How does the commander respawn troops?

neko

<div class="IPBDescription">Just wondering..... pub server issues</div>Hey all,

I managed to wipe the drool of anticipation long enough to think about respawning troops. From what I've read, part of the resource 'model' is respawning troops.

Now, I was wondering how the commander respawns his men? Is there a queue of dead troops waiting to get back into action? Can a commander respawn a specific player? Some other technique?

I was thinking that on pub servers the only option would be a FIFO stack or queue for respawns, otherwise there would be plenty of angry marines being passed over for the commander's friend (and having to repeatedly vote some toss out of the game would be bad). However, I was thinking that for clan matches, it would add depth to gameplay if you could respawn specific people who are waiting.

Now I know that one of the design precepts of NS is the 'anonymity' of the marine players, but most organised games assign roles to players (offense, midfield, defense etc). If all your defensive specialists are dead and you're being attacked, it may be handy to revive a specific marine. Lastly, if one of your marines is 'on fire', it would be good to bring him/her back ASAP.

How is respawning currently handled in RC's, playtesters?

neko
p.s. Not sure if this is an 'idea'.

humbaba

Good Question. Respawns are done automatically every x seconds for each spawn gate, or x seconds for each hive (I believe). Though that my be STC. As for the basic mechanics, each one respawns automatically, and the longer youve been waiting, the sooner you respawn (IE, a line up). In other words, a marine team with x portals gets a respawn every x seconds, and an alien team with 2 hives gets a respawn every x seconds. This is balanced because hives are a lot harder to build and limited in placement than infantry portals. Ultimately, the teams seem to have a similar respawn rate in game due to balancing with the resource model.
        As commander, I saw a button labeled "Call in Reinforcements:, but I never clicked it. My guess is that it brings in a marine right away. I dont command much though, so we may have to wait for another playtester to give a more definitive answer on this.

EDITED: numbers changed to X's.



<!--EDIT|humbaba|July 22 2002,16:41-->

Surge

Ouch! What's the average number of spawn points each team will have, do you know? I'm hoping somewhere around 3-4, so the time won't be too much.

And the queue.... is that <b>one</b> (1), SINGLE, soldier every 15 seconds? If so.... yeesh. I'd hate to see about 5+ people dead at one time. That'd take about a minute for them all to respawn, at LEAST.

MonsieurEvil

That's why a good commander makes a couple infantry gates - to allow his troops to queue faster. There is also a way to force all respawns to occur at once, by paying a flat RP fee.

Dying is supposed to mean something in NS. Not a free pass like HLDM, but not a game-over like CS. Somewhere in between.

the_stalker

ive been wondering the same thing  <!--emo&???--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'><!--endemo-->

Sgt_X

So if my CC is under attack and i've got 4 dead guys, and everyone else is off attacking a hive and can't get back in time, I hit the "Reinforcements" button and hope that 4 LMGs can take out whatever has gotten past my turrets. That's good, I always worried about that situation. <!--emo&:)--><img src="http://www.natural-selection.org/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt=':)'><!--endemo-->

MonsieurEvil

Exactly. It's the Commander's ace in the hole.

Gwahir

well designed!

I love it!