OK I know what respawn zones do (more or less) but does anybody know the difference between these three forge items in the spawning catogory? Respawn zone Respawn zone, weak Respawn zone, anti I posted the same question on the B-net forums with no luck Any help would be appreciated.
I use a "points system" sorta deal to help me remember. A spawn point is affected by spawn zones. Let's say a spawn point not in a zone has 1 "attraction point" making them less likely to be used. A spawn point in a Respawn Zone has 10 000 "attraction points" making it the very likely spawn point. A spawn point in a Respawn Zone, Weak has 10 "attraction points" making it a less likely spawn, but more likely than one no in a zone. A Respawn Zone, Anti takes 10 000 points away from points in the zone. This is usually team-specific so then the zones affects are team-specific. Now remember zones can be labelled to team specific for team effects. Never label the individual spawn points because they override all zones. It's like they have 1 000 000 "attraction points"
Respawn zones have fairly strong influence on respawn points. Likewise, if any enemy is within a respawn zone, chances that you will spawn in said zone are slim. Weak respawn zones have less influence than regular zones, but their influence is stackable. If multiple (up to 3, I believe) weak zones are stacked, they can have more influence than a regular zone.Anti zones take influence away from the spawn points within them. Of course all of these zones can be set to work for a specific team, (anti zones would make it less likely for that team to spawn there while the other two would make it more likely). I can go into far more detail if you would like. there's also several threads and tutorials about spawn zones in this forum.
OK thanks! Just one more question. Does a respawn zone for a specific team make it less likely for other teams to spawn there? In other words, on a simple red vs blue map, would I need both a respawn zone for 1 team and an anti zone for the other one base?
You gotta be careful when you start talking about spawn zone weights (or "attraction points") and stacking zones... There's not a lot of official Bungie-certified info on how respawn zones actually work, so a lot of what Psycho and Berb are saying regarding weights and enemy influence is just guesswork. In my experience, it's better to keep things very simple. The Respawn Zone (which I'm going to call a Strong Zone for clarity) denotes the area where players will always spawn. Players cannot spawn outside of a Strong Zone (except for some very rare freak occurrences). Strong Zones honor team assignments, and neutral zones affect all players. In the most basic terms, a Strong Zone means "I will spawn here." The Respawn Zone, Weak (or Weak Zone) denotes an area where spawning is preferred. This can be helpful if you have an area that you want players to spawn at more often, like inside a base. In basic terms, a Weak Zone means "I like to spawn here." The Respawn Zone, Anti (or Anti Zone) denotes an area where spawning should be avoided. Players will only spawn here if nowhere else is safe, which can be useful if you have, say, some backup spawns in an exposed, central area that you only want to be used if a team's base is completely overrun. Essentially, an Anti Zone means "I don't like to spawn here" and is the opposite of a Weak Zone. MrGreenWithAGun has a great tutorial on zones here. Regarding your Red vs. Blue scenario, all you need is a Strong Zone for each team (set to that team's color). Just make sure that Red's Strong Zone doesn't include Blue Base and vice versa.
Respawn zones set for a team do not lessen influence for the other team, so I would suggest using an anti zone as well. Basically overlap a red spawn zone with a blue anti zone and vice versa. Also in regards to Mockknizzle's post, what I say is not guesswork. It is information gathered from the countless spawn systems I have created. Stevo and I have also extensively tested how spawn zones work. Unfortunately, the only way to really make a map's spawns work is to experiment yourself. Spawn zones can be counter intuitive, and puzzling even to those of us with lots of experience with them. Testing is the only way to make sure they work the way you want them to.
See Forging Reach. It surprises me that so much misinformation is still presented on these forums. Respawn Zone (Strong Zone) limit a team to spawn in that zone. Done correctly, a team cannot spawn outside the Respawn Zone, even when the entire enemy team is standing right next to the Respawn Point. Weak Respawn Zone says you prefer to spawn there. Since a team is limited to Respawn Zones, a Weak Respawn Zone outside the team's Respawn Zone is useless, because a person of that team cannot spawn outside his Respawn Zone - ever. Anti Respawn Zone says you would prefer not to spawn there. Since a team is limited to Respawn Zones, a Anti Respawn Zone outside the team's Respawn Zone is useless (for the same reason). Player's presence within any zone has no affect on the zone or through the zone. Their proximity can have an affect on Respawn Points (but NOT zones), but not enough to override the weight a Respawn Zone applies to the Respawn Points within its volume. The spawning player will still be bound to spawn within the Respawn Zone. You can break the Respawn Zone. This may be why Psyco says that three stacked Weak Respawn Zones will outweigh a Respawn Zone (which simply is not true). See the link above and go over the bugs list (the latest article I added) and you will see that Stevo broke the Respawn Zone by having too many Weak or Anti zones. I fixed it on his map and told him, but he continues to advocate and push his doctrine of how the zones work (when all along he witnessed them broken). You can know for certain how the spawn system works. There is no guessing involved. It is entirely predictable. You just have to have the correct model to see the results and have it all make sense. Mock is correct and said it a bit more detailed than I. If you have any questions, look at both Stevo's guide (well, maybe not), then look at my articles, then look at bungie maps and see which guide/articles bungie maps appear to follow. You will see that they generally always divide the map in half with one half covered in blue Respawn Zone and the other in red Respawn Zone. I dont see Anti or Weak zones used by bungie as a rule, so you should consider not using them unless you really have a need to do so. The more I contemplate how bungie maps do not use Weak or Anti Respawn Zones, the more I am convinced they were developed by bungie engineers for the sole purpose of use on those maps that bungie just couldn't imagine at the time - "corner cases" - which by definition is extremely remote.