Spawn Camping

[Nash]

Spawn Camping - Brilliant tactic, or an exploited gameplay loophole?

It's happened to everyone. You die. You re-spawn, take two steps, only to be killed by 'that guy' from the other team who's in your base. You re-spawn again, and make a sprint to get weapons, or a vehicle when there he is again, throwing a grenades, or ready with a few shots and down you go, dead again (making you wonder if they're an aim-bot hacker, but that's the subject of another thread).

You re-spawn again. Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

Nothing is more annoying than the Spawn Camper, and often they are the mod's high killers. But is it a position legitimately earned? In other words, should they be respected and feared for their brilliant tactic, or are they just insufferable players who take the easy road to winning.

Your thought?

[HandofGod]

Probably one of Bigass's biggest weaknesses. The bases have no spawn protection and people easily exploit that...

[Nash]

I agree. I have no problem with Tank campers, or hovering Falcons. Those are assets that are designed to be used as siege weapons (plus I love killing tanks, so it’s a great challenge when they come to the base). The problem with Spawn Campers is there’s no leveling counter action against them except to just get out of the base, regroup and come back. Doesn’t always work.

So has it come down to making Spawn Camping a punishable offense? I don’t think it has to be, but some players seriously abuse it.

[aimbot]

I agree. I have no problem with Tank campers, or hovering Falcons. Those are assets that are designed to be used as siege weapons (plus I love killing tanks, so it’s a great challenge when they come to the base). The problem with Spawn Campers is there’s no leveling counter action against them except to just get out of the base, regroup and come back. Doesn’t always work.

So has it come down to making Spawn Camping a punishable offense? I don’t think it has to be, but some players seriously abuse it.

LOL

[Protoss98]

It's not a problem.
If you don't want to get spawn camped on, play better.
People who can't escape spawn traps are usually noobs.
More experience will allow you to not only escape spawn traps, but in time, do it yourself and enjoy it. I got 38 kills the other day doing just that, to about 4 deaths.

[Nash]

I've gotten around spawn campers numerous times, and have gone on to win games. Meh. High kills from spawn camping isn't anything impressive. Anyone can shoot fish in a barrel. If you had high kills in the field of battle like Jumbo, Atomical, Love, or Mad I'd say respect.

Spawn campers in games like Bigass exploit a flaw to inflate their stats. I'd like to see something done to level the playing field. That way we'd see who the good players really are.

[nil]

Often I've found it can be indicative of poor game design, especially if we're talking about maps and game variants not designed by Bungie, [edit]: or if the game is played too casually (eg: skilled players don't care if their team loses in CTF match).

[002]

Even maps designed by Bungie are easily susceptible to easy spawn camping. Halo does have a system to deter spawn killing by spawning players closer to teammates and farther from enemies, but because all of the spawn points are so densely packed together in Blood Gulch, this system isn't very effective. The addition of the fuel rod gun makes it even worse, because it's a battery-powered weapon, so you're not forced to wait several seconds to reload it after every other shot. It's also possible to cheaply get some kills in the first few seconds of the game because of how exposed the top of both bases are to each other, just by getting the sniper rifle that's also on the top of the base. In CTF, players may spawn on top of the base, which makes this even faster. It's going to be inevitable regardless of what map you play, unless you change the design of the map itself, which would take away the point of playing it.

You can either join a different server, make your own server and explicitly forbid spawn camping, or make a better effort to repel the spawn killers. You could also try to convince server admins to turn on spawn protection, but this isn't guaranteed.

[Nash]

Good points Nil, and 002. Moving and getting away from your base has been my best tactic, but in Team play it helps if the team players cover each other's backs and work together to take out a camper, unless it's obvious they're aimboting.

[nil]

Yes but I've found spawn camping an issue in BG CTF more often because players are going for kills not captures. That is, they are not in a real match, just some casual public server, and not playing the game variant "correctly."

[002]

Yes but I've found spawn camping an issue in BG CTF more often because players are going for kills not captures. That is, they are not in a real match, just some casual public server, and not playing the game variant "correctly."

Actually, you can play the game variant "correctly" and still have spawn killers. The goal would be to disrupt the enemy team for the entire game, rather than rack up kills, meaning that they would be doing the same exact thing, but for a different reason. This is common in games with matchmaking where it's not so casual. That's not the point of the argument, though...

[Nash]

That's where my thoughts are -- is it a brilliant tactic meant to disrupt the enemies ability to become organized, or is it someone exploiting a flaw in the games mechanics in order to rack up kill hits? It seems to be a bit of both, but if the latter it becomes insufferable drudgery that players have have to deal with.

The question is, is there a way to level the spawn camping playing field? What's a good counter tactic?

[002]

If you are being spawn killed, you should get away and attack the invaders from a distance. Otherwise, use the pistol and be resourceful. If the map were to have more spawn points, you could also manipulate the spawning system by standing near spawn points that are away from the base. Halo will try to spawn players near allies and away from enemies.

Spawn camping is a valid tactic, but it's cheap.

[Nash]

Yeah, I pretty much use the same tactic. It's a fight you really can't win. If it's CTF, I get away and go for the flag. If it's a Team game I do the same then try to regroup to kill the camper from a distance, or with help.

I have no problem with siege camping. Using tanks, falcons, hogs, etc. ... to lay a base under siege. It can be effective to allow a team member to get the flag, or lay support fire for them while they escape. In Team Slayer it forces the other team to be on the defensive, stopping them from having any offensive push to score more points.

[Protoss98]

Yes but I've found spawn camping an issue in BG CTF more often because players are going for kills not captures. That is, they are not in a real match, just some casual public server, and not playing the game variant "correctly."

Whenever I play CTF on Bigass I don't worry about the flag, I let first timers noob around with the flag as they please. My only goal when I play Halo is to kill the enemy, and to that end, spawn camping is not only legitimate but something I would encourage.

It's brilliant, and it works. That's all.