Spawntimer question...

[Mr_Tickles]

A clan member on my forum recently asked this question, and I thought I’d ask you lot as you’re more likely to be in the know on this than I am.

Also are spawntimers banned by punkbuster and splashdamage or only clan matches?

Just to let you know, this is my view on them…

They are disallowed, frowned upon and no-one should use them.
Including members of this clan.

However, I would encourage you to time the spawns in your head.
This may sound a little hypocritical, but it’s much the same as taking a calculator into a maths exam where they are banned.
The player who can count the spawn times in his head is showing his increased capacity and understanding for the game. The person who simply uses an external program to inform and warn him of spawn times is simply not as aware and would normally run through the enemies spawn and get killed.
You could say the player counting would be more aware of his surroundings, and the person using the spawn timer, is using a form of hack.

So, how far do the bans on Spawntimers actually go?

[Ifurita]

AFAIK, script based spawn timers are NOT disallowed in matches/leagues and tons of people use them. External timers, such as Heron MAY be disallowed, but I don’t think there is really any way to check if people are using them. A better place to post the question would be on one of the league/comp sites (etnation, et-center, x-fire, teamwarfare, etc)

[Kendle]

To directly answer the question, spawntimers are not banned by Punkbuster because Punkbuster only provides the tools for Admins to (try to) ban stuff, the only thing Punkbuster doesn’t give Admins a choice over are hacks which operate as external programs (most spawntimers are scripts) and programs that interfere with PB itself (which spawntimers wouldn’t), as well as certain cheat-protected cvars, which no spawntimer script would use anyway.

Spawntimers are also not banned by SplashDamage as they’re merely the authors of the game, whether or not spawntimers should or shouldn’t be used is none of their business (not meaning that in a disrespectful way mind you).

As Iffy says, it’s up to leagues to decide if they’re banned, not PB or anyone else, but on the basis that they can’t be prevented from being used (mostly), they’re (mostly) tolerated by most leagues.

What’s more, as most competitions use ETPro, we’ll all be using spawntimers soon cos the next release has a spawntimer built in.

[Nail]

afaik, etpro has spawntimers now

[SCDS_reyalP]

Spawntimers are not banned by the major US leagues (TWL and CAL). External programs which interact the game (which includes some spawntimers) might be.

That said, it is fairly trivial to make a ‘spawn timer’ which is completely undetectable (including ones that have no connection to your computer at all), so banning them is impractical. Managing spawn times is an essential element of competition ET.

Etpro 3.1.9 (used by the US leagues) includes a built in spawn timer.

[Kendle]

Euro Leagues are still using 3.1.0, which is why I said “the next realease”, which I guess (hope) will be 3.2.0 with 2.60 patch support.

[Mr_Tickles]

Wow, ok, thanks guys. Very useful information there
I’ve linked to this thread from my forums, so hopefully people will read this aswell

Maybe it’s a shame that spawntimers are allowed now, i think it may hurt the pubs a bit more.

[Dingo19]

But the spawntimer in ETPro is not automatic - i.e it reads the enemy spawn time. You have to see the enemy spawn and input that time. It’s no different than having a stopwatch next to your monitor.

[DG1]

spawntimers have been pretty much impossible to stop always*, and i thought the main euro leagues had always ‘decriminalised’ them, i.e. nto ruled about them either way and just said nobody can use apps which interact or modify the game (i.e. spawntimer scripting isnt disallowed, fully external spawntimers arent disallowed, but using a spawntimer app that is coded to integrate into the game is not allowed).

Personally I think “spawntimers suck”, and take out the element of experience, intelligence and awareness involved, while not adding anything to the game except make it easier for people who think it’s all about “skill” (or more usually they really mean aim, or sometimes duelling). But, they’re there and they’re not “cheating” so it’s just another of those things that i might not particularly like and just get used to - at least the forthcoming built in timer in the next etpro levels the field and maintains the need to firgure out and input the time, rather than be lame and do everything. I’ll be using it.

• with the exception of Heron where the authors were cool enough to deliberately make it possible to block quite easily.

[SCDS_reyalP]

But the spawntimer in ETPro is not automatic - i.e it reads the enemy spawn time. You have to see the enemy spawn and input that time. It’s no different than having a stopwatch next to your monitor.

Or heron, for that matter. Heron will spam it to your whole team, unlike the etpro one, but you still have to see the enemy spawn initially.

[ouroboro]

yeah, the etpro 3.1.9 one can be setup to work with the touch of a button - no input necessary, except during the initial setup of your etpro autoexec_blah.cfg files. but, it only gives YOU a timer, unlike the more complex scripts which let you say_team the times - and that’s where the handiness comes. timing a rush so as to avoid having the enemy spawn in your face is a wonderful thing. the etpro timer will tell YOU the time and you could always tell your team in vent i suppose, but it’s just more handy to be able to tap a key and give your team a nice reminder on-screen.

as for whether or not they’re kosher… for pubs, nah not imo. pubs are for casual gamers who dont deserve to be exploited to the 9th degree by experience players. if you’re smart enough to pay attention to spawn times, just use it yourself rather than team_saying it to a bunch of strangers so the brighter bulbs on your team will be clued in and can get a bunch of freebie spawn kills. just let the weekenders have a good time ffs.

in competition however, you better believe it. and not for just “spawncamping” as some want to believe. it’s more for spawn AVOIDING, tbh.