Spawn Times

[Harrod]

Following on from the IRC debate, just trying to get some sort of conclusion or community feel on spawn times.

The methods being offered so far seem to be based on a fixed time, either short to keep people in game or longer to allow assaults to progress. There is also a method whereby each death increases your spawn time, while each minute alive decreases it again to a pre-set minimum.

My personal suggestion would be to link spawn time to the level of control at the selected spawn point, using the same mechanic (and probably metrics) of the facility capture system as described in the dual commentary;

Example:
VS currently hold significant area control around a facility, while attacking TR hold a couple of nearby towers. This facility is pretty much on the frontlines.
As the VS hold a significant proportion of the surrounding area, they have a bonus on spawning at nearby facilities, while the TR suffer a penalty. Spawning at the main facility will also provide the VS with a small additional bonus. In order to decrease the penalty, the TR must divert forces from the main battle to capture the surrounding towers, which increases their control and decreases VS's. As the battle progresses and the TR slowly take over the surrounding area, they gain the advantage on spawn times, effectively translating the regional control into a force multiplier.

With this system, assaulting a main facility directly without first establishing regional control or without overwhelming numbers will be suicide; even against a numerically inferior force due to a large spawn advantage on the side of the defenders. Attackers would need to choose whether they concentrate their forces on the main front and break through or to capture the surrounding area in preperation for a final push.

This would further boost the value of towers, since they would play an indirect role in determining the battle, and force the same choice on defenders; hold the towers or dig in hard and hope to withstand the storm.

From what i've gathered from the dual commentary and other sources, control is planned to be key; this method would further cement that and further seperate PS2 from the million generic FPS's out there.