I would like to know how many of you use selfkill and how often. Explaining your choice with reasoning why you do use selfkill is welcome.
I chose ‘not at all’, because I don’t see a reason for me to do so. I don’t watch the spawn timer, can’t “teleport” to a forward spawn or different location, don’t need to refill nades etc. , run back to an ammo depot or fops to get ammo, same for medic, if a player damaged me he gets the kill when I respawned.
Depends. I use it a lot more in pugs than pub, but it’s mostly situational- as to whether I’m paying attention or not. I don’t really find myself catching too many bad spawns very often though, which is probably since we have identical 30s timers and I tend to be aggressive.
There is barely any reason to selfkill whilst alive due to HP regen, ammo galour, and no importance in the spawn system or spawn location as you mentioned.
The only times I do whilst alive is when on a team without ammo pack guys and on a map without an ammo crate that I can get to in a timely manner, or to change class.
I do find myself using it several times in a round though whilst incapped, the reasons are to do it just before being knife gibbed so the assailant doesn’t get a hitsound, thinks they’ve missed and wastes time checking if it’s the case or not, if I’ve overextended and the time left on the spawn timer doesn’t make it worth a medic risking pushing so far out of position, if I can see an enemy/nade/fire incoming and know anyone trying to go for the revive would be instakilled, if someone starts doing a help-up at a silly time with respect to the spawntimer and something isn’t good, like it’d take me longer to run back than to get back-up to full HP/ammo or I want to fallback for a defuse or reset mines/turrets.
So I’ll probably use it 5 or so times per round.
While I respect it as a potential “skill” to learn. I try my best to ignore it as I think its a bad mechanic and I would very much prefer that it was not possible. I do use it rarely, often if I am very out of position (such as when objectives transition) or if I am out of ammo and no one on the team has any. However, I feel that for people that are new to this style of game there is a huge disconnect when it comes to self killing. Specially when it effects your streaks as it does in Dirty Bomb. While I understand its about winning (and I always do try and win) Dirty Bomb overall has XP based progression that means wanting to hold onto streaks and stuff is something that I feel a lot of people are going to want to do as its the quickest way to level up.
Personally, I find it a crappy thing to watch as a spectator and it feels like a kick in the teeth when I need to do it myself. I also do not like that it is marketed as a “suicide” at all. I know it sounds soft, politically correct and dumb but I really do not like the idea of suicide as a strategy. I think it may sound silly but… Suicide OP YO!
Saying that, I would possibly like it more if there was a key to “join next wave” that you press and when the time gets to 0.01sec to respawn it instantly kills you and you respawn. Something that is like a toggle maybe… Just want to move away from the idea of suicide really…
To answer the question so you can ignore the story 
: I use it rarely, simply because it annoys me that someone gets the kill for it when they haven’t earned it by killing me, and for the reasons you say, usually it doesn’t give any advantage because DB has taken all that out of the game.
On /kill in general, I love it. The first time I came across it was in a warm up for a clan match. A guy from the opposing team was running into spawn, timing a nade, then /killing in mid-air, killing me, whilst he respawned. It reminded me of the translocator kills in Unreal Tournament and I thought it was damned marvelous and something I needed to learn.
After that, in ET I would use it all the time. As a way to coordinate the team it was invaluable. As an aid to tactics (moving the team around from area to area) and changing focus it was essential, as a tool to swap classes quickly whilst changing strategy (on Goldrush for example, a 13 second first spawn would be just enough time for me to spawn with mortar, fire off 2 shots at timed locations, /kill, respawn as medic and then take up a position in defence to retain a full 6 man defence) or just to do the nade prime /kill into a group of people and take someone out just in time to respawn. Other things as well, but so many uses for /kill and just as much skill as an smg 1v1 when you developed it.
Very sad to see it so under utilised 
[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;516180]
Saying that, I would possibly like it more if there was a key to “join next wave” that you press and when the time gets to 0.01sec to respawn it instantly kills you and you respawn. Something that is like a toggle maybe… Just want to move away from the idea of suicide really…[/QUOTE]
That’s pretty much the purpose and what happens when you suicide though, just with a wait time in limbo… do you just want the term ‘suicide’ to go away then lol? I think having to instantly suicide makes it more of a challenge, where as a toggle would defeat that. Nothing beats a facepalm when cutting it too close and killing out at 30s instead of 00 hah.
Rarely use it in DB. As sun has covered it I won’t repeat other than to say it was inherently linked in clan play with getting all the team together for a co-ordinated push and added to the team element.
It did get abused on pubs with some \killin to avoid a death, so I prefer DB forcing the death - might just need tweaked a bit.
But unless/until we have selectable spawns, forced spawn waves and a need for team cohesion (ie. no health regen, no ammo crates, class agnostic objectives) then most of the ‘skilful’ use of it will be gone. I’d always have it, just in case you get stuck in some scenery 
Oh and to confirm infernos point I got caught out on a 40s spawn on Beach during one clan match, which was a bit embarrassing…:o
To clarify a bit more, I use it a lot in drafts, and force others on my team to as well. It’s crucial for regrouping for a full push or delivery objs. The benefits come with organized comms and self awareness.
Honestly…
I don’t know why but I just really do not like it…
I think its kinda confusing to new players, looks dumb to watch and feels quite cheap to use…
Now, its not that I have a problem with it being in the game. It’s simply that I hate the idea of it being a “skill” or a “strat” really. Like if it remained like it is today, with people rarely using it in general I would be cool with it. However, knowing what its going to be like in competitive in future really gives me that gutted feeling. I think it just gets really silly when people are self killing none stop. In an ideal world I would like there to be a 2 min cooldown on the self kill to try and make sure it is only used when needed (ie, completely out of position on a new objective, no ammo and miles away and stuff like that). I kinda liked one of the previous patches where we had the “Press J to respawn” after an objective was complete. Noticed more recently (since 30sec respawns on stopwatch) that its possible to finish one objective and plant the seconds before the defenders have even respawned and it does feel cheap.
lol, I just really don’t like it as a concept I suppose.
EDIT: just seen your latest post and what you said the the exact reason I don’t like it
Honestly I don´t use it a lot, and I don´t even remember doing it even back in ETQW were you actually had to use appropriate classes for objectives and stuff. At least for pub, and in comp it was quiet rare to do - so don´t feat of 24/7 selfkills pixel
So since this isn´t the matter anymore, and there is almost never a need of a specific merc (who needs class objectives or medics or anything else in the team really…) I use it even less tho. I only use the self kill when I am bored of the current merc I am playing and don´t want to wait until I die…
The use of suicide will get little bit more significant (depending on proficiency, maps, etc.) in competitive. It is a major factor for the tug of war you experience, since it allows you to adjust your defense/offense quicker, making an objective to something you possibly fight for couple of pushes. So besides just looking at the timer, there is a lot of strategy and quick thinking behind it. Obviously that´s nothing that is easy to understand or even see while watching (without explanation that is). And anyone who is saying that it is dumb/easy just makes it even more obvious that there is something more to it what you will just be able to understand and utilize after playing the game for longer time and in a competitive environment.
I honestly don´t think that this “feature” is well rounded, but for sure it is at least something that gives the game something to play around besides the obvious shooting (+spam). Changing the re spawn up would make this totally useless unless the game undergoes many changes that aren´t likely to happen (like everyone can pick every merc that has being drafted by your team). It actually also makes sens, to kill yourself with a knife, in order to not give away valuable information. So lore wise it absolutely makes sens and is easy to understand (unless you don´t want to) while toggling self kill timers and self kill restrictions are far more unreal.
So regardless of how we like it or not (its not my favorite either, I allways sucked at that :D) it is for sure a mechanic that
doesn´t really hurt anyone (you don´t have to use it, and when you don´t understand it you probably won´t even notice it), evolves heavily around teamplay and decision making and is a very distinctive skill that can result in a huge face palm, game changing moments and even heroic moves. All components that mostly have been taken out of the game already for the sake of basically nothing and I hope that it stops now.
Your last statement is a contradiction…
To say, “doesn’t hurt anyone (you don’t have to use it)” having previously stating how important it is, really does not make much sense. The more people start to use it the more other people will have to start using it. Eventually, if things stay as they currently are, I would not be surprised to see most people being expected to self kill multiple times per round. That is when I personally feel it effects to many aspects of the game to be cool with. If it was to stay exactly as it is now (with the vast majority ignoring it) I would be fine with it. Just wait till the competitive scene starts getting active again. We will start to see the game turn back into suicide city.
So what’s wrong with a suicide? You say you don’t mind a ‘spawn with team’ toggle, but I see no difference. How does it degrade game play? Just wondering about the reasoning, as I see it being more beneficial to even non-competitors as a general mechanic.
The mechanic part I don’t have an issue with (although I don’t like it) I just think that the whole concept is ugly…
It just clashes with other aspects of design, is not something that easily makes sense and I think its dumb to watch/experience for more casual players.
I have found myself doing it when we complete and objective and the time lines up to jump forward less then 20 feet.
I have used it on bridge and victoria mid fight after the first objective
I am by no mreans trying to make out its not a skillful thing to do.
I just think it end up becoming far to frequent and as soon as the game picks up again there is going to be self kills everywhere.
Gota use a nade for selfkill. Oh wait most don’t have nades. It’s flawed per se, you can respawn with same character as often you like. It’s not the selfkill which is broken, as it adds depth.
usually does it to prevent revive if I want to change merc, or when it’s more convenient to get a better respawn
I think the argument that having slashkill in the game forces everyone to do slashkills is kinda invalid. I experience slashkilling as part of a distinct style of playing, which in many ways is more aggressive than casual playing. For example:
If you play the game casually, usually you won’t get into these situations. You can stay behind the front line as a supporting class, mostly killing the players which manage to break through and supporting the more aggressive players in your team.
Personally, I used it a lot more in W:ET than in DB, I guess because I can’t really play rambo medic in DB anymore (toy guns vs the more combat oriented classes).
[QUOTE=PixelTwitch;516195]Your last statement is a contradiction…
To say, “doesn’t hurt anyone (you don’t have to use it)” having previously stating how important it is, really does not make much sense. The more people start to use it the more other people will have to start using it.[/QUOTE]
It does not contradict itself, since I meant that for new casual players it won´t be even noticeable and in more experienced pub games will be a tiny advantage that won´t be noticeable as well. At the same time being able to get this tiny advantage on a competitive scene may win or loose you the game. As such it can be an asset of a team, what I found very interesting to watch/play since it mostly evolves around team play and decision making. Also it is a “skill” that takes some of the focus away from the rather aim centered game play.
That´s why I think that it doesn`t hurt anyone, because for newbies it´s not noticeable, for veterans it´s rather a rather comfortable function and for those who know how to use it it isn´t a unfair advantage in pub play nor a basic that you are forced to do in order to compete (like shooting, knowing how to do objectives, etc.) but just an asset that if executed properly can possibly give you the game deciding seconds you need in order to win the game.
Even if it´s not that obvious and exciting right now like I try to put it, I think that we should not massively change this up as long we don´t have a more polished build and the appropriate amount of people to actually draw conclusion how this and that works out on different levels of play, with evenly matched people.