Is spawncamping a bannible offence?

[Stof]

You are wimp if you spawn camp and no one likes to play with wimps

Wimp?

Yeah, name calling is such a good argument, I have no choice but to conceed you the point

[tuple]

Game objective is to destroy all spawns and then players, not the otherway around fools.

Unfortunate for you that the strategy to accomplish the objective is not so simple.  It is too bad that you will ban people who may in fact be thinking very  strategically.

Tremulous is an online game. Online games are tehre so people can compete with each others over tests of skills.

and strategy.  Remember strategy anyone?  Spawncamping a poorly placed egg is a strategy to gain a level before your opponent, giving you the edge.

This is not a standard FPS, YOU decide where the spawns go.  Decide poorly and pay the price.

Few feeder eggs are built by accident, most are done to grief build.

That is pretty presumptuous.  Most feeder eggs I've seen are built by inexperienced builders building a forward egg too close to human base and visible from some distance.  That a new builder is causing you grief does not make them a "griefer"


Granted there are some instances where it is just some moron who wants their kill stats to look better.  If it's s3, I don't mind.  They aren't helping their team to destroy my base.  Let them fatten their stats, we aliens have a base to destroy.  The same goes for the bsuit'd psaws I seem to see alot recently who camp a corner just outside of the alien base and excel at mowing down dretch floods.  They are welcome to waste their teams resources

[castitatis]

It isin't so bad when the spawn camping is done to increase your team's level, but when its done just to fatten your score, it now becomes a bad thing.

Taking into consideration that on a normal bp server(100) aliens usually have 2 eggs(Sometimes 3) one forward and 1-2 back in base, the chances of spawning from the forward feeding egg are usually of 50 percent. A human spawning can remove the node, on the other hand, a granger spawning, especially if facing a saw or shotgun, can possibly remove the egg unless the other guy is a complete moron.

this is the same mentality people who cheat use: I'm winning. It feels good, even though I'm not doing any work)

Already said, if your fun is just in making other's live useless, then go play somewhere else, the object of the game is to play, fight each others and have fun, not totaly obliterate your opponent when they can't retaliate.

[Stof]

Nope, the chance to spawn in a forward egg are 0, unless all the eggs closer to the OM are "busy".

Besides, the goal isn't to make people miserable. After all, once you've been spawnkilled at that egg, nobody else will spawn here for some time. And if another egg is available you'll respawn in no time.

Also, don't forget the money factor: it is far easier to win the game with money than without

[Plague Bringer]

Nope, the chance to spawn in a forward egg are 0, unless all the eggs closer to the OM are "busy".

this is false, if you die you will spawn at the closest egg, if you spawn and stay alive for a certain amount of time, you will respawn at that egg, if you get killed before you reach that time limit, you will respawn at that egg a total of two times before spawning at another egg

[Undeference]

and strategy. Remember strategy anyone? Spawncamping a poorly placed egg is a strategy to gain a level before your opponent, giving you the edge.

Wikipedia says

A strategy is a long term plan of action designed to achieve a particular goal most often "winning". Strategy is differentiated from tactics or immediate actions with resources at hand.

(Emphasis added.) "Let's spawn camp" is no more of a strategy than "shoot the aliens". Spawn camping is a tactic used to get more money and/or better equipment/classes. It is slower than other tactics (unless you happened on an egg farm and your opponent is feeding, in which case you should just end the game already) and potentially involves sacrificing your base.

Nope, the chance to spawn in a forward egg are 0, unless all the eggs closer to the OM are "busy".

You will spawn from the ready spawn closest to where you last died. That usually means the spawn closest to your opponent's base.

Also, don't forget the money factor: it is far easier to win the game with money than without

If you need to spawn camp to get money, that implies that you fail at the alternative method of getting money: attacking the other team.

[Stof]

"Let's spawn camp" is no more of a strategy than "shoot the aliens". Spawn camping is a tactic used to get more money and/or better equipment/classes. It is slower than other tactics (unless you happened on an egg farm and your opponent is feeding, in which case you should just end the game already) and potentially involves sacrificing your base.

Pointless argument. Call it tactics if you want, it doesn't matter here.

Nope, the chance to spawn in a forward egg are 0, unless all the eggs closer to the OM are "busy".

You will spawn from the ready spawn closest to where you last died. That usually means the spawn closest to your opponent's base.

Well, I was wrong. Doesn't matter too much anyway.

Also, don't forget the money factor: it is far easier to win the game with money than without

If you need to spawn camp to get money, that implies that you fail at the alternative method of getting money: attacking the other team.

Money is a bonus here. Stage advance is probably the best reason to feed on an badly placed spawn. Besides, if it wasn't for the risk of spawn killing, the only penalty for a badly placed egg would be that you have to rebuild it somewhere else. Mistakes made by the players need punishement.

[treminator]

Only inexperienced aliens complain about spawn camping; kind of like the wolf pleading to the three little pigs.  Sure, some turret defenses are designed like brick houses, when others more like straw.  However, any clever wolf knows that turrets cannot fire with a human humping it.  And on friendly fire servers, oh boy, it's a regular goon smorgasbord.  Do you know how much easier it is as a goon hitting his target with humans trapped and less maneuverable in their own maze?  So, I say, hump those turrets you lab rats.  If you only knew what laughs I get during that one second as spectator after death, watching you either rip your base apart or the smug feeling I get after gaining another quick 3 or 4 evos while stuffing my black belly in your own brick house.

Of course, we're talking about s1 hums here.  At s2 and s3 for hums, well, experienced aliens just feast on a few hums for evos on their way to turretville again, or just lure some out to chase your moans after pouncing a turret or two.  After a quick heal, it's off to taking out armories and such.

Ban? No.  However, I say we ban camping aliens - Tyrants with 5 or move evos or s1 goons over 3 hiding behind corners.  What?!  'Tis a disgrace to our Overmind.  Even it knows a tab tapper from a show stopper when it sees one...

[treminator]

Oops. You said spawncamping.  Nah, no ban.  You make stupid mistakes, you suffer from those mistakes.  Just like mine above and reading comprehension.

[Undeference]

(FYI, I'm not arguing that people should be banned for spawn camping, only that it should be discouraged because it is petty and often serves no real purpose.)

Money is a bonus here. Stage advance is probably the best reason to feed on an badly placed spawn.

Stage advancement is not necessary to win, especially when your opponent really screwed up.

Besides, if it wasn't for the risk of spawn killing, the only penalty for a badly placed egg would be that you have to rebuild it somewhere else.

Even ignoring "glitched eggs" and spawn camping, there are plenty of penalties for badly placed spawns.

Mistakes made by the players need punishement.

How very righteous of you.
Actually no, punishment is not needed for making mistakes. Hopefully, people can learn from mistakes instead of being harassed every time they make one.

You say "the goal isn't to make people miserable" but then you say that mistakes should be punished.
You also said "If experimenting means [failing badly], then by all means don't do it while I'm in the same team as you". Since the whole purpose of experimentation is to find out what does and does not work, this means you never want anyone on your team to try anything new.
You take the game way too seriously.

Only inexperienced aliens complain about spawn camping

Actually I've heard plenty of experienced players, humans and aliens, complain about it. I don't bother. If the game doesn't seem like it's going to end soon and the other team is compulsed to spawn camp, I usually find a different server.

[n00b pl0x]

We should give every player that spawns invincibility for half an hour to fix the spawn camping bug

[Caveman]

Seems to me the OP did not understand this game at all.

[tuple]

(FYI, I'm not arguing that people should be banned for spawn camping, only that it should be discouraged because it is petty and often serves no real purpose.)

I rarely see it, except for endgame when there is one node left and some idiot tyrant is standing over it waiting...
On the rare occassion I have seen a camped, or even very campable egg there are typically enough experienced players anymore that know to decon such a thing, and know how

If at all possible, I have and will spawn camp a node inside of the human base as a dretch.  It is typically only good for 1-3 kills, and only works once per server.  After that humans begin putting turrets near their base, what a novel idea...

[treminator]

If at all possible, I have and will spawn camp a node inside of the human base as a dretch.  It is typically only good for 1-3 kills, and only works once per server.  After that humans begin putting turrets near their base, what a novel idea...

Well said.  I've seen some admins (who purport to be experts at this game), threaten with a kick vote as I camp telenodes early on in maps like karith.  My reply? "Just one turret and we wouldn't be having this discussion.  You've been playing this game how long again?"

[FisherP]

Unless there's only one spawn left and the other team is only spawnkilling in order to prolong the match, no punishment should be given.

I feel it's a valid gameplay strategy.  If someone screws up that badly and their team doesn't do anything about it, they should have to pay the price.

This isn't TFC.  A campable spawn means someone screwed up. Also, kills help your team. Thus, spawncamping is playing the game correctly. Building a campable spawn is playing the game incorrectly.

+3

+8

I didn't vote either way because its not a hard and fast rule, but I think it's cheap and shouldn't be done.

[Megagun]

Spawncamping for only a few kills, in my opinion, is okay. One team made an error, the other team gains from that error. Seems to be okay to me.
However, there are those who overdo it, and who just keep on camping a lone egg/telenode. At that point, it becomes irritating and stupid.

Easy victories because of spawncampers aren't fun.
Long, intense games where one team ends up winning because they employed a nice strategy, are fun.
In other words: get about 8 kills, then kill the telenode/egg...

The problem isn't that much of a problem, though. I usually see people spawncamping at either Arachnid, just after the Humans moved upstairs but forgot a Telenode (dumb!), or at Karith, whenever a Dretch manages to hide behind the default telenode positions. What's always funny though (especially on Arachnid) is when humans keep spawning with Rifle instead of with CKit to decon the telenode...

[Xonya]

TK (or shoot away from node, works when ff off) for faster spawning and kick if doesn't seem to be much wiser.  If rejoins and continues doing the same thing = BAN

[kevlarman]

Easy victories because of spawncampers aren't fun.
Long, intense games where one team ends up winning because they employed a nice strategy, are fun.

i would say the opposite, if my team made a mistake that the other team took advantage of (bad move, unprotected spawn, etc.) i would rather they end the game quickly rather than playing an hour long game where my team stands no chance of victory. when i see the other team make a mistake like that, i do the same thing to them that i would expect them to do to me (end the game quickly).

[Undeference]

Killing a few people on a spawn before destroying it is not spawn camping. Standing near a spawn for the sole purpose of killing people once they spawn is spawn camping. This is part of my problem with it. A 50 minute game where both teams are fairly even is much faster than a 10 minute game where most of the time was spent spawn camping.

[TinMan]

Spawn camping is a great way to torment the enemy, they're already loosing if you're in their base owning their doodz off the spawn, spawn camping just make s it more fun. Why would you back away and give them another chance when you're doing good at the moment? You can spawn camp, then '/donate' your evolves to the team on end the game quicker. The team being spawn camped should be smart enough to spawn builder and decon the spawn or build an acid/turret near it.

Chat-killing is also great, even Jesus does it.