Spawn Changes - 2018

Introduction

The devs mentioned in the March live stream that changes to the spawn system are on the way and they hope they will go some way to finally address zergs. The devs are certainly not wrong; the spawn system can be a powerful tool which helps to combat zerging but it will not be a silver bullet on its own. Let’s examine how the spawn system can be used to help and make a few suggestions for changes that will not only blunt zergs but also improve the game in a number of ways, especially to improve the flow of battle.

First though I want to clarify how zergs form and then we also need to nail down what we want the spawn system to do and importantly what we do not want it to remove.

Note: I worked with Commander Cyrious on this concept.

How do zergs form?

First we need to identify the number of ways zergs form, and how they can be directly countered. Zergs can be formed by one of two ways:

1. Conscious effort by a leader - for example a leader directs his platoon to dump forces on a hard to take territory to ensure it flips
2. Failure in the flow of battle – for example an attack fails following an escalation of defender and attacker numbers, after which the defenders flow down the lattice but are unopposed by the former attackers who redeploy to another lattice where they are less likely to fail

What do we want of the spawn system?

The spawn system can be used as a tool to help counter zergs and unbalanced fights.

The spawn system should achieve the following:

1. Maintain the flow of battles as the fight moves away from bases
2. Keep an even footing for attackers and defenders
3. Slow escalation of fights
4. Keep squads together
5. Encourage the use of vehicles, including transports

Proposed changes

As it stands the spawn system allows for a great deal of flexibility and could be changed in many ways to various ends, but if we want to focus on breaking zergs then we need to address the causes of zerging as well as simply balancing their numbers. Hopefully if done correctly the spawn system can also improve the flow of battle so there are not the usual lulls in combat that we see once a territory is captured or successfully defended.

Improving flow

1. Reinforcements needed changes (for the core of this click and read the image, details in the text below):

- 1. Location:
    1. Based around combat hotspots in friendly or enemy territory, looking at the population break down around the hotspot, not the whole territory
    2. Also allows for spawning into unpopulated territory being captured
    3. Change limit to 5 from 3 (usually 5 lattice lanes per faction)
    4. Prioritises areas where deployed Sunderers or hard spawns have recently been lost, continuing the fight into the field
    5. Attack and defence markers can move that option to the top of the spawn list and granting bonus experience
  2. Spawn point:
    1. Players come in waves via drop pod, not from a spawn room or Sunderer
    2. Each wave would consist of 6, 12, 24 or even 48 players from outside the area
    3. Waves launch when a certain amount of players join the wave (larger waves for larger fights and greater disparity) but can be bypassed to immediately spawn in an emergency
    4. Centred around an area near to the lopsided population or lost spawn point
    5. Squad Leaders can call their squad in with them in a wave, with a redeploy pop up for squad members
  3. Drop pod equipment terminal and shielded spawn point drop in also to support troops and open up new spawn options for the outnumbered group again alleviating spawn camping. The shield would be the same strength as the Sunderer deploy shield.
  4. Pods given slightly more maneuverability and the impact damage they previously inflicted partially reinstated
  5. Pods also changed to last for 60 seconds or so once landed, acting as cover for players near to them
  6. Pods smash into the ground, rather than the sedate touch down they currently have
  7. Pod controls flipped 180 degrees so that up is North
  8. Drop pods given customisation options such as smoke launchers which provide concealment for those using them
  9. Following the use of RN players would get a +50% experience modifier in that life
  10. For an example of how this RN system would help, check out the below image:

2. Changing standard spawn options:

- 1. Closest deployed Sunderer within 1000m
  2. Closest spawn room
  3. All major facilities
  4. Any Elysium spawn tubes
  5. Warpgates

When freshly redeployed from the warpgate these example options would be displayed:

Preventing zergs

1. Slow the spawns of overpopulated forces in an area. This makes the impact of their numbers less, giving the underdog more chance of success. This would have to adjust rapidly to reduce the impact of multiple gal drops or spawn beacon redeployment. Not the be all and end all as the larger forces players will be less likely to die and they will likely have more medics anyway.
  1. Spawn beacons in enemy territory ignore above restriction to encourage aggressive play

2. Limit the size of fights in small bases by slowing spawns further after certain thresholds (eg 48-96 or greater). This reduces the likelihood of zergs forming at all as it encourages forces to spread out and reduces the likelihood of large forces developing in bases where attacks easily fail. These bases often have poorly defended Sunderer positions which makes attacks on these territories frail.

Keeping squads together

1. Vehicle squad spawning changed to include even unmanned logistics vehicles (Valkyrie, Galaxy and Sunderer). This makes these vehicles more useful, gives players more spawn options and more tactics to use while freeing up whichever poor sap gets left warming a seat to allow the squad to spawn in. It also gives squads attacking Biolabs the option to use the landing pads as direct spawns by landing a Galaxy or Valkyrie on them.
2. Squad vehicle spawning has range restriction removed, encouraging aggressive play.
3. Squad spawning from warpgate utilises drop pods even if the squad leader has not dropped a beacon to get people to the squad lead quickly.

Conclusion

It is my hope that the system laid out above would improve fights all over Auraxis with no need for radical base redesign to give attackers more spawn options or putting small objectives in between each existing base. It should balance fights more effectively than the current system (which only removes quick spawn for overpopulated forces and is limited to 3 RN fights which are defensive) and make attacking and holding bases more interesting due to defenders coming in from outside as well as from spawn points. It would also make logistics vehicles more important by removing the option of redeploy hopping and simultaneously make the large facilities more important by making them spawning hubs.

To take this further other things could be implemented, including but not limited to:

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