Valuable lessons have been learned when it comes to spawn protection in an arena environment. During a test session about a week ago we had a player take on four other players by himself. What happened is exactly what you would think. The team of four completely overwhelmed him and started to spawn camp.

The design of the bases in our test arena have a shield that blocks any bullets entering or exiting the spawn base and it blocks opposing players from entering the base. However, the players in the base are visible at all times to players on the outside of the base. This is where the main problem comes in. Since opposing players can sit on the exterior and point their weapons at a player about to exit, they can kill him instantly when that player leaves the base. On the other side of the coin, in a team deathmatch game, players who have the leading score can sit back in the base and stay protected while the time runs down. Neither of these outcomes are fair.

To remedy this, the plan is now to have a personal spawn protection that only lasts for about 5 seconds. When the 5 seconds are expired the player is then vulnerable. However, during the personal spawn protection time the player can still fire and deal damage to opposing players. This might be viewed as unfair, however, this system will keep other players from spawn camping since they will be put at a disadvantage if they’re too close to the enemy base.

Quite a lot of testing needs to be done to confirm that this is the best option. Also, tuning of the amount of time the spawn protection lasts will be very important so as to not give the protected player too much of an advantage.