill the next spawner, and finish off the ip. an ip goes down in 1 or 2 spawns, a single lmg marine however cannont kill the hive so its not an aplicable stratagy when compared to killing the spawning skulks.

too help out all the whining khara enthusiasts heres how it breaks down
time..........marine...................khara
0.........eyes watching........spawns
...........for spawn
.2........notices skulk...........starts thinking im in my hive,
.3-.4....starts to ...............finishes thinkingim in my hive
...........point lmg................starts to look around
.5........begins firing..........still lookin around
.8 .......is easily nailing.......still loking around, might see marine
...........stationary alien
1sec.....still shooting..........notice marine, and the red flash for im geting hurt
1.3-1.5..kills skulk before...hits move key, but too late,
..............it moves...............dies before you got 2 meters

if you hit hte ground runing only a few of the initial shots hit and then trail behind you, by the time his aim is back on you your close enouph its a coin toss who wins, unless the marine there is super leet, in wich case you would die even if you spawned as onos.

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>i think a big problem is the rate of spawning
aliens spawn REALLY REALLY slow
so if they get their arses kicked, they gotta wait like 2mins to be at full strength
if marines get their arses kicked, they gotta wait 5 secs and go back and kill the aliens
</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

aleins spawn in i think 8 seconds, marines take about 10 or 12, its just marines can have mult ip in early game, once aliens get the second hive, marine need 3 ip to keep spawn rate even or aliens have the spawn advantage.

quick break down if 12 team members are killed how long it takes to respawn them all

#(ip/hive) Marine time (sec) Alien time (sec
1............................120-144...............96
2............................60-72...................48
3............................40-48...................32
4............................30-36...................NA
5............................30-36 (r3)............NA
6............................20-24...................NA

Pulse · May 2003

Thats why the ones that know what they are doing go two inches behind the spawnpoints, you spawn, no matter where you run you are dead because you are so close, and its impossible to turn around in the time it takes you to die.

Frosty · May 2003

there are several (8 i think, maybe more) random spawn points in each hive, if you sit "two inches behind the spawnpoints" you cant realy cover them all, and will end up geting bit in the back, unless you sit at a corner at the edge of the spwaw points, in wich case theres about a 50% chance you will spawn with the distance needed

Pulse · May 2003

Theres only 4 or 5 spawnpoints per hive, unless by freak chance I have never respawned through them all, and 5 or 6 marines have been able to make the entire team f4, and this happens to roughly 25% of my games.

[edit]silly typo![/edit]

Frosty · May 2003

if 5 or 6 marine are in your spawn, then the hive should be going down, well actualy they should be puting in like a pg, and armory, and <i>then</i> start blasting your hive, with that many people there without other d you defenatly deserve to die.

------edit-----
</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'>and this happens to roughly 25% of my game</td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'>

dang you need to play on a server with better aliens, or worse marines. no offence there, but that deservs to be laghed at.

Pulse · May 2003

How? They basically just bunnyhop in faster than a skulk can run (Valve's "bhop fix" does <i>not</i> work, and airspeed capping can be bypassed as well) and start camping at the spawnpoints.

BTW I play on whatever server gives me the best ping (anything lower than 400 is fair game), so I get around a lot, thought of finding one to become a regular on, but its kind of hard when they <i>all</i> suck, Nano gridlock, Roob's server, and Fists of Ra are all good but give me 900+ ping.

Frosty · May 2003

I used to play fist of ra, i tend to regular on tfz 1 though, not bad ping, good peeps.

I honestly though have never seen this infamas super speed buny hoping rine, seen some skulks do it though (from acrose mess to our feet in less time than it takes for an lmg to get off 2 shots). Ive tried to buny hop once, couldnt get the turns down, and felt silly, i hop round like a maniac when someones biting me yeah, but that doge manuvers. of course now were of topic

Pulse · May 2003

Funny how scripts are our best friends, yet at the same time our worst enemy huh?

Lucid · May 2003

wow i must say i'm shocked that most of you agree with me. The general feeling seems to be "spawn camping is ok if you are doing it to win and not to be annoying and raise your stats"

gj guys. now if i can just convince everyone that upgrades/res/gorge-hunting are more important than locking down hives =/

Talesin · May 2003

Lucid... I get the feeling that will become readily apparent in v1.1, if all goes well.

Additionally, I'd love to see the wave-spawning. Perhaps bump it to that every thirty seconds or so, a set number of aliens will spawn from the queue. Offset them for each additional Hive, so with three you have waves popping in every ten seconds or so. A little slower than the current, or faster depending on how many are chosen.

Oh.. and as for those saying to just kill the Observatory. Beware sneaky b*stard Comms like myself. I'll build one Obs out in the middle of the room practically, and then tuck a second away in a shadowy corner somewhere. Do all my research, scan sweeps, and DBs off the hidden one, just leaving the decoy to be eaten. Aliens get quite overconfident when they see AN Obs go down, especially just after the DB siren has gone off (IIRC, if you kill it before they spawn in, the DB is aborted). It's fun to watch the slaughter when the REAL Obs gets them all spawned in.

Additionally, people seem to forget one part about camping the Marine spawn. Marines spawn in with full upgrades, and ranged weapons. It's quite easy for a skilled Marine to get out of the way, and take down a single chompy Skulk. It's even easier when they've got upgrades.
Aliens do not have any of these luxuries. They do not have the element of surprise. They do not have the ability to get far enough away to be 'safe'. Most hives do not even have any place to HIDE from the bullets, and wait out until the next spawn-time, due to mapping design.

In short, Yes. It's quite easy for a single Marine to spawncamp and kill a single Hive, ending the game. This is why the Marine Rush was so devastating in v1.03.. superior spawn time, only one needs to survive the defenders, and if it fails it can be easily tried again. It was toned down in v1.04 with a slightly reduced spawn time, and greatly increased Hive healing rate.

Against a competent Comm, it *is* impossible for a single Skulk to spawncamp the Marine base. He'll have at least two widely-spaced IPs. He'll have a pair of Observatories. And he'll have enough of a pair on him that if all THAT fails, he'll get out of the CC and turn your a** to mucilage with his LMG before getting back in and rebuilding a little, then continuing with his tactical progression to stomp your green posteriors into paste.

Pulse · May 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Talesin @ May 25 2003, 12:49 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> In short, Yes. It's quite easy for a single Marine to spawncamp and kill a single Hive, ending the game. This is why the Marine Rush was so devastating in v1.03.. superior spawn time, only one needs to survive the defenders, and if it fails it can be easily tried again. It was toned down in v1.04 with a slightly reduced spawn time, and greatly increased Hive healing rate.

 </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
You must be confusing 1.04 with 1.1, as of 1.04 one lmg shot to the hive takes over 30 seconds to heal, although it heals players as fast as it should.

pardzh · May 2003

Legit strat.

Just like JP/HMG is legit. It sucks, but you gotta deal with it and find a way to counter it, like not dying en masse.

Carling · May 2003

When you make a map you put 16 spawn points in each hive (48 total) does it no uses all 16 for respawns in hive ?

I just played a game not 30mins ago on ns_eclipse and one marine camped the spawns for 8mins or so every one calling him a hacker but since between kills the comm as droping medi and ammo i dont think he was. he keeped us from spawning till another marine got there, one covered the spawn points while other emptyed clip after clip into the hive. 2 marines wiped us out. i have noidea where the rest of the team was lol.

lolfighter · May 2003

</span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Carling @ May 26 2003, 12:08 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> When you make a map you put 16 spawn points in each hive (48 total) does it no uses all 16 for respawns in hive ?

I just played a game not 30mins ago on ns_eclipse and one marine camped the spawns for 8mins or so every one calling him a hacker but since between kills the comm as droping medi and ammo i dont think he was. he keeped us from spawning till another marine got there, one covered the spawn points while other emptyed clip after clip into the hive. 2 marines wiped us out. i have noidea where the rest of the team was lol.  </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> 
Dead too?

hutch · May 2003

i am for spawn camping

Madsy · May 2003

It's a totally legit strat. Allthough it's easier for marines to spawncamp than for aliens as someone said here.
Marines has Distress Beacon they can use too. (unless they have relocated)

Talesin · May 2003

Let me rephrase... increased healing aura that the Hive puts out to regenerate nearby Kharaa. See how much easier it is to just say 'Hive healing rate'?

Wait for v1.1... there may be a few surprises in store for spawncamping 'rines.

KingKupo · May 2003

no matter which game you play, you will always be scolded at when you spawn-camp. i don't mind spawn-camping to kill a hive/base, but not for just raising your personal status or just to be annoying. a fix to this could be wave-spawning or altering map design so it is impossible to cover all points and giving the the aliens some cover. spawn-camping with'rines is hard, although i've seen it happen in a three-hive game.

Spawn Camping

Comments