i’d like some input on what is and isnt considered spawnkilling- e.g how far away from a spawn point is it ok to mortar?
take goldrush- in the beginning we allies NEED the tank… the axis are huddled around it, panzaring {panzaring?}} and calling airstrikes like crazy- so i mortar 'em to hell- see map below (hopefully).
i drop mortars in a radius on /around the tank- the red box is what i consider off limits- the actual spawn (though i couldnt get a mortar in there anyway), and the exits- the off limit box ends at those little er partial fence things past the tree, anything beyond that i consider fair game.
Needless to say i sometimes get accused of “spawnkilling”…
Everyone at one time or another has felt like the other team was clobbering them, is the because the other team isnt playing fair or are they just being outplayed? Yeah im blasting the axis- we need the tank! But they only get killed if they CHOOSE to hang around and defend the tank…
yeah i know- they are SUPPOSE to defend it, but what is this game other than “blast the other guys to take from them what they dont want to give up”?
humm, ive made this post too complicated- really i guess the question is nothing more than how far away from the spawn can players be before you can blast 'em? :^>
Spawnkilling?
I consider spawn killing as this… If a person/group is waiting outside the spawn building (provided there is one) or is in the spawn area, that’s spawn killing.
over at the Hamster House server’s we consider spawn killing to be defined as “If you spawn, dont move, and are killed…its a spawn kill” and on maps like railgun, if you mortar the exit to the axis spawn in the shack, because it only has one exit, thats spawn killing
It’s funny to see spawn campers who spawn camp, but fail horribly. Especially in Radar or Battery, where it can be a fatal mistake for their team.
I was playing the Seawall Battery map today on a six map server. As Allies, we won within a few minutes of the game. Almost half a dozen Axis ran down the beach, shot us up, then ran up the side to the east bunker. I killed the guy in the bunker, stole his uniform, opened the door, blew the generator, and we walked right in. When we won, this guy on Axis was like, “What?? How did we loose? We were spawn camping!” 
well, it’s all a matter of fair game… i agree with you, and more so than that, as long as you dont hit either of the exits in the house of the spawn.
i am glad that someone is respectful enough to not spawn kill though, i thought i was the only one, lol. i have even gotten banned from a server for saying someone was spawn killing… everyone was like “what’s wrong with that?” – anyway, i agree with you on that zone, and that map it is a bit different, but all in all, as long as they didn’t just walk out of the door and explode, i didn’t think it’s considered spawn killing.
oh yea, and i think spawn killing is ok in the special event of an attempt to take over a spawn point.
planting mines outside of the spawn is always a no for me though… i don’t care how far they had to walk to get to it, if it was outside of where they spawn, i think it is immoral.
anyway, that is my 2cents worth. and keep in mind that sometimes people do go into the spawn on accident, lol
I think that this is the best definition of spawn camping. If the spawn area has more than 1 exit, then mortaring an exit - even it is the one that the enemy would most naturally take - is fine by me. It’s only unacceptable when there is only one exit and you mortar it, like the axis spawn in railgun.
You have two other windows you can jump out of in the shack in railgun. But even beyond that you have a second spawn at the depot yard if your team has held that flag. If you’re pinned to the initial spawn and you’re getting arty fire outside the door, I highly doubt a second doorway exit would really turn the map around and let you win. =)
Getting spawn killed is simply part of the game. Yes, you can make a mistake in the first second of playing that gets you killed. It happens. In 30 seconds you can try again, and hopefully do better.
Personally, I wouldn’t mortar the doorways on goldrush simply because you won’t always score kills. Hitting the courtyard around the tank means you’re keeping the defenders on their toes and unable to entrench. If you focused on the doorways anyone who gets out will be free to shoot at engies trying to fix the tank instead of cowering in the corner where you want them. =)
RK
RK
Hampster House isn’t really a real server anyway, 5 second respawn time, almost instant recharge, the flying through the air at 500mph when you get shot, the admin setting the gravity to 100 on and off. 
I usually find “spawnkiller” chants come from the team under fire cos they can’t figure out a way to beat it. On almost all maps spawns have more than one exit, so I wouldn’t even consider Panzering/Mortaring one of the exits to be spawnkilling, although it’s possibly not entirely ethical on public servers.
What I do consider spawn killing is like the example I came across the other day. As Allies on GoldRush an Axis Panzer tried to hide behind the desk in the Office and Panzer the Allied team as they re-spawned. Entering the other team’s spawn is most definately spawnkilling.
I like Hamster’s definition of spawn camping. I can’t think of any map in ET, besides Railgun, that has a serious problem of spawn camping. There’s always another way out and you will always be able to exploit that advantage to break out of the campers’ trap. Spawn camping your way to victory is a tactic that can only be used against a team of mostly idiots. Any other team simply won’t let you get far enough or with enough strength for a spawn camper to make a serious impact.
spawn killing hehe I get accussed of that alot spawnkilling is when some poor unfortunate inexperienced player (not using the term n00b cos we all was a n00b at one point and I don’t like the term n00b) runs out of the then get shot close to it by an mp40 and maybe a few teammates of his and he calls out spawnkilling ??? u can’t really be spawnkilling with a light weapon there own fault for not using a panzer on ya if they can’t shoot ya but spawnkilling in a match I think is part of the game it was debated alot on rtcw but it can be the difference between a win or loss it no fun really to get killed just outside the spawn by a panzer or mortor I think the mortor involves atllitle more skill to spawn kill with but it is part of the game u have a few secs when they can’t kill ya to hit them in a 30min map if I am playing panzer I might try to get into position near spawn a few times to lighten the load on the rest of team in a public server I try not to sit to close cos it not fun to kill someone just learning the game right at there spawn
For me there is ok spawn killing and not-ok spawn killing. By definition spawn killing is when you are killed at your spawn (or very very close to the original spawn point). So your mortars that are close to the tank would not be considered spawn killing by me. A completley different question is whether spawn killing is a bad thing or not. I know this is an issue that people have been over again and again, but anyway…
Bad spawn killing is when a team dominates and for example push Axis back at the hut and keep sending mortars and airstrikes close to the hut for like 20 minutes. That is absolutely no fun for any side. BUT, in a close game where both sides are about equal I would have no problem what so ever with airstrikes/mortars near the spawn area. So in a sense you need to be in the game to be able judge whether the spawn killing is bad or not, it depends on the situation IMHO.
As a side note, the definition of what is ok or not is also up to the ones who run the server. If they think that airstrikes or mortars close to spawn is bad in any situation you just have to accept that.
Yes please accept it and don’t agrue with admins who have “no spawncamping” rules. There are plenty of servers out there who don’t care about spawncamping play on those. Thank You.
BTW I do run a serevr that doesn’t allow spawncamping. Listed below.
i dont spawn camp, but i like mortar so i fire near the spawn points
(only not on train lvl because its not fair)
Im just good at mortar and ppl start complaining that i am spawn killing…, most maps have like 2 spawn points… sjeesh :???:
o well, 
dance for me my beauty
i would definitly spawn camp in a match or something of that nature, i figure it’s all fair game then. but as far as pubs go, it’s just not fun to spawn camp. i know that most noobs spawncamp cause that’s the only way for them to get a descent score, but i like to be challenged. so if my team is spawn camping on a server, i try to get them to back off a bit (usually never works though). or i’ll just switch sides to help get the other team out of their spawn.
spawn camping is fine w/ me - panzer camping, mine spam, its all part of the game. Calling it immoral is ODD - why limit yourself, take advantage of every aspect of the game and map you can in order to win
its like saying axis shldnt all go FOs on fuel dump to arty the hell outta the bridge - or saying its not fair for whole axis team to camp the fuel dump after walls been blown open - or having allies all go medic after vaults been blown open on gold rush to get gold to truck -
I chalk it all up to the random distribution of non team players on a pub server - it can mean your team gets viciously spawn camped, or the map is won w/in 5 minutes. whos fault is it when 1 team gets stacked by piss poor players ?
Ive seen alot of counter strike players comin over to ET - theyre all aim and no strat. these guys have bot like aim, but they all play soldier or FO - not 1 engie or medic in the lot - it doesnt matter if you know the maps or have good aim in ET if youre not taking care of business - its every players responsibility to spawn as the class their team needs.
by the way, it isnt that hard to break a spawn camp, like on rail gun - but it does require your teammates to play as a team.
if anything will kill the popularity of ET, it will be the gaming public not wanting to play objective based team play games. its that simple
I don’t think spawncamping is serious issue, really. It happens occasionaly to me to be spawnkilled, but I don’t complain. I can do nothing if most of my team is lame or simply not experienced enough. I honestly think spawncamping works well only on significantly worse team.
If they spawnkill me it’s usually because my teammates don’t use sprint or try to run with heavy weapons - I mean, my path is blocked and invulnerability runs out before I can aim at someone. If I spawn close to exit I sprint out of the spawn and kill/severely hurt at least one enemy. I more people play like that it’s impossible to spawncamp effectively.
Railgun indeed is more vulnerable to spawnkilling. If I’m cursed with such bad teammates, I usually take Panzerfaust and eventually sneak onto axis tower, which is great point for Panzerfaust soldier. It allows to kill some allies and provides more “living space” for my team. Anyway, If situation is so bad that I have to panzercamp the tower it usually means my team is unable to initiate proper offensive. And unlike Flamethrower, PF isn’t great for driving the tug.
I try not to spawn camp not because it’s “lame” and so forth, but because it’s boring and not really useful. There are however situations where people can accuse me of spawn camping.
Spawn camping to take over spawning point is perfectly fine. Don’t stand between me and my objective.
Gold Rush is my favourite map for using Flamethrower (by this time I already have lvl3 heavy weapons), as allied soldier. There are alot of places to use it effectively, including tank area and bank. One particulary dangerous area is the bank square. Especially when Axis have experienced players, they like to set up good defence after the door is destroyed. Any flamethrower charge is instant death. Eventually I tried the route I never thought about - thru axis spawn ! Fortunatelly axis don’t care to guard the passage.
Not only the traffic is low (because all axis are on defense and don’t die too often) and flamethrower friendly, but you are likely to suprise enemy from behind. They are lazy and don’t move alot. All snipers and mg’s are mine, and so forth. Simply sweet.
I don’t stop in spawn room, and no one has accused me of camping so far.
Again on Gold Rush, deploying MG near first truck barrier means lots of easy frags on morons, but better players try to suprise me from behind or ignore and go camp the bank.
Attacking bank campers with Flamethrower+Handgrenades combo is wicked fun, but that’s a different story.
I would like to say that i totally disagree with the notion that spawn camping is inherently wrong. What about it makes it wrong? I dont think a line should be drawn as to what qualifies as a tactic and what is “gay” and not allowed.
If i see the opportunity to help my team out by flamethrowering a whole spawn of axis on goldrush, im going to do it. Instead of bitching and whining and calling foul play someone should just kill my ass which is very easy to do when im up against 10 people taht are invulnerable. Obviously, this is not a sound strategy all the time adn many times will do nothing to help my team. So why not let me do it then? A good player on a good team shoudl all but ENCOURAGE the other team to spawn camp! I know i do because while the other team is spawn campign getting a couple of frags here and there, I just run past em and go for the objective or do wath needs to be done.
I just wonder why spawn campign is considered wrong, but getting a fireteam of medic, liet, and panzer at a key spot is not. The only thign that i can see about spawn campign that is wrong is the fact that it can hinder your team. So what! Taht’s the point of the game! A good fireteam like i mentioned can eliminate everyone just as easily.
Ok. so spawn camping doesn’t take skill (so people say… yet when noobs try to do it they never can effectviely)… neither does things like planting mines, building objectives, planting dynamite, etc.
The difficulty required to execute is not the measure of effectiveness. When something that requires little deathmatching ability but yields effective results, i call that good strategy !!! i mean cmon people. It doesn’t ruin the game anymore than having a team full of medics. If its in the game, it should be exploited. If im on the recieving end of a spawn camp, you will hear me encourage it. because most of the time its not helping the enemy. And if it is, its a job well done. I thing its so lame how servers disallow panzers, flmethrowers, spawn camping etc. Why not just disallow medics? I mean after all, tehy make it harder to win… takes the “fun” out fot he game… please. Next thing you know, people will get kicked for getting a uniform and opening doors before the defense is ready…
Its part of the game… if you have a problem with it, bring it up with the SD designers.
I had this a few times on Railgun map. Half of Allied team tried to spawn camp Axis near the tower - but Axis already had captured the Depot Yard and moved the tug there. So these wannebe spawn campers wondered why nobody was coming out of the hut.